Purpose

This study aims to examine direct effects of qualified team gatekeepers on absorptive capacity (AC), and the mediating roles of combinative capabilities – knowledge integration capability (KIC) and interteam coordination.

Design/methodology/approach

A social networking analysis was used to analyze a unique data set collected from all members of 32 Japanese research and development (R&D) teams to identify key individuals who perform daily gatekeeping functions. This study analyzed the data through partial least squares structural equation modeling with higher-order latent variables. Finally, cross-validation tests were used with holdout samples to test the model’s predictive validity.

Findings

Qualified gatekeepers directly contribute to teams’ realized AC but not to their potential AC. Furthermore, qualified gatekeepers can improve their teams’ capability to absorb and exploit external knowledge by facilitating their capability to consolidate knowledge, that is, its KIC and interteam coordination.

Originality/value

Unlike prior research that asks top managers to identify team gatekeepers, this study used social network analysis to identify these vital individuals. This study provides a new framework indicating how qualified gatekeepers impact the AC of R&D teams through the examination of both the direct and indirect paths of gatekeeping abilities, two combinative capabilities as mediators and team AC.

中文翻译：

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合格看门人对团队吸收能力的影响：知识组合能力的中介作用

目的

本研究旨在检验合格的团队看门人对吸收能力 (AC) 的直接影响，以及组合能力——知识整合能力 (KIC) 和团队间协调的中介作用。

设计/方法/方法

社交网络分析用于分析从 32 个日本研发 (R&D) 团队的所有成员收集的独特数据集，以确定执行日常把关功能的关键个人。本研究通过具有高阶潜变量的偏最小二乘结构方程模型分析数据。最后，交叉验证测试与保留样本一起使用，以测试模型的预测有效性。

发现

合格的看门人直接对团队实现的 AC 做出贡献，但对他们的潜在 AC 没有贡献。此外，合格的看门人可以通过促进他们整合知识的能力，即其 KIC 和团队间的协调，来提高他们的团队吸收和利用外部知识的能力。

原创性/价值

与之前要求高层管理人员识别团队看门人的研究不同，本研究使用社交网络分析来识别这些重要人物。这项研究提供了一个新的框架，通过检查把关能力的直接和间接路径、作为调解人和团队 AC 的两种组合能力，表明合格的守门人如何影响研发团队的 AC。