Studying the Effect of Social Capital and Technological Opportunities on Innovation with the Mediator Role of Knowledge Absorptive Capacity

Organizing and implementing innovative activities provide firms with an interminable source of competitive advantage (CA). Firms which are aware of this, try to innovate in the necessary knowledge and technology for developing new products and processes or to improve the existing ones. The present paper studies the effect of social capital (SC) and technological opportunities (TOs) on the knowledge absorptive capacity (KAP) and innovation. The population includes the manufacturing firms across Khuzestan Province having been active throughout the year 1392 (March 21, 2013 to March 20, 2014). Using the accessible (voluntary) sampling, the research questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 331 experts of human capital and R&D divisions of these organizations. The data were analyzed using Amos software. The results show that it supports the positive effect of social capital and technological opportunities on KAP and innovation. However, it does not support the significant effect of KAP on innovation.