Evaluating the military´s technology absorptive capacity

The Department of Defence, in the light of the rapid advances in military technologies, requires continuous evaluation of the processes, structures and policies that facilitates the transfer of advance technologies to end-users. It further requires an evaluation of the readiness of the end-users and their ability to exploit these technologies to provide them with a competitive advantage in combat. The question is asked: “Are the end users ready to absorb the new technology?” and “Are the end users able to exploit the new technology to achieve combat superiority?” These questions were addressed through the evaluation of the absorptive capacity of the South African military at a particular point in time. Literature showed that the absorptive capacity construct was built on three dimensions: ability to evaluate new knowledge, ability to assimilate the knowledge and the ability to exploit the knowledge. These dimensions were subsequently expanded to four and formed the foundation for a new method of evaluating the absorptive capacity of the military. This paper will show the results of the study where the method was used to evaluate the absorptive capacity of the South African military.