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Organizational forgetting, absorptive capacity, and innovation performance: A moderated mediation analysis

Dujuan Huang, Song Chen, Gupeng Zhang, Jiangfeng Ye

Management Decision

ISSN: 0025-1747

Article publication date: 8 January 2018

2284

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the organizational forgetting affect innovation performance under the consideration of the environmental turbulence as a moderating factor of the analysis framework.

Design/methodology/approach

This study constructs and verifies a moderated mediating model of organizational forgetting to innovation performance, using the exploratory factor analysis and the hierarchical regression analysis based on a survey sample of 320 Chinese companies.

Findings

The organizational forgetting is a critical determinant for improving innovation performance of an enterprise. A more detailed analysis reveals that first organizational forgetting cannot promote organization’s innovation performance without absorptive capacity. Second, the mediating effect of absorptive capacity is more positive when environmental turbulence is higher.

Practical implications

This study provides empirical evidence about the importance of organizational forgetting in the firm innovation.

Originality/value

This paper adds to the existing literature by providing a clear explanation of the impacts of organizational forgetting on innovation performance through a comprehensive empirical study. Contrasting with previous research, this research clarifies the boundary conditions under which organizational forgetting enhances innovation performance. In particular, the authors find that organizational forgetting is not equally positive but instead increases with the level of environmental turbulence.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge National Natural Science Foundation of China (71772137), Shanghai “Technology Innovation Action Plan” Soft Science Project (17692102300), National Natural Science Foundation for Young Scientists of China (71602002, 71402175) and Youth Project of Ministry of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences Planning Funding (16YJC630156) for financial support.

Citation

Huang, D., Chen, S., Zhang, G. and Ye, J. (2018), "Organizational forgetting, absorptive capacity, and innovation performance: A moderated mediation analysis", Management Decision, Vol. 56 No. 1, pp. 87-104. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-03-2017-0200

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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