An Empirical Analysis of the Research Models

The objective of the empirical analysis is to evaluate the model of SMEs’ external knowledge absorption. The overall research design to pursue this objective can be summarized as follows: In the previous sections, the hypotheses were derived from theoretical statements made in the literature on absorptive capacity and organizational culture and expanded to aspects of the theoretical approaches to organizational theory. An empirically testable model of external knowledge absorption in the context of organizational culture was then developed, which represents how the several dimensions of organizational culture are related to the acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation capabilities at the organizational level. The hypotheses about the relationship among the dimensions of organization culture and the capabilities of absorptive capacity that are represented in the model are the basis of the analysis of the research model in section 4. Figure 19 presents the structure for the empirical analysis of the research models.