Building Upon Retailers’ Absorptive Capacity to Boost the Innovation Process During Times of Emergency

The aim of this study is to examine absorptive capacity and its related components to develop a theory to guide retailers’ innovation adoption processes. A comprehensive review of the literature led to the identification of six pertinent variables: prior related knowledge, ability to absorb new technology, organizational learning process, openness to external knowledge, financial and human resources, and employees’ absorptive capacity. Data were collected from eight experts with rich knowledge and expertise in the grocery retail field in Italy and Interpretive Structural Modelling was used to analyse the data to identify the interrelationships between these variables. The results reveal all variables have strong driving and dependence power, but organisational learning processes and openness to external knowledge are the foundational building blocks of absorptive capacity. Implica-tions for theory and practice are offered.