Influence of the Adoption and Use of Social Media Tools on Absorptive Capacity in New Product Development

Abstract

:In this article, we discuss how the adoption and use of social media tools influences new product development (NPD). Our aim is specifically to consider how an organization's absorptive capacity is influenced by using social media tools. Based on a two-phase data collection process comparing the situation before and after adoption of social media tools in three organizations, we conclude that the amount of accessible knowledge and the number of ideas increases as an organization's ability to find and access various sources of intra-organizational expertise increases, thus, increasing knowledge acquisition and assimilation. Consequently, we infer that organizational absorptive capacity rises and is linked to improvement in new product development.