• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.133-153
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• 2019

Due to the uncertainty of dynamic business environment, modern organizations have been giving attention to dynamic capabilities beyond traditional notion of core competence. Among them, absorptive capacity and boundary-spanning activity are considered the most important. The former refers to activities regarding acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation of internal and external knowledge. The latter is composed of boundary-loosening and boundary-tightening activities to detect internal or external information and then to preserve, protect, or acquire resources. Thus, both have achieved wide recognition as a potential source of change and innovation. This study investigated the cross-level relation between boundary-spanning leadership at team level and absorptive capacity at individual level. We also explored self-efficacy and extra-role behavior that can affect employees' absorptive capacity. To test multi-level analysis, the survey data were collected from 862 members in 137 teams of different firms. Results revealed that boundary-spanning leadership had the positive cross-level impact on absorptive capacity in the team context. Moreover, absorptive capacity was positively associated with self-efficacy and extra-role behavior at individual level. Based on these findings, we provided theoretical and practical implications to address rapidly changing environments and discussed limitations of this paper for further research.

• Korean small business review
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.135-165
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• 2020

This study aimed to examine relationships between founders' entrepreneurial leadership, team learning behavior, team boundary spanning, and perceived performance in early-stage startups. The following results were recorded: (i) the indirect effects of entrepreneurial leadership on perceived performance via team learning behavior were statistically significant (β=.309, p<.05). (ii) relationships between team learning behavior and perceived performance were strengthened by team boundary spanning behavior (β=.259, p<.05). In this study, three practical implications are provided as follows: (i) startups need to seek team learning readiness and external learning stimulus to facilitate generative and transformative team learning; (ii) accelerators need to develop an entrepreneurial leadership program for founders; and (iii) startups need to explore external information by interacting with investors, R&D institutions, and other startups to strengthen the impact of team learning behavior on performance. Furthermore, two directions for future research are suggested as follows: (i) future researchers need to test causal relationships between entrepreneurial leadership and team learning behavior based on a newly designed time-series measurement plan; (ii) the actual effects of entrepreneurial leadership, team learning behavior and team boundary spanning on financial performance need to be tested two or three years later when the financial performance of early-stage startups usually becomes evident.