Abstract
This study examines how the patterns of acquiring unfamiliar technological knowledge from other organizations influence on innovation. Absorptive capacity perspective emphasizes the importance of overlaps in knowledge acquisition. This study focuses on the degree of market and technological knowledge overlaps between a firm that would like to get new technological knowledge and a firm that has new technological knowledge. This study presents four knowledge acquisition types and uses the Japanese chemical firms and patent data from 2002 to 2009 for the empirical analysis. The findings are that low market overlaps and high technological overlaps only improves radical innovation. The other knowledge acquisition types harm or do not influence on radical innovation.
