Quality management practices as a forerunner of absorptive capacity. An empirical study

Absorptive capacity is one of the most important constructs to emerge in strategic and organizational research in recent years. This article analyzes the antecedents that determine a firm's absorptive capacity from the perspective of Quality Management (QM). It studies the effect of seven QM practices (leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, human resource management, supplier management, process management, and information and analysis) on this construct. The model and the hypotheses proposed are tested on a sample of 230 Spanish firms. The results show the impact of the different QM practices on the level of absorptive capacity.