Accessing External Technological Knowledge for Technological Development: When Technological Knowledge Distance Meets Slack Resources

This study elucidates how a firm accesses external technological knowledge (TK) and utilizes such TK, facilitated by slack resources, to determine the scope of technological development. We examine data from 947 cooperative technology agreements among 248 electronics and information technology firms in Taiwan. The results demonstrate that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between TK distance and the scope of technological development. Furthermore, we find that the moderating effect of unabsorbed slack can extend the inverted U-shaped relationship in the direction of higher levels of technological diversification and greater TK distance. Additionally, unabsorbed and absorbed slack, respectively, moderate the linear relationship between TK distance and a firm´s scope of technological development toward two striking favorable contrasts: technological diversification and specialization. Unabsorbed slack plays a positive catalytic role in the creation of technological diversification; however, absorbed slack does not serve such a role.