Understanding the appropriation of external knowledge as a source of technological innovation

This article describes an exploratory case study in one of the biggest Spanish Banks (BBVA) that began an innovation and transformation journey with the aim to be a winning player in the global banking industry. BBVA wanted to explore the benefits of incorporating customer information from the network, something that Web 2.0 tools made possible. However, BBVA did not have the required capabilities to support the new product development, when they are intensive in Information Technologies. In this context, we have used Institutional Theory to analyze the factors that promote external knowledge appropriation as a source of technological innovation, paying special attention to the internal and external structures to identify the required characteristics for their development. Our findings suggest that for an effective knowledge appropriation, it is required to enhance internal and external structures in terms of organizational culture, structure and knowledge.