Impact of organizational climate, culture, leadership and structure on competitive advantage: mediating effect of absorptive capacity

PurposeThis research aimed to investigate absorptive capacity's (AC) mediating effect among four important organizational factors, namely transformational leadership (TL), innovative culture (IC), organizational structure (OS), organizational climate (OC)) and competitive advantage (CA).Design/methodology/approachA survey method was used for data collection and 107 valid responses were received from managers and top executives of different hotels operating in Pakistan. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) statistical techniques were used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses.FindingsThe findings infer that OC positively affects CA by improving AC in an organization. Furthermore, AC was found as a partial mediator for the relationship among TL and CA as well as for the relationship among IC and CA.Originality/valueDespite the abundance of research on AC, the empirical studies regarding Ac's mediating effect among various organizational factors and CA are limited. Therefore, this paper makes a noteworthy contribution to the body of knowledge by testing the mediating effect of AC among various organizational factors and CA with reference to hospitality sector in Pakistan.