Comment on "territory's absorptive capacity"

Absorptive capacity has been widely studied in organizational contexts. Few studies, however, deal with broader contexts, despite the fact that some authors suggest that organizations may build inter-firm networks to keep knowledge until they need to absorb it internally. Especially relevant to the role of human capital and knowledge gatekeepers as mentioned in Schillaci, Romano and Nicotra's article, this commentary build on these two propositions arguing the need for a more integrative framework to understand absorptive capacity in detracted regions, not forgetting the role of the environment.