Title: The role of absorptive capacity on the dispositions and thriving

Authors: Mahreen Amjad; Ghulam Abid; Natasha Saman Elahi; Bindu Arya

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, National College of Business Administration and Economics, Lahore, 54660, Pakistan ' Department of Business Studies, Kinnaird College for Women, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan ' Faculty of Business and Management Sciences, Superior University, Lahore, Pakistan ' College of Business Administration, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

Abstract: Employees play an essential role in absorbing knowledge from external sources and combining that with existing knowledge to contribute to organisational competitive advantage. This study seeks to identify critical antecedents of individual-level absorptive capacity and its mediating influence on personality traits and employee thriving relationships. Specifically, we draw on self-determination theory to investigate the impact of two personality traits (i.e., proactive personality and prosocial motivation) on employees thriving via the intervening mechanism of absorptive capacity. A time-lagged study design was used for collecting data from bank employees using the multistage sampling technique. Our results indicate that proactive and prosocially motivated employees experience thriving through the mediation mechanism of absorptive capacity. Our research offers theoretical and practical implications along with directions for future research.

Keywords: absorptive capacity; prosocial motivation; proactive personality; self-determination theory; thriving at work.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBEX.2026.153067

International Journal of Business Excellence, 2026 Vol.38 No.3, pp.418 - 440

Received: 01 Feb 2021
Accepted: 09 Apr 2022
Published online: 21 Apr 2026 *

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