3

This study focuses on the impact of patents and of knowledge-based absorptive capacity, as defined by Lane et al. (2006), on the competitiveness of French firms. Research on this subject entailed undertaking a seventeen-year longitudinal study. The results of our econometric analysis provide a valuable set of answers pertaining to the fact that absorptive capacity, viewed as an exploratory/transformative/exploitative learning mode, contributes to the competitiveness of French industrial firms. In parallel, it was determined that absorptive capacity and patent applications, acting in concert, had a significant positive effect on French corporate competitiveness. In other words, it is firms that are particularly apt at absorbing innovation-oriented knowledge that prove to be the most competitive.