This paper investigates the concept of Insemination Capacity proposed by (Imbert and Chauvet, 2012): the ability of an external firm to trigger a knowledge absorption sequence relative to the absorptive capacity of a knowledge-recipient firm. We collected data through an ethnographic-inspired methodology conducted as an embedded scholar within the Innovation Purchasing Direction of an automotive firm, an internal innovation scouting entity. The results of our investigations first extend this concept to an internal dissemination capacity which is made of the same four knowledge-related mechanisms than external insemination capacity: selection, adoption, contextualization and preservation of external knowledge. We also complete it with the identification of a fifth mechanism which is “people-related” which appears to be central for potential knowledge absorption. This mechanism is the enrollment, by the scouting entity, of Research and Development actors to become the internal holder of the external knowledge. Finally it appears that the trigger of absorptive capacity is made up of two sequences of knowledge-related mechanisms, linked by the people-related mechanism: the first is made apart by the internal scouting entity, the second together with enrolled R&D actors.
