The concept of academic absorptive capacity and social innovation in the context of knowledge-based urban development

Innovation is important in improving the country's competitiveness and contributing to knowledge-based urban development. The development of innovation that focuses only on economic perspectives drives developmental imbalances when there is a gap of economic growth and social development of society. The emergence of social innovation is a complement to the company's innovation that focuses only on profit. The social aspect of social innovation has been emphasized in the development of Malaysia for social problems and social needs. In general, the development of social innovation involves actors and structures. This article focuses on social innovation actors focusing on academics individually. The absorptive capacity theory is used to measure the academic ability to generate social innovation. Thus, this article describes the concept of social absorption and innovation in the context of knowledge-based urban development. The literature review of absorptive capacity and development of social innovation encompasses knowledge, learning, development, social and social capabilities are also discussed. Based on the findings, role of the social innovation in academic research contributes to generate high impact innovation in the context of economic, social and technological. Thus, social innovation plays an important role in achieving social security that contributes to the improvement of society's sustainability and the competitiveness of the nation to meet the nation's development goals.