Purpose – There is a consensus suggesting that the theoretical underpinning associated with supply chain quality management practices remain

evolutionary to current thinking. Therefore, this study aims to explore how absorptive capacity (AC) supports supply chain quality integration (SCQI)

by building product and process quality within a supply chain (SC).

Design/methodology/approach – A comparative case study of global pharmaceutical manufacturers in a developing market was undertaken. A

two-round qualitative research method was designed to collect data through 54 semi-structured interviews with pharmaceutical managers and

senior managers.

Findings – The results demonstrate that AC is essential to the development of SCQI because of its ability to use valuable strategic and

operational knowledge, which is important when improving consistent internal product and process quality, along with establishing a robust

SC design. The authors found that AC enables companies to design their quality and continuously improve their products and processes among

their SC members.

Research limitations/implications – The authors acknowledge that these sets of findings are difficult to generalise to other sectors, however, the

authors are confident that they can be extrapolated to other companies in the pharmaceutical industry.

Practical implications – The study develops a framework to support practitioners and decision makers to leverage their AC towards facilitating

their SCQI practices.

Originality/value – This study explains the role of the AC process in relation to SCQI practices, in the context of the pharmaceutical SC. The study

profiles the characteristics of dynamic capabilities to increase the companies’ competencies, processes and resources​​