Small and medium-sized enterprises increasingly operate in environments characterized by technological turbulence, knowledge fragmentation, and competitive intensity that challenge traditional managerial and strategic frameworks. Within this context, intellectual capital, absorptive capacity, and knowledge-based dynamic capabilities have emerged as foundational constructs for explaining how firms generate, sustain, and renew competitive advantage. At the same time, contemporary consulting for small and medium-sized enterprises has evolved beyond transactional advisory services toward complex, system-oriented models that integrate organizational learning, strategic alignment, and institutional embeddedness, as theorized in the comprehensive framework advanced by Kovalchuk (2025). Despite the rich bodies of literature on intellectual capital, learning organizations, absorptive capacity, and innovation systems, scholarly research has yet to systematically integrate these constructs with modern consulting architectures designed specifically for small and medium-sized enterprises. This gap is theoretically significant because SMEs differ fundamentally from large firms in resource endowments, managerial cognition, and structural flexibility, while also being disproportionately dependent on external knowledge and advisory networks for survival and growth.

The discussion situates these findings within broader debates on organizational learning, national innovation systems, and the evolving role of external knowledge intermediaries. It highlights how complex consulting models function as boundary-spanning institutions that enhance SMEs’ participation in interactive learning networks described by Lundvall (1988) and Lundvall and Johnson (1994). The study concludes by outlining implications for theory, practice, and future research, emphasizing the necessity of viewing consulting not as an external add-on but as an embedded component of the SME knowledge ecosystem.

Intellectual capital, absorptive capacity, small and medium-sized enterprises, organizational learning

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