How the absorptive capacity could transform data into better decisions: a multilevel perspective to deal with the difference between firm sizes Available to Purchase

Marina Proença is PhD student in Marketing Strategy at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR – expected completion: 03/2025). She has a degree in Social Communication-Advertising and Propaganda from the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR-2017) with a double degree in Public Relations from the University of Vic (UVIC), in Spain. She has a postgraduate degree in Leadership Management at FAE Business School and a master’s degree in marketing from UFPR.

Bruna Cescatto Costa holds a degree in Business Administration from the Federal University of Paraná (2015), a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Federal University of Paraná (2019) and high school education from the Federal Technological University of Paraná (2012). She has experience in the area of Administration, with an emphasis on Business Administration.

Simone Regina Didonet holds a degree in Business Administration (1998), a master’s degree in Production Engineering from the Federal University of Santa Maria (2002) and a PhD in Business Administration from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (2007), with a period at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain. She is a Visiting Professor at the University of East Anglia/UK (2018, 2020). She is also an Associate Professor at the Federal University of Paraná, in the Department of General and Applied Administration, and teaches the disciplines of Marketing Administration and Marketing Planning and Strategy in the undergraduate course in Administration and the disciplines of Strategic Marketing and Theoretical Approaches and Applications to the Marketing Field in the Graduate Program in Administration. She is a reviewer of national and international journals and conferences in the areas of marketing, small- and medium-sized business management and supply chain management. She has articles published in different international and national journals. Her research interests are marketing strategies and innovation management in small- and medium-sized companies, marketing strategies in the value chain, innovation strategies (management and results) and research techniques with secondary databases.

Ana Maria Machado Toaldo works as an Associate Professor at the Federal University of Paraná and holds a degree in Administration from the Federal University of Santa Maria (1989), a master’s degree in Administration from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (1997) and a PhD in Administration from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (2004). She has experience in the Administration area, with an emphasis on Marketing, working mainly on the following topics: marketing, strategy, formulation and implementation of strategies.

Tomas Sparano Martins is currently a Professor of marketing at the Federal University of Parana. He holds a doctorate and a master’s degree in Business Administration from PUCPR. He is interested in the areas of Strategy and Marketing, especially marketing capabilities, digital marketing, cooperation and entrepreneurial marketing.

José Roberto Frega graduated in Electronic Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1980), Master in Strategic Administration from the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (2005) and Doctorate (2009) in Business Administration from PUCPR, in the area of Decision-making Processes and Multicriteria Analysis, having defended his thesis on September 2, 2009. He is Specialist in Information and Communication Technology from FAE-PR in 2000, he is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Department of General and Applied Administration at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR). He has experience in Computer Science, with an emphasis on Databases, working mainly on the following topics: strategic management, innovation and sustainability, data analysis and quantitative methods, decision theory and rational processes.