Abstract: During the process of replacing old growth drivers with new ones, there are often temporary shortages in the enterprises, the existing researches only have relatively limited explanations on this phenomenon. Based on the organizational forgetting theory, this paper tries to answer the question whether enterprises can get“new energy”by abandoning“old energy”. Taking 192 manufacturing enterprises in China’s Economic Belt around Bohai Sea as samples, this paper analyzes the influence mechanism of organizational forgetting on innovation performance from the perspectives of absorptive capacity, entrepreneurial orientation and environmental dynamics. The findings show that the impact of organizational forgetting on innovation performance is uncertain, and that under the influence of absorptive capacity, entrepreneurial orientation and environmental dynamism, organizational forgetting shows positive effects on innovation performance.

Key words: replace old growth drivers with new ones；organizational forgetting; absorptive capacity; entrepreneurial orientation; environmental dynamics