This study investigates how the organization of and access to different sources of data, information and knowledge create absorptive capacity that contributes to first/prime mover competitive advantages. It is an explorative single case study (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007,29) of a shipping firm delivering services to the offshore oil industry. The study has an ethnographical flavor in that we where ‘part of the organization’ in formal and informal settings in intensive periods over a long time span. The interaction was limited to a group of the top twenty managers at the company headquarter. We use a phenomen-oriented approach (Alvesson and Kärreman 2007; von Krogh et al., 2012; Schwartz and Stensaker, 2014, Doh, 2015) that starts with an empirical phenomenon and uses different streams of theories to establish understanding of the phenomenon. While many studies of how firms use data and information to make grounded decisions few studies have been conducted at a micro-level focusing on the organization and interaction between information and knowledge from different sources. The study shows how analytical tools based on “big data” functions as input to a process where social knowledge provides the context that create meaning to these data. The study is original in providing insights concerning knowledge, skills and data necessary for exercising management and leadership to establish absorptive capacity to sustain as a prime mover advantage. The phenomenon studied is foundation processes for creating absorptive capacity. There are several outcomes of this phenomenon-oriented study. It is practical because it identifies and analyses real world firm challenges and point to practical solutions that not necessary can be deduced from theory. While most studies of knowledge and absorptive capacity are done at a macro level, with intentions to find significant relations between variables across organizational units, this study identifies organizational mechanisms in use at the micro-level to achieve absorptive capacity. Which in turn represent challenges for managers both to contextualize and implement in other business settings. It is also theoretical important because it frames practical behavior that cut across different streams of knowledge creation as theoretical conversations concerning dynamic capabilities, organizational learning, strategy and knowledge management.