JournalofBusinessResearch65(2012)1079–1089

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JournalofBusinessResearch

Howorganizationallearningaffectsa rm's exibility,competitivestrategy,andperformance☆

MaríaLeticiaSantos-Vijandea, ,JoséÁngelLópez-Sánchezb,JuanAntonioTrespalaciosa

ab

DepartmentofBusinessAdministration,UniversityofOviedo,Avda.delCristos/n,33071Oviedo,Asturias,Spain

DepartmentofBusinessAdministration,UniversityofExtremadura,CampusUniversitario,Avda.deElvass/n,06071Badajoz,Spain

articleinfoabstract

Anorganization'sabilitytolearnisakeystrategiccapabilitytocompeteinmodernmarkets.Thisresearchseekstoachieveanin-depthunderstandingoflearning'scontributiontoa rm'scompetitivenessbyanalyz-inghoworganizationallearning(OL),understoodasadynamiccapability,shapes rms'strategic exibilityandcompetitivestrategyimplementationtoultimatelyimprovecustomer, nancial,andmarket-relatedper-formance.ThisarticleproposesthatOLactsasaforerunnerofa rm'sabilitytoadapttoevolvingmarketcon-ditions(strategic exibility),andthatOLand exibilitysimultaneouslyfostertheimplementationofdifferentiationandcost-leadershipstrategies.Thisstrategicbehaviorallows rmstoreducecostswithoutdamagingdifferentiationlevels,andtoimprovecustomerandbusinessperformance.Thestudyemploysstructuralequationmodeling(SEM)toevaluatethecausallinksthattheresearchmodeldepicts.Dataanal-ysisfollowsfromasampleof181medium-sizedSpanishmanufacturing rms.Theresultscon rmtheexpectedrelationshipsandrevealOLtobeanimportantinstrumentinmodernmarketstoprovidecustomervalueandtoimproveorganizationalperformancebymeansofef cientcompetitivestrategydesignand ex-ibleadaptationtorapidmarketevolution.

©2011ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.

Articlehistory:

Received1January2010

Receivedinrevisedform1December2010Accepted1September2011Availableonline8October2011Keywords:

OrganizationallearningDynamiccapabilityCompetitivestrategyStrategic exibilityPerformance

1.Introduction

Intoday'sturbulentandunpredictableenvironmentstheachieve-mentofcompetitiveadvantage(CA)dependsincreasinglyon rms'abilitytoprovidegreaterlong-termcustomervalue.Theresource-basedview(RBV)statesthatacompany'suniqueassortmentofvalu-able,rare,inimitable,andnon-substitutableresourcesandcapabilitiesconstitutesthebasisofdif culttoduplicatevalue-creatingstrategieswhichcanprovidea rmwithCAorabove-averagereturns(Barney,1991;Grant,1991;Mahoney&Pandian,1992;Wu,2010).

TheRBVhasgraduallyevolved,acknowledgingthatunderfastchang-ingandunpredictablecompetitiveenvironmentsCAmayrapidlyshift,andthattheexistenceataparticularmomentoftimeofanappropriatesetofresourcesandcapabilitiesmaynotbesuf cienttosustaina rm'sabove-averageperformanceinthelong-term(Helfat&Peteraf,2003).

Thus, rmsneedtopermanentlyrenewtheirskillsandresourcestomaintainCA(Wu,2010).Consequently,Teece,Pisano,andShuen

☆YolandaPolo-RedondoandAnaI.Rodríguez-Escuderoprovidedvaluablecom-mentsandsuggestionsonearlierversionsofthispaper.TheauthorsalsoappreciatethecommentsandsuggestionsfromArchWoodsideandtheanonymousJBRreviewers.TheauthorswishtothanktheSpanishMinistryofScienceandInnovationforthe nan-cialsupportprovidedforthisresearchunderthe2008–2011CallforR&Dprojects. Correspondingauthor.

E-mailaddresses:lsantos@uniovi.es(M.L.Santos-Vijande),jangel@unex.es(J.Á.López-Sánchez),jtrespa@uniovi.es(J.A.

Trespalacios).

0148-2963/$–seefrontmatter©2011ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.doi:

10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.09.002

(1997,p.516)de neadynamiccapabilityas“the rm'sabilitytoin-tegrate,build,andrecon gureinternalandexternalcompetenciestoaddressrapidlychangingenvironments”.Dynamiccapabilitiesrepre-sentacomplexsetofabilitiesthroughwhichorganizationssystemati-callymodifytheiroperatingroutinesandrecon guretheirresourcesandskillstoachieveanadequateadaptationtochangingmarketre-quirements(Zollo&Winter,2002).TheconceptofdynamiccapabilityintroducesadynamicaspectintoRBV,andisareminderthatmaintain-ingaCArequiresconstantimprovementandadaptation,especiallyunderenvironmentalvolatility.

SincethepublicationofCyertandMarch's(1963)seminalwork,therelevantliteratureregardsorganizationallearning(OL)asakeystrategiccapabilityforexplainingwhysuccessful rmssurpasscom-petitors(Bapuji&Crossan,2004;Kao&Lee,1996).KandemirandHult(2005)statethatOLmaybetheonlyorganizationalabilitycapa-bleofgeneratingsuperiorcustomervalueinthelong-term,sincelearningallowsacontinuousadaptationtorapidlychangingmarketrequirementsasatruedynamiccapability.

Recentresearchaddressesthebene tsofOL,forexample,inor-ganizationalperformance(Azadegan&Dooley,2010;Bell,Mengüç,&Widing,2010),marketorientationandrelationshipmarketing(Santos,Sanzo,Álvarez,&Vázquez,2005;Stein&Smith,2009),thestrategicsupplyprocess(Hult,Ketchen,&Slater,2002),servicequal-ity(Tucker,Nembhard,&Edmonson,2007),innovation(Akgün,Lynn,&Yilmaz,2006;Weerawardena,O'Cass,&Julian,2006),