Article2008

The organizational performance of learning companies

41 citations0/0 files storedThe Learning Organization

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Organizational Learning and Leadership Innovation and Knowledge Management Intellectual Capital and Performance Analysis

Abstract

Purpose A growing body of literature on organizational learning suggests that companies or organizations with a learning capability can gain a competitive advantage. The argument is that learning organizations are better at knowledge transfer and generating new knowledge to solve problems. The objective of this study is to examine empirically if learning companies are more competitive and better performers than their competitors. Design/methodology/approach This study examines a portfolio of learning companies and a set of their competitors, looking at their financial performance over a significant period. Learning companies were selected based on content analysis of the published literature. Competitors were selected from an existing top 500 companies listing matched to the learning company's business domain. This study compares their performance using both market and accounting financial data. Findings The data show that learning companies demonstrate strong performance in financial markets over time, beating the traditional market indexes in both bull and bear markets. The accounting data show similar results. On a majority of the financial measures, the long‐term financial performance of learning companies is significantly superior to that of their closest competitors. Research limitations/implications This study discusses and explores the implications of these results in studying the link between learning companies and organizational performance. A limitation of the study is the small sample size of learning companies in the study. Also some potential alternative explanations for their performance cannot be completely ruled out due to the longitudinal nature of the study. Originality/value This study shows that there is a positive link between learning capability and competitive advantage, as measured by long‐term market financial performance of a group of learning companies.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 41 citations exist upstream.

References

1997Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective 1991Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures 1990The Fifth Discipline 2002Learning orientation, firm innovation capability, and firm performance 1995Building the Learning Organization 1994Competitive Advantage Through People 1996Built to last: Successful habits of visionary companies 1999The Synergistic Effect of Market Orientation and Learning Orientation on Organizational Performance

Cited by

2017Do high-performance human resource practices work? The mediating role of organizational learning capability 2021Organizational learning and firm performance: a systematic review 2014RETRACTED: Organizational learning culture and customer satisfaction 2010Benchmarking leadership styles for organizational learning in Indian context 2010Contingent reward leader behaviour: Where does it come from?2014The Financial factors that Influence the Profitability of SMEs

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.