Exploring Interorganizational Learning: a Review of the Literature and Future Directions

Abstract

The concept of learning in networks has received scant attention within extant theories. Where learning has been applied to networks, different terms have emerged, which have generated confusion and prevented a full understanding of its complex and processual nature. Most importantly, the literature tends to focus either on the learning of single actors rather than the collaboration processes among a group of firms or on the mechanistic processes through which learning is stored at the network level. The paper attempts to make sense of current and past conceptualizations of learning both at the organizational and network levels and provides new insights into how interorganizational learning may be further explored. Interorganizational learning is indeed a complex phenomenon, and future scholars should pay more attention to the underlying processes that constitute it and its multilevel nature. Three interrelated processes are proposed here: learning to collaborate, learning to share knowledge, and learning to create interorganizational knowledge. These processes constitute the building blocks through which interorganizational learning occurs and can be regarded as “deutero” learning processes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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