organizational learning environmental uncertainty and temporal capabilities.docx
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organizational learning environmental uncertainty and temporal capabilities.docx
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organizationallearningenvironmentaluncertaintyandtemporalcapabilities
Organizationallearning,environmentaluncertainty,andtemporalcapabilities
HuangZhenlei1,LiuXue1,WuJunhao1,WuShue2
(1GuanghuaSchoolofManagement,PekingUniversity,100871)
(2EconomicsandFinanceInstitute,Xi’anJiaotongUniversity,710061)
Abstract:
Thispaperconsiderstherelationbetweenorganizationallearninganddynamiccapabilities,andexaminestheeffectsofsomeexternalandinternaltriggers,especiallyenvironmentaluncertainty.Specifically,thispaperdefinesthetemporalaspectsoforganizationalcapabilitieswhicharerelatedwithorganizationallearninginonespecificdirection,andatthesametimeproposesthatchangesoflearningdirectionwillleadtotransformationofcapabilities,thusarousethecyclesofcapabilities.Atlast,weidentifyfourtypesofenvironmentaluncertainties,suchasstability,ambiguity,volatilityanduncertainty,toinvestigatetheireffectsonchangingoflearningorientation.
Keywords:
Organizationallearning,Temporalcapabilities,Environmentaluncertainty
Introduction
Organizationallearninganddynamiccapabilitieshaveexistedinourlexiconformanyyears(Cangelosi&Dill,1965;Levitt&March,1988;Teece,Pisano,&Shuen,1997).Thesetwoperspectiveshavegrowndramaticallyandmanyscholarshavepaidattentiontothesetopics(Crossan,Lane,&White,1999;Eisenhardt&Martin,2000).Afewpaperssuggestthatthesetwoperspectiveshaveaverycloserelationshipanddiscussthemtogether(Zollo&Winter,2002),yetlittleconvergenceonwhatisthetruerelationshipbetweenorganizationallearninganddynamiccapabilities,orthenatureinithasemerged.
Inlargepart,consensushasnotoccurredbecausemostresearchershaveappliedthesetwoconceptsastwopowerfultoolstoexplainfirms’behavior,nottheirownrelationships.Forexample,organizationallearninganddynamiccapabilitiesareusedtoexplainfirms’innovation(Nonaka&Takeuchi,1995;Danneels,2008),diversificationandco-operation(Doving&Gooderham,2008;Veugelers,1997),orotherdomains.Thetwoperspectivescanexplainsimilarphenomenaandpredictfirms’futureexcellently,andtheyshareoverlappedideasandinsights.However,therearestillsomeparadoxeswhichwoulddrawourattention.Forexample,thetwoperspectivessometimesgiveusoppositepredictionsbasedontheirlogics(Schreyogg&Kliesch-Eberl,2007).Moreimportant,asaroutine-based,history-dependentandtarget-orientedbehavior,organizationallearningareseenaslearningbycodinginferencesfromhistory,andthiskindofexperiencesmaymakefirms’trappedbypastand,atlast,fail(Levitt&March,1988).However,dynamiccapabilitiesareviewedasmechanismsofadapting,integrating,andreconfiguringintegratedclustersofresourcesandcapabilitiestomatchtherequirementsofachangingenvironment,i.e.,thecapacitytorenewcompetencies(Teece,Pisano,&Shuen,1997).Thatistosay,dynamiccapabilitiescankeepfirms’competitiveadvantageandmakethempowerfulinthemarket.Thisisoppositewithorganizationallearning.Ontheotherhand,assomescholarsargued,organizationallearningcanimprovefirms’dynamiccapabilitiesthroughvariation-selectionparadigm(Zollo&Winter,2002),butatthesametime,learningorientationhasagreatimpactonfirms’accumulatedcapabilities(Cohen&Levinthal,1990;Kim,1998),andthesepaperssuggestastrongrelationshipbetweenthesetwoperspectives.Therefore,howtosolvetheseparadoxesandchecktheirrelationshipsbetweenthetwoperspectivesisneededandpivotalinstrategicmanagementfield.
Inthisarticle,weidentifythreecriticalquestions.Thefirstquestionisabouttherelationshipbetweendynamiccapabilitiesandorganizationallearning.AsSunandAnderson(2010)argued,ifaclearconceptualdistinctionbetweentwocloselinkedconceptscanbeestablished,integratingthesetwocloselyrelatedareasmayhelpadvanceouroverallunderstandingandpreventresearchersfromrediscoveringexistingknowledge.Justlikewehavealreadystated,mostscholarsusethesetwotheoriestoexplainfirms’behavior,andonlyafewoftheminvestigatetheirrelationship.Amongthesescholars,someofthemproposedorganizationallearningisaprecursortodynamiccapabilities(Zollo&Winter,2002),butothersarguedthatorganizationallearningisanoutcomeofdynamiccapabilities(Kim,1998).Whilefromanevolutionaryview,scholarsthinkthattheyhaverecursiverelationship(Levitt&March,1988).Hereinthispaper,wewillspecifytheirrelationshipandatthesametimeposethesecondquestion:
aredynamiccapabilitiesdynamic?
Toanswerthesecondquestion,weproposetheconceptoftemporalcapabilitiestoreplacethemythofdynamiccapabilities.Differingfromdynamiccapabilities,temporalcapabilitiesarewavelikeandhavepeaksandtroughs.Itisdifficultforfirmstokeepthemselvesinahighpositionandalwayshavecapabilitiestodealwithchangingenvironment.Incontrastwithscholarswhoarguedthatdynamiccapabilitiesarehigher-orderroutines(Zollo&Winter,2002)orafewsimplerules(Eisenhardt&Martin,2000),weproposethatrenewaloftheseroutinesorrulescanbeachievedbyresettinglearningorientation(Crossan,Lane,&White,1999),justlikethealternationbetweenexploitationandexploration(March,1991).
Atlast,weintroducesomeenvironmentalfactorsintoourframeworkandrefinetherelationshipbetweenthetwoconcepts.Besides,thispaperalsogivesusasimpleintroductionofinternalactivationtriggers.Wethinkthatexternal(environmental)andinternaltriggersareeventsthatencourageorcompelfirmtorespondtospecificinternalorexternalstimuli,andthuschangefirms’learningorientation(Walsh&Ungson,1991;Winter,2000),andatlastdecidefirms’capabilities.
Inthefollowingsectionweexpandtheseimportantresearchquestionsbyestablishinglogisticrelationshipbetweenorganizationallearninganddynamiccapabilities.Wethengiveupthetraditionaldefinitionofdynamiccapabilities,andreplacewithtemporalcapabilitiestoseizetheimpactoflearningorientationonfirms’capacity.Then,theeffectofenvironmentaluncertaintyisinvestigatedastheyrelatetothelearningdirectionandintensity.Finally,wepresentpossiblefutureresearchdirectionsformanagementscholars.
Premises
Agoodframeworkshouldhavesomerequirements.First,itshouldidentifythephenomenonofinterestorthespecificresearchquestion:
inthiscasewehavealreadydefinedthreeresearchquestionsintheintroductionpart.Second,keyassumptionsunderlyingtheframeworkneedtobestated(Bacharach,1989).Third,therelationshipamongdifferentelementsoftheframeworkshouldbedescribedclearly(Sutton&Staw,1995;Weick,1995;Whetton,1989),andthisiswhatwewilldothisinfollowingsection.Hereinthissection,fourkeypremiseswillformtheunderpinningsofthisframeworkandfurthersupportourcentralargument.
Premise1:
Tensionbetweenexploitation(usingwhathasbeenlearned)andexploration(learningnewknowledge)isdifficulttoreconcile.
AsCrossanetal.(1999)suppose,organizationallearningrevealsatensionbetweenassimilatingnewlearningandusingwhathasbeenlearned(March,1991).Inthisarticle,westrengthentheirpremisefurther.Crossanetal.focusonthetensionbetweenexploitationandexplorationbecauseoftheircompetingforscarceresources.Hereweproposethatthistensionisdifficulttoreconcileevenforfirmshaveenoughresourcestoinvestindifferentdirection.Exploitationisakindoffirms’behaviorbasedoninstitutionalizedroutinesandsystems,andembeddedintofirms’culturedeeply(Shrivastava,1983).Thiskindofpriorknowledgeandfirms’culturewillaffectfutureexplorationgreatly.Therefore,explorationandexploitationdirectedbythesamefirmwillbenotabsolutelyorthogonaltoeachother,andthetensionbetweenthemisdifficulttoreconcile.
Premise2:
Firms’learningorientationcanaggravatethetensionbetweenexplorationandexploitation.
Amultilevelorganizationallearningcanbelinkedbysocialandpsychologicalprocesses:
intuiting,interpreting,integrating,andinstitutionalizing(Crossanetal.,1999)fromanintra-organizationalperspective,whichisquitelikeZolloandWinter’svariation-selection-transformingparadigm.Atthesametime,ZahraandGeorge(2002)developanacquisition-assimilation-transformation-exploitationmodeltoreconceptualizeabsorptivecapacity.Thetwoframeworksbothstresstheimportanceoflearningorientation.Learningintensity,speedanddirectioncandeterminethequalityofafirms’knowledge,thedistributionoffirms’resources.Ontheonehand,ifthelearningofknowledgeisnotinthesamedirectionwithpreviousstrategicdirectionortechnology,thisnewknowledgemayopenupanewdirectionforafirm,andinthisway,thepowerofexplorationwillbecomestrongerrelativetoexploitation(firms’existingdirection).Ontheotherhand,iftheknowledgeandexperiencewouldaddtoexistingknowledgethepowerofexploitationwillbestrengthened.
Premise3:
Firms’capabilitiesvarywiththeirstrategicdirectionortechnology.
Heterogeneityofcapabilitiesandresourcesinapopulationoffirmsisoneofthecornerstonesofresource-basedtheory(Peteraf,1993;Hoopes,Madsen,&Walker,2003;Helfat&Peteraf,2003;Barney,1991)anddynamiccapabilities(Teeceetal.,1997;Teece,2007).Intermsofevolutionaryeconomics(Nelson&Winter,1982),Helfat(1994)describedtheevolutionarytrajectoriesofcapabilitiesingeneral.Next,in2003,HelfatandPeterafproposedacapabilitieslifecyclesframeworkintheir
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