This paper examines the relative importance and significance of the four learning processes introduced by Huber (knowledge acquisition, knowledge distribution, knowledge interpretation and organizational memory) on four different levels of e-business (null, external, relational and internal), through an empirical investigation of 130 SMEs in the Spanish telecommunications sector. This was conducted by using a multinomial logistic model, validated by factor analysis. Our results support that in order to implement e-business, companies need to provide the acquisition, interpretation and storage of knowledge as prior steps. Then, to consolidate e-business, companies need to support the distribution of the knowledge learnt during previous phases. Our findings further suggest that knowledge acquisition is necessary to progress from relational level to internal level.
Competition is increasingly knowledge-based as firms strive to learn and develop capabilities faster than their rivals (Lane & Lubatkin, 1998; Teece & Pisano, 1994). In this context, a firm's competitive advantage flows from its unique knowledge and how this knowledge is managed (Spender, 1996). Because of this, the knowledge creating process has become a key element for companies seeking to adapt and anticipate environmental changes through the implementation of new technologies. To adapt to continuously changing business conditions and to generate innovations, companies need to acquire new market knowledge, administer it, make their knowledge stock explicit and share knowledge across organizational entities (Schlegelmilch & Penz, 2002). However, the development of innovations is not easy and requires the promotion of several processes from knowing what customers want to the development of new products or services that companies could use in their commercial transactions. Information technology allows companies to obtain, process, store and exchange information. One emerging share market for companies comes from e-business. Nowadays, for many firms, ignoring e-business means losing an opportunity to gain competitive advantage (Czerniawska & Potter, 1998). E-business allows companies to make transactions with customers or suppliers without personnel presence. The adoption of information technology, and especially of e-business applications, by large enterprises has been linked to organizational learning (e.g. Robey, Boudreau, & Rose, 2000). Organizational learning takes place when an organization acquires knowledge recognized to be successful to the organization.
The starting-point of this paper is the idea that the success of e-business depends on a company's ability to develop an organizational learning process that could feed the company with customer knowledge and development solutions and offer new products and services through e-business. Considering this, we suggest that organizational learning provides insights for helping e-business to achieve a competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships between organizational learning and e-business in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which are frequently forgotten in relevant literature. Thus, the paper begins by studying the process of learning. The paper then shifts focus, to examine the concept of e-business and the role that it plays in the organizational learning process. After the analysis and results, we develop specific conclusions and managerial implications for companies.
Information technology allows companies to obtain, process, store and exchange information. Nevertheless, the presence of information technology guarantees neither knowledge creation, knowledge distribution nor knowledge use (Ruiz-Mercader, Meroño-Cerdan, & Sabater-Sanchez, 2006). Most studies in the area of IS emphasize that technology applications facilitate organizational learning without much regard for previous learning undertaken within the company (e.g. Mercader, Meroño, & Sabater, 2006; Peters, 2006). However, users often lack the resources (time, training, expertise) and incentives to share knowledge, and consequently to use IS. Such factors result in e-business systems failures, which prevent SMEs from gleaning the benefits from such applications.
The first contribution of this research was to question the existing models that relate organizational learning and e-business. This study found that a rigorous strategy to acquire, distribute, interpret and store knowledge within the firm should be fostered, as a prior step in the implementation of e-business. Such a process ensures the availability and accessibility of knowledge on the issues strategic to the business, including markets, customers, suppliers, products and services, competitors, employee skills, process and procedures and the regulatory environment (Plessis & Boon, 2004). These findings support the views of Fahey, Srivastava, Sharon, and Smith (2001) that organizational learning applications provide a strong foundation for enterprises that contributes significantly to understanding and facilitating the e-business transformation of operational processes. Only if technologically advanced solutions are combined with human creativity and knowledge can a company create a real advantage in the market place.
The second contribution of this research derives from the results of the empirical test of the model. While the relationship between organizational learning and e-business has been researched (e.g. Lewis & Cockrill, 2002; Lin & Lee, 2005; Teo & Pian, 2004), the relationship between each phase of organizational learning and e-business is less researched. Our results indicate that each phase of e-business requires a different set of organizational routines and processes by which SMEs acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit knowledge. Consistent with Jansen, Bosch, and Volberda (2005), this study posits that organizational mechanisms associated with relative absorptive capacity (e.g. II and OM) help to make adequate transitions from levels 0 (null) to 1 (external) of e-business services design and use, while consistent with Liao et al. (2003), organizational mechanisms associated with potential absorptive capacity (e.g. knowledge acquisition and distribution) help to consolidate e-business at levels 2 (relational) and 3 (internal). These results reveal that SMEs may differ in their ability to manage levels of e-business from their learning capabilities. With regards to this, literature reveals that companies should acquire new external knowledge from customers and add it to inside knowledge already within the organizational context (Harrington & Guimaraes, 2005). Then, this knowledge has to be distributed from around the company, allowing every community to make explicit its own interpretation schemas (Bonifacio et al., 2002). Finally, the storage of the knowledge in repositories and providing employees to contact with other employees who posses some specific knowledge (Borgatti & Cross, 2003) foster the procurement of e-business results for the company.
This study has some limitations. Firstly, although the constructs have been defined as precisely as possible by drawing on relevant literature and validated by practitioners, they can realistically only be thought of as proxies for an underlying latent phenomenon that is itself not fully measurable. Furthermore, only a single research methodological approach was employed and further research through interviews and observational case studies could be undertaken to triangulate. Another possible research direction could examine how certain ‘boundary objects’ are managed through websites (Wenger, 1999). For example, how online applications could be seen as an object that creates communication between two different communities (customer, employees and shareholders). A complementary study on organizational learning and e-business operating within other sectors would add a supplementary perspective to this study and enable a better comparison to be made with the studies undertaken across the larger organizations by KPMG (2000).
