فن آوری اطلاعات به عنوان یک تعیین کننده یادگیری سازمانی و شایستگی های متمایز فن آوری

This study aims to assess the role played by information technology (IT) in organizational learning (OL) considered as a process of knowledge creation and determined by the interaction of stocks and flows variables. We also examine how IT and OL influence both business performance and the development of the technological distinctive competencies (TDCs), as well as the latter's influence on leading the firm towards better outcomes. These relationships have been tested via an empirical analysis carried out with a sample of 140 industrial companies, applying a structural equation linear model according to the Partial Least Squares (PLS) methodology. Our findings allow us to confirm that IT acts as an enabler of the OL process and influences on the development of TDCs, which allow the achievement of a better business performance. Such competencies are also the result of OL, thus demonstrating the influences of them both on perceived organizational performance.

The study of organizational learning (OL) is relevant as it seeks to respond to the challenges that arise in a constantly changing business environment and can help companies to confront their long-term survival difficulties. OL thus represents a source of heterogeneity and of potentially sustainable competitive advantages, because of the companies' different capabilities for learning and absorbing knowledge (Easterby-Smith et al., 2000 and Lei et al., 1999). The most important thing is not that companies can accumulate knowledge (static focus), but that they are able to learn continuously by creating new knowledge which they transfer and apply (dynamic focus). The concepts of learning and knowledge creation are often used to describe the innovation process (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). Technological innovation in companies is a learning process through which a flow of new technological knowledge or technological distinctive competencies (TDCs) is generated (Nieto, 2004). The development of this knowledge is path-dependent (Prencipe, 1997) and therefore determined by the company's history and experience, in which OL plays a key role (Dutrénit, 2000). This explains the historic dependence of innovation on what has happened in the past and its irreversibility with respect to the technological path followed (Pavitt, 1987). In short, companies that have developed a learning ability in the past will have a greater capability to innovate in the present. Moreover, the contributions from the Resource-Based View (RBV) approach and its extension, the Knowledge-Based View approach, suggest that competitive advantage stems from the company's capabilities and skills, with learning becoming a fundamental strategic aspect. Although their theoretical frameworks are different, they share a series of similarities which enable their integration in a global theory whose contemplation could imply the appearance of a new paradigm (Mahoney, 1995). As a result, this research takes the current position concerning Organizational Learning and the Knowledge-Based View as its reference framework. Thus, using a dynamic model that integrates organizational learning and knowledge creation (OL–KC), this article aims to analyze how OL influences the process of TDCs. In this respect, these competencies have a mediating influence on the impact of OL on perceived business performance (PERF). At the same time, we will also examine how knowledge management technologies will contribute dynamically to the success of this process. So, it is via these complementary resources, such as OL and TDCs, that information technology (IT) can be converted into a competitive advantage for the company. To achieve the proposed objectives, this paper is organized as follows: to begin, we will describe the theoretical framework which we have applied in this research and which we have followed in order to propose a series of hypotheses used to form the research model. Following this, we will stop a while to describe the sectors that are the object of this study and the chosen sample of companies together with the design of the questionnaire and the planning of the fieldwork. Next, we will present our results, and a discussion of them based on the analysis of data collected from 140 manufacturing firms. Finally, the paper will show the conclusions and implications, identifying limitations and providing guidelines for future research.

Our study is of interest from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Theoretically, we have examined using the literature on OL and the Knowledge-Based View as theoretical frameworks, the problem of the complexity of OL as a knowledge creation process and we have considered it as a latent multidimensional construct composed by stocks and flows variables. A measurement scale has been adduced which will strengthen an area of study in which there are a number of limited empirical studies and in the development of which there has been a growing interest. A theoretical model has been proposed which, through the measurement of the OL–KC process, has demonstrated the importance of IT as a dynamizing element of OL. In this model, the relationship between learning, technological distinctive competencies and performance has been analyzed. The technological dominance through which TDCs are expressed has a strong learning component, resulting as it does from the learning process. As a consequence, we speak about a process of path-dependence learning. OL has been presented as a process which has a dynamic capability able of generating competitive advantages, a relationship which has not been sufficiently tested in the literature, and which has been demonstrated empirically in this work by its influence both on TDCs and entrepreneurial performance. OL is a key element in exploiting initial advantages, enabling resources to be reorganized and reconfigured, and producing new ways to compete in the market. Following the assumptions of Competence-Based Competition, TDCs have been verified as the determinants of business performance on the grounds of their contribution to achieving sustainable competitive advantage, performing a mediating role in the relationship between OL and PERF. Finally, we have verified that IT is not in itself able to maintain competitive advantage. So the high number of failures in installing knowledge management systems can be explained by a lack of attention to human and organizational aspects, justifying the existence of complementary or co-specialized strategic assets, such as OL and TDCs, which enable the effect on PERF to be increased. From a practical point of view, this research considers OL as an essential factor both in the development process of TDCs and in obtaining the business performance. With this, we try to stimulate organizations so that they build a learning culture that allows them to overcome the barriers that prevent them from practicing the learning organization attributes. This type of environment facilitates the search for new knowledge, generating learning that strengthens innovation. Moreover, this research suggests that mechanisms facilitating the creation and diffusion of knowledge in the organizations should be put into practice. Thus, the organizations can increase their investment in IT, not only by their direct effect on the performance, but by its evident role in the process of organizational knowledge creation, which allows it to flows and be accessible. It is clear that this role would improve our understanding of the sustainability of competitive advantage resulting from synergies between IT and complementary resources. At the same time, managers should recognize that the TDCs have a strong component of learning, due to its continuous nature. The essence of the TDCs development process is the creation, transmission and accumulation of technological knowledge, as a part of the organizational knowledge, to incorporate it in new products, services and processes. In general, evidence from this study underscores the importance of managerial emphasis on the creation of an internal business environment conducive to innovative activities.