Much of the prior research on interorganizational learning has focused on the role of absorptive capacity, a firm's ability to value, assimilate, and utilize new external knowledge. However, this definition of the construct suggests that a firm has an equal capacity to learn from all other organizations. We reconceptualize the firm-level construct absorptive capacity as a learning dyad-level construct, relative absorptive capacity. One firm's ability to learn from another firm is argued to depend on the similarity of both firms' (1) knowledge bases, (2) organizational structures and compensation policies, and (3) dominant logics. We then test the model using a sample of pharmaceutical–biotechnology R&D alliances. As predicted, the similarity of the partners' basic knowledge, lower management formalization, research centralization, compensation practices, and research communities were positively related to interorganizational learning. The relative absorptive capacity measures are also shown to have greater explanatory power than the established measure of absorptive capacity, R&D spending. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Relative absorptive capacity and interorganizational learning

The authors develop a theory of how management can develop and promote the learning capabilities of targeted customer-supplier relationships. The theory suggests that a supplier and a customer can improve their joint learning activities by facilitating information exchange, developing common learning arenas, and updating their behavior accordingly. The authors suggest that learning within a customer-supplier relationship cannot be mandated by either organization, but rather learning depends on both parties’ willingness to cooperate in joint learning activities. Management can promote relationship learning by cultivating a collaborative culture, formulating specific objectives for joint learning activities, and developing relational trust. However, as relational trust develops, the effectiveness of learning is reduced as a result of “hidden costs” of trust. The authors use data from 315 dyads to test the theory empirically, and they find that the learning capability of a relationship has a strong,...

Promoting Relationship Learning

The decision-making and coordination of an e-commerce supply chain (ECSC) with manufacturer fairness concerns by incorporating the e-commerce platform into the decision-making process is studied in...

Study on the decision-making and coordination of an e-commerce supply chain with manufacturer fairness concerns

©2012 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY–NC–ND 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Interpersonal interaction in business triads : Case studies in corporate travel purchasing

https://purehost.bath.ac.uk/ws/files/203918797/Justice_in_Inter_Organizational_Relationships_Full_manuscript_incl._tables_and_figures.pdf

Justice in inter-organizational relationships: A literature review and future research agenda

Re-examining the link between fairness and commitment in buyer-supplier relationships

Service specification in pre-tender phase of public procurement - A triadic model of meaningful involvement

This study answers the call for empirical research on how managers ́ perceive their business network. Here we focus on SME managers ́ reasoning regarding inter-organizational learning. We combine the concept of managerial cognition with inter-organizational learning (IOL) theories, and study CEOs ́ cognitive maps to find out how managers deduce the effects of learning to their company ́s performance and success. The data consists of interviews of five CEOs of small and medium sized companies (SMEs) representing technology industries in Finland. The SMEs also represented different positions in their supply chains: one subcontractor, one hub, and three companies in the middle of the supply chain. Interviews with the CEOs revealed strong learning intent with effects of relational learning and interactive learning. Learning was described to occur both upstream and downstream of the supply chain, and the CEOs perceived the effects of learning to be beneficial both for the relationships and for the individual companies. We contribute to the knowledge of the role of IOL and CEOs ́ cognitive reasoning paths concerning its effects on company ́s performance. By using laddering, a rarely used interview technique in management and organization research, together with managerial cognitive maps, our study provides also methodological contributions.

Anne Söderman

Papers

Re-examining the link between fairness and commitment in buyer-supplier relationships

Service specification in pre-tender phase of public procurement - A triadic model of meaningful involvement

SME Managers' Causal Beliefs of the Role of Inter-organizational Learning in Supply Chain: An Empirical Study.