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With shortening product life cycles and an increasing number of product variants, manufacturing firms perform more production ramp-ups. In this context, learning is crucially important to quickly achieve high production process quality and stability. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Through a laboratory experiment, this study analyzes spillover learning between consecutive ramp-ups and how this phenomenon is influenced by tacit knowledge transfer through observation and imitation.

The results prove the existence of spillover learning between consecutive ramp-ups. Moreover, they provide evidence how tacit knowledge transfer through observation and imitation enhances learning of new tasks in consecutive production ramp-ups.

Future research could focus on the specific psychological processes driving tacit knowledge transfer and spillover learning, a topic which is only touched upon in this paper.

The findings show that manufacturing firms should not only aim at reaching a steep learning curve during a single production ramp-up, but should also take into account the effects of spillover learning with regard to future production ramp-ups. Furthermore, the paper provides novel insights concerning the allocation of workers to production tasks with regard to previous experience when introducing new personnel and during ramp-up phases.

Previous evidence on the existence and characteristics of spillover learning in production ramp-up situations is not conclusive. This paper provides new and unambiguous insights by considering different organizational settings.

This study uses a holistic approach to learning at work to examine the role of reflection in the formal–informal learning interaction. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the reflection on a formal training affects the subsequent informal learning activities. This study also aims to provide insights into the effects of national culture values (in terms of uncertainty avoidance) on learning in the context of a globalized world of work.

In a longitudinal study, 444 employees working for a global acting automotive company located in 6 countries were surveyed 2 times (4–6 weeks between both measurements). Participants reflected on a training they participated in (t₁: satisfaction and utility) and indicated their informal learning activities (t₂). Structural equation modelling was used to investigate the effect of the reflection of training (t₁) on the proceeding use of informal learning strategies (t₂) and how uncertainty avoidance affects the use of different learning forms.

Results show a spillover effect: when employees reflect a formal training and rate it as satisfying, more use of informal learning proceeds. No effects were found for utility. Uncertainty avoidance had direct effects: high uncertainty avoidance results in better evaluations and more informal learning. Furthermore, uncertainty avoidance had an indirect effect on informal learning via reflection.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the formal–informal learning interaction longitudinally and to introduce reflection as a mediator within this process. Furthermore, the study provides evidence that uncertainty avoidance is an important factor for formal and informal learning in the globalized world of work.

The effects of social learning and network externalities in the diffusion of a new product imply that there should be local spillovers from existing owners to new adopters in a closely related community. Using the data from a unique household survey in rural China, this paper aims to examine the importance of local spillovers in the diffusion of two major durable goods, washing machine and refrigerator.

Based on a 1999 rural household survey of durable goods consumption conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of China, the authors examine the likelihood of rural households adopting a washing machine and a refrigerator during 1998-1999, respectively.

The estimation results indicate that a household is more likely to buy its first durable good in villages where a large share of households already own one. Further evidence suggests that these patterns are unlikely to be explained by unobserved local characteristics. When examined in more detail, the extent of local spillovers appears to be positively related to the household education level.

First, the study reveals the importance of local spillovers in the diffusion of these two durables. Specifically, 64 percent of washing machine adoptions during 1998-1999 are due to these spillovers. For refrigerator adoptions, the proportion is 55 percent. Second, to the authors' best knowledge, the authors are among the first to test and provide evidence on the interaction between education level and local spillovers based on the learning hypothesis.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Results showed a spillover effect when employees were satisfied with formal training and this was associated with enhanced informal learning. No effects from utility of training were found. Uncertainty avoidance was an important factor for both formal and informal learning.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of post‐exit knowledge diffusion created by departed firms on recipienfirms.

This is an inductive and exploratory study which tries to understand questions of how and why. The research used a qualitative interview methodology and data analysis using within and cross‐case analysis.

Analysis of the data revealed that recipient firms' strategic directions and organizational design are fundamentally shaped by the career imprint of the former managers of the departed firm.

Practical and policy implications are identified and discussed. The study suggests that organizational failure should be viewed as having wider externalities, on both markets and society as a whole. The demise of an industry incumbent should not be viewed as necessarily having a negative impact, rather as a strategic opportunity for new firms to enter and for existing ones to expand by drawing on the expertise released by its departure.

This paper makes an original contribution to the literature by integrating learning‐from‐failure, knowledge spillover and career imprinting theories to examine the post‐exit effect of firm departure. The paper also counters prior emphasis of the extant literature on the relationship between work experience and job performance which has focused mainly on experience within the current firm, overlooking the importance of work experience acquired in prior firms.

The paper aims to discuss the transformation of a multinational organization, Global Co, through the deployment of an operational excellence system at a time of turbulence and complexity. It illuminates the opportunities and challenges of implementing the system from the perspective of learning and change.

A case study method was utilized in the research based on a four-year longitudinal study. Formal and informal interviews, unobtrusive observations and archival records formed the core of the data collection that led to key insights reported in this paper.

A structured approach to managing work processes is essential for ensuring efficiency and reliability in work output. Performance improvement is sustained by operational discipline that strives for consistency in daily work practices. Organizations develop self-healing mechanisms to help address work-related gaps and issues, turning constraints into enablers for improvement.

The paper provides a wider dimension of organizational performance from the learning and change perspective. It considers organizations as organisms with self-healing properties supported by operational discipline. It redefines the impact of operational excellence through organizational significance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore why and how firms with logistics-intensive operations such as fast-moving consumer good (FMCG) distributors benefit from residing in logistics clusters. In particular, this study seeks to fill a gap in the understanding of how logistics clustering may influence FMCG firms’ distribution capabilities.

Three case studies of FMCG distributors geographically agglomerated within Q Logistics Cluster in Jordan serve to elaborate the existing theory of clustering. Data were collected from 24 interviews as well as observational evidence of the FMCG distributors’ outbound logistics operations. The unit of analysis was the interaction between FMCG distributors and other agents in the logistics cluster.

FMCG distributors tend to gravitate to clusters where logistics service providers and other FMCG firms co-locate. FMCG distributors interact intensively and benefit greatly from building ties with non-competitor distributors in a cluster. Informal personal relations, collaborative activities and knowledge sharing, learning opportunities and resource availability were found to act as mechanisms for generating distribution capabilities within a logistics cluster.

This study provides practical implications for FMCG logistics and distribution managers who make distribution centre (DC) location decisions. The study provides such managers and their firms with a deeper understanding of the importance of co-locating DCs in logistics clusters, and may help them in designing their supply networks.

This is the first scholarly work to uncover the various ways in which FMCG distributors benefit from logistics clustering and explain why they may differ in performance, building on observations of their capabilities. The study provides insight from an emerging market and encourages future researchers to conduct further studies on logistics clustering in order to bring relevant theory forward.

The view that supply chain learning (SCL) has become a fundamental capability that supply chains must employ to innovate and improve their financial, technological, operational, environmental and social performance is widely accepted. However, the SCL phenomenon is still understudied and not fully understood by scholars, decision-makers and government representatives. This article aims to make sense of the existing literature and to identify important research directions that require further attention.

This article reviews the diversity of SCL in the literature, proposes a typology of such a phenomenon, provides an overview of key articles in the literature and identifies a series of recommendations for the future development of the field.

This article combines two fundamental dimensions from the literature (i.e. SCL driver and SCL network) to produce a typology of four types of SCL: Captive, Consortium, Selective and Distributed.

The typology proposed here offers an important framework for supply chain decision-makers to rely on when implementing SCL initiatives. The implications of each type of SCL offer a robust rationale for decision-makers to adopt the most appropriate type of SCL or combinations of SCL types, given each situation. In addition, the typology supports policy-makers in further understanding the SCL phenomenon and creating effective innovation, economic development and sustainability policies through supply chains.

This article offers a novel typology that the authors hope will help scholars to advance the field of SCL in order to understand this important phenomenon. There is no good/bad/better/worse SCL type in the proposed typology, but the critical element for the success of SCL efforts is the level of fit between the type of SCL, the type of knowledge to be created and diffused, and the outcome supply chains aim to achieve with that learning effort. In addition, the authors coin the construct of “the learning supply chain”, which refers to a supply chain that learns constantly by employing all four types of SCL simultaneously.

This paper’s main objective is to expand the demand-driven strategic field by developing a model where endogenization of consumers’ preferences for clean(er) products becomes the driver of the firm green corporate social responsible (GCSR) profit maximization behavior.

The model proposes that in undifferentiated markets, firms using a conventional technology manage production-related negative externalities via information asymmetries. In turn, when consumer socially responsible individuals (CnSR) discover the nature of the information asymmetries, they then reveal their preferences. The building block of the model is that CnSR derive value both from intrinsic as well as extrinsic product features, and derive negative satisfaction from the production negative externalities. In turn, CnSR preferences offer a higher willingness to pay for a combined intrinsic (private good and direct utility) and extrinsic (public good and feel good–do good utility) product.

The model demonstrates that the firm’s GCSR behavior is a technological-driven process directly affecting the extrinsic component of the product through the development of a safe technology, and exclusively targeting CnSR type of consumers. The corollary of the model is that for the firm pursuing a GCSR behavior, the development of a competitive advantage with higher firm performance leads to profit maximization when exclusively serving the GCSR segment of the market. Thus, GCSR is the result of unusual innovation efforts.

This paper presents a model that expands the field of strategic management through the demand-driven incorporation and respective modeling. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first model to explicitly develop this relationship in this format.

This paper aims to analyze the business model innovation in medium and large Brazilian manufacturing companies located in Rio do Sul State.

A holistic multiple case study in five companies was developed. Data were collected through interviews and analyzed according to the content analysis technique.

The main motivation to business model innovation was the innovation in products and services, while the difficulties were the factors relating to the cost. The most common practice among cases was innovation in value proposition and the most widely used method was learning-by-searching. While part of the theory was demonstrated in the case studies, new motivations and practices were identified. The investigation of the learning process on business models’ innovation is pioneered in this study. Further studies on this subject are required.

New business models are likely to provide new opportunities to better address customer needs, generating differentiating itself from its competitors. It is a subject little investigated in the international context, and there are no studies to investigate the experience of Brazilian companies.