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The literature on organizational learning is very rich and complex. Although most research on learning suggests that it involves individual cognitive, cultural, social, and institutional changes and development, there are slight variations in terms of the number of factors various authors associate with these changes. We discuss the work of several authors as providing a contextual framework for viewing learning as involving both the adoption and diffusion of innovations.

Accounting for quality and improved organizational performance has recently received attention in management control research. However, the extent to which process innovation changes have been integrated into management control research is limited. This paper contributes to that integration by drawing from institutional adaptive theory of organizational change and process innovation strategies. The paper utilizes a 2 by 2 contingency table that uses two factors: environmental conditions and organizational change/learning strategies, to build a process innovation framework. A combination of these two factors yields four process innovation strategies: mechanistic, organic, organizational development (OD) and organizational transformation (OT).

The four process innovation typologies are applied to characterize innovations in accounting such as activity based costing (ABC). ABC has been discussed as a multi-phased innovation process that provides an environment where both the initiation and the implementation of accounting change can occur. Technical innovation can be successfully initiated as organic innovation that unfolds in a decentralized organization and requires radical change and double loop learning. Implementation occurs best as a mechanistic innovation in a hierarchical organization and involving incremental change and single loop learning. The paper concludes that if ABC is integrated into an OD or OT intervention strategy, the technical and administrative innovation aspects of ABC can be utilized to manage the organization’s operating activities.

The paper extends the organizational learning framework: Structural-Functional (SF)-single-loop or Conflictual-Radical (CR)-double-loop learning to the management accounting literature. The sociological approach of organizational learning is utilized to understand those contingent factors that can explain why management accounting innovations succeed or fail in organizations.

We view learning as enhancing an organization’s strategic competitive advantage by making it better able to adopt and diffuse innovation in respond to changes in its environment in order to manage improved performance. The success of management accounting innovations is contingent upon whether its learning process involves SF-single-loop or CR-double-loop learning to adopt and diffuse process innovation.

The paper suggests that the learning strategy that the organization chooses is the reason why some management accounting innovations are more successfully adopted than others and why some innovations are easily diffused in some organizations but not in others. We propose that the sociological approaches to learning provide an alternative framework with which to better understand the adoption and diffusion of process innovations in management accounting systems.

It has become evident that management accounting researchers need to pay particular attention to an organization’s approach to adoption and diffusion of innovation strategies, particularly when they are designing and implementing process innovation programs for an organization. According to Schulz (2001), there are two interrelated stages of the learning that can shape the outcome of the innovation process in an organization. The first stage is related to the acquisition/production (adoption) of knowledge that results in gathering information, codification, and exploration. This is followed by the second stage which is the distribution or dissemination (diffusion) processes. When these two stages – adoption and diffusion – are applied within an accounting context, they address issues that are commonly associated with the successes and/or failures of management accounting innovations.

Although innovation involves learning, the nature of the learning process does not completely describe the manner in which an innovation affects the organization. Accordingly, we suggest that the two interrelated organizational sociological dimensions of innovations processes, namely, (1) the adoption and diffusion theories of Rogers (1971 and 1995), to approach organizational learning, and (2) the SF (single loop) and CR (double loop) approaches to learning be used simultaneously to describe management accounting innovations.

When an innovation is implemented, it initially can be introduced as an incremental change, one that can be limited in both in its scope and its breadth of administrative changes. This means that situations which are most likely to benefit from its initiation can serve as the prototype for its adoption by the organization. If successful, this can be followed by systemic accounting innovations to instituting broader administrative changes within the existing accounting reporting and control systems.

This paper aims to conceptualize the role of leadership in organizational learning processes in multinational companies (MNCs). The authors present a model describing how managers in an MNC facilitated transitions between sub-processes of organizational learning at several organizational levels.

The authors collected data from the plants of a global process company in Norway, Brazil and China. Observation, in-depth interviews and archival material enabled one to reconstruct the organizational learning process over a period of 30 years as the company developed its own tailor-made improvement programme.

Based on the data, the authors describe the role of leadership in linking the sub-processes of organizational learning as orchestration, sponsoring and persistence. Orchestration included creating faith and optimism and designing the organization to allow close cooperation between operators and managers in the sub-process of experimenting. This eased transferring and institutionalizing in the global organization. Sponsoring included structural changes to support transferring and the demonstration of dedication to improvement programme values. These factors were important for institutionalizing. Persistence involved the continuous focus on adjustment of the improvement programme, which then facilitated further experimenting.

Firstly, this study suggests that activities and decisions in one sub-process have important implications for the following sub-processes. Secondly, this study indicates that leaders’ role in facilitating the transitions between sub-processes extend beyond their individual traits and behaviour, which previous research had focused on, and includes decisions concerning organizational structure and culture that help link social and organizational learning.

This paper aims to describe and analyze organizational learning processes and power dynamics during the adoption and use of an information system (IS) at a Brazilian public organization.

A case study was chosen as the research method. Data were gathered from documents and interviews with key informants.

The results indicate the existence of two learning cycles during the adoption of the IS at the organization. In the first cycle, learning occurred only at the individual level. In the second cycle, cognitive and social processes of individual and group learning were associated with power dynamics, enabling learning at the organizational level. These results reveal a relationship between the organizational learning process and the specific modes of power, notably discipline, influence, force and domination.

The study presents empirical evidence about the conceptual relation between the organizational learning process and different forms of power in organizations. There has been limited empirical research on this topic worldwide to date, and none in the context of Brazilian organizations published in Brazil or abroad.

The purpose is to explore how the process of action research (AR) can support building legitimacy and organizational learning in innovation project management and portfolio practices in merger contexts.

Meta-reflection on method issues in Action Research through an action research case study with an innovation group during an organizational change process. This case demonstrates an example of an action research cycle focused on building practitioner legitimacy rather than problem-solving.

Key findings include (1) demonstrating how AR can be used for building legitimacy through visualizing the innovation process, and embedding those visuals in top management practices of the organization; and (2) demonstrating how AR can work as an organizational learning tool in merger contexts.

This study focuses on an action research cooperation during a two-and-a-half-year period. Thus, findings offer the depth of a medium term case study. The processes of building legitimacy represent this particular case, and can be investigated in other organizational contexts to see the extent to which these issues can be generalized.

For researchers, this paper offers an additional type of AR cycle to consider in their research design which can be seen as demonstrating a form of interplay between practitioner action and organizational level legitimacy. For practitioners, this paper demonstrates a connection between legitimacy and organizational learning in innovation contexts. The discussion of how visuals were co-created and used for building legitimacy for an innovation process that differs from the standard stage gate model demonstrates how engaging in AR research can contribute to developing visuals as resources for building legitimacy and organizational learning based on connections between theory and practice.

This case rethinks AR practice for innovation project management contexts to include legitimacy and organizational learning. This focus on legitimacy building from organizational learning and knowledge conversion contributes to our understanding of the soft side of innovation project management. Legitimacy is demonstrated to be a key concern for innovation project management practices.

This paper aims to explore the independent and interactive leadership style and team processes on organisational learning in an Indian context.

The methodology used is survey based. Primary data were collected from 36 Indian manufacturing sector executives and in total there were three teams (n=11, n=13 and n=12).

It was found that overall leadership style and transactional leadership had significant positive impact on organisational learning. Furthermore, team processes like cohesion and support and confrontation and problem solving were also found to be important predictors of organisational learning. The interactive effect of independent variables on dependent variable was also positive and significant.

Discussions are performed and conclusions are drawn in the light of existing literature. The study bears implications for researchers to take on similar research in other contexts.

The study bears significant implications for executives working in manufacturing organisations. It is suggested that transactional leadership style should be employed to contribute towards organisational learning in such firms. Moreover, the use of team processes will also help in enhancing learning at the team and organisational levels.

This paper identifies two significant criterion variables to predict organisational learning. It is a pioneering effort to use team processes and leadership style together as predictors of organisational learning in Indian context.

The topic of organizational learning is populated with many theories and models; many relate to the enduring organizational learning framework consisting of knowledge acquisition, knowledge dissemination, and knowledge use. However, most of the research either emphasizes structural knowledge acquisition and dissemination as a composite construct, or focuses solely on the structural aspect of knowledge acquisition and dissemination. The primary objective of this study is to develop and test a model of organizational learning that incorporates both structural and informal knowledge acquisition and dissemination and as separate processes. The predictors of these processes are also proposed

A model of organizational learning that incorporates both structural and informal knowledge acquisition and dissemination constructs, along with three predictors of these organizational learning constructs were developed and quantitatively tested.

An inference to the research questions and hypotheses suggests that informal knowledge acquisition and dissemination have significant paths to market knowledge use, whereas structural knowledge acquisition and dissemination have, at best, a weak association with market knowledge use. Although the results were based on exploratory analysis, they provide tentative quantitative evidence that informal knowledge processes are at least as important as structural knowledge processes in market‐based organizational learning.

While the hypothesized model did not satisfy the goodness‐of‐fit tests, data‐driven exploratory analysis helped to refine two separate structural and informal models for future testing. The statistical explanation provided and procedures used to remedy the non‐fit issues should help future researchers to deal with structural equation‐modeling issues when similar non‐fit problems arise.

This study aims to extend the proposal of Holmqvist with regard to organisational processes of learning and their impact on firm performance.

Based on a survey of 187 firms, the paper shows that certain organisational processes of learning are related to innovation performance. Further, it investigates the moderating role of product radicalness on such relationships.

Based on a survey of 187 firms, the paper shows that certain organisational processes of learning are related to innovation performance. Further, it investigates the moderating role of product radicalness on such relationships and proves that the other two types of organisational learning processes are not related to innovation performance.

The innovation performance of collaboration between firms has not received a great deal of attention in the literature. This research paper offers some guidelines on how to obtain great advantages from this collaboration.

Facing increasing global competition, firms must ceaselessly acquire new knowledge and enhance their capabilities in response to rapidly changing customer requirements. Amidst the varying collaborative relationships that occur between firms, it is particularly important for firms to learn from international joint ventures. However, few existing studies have explored this issue empirically. Rooted in the organizational learning perspective, this study seeks to investigate the learning intent, learning process and learning outcomes of host parent companies taking part in international joint ventures, and to propose and verify a theoretical model of learning for host parent companies.

The study used Taiwanese firms as research objects and employed the survey method to collect sample data. In total, 64 international joint ventures involving Taiwanese firms were collected and analyzed. The objective of this study was to examine the relationships between latent constructs, such as learning intent, learning process and learning outcome. Thus, the structural equation modeling approach was adopted to test the theoretical model. However, the sample size used in this study was small, so the partial least squares (PLS) method was employed.

The empirical results showed that a parent company's learning outcome is affected by the interaction between the parent company and the joint venture, as well as the internal knowledge integration capacity of the parent company. The interaction between the parent company and the joint venture will simultaneously drive the parent's intra‐organisational knowledge integration. Moreover, the parent company's strategic intent to learning from the joint venture will affect the parent company's knowledge integration, along with the interaction between the parent company and the joint venture. Likewise, the parent company's learning intent will affect its evaluation of the joint venture's knowledge, while further influencing its intra‐organizational knowledge integration.

The paper combines the perspectives of learning intent, learning process and learning outcomes in order to propose and test empirically a model that explains how the host parents of developing countries enhance their knowledge and capabilities by means of international joint ventures. Thus, the study attends to the deficiency of the literature in addressing the field of learning through international joint ventures. It also provides some insights and suggestions for firms that regard alliance strategy as a learning opportunity for enhancing a firm's knowledge base and organizational capabilities.