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This study aims to examine the antecedents of relationship learning in partnerships and develop a research model that explains relationship learning through three complementary constructs: relational practices, social capital and suppliers' relationship‐specific investments.

The study examines data drawn from interviews regarding 195 customer‐supplier relationships from the metal and electronics industries. In terms of methodology, the study employs structural equation modelling.

The findings indicate that relational practices, social capital and supplier's relationship‐specific investments explain relationship learning to a great extent.

The present study has some limitations, such as the use of cross‐sectional data and a limited sample size. More empirical research is needed on the antecedents and mechanisms of relationship learning as well as the interactions among antecedents.

The results suggest that companies must be able to facilitate the development of relational practices, social capital and suppliers' relationship‐specific investments, as these constructs explain relationship learning largely.

The prior literature lacks empirical evidence on the antecedents of relationship learning, particularly in the context of partnerships. The present study demonstrates a significant impact of three antecedent constructs on relationship learning.

This essay aims to emphasize the genus of learning relationships as comprised by interaction among the partners. The genus of both mentoring and coaching is a learning relationship characterized by communicative interaction

Conventional mentoring and coaching prescriptions are compared in terms of their treatment communicative interaction. Currently popular distinctions between coaching and mentoring are based on formal and conventional beliefs about what each endeavor is supposed to do. Although assumed to be distinct, each is incompletely understood as a communicative enterprise, and inconsistent prescriptions abound in the popular literature. Four kinds of learning goals are identified, and these are aligned with four kinds of relationship characterized by the employment of different kinds of speech acts.

The paper finds that coaching and mentoring are perhaps better examined by way of the learning relationships constructed by the communicative interaction that characterizes those relationships, rather than the continued search for formal or conventional distinctions.

When coaching or mentoring endeavors are examined in light of the nature of communication involved, it becomes easier to identify and change unproductive learning relationships by changing the communication.

The paper suggests a radically viable alternative to initiating, maintaining and using mentoring and coaching effectively.

Relationship learning is viewed as an important factor in enhancing competitiveness and an important determinant of profitability in relationships. Prior studies have acknowledged the positive effects of interorganizational learning on performance, but the performance measures applied have varied. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between interorganizational learning and different types of performance. The paper also goes beyond direct effects by investigating the moderating effects of different research designs.

This paper applies a meta-analytic approach to systematically analyze 21 independent studies (N = 4,618) to reveal the relationship between interorganizational learning and performance.

The findings indicate that interorganizational learning is an important predictor of performance, and that the effects of interorganizational learning on performance differ in magnitude under different research conditions.

The paper focuses on interorganizational learning, and during the data collection, some related topics were excluded from the data search to retain the focus on learning.

The study evinces the breadth of the field of interorganizational learning and how different research designs affect research results. Moreover, this meta-analysis indicates the need for greater clarity when defining the concepts used in studies and for definitions of the concepts applied in the field of interorganizational learning to be unified.

This study is the first to meta-analytically synthesize literature on interorganizational learning. It also illuminates new perspectives for future studies within this field.

The purpose of this paper is to test a theoretically derived representation of a relationship management capability. The relationship management capability architecture developed from the literature integrated theory on dynamic capabilities, the resource‐advantage theory of competition, and prior capability research in innovation and information technology management.

The second‐order constructs of relationship infrastructure, relationship learning and relationship behaviour argues to represent a relationship management capability (RMC) was assigned measures adapted from the literature, and pilot tested with industry consultants. The final questionnaire was sent to senior executives responsible for customer relationship management in manufacturing and business service firms in the UK. The structural model representing the RMC was shown to be robust with a comparative fit index of 0.91.

Although the low response rate and the subjectiveness of respondents encourage caution in interpreting the research findings, the results suggest that relationship management systems, implemented through collaborative and flexible behaviours, and renewed through adaptive and generative knowledge derived from experience and challenging current relationship management assumptions, are key dimensions of a RMC.

This framework advances and tests a new theoretical perspective of a relationship management capability that incorporates a capacity for renewal. In addition, it provides managers with a tool to evaluate their organisation's relationship management capability at key stakeholder interfaces on attributes that define relationship infrastructure, relationship learning and relationship behaviour, as this capability is renewed over time.

There has been growing interest on how emerging country firms can improve collaborative relationships with their international supply chain partners and improve performance outcomes. This paper aims to develop and test a model which emphasizes how advanced information technology and relationship learning can help Taiwanese electronics firms to improve their working relationship with international buyers.

Data were collected from 246 Taiwanese electronics firms which nurture relationships with international buyers. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the interrelationships between key concepts in the proposed conceptual model.

The findings suggest that applied technological innovation, a key IT resource, can enhance relationship learning for suppliers in their dealings with international buyers. This in turn contributes to higher supplier innovativeness and relationship performance. Moreover, applied technological innovation can improve supplier innovativeness directly. Interestingly however, applied technological innovation does not directly contribute to relationship performance.

This paper provides empirical evidence on the contribution of applied technological innovation on enhancing relationship learning and innovation in interfirm relationships for Asia‐Pacific dragon electronic firms.

Managers should focus on building relationship learning and adopting advanced IT to support joint learning activities in international channel relationships in order to improve relationship outcomes.

The paper develops hypotheses and tests a conceptual model which explains the contribution of applied technological innovation and relationship learning on supplier innovativeness and relationship performance.

Relationship learning is a topic of considerable importance for industrial networks, yet a lack of empirical research on the impact of relationship governance structures on relationship learning remains. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of relationship governance structures on learning in partnerships.

This paper contributes to the closure of the research gap by examining sample data drawn from 42 interviews on the subject of 199 customer‐supplier relationships within the Finnish metal and electronics industries. As a method, the paper applies cluster analysis and analysis of variance mean‐comparison.

The results of this paper show that balanced hybrid governance structures explain learning in partnerships, which suggests that certain combinations of relationship governance mechanisms (price, hierarchical, and social mechanism) produce the best learning outcomes in partnerships. Results suggest that managers should use hybrid relationship governance structures when governing their supplier partnerships.

The paper has some limitations such as limited sample size, cross‐sectional data, and difficulties due to measuring social phenomenon such as learning. Owing to the interview method being applied, research is bound to apply a sample data drawn from companies that operate in the west coast in Finland. These limitations need to be considered when applying the results.

The results encourage managers to use different governance mechanisms simultaneously when managing their company's supply chain partnerships. The result emphasizes the role of active relationship management.

The paper is one of the first to empirically show that relationship learning is best facilitated by using various relationship governance mechanisms simultaneously. Trust needs to be complemented by hierarchical and possibly by price mechanism.

It has been argued that a critical issue pertaining to small firm success is the ability to manage and develop a network of interdependent relationships with a wide and diverse range of stakeholders. The article explores the needs of small firms and their stakeholders in building interdependent relationships as effective learning forms for enhancing a small firm’s potential to succeed. It is suggested that small firm owners and managers need to develop specific competence frameworks when initiating and progressing such relationships. It is also suggested that those managing such dyadic relationships have been disadvantaged by the lack of appropriate guidelines to assess current levels of competence and opportunities for improvement.

Internationalizing new firms face the dual challenge of overcoming the liabilities of newness and liabilities of foreignness (Stinchcombe, 1965; Dunning, 1981; Zaheer, 1995). Because of their newness, new firms are constrained in their ability to access external resources required for survival and growth. Because of their foreignness relative to the foreign target market, internationalizing firms are disadvantaged relative to domestic firms when establishing business relationships. These disadvantages are exacerbated by the additional knowledge inputs required by the internationalization process itself: internationalizing firms face the dual challenge of both learning how to do business in a new national and institutional environment while also learning to manage the inherently complex international business organization (Johanson & Vahlne, 1990).

Organizational learning is a critical factor in generating firm innovation. While the firms are working with global business partners, not only does their absorptive learning capacity (ALC) with business partners play an important role in generating innovation from the inter-partner firm relationship, but their joint learning capacity (JLC) does as well. However, little research has simultaneously examined absorptive and JLC on innovation in global supply chain relationships. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Drawing on the knowledge-based view, inter-partner learning theory and resource dependence theory, the current study investigates the effects of two organizational learning capacities on relationship-specific innovation: ALC (firm-level) and JLC (relationship level). In addition, a firm’s focus on exploitation/exploration strategy and supplier dependence is further incorporated into the study as moderators. Moreover, solutions to endogeneity issues are discussed and reported due to the usage of survey data. The model of this study was tested using data collected from 190 electronics firms in Taiwan as an emerging market.

The findings of this research reveal that JLC in the presence of absorptive capacity positively influences relationship-specific innovation. Furthermore, the exploitation focus of a firm positively moderates the effects of both absorptive and JLC on relationship-specific innovation. However, supplier dependence negatively moderates the effect of JLC.

The research provides some theoretical implications for learning and innovation generation in global supply chains.

The paper provides some managerial implications for how to manage innovations in the global supply chain relationships.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how innovation generation can be better managed in global supply chain contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the academic literature on Supply Chain Learning (SCL), including the definitions, drivers, sources, barriers and consequences of SCL, and to propose an integrated conceptual model.

A systematic literature review has been conducted, with an analysis of 123 papers in peer-reviewed academic journals published from 1998 up to March 2018.

Through analysis and synthesis of the literature, this paper identifies and classifies the concepts of SCL into four types, that is, process orientation, structure orientation, consequence orientation and other informal definitions. Based on the Extended Resource-Based View (ERBV), the authors develop an integrated conceptual framework, which brings together various constructs. Within the framework, the authors identify the drivers and sources of SCL at intra- and inter-organizational levels. SCL consists of exploratory and exploitive learning capabilities, and the outcomes of SCL are dynamic supply chain management capabilities and sustainable supply chain performance.

The authors propose a capability perspective of SCL and develop a conceptual model and a number of associated propositions of SCL based on the ERBV and review findings, which is subject to future empirical testing and propose five future research directions. The findings of this paper can be extended beyond the dyad and be applied in multi-tier supply chain context.