Supply chain organizational learning, exploration, exploitation, and firm performance: A creation-dispersion perspective

Divesh Ojha, Elisabeth Struckell, Chandan Acharya and Pankaj C. Patel

International Journal of Production Economics, 2018, vol. 204, issue C, 70-82

Abstract: We introduce and empirically test the creation-dispersion model of supply chain organizational learning to align learning orientations in a supply chain context. Our paper seeks to advance the knowledge on supply chain organizational learning by showing that four distinct supply chain learning orientations (team, learning, memory, and systems), previously studied only as a collective, can be parsed strategically. We parse these four learning orientations into creation capacity (team and learning orientations) and dispersion capacity (memory and system orientations). The creation and dispersion capacity can enhance exploration (long-term) and exploitation (short-term) practices respectively in supply chain organizations. We used a survey questionnaire to collect data from 128 respondents belonging to firms of various sizes and different industries. We find that creation capacity is positively associated with exploration and indirectly associated with exploitation through exploration. Dispersion capacity is associated with exploitation and indirectly influences market share and profitability through exploitation. The findings demonstrate that creation and dispersion-based combinations of supply chain learning orientations coalesce to influence exploration and exploitation practices. We discuss the implications for supply chain organizational learning literature.

Keywords: Supply chain organizational learning; Exploration; Exploitation; Creation capacity; Dispersion capacity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527318302913
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:proeco:v:204:y:2018:i:c:p:70-82

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2018.07.025

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Production Economics is currently edited by Stefan Minner

More articles in International Journal of Production Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().