Learning Cultures for Sustained Innovation Success
Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 21 (3):
233--251 (September 2008)Zusammenfassung
In this conceptual paper, we expose learning cultures that contribute to firms sustained success in innovations. The learning cultures we propose are based on the cultural theory proposed by Mary Douglas. We argue that different learning cultures have different preferences for modes of learning: the hierarchical learning culture prefers internal knowledge creation; the competitive learning culture learns through external knowledge transfer and the egalitarian learning culture learns through debates and discourse. We argue that, owing to their inherent characteristics, each learning culture will be more effective at different stages of the innovation process: the hierarchical learning culture will come to the fore during the radical phase of the innovation process, the competitive learning culture will be more effective during the incremental phase and the egalitarian learning culture will outshine the other two during the transition period between the radical and incremental phases. Finally, we propose that firms that support different learning cultures during different stages of the innovation process in the sequence that we outline in this paper will enjoy sustained success in innovations. Managerial and theoretical implications are also discussed.