The interplay of open innovation and strategic innovation: Unpacking the role of organizational learning ability and absorptive capacity

We explore the open innovation research model in order to remove barriers in service organizations, where lack of knowledge is the main barrier to innovation. The purpose of this paper is to propose a research model exploring the relationship between open innovation, organizational learning ability, absorptive capacity, and strategic innovation. In this study, we collected data from 330 pharmaceutical companies in Lahore and Karachi (Pakistan). The Structural equation model analysis was used through analysis of moment structures and statistical package for the social sciences to check the relationship between the variables. The results reveal that hypotheses related to innovation have been accepted. The findings of this study are evidence that various types of open innovation have different effects on strategic innovation. The inbound and outbound open innovation directly affects strategic innovation; the mutual effect of exploitative learning ability and explorative learning ability between open innovation and strategic innovation have indirect effects. Similarly, the empirical findings of absorptive capacity also significantly impact open innovation and organizational learning ability. This study contributes to the theory by introducing exploitative and explorative learning abilities as mediators between open innovation and strategic innovation. Moreover, it analyzes how absorptive capacity may enhance learning abilities through the open innovation phenomenon. Practically, this study would help the managers understand and improve organizational productivity and gain competitive advantage by creating, sharing, and utilizing knowledge through internal and external avenues.

Lost and Found—Unfolding and Refolding Aesthetic Learning Processes

The ongoing marketisation of education is a great loss for visual arts education since explorative learning processes are marginalised in favour of more goal-oriented learning. The empirical material analysed in this research derives from the visual art portfolio of a student from an elective university course in visual arts education. Working within Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophical framework, we examine the folding, unfolding, and refolding of aesthetic learning processes, suggesting productive concepts and practices. The analysis made us aware of our own pedagogical ideals and the loss of having to disassemble them, in line with the new curricula. The student’s visual learning process showed us how to reassemble new and explorative learning processes, assigning aspects of sustainability and an ethics of care in relation to environmental and social questions. We suggest strategies for learning in the folds, where educators are called upon to prepare students for an uncertain future. This demands a creative imagination, an ethical standpoint for negotiating the curriculum in line with differentiation by forming, inventing, and fabricating new concepts and images.

Coordinating Human and Machine Learning for Effective Organization Learning

With the rise of machine learning (ML), humans are no longer the only ones capable of learning and contributing to an organization’s stock of knowledge. We study how organizations can coordinate human learning and ML in order to learn effectively as a whole. Based on a series of agent-based simulations, we find that, first, ML can reduce an organization’s demand for human explorative learning that is aimed at uncovering new ideas; second, adjustments to ML systems made by humans are largely beneficial, but this effect can diminish or even become harmful under certain conditions; and third, reliance on knowledge created by ML systems can facilitate organizational learning in turbulent environments, but this requires significant investments in the initial setup of these systems as well as adequately coordinating them with humans. These insights contribute to rethinking organizational learning in the presence of ML and can aid organizations in reallocating scarce resources to facilitate organizational learning in practice.

Hydrogen Economy Development Opportunities by Inter-Organizational Digital Knowledge Networks

Innovative power-to-X (P2X) technologies, as a set of emerging new solutions, could play a crucial role in creating sustainable, carbon-neutral economies, such as the hydrogen economy. These technologies, however, are generally not yet implemented on a commercial scale. This research focuses on how innovative, digital inter-organizational knowledge networks of industry representatives and universities could contribute to the commercial implementation of P2X technologies and increase the pace of sustainable hydrogen-based development. The findings of an extended case study with a hybrid (qualitative–quantitative) methodology and a five-year time horizon, suggest the need for a digital knowledge platform, where universities and industry representatives add and combine their knowledge. In contrast with expectations, however, the empirical results show that academia would, not only be capable of supporting the exploration of new solutions, but foster the exploitation of more mature technologies as well. Similarly, large energy companies could also drive exploratory activities, not only exploitative ones. The findings highlight the possible central role of the “system builder” actor, who integrates exploitative-explorative learning and facilitates the formation of a (digital) innovation ecosystem. By exceeding the dominant techno-economic and environmental aspects, this research contributes to the literature by highlighting the applicability of network-based innovation management theory for hydrogen economy research.

The role of ethical leadership in enhancing exploitative and explorative learning simultaneously: what does it matter if employees view work as central?

PurposeThe present study aimed to test the hypothesis that ethical leadership positively contributes to exploitative learning and explorative learning simultaneously and then examine the moderating role of work centrality in the relationships of ethical leadership with exploitative learning and explorative learning.Design/methodology/approachTime-lagged survey data were collected from 257 middle managers and their 257 immediate supervisors in 76 firms in China. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and Hayes' PROCESS macro for SPSS.FindingsThe results revealed that ethical leadership positively contributed to exploitative learning and explorative learning simultaneously. Importantly, the authors found that work centrality strengthened the positive relationships of ethical leadership with both exploitative learning and explorative learning.Practical implicationsThe findings can help organizations enhance exploitative learning and explorative learning simultaneously and enable them to gain a sustainable competitive advantage.Originality/valueAlthough explorative learning and exploitative learning together constitute fundamental resources for organizations' long-term success, prior research has not looked into whether and when leader behaviors facilitate explorative learning and exploitative learning simultaneously. The study contributed to fill this gap by introducing ethical leadership, signifying its positive role in enhancing both explorative learning and exploitative learning, and establishing work centrality as a moderator to reinforce these two positive relationships.

Explorative and Exploitative Learning Affected by Extraneous Cognitive Load and Gameplay Anxiety in a Gestalt Perception Game

In line with the attention-to-affect model, this study employed a game that encompasses Gestalt perception to explore how extraneous cognitive load (ECL) and gameplay anxiety correlate with attitude towards exploitative learning and attitude towards explorative learning as students play the Visual-Saliency game (VSG) with images of artworks. The data of 56 sixth-grade students were collected and subjected to Smart PLS analysis to verify the pathways. The results of this study show that ECL is negatively related to attitude towards exploitative learning and attitude towards explorative learning. However, gameplay anxiety is negatively related to attitude towards exploitative learning, but is not significantly related to explorative learning when playing the VSG. The implication of this study is that Gestalt perception in game playing can give students more opportunities to practice reasoning, and they can gain more knowledge about the artworks themselves.

Information technology-enabled explorative learning and competitive performance in industrial service SMEs: a configurational analysis

Purpose As purveyors of knowledge-based and high value-added services to the manufacturing sector, industrial service small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must develop the information technology (IT) capabilities that, in combination with other non-IT capabilities, enable their capacity for organizational learning (OL) and for explorative learning in particular. In this context, this study aims to identify the different causal configurations that account for the nonlinear complex interplay of IT capabilities for exploration and strategic capabilities for explorative learning as they affect these firms’ competitive performance. Design/methodology/approach Survey data obtained from 92 industrial service SMEs were analyzed with a configurational approach, using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Findings As it allows for equifinality, the fsQCA analysis identified two sets of causal configurations that characterize the sampled firms’ explorative learning capability as it relates to competitive performance. In the first set, two configurations were equally associated with high innovation performance, whereas in the second set, four configurations were equally associated with high productivity. Originality/value By viewing explorative learning as a dynamic capability that is enabled by the firm’s IT and strategic capabilities, the study contributes to OL theory by providing a more concrete or “operational” grounding, which allows for a greater practical applicability of this theory. By taking both the configurational and capability-based views of the OL-IT-performance causal framework, the authors provide an empirical basis for unraveling, explaining and understanding the complex non-linear relationships embedded within this framework.

Social Capital and Sustainable Innovation in Small Businesses: Investigating the Role of Absorptive Capacity, Marketing Capability and Organizational Learning

Facing resource constraints and fierce competition, it is relatively difficult for small firms to achieve product innovation to gain sustainable development independently. Previous studies have explored the positive relationship between social capital and product innovation, yet there is still a lack of a comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanism and the boundary conditions. Drawing upon the dynamic capabilities framework, we expect that absorptive capacity and marketing capability will mediate the relationship between social capital and new product development. Moreover, since product innovation is considered a process of learning, we also examine the moderating effects of explorative learning, and exploitative learning within moderated mediation models. Employing a sample of 221 small firms based in China, we find that social capital is indeed positively associated with new product development and is simultaneously fully mediated by absorptive capacity and marketing capability. Furthermore, the impact of absorptive capacity on new product development is amplified when a condition of explorative learning exists. This study, therefore, advances the current understanding on the predictors of innovation and enriches the dynamic capabilities theory, and also provides empirical support for the sustainable development of small firms.