Organizational Learning as a Determining Factor in Business Competitiveness

Unstable market conditions caused by innovation and increasing intensity and diversity of competition have resulted in organizational capabilities rather than served markets becoming the primary basis upon which firms establish their long-term strategies. If the most important resource from a strategic point of view is knowledge, then the essential organizational capacity of the company will be the generation, integration and institutionalization of knowledge through continuous learning processes. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze the contribution of learning to the achievement of competitive advantages. First of all, the literature on organizational learning is reviewed the aim being to clarify its distinctive characteristics. Secondly, the relationship, within an empirical scope, between organization learning and business performance is analyzed. In order to do that, a causal model contrasted from a sample of Spanish companies by means of structural equations is proposed. This model establishes that organizational learning contributes positively both to customer and employee satisfaction and to economic/financial results.