Management learning in business networks: The process and the effects

Abstract

This article studies the process of firm learning in business networks and its impact on new product development. It argues that prior work offers little insight into how learning actually takes place in network collaboration, and so poses the open question of whether learning through business networks does accelerate new product development. The article begins by clarifying important learning concepts. It then documents how these concepts evolve across organisational boundaries and projects and also over time. It also shows how companies apply the skills of dialogue, articulation and experience for knowledge transfer and how they engage in articulation and pollination for knowledge cross-transformation. However, despite being able to document these processes, this study is unable to unequivocally link knowledge transfer with new product development efficiency and conclude that the latter is enhanced by knowledge cross-transformation. This article contributes to a theoretical inter-organisational learning model in business networks and suggests improved ways for management learning.