Organizational learning capacity and attitude toward complex technological innovations : An empirical study

Recent studies have found organizational learning capacity to be a key factor in influencing organizational assimilation and exploitation of knowledge-intensive innovations. Despite its increasing importance, the impact of organizational learning capacity on technology assimilation is not well understood. Distilling from extant works on organizational learning and technology assimilation, this study identifies four components of organizational learning capacity, namely, systems orientation, organizational climate for learning orientation, knowledge acquisition and utilization orientation, and information sharing and dissemination orientation. The authors subject these components to structural equation modeling analyses to better understand their structure and dimensionality. The analyses strongly support the proposed four major dimensions underlying organizational learning capacity. Organizational learning capacity, as a higher-order factor, has a significant impact on attitude towards organizational adoption of knowledge-intensive innovations. Implications for practice and research are discussed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.