A meta‑analytic study on the organisational learning–performance relationships via country cultural and economic contexts

ABSTRACT

This study aims to further examine organisational learning–organisational performance relationships, with particular emphasis on the moderating effects of contextual elements, such as national culture and economy, on these relationships. Following a seven-step meta-analysis approach, the aggregated findings from 45 previous studies were analysed. The research findings reveal that organisational learning is positively associated with the financial, non-financial and overall performance of organisations. National culture and economy are critical moderators that affect organisational learning–organisational performance relationships. Organisational learning–non-financial performance relationship is stronger in societies that are characterised by large power distance and collectivism. This is one of the first meta-analytic studies to allow significant theoretical generalisability by clarifying ambiguous relationships between organisational learning and its outcomes as well as revealing the moderating impacts of contextual factors (national culture and economy) on the organisational learning–organisational performance relationships.

KEYWORDS:

• Organisational learning
• organisational performance
• financial and non-financial performance
• meta-analysis
• knowledge management
• national culture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. the term “knowledge management” first appeared in academic publications in 1975 (Serenko & Bontis, 2004) and the paper selection was carried out in 2018.

2. Among 116 studies, the knowledge friendly organisational culture–organisational performance relationship was examined in 56, KM leadership–organisational performance in 22, strategic KM–organisational performance in 14, knowledge codification strategy–organisational performance in 14, knowledge personalisation strategy–organisational performance in 12, KM technologies–organisational performance in 40 and OL–organisational performance in 45.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University [RUNQ].