The mediating role of organizational learning capability and resilience in the error management culture-service innovation link and the contingent effect of error frequency

ABSTRACT

Error management culture (EMC) has received a significant interest in the service management literature. However, there remains a lack of studies investigating the underlying mechanisms (mediating variables) where EMC affects service innovation within the boundary condition of its moderating variables. This study investigates how EMC influences service innovation through organizational learning capability (OLC) and organizational resilience mechanisms. In addition, this study empirically examines the moderating role of error frequency on the relationship between EMC and OLC and organizational resilience. By investigating 300 service firms, this study empirically reveals that (a) EMC positively relates to OLC and organizational resilience; (b) OLC positively relates to organizational resilience; and (c) OLC plays a mediating role in the relationship between EMC and service innovation. This study also demonstrates that error frequency weakens the relationship between EMC and OLC in service firms.

摘要

错误管理文化（EMC）在服务管理文献中受到极大关注。然而，在调节变量的边界条件下，EMC对服务创新影响的底层机制（中介变量）仍然缺乏。本研究调查了EMC如何通过组织学习能力（OLC）和组织弹性机制影响服务创新。此外，本研究还实证检验了错误频率对EMC和OLC与公司复原力之间关系的调节作用。通过对300家服务公司的调查，本研究实证地揭示：（a）EMC与OLC和组织复原力有正相关关系; (b) OLC与组织复原力有积极关系; (c) OLC在EMC和服务创新之间的关系中具有中介作用。这项研究还表明，错误频率削弱了服务公司中EMC和OLC之间的关系。

KEYWORDS:

• Social justice
• principals
• administration
• error management culture
• learning capability
• organizational resilience
• service innovation
• error frequency

关键词:

• 错误管理文化
• 学习能力
• 组织复原力
• 服务创新
• 错误频率。

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Using the 5-point Likert scale rather than the 7-point Likert scale is not problematic in this study. Holmes and Mergen (2014) noted that researchers often use 5-point Likert scales. Although some researchers argued that 7-point Likert scales are more reliable than 5- or 10-point Likert scales, Chang (1994) noted that response categories should point out the experienced phenomena in the respondents’ minds, as respondents are prone to disregard redundant response options that are irrelevant, thereby resulting in measurement error. In addition, from a statistical point of view, there is no significant difference regarding the means, standard deviations, item-item correlations, Cronbach’s alpha, or factor loadings between 5- and 7-point scales (Leung, 2011). Dawes (2008), for example, found that the 5- and 7-point scales produced the same mean scores. However, Wu et al. (2015) demonstrated that using a 5-point and 7-point Likert scale leads to significant bias in all or some of the parameters when data is missing for that variable. Since we do not have the missing data, 5-point may provide less bias in our study.

Further still, researchers mentioned that poorly selected and articulated questions are a more significant problem than changing the length of the scale (5 vs. 7- point Likert scales) in a survey-based research (Holmes & Mergen, 2014). We applied a rigorous process for selecting the proper question items used in previous studies and considered the semantic-cultural approach to develop a common conceptual basis during the translation process for this study. Furthermore, researchers frequently adapt response scales of the measures by altering the number of response points or verbal anchors of those scale responses (Heggestad et al., 2019). Heggestad et al. (2019) argued that slight adjustments to verbal indicators of a response scale do not significantly alter the meaning of the anchors. Indeed, the verbal anchors stating ‘strongly disagree’ and ‘does not apply at all’ are both likely to signify either absence or a low level of the EMC.