Asia Pacific as a research context for organizational learning: background and future directions

Abstract

The dominant research agenda in the field of organizational learning continues to be driven by Western universalist assumptions. However, Asia provides a fertile setting for challenging such narrow orthodoxy in the field through studies that investigate the influence of local contexts. In this collection, four studies by Asia-based scholars address various facets of organizational learning among indigenous Asian firms. Drawing on diverse theoretical lenses and research methodologies to examine various organizational forms, their insights about the unique patterns and processes of learning among both small and emerging multinational companies from the Asia Pacific serve to rekindle debates about universalism/convergence versus contingency/divergence, and about emic (context-rich, inside-out) versus etic (context-free, outside-in) perspectives.

Keywords:

• Asia Pacific
• context
• organizational learning
• universalism
• particularism