Assessing the impact of organizational learning capability on product innovation performance: An empirical test

This paper examines how organizational learning capability affects product innovation performance. We define organizational learning capability through five dimensions or mechanisms: experimentation, risk taking, interaction with the external environment, dialogue and participative decision making. The impact of these mechanisms on product innovation performance is also analyzed. We use structural equations modeling to test our research hypotheses on a data set from the ceramic tile industry. Results support our conceptual model and underline the importance that learning has for innovation performance. Implications of the findings for both academics and practitioners are examined. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.