Aprendizaje Interorganizativo III

The Learning Process in Interorganizational Relationships

The complex environment in which organizations must operate demands new management techniques. To work not only competitively but also cooperatively is the great strategic challenge for companies. In this context, the cooperation strategy has recently been gaining much more attention in the academic literature and in managerial decisions. From this perspective, the Interorganizational learning process can be seen as a managerial instrument to induce organizations to create appropriate structures and strategies for facing this complex environment.

New interorganizational arrangements such as company networks (the focus of this study) can be considered a platform for interorganizational learning, as they provide the organizations with access to knowledge from partner companies (Inkpen, 2000). However, it is necessary to note that interorganizational relationships evolve over time; organizational competences change and objectives are redefined and, consequently, the learning dynamics and the interactions between partner companies also change (Karthik, 2002). Therefore, discussions of how learning occurs from the evolutionary perspective of interorganizational relationships can provide a contribution to the companies individually and collectively or to the network as a whole.

We can add Cohen and Levinthal’s (1990) contributions to organizational learning by including the role of absorptive capacity in the learning process. To Cohen and Levinthal (1990, p. 128), absorptive capacity is “companies’ ability to recognize the value of new knowledge, assimilate and apply the knowledge for commercial ends”. In this sense, to recognize, assimilate and apply the knowledge that is being developed by organizations requires active engagement of the actors involved, as well as the building of a trustful environment seeking to strengthen the relationships established.

In accordance with these approaches, Karthik (2002) (although considering learning as a primary motivation for the formation of strategic alliances) states that as time passes, alliances evolve and there is a metamorphosis in the way the partners involved in cooperative relations learn. The article by Karthik (2002) was the great motivator for the undertaking of the research for this study, since it deals with the mechanisms and processes that contribute to the learning process throughout the evolutionary phases of interorganizational relationships such as strategic alliances.

Karthik (2002) centers his studies in four distinct evolutionary phases through which strategic alliances progress: (1) awareness and partner selection; (2) exploration; (3) expansion; and (4) commitment to relationship. According to this author, the partnerships established change through time and, consequently, the dynamics of learning and the interactions between those involved also evolve. Thus, the partners use several mechanisms regarding the individual (unilateral) and mutual learning processes, which are revealed in the several phases that compose the evolutionary process of interorganizational relationships.

Based on this perspective, Karthik (2002) presents (as shown in Table 1) the evolutionary phases of strategic alliances, emphasizing the importance of understanding how the dynamics of learning occur throughout these phases. To develop his research, Karthik used contributions from Doz and Hamel (1998) when considering the five key areas that allow the investigation of learning processes and mechanisms: environment, tasks, processes, abilities and goals.