A Proposal for a Standard With Innovation Management System

6. Discussion and conclusion
İpek Koçoğlu; Salih Zeki İmamoğlu and Hüseyin İnce
This study presents an empirical investigation of the inter-relationships between OLC, innovation and
firm performance. Four gaps in the literature are addressed and the empirical analysis have following
contributions. Firstly, since OLC is defined as the ability of organizations to promote, continuously
develop and enhance the capacity to create, manage and diffuse knowledge (i.e. learn) in order to
build value into the business processes in a changing environment (Ingelgard et al, 2002), OLC is
regarded from a dynamic capability perspective throughout this research. Second, many studies have
investigated the relationship between dynamic capabilities and firm performance (Hung et al, 2010) or
OLC and firm performance (Panayides, 2007) but few studies have theoretically analyzed OLC from a
DCV and concurrently made an empirical assessment between the two encapsulating both financial
and non-financial aspect of performance (with the exception of Prieto and Revilla, 2006). Third,
although studies focus on the leveraging power of organizational learning and partially OLC on
innovation there is a missing link in the empirical analysis of OLC and product and process innovation
distinctively. Finally this research contributes to the literature on organizational learning and
innovation also by examining the nomological relationship between the three inter-related constructs;
i-) OLC, ii-) innovation, iii-) firm performance simultaneously. Indeed the variance explained in firm
performance in the presence of both OLC (i.e. managerial commitment, system perspective,
openness and experimentation and knowledge transfer and integration) and innovation (i.e. product
and process innovation) is high such as 67.3%.
This study besides the theoretical implications have also managerial implications which may be key in
high performance and innovative outcome if effectively managed. Managers should recognize the
importance of investing more time as well as energy in developing an OLC. Additionally, although the
argument that innovation is critical in increasing performance this research suggests top management
to achieve innovation through following a learning based pathway by; i-) encouraging collaboration
among organizational members, ii-) involving employees in team work to enhance shared
interpretation of knowledge, iii-) allow controlled risks to guarantee the diffusion of best practices, iv-)
build strong links with external actors and v-) empower employees in the decision making.
Like any empirical research, this study contains some methodological strengths and limitations.
Specifically, our research is prone to common method bias since, the dependent variable in the
survey was answered by the same respondents who answered the independent variable questions, in
a cross-sectional manner. Second, As with all cross-sectional research, the relationship tested in this
study represents a snapshot in time. While it is likely that the conditions under which the data were
collected will essentially remain the same, there are no guarantees that this will be the case. Third
although yhe breadth of the sample included in this study suggests that the findings are fairly
generalizable the results reported here emerge from a local area and may differ for firms operating in
different cultural, environmental and political conditions. Additionally, there is not a separation
concerning the size of the firms involved in this study; results may differ for SMEs and large sized
firms. Also, there wasn't an industrial separation while evaluating data; so the results may differ for
different industries. Despite these limitations this study provides important implications in the context
of a developing country from theoretical and practical perspectives.
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