Environment, management attitude, and organizational learning in alliances

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for organizational learning in an alliance‐based context. An interaction effect of environmental turbulence on the relationship between top management attitude towards learning and organizational learning is proposed. Design/methodology/approach – The paper begins with the notion that alliances provide an opportunity for organizations to learn from one another. The paper describes three basic tenets of organizational learning. It then proposes how top management attitude will affect these. It also proposes that these relationships will be affected by the environment in which the organizations are operating. Findings – The proposed framework makes clear that, for organizational learning to take place, both top management attitude toward learning and environmental turbulence will affect the way organizational learning takes place. Practical implications – The paper proposes an important relationship between top management attitude, environmental turbulence, and organizational learning. In highly turbulent environments, even a positive top management attitude will not always help to improve organizational learning. Originality/value – The paper fills a gap in the alliance and organizational learning literature by proposing environmental effects on the relationship between top management attitude and organizational learning.