The learning organization as a context for value co-creation

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the relationship between the concept of the learning organization and that of the co-creation of value. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is conceptual in nature and draws on data from a case study of a small highly innovative Australian company. Findings: The authors show that, from a value co-creation perspective, the learning organization can be viewed as an open, collaborative, social/economic actor engaged in social/economic activities with other interdependent actors (organizations or stakeholders) in a network or ecosystem of actors to serve its mission/purpose and the well-being of the ecosystem. Research limitations/implications: As a conceptual paper, the authors rely primarily on previous research as the basis for the argument. The implications of the findings are that, as value co-creation practices are founded upon the generation and leveraging of specific intangible capital resources, more research located in alternative research paradigms is required. Practical implications: There are important implications for organizational leadership in that the practices that underpin value co-creation require the leadership to be able to work constructively with multiple forms of systemic and agentic power. Social implications: In increasingly turbulent and hyper-competitive global operational contexts, sustainable value creation is becoming recognized as a collective achievement within a broad eco-system of collaborators. This has implications for the relational capabilities of all collaborators. Originality/value: The authors introduce a new perspective on the role of power management in the facilitation of the co-creation of value. Arguing that value creation is becoming recognized as a “collective achievement”, they focus on the collaborative practices that enable such an achievement.