Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Organizational learning capability research has been gaining more attention.
OBJECTIVE:
Specifically, this paper examines annual trend publication, active journals, authors, institutions, nations, keywords, citation pattern and top cited articles over the past 45 years. It decides the frequent organizational learning capability topics and highlights future research directions.
METHODS:
A bibliometric was performed on 149 papers published between 1978–2023 from the Scopus database. A content analysis was also performed.
RESULTS:
Publication trends have exhibited growth over time. Learning Organization and Industrial Marketing Management are two key journals that publish organizational learning capability. Publications are contributed by Chiva, R. and Alerge, J. Universidad Jaume I and Universitat de València are the two main institutions that exert the influence over the publication. Spain has been contributing more publications. Citations pattern analysis revealed 158.78 citations per year and 7145 citations for 149 papers. Sixthly, publications use keywords such as “organizational learning”, “innovation”. Both highly cited articles accumulated 442 citations.
CONCLUSIONS:
The findings are useful for policy-makers seeking reference and evidence to guide them in designing organizational learning capability policies, implementing management actions and programs.
Introduction
In recent years, the significance of Organizational Learning Capability (OLC) analysis as a research domain has experienced a notable increase [1–3]. OLC covers “organisational characteristics that facilitate the organisational learning process or allow an organisation to learn” [4]. Chiva et al. [4] OLC encompasses the exploration of various characteristics (e.g., structure, system, practices and mechanisms) that enhance knowledge and skills learning potentials of managers in the organizational process and practices. By focusing on organizational characteristics, OLC helps organizations to learn from both internal and external sources of information, adapt to changing environments, change the resources for innovation and enhance its overall performance and competitive advantage [5].
Although OLC holds significant importance in the business world, the existing literature predominantly consists of empirical studies [1, 6]. There is a noticeable lack of comprehensive bibliometric analysis on OLC. Having said that, a comprehensive analysis of bibliometric knowledge has not been conducted. The clear cut reason is shown in Fig. 1, the publication progress is a decade old. Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) in the business environment concerns OLC to obtain new knowledge and skills, fostering problem-solving approaches that are essential to ensure long term businesses viability [9]. As a result, the surge of publication has changed the dynamics of traditional literature, prompting the need for conducting bibliometric analysis to recognize the emerging trends and future of OLC. Thus, having this chance, this paper bridges the gap to conduct bibliometric analysis on OLC. Specifically, it reveals the evolution of OLC in the literature through bibliometric data including the publication trajectories, journals, authors, institutions, nations, citation pattern, keywords and top cited articles. After that, it decides the most frequent OLC topics and highlights future research directions.
Flow diagram of the search strategy.
First and foremost, this study sheds light on productivity and trends by analyzing the publication and citation counts, allowing researchers to gain an extensive agreement of the OLC literature development over time. Additionally, this study gives a comprehensive outline of significant countries, universities, publications, authors and highly cited articles. Researchers have a better understanding of the key contributors and influential works within OLC. Most importantly, this study guides researchers to recognize future research ideas. Moreover, policy makers can utilize the findings to identify prominent countries in OLC, enabling policy makers to support OLC efforts effectively. The subsequent sections are organized in the following: Section two discusses the OLC concept and importance of bibliometric analysis. Section three outlines methodology followed by findings in section four respectively. The final section addresses the future research direction, implications and limitations.
The goal of OLC enables the creation of Learning Organizations (LO) because OLC provides the required structures, systems and processes that implement the five key disciplines (personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, systems thinking) outlined in LO [10]. OLC helps to integrate learning processes at various levels in the organizations to make sure learning is interconnected across teams, departments and organizational systems. It aligns with systems thinking discipline in LO [11]. Besides, knowledge integration and exploitation of OLC establish the common understanding of the organizations’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats which is fundamental to the development of a shared vision discipline in LO [11].
Besides, OLC has evolved over time, shaped by contributions from various researchers. Organizational learning field started in the 1970s-1980s and explored the concepts of single-loop and double-loop learning [12]. These early concepts serve as the foundations on how organizations can learn and adapt [13]. In 1993, Garvin (1993) suggested a framework that explored three organizational learning processes namely 1) detecting and correcting errors, 2) testing new approaches, 3) learning from best practices. Garvin [14] contributed the conceptualization of organizational learning as a multifaceted process. Cohen [15] greatly influence OLC concepts because they suggest the organizations need the capability to recognize, assimilate and apply external information i.e., absorptive capacity. Hence, absorptive capacity becomes the key component of OLC [16].
Teece [17] extended the OLC concept by suggesting the idea of dynamic capabilities in 1997. Teece et al. [17] argued that organizations develop dynamic capabilities to adapt to the changing environment because it involves the ability to integrate, build external and internal competencies to address rapidly changing environments. In the 2000s-2010s, there was a growing recognition of the connection between innovation and OLC [5]. Prior studies explored how OLC contributes to organizations’ innovation capability by fostering creativity, experimentation and risk taking in the product and process development [2, 9]. In the 2010s-2020s, research focused on refining OLC models i.e., incorporating technological advancement, digitalization and leadership roles in shaping OLC [18, 19].
Methodology
Bibliometric approach/Research design
Bibliometric analysis has a range of quantitative methodologies to examine and measure textual information [20]. It enables the extraction of novel insights from literature review, which can serve as supplementary information to enhance research [21]. As suggested by Ulker, [22], bibliometric analysis is a suitable technique for science mapping, which offers a full review of particular topics, visual analysis, and cluster analysis from past research. In contrast to traditional trend analysis, it just entails summarizing and straightforward analysis based on variable lists and theories [22].
Data collection
The initial step involves identifying the appropriate database that has data. The source of the bibliometric database was obtained from Scopus. Scopus has consistently remained the premier bibliometric database in the field [23]. It enables the retrieval of a substantial number of unique scholarly items [24]. To gather articles from Scopus database, a relevant search term via a combination of keywords was employed such as “organizational learning capability” or “organisational learning capability” or “firm learning capability” or “business learning capability” or “enterprises learning capability”. Keyword combination is the main component that the readers will discover. To find the most recent trend in OLC research, we focused our search on publications from 1978 to 2023. Once the data has been collected, careful consideration is given to the results filtration. Due to the extensive coverage of journals in the Scopus database, it becomes imperative to filter the results appropriately. Hence, the results filtration encompasses solely journal publications, excluding conference proceedings and book series. The rationale behind exclusively considering journal articles stems from their adherence to a stringent peer review process, ensuring the fulfillment of criteria reporting high quality insights [25]. Journal articles also undergo evaluation based on their scholarly merit and contribution to the knowledge [26]. Additionally, only journals written in English and specifically focused on the business and management are considered for inclusion because it is relevant to the study. Upon reviewing the titles, abstracts, keywords, it yielded a selection of 149 papers that fulfill the criteria, which was subsequently exported in the Bibtex file format (see Table 1).
Annual publication
Annual publication
Note: TP = total number of publications.
Bibliometric analysis has gained from the statistical software which have facilitated the bibliometric studies, making the process more efficient [23]. The statistical software includes SciMAT (2011), BibExcel [18], CiteSpace (2004), HistCite (2004), Publish or Perish (2010). This study utilizes the readily available software BibExcel and Publish or Perish (2010) to explore the publications. BibExcel is designed to generate data files that can be imported into Excel software applications or programs for further analysis [27]. Hence, it allows researchers to generate various bibliometric networks such as co-citation, bibliographic coupling, co-authorship and co-word analysis [28]. BibExcel enables the exclusion of low frequency elements and retention of the most robust connections or links [28]. While lacking built-in visualization features, BibExcel has several export options using external software including Gephi, SPSS, VOSviewer to visualize the data [29]. Meanwhile, Publish or Perish (2010) analyzes a range of citation metrics such as total citations and citation patterns [30]. Meanwhile, content analysis was carried out using WordStat.
Results
Annual publication
Table 1 revealed the annual publications statistics on OLC from 1978 to 2023 covering the number of publications (TP), the percentage of publications and the cumulative percentage of publications. From 1978 to 2005, less than 10 OLC publications were found. Surprisingly, the number of publications experienced a significant and noticeable surge in 2016 with 13 publications. In the similar vein, between 2017 and 2023 witnessed a gradual and consistent rise in the number of publications, indicating an increasing level of interest, relevance and importance of OLC in the business organization. Such results align with prior studies [31, 32] which recognized the growing attention of OLC and its potential to improve organizational competitiveness due to the evolving nature of the business environment. OLC facilitates the effective learning process within organizations because it improves organizational capacity to generate, cultivate and leverage knowledge in a manner that surpasses its competitors’ performance [33]. OLC also changes the management activities and internal practices to increase learning within the organization [34]. The development of OLC includes the implementation of specific methodologies, frameworks and protocols that establishes favorable circumstances for efficient organizational learning [35].
Annual publication trajectories
Over the years 1978–2016, an increase in publication is observed, with 2016 and 2020 being remarkable years with more than 10 OLC publications. There was a downward from 2017–2018 and 2021–2022. Both are insignificant due to the changes are 1%. Overall, OLC has a growing annual publication trend. Furthermore, OLC’s annual publication trend fulfills De Solla Price’s [36] research domain growth which has four processes: Precursor. Proper exponential growth. Consolidation of the body of knowledge. Decrease in the number of articles.
Precursor process is where a limited group of scholars initiates the publication of research in a newly emerging field whereas proper exponential growth is More and more scholars are drawn to the numerous unexplored aspects of the subject [37]. This leads to the consolidation of the body of knowledge where the existing knowledge base is solidified, followed by a decrease in the number of articles [37]. The results in Fig. 2 showed that the sharing of knowledge and research related to OLC is in the second process i.e., proper exponential growth. It has symptoms to proceed to the third process as more themes appear in 2016.
Annual publication trend.
Typically, a significant number of journals indicates a diverse range of research topics and reflects the interdisciplinary nature of studies related to OLC. This study identified a total of 148 papers which were distributed across 32 different journals. Table 2 shows the top 15 journals for OLC. It was noticed that the Learning Organization had the most papers followed by Industrial Marketing Management, European Journal of Innovation Management, International Journal of Manpower, Technology Analysis and Strategic Management, International Journal of Business and Society. This is anticipated by the Learning Organization journal, given its emphasis on learning and knowledge creation at all levels and contexts to discover fresh viewpoints and encourage continued advancement.
Journal analysis
Journal analysis
*CiteScore, SJR, SNIP have been calculated based on year 2019 since the journal has been discontinued in Scopus since 2020; The Italic is the highest CiteScore, SJR and SNIP.
Besides, this study uses three indicators namely 1) CiteScore (average citations per article published), 2) SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) (academic impact of journals by considering the citations quantity and the journals prestige), 3) Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) (contextual citation impact via weighting citations based on total numbers of citations) to access journals’ performance and impacts [38]. Table 2 shows that Industrial Marketing Management achieved the highest score of CiteScore, suggesting that on average OLC publications received a high number of citations within a year based on past three years’ data. Having said that, a high number of citations suggest an increasing amount of research in the OLC area along with the Industrial Marketing Management being recognised for its reliable and reputable content.
In terms of SJR, Human Relations reported the highest score of 3.508. This point out that Human Relations has achieved a relatively high level of scientific influence within its field. Hence, Human Relations has published articles that are highly cited by other researchers and has been cited by prestigious journals. In other words, it is a positive indicator of the journal’s impact and importance within the academic community. Meanwhile, in terms of SNIP, Human Relations recorded the highest score of 3.468, meaning that Human Relations has a significant contextual citation impact within its subject field. Specifically, the papers published in Human Relations are highly cited relative to other journals in the same subject area.
In brief, although there may be discrepancies in these three indicators, it can be inferred that these measures collectively indicate a growing interest and recognition among the researchers regarding OLC.
Table 3 provides the most influential authors that have contributed to OLC. As displayed in the table, Chiva R. published the most i.e., 12 articles on OLC followed by Alerge J. with 11 publications. In spite of Chiva R. contributing the most OLC publications, Chiva R. was not found to have highest total citations because Alerge J has the highest total citations i.e, 1385. This indicates that there is no relationship between total publications and citations. A point to note is new publications may not have sufficient time to accumulate citations, while older publications may have more time to gather publications [38]. This could explain the most active authors within 45 years’ analysis (Table 3) do not have much total citations. Further, the emerging scholars Bhatnagar, J. and Blumenfeld, S have recently joined the OLC field. Their contributions gain attention and acknowledgement. Anyway, the authors analysis points out that these authors have played a vital role in the advancement of the OLC field. All authors share a common background in the business management area.
Authors analysis
Authors analysis
Note: TP = total number of publications.
Additionally, the possible reason that Chiva R. becomes the most influential author is that Chiva R. have a keen interest and expertise in OLC, motivating Chiva R. to conduct extensive OLC research and publish the findings. According to Song [39], when researchers are enthusiasm in particular research topics, they are more likely to immerse themselves in, exploring different aspects and gaining a comprehensive understanding. Such passion drives them to conduct research and publish their works on the same research topics [39].
Besides, Chiva R. collaborates with other researchers and institutions can lead to a higher volume of publications because their research efforts are combined and leveraged [4, 40]. Further, Chiva R. as a researcher might be required to publish regularly as part of their job requirements, especially tenure and promotion [41, 42]. Similarly, researchers including Chiva R. often have a commitment to contribute to the academic community and advance knowledge in their respective fields [43] leading to a consistent publication record of OLC.
Universidad Jaume I emerged as the most active institution in OLC, contributing a total of 13 articles. It is followed by Universitat de València and University of Nottingham with 12 and 6 articles. The emergence of Universidad Jaume I as the most productive institution in OLC can be attributed to several reasons. One possible reason is that Universidad Jaume I might have collaborations with other institutions and organizations both nationally and internationally which can increase research output and visibility in OLC as recommended by Low [38]. For example, Universidad Jaume I collaborates with Universitat de València on OLC research publications [4, 40], promoting research knowledge sharing and published work. Additionally, it is possible that Universidad Jaume I actively encouraged and support the researchers in pursuing research projects related to OLC via university grants, leading to high volume of OLC publications [44, 46]. In brief, institution analysis can provide valuable insights for researchers interested to explore in OLC, giving opportunities for collaboration with other scholars in the same field. Similarly, OLC articles are dispersed across regions worldwide, rather than being concentrated in a specific geographic area.
Nations analysis
Table 5 describes the top 15 nations which contributed to OLC publications. Spain holds the first position with 28 publications (18.79%). The United Kingdom (18.79%) follows in second position while Australia (8.72%) takes the third position. Spain has been a dominant presence of OLC publications because Spanish universities and research institutions (e.g., Universidad Jaume I; Universitat de València) might have placed a particular emphasis on studying OLC, leading to more publications in this area. Ghabban [47] reported universities often encourage researchers to have publications to improve their research efficiency and performance. Besides, Spain might have a pool of experts and scholars with a keen interest in OLC, contributing a higher number of publications. For instance, Both Ricardo Chiva and Joaquin Alegre are Spanish scholars that have strong interest in OLC research by publishing numerous research evidence related to OLC. Further, the topic of OLC might have significant relevance to the local business and industrial landscape, leading to more research in the field. For example, Salas-Vallina [48] investigated OLC among the Spanish physicians due to the knowledge intensive nature of their work, hence they must continuously update, refresh and assess their knowledge to adapt to evolving theoretical practices and clinical experience. Salas-Vallina et al.’s [48] investigation is critical for Spanish physicians’ learning to tailor a suitable solution for each patient and stay updated with the latest medical practices.
Institutions analysis
Institutions analysis
Note: TP = total number of publications.
Nations analysis
Note: TP = total number of publications.
The citation pattern is shown in Table 6. For 149 papers, there is an average of 158.78 citations per year, indicating that each of the 149 papers is being cited 158.78 annually. It demonstrates that 149 papers have had a notable impact on the scientific community and are being used as reference in various studies. In other words, 149 papers that continue to be cited consistently over the years show that their contributions such as findings, methodologies and theories remain relevant and valuable to ongoing research. There are 7145 citations reported for all 149 papers, reflecting the overall influence and significance of these papers.
Citations metrics
Citations metrics
Without a doubt, the keywords play a vital role in assisting researchers in identifying research patterns and themes. According to Hamed [49], it is argued that analyzing keywords is crucial for evaluating the progression of research topics. Table 7 presents the most frequent keywords used in OLC. The table clearly shows that the keyword “organizational learning” ranked first, followed by “organizational learning capability”, “organizational learning capability”, “innovation”, “learning”. Organizational learning keyword is often used to search articles related to OLC because it acts as filter, allowing researchers to narrow down their search that address the organizational learning concept and its relevant capabilities i.e, OLC.
Keyword analysis
Keyword analysis
Note: TP = total number of publications.
The highly cited top 10 articles of OLC based on total citations and citations per year is shown in Table 8. Table 8 contains all articles that have obtained 100 or more total citations and published between 1996 and 2009. It shows that article entitled “Assessing the impact of organizational learning capability on product innovation performance: An empirical test” by Alerge J and Chiva. R. [50] and “Organizational learning capability: A proposal of measurement” by Jerez-Gómez, P., Céspedes-Lorente, J., Valle-Cabrera, R [51] topped the list with 442 citations. It is followed by “Intellectual capital and new product development performance: The mediating role of organizational learning capability” with 370 citations. The article entitled “Predictors of organizational commitment in India: Strategic HR roles, organizational learning capability and psychological empowerment” at the bottom of the list only had 105 citations.
Top cited articles
Top cited articles
Although article entitled “Assessing the impact of organizational learning capability on product innovation performance: An empirical test” and “Organizational learning capability: A proposal of measurement” have highest total citations, however, the highest citations per year comes from “Intellectual capital and new product development performance: The mediating role of organizational learning capability”. It was observed that the total citations do not correlate with the citations per year. This can be interpreted due to the two highest total citations articles are the oldest articles and accumulated a significant number of citations over the time [52]. Nevertheless, as new publication i.e., “Intellectual capital and new product development performance: The mediating role of organizational learning capability” is published, the citations per year decrease because the focus shift to the new publications. Meanwhile, El Baz and Iddik [53] reported that the articles are foundational work in a field. In such cases, the total citations may be high as it continues to be cited by researchers over the years. Their citations per year decline because they are longer at the cutting edge of the research.
Besides Bibliometric analysis, content analysis of the title and abstract of OLC recent articles (i.e., 2020-2023; n = 50) published in Scopus journals was conducted. The recent articles title and abstract accurately represent the OLC topic and portray the ongoing research patterns. The results have found three topics: 1) learning capability behavior, 2) supply chain, 3) small and medium enterprise (see Table 9).
Content analysis of OLC topics
Content analysis of OLC topics
Note: NPMI = Normalized pointwise mutual information; Freq = frequencies.
Table 9 validates most of OLC topics are about learning capability behavior representing 100% of the total topics. It contains studies that investigate the role of learning capability behavior to achieve innovation and scale validation of learning capability behavior [4, 5]. Supply chain topics accounted for 98.15% of the total topics. Studies have examined the impact of supply chain on sustainability performance [54, 55]. Small and medium enterprise topics represented 94.44% of the total topics. It includes the role of OLC studies in facilitating small and medium enterprises’ adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies [56, 57].
As shown in Table 9, the most relevant topics in OLC are learning behavior, supply chain and small and medium enterprises. Future directions may include COVID-19 pandemic, digital, small and medium enterprises and supply chain. Future research opportunities are as follows: COVID-19 pandemic and OLC. The COVID-19 pandemic is a timely and significant factor to consider when making OLC adjustments. The pandemic has accelerated the remote work adoption, making organizations enhance their OLC to the changes. Almaian [58] have studied the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on organizational learning in the construction industry. It is essential to explore further the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on organizational learning across various industries. This is to facilitate the identification of relevant OLC framework matching with specific industries. Digital and OLC. Integrating digital components into OLC offers various benefits such as flexibility and cost saving. Giannakos, [18] offer a systematic review of empirical studies of e-learning capabilities to increase organizational value. Additional subjects such as big data and advanced learning technologies-learning analytics, personalized training warrant further exploration in the future. OLC in small and medium enterprises. Small and medium enterprises play a crucial role in fostering economic growth and expansion. However most of the OLC studies have paid attention to manufacturing firms [59], Information Technology (IT) firms [60]. Hence, understanding the OLC of small and medium enterprises is essential, along with its potential influence on its performance. OLC and supply chain. OLC is related to supply chain practices because organizations possessing OLC have knowledge and skills to manage supply chains [61]. It is necessary to investigate other OLC dimensions or mechanisms on the supply chain.
Conclusion
The study analyzes OLC Scopus publications to contribute to OLC literature, recognize OLC ideas, concepts and provide recommendations for future research. By conducting a few bibliometric and content analysis, the publication trajectories, journals, authors, institutions, nations, citation pattern, keywords and top cited articles have been recognized. Additionally, this study recognized major topics related to OLC.
The study has theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical perspective, it presents the evolution of OLC and highlights the most relevant OLC topics. Besides, it assists emerging scholars i.e., doctoral students gain insights about the recent topics, most cited papers and relevant references. The study can guide OLC researchers in understanding potential areas for future research. For example, they can study problems associated to COVID-19 pandemic to manage OLC effectively. Further, it has been noted that numerous future research directions have not been thoroughly investigated.
From practical perspective, the study assists organizations to identify future trends and changes in OLC topics (e.g., publication patterns, keywords). The advanced technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and big data are more likely to play a role in the future evolution of OLC. Organizations may leverage these advanced technologies to enhance OLC, allowing organizations to make informed decisions about where to invest resources, allocate research efforts, develop strategic initiatives and remain competitive in the industry. In the similar vein, organizations that stay ahead of OLC trends and changes are better positioned themselves from competitors by developing unique products, approaches and solutions in response to customer needs and demands [62]. Besides, organizations are able to incorporate these trends into strategic planning, aligning organizations’ goals and objectives or future strategies with the changing business environment.
Like other research papers, this paper has certain deficiencies. One of the deficiencies is the findings are solely based on the Scopus database which was accessed on 7 July 2023. While Scopus is considered one of the largest databases for scientific publications, it is important to note that it may not include all the publications of OLC. Additional global databases such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and PubMed could be examined to expand the research scope. Besides, this study primarily focuses on English articles which leads to the exclusion of potentially valuable and important sources like books and conference proceedings. In future bibliometric research, there is a possibility to incorporate a broader range of significant information sources such as books, book chapters and conference papers.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
The authors have no acknowledgements.
Author contributions
CONCEPTION: Tay Lee Chin, Tay Lee Chee
METHODOLOGY: Tay Lee Chin
DATA COLLECTION: Tay Lee Chee
INTERPRETATION OR ANALYSIS OF DATA: Tay Lee Chee
PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT: Tay Lee Chin
REVISION FOR IMPORTANT INTELLECTUAL CONTENT: Tay Lee Chin
SUPERVISION: Tay Lee Chin