The Concept of Learning in the Strategy Field

Abstract

This article begins by looking at how the concept of learning has informed our understanding of competitiveness. It then goes on to examine the fresh perspective that the notion of learning opens up on the traditional concerns of corporate strategy, diversification and vertical integration, and on the link between strategy and structure. Next, the association between learning and innovation is discussed. The final part of the review concentrates on the promise that the concept of learning appears to hold as a model for the strategy process itself and the advantages that it offers over more traditional planning and decision making approaches. The article concludes on a cautionary note, warning against the tendency to see learning as inherently virtuous and apolitical, and critically assessing the issues, challenges and implications that still face us in working with the concept in the strategy field, despite its early impact and current promise.

Media Management Tools: UK Broadcast Media Executives’ Perspective

“…Kung (2008, p.120) argues that this adaptive approach "is an evolutionary process where change takes place progressively as firms undertake a series of strategic readjustments in response to a changing environment". A significant body of literature (Quinn, 1980;Mintzberg 1987;Senge, 1990;Leavy, 1998;Mintzberg, Ahlstrand andLampel, 1998, Argyris, 2004;Rees and Porter, 2006) advocates this view arguing that competitive environments are complex and unpredictable, and as such, media organisations can only hope to learn from changing environmental conditions and adapt their strategies accordingly. Indeed, Kachaner and Deimler (2008) suggested that organisations need to 'stretch their strategic thinking' by challenging their prevailing assumptions and planning routines, rather than using the same strategic planning tools each year as these tend to produce strategies that are incremental and do not take advantage of new market opportunities.…”

Exploring industry level capabilities in the U.K. creative industries

“…Many scholars (Leavy, 1998;Zollo and Winter, 2002;Helfat and Peteraf, 2015) concluded that superior performance is driven by a firm's ability to learn, adapt and change their resource configuration in order to produce a series of temporary competitive advantages over time. Lawton and Rajwani (2011, 167) took this line of thinking further and concluded that "dynamic capabilities are the bridge between firm resources and business context" and as such, this concept provided a useful lens through which to examine how media firms adapted their resource base to produce new capabilities and subsequent superior organizational performance.…”

Managing Media Firms: The Only Advantage is Adaptive Advantage

“…However, due to the dynamic nature of the media environment the "only advantage is the ability to change more quickly than one's rivals" to the extent that media strategies now needed to emphasize organizational adaptation, or as they put it, "dynamic capabilities on steroids". Several scholars (Mintzberg, 1987;Senge, 1990;Leavy, 1998;Zollo and Winter, 2002) concluded that a media firm's ability to adapt and change their resource base is the most important way to deliver competitive advantage and superior firm performance. It follows then, that this adaptive ability could be considered a competitive advantage in itself, and therefore, in high velocity market conditions, an ability to adapt firm resources to create new and dynamic capabilities, could in itself be the most effective way for media firms to remain competitive in the long-term.…”