Strategic Positioning for Sustainable Competitive Advantage: An Organizational Learning Approach

Abstract

Organizational learning is increasingly being considered as one of the fundamental sources of competitive advantage within the context of strategic management. However, most literature has not clearly linked organizational learning with sustainable competitive advantage. This paper, therefore, explores and discusses the role of organizational learning in helping business firms to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Specifically, it deals with how organizational learning process can be used to develop knowledge resources and capabilities that lead to sustainable competitive advantage. The main method used is analysis and integration of theories to develop a conceptual model. This paper proposes that, through organizational learning a firm can develop hard to imitate knowledge resources and capabilities (human capital as well as organizational capital) that create value which in turn lead to superior performance.