Learning that took place in office equipment retailers during a technological discontinuity

This paper addresses the question of how office equipment retailers learned and transformed themselves during a technological discontinuity. First, the theoretical part of the paper deals with the concept of technological discontinuity. Then an illustration of individual and organisational competencies follows. After this comes the description of learning organisation and organisational learning. Then the discussion goes on to describe change management including notions of creative tension and absorptive capacity. Presented next are the results of a brief empirical study in which the change and learning processes during a technological discontinuity were studied in four office equipment retailing companies. The paper ends with the conclusion stating that it is difficult, if not impossible, for companies to function in accordance with the idea of learning organisation when they operate in an environment of fast technological discontinuity.