IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/aal/abbswp/03-07.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Innovation, Learning Organizations and Industrial Relations

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Nielsen
  • Bengt-Åke Lundvall

Abstract

Innovation may be seen as a process of knowledge creation and the speed and direction of knowledge creation reflects the organizational set-up of the firm as well as its investments in R&D and training. Establishing ‘a learning organization’ where horizontal interaction and communication inside and across the borders of the firm is a major factor promoting knowledge creation in the context of a learning economy. An important issue is to what extent direct and indirect participation of employees in shaping the new form of organization is critical for its realization. On the basis of a unique data set covering 2000 Danish private firms it is demonstrated that firms combining several of the organizational traits of the learning organization are much more prone to introduce new products than the others. It is also demonstrated that such firms have involved employees in different forms of direct and indirect participation much more frequently than the rest. As more sectors become exposed to the need to engage in incremental product and service innovation the economic potential of diffusing good practices in terms of organization and participation is growing and needs to be reflected in firm strategies and public policies aiming at promoting innovation and knowledge creation.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Nielsen & Bengt-Åke Lundvall, 2003. "Innovation, Learning Organizations and Industrial Relations," DRUID Working Papers 03-07, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:aal:abbswp:03-07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://wp.druid.dk/wp/20030007.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bengt-ake Lundvall & Bjorn Johnson, 1994. "The Learning Economy," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(2), pages 23-42.
    2. Bengt-Âke Lundvall & Peter Nielsen, 1999. "Competition and transformation in the learning economy - Illustrated by the Danish case," Revue d'Économie Industrielle, Programme National Persée, vol. 88(1), pages 67-89.
    3. Reinhard Lund, 1998. "Organizational and Innovative Flexibility Mechanisms and their Impact upon Organizational Effectiveness," DRUID Working Papers 98-23, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    4. Keld Laursen, 2002. "The Importance of Sectoral Differences in the Application of Complementary HRM Practices for Innovation Performance," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 139-156.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:wsi:acsxxx:v:21:y:2019:i:08:n:s1363919619500117 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Makó, Csaba & Illéssy, Miklós & Csizmadia, Péter, 2008. "A munkahelyi innovációk és a termelési paradigmaváltás kapcsolata. A távmunka és a mobilmunka példája
      [The relation of work-place innovations and the change of production paradigm. The example of d      ," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(12), pages 1075-1093.
    3. Davide Antonioli & Massimiliano Mazzanti & Paolo Pini, 2010. "Productivity, innovation strategies and industrial relations in SMEs. Empirical evidence for a local production system in northern Italy," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 453-482.
    4. Antonioli, Davide & Mazzanti, Massimiliano, 2017. "Towards a green economy through innovations: The role of trade union involvement," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 286-299.
    5. Schwartz, Michael, 2006. "Die Learning Economy aus Netzwerkperspektive: Mechanismen und Probleme," Jena Contributions to Economic Research 2006,4, Ernst-Abbe-Hochschule Jena – University of Applied Sciences, Department of Business Administration.
    6. Paolo Pini & Grazia Santangelo, 2005. "Innovation types and labour organisational practices: A comparison of foreign and domestic firms in the Reggio Emilia industrial districts," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 251-276.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Innovation; knowledge creation; learning economy;

    JEL classification:

    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aal:abbswp:03-07. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Keld Laursen). General contact details of provider: https://www.druid.dk/ .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.