Trust as a consequence of perceived commitment: Implications on organizational learning capability and product innovation

This paper aims at explaining the role performed by organizational commitment, trust and organizational learning capability (OLC) regarding product innovation and, more specifically, testing double mediation from a manager perspective. On the one hand, we test the mediator role performed by supervisors’ trust between the employees commitment perceived by managers and organizational learning capability. On the other, we test the mediator role performed by organizational learning capability between the trust provided by supervisors and product innovation. Our findings thus indicate that, although some commitment was perceived and both supervisors’ trust and OLC show significant relationships, trust does not mediate between these variables. Also, we conclude that trust is related to product innovation through organizational learning capability, which verifies its full mediator role. We conclude that, first, OLC is the mechanism by which the trust perceived by employees has an impact on innovation, and second, the manager decides to trust those employees that display commitment..