The Organisational Assets of the Learning Firm*

Issue title: Organizational Capital and Productivity

Guest editors: Alan E. SingerGuest Editor

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Tremblay, Pascal^;

Affiliations: School of Economics and Finance, Faculty of Business, Northen Territory University, Darwin, NT 0909, Australia

Note: [*] I am grateful to Peter E. Earl and an anonymous referee for comments on earlier versions.

Abstract: This paper explores the ambiguous role that the notion of organisational capital has played in economic theory. It suggests that because economists have paid little attention to dynamic processes which differentiate between the growth of technological and organisational knowledge, they have been slow at developing theories adequately relating the boundaries of the firm to their ability to innovate. Also, recent contributions by economists have been converging towards representing firms as learning organisations, whose capacity to survive and evolve is both enhanced and limited by the codes they use to interpret their environments. These learning codes allow firms to select competencies and choose their boundaries, the essential role of organisational capital.

Keywords: Organizational capital, economic integration, theory of the firm, learning codes

DOI: 10.3233/HSM-1995-14103

Journal: Human Systems Management, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 7-20, 1995