The Relation Between Organizational Learning Capability and Product Innovation Performance: An Empirical Test in Iranian Organizations

This paper assesses the relation between organizational learning capability and product innovation performance in Iranian companies. We consider organizational learning capability as a function of seven dimensions or mechanisms: open environment and experimentation, risk taking, interaction with the external environment, distribution and sharing of internal knowledge, system thinking, ongoing training and participative decision making. The impact of these mechanisms on product innovation performance is also analyzed. We used correlation and linear regression to test our research hypotheses on a data set from food, medicine and cosmetic industries of Iran. Results support our conceptual model and underline the importance that learning has for innovation performance.