Affiliated Organization
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Abstract
This paper argues that an evolutionary view of learning provides an explanatory logic forknowledge-based and capabilities-based theories of the firm. The paper develops a rigorous treatmentof organizational learning as an evolutionary process on the basis of the notion of ‘generalizedDarwinism’ and its application to knowledge. A Darwinian view of organizational learningdemonstrates the logical imperative of distinguishing between organizational knowledge andorganizational capabilities, and of understanding organizational learning in terms of the interplaybetween them. Work by Nelson and Winter, Penrose, and Burgelman is reinterpreted in Darwinianterms and implications for the nature of organizational capabilities and the locus of organizationalknowledge are derived.
Volume
6
Issue
15
Recommended Citation
Stoelhorst, Jan-Willem and Huizing, Ard, " The firm as Darwin Machine: an evolutionary view oforganizational knowledge and learning" (2008). All Sprouts Content. 133.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/sprouts_all/133