Building the organisational learning capability of small and medium enterprises

The ability to foster and support effective organisational learning (OL) has been described as a key strategic capability that fuels the development and leverage of valuable organisational resources for contemporary organisations. Theoretical and conceptual advances in the field of OL however, have been based predominantly on the experience of larger organisations in the western hemisphere. In comparison, the extant knowledge concerning how small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can foster and support the development of their OL capability has been limited. Researchers have stressed that the cultural and structural variations between SMEs and larger organisations would limit both the generalisability and applicability of mainstream strategic prescriptions. As a result, more 'localized' knowledge is needed to shed light on the types of strategies and learning mechanisms which can be implemented in order to enhance SMEs' capability to learn. This study provides an overview of the conceptual underpinnings of OL capability. It discusses the roles of four selected antecedents of OL capability as well as the link between the capability and organisational competitiveness. To this end, it establishes the argument that the development of a strong OL capability as a strategic factor can confer significant competitive advantage for resource-constrained SMEs in Sarawak