Antecedents and consequence of organizational unlearning: Evidence from China

Abstract

Radical innovation has significant impact on organizations. To develop radical innovation, firms need to change or discard their obsolete routines, beliefs, and knowledge, since radical innovation represents a clear departure from existing practices. Based on the organizational unlearning literature and contingency theory, the authors explore three issues: (1) the relationship between organizational unlearning and radical innovation; (2) two antecedents to organizational unlearning (environmental turbulence and entrepreneurial orientation); and (3) how firm size moderates the relationships between the antecedents and organizational unlearning. Survey data from 238 manufacturing firms in China indicated that both environmental turbulence and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) are positively related to organizational unlearning. Firm size plays a dual role, weakening the positive environmental turbulence−organizational unlearning relationship while strengthening the positive EO − organizational unlearning relationship. Further, organizational unlearning is found to be a critical driver of radical innovation.