Links between Innovation, Change and Learning in Chinese Companies

Abstract

This chapter is an attempt to explore the links between the types of innovation, the types of organizational change and levels of learning based on a study of 160 Chinese organizations. The authors provide the classification of innovation, organizational change and learning as the theoretical framework. On the basis of survey results, the authors find out there are close connections between the three aspects: innovation type, change type and learning type. There is a direct link between the types of innovation and learning in lower level. However, in the companies which experienced administrative innovation and ancillary innovation, the rate of occurrence of triple-loop learning is almost the same. Moreover, there is not necessarily corresponding relation between the types of innovation and change. Despite the fact that the highest level of innovation is accompanied by the deepest change, the lowest level of innovation may not be necessarily accompanied by the lower level change, i.e. the deepest scope of change may take place even if the lowest level of innovation happens in a Chinese organization.