The impact of organizational learning on Polish SME market performance

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze impact of organizational learning (OL) on Polish small- or medium-sized enterprise (SME) performance. Results are based on interviews with owners and managers from two samples of Polish small- and medium-sized firms: a “pre-COVID-19” sample (the survey was conducted during May–July 2019) and a “COVID-19” sample (the survey was conducted during December 2020–January 2021). The results based on the “pre-COVID-19” sample show partial support for the hypothesis about a positive relationship between market performance and OL for Polish SMEs. Two out of three measures of OL, i.e., the diversity of information sources and the commitment to learning, showed positive relationship with two aspects of market performance, i.e., the sales dynamics and the self-assessed success as compared with that of competitors. None of the OL measures have been correlated with the financial results. For the “COVID-19” sample, commitment to learning showed very weak positive correlations with both financial results and sales dynamics. These relationships were not confirmed when other firms’ characteristics had been included.

Keywords

• market performance
• organizational learning
• sme strategy
• d80
• l20
• m53