Lifelong learning in the workplace: the knowledge management role of corporate universities in China

Abstract

Abstract In the current era of constant change, both employees and enterprises face the daunting challenge of lifelong learning. To address enterprises’ dissatisfaction with the knowledge provided by traditional universities, a growing number of corporate universities are being established, representing a crucial strategic pathway for enterprises. This study thus adopts the coding methodology of grounded theory to analyze the internal mechanism of a sample of seven corporate universities in China enabling organizations’ lifelong learning. Adopting the knowledge-based view (KBV), this study also identifies how corporate universities empower organizations, establishing a path model whose paths include “generating strategic knowledge”, “sharing business knowledge”, “optimizing governance knowledge” and “transforming cultural knowledge”. Accordingly, this study establishes a theoretical path model and explores how to empower organizations’ lifelong learning in the context of China. Moreover, our qualitative conclusions not only enrich the literature on corporate universities and their complex functions concerning lifelong learning and knowledge management but also have important implications for managers in enterprises and corporate universities.