Learning Curve? Which One?
Journal Title: BAR: Brazilian Administration Review - Year 2004, Vol 1, Issue 1
Abstract
Learning curves have been studied for a long time. These studies provided strong support to the hypothesis that, as organizations produce more of a product, unit costs of production decrease at a decreasing rate (see Argote, 1999 for a comprehensive review of learning curve studies). But the organizational mechanisms that lead to these results are still underexplored. We know some drivers of learning curves (ADLER; CLARK, 1991; LAPRE et al., 2000), but we still lack a more detailed view of the organizational processes behind those curves. Through an ethnographic study, I bring a comprehensive account of the first year of operations of a new automotive plant, describing what was taking place on in the assembly area during the most relevant shifts of the learning curve. The emphasis is then on how learning occurs in that setting. My analysis suggests that the overall learning curve is in fact the result of an integration process that puts together several individual ongoing learning curves in different areas throughout the organization. In the end, I propose a model to understand the evolution of these learning processes and their supporting organizational mechanisms.
Authors and Affiliations
Paulo Prochno
From Garment to Fashion Production: An Analysis of the Evolution of the Apparel Industry in Brazil
This study aims at contributing to the analysis of the evolution of apparel industry in Brazil by answering the following questions: (a) Does global sourcing still explain the value upgrading process in the apparel prod...
Public policies on innovation and small businesses in a swinging economy
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the adequacy of public policies that support innovation in small businesses in a swinging economy, particularly in Brazil.1 In order to make our case for more adequate public polic...
A Critical Analysis of Measurement Models of Export Performance
Poor conceptualization of the export performance construct may undermine theory development efforts and may be one of the reasons behind the often conflicting findings in empirical research on the export performance ph...
Unpacking Firm Effects: Modeling Political Alliances in Variance Decomposition of Firm Performance in Turbulent Environments
In this paper, firm heterogeneity in turbulent environments is addressed. It is argued that previous studies have not taken into account effects of a turbulent environment, like the Brazilian context, in which firms mus...
Human Resources Management Policies and Practices Scale (HRMPPS): Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Given the strategic relevance of Human Resources Management (HRM) in organizations and the lack of scientific instruments to measure employees’ perceptions about policies and practices of HRM, this study aimed to valid...