关键词: 距离效应, 组织学习, 创新能力

Abstract:      Chinese enterprises are facing direct competition with global leaders in both domestic and international markets. While some representative enterprises have successfully caught up, a common challenge remains: weak innovation capability. Relying on methods such as introduction, imitation, and reverse engineering can lead to the pitfalls of technological catch-up. Enhancing innovation capability can provide sustainable competitive advantages to enterprises. However, the fundamental question of how the distance effect influences innovation ability remains inadequately addressed, and contradictory viewpoints exist within the academic community regarding its impact on innovation enhancement. This paradox can be attributed to the misconception of organizational search as a static process when, in reality, it represents a dynamic process of organizational learning. By examining how the distance effect influences enterprise innovation capability through the lens of organizational learning theory, we can illuminate the intricate relationship between the distance effect and innovation capability. This, in turn, will enable us to offer insights for resolving the aforementioned paradox.In 2012, Bingham & Davis introduced the concept of "organizational learning order", an extension of organizational learning theory. This concept marks a transition from the conventional linear learning process to an interactive discourse on various learning processes, with potential mutual influences among them. Consequently, the organizational learning order perspective is well suited for investigating how enterprises coordinate diverse learning modes in response to the distance effect. It also sheds light on their ability to assimilate external knowledge and engage in iterative learning processes, ultimately enhancing the mechanism of enterprise innovation capability. From the organizational learning sequence perspective, we conducted a longitudinal comparative study to analyze the specific organizational learning sequences employed by enterprises within Haier Group operating in the refrigerator and washing machine industries. This analysis aimed to enhance the innovation capability of these enterprises under the influence of the distance effect.This study revealed that each developmental stage manifests a distinct organizational learning order. Firstly, the study′s results indicated that each developmental stage presents distinct organizational learning orders. During various development stages, Haier refrigerators and Haier washing machines followed diverse organizational learning orders. The iterative application of six organizational learning orders (namely, learning from learning-learning from learning, learning from learning-experiential learning, learning from experience-learning, learning from experience-learning, learning from experience-learning, learning from experience-learning, learning from experience-learning, learning from experience-learning) significantly contributed to the improvement of their innovation capabilities.Secondly, the organizational learning order dynamically aligns with the impact of the distance effect. When firms expand across international borders, they initially engage in experiential learning, irrespective of the proximity of technological distances. The predominant organizational learning pattern when crossing national borders is characterized by a sequence of experiential learning followed by more experiential learning. Local explorations consistently commence with experiential learning, although the precise organizational learning order varies in accordance with technological distance. The choice of the initial learning mode is not fixed when expanding across regional boundaries, and interspersed organizational learning orders prevail. For instance, these orders may involve borrowed learning, experiential learning, borrowed learning, or experiential learning in various combinations.Thirdly, the types of organizational learning orders exert varying influences on the enhancement of innovation capabilities. A repeated order of learning from experience-learning from experience may lead to a cycle of "introducing-backward-introducing-backward", which has a limited effect on the enhancement of the innovation capability of enterprises. On the other hand, two types of organizational learning orders, namely, experience learning-learning from experience and learning from experience-learning from experience, are generally problem-oriented and have more obvious effects on the improvement of the innovation capability of enterprises in the short term. The three organizational learning order types of learning from experience, learning from experience, and learning from experience have significant long-term effects on the improvement of firms′ innovation capabilities.The findings of the study will, firstly, respond to the call for research on "focusing on the process of technological catching-up of latecomer firms", deepen the understanding of the catching-up mechanism of latecomer firms, and further enrich the research on latecomer firms beyond the stage of catching-up with a focus on the enhancement of innovation capability. Secondly, it will open the black box of the process of the distance effect on innovation capacity enhancement, introduce the organizational learning order into it, provide a new perspective for research on the impact of the distance effect on enterprise innovation capacity, and enhance the explanatory power of the organizational learning order in the process of enterprise innovation capacity enhancement. Finally, it will deepen the organizational learning theory by setting the research situation in the analysis process, pointing out that the distance effect affects the choice of organizational learning order, expanding the research on the scenario and antecedents of organizational learning order in the related literature, and enriching the related research on organizational learning order.

Key words: distance effect, organizational learning, innovation ability