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Organizational Learning from previous Investment Decisions

Hirschfeld, Clara LU and Truedsson, Erik LU (2018) BUSN79 20181
Department of Business Administration
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to provide a deeper understanding of how organizations learn from previous investment decisions and to develop a framework that suggests an illustrative overview of how the experience from a previous investment decision process is turned into organizational learning. The study used a qualitative approach consisting of a multiple case study. In addition to the literature review, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the case organizations to yield new insights needed to answer the research questions. The theoretical framework is based on analyzing the theories derived from two different fields of research, namely organizational learning and investment
decisions. The empirical data for this study... (More)
The purpose of this thesis is to provide a deeper understanding of how organizations learn from previous investment decisions and to develop a framework that suggests an illustrative overview of how the experience from a previous investment decision process is turned into organizational learning. The study used a qualitative approach consisting of a multiple case study. In addition to the literature review, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the case organizations to yield new insights needed to answer the research questions. The theoretical framework is based on analyzing the theories derived from two different fields of research, namely organizational learning and investment
decisions. The empirical data for this study consisted of both primary and secondary data and was generated from three case organizations from different industries covering a municipality, a restaurant chain and a port operator.

The findings suggest that all case organizations desire organizational learning from previous investment decisions, yet there is no formal process resulting in often only storing lesson learned in the personal memory of organizational members. To turn the experience into organizational learning, the individuals need to act as learning agents by
storing the lesson learned in the organizational memory. A framework was suggested entailing an overview of how experience can be turned into a lesson learned and further into organizational learning, by closing the double-loop to the investment decision routine. The findings suggest learning potential in the investment decision process beyond the scope of the traditional post audit view. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Hirschfeld, Clara LU and Truedsson, Erik LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
A Multiple Case Study
course
BUSN79 20181
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Investment Decisions, Investment Decision Process, Organizational Learning, Double-Loop Learning, Post audit
language
English
id
8954331
date added to LUP
2018-07-04 12:33:53
date last changed
2018-07-04 12:33:53
@misc{8954331,
  abstract     = {{The purpose of this thesis is to provide a deeper understanding of how organizations learn from previous investment decisions and to develop a framework that suggests an illustrative overview of how the experience from a previous investment decision process is turned into organizational learning. The study used a qualitative approach consisting of a multiple case study. In addition to the literature review, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the case organizations to yield new insights needed to answer the research questions. The theoretical framework is based on analyzing the theories derived from two different fields of research, namely organizational learning and investment
decisions. The empirical data for this study consisted of both primary and secondary data and was generated from three case organizations from different industries covering a municipality, a restaurant chain and a port operator. 

The findings suggest that all case organizations desire organizational learning from previous investment decisions, yet there is no formal process resulting in often only storing lesson learned in the personal memory of organizational members. To turn the experience into organizational learning, the individuals need to act as learning agents by
storing the lesson learned in the organizational memory. A framework was suggested entailing an overview of how experience can be turned into a lesson learned and further into organizational learning, by closing the double-loop to the investment decision routine. The findings suggest learning potential in the investment decision process beyond the scope of the traditional post audit view.}},
  author       = {{Hirschfeld, Clara and Truedsson, Erik}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Organizational Learning from previous Investment Decisions}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}