Impact of Technological Learning on Organizational Performance: Case of Electrical Equipment Manufacturers in Iran

In today’s competitive world, one of the most important factors in improving firm performance and gaining a competitive advantage is technological learning. Technological learning makes it possible to develop and promote innovative products and services of the firm. This process allows people, companies, and countries to update their knowledge about technology and products, and then develop and improve their businesses with widespread skills. In this paper, a framework was developed of technological learning in equipment manufacturing enterprises in the power industry in Iran. This framework provides learning dimensions and indicators. The dimensions of technological learning include learning contents, learning resources, learning methods, and the internal and external environments of learning; the indicators related to each dimension are also provided. Following this, the impact of technological learning on the performance of these firms is examined using the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) tool, thus measuring performance of manufacturers in four perspectives: financial, customers, internal business processes and learning and growth. This research adopted a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. In the qualitative section, the content validity of the research was verified by a number of academic and industrial experts. In the quantitative section, the construct validity was verified by using the reviews of the managers from power industry equipment companies. Using the partial least squares method (PLS) and “SMART PLS” software, the results of the analysis indicated that technological learning has a significant effect on organizational performance. However, the effect is insignificant. The main reason for this is the negligence of learning and growth issues by firms. In addition, the results of the analysis indicated that two dimensions of learning, those being resources and content, have important roles to play in the successful realization of the technological learning process in equipment manufacturing enterprises in the power industry in Iran.