Restructuring Through Organizational Resilience During the Crisis Period: The Effects of Organizational Learning Capabilities on Product Innovation in Exporting Firms

Abstract

Nowadays, competition, which is increasing under the influence of globalization, has caused enterprises to expand beyond their borders in order to survive. Increased global uncertainty and unexpected disruptive events foster the emergence of innovation while making organizations vulnerable. It is thought that enhanced “organizational learning capabilities” of enterprises in crisis environments, especially those caused by unexpected disruptive events such as pandemics, wars, or major economic crises, will positively impact their product innovation potential through the mediating and moderating effects of resilience capacity. The purpose of the current research was to make a contribution to the literature in the field by clarifying how the impact of “organizational learning capabilities” on “product innovation” varies according to “organizational resilience” during crisis periods, particularly in exporting firms that are greatly affected by volatile conditions, and to guide the development of these firms. To test the proposed conceptual model, a field research was done on employees of exporting enterprises operating under the Istanbul Textile and Apparel Exporters' Association (ITKIB) in Istanbul province. Factor analysis, validity, reliability, and correlation analyses were done on the data using SPSS, whereas mediation and moderation analyses were performed in SPSS Process Macro V.4. The empirical findings obtained from the field research reveal that “organizational learning” significantly and positively impacts “product innovation”, “organizational learning” positively impacts “organizational resilience”, “organizational resilience” significantly and positively correlates with “product innovation”, and “organizational resilience” does not moderate the impact of “organizational learning” on “product innovation”, but has a full mediating effect.