Effect of internal knowledge sourcing on multinational enterprise subsidiaries' service innovation performance: the mediating role of organisational learning

The study assessed the mediating role of organisational learning on the relationship between internal knowledge sourcing and MNE subsidiaries' service innovation performance. The study was based on primary data gathered from 156 MNE subsidiaries. We found exploratory learning had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between internal knowledge sourcing and MNE subsidiaries' service innovation performance, but the effect was negative. Exploitative learning had a positive mediating effect on the relationship between internal knowledge sourcing and MNE subsidiaries' service innovation performance. Although previous studies have focused on the combined effect of exploratory and exploitative learning (thereby considering organisational learning as a single construct), this study points out that the relationships of the two dimensions with internal knowledge sourcing were different.