Technological Learning and Organizational Context: Fit and Performance in SMES

CIRANO is a private non-profit organization incorporated under the Québec Companies Act. Its infrastructure and research activities are funded through fees paid by member organizations, an infrastructure grant from the Ministère de l’Industrie, du Commerce, de la Science et de la Technologie, and grants and research mandates obtained by its research teams. The Scientific Series fulfils one of the missions of CIRANO: to develop the scientific analysis of organizations and strategic behaviour. Cet article étudie les relations entre performance et cohérence organisationnelle. On évalue plus spécifiquement le niveau de cohérence entre les habilités d’apprentissage et les attributs du contexte organisationnel pour ensuite établir la relation entre cette cohérence interne et la performance de la firme. This paper investigates the relationship between organizational fit and performance. More specifically internal coherence within and between differential abilities to learn and attributes of the organizational context and the relationship between the level of internal coherence and firm performance is assessed in the specific context of SMEs. Results derived from a particular form of theoretical approach based on fit as gestalt suggest that fit and performance must be interpreted in light of the organizational evolution and the corresponding change brought upon by influencial actors such as the CEO. It was also possible to show not only that fit as gestalt is an appropriate methodological and analytical approach to the study of such phenomena but also that second order fit mey in fact provide more robust results since it allows to investigate mutual and reciprocal correspondence between configurations of abilities to learn and organizational context.