The purpose of this paper is to develop an organizational learning framework to support the strategic management process. Organizational learning is divided into two strategically relevant categories, external and internal, which involve complementary processes with separate advantages and disadvantages. External learning focuses on four strategically relevant domains of the organizational environment: customers, competitors, networks, and institutions. Internal learning includes individual, intrafunctional, interfunctional, and multilevel learning. Different domains of learning become crucial for firms over time depending on the evolving characteristics of their industry environment. Thus, an important task of strategic management is to lead the organizational learning process by identifying and allocating resources to the crucial domains of organizational learning that provide the necessary organizational capabilities to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.
