Innovation and operative real options as a way to affect organizational learning

This paper examines the influence of the innovation process on organizational learning. To achieve this goal, we decompose innovation into two components, innovativeness and capacity to innovate. This paper proposes theoretically the concept of Operative Real Options and seeks empirically to measure their influence on the relationship between innovation and organizational learning. Using empirical data gathered from 204 Chief Executive Officers in European firms, the findings support the hypotheses that innovation and its two components improve the learning process in the organization. However, we do not find support for the hypothesis that operative real options moderate the relation between innovation and learning.