How Do Organizational Learning and Knowledge Application Improve Organizational Performance in Financial Advisory Services

This paper aims to determine, through a model that integrates the different study approaches observed in the literature, how organizational learning — via learning orientation and the organizational learning process — and knowledge application improve organizational performance in financial advisory services.Previous research has already tested how each construct, considered individually, positively influences organizational performance. An integrated model that includes all the constructs would reveal whether they have a direct effect on organizational performance or not. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze how the constructs of the model interact among them and the testing of hypotheses, with a sample of 349 financial advisors. Results show knowledge application as the construct directly connected to organizational performance, while learning orientation and the organizational learning process only affect performance indirectly through their interaction with knowledge application.Furthermore, this study supports the bet made by those organizations truly involved in learning and knowledge application, most significantly in the latter.