A GLOBAL LEARNING ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND MARKET-INFORMATION PROCESSING

This study develops and tests a model of a global learning organizatio n structure and market information processing wing the purchasing proc ess of a Fortune 500 multinational corporation. The focus is on the ac tivities and relationships between the domestic and international stra tegic business units (SBUs) and the buying center of the organization. Based an a sample of 179 domestic and 167 international SBUs, the res ults suggest that the level of market information processing in the pu rchasing system is influenced by the learning structure antecedents of openness (participative and reflective) and localness (centralization and formalization) which, in film, positively influence the level of customer orientation as perceived by the SEU users. The learning organ ization structure appears to be robust across the environmental challe nges presented by the domestic and international purchasing settings. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc. Science Inc.