Impact of Heterogeneity in Task Environments on Individual Learning Curves

By Anand Nandkumar, Srikanth Kannan, Dutt Dev Harsha Tadikonda
Academy of Management | November 2017

DOI

doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2016.13364abstract

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Nandkumar, Anand., Kannan, Srikanth., Tadikonda, Dutt Dev Harsha. Impact of Heterogeneity in Task Environments on Individual Learning Curves Academy of Management doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2016.13364abstract.

Academy of Management, 2017

Abstract

Learning by doing is one of the key mechanisms that influences capability development in firms. Recent research has shown that the manner in which individuals within organizations accumulate and learn from experience is a factor contributing to observed productivity differences across organizations. This paper makes a theoretical and an econometric contribution by (a) exploring whether individual learning is transferrable across work environments and (b) developing an econometric model that accounts for the fact that worker output and quality are simultaneously determined. Using this improved specification, we show that individual learning curves are significantly influenced by the context of work as well as the setting in which individual experience is acquired. We discuss implications for the understanding of learning curves and how these factors influence capability accumulation.

Anand Nandkumar is an Associate Professor of Strategy, Executive Director of SRITNE at the Indian School of Business (ISB), and Associate Dean of the Centre for Learning and Teaching Excellence. He explores industry and firm-level phenomena that influence innovation - the generation of new ideas, and entrepreneurship - distribution and commercialisation of new ideas. His research focuses on high-technology industries such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and software, and it falls in between industrial organisation (IO), economics of technological change, and strategy.

Professor Nandkumar’s current work in the innovation stream examines the effect of stronger intellectual property rights (IPR) on different aspects of innovation, such as the influence of stronger patents on long run incentives for innovation or the influence of stronger patents on the functioning of Markets for Technology (MFT). In the entrepreneurship stream, his current work examines the influence of venture capitalists on entrepreneurial performance.

Professor Nandkumar graduated with a PhD in Public Policy and Management, with a focus in strategy and entrepreneurship from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008. Prior to his PhD, he worked for 3 years with a startup in Silicon Valley, and prior to that, in New York City with one of the world’s largest financial services firms.

True to his expertise, at ISB, Professor Nandkumar teaches Strategic Innovation Management and Strategic Challenges for Innovation-based startups.

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