Organizational Learning and Change in Complex Systems Development: Studies in the Commercial Aircraft Industry

In order to survive in a competitive environment organizations need to remain flexible to changes such as industrial crises or new technological opportunities. This dissertation seeks to contribute to the field of organizational learning and organizational change by investigating specific situations of change which are increasingly experienced by companies in complex product industries lately. For this purpose, three qualitative empirical studies are conducted which are motivated by the desire to enhance existent knowledge on how complex organizations change. The first study analyzes how organizational routines change after a drastic failure. The second study centers on the paths that firms pursue when they are transforming from an integrated producer to a systems integrator. The final study addresses the question how systems integration capabilities can be developed in buyer-supplier dyads. As a subject of analysis, the commercial aircraft industry serves as a representative of complex product systems.