Linking unlearning with service quality through learning processes in the Spanish banking industry

Knowledge, like other resources, can quickly become obsolete. Thus, actors in an economy must constantly update their knowledge to keep pace with ongoing changes in their operational environment. This study explores unlearning's influence on two forms of learning (i.e., exploration and exploitation of knowledge). The study also adopts a dynamic management focus to analyze the influence of these two individual learning capabilities and their ability to help firms align technology knowledge and relational knowledge. This study reaches important conclusions on unlearning's role in knowledge management. The study examines learning processes and knowledge stocks (i.e., technology and relational knowledge) that practitioners (managers) within service firms generate through their relationships with customers. This study explores how an unlearning context can help service firms align learning processes (i.e., exploration and exploitation) through an empirical study of 150 managers in the Spanish banking industry.