Exploring knowledge creation processes as a source of organizational learning: A longitudinal case study of a public innovation project

•Build a theoretical framework that unites organizational learning and knowledge creation theories.•Demonstrate how the organizational learning and knowledge creation theories are similar, how they are different, and how complement each other.•Apply the framework as theoretical lens to study a full scale innovation project in a public service organization.•Develop 8 propositions that represent an empirically-driven research agenda and I claim theoretical advances to the existing theories (extended case method).

The purpose of the study is to reestablish the link between theories of organizational learning and knowledge creation - theories that in research, have been pursued as independent themes for almost two decades. Based on the literature review, I build a framework that proposes how the two streams of literature complement each other, how they are similar, and how they are different. To understand the framework's empirical applicability, I utilize it as a theoretical lens to study an innovation project in a Danish public service organization. Based on a longitudinal and participatory research strategy, I build eight propositions that are used to discuss and extend the organizational learning and knowledge creation literatures and to justify the framework's applicability. Finally, I present the managerial implications and the conclusions of the study.