Abstract:
E-learning was thought to be one of the fastest growing industries
on both sides of the Atlantic and has been frequently heralded
as a transforming influence on global corporate training
and higher education. Despite such rhetoric, the adoption, diffusion
and exploitation have been slouier than anticipated. In
this paper we attempt to explain why this might have been the
case in Europe by drawing on an increasingly influential body
of management literature on the absorptive capacity (ACAP)
of organizations to acquire, assimilate and use new technologies
and ideas. We supplement this work on absorptiue capacity
with two other streams of literature on learners and on the
business systems or institutionalist perspective, which focuses
on the embeddedness of unique organizational forms, ideas
and human resource development approaches in particular
national business systems. We develop a model of absorptive
capacity for e-leaming in organizations (ACAP for eL), which
we argue has important theoretical implications for business
and management academics in developing a model of technology
transfer and diffusion, key lessons for HRD practitioners
and politicians associated with furthering e-learning developments
in their organizations, and also for policy makers at
govemment level wishing to spread the e-leaming message.
