Multi-study analysis of learning culture, human capital and operational performance in supply chain management

The purpose of this study is to empirically evaluate the relationship between learning culture, workforce level, human capital and operational performance in two diverse supply chain populations, aircraft maintenance and logistics readiness.,Drawing upon competence-based view of the firm and human capital theory, this paper analyzes data from two studies.,The results provide support for the hypothesized model. Workforce level moderates the relationship between learning culture and human capital, and human capital partially mediates the relationship between learning culture and operational performance.,The findings have implications for behavioral supply chain management research and implications for educating and training the supply chain management workforce. While the populations represent a diverse set of logistics functions and responsibilities, the participants are all military members, which may limit generalizability.,This study should help leaders understand the importance of learning culture and the perceived differences in its effect on human capital based upon workforce level.,This research is among the first to investigate the role of workforce level and answers a multitude of calls for research into the human side of supply chain management.