• Cross-country comparisons indicate that in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), sophisticated infrastructures and institutional maturity enhance the beneficial effects of internationalization. • Organizational learning from failure adversely impacts organizational unlearning in both the UAE and Pakistan. • Organizational unlearning and omnichannel retailing adoption function as key mechanisms linking failure-based organizational learning to performance and organizational unlearning to performance in both the UAE and Pakistan. • The degree of internationalization exerts a significant moderating effect in the UAE but not in Pakistan. This study examines how organizational knowledge transformation shapes omnichannel adoption and performance in retailing, drawing comparative evidence from two distinct national contexts: the United Arab Emirates (n = 224) and Pakistan (n = 210). Structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) examined direct, mediated, and moderated relationships. Findings indicate that organizational learning from failure adversely impacts organizational unlearning while positively affecting omnichannel retailing adoption; organizational unlearning is a strong predictor of omnichannel retailing adoption, which subsequently improves both innovation and e-commerce performance. Mediation analyses reveal that organizational unlearning and omnichannel retailing adoption function as key mechanisms linking failure-based organizational learning to performance and organizational unlearning to performance, respectively. The degree of internationalization exerts a significant moderating effect only in the UAE: it weakens the influence of failure-based organizational learning on omnichannel retailing adoption, while strengthening the effect of omnichannel adoption on innovation performance. Cross-country comparisons indicate that in the United Arab Emirates, sophisticated infrastructures and institutional maturity enhance the beneficial moderating effects of internationalization, facilitating organizational unlearning and expediting omnichannel-driven innovation and e-commerce advancements. By contrast, these impacts are offset by limitations in infrastructure and in the regulatory environment; therefore, firms are more likely to rely on adaptive and incremental strategies. These findings enhance the understanding of knowledge transformation as a phased, context-sensitive process and highlight the significance of internationalization in influencing omnichannel innovation and competitiveness in global retail.
Dayan et al. (Wed,) studied this question.