Knowledge Networks and Careers: Academic Scientists in Industry–University Links*

abstract Careers are central to our understanding of the knowledge creation dynamics of network organizations. Based on the example of R&D project collaboration between firms and universities, this paper examines the emerging forms of career models that support knowledge flows between organizations. It explores how some large firms in the high‐technology sectors have sought to break away from the limitations of internal R&D and firm‐based careers for scientists by engaging in external collaborative projects to gain access to the open knowledge networks of university researchers. It examines how the firms seek to forge close institutional ties with their university partners and develop network career structures in order to engage academic scientists in joint knowledge production. It argues that firms have sought to extend their human resource and knowledge boundaries into the established internal labour markets of the universities with which they collaborate, leading to the formation of a pool of joint human resources with work experiences and career patterns straddling the two sectors. The paper develops the concept of an ‘overlapping internal labour market’ to provide a conceptual bridge between internal labour markets and network organizations.     

Keeping the Wheels Turning: The Dynamics of Managing Networks of Practice

Intra‐organizational networks of practice (NOPs) confront managers with a dilemma: they must manage NOPs to reap benefits from integrating geographically dispersed knowledge, but the inherently emergent nature of NOPs implies that management control may frustrate practice‐related knowledge to be shared. Based on a case study of 22 NOPs in a geographically dispersed development organization (‘TDO’), we develop a model that disentangles the dynamics underlying this dilemma, helping to better understand it. Specifically, four dynamic relationships are interrelated and involve four kinds of embeddedness (organizational, in practice, relational, and structural) that relate dynamically to knowledge sharing in NOPs. Interventions in both the content shared in the network and the connections among network members can influence each of these relations. This study contributes to theoretical and practical understanding of how to manage NOPs without killing them.     

Managing dispersed workers: the new challenge in Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management (KM) has become a central theme in today's business environment and a commonly cited source of competitive advantage. In today's global economy, many economic activities in and among firms are based on the contribution of workers that are geographically dispersed and have loose contractual links with the company. Building on evidence from three case studies, this paper explores the relations between dispersed worker activities, KM tools and worker satisfaction.     

Managing Organizational Knowledge Integration in the Emerging Multimedia Complex

Due to technological convergence, complexes of interrelated industries are emerging. This paper presents a conceptual framework of the role different organizational forms and combinative capabilities play in the management of organizational knowledge integration in this context. The focus is on firms previously operating in one of the relatively stable constituting industries. We argue that a firm's organizational form has to be matched with appropriate combinative capabilities in order to integrate component knowledge into architectural knowledge that consequently serves as a platform for generating new product–market combinations. The framework is empirically illustrated using the example of two Dutch publishing firms moving into the multimedia complex, which is currently emerging around information and communication technologies. The empirical analysis shows that the framework offers strong potential for improving the understanding of the complex process of organizational knowledge integration, as the prerequisite for developing new business in an emerging industrial complex.     

Managing Complex Governance Systems: Dynamics,Self-Organization and Coevolution in Public Investments

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the substitution and complementarity effect that organizational social capital generates between two different types of performance information: nonroutine and routine performance information. The study of this topic is important since it offers a better understanding of how public managers inform their decision-making. Using department level data from 57 counties in Florida, this article finds that departments with higher levels of organizational social capital are more likely to complement the use of both routine and nonroutine performance information. Thus, the article reinforces the role and importance that organizational social capital plays into well-established and consolidated managerial practices.     

基于耦合网络的Henon映射混沌性研究

本文针对Henon映射,应用在全局耦合网络、最近邻点耦合网络、星型网络三种耦合网络结构中,验证Henon映射在三种网络网络结构中满足的混沌条件,并分析初始状态下Henon映射在耦合网络中的情况。研究在不同参数条件下,不同耦合网络对于Henon映射的影响。     

Strategic and Cultural Misalignment: Knowledge Sharing Barriers in Project Networks

This article draws on theories from knowledge and project management to develop an understanding of how knowledge sharing is encouraged and hindered in the context of a multifirm network assembled to execute an innovative shipbuilding project. The empirical data are based on a qualitative case study, collected from in‐depth face‐to‐face interviews in China and Norway, with the key people from a ship owner, shipbuilder, and ship technology supplier. The research indicates three interesting findings: First, differences in organizational culture (not national culture) hamper knowledge sharing. Second, a strategic misalignment made knowledge sharing difficult. Third, protecting knowledge by patenting and secrecy barely influenced the knowledge sharing processes. Based on previous research and lessons learned from case study experience, we suggest a framework to analyze challenges and links in project networks.     

Japanese Interfirm Networks: Exploring the Seminal Sources of their Success

An extensive body of literature explains features of the highly co-operative relationship between Japanese firms, particularly Toyota, and their supplier-firm network. The literature does not explore when these networks emerged or the factors conducive to their emergence. This paper uses transaction cost analysis and game theory to address these issues. It indicates that the networks emerged in the 1950s, and that the initiating factors were exogenous to the networks, centring on the unusual business environment that then prevailed in Japan. The analysis indicates why firms like Toyota gained an advantage over competitors in America. They were relieved of two major transaction costs: those linked to internalization and decomposed subcontracting. In addition, successful networks developed intragroup understandings that led to significant reductions in both interfirm co-ordination costs and direct production costs per unit of output. The paper questions the extent to which Toyota-type networks are prevalent in Japan. It questions the advantage that firms in America or elsewhere (even Japan) can gain from emulating Toyota practices such as unguarded subcontracting. It offers a different interpretation to standard business practices in firms like Toyota, such as relational contracting. It provides a basis for a reinterpretation of Japanese business history and the role of ‘Japan Inc.’.     

The Dynamics of the Adoption of Product and Process Innovations in Organizations

While many researchers have fruitfully explored the patterns of adoption of product and process innovations across industries, few have studied these same patterns within individual firms. In this study we address this issue, examining the dynamics that govern the adoption of product and process innovations at the firm level over time. We examine questions such as: Which type of innovation is more readily adopted? Does the adoption of one type of innovation lead or lag the adoption of the other type? And, would the pattern of adoption of innovation types have an effect on organizational performance? Using data on the innovations introduced between 1982 and 1993 by a sample of 101 commercial banks in the United States, we find that: (1) product innovations are adopted at a greater rate and speed than process innovations; (2) a product–process pattern of adoption is more likely than a process–product pattern; (3) the adoption of product innovations is positively associated with the adoption of process innovations; and (4) high-performance banks adopt product and process innovations more evenly than low-performance banks.     

Managing Dispersed Knowledge: Organizational Problems,Managerial Strategies,and Their Effectiveness

While there has been much progress in understanding organizational knowledge and knowledge management practices, some questions still remain unresolved. This paper argues that at least one important driver of knowledge‐related organizational problems has been rather neglected so far: that is, the dispersed nature of organizational knowledge. The paper analyses the organizational problems and managerial responses arising from dispersed knowledge. It identifies three drivers by which the dispersedness of knowledge leads to management problems: namely, it creates large numbers, asymmetries, and uncertainty. A number of managerial strategies for dealing with the different components of the problems created by the dispersedness of knowledge are identified and their effectiveness analysed, thereby informing managers as to how best to deal with dispersed knowledge. The analysis of uncertainty‐related implications of dispersed knowledge uncovers an overlooked distinction that is helpful for understanding dispersed knowledge and its managerial implications. This is the distinction between uncertainty and ambiguity, i.e. a strong form of uncertainty that cannot be remedied by the standard strategy of increasing the information available.     

Dynamics of Inventor Networks and the Evolution of Technology Clusters

Clusters are important drivers of regional economic growth. Although their benefits are well recognized, research into their evolution is still ongoing. Most real‐world clusters seem to have emerged spontaneously without deliberate policy interventions, each cluster having its own evolutionary path. Since there is a significant gap in our understanding of the forces driving their evolution, this study uses a quantitative approach to investigate the role of inventor collaboration networks in it. Inventor collaboration networks for 30 top‐performing American metropolitan clusters were constructed on the basis of patent co‐authorship data. The selected clusters operate in hi‐tech fields: information technology, communications equipment and the biopharmaceutical industry. Starting from a widely accepted hypothesis that the ‘small‐world’ structure is an optimal one for knowledge spillovers and promotes innovation effectively, the authors statistically tested the impact of ‘small‐world’ network properties on cluster innovation performance proxied by patent output. The results suggest that the effect of the small‐world structure is not as significant as theorists hypothesized, not all clusters benefit from the presence of inventor collaboration networks, and cluster performance can be affected by policy interventions. Our analyses also suggest that cluster typology moderates the impact of inventor network properties on cluster innovation performance.     

Knowledge Stocks and Information Flows in New Product Development*

Although firms increasingly invest in systems (e.g. ISO, knowledge centres, IT systems) for utilizing stored knowledge and acquiring market information during new product development, few manage to benefit from these investments. To explore this issue, we suggest that firms rely on two distinct types of knowledge stocks– procedural and declarative memory – that affect new product short‐term financial performance and creativity in distinct ways. Additionally, we suggest that internal or external information flows can have distinct moderating impact on the memory types–product outcomes relationship. Our empirical study of product development activities indicates that there is an inverted U‐shaped relationship between procedural memory and product outcomes as well as a positive relationship between declarative memory and financial performance. Also procedural and declarative memory may work in a complementary fashion enhancing both outcomes. Finally, procedural memory is found to reduce the value of internal or external information flows for product creativity. These findings have important implications for the organizational knowledge, capabilities, and product development literatures as well as for practice and they open ways for future research.     

Heterogeneity and Specificity of Inter-Firm Knowledge Flows in Innovation Networks

abstract    Literature on innovation networks reveals little of to what extent different types of knowledge are exchanged and combined by collaborating firms to foster innovation. Based on field research in the aerospace industrial cluster of Rome, this study investigates the exchange of technological, market and managerial knowledge. Using social network analysis, the paper shows that the three types of knowledge are unevenly distributed and exchanged, thus revealing that the process of exchange is knowledge-specific. Further, it is found that in most collaborative relationships, partners exchange technological knowledge together with market and managerial knowledge, emphasizing the complex nature of the innovation process which requires access to and recombination of diverse knowledge. This phenomenon concerns not only large companies, but also small-to-medium enterprises. The reconsideration of the relative salience of the three types of knowledge has remarkable managerial and theoretical implications, which are developed in terms of propositions offered for further research.     

Supplier-Focused Knowledge Management in the Automobile Industry and Its Implications for Product Performance

abstract    This study focuses on the impact of knowledge management in supplier relations (termed as supplier-focused knowledge management, SFKM) within the automobile industry of an emerging economy (Brazil), on financial and product performance. A model of the relationship between supplier-focused knowledge management, including its associated processes, and performance is described and the associated hypotheses are developed and then tested. Knowledge sharing through face-to-face communication is positively related to both product and financial performance, while technological knowledge sharing has a positive impact on product performance under conditions of high technological dynamism. Supplier involvement in the production process is related to product performance and use of knowledge management tools is related to financial performance. The results support the major hypotheses of our SFKM model. These results are discussed in the context of the knowledge management and supplier-relations literatures in terms of the contributions, implications for research and practice, and directions for future research.     

Managing metadata: Networks of practice,technological frames,and metadata work in a digital library

The organizations that develop information systems are usually composed of members and groups with different technological backgrounds and experiences. While these different backgrounds are necessary to support the many dimensions of information system development, at the same time they can result in barriers to sharing organizational knowledge, and can thus impede this work. Understanding how the technological backgrounds of organizational groups are constituted and mediated thus provides useful insight into how information system development occurs in organizational contexts. This article contributes to this discussion with a qualitative and interpretive case study of a small team engaged in creating metadata for a digital library. A number of unexpected and recalcitrant problems were encountered that delayed this metadata work. Drawing on theories of networks of practice, technological frames, and perspective making and perspective taking, the article uses ethnographic- and action research-based interviews, to probe project members' understanding of metadata. The analysis identified different networks of practice and technological frames in the project, including the IT workers, who had a systems administration perspective, and the faculty members, who had a theoretical research perspective. The tensions caused by these differences are described, as are the ways in which the project resolved them. Two findings are that the intercommunal negotiation was established not just between individual networks of practice in the project, but with reference to an emerging community of practice that served as a boundary object, and that intercommunal negotiation also had to be carried out diachronically across time, with this latter form of negotiation being difficult to achieve.     

Knowledge processing and ecosystem co-creation for process innovation: Managing joint knowledge processing in process innovation projects

Process innovation drives industrial competitiveness and sustainability but remains elusive since it requires co-creation and the sharing of idiosyncratic design knowledge in ecosystems of providers and customers of process equipment. This paper investigates how firms can manage knowledge processing through co-creation in joint process innovation projects. Analysis of cross-comparative case studies –including nine industrial ecosystem actors – identifies three types of technological challenge (complexity, novelty and customization) that creates knowledge-processing requirements (uncertainty, equivocality) during the value co-creation process. To manage these knowledge-processing requirements, this paper explains how three joint knowledge-processing strategies (joint problem solving, open communication and end-user involvement) help ecosystem partners make sense of the requirements and demands in process innovation. In this context, the procurement approach (such as contracting and relationship development) helps to facilitate higher levels of joint knowledge processing, drawing on the diverse knowledge of ecosystem actors to secure successful process-innovation outcomes. The present study contributes to the emerging literature on co-creation in process innovation by developing a framework that highlights the knowledge-processing dynamics in ecosystem relationships for process innovation. The implications for management extends to a practical tool that guides project managers in ensuring appropriate levels of joint knowledge processing among ecosystem actors.

     

Trust,Social Networks and Enterprise Development: Exploring Evidence from East and West Germany

This paper examines the role of social networks in enterprise development by comparing personal trust (as inherent in social relationships) to collective and institutional trust (derived from the wider cultural, political and legal environment). The findings indicate that there is a shift from personal towards institutional trust as the firm develops and grows, but they also confirm enterprise behaviour being based on a mixture of different trust forms. Moreover, the findings underline the difficulty of studying trust empirically, recommending longitudinal qualitative approaches for further research.