Measuring knowledge creation in virtual teams through the social network analysis

The current literature regarding virtual teams (VTs) lacks outcomes related to intellectual capital (IC) and knowledge management (KM). Moreover, e-collaboration and VTs need the necessary metrics to assess the real benefits that KM derives from the use of new e-collaboration technologies. There is also scarce evaluation of the cause–effect linkage between a VT structural configuration and its creative performance. Following this lead, we propose an evaluation method based on social network analysis (SNA) and indexes referring to knowledge creation. The paper concludes with an application on a real case study that shows how this methodology can be used as a KM tool to increase the creative output of VTs.     

虚拟团队共享领导及其影响因素与作用结果研究评述

采用文献研究法,以虚拟团队共享领导为主题,对现有研究进行梳理和分析。研究发现,共享领导比传统领导更适应虚拟团队;虚拟团队共享领导受成员个体、团队、垂直领导和组织支持、媒介等因素的影响;共享领导对虚拟团队结果和个体产出产生影响。最后,提出未来研究方向。     

Normalising the “new normal”: Changing tech-driven work practices under pandemic time pressure

The COVID-19 pandemic has had massive implications for the nature of work and the role technology plays in the workplace. Organisations have been forced into rapid ‘big bang’ introduction of technology and ‘tech-driven’ practices in an unprecedented and time pressured manner. In many cases there has been little training or reflection on how the practices and associated technology should be introduced and integrated or adapted to suit the new workplace context. We argue that there is a need for a more reflective ‘normalisation’ of work practices and the role technology plays. The paper draws on normalisation process theory (NPT) and its underlying components of cohesion, cognitive participation, collective action and reflexive monitoring. As an exemplar, we focus on the changing nature of work and adoption of remote working practices. The paper uses NPT to examine current thinking and approaches and offering some guidelines to inform research and practice.     

Adopting and consuming innovations

This paper aims to improve understanding of how innovations are diffused through combining perspectives on the adoption and consumption of innovation. The literature on the adoption of innovation mainly examines issues such as technical functionalities, utility and personality factors. In contrast, research on the consumption of innovation is concerned with the context and meaning of consumer decisions and the values that underlie them. The paper is conceptual and uses Weber’s categories of meaning in action to argue the value of combining the primarily ‘rational’ innovation adoption literature with the more ‘emotive’ consumption literature. By reference to the consumption of hybrid cars, we show how the innovation adoption literature can be valuably supplemented by an understanding of what consumers of innovation do, why they do it and what doing it means to them. We argue that this combination provides a more holistic understanding of how innovations diffuse and has implications for those delivering, using and researching innovation.     

The role of temporal coordination for the fuzzy front-end of innovation in virtual teams

In this paper, we study the role of temporal coordination in managing the early stages of innovation (aka fuzzy front-end) in the context of virtual teams. Following a comparative case study approach, we detail the role of temporal coordination through the study of two contrasting virtual teams—one with a 24-h lifespan, and one with a five-month lifespan—from two Industry-Academia collaboration projects. Our approach was longitudinal capturing virtual team activities from start to end of each project, and involved multiple data collection methods, including observations and interviews. The findings reveal that the virtual team lifespan influences the type of temporal coordination that emerges. In virtual teams with short lifespans, tight coordination with frequent communication can help to reduce the uncertainty characterizing the fuzzy front-end. On the other hand, in virtual teams with longer lifespans, loose coordination allows dispersed members to work simultaneously on different, complementary aspects of the task at hand. These findings extend scholarly understanding around how innovation activities are coordinated in technology-mediated environments, such as virtual teams. Finally, we discuss theoretical and managerial implications.     

NEW PRODUCTION CONCEPTS

Flexibilty within a framework of internal labour markets is now widely seen to be an important factor in the ability of manufacturing firms to respond quickly to changes in market conditions — which is increasingly coming to be the form that competitive advantage takes in advanced industrial economies. An emerging and flourishing literature has identified a number of ‘new production concepts’ being developed in manufacturing industries, that depart from time-honoured Taylorist systems of job fragmentation and skill minimisation. The new concepts, such as ‘flexible specialisation’, ‘human-centred production’, and ‘diversified quality production’, are all in one way or another seeking to characterise a form of ‘functional flexibility’, that both enhances productivity and offers workers themselves a greater sense of involvement with their activity. The new concepts rest on the identification of a critical linkage between work organisation, skill formation and advanced manufacturing technology; they point to a convergence between the previously separate worlds of work and of learning.

In this paper the new production concepts are characterised as elements of an emergent ‘post Fordist’ technoeconomic paradigm. The present period of uncertainty can be construed as a transition between the Fordist paradigm centred on mass production, and its successors. There is nothing predetermined about the shape of these successors: this will be the outcome of a prolonged economic, industrial and political process as much as of a technical process. The choices are identified as falling between a continuation and intensification of Fordism, dubbed Computer-Aided Taylorisation; or a break with Fordism, dubbed Skill-Dependent Innovation. The new production concepts are characterised as instances of the latter approach to manufacturing management and technology. It is through this notion of ‘competing paradigms’ that this paper formulates an approach to the ‘politics’ of technological change.     

An organisational perspective on the cluster paradox: Exploring how members of a cluster manage the tension between continuity and renewal

Clusters face what has been referred to as a ‘cluster paradox’; a situation in which a collective identity breeds cohesion and efficiency in inter-organisational collaboration, yet it hinders the variety needed to adapt to disruptive change and prevent lock-in situations. Accordingly, a recurring theme in the literature on cluster evolution and cluster life-cycles is the need for constant renewal to allow clusters to adapt to a changing environment. However, how individual firms enact a process of cluster renewal and consider possible response options is not well understood. Using a French energy cluster as empirical setting, this paper investigates individual members’ enactment of the renewal in terms of how it could affect their current position, both structurally and relationally, and to what extent members felt that they had agency to steer the process to safeguard their position. The findings show that members’ enactment of the proposed change does not only depend on the perceived impact of cluster renewal on the member itself but also on the impact the renewal might have on other members in the firm’s network. The analysis also suggests that cluster renewal leads to a leadership vacuum where it is not clear who, if anyone, will lead the renewal process.     

协同多来源领导力能助推团队创新吗：一个有中介的调节模型

基于资源保存理论,探究"以团队成员为领导来源"的共享型领导和"组织正式任命"的服务型领导如何共同助推团队创新.采用"多来源和多时点"的数据收集方式,获得88个知识团队的配对数据(n=418).研究结果表明,共享型领导正向影响团队创新绩效,服务型领导在二者之间发挥有中介的调节作用;当服务型领导水平高时,共享型领导通过减少团队知识隐藏进而提升团队创新绩效的作用更强.上述结果有助于深入认识共享型领导与团队创新绩效之间的潜在中介机制和边界条件,并为团队领导模式变革与创新管理提供有益的启示.     

The long and winding road: Routine creation and replication in multi-site organizations

Prior research on organizational routines in the ‘capabilities’ literature has either studied how new routines are created during an exploratory process of variation and selection or how existing routines are replicated during a phase of exploitation. Few studies have analyzed the life cycle of new routine creation and replication as an integrated process. In an in-depth case study of England’s Highways Agency, this paper shows that the creation and replication of a new routine across multiple sites involves four sequential steps: envisioning, experimenting, entrenching and enacting. We contribute to the capabilities research in two ways: first, by showing how different organizational levels, capabilities and logics (cognitive and behavioural) shape the development of new routines; and second, by identifying how distinct evolutionary cycles of variation and selective retention occur during each step in the process. In contrast with prior research on replication as an exact copy of a template or existing routine, our study focuses on the replication of an entirely new routine (based on novel principles) that is adapted to fit local operational conditions during its large-scale replication across multiple sites. We draw upon insights from adjacent ‘practice research’ and suggest how capabilities and practice studies may complement each other in future research on the evolution of routines.     

Research and data-sharing policy in Sweden – neoliberal courses,forces and discourses*

ABSTRACT

The discourse of openness has proved to be a very powerful instrument for promoting new research policies and the (neoliberal) reforms of higher education in all so-called ‘advanced economies’. It has triggered positive democracy-, transparency-, and accountability-related associations when used in the context of politics, fair resource distribution when used in the sphere of public service, and free access to information and knowledge when used in the field of science and higher education. At the same time, international research shows that university autonomy is increasingly being attacked, reduced, and marginalized by the same policies. Power instances outside academia impose new criteria, such as ‘accountability,’ ‘performance,’ ‘quality assurance,’ and ‘good practice.’ They also impose ideas about what good research is, which scientific method is to be prioritized, and what good data are. The process of the de-professionalization, polarization, and proletarianization of the academic profession is increasingly affecting academia. However, none of this has much in common with the open-access discourse. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how this discussion applies to Sweden. Courses, forces, and discourses of the national research infrastructure development policy in general, and qualitative data preservation policy in particular, are described and deliberated.     

Social capital and the digital crowd: Involving backers to promote new product innovativeness

Involving customers is often considered a method to develop products in line with market needs. However, we still need to obtain more insights into the respective drivers and outcomes in the context of (a) the involvement of customers by entrepreneurial ventures and (b) business-to-consumer (B2C) relationships. This study suggests that reward-based crowdfunding can provide a digital opportunity for both areas. We explore how community-derived social capital influences ventures’ approach to engaging backers in new product development and how this, in turn, advances product innovativeness. Using structural equation modeling, we test a unique dataset that combines primary survey and secondary platform data from 710 crowdfunding ventures. Our results provide a nuanced picture of how social capital dimensions are associated with backers as an information source and as co-developers and, indirectly, with new product innovativeness. This study underscores that crowdfunding serves as a digital platform for market-oriented innovation. It contributes empirical insights into how nascent teams can engage the digital crowd in product development via crowdfunding. We also add to social capital literature by illuminating web-mediated mechanisms that transform knowledge into tangible innovation outcomes.     

国外团队有效性研究新进展述评

知识经济时代,随着团队在企业中的广泛应用,如何管理和有效运作团队成为现代企业面临的新挑战,同时也成为组织行为学领域的研究热点之一。在近年来国外文献的基础上,着重对国外团队有效性研究的核心问题——研究模型及其影响因素展开分析与讨论,最后提出了现有研究的局限性和团队有效性未来研究的方向。     

The unintended consequences of the pandemic on non-pandemic research activities

Research about the Covid-19 pandemic has taken center stage in shaping the work of many scholars, inter alia highlighting the importance of research in addressing the grand challenges humanity faces. However, the pandemic has also ushered in increased administrative, teaching and out of work commitments for many researchers, leading to concerns that academics will become less willing to invest time in obtaining resources to undertake non-Covid-related projects. Using a large-scale survey of business, economics and management researchers, coupled with their publication histories and additional institutional data, we examine how far individuals experienced the focus on the pandemic as ‘crowding out’ interest in, and undermining their confidence in applying for grants for work not focused on the pandemic. We found 40% of the sample agree that the pandemic has impaired their confidence in applying for non-pandemic-related grants and ‘crowded out’ other projects. Researchers with current and prior grants, particularly those with the most experience of holding grants, scholars whose work ‘impacted’ beyond academia, and early career researchers, disproportionately considered themselves to be most affected. We also found that researchers’ perceptions differed based on institutional characteristics. We discuss the implications of these findings for grant providers and national research agencies as well as for individual academic researchers and the institutions in which they work.     

新冠疫情应对决策中的研究证据使用:基于十个国家的定性比较分析

循证政策制定有助于提高政府决策的科学性和公共政策质量,尤其在公共危机状态下能够帮助决策者快速高效地做出决策。在当前的新冠疫情应对中,如何提升研究证据在决策中的使用已成为中外学界和实务界高度关注并亟待解决的问题。本文采用模糊集定性比较分析方法,以10个国家为研究样本,试图分析多重因素影响新冠疫情应对决策中研究证据使用的复杂因果机制。结果表明,各国新冠疫情应对决策中研究证据使用受到了多元复杂因素的影响,具有两条高研究证据使用的驱动路径和三条非高研究证据使用的驱动路径,决策者对研究证据的重视、足够的研究证据和良好的政治共识对各国新冠疫情应对决策中研究证据使用起着重要的促进作用。     

Strategic knowledge management—Insights and pitfalls

In an increasingly globalized and hyper connected business environment, using knowledge strategically is often critical for competitive performance. This article is motivated to illuminate the notion of strategic knowledge management (SKM) in organizations. In this regard, executives need to develop an informed understanding of what types of organizational knowledge (and how much) can be ‘structured’ and/or allowed to ‘proliferate’ in order to sustain both work productivity and innovation capacity toward a harmonious conceptualization of strategic knowledge in their organizations. This conceptual paper is based on analysing certain exemplars of why organizations need to put greater emphasis on the equivalence between codification and personalization in the context of strategic knowledge management. Our explanations on managing strategic knowledge through different examples provide insights and pitfalls that organizations must be aware of and are as follows. Firstly, we argue that an exclusive emphasis on codification or personalization runs the risk of ‘knowledge structuration’ or ‘knowledge proliferation’ respectively in an organization’s strategic knowledge management. Secondly, executives should continuously realize the need to emphasize on equivalence (or congruence) between codification and personalization aspects of SKM in order to keep enduring work productivity and innovation capacity in organizations. Thirdly, we argue that SKM initiatives that prodigiously focus on either codification or personalization can lead to pitfalls despite plenty of managerial interventions. We further believe that our proposed ideas will be worthwhile considerations for executives/leaders responsible for strategy, IT and innovation divisions of the organization to determine whether its organization’s knowledge engine is running smoothly, and if not, where to direct their energy to yield long term and robust outcomes.     

社会资本、知识利用与共有协同创新绩效

已有研究将社会资本作为获取外部知识的渠道,隐含假设是社会资本具有知识流入效应。由于知识分享的相互性,社会资本实质上还具有知识流出效应。已有研究主要强调知识流入效应,是因为私有协同创新中的知识分享存在有意识的控制机制和组织边界,从而有效地抑制了知识流出。在共有协同创新网络中,创新团队间边界模糊且知识分享不受限制,导致知识流出效应显著增强。本文以共有协同创新网络为背景,探讨创新团队社会资本对新产品流行度的差异化影响以及如何控制该影响。通过收集开源平台SourceForge上1595个项目和8186个志愿者信息,结果发现创新团队度中心性对新产品流行度具有倒U型作用;桥中心性和接近中心性可提升新产品流行度。团队知识利用则有利于延缓社会资本的负面效应,强化其正面效应。     

Towards a sustainable quality of university research: knowledge sharing

It is claimed that by providing a sustainable environment, a university’s research profile can be enhanced. Questions then arise about how universities define sustainability, what criteria are used to judge sustainable quality in research, and how a university can maintain sustainable research quality? This paper places emphasis on sustainable quality of research from the perspective of knowledge sharing. It is argued that effective sharing of knowledge among academics could lead to improved university research performance. It is most important that universities establish credible leadership influences on knowledge sharing. We apply Beer’s Viable System Model to identify those domains of research leadership and knowledge sharing that are necessary for an institution to maintain sustainable quality in research. This paper considers examples of research-knowledge sharing in U.K. research communities, and explores a positive relationship between research leadership and research-knowledge sharing.     

Crowdsourcing the curriculum: Redefining e-learning practices through peer-generated approaches

ABSTRACT

Inclusion of open resources that employ a peer-generated approach is changing who learns what, from whom, and via what means. With these changes, there is a shift in responsibilities from the course designer to motivated and self-directed learner-participants. While much research on e-learning has addressed challenges of creating and sustaining participatory environments, the development of massive open online courses calls for new approaches that go beyond the existing research on participatory environments in institutionally defined classes. We decenter institutionally defined classes and broaden the discussion to the literature on the creation of open virtual communities and the operation of open online crowds. We draw on literatures on online organizing, learning science, and emerging educational practice to discuss how collaboration and peer production shape learning and enable “crowdsourcing the curriculum.”     

知识团队中变革型领导对组织公民行为的影响

本文用实证研究的方法探讨了我国高科技组织的知识工作团队中团队领导者的变革型领导行为对团队成员组织公民行为的影响作用及影响机制。通过对来自四个城市的12家高科技组织的52个知识工作团队的领导者和294名团队成员的调查,研究结果发现:变革型领导行为对团队成员的组织公民行为具有显著的影响作用;关系导向的变革型领导行为对成员的组织公民行为影响作用更为强烈;领导-成员交换在变革型领导和团队成员组织公民行为之间起到部分中介作用。