Academics engaging in knowledge transfer and co-creation: Push causation and pull effectuation?

Although academics are increasingly engaging with businesses, some fundamental aspects of this phenomenon (i.e., their motivations, decision-making approaches, and the interplay between the two) remain understudied. We therefore conducted a qualitative inductive study comprising 68 interviews with academics who had engaged in two forms of activities—knowledge transfer and co-creation. Whereas the entrepreneurship literature offers a resource-based argument, we made an original contribution to the literature by introducing an engagement-based argument in order to offer a more accurate prediction of the motivations and decision-making approaches of academics engaged in knowledge transfer and co-creation activities. We found that when the resource- and engagement-based arguments offer different predictions of the interplay between the motivations and decision-making approaches adopted, the cognitive proximity between academics and business researchers, which reflects whether the partners are from the same/different disciplines, resolves the puzzle. We captured these situational contingencies by developing six propositions that indicate how the engagement- and resource-based arguments jointly offer a more comprehensive explanation of the interplay. We discuss the implications of our findings with regard to how universities could offer customized training, rewards, and support structures based on the four types of interplay between the motivation and decision-making approaches.     

科学概念的认知进路与转向--科学技术论视野

科学技术论视野中,视点与方法是对科学概念的不同认知进路和认知方式,在此基础上形成了四种不同的科学认知脚本,并组成了关于科学的认知矩阵。认知矩阵刻画了科学概念的四种认知进路与三次转向,随着科学概念的延伸,现代科学及其知识与权力有内在相关性,并且是一个社会协商和妥协的过程。     

Knowledge collaboration among physicians in online health communities: A transactive memory perspective

Knowledge teams have emerged in online health communities (OHCs) where physicians collaborate spontaneously with others through the Internet to gather knowledge. Knowledge collaboration (KC) facilitates physicians’ communication and the provision of better services to patients in today's medical environment. However, the underlying mechanism through which KC improves team performance in OHCs is not clear. This study aims to advance understanding of the KC process by exploring the role of the transactive memory system (TMS). Real operation data from 1071 teams in a leading OHC in China used to understand both the antecedent and consequences of the TMS and the interaction effects among different dimensions of TMS. The findings have demonstrated that leader's capital was a critical factor in KC by promoting the effective TMS development and further affect both team's process and outcome performance. Positive moderating effects of coordination on the relationship between credibility and performance are also found. This study reveals for the first time the role of KC in improving performance in online health markets from the TMS perspective. The findings provide theoretical guidance to physician–physician collaborative teams with guidelines on boosting chances for higher performance.     

The cognitive selection framework for knowledge acquisition strategies in virtual communities

As a significant source of knowledge, virtual communities have stimulated interest in knowledge management research. Nonetheless, very few studies to date have examined the demand-side knowledge perspective such as knowledge acquisition in virtual communities. In order to explore the knowledge acquisition process within virtual communities, this study proposes the cognitive selection framework of knowledge acquisition strategy in virtual communities. The proposed framework takes a cognitive perspective, to identify how knowledge recipients select their strategy for acquiring specialized knowledge, emphasizing their cognitive goals (e.g., cognitive replication and innovation) and cognitive motivators (e.g., virtual community self-efficacy, heightened enjoyment, and time resources). Our results suggest that knowledge recipients’ cognitive motivators differentially influence their cognitive goals (cognitive replication and innovation), which, in turn, are related to their selection of knowledge acquisition strategy (static and dynamic acquisition strategy), respectively.     

创业团队的认知锁定对创业团队稳定性的影响——基于创业团队的多案例研究

 由于创业活动充满不确定性,创业团队的稳定性对新企业的生存和发展十分重要。目前针对创业团队的研究多从团队的异质性出发,其可能导致的不稳定性问题的研究相对匮乏。本文从创业团队认知的角度出发,通过对国内4个创业活跃程度不同地区的15个创业团队进行案例研究,分析创业团队内部的认知锁定形成及其对创业团队稳定性的影响。研究结果显示：（1）交互记忆系统对认知锁定的形成具有促进作用。高度发展交互记忆系统的创业团队最终形成创业团队内部成员间的认知锁定。（2）已形成认知锁定的创业团队倾向于利用团队内部的先前经验积累或搜索内部知识解决意外事件。（3）认知锁定可以促进创业团队的稳定性。（4）认知锁定阻碍创业团队决策模式的创新,不利于创业企业长期绩效的提升。     

Disentangling international research collaboration in the Spanish academic context: Is there a desirable researcher human capital profile?

A number of studies has focused on examining those academic researchers attributes-demographics or not- that condition international research collaboration (IRC) and its results. However, it is not possible to speak about an ‘ideal’ type of researcher so far. Should we assume that just only those ‘star researchers’ collaborate internationally?. The literature is not clear enough on this topic, offering interesting but insufficient support to know the set of individual characteristics that ensures fruitful IRC. To deepen the analysis of academic researchers attributes, in particular, the human capital characteristics, this study proposes in-depth research on exploring different combinations on human capital dimensions and testing potential differences in IRC levels. To do so, from an exploratory perspective, a cluster analysis was conducted in a sample of 937 Spanish academics, obtaining three researcher profiles: (1) consolidated international research collaborators, (2) effective international research collaborators, and (3) skilled international research collaborators. Far from the recurrent analysis of single or disconnected researchers' attributes, this paper contributes to the extant literature with a new typology based on the variables of academic human capital, providing an useful starting point to better understand who really can develop international networks to collaborate and, therefore, how to foster IRC in Universities.     

Crowdsourcing for innovation: How related and unrelated perspectives interact to increase creative performance

In recent years, several organizations have opened up their innovation processes to individuals from outside of the organization by means of digital crowdsourcing. The literature on crowdsourcing has emphasized the importance of using digital technology to reach far beyond organizational boundaries and include individuals with (educational) backgrounds that are very different and unrelated to those within the organization in its innovation process. It has been argued that such individuals will contribute novel insights because they consider an organization's innovation challenge from different perspectives. Building on the literature on creativity and absorptive capacity, we instead argue that having a related perspective will positively affect an individual's idea performance, while unrelated perspectives only positively contribute to idea performance in combination with a related perspective. Analyses of 2178 ideas contributed by 948 crowd members to 68 crowdsourced idea challenges show that it is important to consider how (educational) backgrounds can provide individuals with multiple perspectives, which can be either related or unrelated, and study how the interplay of related and unrelated perspectives affects the value of ideas in organizational open innovation initiatives.     

高校科研团队领导语言框架与成员创新行为研究

与以往领导影响下属创新行为的研究多从正向促进视角切入不同，本研究探讨了高校科研团队中领导者积极/消极语言框架对科研人员创新行为的促进/抑制双向影响路径。通过采用三阶段式问卷调查法对高校科研团队中228位科研人员及其直接领导进行实证调研，回归分析结果显示：领导者积极语言框架与科研人员创新行为显著正相关，领导消极语言框架与科研人员创新行为显著负相关；同时，科研人员认知评价中介了领导者语言框架与科研人员创新行为间的关系；而且，领导—下属交换关系正向调节领导者积极语言框架对下属挑战性评价的影响作用。本研究对阐释高校科研团队中，领导者影响（促进/抑制）科研人员创新行为的心理机制具有重要的意义。     

学术创业企业从0到1的成长

学术创业企业的成长伴随着从科研网络向产业网络的跨越,为了解析其成长机理,本文以中美两国共14个学术创业案例为依据,从“社会网络—合法性”视角分析企业网络的动态演化,并着重探讨了各阶段合法性约束的种类、身份转化劣势的作用机制以及合法性策略选择的情境条件。研究发现：（1）学术创业者在创业者存在身份转换劣势,并给企业带来合法性约束。（2）根据网络边界跨越方式的不同,创业者建立合法性的策略可分为直驱型策略和迂回型策略。（3）合法性策略的选择受到企业所在网络的多样性和自身技术新颖性的影响。基于学术创业的特殊情境,论文提出身份转换劣势的概念,并为企业成长理论和合法性理论做出贡献。     

Knowledge sharing in open source software project teams: A transactive memory system perspective

The extant studies have not empirically examined the possible team cognitive mechanisms that facilitate knowledge sharing in OSS teams, even though knowledge sharing is a cognitive task and an OSS team is a complex cognitive system. To fill this research gap, we adopt the perspective of transactive memory system (TMS) to explore the relationships among TMS, knowledge sharing, communication quality, and technical achievement of OSS teams. By analyzing data from 95 OSS projects with the partial least squares (PLS) method, our study demonstrates that several TMS dimensions have positive impacts on knowledge sharing behaviors and communication quality. Moreover, communication quality positively influences technical achievement of OSS teams. These findings provide useful implications for literature and practice.     

Directed collaboration patterns in funded teams: A perspective of knowledge flow

Collaborations in funded teams are essential for understanding funded research and funding policies, although of high interest, are still not fully understood. This study aims to investigate directed collaboration patterns from the perspective of the knowledge flow, which is measured based on the academic age. To this end, we proposed a project-based team identification approach, which gives particular attention to funded teams. The method is applicable to other funding systems. Based on identified scientific teams, we detected recurring and significant subgraph patterns, known as network motifs, and under-represented patterns, known as anti-motifs. We found commonly occurred motifs and anti-motifs are remarkably characterized by different structures matching certain functions in knowledge exchanges. Collaboration patterns represented by motifs favor hierarchical structures, supporting intensive interactions across academic generations. Anti-motifs are more likely to show chain-like structures, hindering potentially various knowledge activities, and are thus seldom found in real collaboration networks. These findings provide new insights into the understanding of funded collaborations and also the funding system. Meanwhile, our findings are helpful for researchers, the public and policymakers to gain knowledge on research(ers) evolution, particularly in terms of primordial collaboration patterns.     

Emergency management in the changing world of social media: Framing the research agenda with the stakeholders through engaged scholarship

The use of social media and Web 2.0 platforms is proliferating and affecting different formal and highly structured organisations including public safety agencies. Much of the research in the area has focussed on public use of social media during an emergency as well as how emergency agencies benefit from the data and information generated by this process. However, there is little understanding of “what are the operational implications of this public use on emergency management agencies and how does social media either positively or negatively impact these operations”? In order to progress research into this topic, we chose an engaged scholarship framework to shape a research agenda with the active participation of stakeholders. Hence, we conducted a series of workshops primarily involving over 100 public safety practitioners working in the area of disasters and emergency management who work in public safety agencies, humanitarian organisations, volunteering online platforms and volunteer groups in addition to 20 academics working on this area of enquiry. The findings highlight six different challenges that emergency responding organisations currently face in relation to social media use. We conceptualise these challenges as creating six operational tension zones for organisations. We discuss these tensions and their implications for future research and practice.     

The use of rewards in the sharing of research resources

The literature has shown that academics often share intermediate research resources bilaterally and only infrequently deny requests for sharing. This study goes further and investigates how resource sharing is rewarded. We contrast rewarded and non-rewarded sharing, and further differentiate the types of rewards into direct (e.g., coauthorship) and reputational (e.g., acknowledgments). In a survey of 1,204 resource suppliers or recipients in the UK, Germany, and Japan, we find that rewards are commonly used, and that the form of rewarding is associated with the context in which academics work. In particular, we find that suppliers who are commercially active are more likely to agree on direct rewards. Instead, suppliers who make use of open sharing platforms are more likely to agree on reputational rewards and less likely to agree on direct rewards. For both suppliers and recipients we find that those working in larger teams are more likely to agree on direct rewards, and that their interdisciplinarity is positively linked to direct rewards and negatively to reputational rewards. These results suggest that a reward system for intermediate resources is emerging and rewarding practices are evolving with contextual differences.     

Do teams need both hands? An analysis of team process ambidexterity and the enabling role of information technology

As a core organizational resource, business processes are vital for organizational teams. To deal with today’s volatile business environment, organizations need to be ambidextrous in terms of process capabilities. However, little is known about how process ambidexterity, process standardization, and process agility, are enabled by information technology (IT) and related to team-level activities. To fill this gap in the literature, we conducted a field study based on 160 teams of 1081 individuals from seven companies in South Korea. Our results show that IT enables both process standardization and agility, and that a team’s process ambidexterity has a positive effect on inter-team coordination and team innovation, which in turn have a direct impact on team performance. Our findings highlight the importance of process ambidexterity by investigating the enabling role of IT and its outcomes in a team. Our results offer theoretical and practical implications from the perspective of team process ambidexterity.     

Evaluation of a personalized digital library based on cognitive styles: Adaptivity vs. adaptability

Personalization can be addressed by adaptability and adaptivity, which have different advantages and disadvantages. This study investigates how digital library (DL) users react to these two techniques. More specifically, we develop a personalized DL to suit the needs of different cognitive styles based on the findings of our previous work [Frias-Martinez, E., Chen, S. Y., & Liu, X. (2008) Investigation of behavior and perception of digital library users: A cognitive style perspective. International Journal of Information Management]. The personalized DL includes two versions: adaptive version and adaptable version. The results showed that users not only performed better in the adaptive version, but also they perceived more positively to the adaptive version. In addition, cognitive styles have great effects on users’ responses to adaptability and adaptivity. These results provide guidance for designers to select suitable techniques to develop personalized DLs.     

Technological Change and the Form of Science Research Teams: Dealing with the Digitals

Abstract

During the late 1990s, photography moved from being a primarily analogue medium to being an almost entirely digital medium. The development of digital cameras and software for working with photographs has led to the wholesale computerization of photography in many different domains. This paper reports on the findings of a study of the social and organizational changes experienced by marine mammal scientists who have changed from film‐based photography to digital photography. This technical change might be viewed as a simple substitution of a digital for an analogue camera, with little significance for how scientists do what they do. However, a perspective anchored in social informatics leads to the expectation that such incremental technical changes can have significant outcomes, changing not only how scientists work, but also the outcomes of their research. This present study finds that key consequences of this change have been the composition of the personnel working on the scientific research teams for marine biology projects and the ways in which these scientists allocate their time.     

The three facets of knowledge: A critique of the practice-based learning theory

The community of practice learning theory (Lave and Wenger, 1991) can be credited with establishing the social basis of learning, viewing it as occurring through participation in social practices and activities. However, it remains silent on the cognitive content of what is learned by participants in a community of practice. Nor does it address explicitly the role of individuals in the knowing process. Individuals are merely depicted in terms of a desire to belong to a community, progressing from a peripheral participation position to a more central one. The aim of the present paper is to assess the contribution of Lave and Wenger's (1991) practice theory for educational and other learning social settings. In a schooling context, for instance, Lave and Wenger's (1991) account of learning would imply that what students learn at school is how to relate and belong to the school community. By reducing learning and knowing to participation, and by displacing cognition from individuals to anonymous practices, the practice-based epistemology ignores the significant corpus of content knowledge (such as curriculums) and ascribes too passive a role to individuals and glosses over their differentiated access to resources for changing practices and their differentiated efforts in their social and cognitive development. The present paper suggests an approach to knowledge that takes into account the various facets of knowledge, that is, knowledge as knowledge-productive practices, as content, and as relation to a knowing subject, at the same time preserving the sociality of knowledge and learning.     

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.     

技术标准的社会建构观

将技术的社会建构理论运用于标准政策分析中,通过对制度层面、政治层面和技术层面的深入分析,将标准制定过程中不同影响因素加以整合。指出除要重视标准原则的指导作用,发挥完善标准制定程序的保障作用外,还要重视标准制定过程中的不同参与主体的作用;同时,要对标准中的知识产权问题给予关注。     

论企业竞争情报团队

市场经济条件下企业竞争日益激烈,企业利用从各种渠道获得的信息经过分析后用于决策。竞争情报（CI）的运用成为企业日常活动的一部分,企业竞争情报团队是企业竞争情报活动中最活跃的因素,是提高情报质量的关键。本文首先阐述了企业为什么要组建竞争情报团队,并从情报价值链的角度分析了企业竞争情报团队中情报人员的角色与职责,最后进一步说明了如何使企业竞争情报团队更好地发挥功效。