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The problem of embeddedness revisited: Collaboration and market types
AbstractAbstract
Embeddedness has been touted as a framework for knowledge exchange and innovation, and thus as an important precondition for high-level performance. Embeddedness of economic action in social relations improves access to resources, but over-embeddedness impedes performance. However, until now the association between embeddedness and performance in different markets has been neglected. This paper challenges the predominant view of embeddedness and over-embeddedness as absolute and mutually exclusive conditions. Through regression analyses of novel data from a project-based industry, the paper tests the association between embeddedness and economic performance in different markets, finding a positive association in the domestic market, but a negative association in foreign markets. This divergence in performance is caused in part by selection bias in the access to foreign markets, and in part by accumulation of localized knowledge."Network Structure, Coworkers' Knowledge and Individual Ambidexterity: A Cross-Order Search View"
AbstractAbstract
Firms must effectively leverage network knowledge resources for improving individual ambidexterity (IA) as an important base of organizational ambidexterity. By introducing cross-order knowledge search as a new concept, we link the network factor and the knowledge search mechanism together to explore the combined effects of network structure and network conduct on IA. We find that, in the R&D team network, both the exchange with coworkers who have a wider search breadth and the exchange with coworkers who have more search depth have an inverse U-shape relationship with the actors IA, and structural holes of the actor moderate these relationships differently."Intra-Firm and Inter-Firm Knowledge Exchange: The Effects of Formal, Informal & Hybrid Coordination"
AbstractAbstract
Intra-firm diversification and external collaborations have led to dispersed knowledge production within corporations and beyond. To remain competitive, firms put significant efforts into intra-firm (i.e. between business units) and inter-firm (i.e. between business units and external partners) knowledge exchange. Although coordination is a vital prerequisite in this complex context, literature hitherto lacks a comprehensive understanding of how coordination mechanisms differentially affect both knowledge exchange settings. Traditionally, research distinguishes formal (e.g. centralization) and informal (e.g. connectedness) coordination mechanisms. However, this dichotomy fails to account for hybrid modes of governance that combine elements of both such as information technology and rewards. Using multi-informant survey data from 90 business units in Germany, we address the suitability of different coordination mechanisms for both knowledge exchange settings. Through this, we also advance research on organizational design by pointing to the favorable influence of hybrid coordination. Our data suggests that information technology and rewards enhance knowledge exchange while the purely formal and informal mechanisms, centralization and connectedness, have a negative effect in either one of the settings.How Industry Practices Foster Successful University-Business Knowledge Exchange
AbstractAbstract
Building upon an original survey of about 200 UK companies, this paper aims to investigate what are the firm and industry-level practices that support successful knowledge exchange between university and industry. In particular, it explores what practices companies engage in and how different practices influence the probability to successfully achieve different knowledge exchange objectives of businesses when interacting with universities, focus in particular on two types of objectives: those linked to accessing university knowledge, and those linked to co-creating knowledge together with universities in order to address complex business challenges. We find that while most businesses are generally able to successfully access university knowledge, knowledge co-creation is difficult for a significant proportion of companies. The adoption of good practices enables firms to successfully engage in knowledge exchange. However, the suitability of practices varies depending on the nature of knowledge exchange. The adoption of linkage good practices - such as using institutions that link academics and companies, search engines to find academics/ institutions and innovation voucher scheme- is the key to successfully accessing university knowledge. On the other hand, the adoption of behaviour and negotiation practices - such as openness, trust, transparency, team level communications, shared understanding and negotiations - enables universities and businesses to closely work together to successfully co-create knowledgeMiddle Managers’ Horizontal and Vertical Interpersonal Processes in Achieving Unit Ambidexterity
AbstractAbstract
Although scholars have relied upon structural and contextual perspectives in explaining how ambidexterity may emerge, little is known about how managers can contribute directly to it. Hence, we develop a managerial capabilities perspective about middle managers’ horizontal and vertical interpersonal processes in relation to business unit ambidexterity. We find that horizontal knowledge, which fosters unit ambidexterity, is contingent upon the extent to which middle managers’ interactions with top managers are characterized by integrative bargaining and cognitive flexibility, revealing complimentary and substitution effects, respectively. Our results have implications for the co-involvement of top and middle managers in executing complex strategies in multi-unit organizations. Moreover, this study provides guidance for practitioners to leverage the complementarities of vertical and horizontal interpersonal processes, while avoiding the pitfalls of engaging in both.The Role of Executive Programs in Bridging Conversations between Academics and Practitioners
AbstractAbstract
Based on an ethnographic study of the interaction of two groups of management academics and practitioners in an international executive master’s program, the research articulates a process perspective on how academics and practitioners exchange knowledge across boundaries. Findings suggest that academics and practitioners can resourcefully deal with knowledge exchanges that are pervaded by relational insecurity, thanks to a set of relational strategies that are used sequentially, according to trial and error logics. The four strategies identified connect, albeit to different extents, what goes on inside the classroom with what goes on outside the classroom, in academics’ and practitioners’ day-to-day relations. Each strategy led to a different type of knowledge exchange and the first two strategies -that were intentional- had less impact on new knowledge creation than the two strategies that emerged spontaneously from interaction. Our findings challenge orthodox understandings about the existence of a management theory-practice gap and highlights the importance of seeing theoretical and managerial expertise in practice as socially entangled rather than community-specific. We also testify the important role of executive programs in facilitating academic-practitioner boundary-work. By triggering insecurities, conflicts and reparatory negotiation processes, executive settings in business schools allow for repeated contaminations between knowledge deriving from theorizing and practicing.Climate for Inclusion's Effects on Inclusive Behaviors and Knowledge Exchange: A Multi-method Study
AbstractAbstract
Climate for inclusion has garnered increased attention in diversity research as it is proposed to have substantial positive effects on important organizational, team, and individual level outcomes. We developed and empirically tested a model of how organizational climate for inclusion influences individual intentions and behavior. Our findings are based on a multi-method, multi-study design. In Study 1, results from a field survey of 915 employees nested in 27 organizations provide preliminary support for organizational climate for inclusion’s positive influence on individual intentions to engage in inclusive behaviors, which in turn affect knowledge exchange. To establish causality, we retested these relationships in two experiments. Study 2, a between-participant experimental vignette study, supports the finding that organizational climate for inclusion increases individual intentions to engage in inclusive behaviors. In Study 3, we developed a knowledge exchange card game to investigate whether and when intentions to engage in inclusive behavior influence knowledge exchange behavior. Findings imply that these intentions interact with dyadic ethnic compositions. Ethnically mixed dyads (one foreigner-one local) exchange more knowledge than ethnically homogeneous dyads. Foreigners benefit more when intentions to engage in inclusive behaviors are high, while locals benefit more when intentions to engage in inclusive behaviors are low.Epistemic Communities, Knowledge Exchange and Financial Firm Performance of R&D Driven Firms
AbstractAbstract
Building on knowledge and transaction costs literatures, we submit that in order to understand the transaction costs of knowledge exchange the theory should distinguish between operational and hierarchical discipline in epistemic communities. Members of epistemic communities are subject to effective operational discipline, which reduces the risks of bounded rationality and opportunism in knowledge exchange. Knowledge exchange across epistemic communities is subject to conflicting cognitive frames, knowledge sharing and validation procedures. Hierarchical discipline may effectively mitigate these tensions. However, within epistemic communities, hierarchical governance may increase rather than reduce the transaction costs of knowledge transfer as operational discipline effectively mitigates the risks of bounded rationality and opportunism. To test these ideas, we analyze the exchange of critical knowledge resources between two important epistemic communities (R&D and marketing), of 681 firms over 11 years in the knowledge intensive software industry, and we find support for our hypotheses. Our findings show that both operational and hierarchical discipline are relevant for understanding the transaction costs of knowledge exchange.Opening the Black Box of “Not Invented Here”: Attitudes, Decision Biases, and Behavioral Consequences
AbstractAbstract
The not-invented-here syndrome (NIH) describes a negative attitude toward knowledge (ideas, technologies) derived from an external source. Even though it is one of the most cited constructs in the literature on knowledge transfer, previous research has not provided a clear understanding of the antecedents, underlying attitudes, and behavioral consequences of NIH. The objective of our paper is to open the black box of NIH by providing an in-depth analysis of this frequently mentioned yet rarely understood phenomenon. Building on recent research in psychology and an extensive review of the management literature on NIH, we first develop a framework of different sources classifying knowledge as “external.” We then discuss how a perception as “external” may trigger the rejection of this knowledge, even if it is useful for the organization. Differentiating various functions of an attitude, we hereby identify possible trajectories linking NIH with such biased individual behavior and decision making. We apply this understanding to develop an extensive agenda for future research.
