269,410 research outputs found

    Knowledge as Culture

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    Culture must not be seen as something that merely reflects an organizationā€™s social reality: rather, it is an integral part of the process by which that reality is constructed. Knowledge management initiatives, per se, are not culture change projects; but, if culture stands in the way of what an organization needs to do, they must somehow impact

    Sanitation as a Business: Unclogging the Blockages

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    The first Unclogging the Blockages conference took place in Kampala, Uganda in February 2014 with the aim of putting on the table some of the major challenges facing the scale up of sustainable sanitation as well as collaborating towards innovaive soluions. This report summarizes the discussions and takeaway messages from the conference, including concrete action plans developed around a number of thematic areas. [KEY FINDINGS]Market based approaches are key to addressing some of the main barriers for scaling sustainable sanitation solutions. Participants came away with a much richer understanding of the principles and key tenets of sanitation as a business. A push for greater integration in sanitation programming between the housing, energy, business, health, and education sectors will allow for sustainable city and district-wide sanitation services.Unlocking finance for businesses and households and embedding monitoring within all work is critical. One interesting outcome of the group work was a suggestion to form a Global Sanitation Financing Alliance.Supporting sanitation businesses to be successful in the realities of the market requires on-the-ground, real time, market-focused technology development and R&D. A variety of these technologies were on display at the meeting

    Carving out new business models in a small company through contextual ambidexterity: the case of a sustainable company

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    Business model innovation (BMI) and organizational ambidexterity have been pointed out as mechanisms for companies achieving sustainability. However, especially considering small and medium enterprises (SMEs), there is a lack of studies demonstrating how to combine these mechanisms. Tackling such a gap, this study seeks to understand how SMEs can ambidextrously manage BMI. Our aim is to provide a practical artifact, accessible to SMEs, to operationalize BMI through organizational ambidexterity. To this end, we conducted our study under the design science research to, first, build an artifact for operationalizing contextual ambidexterity for business model innovation. Then, we used an in-depth case study with a vegan fashion small e-commerce to evaluate the practical outcomes of the artifact. Our findings show that the company improves its business model while, at the same time, designs a new business model and monetizes it. Thus, our approach was able to take the first steps in the direction of operationalizing contextual ambidexterity for business model innovation in small and medium enterprises, democratizing the concept. We contribute to theory by connecting different literature strands and to practice by creating an artifact to assist managemen

    The balanced scorecard logic in the management control and reporting of small business company networks: a case study

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    The purpose of this paper is to assess and integrate the application of the balance scorecard (BSC) logic into business networks identifying functions and use that such performance measuring tool may undertake for SMEā€™s collaborative development. Thus, the paper analyses a successful case study regarding an Italian network of small companies, evaluating how the multidimensional perspective of BSC can support strategic and operational network management as well as communication of financial and extra financial performance to stakeholders. The study consists of a qualitative method, proposing the application of BSC model for business networks from international literature. Several meetings and interviews as well as triangulation with primary and secondary documents have been conducted. The case study allows to recognize how BSC network logic can play a fundamental role on defining network mission, supporting management control as well as measuring and reporting the intangible assets formation along the network development lifecycle. This is the first time application of a BSC integrated framework for business networks composed of SMEs. The case study demonstrates operational value of BSC for SMEā€™s collaborative development and success

    Innovation in the Public Sector

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    Innovation is something that is new, capable of being implemented, and has a beneficial impact. It is not an event or activity; it is a concept, process, practice, and capability that defines successful organizations. Innovation in the public sector can help create value for society

    Building Networks of Practice

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    {Excerpt} Extensive media coverage of applications such as FaceBook, MySpace, and LinkedIn suggests that networks are a new phenomenon. They are not: the first network was born the day people decided to create organizational structures to serve common interestsā€”that is, at the dawn of mankind. However, the last 10ā€“20 years have witnessed rapid intensification and evolution of networking activities, driven of course by information and communication technologies as well as globalization. These make it possible for individuals to exchange data, information, and knowledge; work collaboratively; and share their views much more quickly and widely than ever before. Thus, less and less of an organizationā€™s knowledge resides within its formal boundaries or communities of practice. Knowledge cannot be separated from the networks that create, use, and transform it. In parallel, networks now play significant roles in how individuals, groups, organizations, and related systems operate. They will be even more important tomorrow. Since we can no longer assume that closely knit groups are the building blocks of human activityā€”or treat these as discrete units of analysisā€”we need to recognize and interface with less-bounded organizations, from non-local communities to links among websites. We should make certain that knowledge harvested in the external environment is integrated with what exists within, especially in dynamic fields where innovation stems from inter-organizational knowledge sharing and learning. Therefore, the structure and composition of nodes and ties, and how these affect norms and determine usefulness, must become key concerns. This makes the study of networks of practice a prime interest for both researchers and practitioners

    A Primer on Intellectual Capital

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    {Excerpt} Born of the information revolution, knowledge management has arisen in response to the belated understanding that intellectual capital is a core asset of organizations and that it should be circumscribed better. From this perspective, it is the growing body of tools, methods, and approaches, inevitably underpinned by values, by means of which organizations can bring about and maximize a return on knowledge assets, aka intellectual capital. That, Thomas Stewart explained pithily (yet broadly) is organized knowledge that can be used to generate wealth. (Conversely, it also helps to think of what intellectual capital is not, that is, monetary or physical resources.) More specifically, aggregated intellectual capital comprises ā€¢ Human capitalā€”the cumulative capabilities and engagement of an organization\u27s personnel, rooted in tacit and explicit knowledge, that can be invested to serve the joint purpose. ā€¢ Relational (or customer) capitalā€”the formal and informal external relationships, counting the information flows across and knowledge partnerships in them, that an organization devises with clients, audiences, and partners to co-create products and services, expressed in terms of width (coverage), channels (distribution), depth (penetration), and attachment (loyalty). ā€¢ Structural (or organizational) capitalā€”the collective capabilities of an organizationā€”any of them codified, packaged, and systematized, including its governance, values, culture, management philosophy, business processes, practices, research and development, intellectual property, performance metrics, and information systems, as well as the systems for leveraging them

    Modelling the Value Adding Attributes of Real Estate to the Wealth Maximization of the Firm

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    Firms develop strategies to help them achieve their primary goal of maximizing the wealth of the shareholders. These strategies should define the supporting role corporate real estate management plays; however current theory and practice do not adequately identify the direct and indirect methods by which corporate real estate management (CREM) adds value to the firm. We develop a model of how real estate adds value to the firm to help fill this void. This model can be then used to develop more precise and complete metrics to measure the value real estate adds to the firm.

    Sustainable urban development in practice:the SAVE concept

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    The need for sustainable development of the urban environment presents the research community with a number of challenges and opportunities. A considerable volume of research has been undertaken into the constituent parts of this complex problem and a number of tool kits and methodologies have been developed to enable and encourage the application of specific aspects of research in practice. However, there is limited evidence of the holistic integration of the body of knowledge arising from the research within real-life decision-making practices. In this paper we present an overview of the existing body of knowledge relating to sustainable development of the urban environment and propose a generic framework for its integration within current practices. This framework recognises the need to: understand social, economic, and environmental issues; understand the decision-making processes; provide a means of measurement, assessment, or valuation of the issues; provide analytical methods for the comparative assessment of complex data to enable an evaluation of strategies and design options and to communicate effectively throughout the process with a wide range of stakeholders. The components of a novel sustainability assessment, visualisation and enhancement (SAVE) framework, developed by the authors to ā€˜operationaliseā€™ the body of knowledge are presented and justified. These include: decision-mapping methods to identify points of intervention; indicator identification and measurement approaches; appropriate mathematical and analytical tools and an interactive simulation and visualisation platform which integrates and communicates complex multivariate information to diverse stakeholder groups. We report on the application of the SAVE framework to a major urban development project and reflect on its current and potential impact on the development. Conclusions are also drawn about its general applicability
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