What managers can learn from knowledge intensive technology startups? Exploring the skillset for developing adaptive organizational learning capabilities of a successful start-up enterprise in management education

The study shows what management students could learn from technology startups from an organizational learning (learning organization) perspective; and whether or on what level this entrepreneurial mindset is built into management education. First, the organizational learning patterns and adaptive entrepreneurial skillset of startups are identified, based on a review of the recent literature focusing on knowledge-intensive technology startups’ organizational learning patterns. Then, qualitative interviews and document analysis are applied to find out whether or on what level the improvement of these skills for developing an adaptive and successful startup are present as ‘learning organizations’ are integrated in top Central-European higher management education curricula. Based on the literature review, the theoretical framework is introduced, consisting of five pillars of ‘start-up learning’: ambidextrous entrepreneurial learning, business model development, failure and experiential learning, benchmarking and learning from others, and agile product development. The empirical research looks for these pillars in management MSc programs of a top Central-European business school. The most important findings reveal that the analyzed management education programs strongly prepare students with benchmarking skills. However, the study also showed that the culture and experience of failure and the capability of learning from failure are missing from these education programs

Mediation of transactive memory capability in relationship of social media usage and job performance

This study explores the role of transactive memory capability as a mediator in the relationship between social media usage and job performance. Drawing on transactive memory theory, we hypothesized that individuals who use social media more intensively for task-oriented purposes and relationship building are more likely to develop transactive memory capability, which in turn enhances their job performance. A survey was conducted among 816 employees in China from various industries to collect data on their social media usage patterns, transactive memory capability, and job performance. Results from structural equation modeling indicate that social media usage has a positive impact on job performance. Additionally, transactive memory capability mediates the relationship between social media usage and job performance. This study has contribution in literature by demonstrating the beneficial effects of social media usage on the development of transactive memory capability and job performance. It is suggested that social media usage can be used a valuable tool for enhancing performance of employees. Employees should gain an understanding of how social media fosters the development of transactive memory capability to utilize it more effectively. These findings also suggest that the way individuals use social media can influence their ability to access and share knowledge within their social networks, ultimately impacting their job performance

Advanced Cultural Districts. Innovative Approaches to Organizational Design

Most of the literature concentrated on urban clusters, cities of art and cities of culture, intended for local socio-economic development. How can the process of advanced districtualisation be supported also in a supra-urban territory and from an organizational perspective? What are the peculiarities of the Italian understanding of this process? Through the exploitation of eight Italian case studies, our argumentations are enriched and supported by a recent and innovative literature on the issue of design. The aim is to extend the knowledge and the understanding of cultural heritage under a managerial and, in particular, organizational perspective. More specifically, the work aims to open debate through the juxtaposition of too deterministic design approaches (we name “straight lines”), that extol the virtues of anticipation and completeness, and the actual process of design ‘in action’ within complex projects (depicted through the metaphor of “circles and spirals”) of Advanced Cultural Districts. Our argumentations converge in a model conceived as a support for both analysis and design intended towards a more conscious and sustainable way of cultural districtualisation as a form to support the local socio-economic development

Linking Research and Policy: Assessing a Framework for Organic Agricultural Support in Ireland

This paper links social science research and agricultural policy through an analysis of support for organic agriculture and food. Globally, sales of organic food have experienced 20% annual increases for the past two decades, and represent the fastest growing segment of the grocery market. Although consumer interest has increased, farmers are not keeping up with demand. This is partly due to a lack of political support provided to farmers in their transition from conventional to organic production. Support policies vary by country and in some nations, such as the US, vary by state/province. There have been few attempts to document the types of support currently in place. This research draws on an existing Framework tool to investigate regionally specific and relevant policy support available to organic farmers in Ireland. This exploratory study develops a case study of Ireland within the framework of ten key categories of organic agricultural support: leadership, policy, research, technical support, financial support, marketing and promotion, education and information, consumer issues, inter-agency activities, and future developments. Data from the Irish Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc), and other governmental and semi-governmental agencies provide the basis for an assessment of support in each category. Assessments are based on the number of activities, availability of information to farmers, and attention from governmental personnel for each of the ten categories. This policy framework is a valuable tool for farmers, researchers, state agencies, and citizen groups seeking to document existing types of organic agricultural support and discover policy areas which deserve more attention

Sustainability Development of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services: Strategic Actions and Business Performance

The recognition of the relevance of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) is becoming especially acute in the European Union and even more important for many emerging economies. The objective of the present study is twofold: (1) to examine whether an empirically-based typology of sustainability development can be constructed for KIBS; (2) to identify whether different development patterns are associated with different business performance outcomes. The empirical evidence is based on quantitative and firm-level data gathered through an email questionnaire which yielded 128 qualified responses from KIBS in the Czech Republic. The analysis is based on exploratory factor and cluster analysis to identify the cluster membership and to assess the relationship with performance outcomes it has been used the parametric test one-way ANOVA. Data analysis revealed that three distinct patterns types of KIBS exist, which were associated with different performance outcomes. With regard to the level of sustainable development, we found the conservative KIBS following market extension through a repositioning of existing and revised services, innovating KIBS following a new service development strategy focusing mainly on complements or line extension to existing services based on changes in technology and middle-ranged KIBS focusing on traditional strategy of comprehensiveness of services or “more services under one roof”. Innovating KIBS outperform other types of KIBS in all financial and non-financial parameters. The results have implications for practices involved in strategy development in services and useful for government efforts. The limitation of the research is done by focus on small companies, operating mainly in ICT and architectural and engineering services

Role of stage gates in effective knowledge sharing during the product development process

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2002."February 2002."Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-139).Premise of the thesis is that in today's knowledge economy, competitive advantage comes from effective use of corporate knowledge. This thesis compares and contrasts current practices for knowledge sharing in Xerox with an idealized model of best practices for knowledge sharing. The study explores the hypothesis that stage gates in a product development process are important for sharing corporate knowledge across functions and organizations, and that the product development process itself serves as an infrastructure for knowledge sharing. This study involved an analysis of knowledge sharing practices during stage gates reviews and how they evolved over time after stage-gate reviews. To develop an idealized model of best practices for knowledge sharing, experts of knowledge management in academia and industry were interviewed, and an extensive literature review was completed. This served as a backdrop for analysis in the case study at Xerox. The case study at Xerox utilized a personal interview approach complemented by a survey through electronic mail, and assessment was done against the idealized model of best practices for knowledge sharing. Twenty-six senior managers at Xerox were interviewed/surveyed. Strengths of Xerox in knowledge sharing and areas of improvements were identified. Using open ended questions, a holistic view for the scope of Xerox efforts, as well as the depth and quality of the best practices during the product development process was compiled. Using Carlile's knowledge boundary framework and boundary objects, attempt was done to transform engineering knowledge from one domain to another. This framework also served as a basis for suggestions for future improvements in knowledge sharing at Xerox in the areas of improvements identified through the interviews/surveys. Though any single company has not discovered the mantra for knowledge management and sharing; several good practices, which were consistently enablers of perceived success, were identified. The effective enablers towards knowledge sharing were a synergistic gathering of "common sense" items such as morale, trust, common goals, value and criticality of knowledge, diversity, and structure, rewards/recognition, support and knowledge initiatives along multiple fronts. It was discovered, that the product managers perceive that Xerox has considerable success in promoting a knowledge culture and has an effective product development process. It was also found that knowledge boundary framework and boundary objects serve as a good vehicle to explain the difficulty of knowledge sharing across functional and organizational boundaries. Engineering tools such as critical parameter management could benefit by a uniform, standardized approach to bringing together subject matter experts from various domains and creating the environment for creating new knowledge and innovations. Systems processes like the Xerox platform approach, where the systems architecture is composed of common platform elements, and core competencies in the development of reusable components for the platform elements are the basis for the Xerox product development process. Using the knowledge acquired through practical experience and education and taking a holistic view of the product development process as the boundary framework for knowledge transfer, we used the eCPM (Engineering Critical Parameter Management Tool) to translate knowledge from a domain expert in mechanical engineering to a common semantic base for transformation into the domain of software engineering. Specific tacit knowledge on what makes a parameter critical and how it plays a role in mechanical aspects in the design of Xerox devices, such as the system itself, media and motion path, marker path and the control and image path, as well as how to control these designs is to be transformed into the domain of software engineering. It was found that use of the eCPM tool to develop similar meaning of parameters for tuning software resources such as CPU speeds, memory utilization and performance is possible. Attempt to create new knowledge in the domain of software will be proceeding with a larger number of domain experts. Specific new knowledge in establishment of which software parameters to be labeled as critical (versus design parameters allocated and controlled via Input /Output/ Constraint values), which parameters should be system control parameters (those which span over multiple subsystems, and have latitudes within which to be tweaked in various sub-systems), the failure modes and latitudes for the failure modes will be part of future work. This will be part of a knowledge sharing and management framework proposed in the thesis because of the diagnostic analysis done of the current state at Xerox.by Tulsi D. Ramchandani.S.M

A Prototype Method and Tool to Facilitate Knowledge Sharing in the New Product Development Process

New Product Development (NPD) plays a critical role in the success of manufacturing firms. Activities in the product development process are dependent on the exchange of knowledge among NPD project team members. Increasingly, many organisations consider effective knowledge sharing to be a source of competitive advantage. However, the sharing of knowledge is often inhibited in various ways. This doctoral research presents an exploratory case study conducted at a multinational physical goods manufacturer. This investigation uncovered three, empirically derived and theoretically informed, barriers to knowledge sharing. They have been articulated as the lack of an explicit definition of information about the knowledge used and generated in the product development process, and the absence of mechanisms to make this information accessible in a multilingual environment and to disseminate it to NPD project team members. Collectively, these barriers inhibit a shared understanding of product development process knowledge. Existing knowledge management methodologies have focused on the capture of knowledge, rather than providing information about the knowledge and have not explicitly addressed issues regarding knowledge sharing in a multilingual environment. This thesis reports a prototype method and tool to facilitate knowledge sharing that addresses all three knowledge sharing barriers. Initially the research set out to identify and classify new product development process knowledge and then sought to determine what information about specific knowledge items is required by project teams. Based on the exploratory case findings, an ontology has been developed that formally defines information about this knowledge and allows it to be captured in a knowledge acquisition tool, thereby creating a knowledge base. A mechanism is provided to permit language labels to be attached to concepts and relations in the ontology, making it accessible to speakers of different languages. A dissemination tool allows the ontology and knowledge base to be viewed via a Web browser client. Essentially, the ontology and mechanisms facilitate a knowledge sharing capability. Some initial validation was conducted to better understand implementation issues and future deployment of the prototype method and tool in practice

Electronic capital : Economic and social geographies of digitalization

Digitalization, the social, economic and cultural process where individuals, organizations and societies access, adopt, use and utilize digital technologies, is expected to produce comprehensive societal benefits. Here, the spillover effects of the utilization of digital technologies such as e-government, teleworking and social media are examined in order to explore the added value that can be potentially gained from digitalization. Moreover, the study advances the conceptual perception of how, where and to whom the digitalization produces added value. The research applies Bourdieusian neo-capital theory, which emphasizes the significance of tangible and intangible forms of capital in understanding the social world. This dissertation addresses digitalization questions through four papers: The first paper is conceptual in nature. It redefines and introduces the concept of e-capital as another form of intangible capital, which emerges from the possibilities, capabilities and willingness of individuals, organizations and societies to invest in, utilize and reap benefits from digitalization and thus create added value. All forms of capital (physical, economic, human, social and cultural) are both required and produced in this process. The second paper exposes spatial and social disparities in the use of social media in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA), and the third paper shows the connection between teleworking, knowledge intensity and creativity of work and e-capital. Both of these papers draw on a survey of 971 inhabitants of the HMA conducted in 2010. The fourth paper examines the national e-government programme E-services and e-democracy (SADe) by exploiting 15 stakeholder interviews conducted in 2012. The paper indicates that the programme was mainly driven by a technological paradigm. The study demonstrates that the basic, primary motivation for advancing digitalization in societies is the fact that it matters: digitalization can provide e-capital and produce added value that cannot be gained or would be significantly more difficult to gain without digital technologies. The benefits do not materialize solely through the production of new innovative technological solutions, but rather they arise from comprehensive implementation by the individuals, organizations and societies. These actors possess varying amounts of different forms of capital and thus vary in terms of their possibilities, capabilities and willingness to implement new digital tools. Since different forms of capital are needed in order to create e-capital from digitalization, e-capital is most likely to emerge in the same locations as other forms of capital. However, the conceptualisation of e-capital demonstrated that jumping into the e-capital conversion process gives access to other forms of capital. This should motivate individuals, organizations and societies (including the public bodies supporting them) in their digitalization process. Keywords: e-capital, social media, teleworking, e-government, digitalization, Pierre BourdieuDigitalisaation, eli sosiaalisen, taloudellisen ja kulttuurisen prosessin, jossa yksilöt, organisaatiot ja yhteisöt saavuttavat, ottavat käyttöön ja hyödyntävät digitaalisia teknologioita, odotetaan tuottavan laajamittaisia yhteiskunnallisia hyötyjä. Tässä väitöskirjassa digitalisaatiota tarkastellaan sähköisen hallinnon kehityksen, etätyön ja sosiaalisen median käytön kautta ja edistetään teoreettista ymmärrystä siitä, miten, missä ja kenelle digitalisaatio materialisoituu hyödyiksi. Tutkimuksessa sovelletaan Bourdieulaista neo-kapitalistista teoriaa, joka korostaa aineellisen ja aineettoman pääomien merkitystä ja niiden välistä konversioprosessia eli sitä, miten eri pääomat konvertoituvat toiseksi pääoman muodoksi. Tutkimus koostuu neljästä artikkelista. Ensimmäinen artikkeli on luonteeltaan käsitteellinen. Siinä uudelleen määritellään sähköisen pääoman käsite, jolla viitataan aineettoman pääoman muotoon, joka luo lisäarvoa ja hyötyä ja joka syntyy yksilöiden, organisaatioiden ja yhteisöjen mahdollisuuksista, osaamisesta ja halukkuudesta investoida, hyödyntää ja hyötyä digitalisaatiosta. Sähköisen pääoman konversioprosessi toisaalta vaatii investointeja aineelliseen ja aineettomaan pääomaan ja toisaalta tuottaa niitä. Toisessa artikkelissa esitellään sosiaalisen median käytön spatiaalisia ja sosiaalisia eroavuuksia pääkaupunkiseudulla. Artikkeli osoittaa, että asukkaiden sosiaalisen median käytön merkitykset ja hyödyt ovat yhteydessä sosioekonomiseen asemaan. Kolmannessa artikkelissa osoitetaan etätyön, työn tietointensiivisyyden ja luovuuden sekä sähköisen pääoman välinen yhteys. Nämä artikkelit perustuvat pääkaupunkiseudun asukkaille vuonna 2010 osoitettuun kyselyyn, johon vastasi 971 asukasta. Neljännessä artikkelissa tutkitaan sähköisen asioinnin ja demokratian vauhdittamisohjelmaa (SADe) vuonna 2012 toteutettujen 15 haastattelun kautta. Artikkeli osoittaa, että ohjelmaa toteutuksessa teknologinen näkökulma oli keskeinen eli teknologisten ratkaisujen ajateltiin ratkaisevan kansallisia julkishallinnon tehokkuuden, tuottavuuden ja säästöjen saavuttamisen tavoitteita. Tutkimus korostaa, että digitalisaatiota hyödyntämällä voidaan saavuttaa sähköistä pääomaa, joka tuottaa lisäarvoa ja hyötyä, joka ei ole saavutettavissa tai joka on merkittävästi vaikeammin saavutettavissa ilman digitaalisia teknologioita. Hyödyt eivät kuitenkaan materialisoidu ainoastaan uusien innovatiivisten teknologisten ratkaisujen vaan yksilöiden, organisaatioiden ja yhteisöjen kokonaisvaltaisen uusien teknologioiden käyttöönoton kautta. Tässä prosessissa eri pääomat ovat keskeisiä, koska ne ovat yhteydessä yksilöiden, organisaatioiden ja yhteisöjen mahdollisuuksiin, kyvykkyyksiin ja halukkuuteen hyödyntää digitalisaatiota. Hyödyt voivat liittyä myös epärakentaviin päämääriin ja materialisoitua myös haitaksi sidosryhmästä riippuen. Eri pääomien sosiaalinen ja spatiaalinen jakautuminen määrittää, missä ja kenelle sähköistä pääomaa muodostuu. Toisaalta pääomien konversiossa myös sähköinen pääoma on muiden pääoman muotojen tapaan muutettavissa toisiksi pääoman muodoiksi, kuten kasvaneeksi tuottavuudeksi, uudeksi osaamiseksi tai verkostoiksi, jotka voivat edelleen johtaa taloudellisiin hyötyihin. Avainsanat: sähköinen pääoma, sosiaalinen media, etätyö, sähköinen hallinto, digitalisaatio, Pierre Bourdie