Informal networking: An overview of the literature and an agenda for future research

Informal inter-organizational networks provide manifold opportunities to organize the transfer of information, knowledge and technology between actors. Given their potential and their importance, the lack of theoretical discussion and empirical research on informal networks and their dynamics is surprising. The objective of this paper is twofold. It attempts to review the fragmented academic discussion of the notion of informal networking, thereby focusing on how these relationships emerge initially and what conditions (presumably) are required to make them a mutually fruitful and sustainable channel of the transfer of information and knowledge. On that groundwork, the most important empirical studies which try to confirm and disentangle the aforementioned basic mechanisms of informal exchange relationships are reviewed. Finally, we outline an agenda of future research directions that we encourage researchers to pursue in future empirical studies. Five important research gaps can be identified. -- Informelle Netzwerkstrukturen bieten vielfältige Möglichkeiten, den Transfer von Informationen, Wissen und Technologie zwischen Akteuren zu organisieren. In Anbetracht des Potentials sowie der Bedeutung informeller Netzwerke ist der bestehende Mangel an theoretischen Diskussionen wie auch empirischer Forschung überraschend. Hier setzt der Beitrag an, indem eine Bündelung der bislang lediglich in Fragmenten vorliegenden Auseinandersetzung mit dem Konzept informeller Netzwerke vorgenommen wird. Der Fokus wird dabei auf Fragen der Entstehung solcher Netzwerkstrukturen sowie auf diejenigen Faktoren gelegt, die notwendig sind, informelle Netzwerke als effektiven und beständigen Kanal des Wissens- und Technologietransfers nutzbar zu machen. In einem zweiten Teil des Beitrags wird ein Überblick über die wichtigsten, zum gegenwärtigen Zeitpunkt existierenden, Studien gegeben, die sich empirisch mit dem Konzept informeller Netzwerkstrukturen auseinandersetzen. Basierend auf dieser Aufarbeitung werden anschließend fünf wichtige Forschungsfragen formuliert, die im Fokus zukünftiger Forschungsbestrebungen stehen sollten.Informelle Netzwerke,Information trading,Wissenstransfer,Literaturüberblick

Negotiating the 'trading zone'. Creating a shared information infrastructure in the Dutch public safety sector

Our main concern in this article is whether nation-wide information technology (IT) infrastructures or systems in emergency response and disaster management are the solution to the communication problems the safety sector suffers from. It has been argued that implementing nation-wide IT systems will help to create shared cognition and situational awareness among relief workers. We put this claim to the test by presenting a case study on the introduction of ‘netcentric work’, an IT system-based platform aiming at the creation of situational awareness for professionals in the safety sector in the Netherlands. The outcome of our research is that the negotiation with relevant stakeholders by the Dutch government has lead to the emergence of several fragmented IT systems. It becomes clear that a top-down implementation strategy for a single nation-wide information system will fail because of the fragmentation of the Dutch safety sector it is supposed to be a solution to. As the US safety sector is at least as fragmented as its Dutch counterpart, this may serve as a caveat for the introduction of similar IT systems in the US

Evolution of Supply Chain Collaboration: Implications for the Role of Knowledge

Increasingly, research across many disciplines has recognized the shortcomings of the traditional “integration prescription” for inter-organizational knowledge management. This research conducts several simulation experiments to study the effects of different rates of product change, different demand environments, and different economies of scale on the level of integration between firms at different levels in the supply chain. The underlying paradigm shifts from a static, steady state view to a dynamic, complex adaptive systems and knowledge-based view of supply chain networks. Several research propositions are presented that use the role of knowledge in the supply chain to provide predictive power for how supply chain collaborations or integration should evolve. Suggestions and implications are suggested for managerial and research purposes

On Internal Knowledge Markets

In large organizations, knowledge can move rapidly or slowly, usefully or unproductively. Those who place faith in internal knowledge markets and online platforms to promote knowledge stocks and flows should understand how extrinsic incentives can crowd outintrinsic motivation

Cultivating Collaborative Improvement: An Action Learning Approach

As competitive pressure mounts to innovate in the global knowledge economy, many organizations are exploring new ways of collaborating with their supply chain partners. However, the process of implementing collaborative initiatives across disparate members of supply networks is fraught with difficulties. One approach designed to tackle the difficulties of organizational change and inter-organizational improvement in practice is `action learning¿. This paper examines the experiential lessons that arise when cultivating collaborative improvement in an interorganizational learning environment. The authors, acting as action researchers, facilitated a practical learning program in an Extended Manufacturing Enterprise involving a large system integrator in the automotive industry and three of its\ud suppliers. Based on this experience, a practical learning model is offered to promote and facilitate inter-organizational change as part of a collaborative improvement process

Knowledge management implications

Knowledge management is a general concept applied to almost any project that an organization undertakes, which is meant to transfer, share and exploit knowledge from one part of the organization to another. Most of the companies are already involved in knowledge management, even if, often, it is done informally and implicitly. The goal of a formal knowledge management program is just to make knowledge marketplaces to become more efficient. Many organizations are recognizing that the ownership of knowledge creates an important competitive advantage. Quite simply, the lack of a knowledge management program means that they are losing money or opportunities. The easiest kind of knowledge management project to justify is the ‘knowledge base’. A knowledge base is something that attempts to make the knowledge marketplace more efficient by making explicit knowledge easier to access. Projects that aim to facilitate the transfer of knowledge work best when organizations recognize how the existing knowledge marketplace operates, so that they can work within it.innovation, knowledge flow system, knowledge transfer, knowledge utilization process, tacit and explicit knowledge

Coordination and control in project-based work: digital objects and infrastructures for delivery

A major infrastructure project is used to investigate the role of digital objects in the coordination of engineering design work. From a practice-based perspective, research emphasizes objects as important in enabling cooperative knowledge work and knowledge sharing. The term ‘boundary object’ has become used in the analysis of mutual and reciprocal knowledge sharing around physical and digital objects. The aim is to extend this work by analysing the introduction of an extranet into the public–private partnership project used to construct a new motorway. Multiple categories of digital objects are mobilized in coordination across heterogeneous, cross-organizational groups. The main findings are that digital objects provide mechanisms for accountability and control, as well as for mutual and reciprocal knowledge sharing; and that different types of objects are nested, forming a digital infrastructure for project delivery. Reconceptualizing boundary objects as a digital infrastructure for delivery has practical implications for management practices on large projects and for the use of digital tools, such as building information models, in construction. It provides a starting point for future research into the changing nature of digitally enabled coordination in project-based work

Learning difficulties: collaborative inter-organisational information system use within UK retail supply networks

Inter-organisational information systems (IOIS) have been introduced to support collaborative retail supply relationships, yet how these systems are used is not well understood. This paper presents analysis of an ideographic case study of a dynamic United Kingdom grocery sector supply network. Using Archer's (1995) social change theory we explore how changes to buyer-supplier relationship structures re-conditioned individual actors' situational logics in a way that created network learning difficulties. Our analysis shows how actors' inter-organisational information system use reinforced pre-existing bargaining positions and improved already powerful actors' relative negotiating strength. This paper demonstrates the value of multi-level analysis in furthering understanding of the complex relationships between processes of network and individual learning