Trust as an aspect of organisational culture: its effects on knowledge sharing in virtual communities

Knowledge sharing is of much interest to both practitioners and researchers because of its potential to quicken learning, enhance innovation, reduce costs, and place organisations on a competitive edge. A principal tool for knowledge sharing has been identified by researchers to be virtual communities in which research collaboration and other knowledge sharing activities easily take place. Some key factors examined in literature as influencing knowledge sharing are technological, economic, and cultural. This paper concentrates on organisation culture with specific focus on trust as its component. While trust has been researched in other contexts, it has not been researched as an organisational cultural component that could affect knowledge sharing in virtual communities. This gap in knowledge is what this paper aimsto fill. A conceptual framework is developed to express the relationship between trust components and knowledge sharing in virtual communities. The framework will be verified in future empirical research; however, possible implications of the research to research and practice are presented

Innovation, sustainability and organizational change in a social Portuguese organization: a strategic management perspective

Social economy organizations are mission driven with the purpose of creating social value, overcoming a social problem and contributing to attain sustainable social development. In this chapter, a particular weakness underlying those organizations is addressed: lack of managerial skills and the importance of a well-structured process of strategic management and organizational innovation. Based on the analysis of a Portuguese case study, the goal is to increase the knowledge on the facilitating factors and barriers to the improvement of the quality of service and the efficiency of the management of a social economy organization, in order to understand how it creates and delivers social value and ensures its future sustainability. The findings highlight a number of best practices in the design of a structured innovation process which were supported by the Portuguese Program Q3-Qualifying the Third Sector, which may help similar organizations to improve their innovation and organizational processes

Innovation, sustainability, and organizational change in a social Portuguese organization: a strategic management perspective

Social economy has been a prominent topic among scholars, politicians, and practitioners. Social economy organizations are mission-driven with the purpose of creating social value, overcoming a social problem, and contributing to attain sustainable social development. In this chapter, a particular weakness underlying those organizations is addressed: lack of managerial skills and the importance of a well-structured process of strategic management and organizational innovation. Based on the analysis of a Portuguese case study, the goal is to increase the knowledge on the facilitating factors and barriers to the improvement of the quality of service and the efficiency of the management of a social economy organization, in order to understand how it creates and delivers social value and ensures its future sustainability. The findings highlight a number of best practices in the design of a structured innovation process which were supported by the Portuguese program Q3-qualifying the third sector, which may help similar organizations to improve their innovation and organizational processes