Inter-organizational learning in drifting environments - Experiences from a multi-firm software development project

This paper examines conditions under which organizations can acquire and profitably utilise knowledge generated in joint product development ventures. Past research states that such learning depends on relationships between knowledge accumulation at the level of joint venture and the evolution of knowledge structures in the wider organizational environment. An important argument of this paper is that such relationships might drift abruptly due to unforeseen events taking place during project operation, creating new challenges and opportunities for learning. Drawing upon previous research on project-based learning, the paper proposes a model of interorganizational learning aimed to help managers and researchers visualising links between drift and learning in distributed project contexts. The paper illustrates and assesses the empirical relevance of the analytical framework through a case study of a multi-firm product development project in the European software industry.

The complex interaction between Global Production Networks, Digital Information Systems and International Knowledge Transfers

Traditionally many studies of knowledge in economics have focused on localized networks and intra-regional collaborations. However, the rising frequency by which firms collaborate within the context of global networks of production and innovation, the increasingly intricate divisions of labor involved and the extensive use of the Internet to facilitate interaction are all relatively novel trends that underline the importance of knowledge creation and flows across different locations. Focusing on this topic, the present chapter examines the complex interactions between global production networks (GPN), digital information systems (DIS) and knowledge transfers in information technology industries. It seeks to disentangle the various conduits through which different kinds of knowledge are transferred within such networks, and investigate how recent generations of DIS are affecting those knowledge transfers. The paper concludes that the dual expansion of GPN and DIS is adding new complexity to the practice of innovation: To access knowledge necessary for sustained creativity firms often have to link up with remote partners in GPN, but to be able to absorb and utilize this knowledge, they also frequently have to engage in local interactive learning processes. These local- global linkages - and the various skills necessary to operate them - are strongly interdependent, mutually reinforcing and critical for the development and maintenance of innovation-based competitiveness.

Anxiety and depression lowers blood pressure: 22-year follow-up of the population based HUNT study, Norway

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>For decades, symptoms of anxiety and depression have been included among psychological factors associated with development of hypertension. Although this has been questioned in recent studies, most findings have been based on a single assessment of mental distress at baseline. We examined these associations using repeated assessments of anxiety, depression and blood pressure.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data on 17,410 men and women aged 20 to 67 participating in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT) in Norway in 1984-86 were re-examined 11 and 22 years later. The main outcome was change in mean blood pressure (mm Hg) during follow-up.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that a high symptom level score (≥80^thpercentile) of combined anxiety and depression at baseline, as compared to a lower symptom level, was associated with lower mean systolic (-0.67 mm Hg, p <it>= </it>0.044) and diastolic (-0.25 mm Hg, p <it>= </it>0.201) blood pressure at year 22. A high symptom level present at all three examinations was associated with a stronger decrease in mean systolic (-1.59 mm Hg, p <it>= </it>0.004) and diastolic (-0.78 mm Hg, p <it>= </it>0.019) blood pressure and with a 20% (p = 0.001) lower risk of developing hypertension (BP ≥140/90 mm Hg) at year 22. The associations were only slightly attenuated in multivariate analyses, with no evidence of a mediating effect of alteration in heart rate.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study do not support previous hypothesis that emotional stress may be a cause of hypertension. Our findings indicate that symptoms of anxiety and depression are associated with decrease in blood pressure, particularly when a high symptom level can be detected over decades.</p

Storage and Search in Dynamic Peer-to-Peer Networks

We study robust and efficient distributed algorithms for searching, storing, and maintaining data in dynamic Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks. P2P networks are highly dynamic networks that experience heavy node churn (i.e., nodes join and leave the network continuously over time). Our goal is to guarantee, despite high node churn rate, that a large number of nodes in the network can store, retrieve, and maintain a large number of data items. Our main contributions are fast randomized distributed algorithms that guarantee the above with high probability (whp) even under high adversarial churn: 1. A randomized distributed search algorithm that (whp) guarantees that searches from as many as $n - o(n)$ nodes ($n$ is the stable network size) succeed in ${O}(\log n)$-rounds despite ${O}(n/\log^{1+\delta} n)$ churn, for any small constant $\delta > 0$, per round. We assume that the churn is controlled by an oblivious adversary (that has complete knowledge and control of what nodes join and leave and at what time, but is oblivious to the random choices made by the algorithm). 2. A storage and maintenance algorithm that guarantees (whp) data items can be efficiently stored (with only $\Theta(\log{n})$ copies of each data item) and maintained in a dynamic P2P network with churn rate up to ${O}(n/\log^{1+\delta} n)$ per round. Our search algorithm together with our storage and maintenance algorithm guarantees that as many as $n - o(n)$ nodes can efficiently store, maintain, and search even under ${O}(n/\log^{1+\delta} n)$ churn per round. Our algorithms require only polylogarithmic in $n$ bits to be processed and sent (per round) by each node. To the best of our knowledge, our algorithms are the first-known, fully-distributed storage and search algorithms that provably work under highly dynamic settings (i.e., high churn rates per step).Comment: to appear at SPAA 201

Scheduling with Setup Costs and Monotone Penalties

We consider single processor preemptive scheduling with job-dependent setup times. In this model, a job-dependent setup time is incurred when a job is started for the first time, and each time it is restarted after preemption. This model is a common generalization of preemptive scheduling, and actually of non-preemptive scheduling as well. The objective is to minimize the sum of any general non-negative, non-decreasing cost functions of the completion times of the jobs -- this generalizes objectives of minimizing weighted flow time, flow-time squared, tardiness or the number of tardy jobs among many others. Our main result is a randomized polynomial time O(1)-speed O(1)-approximation algorithm for this problem. Without speedup, no polynomial time finite multiplicative approximation is possible unless P=NP. We extend the approach of Bansal et al. (FOCS 2007) of rounding a linear programming relaxation which accounts for costs incurred due to the non-preemptive nature of the schedule. A key new idea used in the rounding is that a point in the intersection polytope of two matroids can be decomposed as a convex combination of incidence vectors of sets that are independent in both matroids. In fact, we use this for the intersection of a partition matroid and a laminar matroid, in which case the decomposition can be found efficiently using network flows. Our approach gives a randomized polynomial time offline O(1)-speed O(1)-approximation algorithm for the broadcast scheduling problem with general cost functions as well

The effect of organizational separation on individuals' knowledge sharing in MNCs

The ability of an organization to apply knowledge globally has been conceptualized as critical for the existence of multinational corporations (MNCs). We argue for an organizational separation effect on knowledge sharing that challenges the view of the MNC as a latent social community. Using a unique data-set of more than 4.000 individual responses from an MNC, Telenor, we test how three types of drivers for individuals’ knowledge sharing –individuals’ motivation, and individuals’ perceptions of organizational values and organizational work practices- work differently within, as opposed to across, business units. Our analysis suggests that while intrinsic motivation, innovative values and job autonomy are relatively important drivers of knowledge sharing within the business units, extrinsic motivation, result-oriented values and participation in corporate employee development are relatively more important for knowledge sharing across business units

The Next Generation of National R&D Programmes in Norway: Consequences for Action Research and Regional Development

"This paper examines the impact of a new national R&D programme in Norway, Programme for Regional Innovation and R&D (VRI), which uses action research (AR) to facilitate innovation-oriented collaboration between regional industry, R&D and public institutions. While the VRI programme builds on a sequence of previous AR-oriented regional development programmes, it represents a significant novelty as it democratizes control over research funds from central authorities to regional coalitions of private and public decision makers. Drawing on our own experiences from a long-standing AR project in the Telemark region, we discuss how the commencement of the VRI programme is affecting ongoing development initiatives there and the conditions for conducting AR in regional contexts. We conclude that VRI has led to a situation in which more regional actors are involved in action research activities, and in which there is closer collaboration between researchers and regional decision makers. At the same time, we suggest, there is a risk that the new programme will lead to regional lock-in, and marginalization of national R&D institutions and action research competencies accumulated there during previous R&D programmes." (author's abstract