Organization of knowledge exchange: An empirical study of knowledge-intensive business service relationships

This article empirically examines, the structure of relationships between business service firms and their clients, in particular, the allocation of control rights to the intellectual assets created in joint projects. Business service firms are a distinctive case because their 'product' is essentially knowledge, and in many cases this knowledge is partly tacit and collectively generated and applied. It is proposed that allocation of the rights to intellectual assets in service relationships has a bearing on the creation and deployment of knowledge. Therefore, from the perspective of a service firm, contractual arrangements need to be aligned with the nature of its knowledge base. Knowledge base is characterized here by the firm's service strategy and by its learning strategy. Estimation results using a survey dataset of 167 business service firms provide support for the conjecture. Service firms that provide expert skills or learn incrementally are less likely to retain control rights to their intellectual output. A possible interpretation is that control rights are less valuable to knowledge service providers, whose activities are based on tacit and non-replicable knowledge resources, than to firms with organizationally controlled and replicable resources.Knowledge, Intellectual property rights, Incomplete contracts, Supply relationships,

‘Experimental Union’ and Baltic Sea cooperation: the case of the European Union’s Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR)

In the past, Baltic Sea cooperation has been characterized by a plethora of actors, embracing a wide range of policy objectives, such as the establishment of a good environmental status for the regional sea. In 2009, the European Council endorsed the European Union’s (EU) Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) as a new tool in the repertoire of Cohesion Policy and European Territorial Cooperation (ETC). The EUSBSR seeks to foster cross-sectoral coordination and functional cooperation in policy areas of ‘macro-region-level’ relevance, such as transport infrastructure, economic development and environmental protection – thus projecting a ‘soft space’ of transnational Baltic Sea cooperation. Although firmly placed under the so-called ‘Three No’s’, that is, the requirement of no additional EU funding, institutions and legislation, a lean governance architecture at the macro-regional level has emerged over time and the strategy mobilizes actors from all tenets of the EU’s multilevel governance system, including the EU itself, its member and adjacent partner states, as well as subnational authorities and civil society. Drawing on the lens of experimentalist governance, this paper analyzes the underlying mechanisms that allow it to be gauged to what extent the Baltic Sea ‘soft space’ has solidified over the past decade. It also shows that the EUSBSR effectively rebalances EU transnational and intergovernmental regional cooperation in the Baltic macro-region

Unraveling HRM: Identity, Ceremony, and Control in a Management Consulting Firm.

This paper addresses human resources management (HRM) systems and practices in a large multinational management consultancy firm. The firm invests considerable resources in HRM, and is frequently praised by employees for its accomplishments in hiring, developing, and promotion. However, this general faith in HRM does not align particularly well with employees' experiences and perceptions of the specific HRM practices in the firm. The paper critically interprets the meaning and the functions of the HRM system and the beliefs supporting it. The paper suggests a reinterpretation of HRM systems and practices based on a cultural-symbolic perspective. It introduces the concepts of excess ceremonialism, identity projects, and aspirational control to highlight and interpret the significance of organizational symbolism in accounting for the role of HRM systems and practices, and the various effects of HRM systems and practices on employee identity and compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR