Il governo dei sistemi reticolari di imprese

Negli ultimi anni un numero crescente di studiosi ha focalizzato l'attenzione sulle opportunità strategiche di creazione e di sfruttamento della conoscenza che si dischiudono alle imprese che operano in un contesto reticolare. Il lavoro muove dalla considerazione che il potenziale economico-cognitivo localizzato in un network di imprese è connesso con tematiche rilevanti quali: le modalità che caratterizzano i processi di produzione e di condivisione della conoscenza che vi risiede; la struttura delle relazioni che interconnettono le imprese interagenti e i loro percorsi evolutivi; e ancor più il nesso che lega dinamicamente gli aspetti processuali-cognitivi con gli aspetti strutturali e di governo del network. Dato che la comprensione dei temi indicati appare ancora parziale, il volume si propone di accrescere tale comprensione avvalendosi della chiave di lettura fornita dalla teoria dei sistemi complessi. In particolare, attraverso la chiave di lettura complessa si reinterpretano i contributi provenienti da tre aree di rilievo della ricerca economico-manageriale: la knowledge-based theory, la prospettiva dei network e la letteratura sulle alleanze. È in tal modo possibile proporre un framework analitico, multilivello e dinamico, in grado di rappresentare le principali determinanti dell'azione degli attori del network e dei processi di formazione e di evoluzione dei set di conoscenze e di competenze diffuse nel sistema come anche della sua architettura connettiva reticolare

Le potenzialità cognitive dei network di imprese

Negli ultimi anni numerosi autori hanno indicato le reti di imprese quale modalità attraverso cui organizzare le relazioni cooperative tra imprese, in grado di porre in essere superiori processi di condivisione e di creazione della conoscenza e, pertanto, rispondente alle sfide poste - in un ambiente complesso - da una competizione basata sempre più sulla criticità dell’attività innovativa. Nella realtà operativa, il concreto dispiegarsi del succitato potenziale cognitivo è connesso con la struttura assunta dall’aggregato reticolare e con le sue modalità di governo. Orbene, gli studi teorici ed empirici che si sono proposti di esaminare il nesso sussistente tra le performance economico-cognitive e la struttura di governo delle reti di imprese sovente si sono focalizzati su aspetti specifici e parziali della tematica considerata, nonché hanno adottano una prospettiva statica. Tali contributi, pur avendo arricchito la comprensione del sovra specificato nesso, tuttavia, non sono finora giunti a conclusioni univoche sullo stesso. L’articolo intende collocarsi nell’ambito del dibattito relativo alla relazione esistente tra aspetti processuali competitivi-cognitivi ed aspetti organizzativo–strutturali delle reti di imprese mediante l’adozione della logica, olistica e multi-livello, caratterizzante la teoria dei sistemi dinamici complessi. In particolare, verranno esaminate in dettaglio le peculiarità che contraddistinguono la realizzazione dei processi di apprendimento, di condivisione e di creazione della conoscenza nell’ambito dei tre livelli sistemici (micro, meso e macro) nei quali si articola l’architettura relazionale della rete, evidenziandone le correlate dimensioni dell’efficienza cognitiva (statica e dinamica). Successivamente, sulla base della superiore analisi, verranno individuate le caratteristiche della struttura reticolare cui sono riconducibili le potenzialità cognitive delle reti di imprese, nonché le problematiche di governo da fronteggiare al fine di perseguire l’implementazione (sincronica e diacronica) di tali caratteristiche

La comunicazione istituzionale nelle organizzazioni pubbliche: opportunità e criticità connesse con il corporate brand orientation

Corporate communication in public sector organizations: the opportunities and challenges of a corporate brand orientation. Over the past thirty years, the New Public Management (NPM) has been the dominant approach in the public sector. Leveraging the idea that citizens are customers of the administration, the NPM imports management principles and techniques from the private sector in order to improve the performance of public organizations. After a short description of the main problems associated with the implementation of market orientation in the public sector, this article examines corporate brand orientation as an interesting alternative to market orientation in the public context. Corporate brand orientation provides a holistic and balanced perspective on an organization that is able to enhance and take advantage of the distinctive characteristics of public organizations. More in detail, the article highlights the opportunities related to the creation of strong public corporate brands. Then, it discusses the potential challenges of introducing corporate branding activities in public organizations

The Complex System Theory for the Analysis of Inter-Firm Networks: A Literature Overview and Theoretic Framework

In this paper we discuss the body of knowledge known as complex system theory and its relevance to the analysis of inter-firm networks. We start addressing the development of systems thinking. Through a literature overview, we point out the main elements for the development of systemic thought from its beginning, through its application in business sciences, to the birth of Complex Systems Theory (CST). With these initial annotations we provide an introduction to the concepts of the complex systems theory. We will underscore those aspects of CST that can be useful to analyze inter-firm networks, in order to highlight the evolutionary dynamics of the networks and to clarify the logical link between the network’s structure and the cognitive processes inside the network and the firms. In particular we highlight how CST can be an interpretative framework to connect and empower the economic, cognitive, structural and managerial aspects of network business systems

Introduction to the JOTSC Special Issue on Leveraging Organizational Change and Knowledge Management to Address Environmental Complexity

Claims that organizations are living through a period of unprecedented complexity are not new. Accordingly, scholars and practitioners are recognizing the challenges that originate from operating in increasingly complex and interconnected environments. Despite the relevant theoretical advances occurred in organizational and management studies as a consequence of such recognition, a full appreciation of how organizations deal with complex situations is still missing (Amagoh, 2008; Axeldrod & Cohen, 2000). Accordingly, this special issue aims to contribute to elucidate how organizations respond to environmental complexity through the activation of specific processes of organizational change and knowledge management. The special issue includes a set of articles presented in their preliminary version at the panel session ‘Organizational Change and Knowledge Management ’of theBusiness Systems Laboratory 3rd International Symposium ‘Advances in Business Management. Towards Systemic Approach, ’held in Perugia (Italy) in 2015. Albeit the included papers focus on diverse epistemological and theoretical perspectives, overall the complex system perspective significantly contributes to enlighten the researched topic. In detail, the first two articles tackle specific issues connected with the implementation of mechanisms, interaction contexts and atmospheres that can promote and smooth organizationalchange. The third and fourth articles embrace two high-level arguments related to the ethical approach that can support contemporary organizations involved in a complex environment, and the ‘organizational reference giving example’(i.e. the disciplinary matrix of the organizational activities) that cansupport managers and scholars in observing the organizational change over time

The Role of Complex Leadership in Interfirm Strategic Networks: Enabling Effect Versus Emergence

In today's knowledge-based economy, the sources of competitive advantage lie more and more in webs of relationships among a variety of firms that over time originate the emergence of interfirm strategic networks. The paper aims to shed light on the role of complex leadership exerted by network central firms in promoting and supporting network interactions and the ensuing processes of knowledge and resource transfer and diffusion. Processes on which the network-based sources of competitive advantage are rooted. In the attempt to make the proposed contribution, on the one hand, we underscore the emergent nature of network interactions stemming from the self-organizing behaviors that spontaneously arise inside the interfirm strategic network. On the other hand, we show that the leadership action of network central firms sparks off enabling effects that join to self- organizing network behaviors. The result of the two mentioned forces is an expansion of the network interaction potential that permits both the networked actors and the strategic network as a whole to reach level of performance that may not be accomplished otherwise

Structural Dynamics and Intentional Governance in Strategic Interfirm Network Evolution

This paper aims to shed light on the drivers underlying the role and scope of intentional governance of the structural dynamics of whole interfirm networks. Prior research has distinguished networks that are emergent from networks that are orchestrated. While empirical studies have shown situations in which the role and scope of intentional governance of whole interfirm networks has changed in time, and there is a growing interest regards the endogenous drivers of network dynamics, the dimensions that influence intentional governance of network structure dynamics and the way this is carried out remain still to be elucidated. In order to pinpoint these drivers, we leverage the models of network structure dynamics elaborated within research conducted at the intersection between network research and complexity science to propose a multilevel interpretive framework that clarifies the role and scope of intentional agency at different structural levels of interfirm networks. Our framework advances a twofold conceptual contribution: on one hand, we tackle the change in the role and scope of intentional governance of network structures in both evolutionary phases of network evolution (i.e., the early stages and the later stages). On the other, we see the network of formal ties resembling the accelerating network model, while the network of informal ties being akin to the scale-free (or truncated scale-free) network model of complex networks theory

Structural and Knowledge Dynamics in Inter-firm Complex Systems

The paper aims to scrutinize the drivers of interfirm network structural dynamics and their influence on knowledge creation and diffusion over time. Interfirm knowledge networks are complex webs of linkages connecting a variety of idiosyncratic firms within and across industries. By serving as conduits through which information, knowledge and other resources flow and reputations are signaled (Poldony, 2001; Owen-Smith & Powell, 2004), they support cooperation in knowledge sharing and creation processes