Knowledge Governance for Open Innovation: Evidence from an EU R&D Collaboration

This chapter highlights a particularly challenging arena for knowledge governance, by focussing on the issues associated with large-scale R&D programmes of 'open innovation'. The chapter develops a theoretical framework for analysing these governance challenges by focussing on the interplay between the knowledge processes and inter-organizational relationships involved. This framework is subsequently applied to a casestudy of a major open innovation programme, namely, a major interfirm research programme sponsored by the European Union (EU) in the aerospace sector. Analysis of this case suggests that the stability and fit of governance mechanisms may be less important than their ability to adapt to the dynamics of the innovation process, and particularly to shifts between the open and closed networks which offer very different routes to appropriating value from that process

Mobilizing pilot-based evidence for the spread and sustainability of innovations in healthcare: The role of innovation intermediaries

An endemic challenge facing healthcare systems around the world is how to spread innovation more widely and sustainably. A common response to this challenge involves conducting pilot implementation studies to generate evidence of the innovation's benefits. However, despite the key role that such studies play in the local adoption of innovation, their contribution to the wider spread and sustainability of innovation is relatively under-researched and under-theorized. In this paper we examine this contribution through an empirical examination of the experiences of an innovation intermediary organization in the English NHS (National Health Service). We find that their work in mobilizing pilot-based evidence involves three main strands; configuring to context; transitioning evidence; and managing the transition. Through this analysis we contribute to theory by showing how the agency afforded by intermediary roles can support the effective transitioning of pilot-based evidence across different phases in the innovation journey, and across different occupational groups, and can thus help to create a positive feedback loop from localized early implementers of an innovation to later more widespread adoption and sustainability. Based on these findings, we develop insights on the reasons for the unnecessary repetition of pilots – so-called ‘pilotitis’- and offer policy recommendations on how to enhance the role of pilots in the wider spread and sustainability of innovation

Multiple Cancer Testis Antigens Function To Support Tumor Cell Mitotic Fidelity

While the expression of genes that are normally involved in spermatogenesis is frequently detected in tumors, the extent to which these gene products are required for neoplastic behaviors is unclear. To begin to address their functional relevance to tumorigenesis, we identified a cohort of proteins which display synthetic lethality with paclitaxel in non-small-cell lung cancer and whose expression is biased toward testes and tumors. Remarkably, these testis proteins, FMR1NB, NXF2, MAGEA5, FSIP1, and STARD6, are required for accurate chromosome segregation in tumor cells. Their individual depletion enhances the generation of multipolar spindles, increases mitotic transit time, and induces micronucleation in response to an otherwise innocuous dose of paclitaxel. The underlying basis for abnormal mitosis is an alteration in microtubule function, as their depletion increases microtubule cytaster formation and disrupts microtubule stability. Given these observations, we hypothesize that reactivated testis proteins may represent unique tumor cell vulnerabilities which, if targeted, could enhance responsiveness to antimitotic therapy. Indeed, we demonstrate that combining paclitaxel with a small-molecule inhibitor of the gametogenic and tumor cell mitotic protein TACC3 leads to enhanced centrosomal abnormalities, activation of death programs, and loss of anchorage-independent growth

Neighborhood and Family Environment of Expectant Mothers May Influence Prenatal Programming of Adult Cancer Risk: Discussion and an Illustrative DNA Methylation Example

Childhood stressors including physical abuse predict adult cancer risk. Prior research portrays this finding as indirect through coping behaviors including adult smoking or through increased toxic exposures during childhood. Little is known about potential direct causal mechanisms between early-life stressors and adult cancer. Because prenatal conditions can affect gene expression by altering DNA methylation with implications for adult health, we hypothesize that maternal stress may program methylation of cancer-linked genes during gametogenesis

Proposing a systems vision of knowledge management in emergency care

This paper makes a case for taking a systems view of knowledge management within health-care provision, concentrating on the emergency care process in the UK National Health Service. It draws upon research in two casestudy organizations (a hospital and an ambulance service). The case-study organizations appear to be approaching knowledge (and information) management in a somewhat fragmented way. They are trying to think more holistically, but (perhaps) because of the ways their organizations and their work are structured, they cannot ‘see’ the whole of the care process. The paper explores the complexity of knowledge management in emergency health care and draws the distinction for knowledge management between managing local and operational knowledge, and global and clinical knowledge

Developing a Relational View of the Organizing Role of Objects: A study of the innovation process in computer games

Innovation processes create distinctive challenges for coordination. Objects are seen as supporting coordination in such settings by enabling the emergent action needed to deal with a dynamic and uncertain process. Thus, previous work has highlighted the role of different types of objects in coordinating the collaborative tasks undertaken by expert groups, either by motivating the creation of new knowledge or through the translation of understanding. Through an empirical study of innovation processes in the computer games sector, our paper adds to this previous work by finding that the relations between objects, and not the objects alone, help to orchestrate multiple collaborative tasks towards a final outcome within temporal and resource constraints. The relational view which emerges from this study shows how such a ‘system of objects’ is able to stabilize coordination of the process while preserving the emergence and autonomy of games developer practices needed to achieve innovation

Making a journey in knowledge management strategy

This paper reports results from an ongoing project examining what managers think about knowledge management in the context of their organisation. This was done in a facilitated computerassisted group workshop environment. Here we compare the outcomes of workshops held for two relatively large UK organisations, one public sector and the other private. Our conclusions are that there are relatively few differences between the perceptions of these two groups of managers, and that these differences stem more from the stage of the knowledge management life cycle that the two organisations have reached, rather than from the difference in context between public and private sector. © iKMS & World Scientific Publishing Co

DNA methylation in insects

Cytosine DNA methylation has been demonstrated in numerous eukaryotic organisms and has been shown to play an important role in human disease. The function of DNA methylation has been studied extensively in vertebrates, but establishing its primary role has proved difficult and controversial. Analysing methylation in insects has indicated an apparent functional diversity that seems to argue against a strict functional conservation. To investigate this hypothesis, we here assess the data reported in four different insect species in which DNA methylation has been analysed more thoroughly: the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the cabbage moth Mamestra brassicae, the peach-potato aphid Myzus persicae and the mealybug Planococcus citri

Managing software engineers and their knowledge

This chapter begins by reviewing the history of software engineering as a profession, especially the so-called software crisis and responses to it, to help focus on what it is that software engineers do. This leads into a discussion of the areas in software engineering that are problematic as a basis for considering knowledge management issues. Some of the previous work on knowledge management in software engineering is then examined, much of it not actually going under a knowledge management title, but rather “learning” or “expertise”. The chapter goes on to consider the potential for knowledge management in software engineering and the different types of knowledge management solutions and strategies that might be adopted, and it touches on the crucial importance of cultural issues. It concludes with a list of challenges that knowledge management in software engineering needs to address