Karl Joachim Breunig

Incentives and performance measures for open innovation practices

Purpose – To guarantee alignment between ongoing activities and organizational goals, innovation management theory emphasizes management control and explicit innovation strategies as prerequisites for innovation performance. However, the theory on open services innovation emphasizes individual autonomy and incentives to foster open innovations. The aim of this paper is to explore this inconsistency. Design/methodology/approach – An explorative research design involving 25 semi-structured interviews in five large scale-intensive service firms is explored. Scale-intensive service firms are strategically sampled for this study since these firms experience tension between open service innovation characteristics and efforts to standardize. Findings – The authors show how individual autonomy facilitates the internal and external networking required in open innovations. However, individualized incentives do not suffice to motivate, mobilize and direct the collaboration and collective effort needed to ensure succ...

Transnational practices in communities of task and communities of learning

This article explores situated practices in communities that provide transnational services. Communities of practice generally focus on reinforcing local ties. Our study identifies two distinctive but interdependent communities of practice that are transnational and virtual: one community consists of employees who share work and tasks, labeled communities of task; the other consists of employees who jointly share and create knowledge, labeled communities of learning. We extend the existing community of practice literature by providing a heterogeneous understanding of the different types of situated practices, claiming that the situated practices of sharing work and sharing knowledge stem from the type of participation within the communities, either through service relays or virtual servicing. Empirical data in this study were collected from two transnational professional service firms. Our study shows that both types of communities benefit from managerial facilitation, even though one community type is more formal and the other is informal.

INNOVATION MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN PRODUCTION-INTENSIVE SERVICE FIRMS

This paper posits that innovation management practices are contingent upon the type of industry, and examines the innovation management practices in a distinctive set of service firms: production-intensive service firms. Production-intensive services are standardised services produced at a large scale. These services have received little attention from prior comprehensive qualitative innovation management practices research. The examination in this paper is based on in-depth interviews with 21 key-employees in five large Scandinavian production-intensive service firms. The results revealed a number of innovation management practices specific to production-intensive service firms in the four dimensions of strategy and culture, front end of innovation and portfolio management, development process, as well as intellectual and organisational resources. The findings expose that production-intensive service firms are less likely to have an explicit innovation strategy and they are unlikely to measure the strategic impact of innovation activities. Furthermore, the innovation processes in production-intensive service firms tend to be flexible, although formal descriptions exist. The findings extend knowledge on innovation management practices research and provide useful lessons and implications for managers who seek to develop new production-intensive services. The findings also demonstrate that there is a need to acknowledge a contingent view of innovation management practices that are receptive to the type of context the innovation occur in.

Limitless learning: assessing social media use for global workplace learning

Purpose This empirical paper aims to assess how social media can foster workplace learning within a globally dispersed project environment. In general, there are few studies on the use of social media in organizations, and many of these emphasize on issues related to knowledge transfer. Although learning traditionally has been as acquisition of knowledge, increasingly researchers point to learning-as-participation occurring through work collaboration. Social media promise increased opportunities for communication and collaboration, extending the context of collaboration beyond the local setting. However, there exists limited research on how social media can foster workplace learning, for example, between globally dispersed colleagues. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on an exploratory, in-depth single case study of an international professional service firm’s implementation of an internal wiki system to address the research question: how are social media utilized in an organization to foster workplace learning among its dispersed individual experts? Data are gathered in 35 semi-structured interviews, as well as documents studies and observations. Data are coded and analyzed utilizing the context and learning factors of workplace learning. Findings The paper shows how the wiki system enables hybrid knowledge management strategies linked to virtual collaboration on daily project tasks, involving documentation, search, interaction and knowledge exchange, as well as socialization and learning from practice among dispersed groups and individuals. The learning mechanisms involved in virtual collaboration do not differ much from what is reported on face-to-face workplace learning, however, the context factors are extended beyond the local setting. Practical implications The findings identify four determinants for using the wiki that can be of use to other organizations implementing similar virtual collaboration technology. First, the wiki must directly relate to the daily work by offering interactive and updated information concerning current project challenges. Second, the system must enable transparency in the daily project work to allow search. Third, the intention with the search is of lesser degree to identify encyclopedic information than it is to visualize individual competence. Fourth, the quality assurance of the data posted at the wiki is important. Originality/value The study reveals how an international knowledge-based organization can utilize social media to leverage knowledge and experiences from multiple geographically dispersed projects by enabling virtual collaboration. Extant empirical research on workplace learning emphasizes on face-to-face interactions in groups, for example, when engineers, or accountants, in teams interact and collaborate at client premises. However, there exists limited knowledge concerning how workplace learning can be achieved through virtual collaboration.

Characteristics of Intrapreneurs in Scale-Intensive Service Firms

This empirical paper explores the work of employees in charge of service innovation when firms develop and launch new scale-intensive services by addressing two re- search questions: i) How do employees responsible for service innovation work? and ii) what are the related managerial implications when developing and launching new scale-intensive services? To this end, 21 qualitative, in-depth interviews were con- ducted with employees in five large scale-intensive service firms. The findings suggest that the involvement of internal professionals is an asset when new scale-intensive services are developed, and that internal professionals act as intrapreneurs when they are involved in the development of radically new scale-intensive services. This paper integrates understanding from the innovation management literature with knowledge of professionals from extant literature on professional service firms since we find that professionals in scale-intensive firms act as intrapreneurs. Thus, this pa- per extends the theory on determinants of innovation in scale-intensive service firms, blending insights from both findings and theory.

Transnational project work: practices creating knowing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of how practices creating knowing can be enabled in project work.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on an exploratory, in‐depth case study of an international professional service firm (IPSF) and local and transnational project work to deliver services. Project work is investigated through a practice approach.Findings – In transnational project work, three knowing practices are identified – networking, doing, and sorting – and three practices of creating new knowing – finding, learning, and probing.Research limitations/implications – Although only one organization was studied, the research presented shows that knowledge creation and project work benefit from a practice perspective to highlight the enacted aspects of knowing and new knowing.Practical implications – The findings show that different project phases enable the necessary knowing and/or new knowing practices through a differentiated focus on social interactio...

Tricky business: corporate dilemmas and the governance of organisational complexity

This paper will provide accounts of important issues of accountability in governance of corporate dilemmas that arise from organisational complexity with multiple stakeholders in knowledge-based firms. We present a conceptual framework on how to facilitate knowledge-based value creation and reinforce new business opportunities – emerging from learning in daily work – by facilitating a dialogue on emerging dilemmas. Furthermore, we introduce a model intended to improve transparency and connectivity in daily activities as well as in strategic dialogues and corporate reporting. We claim that it represents a promising approach to create an enduring agenda for nonfinancial issues in management of both research institutions and knowledge-based firms.

Money Talks: Communication Patterns as Knowledge Monetization

In this conceptual paper, we suggest that knowledge flows constitute the antecedences of value creation by means of its communication component. Knowledge is increasingly being accepted as a source of value creation and a differentiator between firms. However, to a large extent, current approaches to management and governance of knowledge resources prescribe measurements of the stock of knowledge. Therefore, we suggest a bridge that connects current knowledge sharing understanding with properties from communication theory, to explicate knowledge in use through a communication patterns perspective. Building on the perspective of knowledge as a flow, and postulating that value is based on knowledge use, rather than knowledge possession, this paper addresses the research question: How can we express knowledge in such a way that it can be monetized and made accessible to specific managerial interventions? We explain how communication is instrumental in capturing knowledge value and allows for a connection with monetary value. Extant literature on organizational communication roles emphasizes the role of boundary-spanners in the search for and combination of experience and tacit knowledge. Individual nodes in organizational networks can possess knowledge. However, to be valuable, the knowledge resources need to be deployed and utilized. The use of knowledge will involve the communication of this knowledge through ties to other nodes. The paper proposes that boundary-spanning roles provide a focal point for such monetization efforts. The contribution of this paper is six propositions for future research on how management accounting and control systems can be brought to bear in their governable and calculable aspects if communication functions are given more attention.

EXPLORING NEW SERVICE PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

Most research on the management of innovation portfolios has focused on new product portfolios, whereas the management of new service portfolios has not been researched correspondingly. This paper addresses this literature gap by exploring portfolio management of New Service Development (NSD) activities empirically. The paper applies a qualitative research design, where data was collected in 52 in-depth interviews with managers and employees involved with NSD. The study finds that the portfolio management activities and processes were carried out in parallel with the NSD process, and that the most important stakeholders in the NSD portfolio management organization were top managers not involved in the daily NSD operations. Findings reveal that the firms used a great variety of criteria when making portfolio decisions. However, contrary to prescriptions based on new product development research, the decision process exposed for NSD was to a limited degree assisted by explicit portfolio management tools. We explicate our findings in five propositions.

The value context in knowledge-based development: revealing the context factors in the development of Southern Brazils Vale dos Vinhedos region

Abstract This empirical study extends knowledge of context factors as described by the theory on knowledge-based development (KBD). KDB theory considers the creation, distribution, and use of knowledge factors for value creation to companies, people, and society. Studies on theory of value have demonstrated a conceptual shift: from a concept of production based on aggregate economic output, to a wider concept in terms of total value generation in a given community where non-tangible forms of capital are playing a key role. However, the economic significance of knowledge does not become apparent until the interaction between knowledge objects and agents is framed in a value context. Therefore, our study presents a framework for micro-level analysis that reveals the role of knowledge factors in the development of the region as a value context. The framework is derived from an empirical analysis of the development of the region of Vale dos Vinhedos in Southern Brazil. Multiple sources of data are utilised to explain knowledge development dynamics occurring in this particular knowledge event (K-event). In adittion to providing a framework that identifies important value context factors of the knowledge event, the study also contributes by extending the application of KDB beyond an urban context through our recollection of these rural regional knowledge development dynamics.