Miia Jaatinen

How Companies Learn to Collaborate: Emergence of Improved Inter-Organizational Processes in R&D Alliances

Previous research has maintained that the capacity to manage alliances is a distinct capability, defined as the ability to identify, negotiate, manage, monitor and terminate collaborations. This paper focuses on an important but hitherto neglected aspect of alliance capability by investigating how partnering firms may learn how to better manage their dyadic R&D collaborations. In particular, we seek to test the Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) model of dynamic knowledge creation by establishing a link between the facilitation of four knowledge conversion processes – socialization, externalization, combination and internalization – and an improved capability to manage inter-organizational R&D processes. We specify and extend the model by identifying and testing several critical interactions between these knowledge conversion processes. Relying on data from 105 R&D partnerships in the global telecommunications industry, we suggest that the failure to support one of these knowledge conversion processes has the potential to hamper the proper functioning of the other knowledge conversion processes and thus the emergence of capability to manage dyadic R&D collaborations.

Common understanding as a basis for coordination

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop further a theoretical framework of common understanding and explore the role of common understanding in coordination.Design/methodology/approach – A constructive action research approach was employed applying abductive reasoning to develop new models with practical relevance.Findings – A new framework of the elements of common understanding and a new theory of communication as a mechanism for coordination.Research limitations/implications – As a longitudinal case study and part of a multiple case‐study, the findings are generalized to theory which should be further developed.Practical implications – Presents a framework for developing shared meanings to achieve better coordination in collaborative service provisioning.Originality/value – Presents a new model of common understanding, a refined approach to coordination.

Coordinating the Service Process of Two Business Units towards a Joint Customer

This article presents a new theoretical framework for coordinating an inter-unit collaborative service process towards a joint customer. To guarantee the quality and the added value of the service offering for the end customer, the two business units should organise their work as cross-functional and cross-unit business processes. The common service process is itself presented as a central coordination mechanism. It defines how tasks and responsibilities are shared between the collaborating units. The framework presents the factors supporting cooperation between the units, the prerequisites of the common service process and the ways of coordinating inter-unit cooperation. The study applies a constructive action research approach and abductive reasoning to develop the new framework through a single-company longitudinal, qualitative case study that consists of three development projects. Business unit managers can use the new framework as an analytical tool for recognising potential factors supporting cooperation and coordination in their specific operating environments.

Coordinating collaboration in contractually different complex construction projects

Purpose – The paper aims to compare the coordination of supply chain networks in contractually different complex construction projects. Design/methodology/approach – A comparative case study of the coordination of collaborative work in two successful hospital construction projects was conducted. One of the projects applied multiple dyadic contracts, whereas the other project applied one multi-party contract between the parties. The projects were located in the USA. Data were collected by observing the coordination on the construction sites for six weeks and by conducting 72 interviews. Findings – The paper shows that depending on the contract type, the timing and extent of complementary procedural coordination differs during projects. Compared with one multi-party contract, the dyadic contracts needed to be complemented during the design phase with three additional procedural coordination mechanisms: organizational design, processes for collaborative work and integrated concurrent engineering sessions. Additionally, common rules of conduct were taken into use during the construction phase. However, regardless of the contract type, procedural coordination mechanisms, such as co-located working, collaborative decision-making in inter-organizational meetings, a liaison role and shared project goals were needed throughout the projects. Practical implications – If multiple dyadic contracts are applied, procedural coordination mechanisms have to be co-created by all supply chain parties at the beginning of the project. Originality/value – The paper provides an understanding on successful contractual and complementary procedural coordination mechanisms of supply chain networks in complex construction projects.

A process for building inter-organizational contextual ambidexterity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discover a three-step process for building contextual ambidexterity into inter-organizational IT-enabled service processes through developmental interventions. Design/methodology/approach – A longitudinal action research project was conducted. The empirical study consisted of three consecutive developmental interventions to support the collaborative development effort of an IT company and its customer network to efficiently serve their present and future customers. The data consists of process modeling and simulation workshop discussions, interviews, observation, and archival data. The development effort was studied for over a year. Findings – The study shows that the three developmental interventions acted as a process for balancing the exploration-exploitation tension in inter-organizational service processes. The sequential interventions facilitated the studied organizations in crossing the inter-organizational knowledge boundaries and creating shared domain kn...

Transforming a Supply Chain towards a Digital Business Ecosystem

This study describes the intervention process of transforming a peat production supply chain towards a digital business ecosystem. We conducted a series of participative, co-creative workshops to facilitate and to research the transformation process. According to our findings, a wider ecosystem perspective to transformation helped to overcome the initial motivational challenges felt by the supply chain members. In the workshops, the participants were able to create joint meanings of social, financial, and use value of digital data, and to collaboratively make decisions about the transformation towards a digital business ecosystem. This was due to the participants’ collaborative knowledge creation and negotiation processes, supported by the facilitators applying co-creative methods. Our results suggest that a developmental intervention provided a temporary governance structure for the participants to collaboratively create a shared logic for the digital business ecosystem creation.

Interventions for the co-creation of inter-organizational business process change.

This paper increases scientific knowledge about developmental interventions in inter-organizational processes by applying coordination theory. The interventions interfere intentionally with the process they aim to develop, reveal interdependencies between the participants, and coordinate their interaction for knowledge creation. The three elements of the developmental intervention are: (1) the participants from the different organizations, (2) the boundary objects that represent the inter-organizational business process, (3) the external facilitator, responsible for designing the other two elements, and for establishing among the participants the knowledge-creating conversational interaction mediated by boundary objects. In a successful intervention, the facilitator and the participants co-develop the necessary coordination mechanisms to support the knowledge co-creation of the participants from the different companies towards the common goal, i.e. the shared knowledge about the inter-organizational process.

University Education as a Networked Service for Competence Co-creation

Our societies need game changers that have the competencies to develop emerging business ecosystems based on digital data. We claim that these competencies can be taught through a networked education service process between students, companies of the emerging ecosystem, and university teachers. We present a case study of two university courses in Industrial Management that deal with networked business process development and management, and co-development intervention methods. Both courses include student assignments on an emerging ecosystem case. The assignments were integrated into the studying process through co-creative workshops with the case representatives. According to the results, all actors in the networked education process received value. First of all, the students accumulated competencies and expertise in developing business ecosystems. Facilitated by the students, the company representatives co-created in the workshops a shared understanding of their collaborative service process and service model, which triggered real-life innovations. The teachers realized their new roles and tasks as the “process owners” of the education service. - The results support the networked service approach in university education for competence co-creation. More experimental case and action research applying this approach is clearly worthwhile in all disciplines where students need to co-create competences in interaction with external actors that represent the field in practice.

Facilitating Organizing in Business Processes

The paper studies the role of co-orientation, i.e., the alignment of attitudes and activities, in the development of collaborative business processes and how a facilitator can support the emergence of co-orientation and the organizing of collaboration. The development of collaborative business processes is seen as a communicative process of collaborative organizing. Conversations in a co-creative workshop are analyzed to understand the process. The paper sheds light on communication tactics that a facilitator can employ to enable collaborative organizing of inter-organizational business processes towards sustainability.