Patricia Wolf

Exploring innovating cultures in small and medium-sized enterprises: Findings from Central Switzerland

To date, knowledge about innovating culture in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remains a puzzle. In literature, entrepreneurship studies focus primarily on the entrepreneur or founder in start-ups. Most other SME innovation studies deliver a fragmented picture as they investigate singular aspects of innovating culture. Therefore, studies exploring the role of culture in SME innovation holistically are rare. This article presents the findings from a longitudinal study exploring innovating cultures in SMEs. The study applied an explorative research design based upon semi-structured and narrative interviews with those responsible for innovation management in 85 Central Swiss SMEs. From this data, four different SME innovation profiles representing clearly discernible innovating cultures were developed. The findings provide in-depth insights into SME innovation reality, thereby enhancing the understanding of the role of culture in SME innovation and providing a framework for improving innovation management.

Adaption of conflict management styles during the encounter of cultures Findings from a Russian–West European case study

This article reports on our case study of cross-cultural conflict management styles (CMS). We analysed the dynamics of various CMS applied by Russian and Western European members of an intercultural collaborative project and analysed how their CMS were affected by the frequency of communication. Our survey of project members revealed that Western Europeans and Russians differ significantly in their early applications of CMS but that high communication frequency stimulates adaptations in the CMS of all project members, regardless of culture, leading to a confluence of their conflict behaviour style towards each other. Future studies should test this study’s research designs and hypotheses in larger samples to see whether sample size affects applications and adaptations of CMS. Results of the current study imply that managers of intercultural collaboration projects should proactively address conflict management styles, implementing constructive conflict behaviour techniques into trainings for members of intercultural collaboration projects.

Unconferencing as method to initiate organisational change

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review and discuss the potential of available event formats for facilitating the initiation of organizational change processes. It presents unconferencing, a relatively new event format, which seems to provide unique opportunities for this purpose. It reports and analyzes the case of a large Swiss university which initiated its pro‐sustainability transformation by organizing an unconference.Design/methodology/approach – Researchers studied the effects of unconferencing and the mechanisms, which brought them about in a case study. In the empirical setting of a large Swiss university, a qualitative study triangulating participatory observation, narrative and problem‐centered interviews, participant survey and documentary analysis was carried out. Data were collected and analyzed at different points in time.Findings – Empirical findings suggest that unconferencing is an appropriate event format for facilitating the initiation of the pro‐sustainability organizational ...

Why sharing boundary crossing? Understanding the motivation for knowledge sharing in virtual Communities of Practice

In this paper, we reflect the experiences made in the build up phase of a Virtual Community of Practice (VCoP) called Knowledge Exchange Platform (KEP). We describe the experiences and compare them to those made by initiators and facilitators of other CoPs. This allows us to analyse and discuss specifics of VCoPs and to identify challenges people face while sharing knowledge in a VCoP that spans organizational and cultural boundaries.

Setting up Communities of Practice for innovative Russian SMEs

Innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (iSMEs) play an increasingly important role for the economic development of Eastern European countries during the transition of a planned economy towards a market economy. As innovative firms tend to be exposed to higher levels of risk and uncertainty than the average firm, they need to permanently keep up with new market developments and dispose of the necessary management competencies to sustain their business. Within this paper, the authors present a project dedicated to the development of a Community of Practice (CoP) between iSME clusters in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Ekaterinburg. Its main intention is to enable iSMEs to share knowledge and experiences on subjects of common interest and thereby to enhance individual performance. Based on comparative research on management practices in Western Europe and Russia, a preliminary set of solutions has been identified for putting the CoP in place.

Barriers to KM between Organisational Cultures in the Face of Concurrent Enterprising: How to Overcome Them?

There is evidence that the way Knowledge Management is practised is strongly dependent on the cultural context in which it is embedded. In Concurrent/Extended Enterprises different cultures, and therefore different ways of dealing with the resource ‘knowledge’, collide and a new meta-culture evolves along the course of the co-operation. If the co-operating cultures are too heterogeneous and the evolved meta-culture is not capable of handling the discrepancies of the colliding organisational cultures, the co-operation runs the risk of failing. Therefore, cultural barriers to Knowledge Management must be identified and overcome. In the face of increasing application of the methods and tools of virtual organisations in co-operations, which are typically the increase of IC-technologies, the consideration of the cultural dimension becomes even more important due to the limited communication richness these technologies provide in contrast to face-to-face meetings. The authors present a multi-layered framework for classifying cultural barriers in Concurrent Enterprises as a common type of virtual co-operations. Further, the authors look at the cultural barriers to be overcome before companies actually engage in co-operations. These barriers were identified by the means of semi-structured interviews. In addition first ideas for how to overcome them will be provided.

Look Who's Acting!: Applying Actor Network Theory for Studying Knowledge Sharing in a Co-Design Project

Digital maker communities democratize manufacturing through hands on learning, trans-disciplinary work and open source knowledge sharing. Little is known how knowledge sharing actually happens. This study applied actor-network-theory as underlying theoretical framework to a co-design project in a digital maker community-the teletransportation project. At the core of this project was a basic digital design for a cup that can be 3D-printed. The study showed that the different network types re-assemble around nodes that result from translations and therefore transformations of the initial project idea and the code that allowed to 3D-print a cup. It was able to show translations and the circular movement in the network as well as translation costs, time effects, intermediaries and mediators.

The usage of boundary objects for the construction of organisational innovation processes

This paper investigates how boundary objects impact sense-making, i.e. translating, negotiating, triangulating, transferring, transforming and simplifying meaning across knowledge domains in New Product Development (NPD) processes in interdisciplinary project teams. The authors ask: What is the function of boundary objects for the construction of organisational innovation processes? In what way are boundary objects accountable for the construction of organisational social reality in innovation processes? The results of a single case study add to extant literature by providing the reader with a rich description of characteristics and functions of different types of boundary objects and explanations of how they interrelate in NPD processes. They furthermore complement previous findings by describing the specific role of boundary objects in case of a crisis in innovation processes.

Third Generation Knowledge Management in Action: Relational Practices in Swiss Companies

Optimizing and hence reorganizing processes as well as increasing their flexibility and agility are constant challenges companies face in the presence of revolving markets. The term ‘Business-Process-Reengineering’ (BPR) describes the approach of organizing processes along the customer’s requirements. Since those requirements are constantly rising in terms of a product’s quality and complexity under simultaneously cost and time pressure, effective and efficient re-use of an organizations accumulated knowledge is seen as an important – if not the only – comparative advantage in developed countries where labor, energy, etc. is of substantially higher cost compared to others. As a consequence, importance as well as intensity of knowledge needed to fulfill an organization’s most important processes has risen significantly. This article focuses on providing support of knowledge intensive processes by analyzing product data. Retrieving the relevant knowledge in the context of a given process needs tools and methods beyond the well-known approaches for data or document management or organizational knowledge management. The domain of automotive supplier industry as an example is analyzed with respect to dominant strategic challenges like short lifecycles, complex systems, and collaboration with competitors, to retrieve associated knowledge-related documents, and this way offering opportunities to manage those challenges.

Grassroots movements and the entrepreneurial city: The case of Neubad

Becoming more entrepreneurial in their government approaches is a concept aimed at supporting today’s cities in dealing with complex challenges. However, to date, knowledge about how cities can apply such approaches still remains a puzzle. This article presents the case study of the Neubad Lucerne initiative in order to contribute to the generation of a comprehensive picture and of instructive knowledge for city municipalities on their way toward an entrepreneurial city. It asks particularly how city governments and municipalities can stimulate grassroots initiatives toward an entrepreneurial city in a play way instead of a managerial way. The focus is therefore on playful rather than managerial city government processes that stimulate the emergence and activities of grassroots initiatives, the role and organizing mechanisms of networks that develop, and the role of temporary spaces in enabling activity and the construction of social identity.