Tomas Hellström

Systemic innovation and risk: technology assessment and the challenge of responsible innovation

Abstract Emerging technological systems pose new challenges for technology and risk assessment, particularly with regard to the impact of ‘negative synergies’ between complex technologies, social institutions and critical infrastructures. This paper analyses the forms of ‘systemic innovation’ and its associated risks. Special attention is paid to how critical infrastructures become embedded in technological and social trajectories such as those associated with agro-food production and distributed production and manufacturing systems. The paper outlines a general framework for ‘responsible innovation’, within which technology assessment and management of such systemic innovations may be carried out. The paper also gives specific examples of risk reduction in individual cases.

Mapping Knowledge and Intellectual Capital in Academic Environments: A Focus Group Study

This paper argues that knowledge mapping may provide a fruitful avenue for intellectual capital management in academic environments such as university departments. However, while some research has been conducted on knowledge mapping and intellectual capital management in the public sector, the university has so far not been directly considered for this type of management. The paper initially reviews the functions and techniques of knowledge mapping and assesses these in the light of academic demands. Second, the result of a focus group study is presented, where academic leaders were asked to reflect of the uses of knowledge mapping at their departments and institutes. Finally a number of suggestions are made as to the rationale and conduct of knowledge mapping in academe.

From sponsorship to partnership in academy-industry relations

One practical result of the advent of the knowledge society has been an increased reliance on academic-industry partnerships as important sources for the creation of economic value. This paper argues that this renewed emphasis on knowledge has led to a shift in the nature of the relations between the academy and industry from sponsorship to partnership and the formation of new research institutions that allow researchers and practitioners to engage in continuous rather than problem based dialogue. These developments are illustrated by providing a case study based on the experience of one research team with its industrial partners. The paper presents results pertaining to some of the issues and challenges raised by continuous dialogue in partnerships, and emphasises the creative yet demanding implications of close collaboration between the two communities.

Policy understanding of science, public trust and the BSE–CJD crisis

The article investigates how institutional factors can produce risk using the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)-Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) crisis in Britain as a case example. The paper focuses on the way policymakers understand science, and the role of precaution in issues of high uncertainty. It is argued that the failure to fully appreciate the complexity of the BSE-CJD situation resided in institutional arrangements that predisposed decision makers to adopt a counter productive approach in handling situations of high scientific uncertainty on the policy level. The article will demonstrate how these factors played out in the BSE-CJD crisis.

Decentralizing knowledge: managing knowledge work in a software engineering firm

Abstract The present paper outlines the philosophical background as well as a practical case of so-called decentralized management of knowledge work. It is argued that top-down perspectives on knowledge have dominated management initiatives in this area, at the expense of naturally occurring, or emergent work patterns of R&D organization. A model of management based on semiorganized individual knowledge exchange or “brokerage” is proposed as a solution. This alternative is exemplified in a case study from a software engineering firm. The paper proposes a number of principles that may be used to guide the development of similar models elsewhere.

Knowledge and competence management at Ericsson: decentralization and organizational fit

The present paper is a cross‐sectional case study of knowledge management (KM) initiatives at Ericsson. The general aim of the study was to investigate how a large Swedish telecom corporation developed and integrated KM tools with existing organizational structure, needs and tasks, and to pinpoint opportunities and pitfalls in this regard. In order to do this the authors mapped and categorized the KM initiatives developed in the company. The method used was a series of semi‐structured interviews which focused on, among other things, getting respondents to identify the organizational needs that arise as a result of context and task. The results are presented in a two‐by‐two matrix categorizing KM initiatives as to content and mode of implementation. The paper concludes with a number of hypotheses and propositions that may be used for further investigation into how firms may go about optimally organizing their knowledge management strategies.

Innovation as Social Action

The paper explicates the concept of innovation through the lens of social action. It is argued that the term ‘innovation’ carries within it certain semantic contradictions that cannot be resolved without recourse to the theory of social action underlying the process of innovation. By revisiting a number extant concepts and applications within innovation studies and unpacking these in the light of functionalist and conflict theoretical notions of social action, paradoxes as well as fruitful paths for empirical and analytical exploration are identified. A synthesis of how innovation may be interpreted in the language of social action is suggested, which builds on the dialectics between action as mental activity and physical work.

Entrepreneurial learning and the role of venture capitalists

Abstract This paper develops a model of entrepreneurial learning in order to explain how VCs support the process of entrepreneurial learning and thereby add value to their ventures. We draw on two generic approaches to learning, termed the hypothesis-testing mode and the hermeneutic mode, which turn out to be closely interrelated in such learning processes. The resulting model comprises four categories, which focus on what entrepreneurs learn and how it is learnt: experimentation, evaluation, unreflective action and unverified assumptions. We then use these analytical categories to illustrate how VCs apply their different forms of expertise to increase a ventures value once an investment has been made.

The innovating self: exploring self among a group of technological innovators

This paper explores the relevance of the concept of self in the process of independent technological innovation. In‐depth interviews were conducted with technological innovators from start‐up firms in IT, biotech and advanced services concerning the subjective and social forms of engagement in the innovation process. Emerging factors in the interview data revealed aspects pertaining to the innovator’s reflexive self‐conception, innovator ego‐involvement in the venture, forms of commitment and control, personal and social stakes, and various self‐oriented cognitive strategies. It is argued that the self‐concept allows the innovator to come into view as a social and subjective being who is involved in reflexive activities such as dynamic role‐taking, “is” vs “ought” reflections and social negotiations.

Knowledge without Goals? Evaluation of Knowledge Management Programmes

How to create and transfer knowledge in organizations is the subject of a rich and stimulating discourse among academics and practitioners. This article focuses on a still relatively unexplored aspect of this issue: the evaluation of the outcomes of programmes designed to stimulate the creation and transfer of knowledge in corporations (sometimes called Knowledge Management [KM] programmes). This is done by taking the concept of organizational goals for development of knowledge, and viewing their relation to evaluation against the backdrop of epistemological concerns. It is argued that the evaluation of programmes for the creation and transfer of knowledge is a complex task for a number of reasons, one of the most important of which is the constitutive character of knowledge itself. As a conclusion the article recommends a constructivist and goal-free framework for KM-programme evaluation, which has the capacity to sensitize the organization to the transformative nature of KM. The article concludes with a number of suggestions as to how such evaluations may be carried out.