En adoptant l’approche basée sur la connaissance, cette recherche étudie les effets de trois éléments préalables pour le transfert inter-organisationnel de connaissances (TIC). Ces trois éléments sont: l’intention de l’entreprise à explorer la connaissance du partenaire, la diversité entre les partenaires qui représente la source de nouveauté potentielle à apprendre, et enfin les effets mutuels de ces deux éléments. Une enquête auprès de 114 entreprises françaises, montre un impact positif de l’intention d’exploration sur l’efficacité du TIC. Nous avons également trouvé une relation en U inversé entre la diversité du partenaire et l’efficacité du TIC. Les interactions entre ces deux éléments sont étudiées sur la base de deux hypothèses complémentaires: La variation de l’intention d’explorer a un impact positif sur le TIC dans un contexte de faible diversité des partenaires, au contraire des alliances avec forte diversité entre les partenaires dans lesquelles la variation de l’intention d’explorer influence négativement le TIC. Les résultats de ces dernières hypothèses correspondent à deux approches d’exploration : la profondeur et l’étendue de l’exploration. Lorsqu’une entreprise, ayant une intention exploratoire, fait une alliance avec des partenaires similaires, ils profitent de leur profondeur commune d’exploration pour favoriser l'apprentissage et la création de nouvelles connaissances. L’étendue de l’exploration dans une alliance est la mesure par laquelle les partenaires de l'alliance explorent de nouvelles connaissances dans des éléments non-similaires de leur base de connaissances. Toutefois, nos résultats montrent que la diversité trop élevé entre des partenaires réduit l’effet positif de l’intention d’explorer sur le TIC à cause de la distance important entre les éléments de connaissances des partenaires à explorer / Relying on knowledge based view; this study tests the effects of three concepts as the prerequisites for interfirm learning: Intent to explore, Existence of novelty, and Approach of exploration. The paper defines the existence of new knowledge to be learnt by the level of partner diversity and addresses approaches of exploration by the interactive effect of the explorative intent and partner diversity. The hypotheses are tested based on a survey over a sample of 114 French companies. Determinants of knowledge transfer between partners such as ambiguity of partner's knowledge, knowledge protection and trust are controlled. Using Tobit regression models, the findings show that the intent to explore is positively related with interfirm knowledge transfer. Moreover, an inverted U-shape relationship is observed between partner diversity and the effectiveness of interfirm knowledge transfer. Finally, the negative moderating effect of partner diversity on the relation of exploration and knowledge transfer highlights the effect of two approaches of exploration: depth and scope of exploration. In the accordance with the concept of depth of search we find that the interactive effect of similarity of partners with explorative intent is positive on interfirm learning. We also find that a broad search scope represented by the interactive effect of partner diversity and intent to explore has negative impact on interfirm learning

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<p>Abstract</p><p>The research investigates the sustainability and effectiveness of the projects that are funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) in Kenya. SIDA is the Swedish central state agency responsible for planning, implementing and managing Aid. The research applies both the absorptive capacity and the institutional theory to explain the phenomenon of Aid projects failures in Kenya. The research has used a qualitative research method, a literature study that blend with structured open-ended interview questions which we have formulated.</p><p>By studying the various Actors involved in Swedish foreign Aid, their operations and deliverance, it will facilitate our study to establish the major causes and origins of development projects failures in Kenya. The main and current Swedish development goals are “improving the standard of living for poor people”, the sub goals are Economic growth, Economic and social equality, Economic and Political Independence, Democratic Development and Protection of human rights, Sustainable use of natural resources, protection of Environment Conflict management and Security. The reason why Aid projects are not producing the intended results could be divided into two parts; the planning problem that emanate from the donors side. The irony is that development partners are viewed to be aiming at alleviating poverty without proper planning and even their priorities are not always right. The other major reason is attributed to the recipients’ side and could be summarized as lack of democracy, corruption, weak institutions, lack of absorptive capacity and mismanagement.</p>

Background: Due to the increasing global competition managers must realize the importance of competitive advantage. This can be done by reconsider how new knowledge should be acquired into the organization.  The importance of new competence creation is well known as a factor for longitudinal success for companies. There is a growing trend in outsourcing human resources activities that used to be in-house. There are numerous training vendors active on the market offering training and development opportunities to small firms. It can therefore be questioned how well the programs offered by the training vendors suites the needs of small firms. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigating the perceived training and development needs for small firms. This to understand and overcome the differences in the perception of small firms’ needs, between training vendors and small firms. Method: The research approach of this study is inspired by Grounded theory. Ten in-depth interviews have been performed, four with training vendors and six with small firms. The findings where then coded and categorized to answer the research questions and purpose of the research. Conclusion: From this research it can be seen that both small firms and training vendors do understand the need for training and development of small firms. The areas where training and development is needed for small firms can be summarised to fields of general business management and business specific knowledge. However, this research also identifies barriers that prevent small firms from attending external training. These barriers are cost, time, relevance, pride, flexibility and suitability. Time and cost are the most commonly mentioned barriers, but not the primary barriers that training vendors and small firms should focus on overcoming. Instead we argue that, the efforts should be on the attitude driven barriers: relevance, suitability, flexibility and pride. If you change the attitude among small firms towards training, the perceived benefits will become larger and therefore cost and price will become less important. If the small firms and the training vendors co-operate these barriers could easier be decreased. This could be done by ensuring that the training results in practical tools that the firms use and that they work on building a trustworthy relationship. This will help the small firms to see the relevance and the suitability of the courses offered and the training vendors to understand how to make the courses appear more relevant and suitable to the small firms. / Bakgrund: I och med den ökade globala konkurrensen, måste företagsledare förstå vikten av att inneha och bevara en konkurrens fördel. Detta kan göras genom att fokusera på hur kunskap kan tas in i organisationen. Vikten av kompetens utveckling är en välkänd faktor för långsiktig framgång för företag. Det finns en ökad trend att lägga ut ansvaret för human resources på externa företag, vilket tidigare sköttes inom företaget. Det finns ett stort antal externa utvecklingsleverantörer på marknaden. Det kan därför ifrågasättas hur väl programmen, som de externa träningsleverantörerna erbjuder, passar med behoven hos småföretagarna. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka uppfattningen om tränings- och utvecklingsbehov hos småföretagare. Detta för att få en förståelse av småföretagarnas behov och komma över skillnaderna i uppfattningarna mellan externa utvecklingsleverantörer och småföretagare. Metod: Forskningsansatsen till den här studien är inspirerad av Grundad teori. Tio djupintervjuer har genomförts, fyra stycken med externa utvecklingsleverantörer och sex stycken med småföretagare. Det empiriska materialet har organiserats genom kodning och kategorisering enligt Grundad teori. Slutsats: Från den här studien kan det ses att både småföretagare och externa utvecklingsleverantörer ser behovet av träning och utveckling i småföretag. De områden där träningsbehov är identifierade kan summers till generell företagsekonomi och specifik kunskap inom företagets bransch. Genom denna studie har dock barriärer som motverkar träning och utveckling i småföretag identifierats. Barriärerna är: kostnad, tid, relevans, stolthet, flexibilitet och lämplighet. Tid och kostnad är de mest nämnda barriärerna, men dock inte de barriärer som primärts bör fokuseras på. Istället anser vi att kraften skall fokuseras på att minska de attityd drivna barriärerna: relevans, lämplighet, flexibilitet och stolthet hos företagarna. Om attityden hos småföretagarna ändras vad gäller träning så kommer den uppfattade fördelen av träning att öka, därmed minskar vikten av barriärerna kostnad och pris. Dessa barriärer kan lättare överbyggas om småföretagarna och de externa utvecklingsleverantörerna samarbetar. Samarbetet kan ske genom att fastställa att det praktiska verktygen, utvecklade av de externa utvecklingsleverantörerna, används av småföretagarna och att en tillförlitlig relation byggs. Detta skulle hjälpa småföretagarna att se relevansen och lämpligheten i de erbjudna kurserna och de externa utvecklingsleverantörerna skulle få en förståelse i hur man kan få kurserna att framstå som relevanta och lämpliga för småföretag.

Abstract The research investigates the sustainability and effectiveness of the projects that are funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) in Kenya. SIDA is the Swedish central state agency responsible for planning, implementing and managing Aid. The research applies both the absorptive capacity and the institutional theory to explain the phenomenon of Aid projects failures in Kenya. The research has used a qualitative research method, a literature study that blend with structured open-ended interview questions which we have formulated. By studying the various Actors involved in Swedish foreign Aid, their operations and deliverance, it will facilitate our study to establish the major causes and origins of development projects failures in Kenya. The main and current Swedish development goals are “improving the standard of living for poor people”, the sub goals are Economic growth, Economic and social equality, Economic and Political Independence, Democratic Development and Protection of human rights, Sustainable use of natural resources, protection of Environment Conflict management and Security. The reason why Aid projects are not producing the intended results could be divided into two parts; the planning problem that emanate from the donors side. The irony is that development partners are viewed to be aiming at alleviating poverty without proper planning and even their priorities are not always right. The other major reason is attributed to the recipients’ side and could be summarized as lack of democracy, corruption, weak institutions, lack of absorptive capacity and mismanagement.

This master thesis analyses the housing cooperative´s capability to manageknowledge in order to improve its performances and create innovation. It is based on the analysis of elite interviews concerning the latest ten years of two Swedish housing cooperatives (bostadsrättsförenigar), which are Brf Grantorpand Brf Kullen that, because of their almost identical properties, made acomparison possible. Absorptive Capacity, which refers to the organization´s ability to identify, assimilate and apply knowledge in its specific context and Knowledge Management, which refers to the organization´s knowledge management activities, provided the basis for the theoretical framework. The empirical data show that, within the organizations, the main sources of knowledge are the Board members: when internal expertise knowledge is present then innovation takes place. Lack of policies in recruiting Board members means that innovation coming from within the organizations is always fortuitous, and depends on the individuals´ previous expertise knowledge. Even if the two years mandate constitutes a constrain in investing in knowledge development, it has been revealed that providing the Board members with a general knowledge in the housing cooperatives´ all-day activities constitutes a solid precondition to capture new opportunities: Brf Kullen acts in a more proactive way and actively identifies opportunities in the environment. Whilst Brf Grantorp does suffer the lack of basic knowledge and acts in a more passive way, waiting for someone else bringing in from the outside. However, both the organizations suffer the lack of explicit knowledge management policies. This is very noticeable when it comes to codification and storage: what is provided is essentially of tacit nature, and blanks out over and over again because it still remains in the members´ heads and it leaves when they leave the Board. Hence, both the organizations´ ability to exploit and transfer knowledge suffers lack of efficiency. Furthermore, even if they offer both formal and informal manners in order to share ideas between Board members, the activities are subject to each Board member´s commitment and time.

The key objective of Part I is to synthesize 23 years of innovation research findings from economic, strategy, and marketing literatures and extend the current theoretical knowledge base in these domains through meta-analysis. In general, empirical evidence of the nature of the relationship between innovation and its antecedents and consequences is provided, while at the same time providing answers to conflicting conclusions within this field. The conclusions reached provide a more comprehensive understanding of the drivers of innovation as well as the implications associated with the phenomena. In addition, this study seeks to aid in building a strong theoretical foundation relating to the nature of the relationship of innovation with key antecedents and outcomes. It is demonstrated that innovation serves as a partial mediator of the relationships between organizational and environmental antecedents and firm performance. Part II builds upon the innovation foundations set forth in Part I and extends the focus to consider how innovations are commercialized outside traditional organizational boundaries. Drawing upon the Resource-based view of the firm, the impact of two dynamic capabilities (network ties and absorptive capacity) on marketing strategy formulation effectiveness is explored. Utilizing a unique sample of university pre-startup teams, this research is able to track these teams over time (longitudinal research design) and provide an empirical examination of the role of dynamic capabilities in the effective formulation of marketing strategies. There has been very little empirical research on the formation of strategies at the team level and furthermore, even less research examining marketing strategy making for technologies that were developed outside traditional organizational boundaries and without a predefined market application. Overall, this research will not only contribute significantly to the current innovation and marketing strategy literature, but will also open up new avenues of research in marketing entrepreneurship.

<p><strong>Background: </strong>Due to the increasing global competition managers must realize the importance of competitive advantage. This can be done by reconsider how new knowledge should be acquired into the organization.  The importance of new competence creation is well known as a factor for longitudinal success for companies. There is a growing trend in outsourcing human resources activities that used to be in-house. There are numerous training vendors active on the market offering training and development opportunities to small firms. It can therefore be questioned how well the programs offered by the training vendors suites the needs of small firms.</p><p><strong>Purpose:</strong><strong> </strong><em>The purpose of this study is to investigating the perceived training and development needs for small firms. This to understand and overcome the differences in the perception of small firms’ needs, between training vendors and small firms. </em></p><p><strong>Method: </strong>The research approach of this study is inspired by Grounded theory. Ten in-depth interviews have been performed, four with training vendors and six with small firms. The findings where then coded and categorized to answer the research questions and purpose of the research.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>From this research it can be seen that both small firms and training vendors do understand the need for training and development of small firms. The areas where training and development is needed for small firms can be summarised to fields of <em>general business management</em> and <em>business specific knowledge</em>. However, this research also identifies barriers that prevent small firms from attending external training. These barriers are <em>cost</em>, <em>time</em>, <em>relevance</em>, <em>pride</em>, <em>flexibility</em> and <em>suitability</em>. Time and cost are the most commonly mentioned barriers, but not the primary barriers that training vendors and small firms should focus on overcoming. Instead we argue that, the efforts should be on the attitude driven barriers: relevance, suitability, flexibility and pride. If you change the attitude among small firms towards training, the perceived benefits will become larger and therefore cost and price will become less important. If the small firms and the training vendors co-operate these barriers could easier be decreased. This could be done by ensuring that the training results in practical tools that the firms use and that they work on building a trustworthy relationship. This will help the small firms to see the <em>relevance</em> and the <em>suitability</em> of the courses offered and the training vendors to understand how to make the courses appear more <em>relevant </em>and <em>suitable</em> to the small firms.</p> / <p><strong>Bakgrund: </strong>I och med den ökade globala konkurrensen, måste företagsledare förstå vikten av att inneha och bevara en konkurrens fördel. Detta kan göras genom att fokusera på hur kunskap kan tas in i organisationen. Vikten av kompetens utveckling är en välkänd faktor för långsiktig framgång för företag. Det finns en ökad trend att lägga ut ansvaret för human resources på externa företag, vilket tidigare sköttes inom företaget. Det finns ett stort antal externa utvecklingsleverantörer på marknaden. Det kan därför ifrågasättas hur väl programmen, som de externa träningsleverantörerna erbjuder, passar med behoven hos småföretagarna.</p><p><strong>Syfte: </strong><em>Syftet med studien är att undersöka uppfattningen om tränings- och utvecklingsbehov hos småföretagare. Detta för att få en förståelse av småföretagarnas behov och komma över skillnaderna i uppfattningarna mellan externa utvecklingsleverantörer och småföretagare. </em></p><p><strong>Metod: </strong>Forskningsansatsen till den här studien är inspirerad av Grundad teori. Tio djupintervjuer har genomförts, fyra stycken med externa utvecklingsleverantörer och sex stycken med småföretagare. Det empiriska materialet har organiserats genom kodning och kategorisering enligt Grundad teori.</p><p><strong>Slutsats: </strong>Från den här studien kan det ses att både småföretagare och externa utvecklingsleverantörer ser behovet av träning och utveckling i småföretag. De områden där träningsbehov är identifierade kan summers till generell företagsekonomi och specifik kunskap inom företagets bransch. Genom denna studie har dock barriärer som motverkar träning och utveckling i småföretag identifierats. Barriärerna är: <em>kostnad, tid, relevans, stolthet, flexibilitet </em>och<em> lämplighet.</em> Tid och kostnad är de mest nämnda barriärerna, men dock inte de barriärer som primärts bör fokuseras på. Istället anser vi att kraften skall fokuseras på att minska de attityd drivna barriärerna: relevans, lämplighet, flexibilitet och stolthet hos företagarna. Om attityden hos småföretagarna ändras vad gäller träning så kommer den uppfattade fördelen av träning att öka, därmed minskar vikten av barriärerna kostnad och pris. Dessa barriärer kan lättare överbyggas om småföretagarna och de externa utvecklingsleverantörerna samarbetar. Samarbetet kan ske genom att fastställa att det praktiska verktygen, utvecklade av de externa utvecklingsleverantörerna, används av småföretagarna och att en tillförlitlig relation byggs. Detta skulle hjälpa småföretagarna att se <em>relevansen</em> och <em>lämpligheten</em> i de erbjudna kurserna och de externa utvecklingsleverantörerna skulle få en förståelse i hur man kan få kurserna att framstå som <em>relevanta</em> och <em>lämpliga</em> för småföretag.</p>

Abstract   This study addresses the research gap on knowledge transfer on a team level, by examining the potential and realized Absorptive Capacity (ACAP) on the receiver's side and potential and realized Disseminative Capacity (DCAP) on the sender's side. The research question and purpose relate to how ACAP and DCAP can aid innovation development teams in reaching their goals and what role social integration mechanisms play in this process. We develop a theoretical framework in which we synthesize existing literature and through which we analyzed the empirical data.   We follow a qualitative method and employ a single case strategy that fits our empirical data and allows to gain an understanding of social dynamics underlying knowledge transfer. The data was collected through interviews in the R&amp;D department of Atlas Copco, a large Swedish multinational corporation that operates in the mining and tunneling industry. From our analysis we conclude that social integration mechanisms can be used in order to lower the gap between potential and realized capacities. This can in turn lead to a higher innovative output of teams.

In today’s economical world, companies realize the importance to build corporate strategies on innovation to sustain a continuous profitability. Innovation is a crucial issue to develop a competitive advantage. In our networked economy, companies can not only rely on in-house activities anymore to raise creative and come up with breakthrough innovations they need to collaborate with actors from the external environment. Firms have to think outside their own boundaries to leverage the complementary resources and capabilities needed to innovate. Partnerships help to ensure firms’ future successes. The purpose of our study is to understand how companies, operating in the automotive industry, integrate ‘Open and Networked Innovation’ concepts in their corporate strategy to enhance their environmental friendly profile. As far as the EV market is concerned, our study will also lead to determine the Key Factors of Success and the barriers that companies have to face when they want to launch an electric car in the market. Various theoretical approaches have been developed over the time about Open Innovation and Networked Innovation. The dilemma of paradoxical organization needs of radical innovation, exposed by Dr Sigvald Harryson, is our theoretical starting-point to analyze company’s ability to find the right equilibrium between exploration and exploitation and absorptive capacity. Further on, we explore the question of absorptive capacity to know how firms identify, acquire, transfer and transform knowledge. Thereafter, the theoretical framework is confronted with empirical data based on a qualitative and abductive approach of two case studies – Tesla and Renault. Interviews with Tesla, located in the Silicon Valley, California, USA, have been conducted. We also met two key employees in Renault’s headquarter, Paris, France. Interpretation and explanation of the data collected is reported in our analysis of each case as well as in the cross-case analysis. A presentation of our recommendations and conclusions conclude our master thesis.