Metateams are both largely unexplored in the IS literature and economically important to major corporations and their IT vendors. Metateams are temporary groups composed of two or more geographically and inter-organisationally dispersed teams, commercially linked by project-specific agreements and enabled by electronic means of communication. Each one of these teams fulfils a particular and measurable objective, enshrined in the team's goal hierarchy and contractual obligations. The combination of efforts from every team in a metateam, contributes to achieving a common distant goal of project implementation. Thus, metateams are temporary teams (or groups) of distributed teams working across distance, firms, and cultures. In metateams, each participant team works with other teams on organisationally heterogeneous collaborative projects. Metateams are new and potentially powerful work structures resulting from the convergence of outsourcing, virtual organisations, and demands for global competitiveness. They promise to build IT solutions of high complexity, by integrating expertise from different fields and organisations. With the assistance of communication technologies, metateams can conquer barriers of time and space, enabling collaborative endeavours across a nation or across the globe. In a global business environment that demands innovation, flexibility, and responsiveness, metateams represent a revolution in the way organisations and practitioners do IT projects. However, as this study found, managing metateams presents unique difficulties due to conflicting demands arising from multiple realities. This dissertation presents an empirical research using a grounded theory approach that studies a major IT project performed by a metateam. The conceptual account emerges from an exploratory study of a major IT development and implementation project in the telecommunication industry. The project involved three key organisations and teams based in Australia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. The core pattern emerging from this study is one of constant conflict discovery and resolution, a process that progressively, and at a cost, allows the project to evolve from its initial incongruence into either a working solution or into project abandonment. This theory-building study presents a theoretical model, grounded on rich empirical data, interrelating key concepts of cost, conflict, communication, and trust, which serves to explain the pattern of actions and to propose a number of practical conclusions and recommendations. This research was guided by two key research objectives: (a) to add theoretical content to the understanding of key processes enacted by metateams in performing IT project work; and (b), to develop a framework that assists researchers and practitioners in predicting, explaining, and evaluating events and process associated with metateams. To the author's best knowledge, this study describes for the first time in the IS literature, the metateam organisation and the significant contextual issues they confront. In doing so, the study develops an understanding, grounded on rich empirical data from the substantive field of metateams. This new understanding contributes to both IS research and practice and provides guidance for future research.

Cresce o número de projetos de pesquisas tecnológicas entre universidades e empresas e, como resultado, pesquisadores procuram identificar fatores que são fundamentais para o sucesso desse tipo de projeto, denominados Fatores Críticos de Sucesso (FCSs). Existem estudos consolidados na literatura por meio de pesquisa do tipo levantamento, porém, poucos empregaram métodos de pesquisa em profundidade. Optou-se, então, por verificá-los empregando-se a observação participante como estratégia de pesquisa. Empreendeu-se uma análise empírica para identificar FCSs em projetos entre o Grupo de Engenharia Integrada e Integração (EI2), da Universidade de São Paulo, e uma empresa desenvolvedora de software. O autor desse estudo atuou como participante-observador e nele foram verificadas as presenças e avaliadas as influências dos potenciais FCSs sobre os resultados dos projetos. Os resultados foram avaliados a partir da percepção da equipe e dos coordenadores dos projetos (entrevistas) e do participante-observador (diário de campo), complementando-os com a análise de documentos. As principais conclusões foram: os fatores relacionados às práticas de gestão foram mais críticos para o sucesso dos projetos do que os relacionados ao contexto da parceria U-E; a necessidade de desenvolverem-se escalas e métricas mais sofisticadas para avaliar este tipo de colaboração, frente às encontradas nos estudos clássicos; e a necessidade de desenvolvimento de pesquisas para melhorar a definição da visão e dos objetivos de projetos. Portanto, o trabalho indica que nem todos os FCSs identificados na literatura são realmente críticos e aponta vários aspectos para o aprofundamento das pesquisas na área. / The number of technologic research projects involving universities and enterprises is growing rapidly, and as a result researchers are increasingly seeking to identify essential factors that are critical to their success, known as Critical Success Factors (CSFs). There are well established survey-type studies on this matter in the literature, but few of them employed in-depth investigation methods. Therefore, in order to contribute to the knowledge on CSFs this study makes use of participant observation as a research method. To this end an empirical analysis was carried out to identify CSFs in projects between the Integrated Engineering and Integration Group from São Paulo University and a software enterprise. The author of this study, acting as a participant observer, verified the presence of potential CSFs and evaluated their influence on the outcomes of the projects. The research results derived from interviews with the project coordinators and team and field notes, which were complemented by the analysis of documents. The main conclusions were: the factors related to management practices were more critical to success than those related to the context of university-enterprise partnership; there is a need for the development of more sophisticated scales and metrics to evaluate this type of collaboration as compared to the ones found in the seminal studies; and it is important to carry out further investigation to better define the vision and objectives of projects. Therefore, this study suggests that not all CSFs found in the literature may be considered as truly critical and points to several aspects that can lead to in-depth research in this field.

Syfte – Denna studie syftar till att bidra med en ökad förstaåelse om vad små och medelstora företag (SMF:s) efterfrågar och på vilket sätt som innovationsintermediärer kan få SMF:s att vilja delta i samarbetsprojekt. Metod – Vi genomförde en kvalitativ enskild fallstudie vid en innovationsintermediär och primärdata insamlades genom 39 intervjuer, fördelat på fyra olika typer av informantgrupper: (1) anställda vid innovationsintermediären, (2) SMF:s, (3) stora företag, och (4) övriga aktörer (t.ex. finansiärer och myndigheter). Dataanalysen bestod av en tematisk analys för att identifiera SMF:s behov och hur innovationsintermediären kan tillgodose behoven. Resultat – Vårt resultatavsnitt är indelat i tre delar: (1) först presenterar vi sex olika värden som innovationsintermediärer skapar för SMF:s vid samarbetsprojekt, (2) i den andra delen presenterar vi elva attribut som gör det attraktivt att delta i samarbetsprojekt för SMF:s på företagsspecifik nivå, samarbetsprojektnivå och innovationsekosystemnivå, och (3) vi presenterar en processbeskrivning om hur innovationsintermediärer skulle kunna skapa attraktiva samarbetsprojekt för SMF:s. Teoretiska och praktiska bidrag – Denna studie bidrar till en ökad förståelse för innovationsintermediärer genom att belysa vad som bidar till att samarbetsprojekt med en innovationsintermediär är attraktiva för SMF:s, vilket inte uppmärksammats i befintlig litteratur. Studien understödjer även tidigare funna värden och identifierar nya värden som en innovationsintermediär kan skapa för SMF:s, för att sedan sammankoppla dessa till de attraktiva attribut som vi funnit. Studien har även ett praktiskt bidrag i form av en processbeskrivning, som kan hjälpa företagsledningar och beslutstagare hos innovationsintermediärer att förstå hur attraktiva samarbetsprojekt för SMF:s skulle kunna utformas. Begräsningar och framtida forskning – Detta är en enskild fallstudie och har således endast undersökt en innovationsintermediär, i detta fall ett forskningsinstitut, vilket kan påverka studiens generaliserbarhet. Därav rekommenderar vi framtida forskning att fortsatt undersöka frågeställningen genom en flerfallstudie eller studier som undersöker andra innovationsintermediärer. / Purpose – This study aims to contribute with an increased understanding of what small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) demand and how innovation intermediaries can increase the willingness among SMEs to participate in collaborative projects. Method – We conducted a qualitative single case study at an innovation intermediary. Primary data was collected through 39 interviews, divided into four different types of groups: (1) employees at the innovation intermediary, (2) SMEs, (3) incumbent firms, and (4) other actors (e.g., financiers and authorities). The findings were generated by using a thematic analysis to identify SMEs’ needs and how the innovation intermediary can meet those needs. Findings – Our findings section is divided into three parts: (1) first we present six different values that innovation intermediaries create for SMEs in collaborative projects, (2) in the second part we discuss eleven attributes that make it attractive to participate in collaborative projects for SMEs at company-specific level, collaborative project level and innovation ecosystem level, and (3) we provide a roadmap of how innovation intermediaries could create attractive collaborative projects for SMEs. Implications – This study contributes to an increased understanding of innovation intermediaries by highlighting what contributes to collaborative projects with an innovation intermediary being attractive to SMEs. This has not been observed in the existing literature. The study also supports previously found values, identifying new values that an innovation intermediary can create for SMEs, and linking both these values to the attractive attributes that we identified. Based upon the findings a roadmap was created to offer top management and decision-makers at innovation intermediaries a tool to design collaborative projects attractive to SMEs. Limitations and future research – This is an individual case study and has thus only examined one innovation intermediary, in this case, a research institute, which may affect the generalizability of the study. Therefore, we recommend future research to investigate our research questions through multiple case studies or studies examining other innovation intermediaries.