abstract: Universities have been increasingly engaged in international collaborations with peer institutions overseas. In recent years, Confucius Institutes have emerged as a new model of collaboration between American universities and Chinese universities. In an attempt to identify factors contributing to successful international university collaborations, this study used the case study method and focused on one Confucius Institute between MMU, an American University, and ZZU, a Chinese university, and intended to identify factors leading to the success of the MMU-ZZU Confucius Institute collaboration. The study investigated the MMU-ZZU Confucius Institute collaboration within the framework of the MMU-ZZU institutional partnership. Based on data collected from the institutional documents, interviews, site visits and news reports, this study examined the experiences and perceptions of the university's stakeholders involved in creating and sustaining this particular Confucius Institute, including stakeholders at the program level, at the college level, and at the institutional level both at MMU and ZZU. Using the glonacal agency heuristics framework, the MMU-ZZU Confucius Institute collaboration was a result of joint forces of stakeholders at the program level, at the college level, and at the institutional level from ZZU and MMU. Stakeholders, no matter what level they are and which institution they are affiliated with, had to navigate through the significant differences between them to develop synergy to be successful. Synergy, including vertical synergy developed among stakeholders within each institution and horizontal synergy developed among stakeholders between institutions, turned out to be critical to the success of the MMU-ZZU CI. The study concluded that synergy in leadership, organizational contexts, stakeholders' resources, and the synergy in the MMU-ZZU Confucius Institute collaboration and the MMU-ZZU institutional partnership, led to the success of the MMU-ZZU Confucius Institute collaboration. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2012

abstract: In a collaborative environment where multiple robots and human beings are expected to collaborate to perform a task, it becomes essential for a robot to be aware of multiple agents working in its work environment. A robot must also learn to adapt to different agents in the workspace and conduct its interaction based on the presence of these agents. A theoretical framework was introduced which performs interaction learning from demonstrations in a two-agent work environment, and it is called Interaction Primitives. This document is an in-depth description of the new state of the art Python Framework for Interaction Primitives between two agents in a single as well as multiple task work environment and extension of the original framework in a work environment with multiple agents doing a single task. The original theory of Interaction Primitives has been extended to create a framework which will capture correlation between more than two agents while performing a single task. The new state of the art Python framework is an intuitive, generic, easy to install and easy to use python library which can be applied to use the Interaction Primitives framework in a work environment. This library was tested in simulated environments and controlled laboratory environment. The results and benchmarks of this library are available in the related sections of this document. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2017

With increased globalization and change in the educational structure, university internationalization has increased with the aim to better serve the society and connect institutions. Collaborations between universities and businesses have also become more common due to globalization and the shift in educational structure to serve society not only on an academic level. However, as internationalization is mostly regarded as an activities’ based approach, apparently there has been no theoretical or empirically explored propositions about the possibility of university internationalization through collaboration with industry. Therefore, this thesis’ purpose is to identify the set of factors that differentiate a regular internationalization approach from the one through collaboration with industry and thereby showing the relationship between university internationalization and university-business collaboration. A qualitative and inductive research approach was used through adopting a single case study of Linköping University’s internationalization in Brazil through its collaboration with Saab as an industry, which was done through collecting data from semi-structured interviews. The empirical findings confirmed that university internationalization through collaboration with industry is possible. Consequently, a model was developed that identified the differences between the two approaches and concludes by showing how university internationalization and university-business collaboration are linked.

Depuis quelques années, nous assistons à de profondes mutations économiques qui impliquent un changement de frontières organisationnelles. On constate que le mode de fonctionnement inter-organisationnel est de plus en plus pertinent, il est ainsi présenté comme le périmètre adéquat de mise en œuvre des nouvelles formes de gouvernance au service de l'innovation. Les travaux de recherche effectués dans le cadre de cette thèse de doctorat s'inscrivent dans ce contexte et concernent les pôles de compétitivité, ainsi que les projets collaboratifs s'y rattachant. Travailler en mode collaboratif implique la multiplicité et la découverte de nouveaux modes de fonctionnement des uns et des autres. La collaboration inter-organisationnelle engage une multitude d'acteurs différents, ayant des rythmes de travail aussi divers que variés, des cultures d'entreprises différentes, des compétences différentes et complémentaires, etc. Les pôles de compétitivité supposent que les adhérents soient dans une posture de collaboration. La mise en réseau des entreprises et organisations adhérentes aux pôles nécessite de travailler ensemble et collaborer sur des missions et projets communs. Or, la gestion des ressources humaines au sein d'un pôle de compétitivité n'est pas simple : nous l'avons énoncé plus haut, les populations en présence ont des statuts et des cultures très différents (chercheurs, entrepreneurs, salariés, etc.), la plupart des personnes associées aux pôles ne sont ni dirigées, ni rémunérées par celui-ci, l'organisation du travail sur des projets de Recherche & Développement collaboratif est spécifique. Chaque structure adhérente a des spécificités et enjeux différents. Qu'en est-il alors de la collaboration au sein d'un pôle de compétitivité ? Quelle GRH y observe-t-on ? Celle-ci favorise-t-elle la collaboration entre adhérents ? / During those recent years, we have witnessed profound economic changes that involved a change in organizational boundaries. It is found that the mode of inter-organizational functioning is increasingly relevant, it is presented as the appropriate scope of implementation of new forms of governance for innovation. The research conducted as part of this thesis are part of that context and relate to clusters, as well as collaborative projects related thereto. Working in collaborative mode involves the multiplicity and the discovery of new modes of operation of each other. The inter-organizational collaboration engages a multitude of different actors, working with rhythms as diverse and varied, different corporate cultures, of different and complementary skills, etc.. The clusters assume that members are in a posture of cooperation. The networking of companies and organizations adhering to the poles requires to work together and collaborate on assignments and projects. However, the human resource management within a cluster is not simple: we stated above, the populations in the presence of status and have very different cultures (researchers, entrepreneurs, employees, etc.. ), most people on the poles are neither technically nor paid by the latter, the organization of work on projects of collaborative R & D is specific. Each structure has specific adherent and different challenges. What then of collaboration in a cluster? HRM can observe how does one? It promotes Does collaboration between members?

Cette recherche, menée dans le cadre d'un doctorat de sociologie sous la direction de Philippe Combessie, repose principalement sur une enquête de 24 mois dans des ateliers de création artistique installés dans la maison d’arrêt pour hommes du centre pénitentiaire de Marseille, que nous avons conjuguée à une enquête de 13 mois dans le centre éducatif fermé de Montfavet. Le travail engagé a surtout reposé sur la volonté d'examiner le maillage entre art, prison et société, considérant finalement que l'enfermement le plus visible pouvait, quand il devenait le point central d'une expérience artistique de collaboration entre le dedans et le dehors, permettre de mener une réflexion sur d'autres types de cloisonnements à l’oeuvre dans la société. Prenant appui sur un dispositif de création collaborative, développé avec des groupes de participants incarcérés et de la société civile, nous nous sommes questionnée sur son sens, ses fonctions, ses effets, à trois niveaux : individuel, institutionnel et sociétal. Nous avons envisagé cette action artistique comme un terrain d’expérimentation de transformations multiples et avons élaboré comme point d’appui conceptuel la notion de triple inertie. Il nous fallait alors tenter une analyse qui ne compartimente pas les impacts en fonction des différents champs de répercussion, s'appuyant sur une perspective d'analyse des agencements préexistants et des réagencements produits. C'est ainsi qu'a émergé une problématique centrale, constituant une armature pour structurer l'ensemble des questions que nous souhaitions abordées dans ce travail, et qui peut ainsi se formuler : en quoi l'expérience artistique collaborative en prison, dans une dynamique transformative, constitue une mise en mouvement et un dépassement des inerties et frontières carcérales à trois niveaux indissociables, individuel, institutionnel et sociétal? / This research, led for the purpose of a PhD in sociology under the supervision of Philippe Combessie, is based on a 24 months long study in the artistic experience workshops set up inside the Marseille correctional institution, combined with a 13 months study in Montfavet’s closed educative center. The work that has been undertaken rested upon the ability to examine the links between, art, prison and society, arguing that the most visible imprisonment can, when it becomes the central point of an artistic experience of collaboration between the inside and the outside, give the possibility to think of new forms of confinement at work in society. This project was developed according to an apparatus of collaborative creation established with various groups of participants that were either in custody or coming from civil society. Its meaning, its functions, and its effects, were questioned on three levels: individual, institutional, and societal. This artistic action came about as a space of experimentation for various transformations and gave the possibility to coin the notion of triple inertia, hereby used as conceptual tool. It was important to bring about an analysis that did not divide the impacts in terms of the various fields of repercussion, and instead, relied on an analysis of both pre-existing layouts, and the new forms of layouts produced. That is how the central issue emerged, becoming the framework that would structure the totality of the questions that were to be discussed in this work, and that can be stipulated as such: How does the collaborative artistic experience in prison, through a transformative dynamic, constitute a movement as well as an overcoming of inertias and prison frontiers on three inseparable levels, individual, institutional and societal.

À medida que a inovação se torna um ponto fundamental para a agregação de valor das empresas, o seu gerenciamento torna-se uma ferramenta essencial para garantir a competitividade das organizações no mercado. Neste contexto, a cooperação universidade-empresa surge como uma alternativa externa às empresas para o desenvolvimento de suas aptidões inovadoras. Considerando a importância destas cooperações para o desenvolvimento econômico, a presente pesquisa teve como objetivo o mapeamento das redes de relacionamentos a partir dos projetos de desenvolvimento tecnológico desenvolvidos entre as empresas multinacionais brasileiras, suas subsidiárias e universidades ou institutos de pesquisas, por meio das concessões de patentes, que abrangem os modelos de invenção, de modelo de utilidade, depositados em bancos nacional e internacional. O estudo é uma pesquisa qualitativa, com abordagem descritiva, utilizando o método de levantamento de dados secundários dos bancos de pedidos de patentes nacional (Instituto Nacional de Propriedade Industrial - INPI) e internacional (Escritório Europeu de Patentes - EPO). O universo da pesquisa abrange quatro empresas multinacionais brasileiras, do setor de extração ou de transformação de recursos naturais, que desenvolvem atividades de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento em processos de cooperação tecnológica. As patentes concedidas para estas empresas foram analisadas com o intuito de se verificar quais destes documentos envolviam projetos de cooperação tecnológica; e a partir do uso da análise de redes sociais examinou-se e mapeou-se as estruturas das redes de relacionamentos, destas organizações com suas subsidiarias e universidades ou institutos de pesquisa. Esta pesquisa demonstra o processo de cooperação tecnológica no Brasil e sua dinâmica, enfatizando a importância do envolvimento em redes de cooperação para o fortalecimento da inovação tecnológica nas organizações. / As innovation becomes a fundamental issue to aggregate value to companies, its management is an essential tool to guarantee market competitiveness among organizations. In this context, university-industry collaboration appears as an external alternative for companies to develop their innovation aptitudes. Considering the importance of these collaborations for economic growth, the present research aims at mapping relationships networks among Brazilian multinational companies, their subsidiaries and research institutes or universities through patent concessions, registered in national and international databases. This is a descriptive qualitative study based on secondary data methodology research from national and international patent databases (INPI National Institute for Industrial Property and EPO European Patent Office). The research includes four Brazilian multinational companies from the natural resource extraction and transformation industry involved in research and development collaboration with other organizations. Their patents have been analyzed in order to verify which documents are involved in technology cooperation projects; thereafter, the social network analysis has been used to study relationship structures and map their collaboration networks. This research demonstrates the collaboration process and its dynamics in Brazil and shows the importance of being involved in collaboration networks that will strengthen technological innovation in organizations.

La Deuxième Guerre mondiale joue un rôle primordial dans l’oeuvre de Romain Gary. Présente dans tous ses écrits, elle constitue, pour les personnages, un épisode fondamental pour la construction de leur vision du monde. Gary l’inscrit dans une continuité historique et s’attache à décrire, dans un va-et-vient entre fiction et réalité, aussi bien les années d’avant-guerre que les décennies qui la suivent. En effet, le conflit mondial hante la mémoire des survivants, qu’ils soient civils ou militaires, et détermine pour certains d’entre eux la nature des leurs engagements futurs. Au sein d’une immense galerie de personnages, les résistants forment une communauté humaine où la fraternité, née du combat pour un idéal commun, constitue un lien indélébile qui résiste aussi bien au passage du temps qu’à la mort. Il n’en reste pas moins que d’autres catégories comme les collaborateurs, les Allemands, les Juifs ou les femmes occupent une place importante dans l’oeuvre. La Deuxième Guerre mondiale constitue, pour tous ces personnages, une grille de déchiffrement du monde. Gary décrit le cheminement qui conduit les différents personnages vers l’engagement, l’action. Il s’agit de parcours individuels – dont le sien – dépeints sans manichéisme ni prise de position politique, avec humour et parfois même ironie. L’engagement du héros garyen est une défense perpétuelle de l’humanisme. / World War II plays a crucial role in Romain Gary’s work. Pervasive throughout his writings, it represents, for the characters, a defining moment which shapes their vision of the world. Gary places it within historical continuum as he aims to describe, floating between fiction and reality, the pre-war period as well as the following decades. In fact, the world-wide conflict haunts the memory of the survivors, both military and civilian, influencing, for some of them, the nature of their commitments in the future. Within a wide and diverse range of characters, the resistants constitute a human community in which brotherhood, born out of the struggle for a shared ideal, creates a bond that resists the passing of time and even death. There are other categories present, such as the collaborators, the Germans, the Jews, or women. For all these characters, World War II is a significant paradigm that helps them understand the world. Gary’s description follows the characters in their way towards commitment and action. These are personal journeys – including his own – described without the manichean prism or political bias, but rather with humour and even irony. The commitment of the Garian hero is an undying defence of humanism.

Le présent travail de recherche a pour objet l'étude des apports des pratiques d'utilisation des outils de gestion collaboratifs par les parties prenantes du processus de contrôle en gestion des risques. Face aux enjeux multiples pour réduire la vulnérabilité des organisations, le contrôle tient une place particulière. Avec le développement de l'informatique et l'accroissement des risques il s'est naturellement complexifié. Il est aujourd'hui partagé entre des acteurs humains (organismes de contrôle, industriels, services de prévention des risques, etc.) et non-humains (systèmes d'information, logiciels, systèmes de management, etc.), incluant ainsi la dimension de travail collaboratif. Afin de proposer une modélisation du système d'acteurs et des différents échanges permis par l'approche collaborative, trois objets sociologiques sont mobilisées : la Théorie de la Régulation Sociale (TRS), introduisant le concept de régulation, la Théorie de l'Acteur-Réseau (TAR), autorisant une étude asymétrique des acteurs et une maitrise de l'a priori, et le travail collaboratif, regroupant la collaboration et l'ingénierie logicielle. La conduite d'une expérimentation terrain et le déploiement d'un questionnaire sur les pratiques du travail collaboratif permettent de vérifier concrètement les apports des systèmes d'information dans le cadre d'une approche collaborative du contrôle. L'originalité de cette démarche réside dans la prise en compte des interrelations entre chacun des sous-processus du contrôle et la confrontation d'une expérimentation terrain avec une enquête prospective généralisée. / The current research aims to study collaborative working contributions in risk management control processes. Control is needed in risk management processes facing complexity. Indeed, IT development and risk increase led to increase control complexity. It is now shared between human actors (inspectors, industrialist, OHS department, etc.) and non-human (IT, software, management systems, etc.) including a collaborative working dimension. In order to propose a model of the system of actors and different exchanges allowed by the collaborative approach, three sociological objects are mobilized: the Social Regulation Theory (SRT), introducing the concept of regulation, the actor- Network Theory (ANT), authorizing an asymmetric study of actors, and collaborative working, combining collaboration and software engineering. To verify IT contributions as part of a collaborative approach a field trial and a survey on collaborative work practices were conducted. The novelty of this approach lies in the consideration of the interrelationships between each control sub-process and the confrontation of a field trial with a generalized prospective survey.

Cette thèse est une contribution à la modélisation, la planification et l’optimisation du transport pour l’approvisionnement en bois de forêt des industries de première transformation. Dans ce domaine, les aléas climatiques (mise au sol des bois par les tempêtes), sanitaires (attaques bactériologiques et fongiques des bois) et commerciaux (variabilité et exigence croissante des marchés) poussent les divers acteurs du secteur (entrepreneurs et exploitants forestiers, transporteurs) à revoir l’organisation de la filière logistique d’approvisionnement, afin d’améliorer la qualité de service (adéquation offre-demande) et de diminuer les coûts.L’objectif principal de cette thèse était de proposer un modèle de pilotage améliorant la performance du transport forestier, en respectant les contraintes et les pratiques du secteur.Les résultats établissent une démarche de planification hiérarchique des activités de transport à deux niveaux de décision, tactique et opérationnel. Au niveau tactique, une optimisation multi-périodes permet de répondre aux commandes en minimisant l’activité globale de transport, sous contrainte de capacité agrégée des moyens de transport accessibles. Ce niveau permet de mettre en oeuvre des politiques de lissage de charge et d’organisation de sous-traitance ou de partenariats entre acteurs de transport. Au niveau opérationnel, les plans tactiques alloués à chaque transporteur sont désagrégés, pour permettre une optimisation des tournées des flottes, sous contrainte des capacités physiques de ces flottes.Les modèles d’optimisation de chaque niveau sont formalisés en programmation linéaire mixte avec variables binaires. L’applicabilité des modèles a été testée en utilisant un jeu de données industrielles en région Aquitaine et a montré des améliorations significatives d’exploitation des capacités de transport par rapport aux pratiques actuelles.Les modèles de décision ont été conçus pour s’adapter à tout contexte organisationnel, partenarial ou non : la production du plan tactique possède un caractère générique sans présomption de l’organisation, celle-ci étant prise en compte, dans un deuxième temps, au niveau de l’optimisation opérationnelle du plan de transport de chaque acteur. / The present manuscript tackles the supply chain forest transportation problem in the context of forestry primary industry. In this context, several risks may affect the forest supply chain: the unpredictable weather conditions (tree falling provoked by major storms); sanitary emergencies (tree pest and diseases); and, diverse commercial circumstances (the variability of market demands). The aforementioned issues motivate the diverse forest sector protagonists (entrepreneurs, forest operators and drivers) to seek support for improving their logistic operations. The aim of this effort is to improve the service quality (offer-demand agreement) diminishing in this way the total costs. Therefore, the main goal of this thesis is the proposal of a novel management model which improves forest-to-mill transport performance. At the same time, the proposed model accounts for the forest sector manners and constraints. The contribution of this thesis is threefold: first a transportation model is developed, later on the transport planning is managed, and finally an optimization procedure is proposed.The thesis results propose a hierarchical planning for the forestry transportation. Two decision levels are suggested: tactic and operational. At a tactic level, a multi-period optimization is considered. The multi-period optimization strategy meets the customer supply demands while minimizes the global transportation activity. Such strategy takes into account the restrictions of the total available transportation means. Moreover, at this level the activity balancing politics may be developed, as well as subcontractors coordination between transport companies. On the other hand, at the operational level, the tactic planning assigned for each transporter is divided so an optimization of the fleet’s transport assignation is done considering the vehicles constraints.The decision process is modelled as a Mixed Linear Programming formulation. The application considers a data set coming from the industry settled at the Aquitaine region in France. The results have shown a significant improvement on the transport capabilities with respect to the conventional transport practices.It is worth to mention that the decision models were designed such that they may be adapted to different context either collaborative or not. In both cases, the tactic planning has a generic purpose, in other words, it is independent of the kind of organization involved, whereas specific organizations are taken into account when planning actors’ activities at the operational level.

De plus en plus d'organisations se tournent aujourd'hui vers des activités de conception collectives pour concevoir de nouveaux produits, services, processus ou politiques publiques avec les usagers, employés, citoyens et autres parties prenantes. Résultat, nous savons organiser sous plusieurs formes l'innovation collective : généralement de l'innovation modérée avec des acteurs qui fonctionnent bien ensemble, au sein de collectifs qui fonctionnent également bien.Or, avant de traiter d'interactions au service de l'innovation, il faut reconnaitre que l'on ne perçoit pas toujours comment ces collectifs créatifs émergent. Pourquoi tel mutisme sur le temps zéro ? On dénote aussi un antagonisme en matière de pilotage de communautés, lequel est souvent mal perçu et potentiellement fatal. Nous sommes donc confrontés à une double ignorance : 1) sur l'émergence des communautés créatives, et de facto 2) sur le management de l'émergence de ces collectifs. Comment peut-on gérer sans être intrusif dans des contextes où il n'y a rien? Est-ce que l'innovation peut être une ressource dans ce processus et non pas seulement un effet? Si tel est le cas, alors il faudra comprendre comment et pour quelles raisons. Or, le problème est que la littérature a tendance à séparer les deux dimensions. On parle d'innovation, mais on pense souvent qu'elle est réservée aux collectifs « bien constitués » ; de l'autre on parle de collectifs, mais on ne pense pas que l'innovation puisse aider à l'émergence de nouveaux collectifs. La thèse démontre plutôt qu'il y a un lien très intime et profond entre les aspects « communautés » (relations) et l'action d'innover (car c'est de communautés créatives qu'il s'agit). Que l'action d'innover (la conception) renforce le collectif et que le collectif renforce la capacité de conception.Nous montrons que c'est précisément de cette question que traite le co-design. L'approche de conception se pose en effet comme un formidable espace de création de collectifs, là où d'autres méthodes échouent. Elle enclenche la mise en route de communautés créatives là où l'on n'attendait plus la moindre action collective. Plus précisément, la thèse aborde les trois questions suivantes : 1) Quelles sont les caractéristiques des collectifs et des contextes « pré »-communauté? 2) Quel est le rôle de la conception dans l'émergence de communautés créatives? 3) Comment piloter des communautés créatives dans la durée ? Par une approche qualitative et constructiviste, elle mobilise une foule de méthodologies : l'étude de cas multiples, la modélisation et l'expérimentation, ainsi que la recherche-intervention.L'axe I se penche sur des rapports interpersonnels encore plus déstructurés et des contextes d'innovation encore moins fertiles qu'anticipés. De ces rapports initiaux antagonistes émerge pourtant une capacité à se projeter collectivement dans l'inconnu grâce la mise en place d'espaces de conception. Le premier acte managérial de la genèse d'une communauté créative tient dans la capacité à transformer, par un espace de conception, des conflits en indécidables communs, sans forcément les résoudre.L'axe II démontre que les liens relationnels se renforcent dès que l'on parvient à pousser les acteurs à générer des concepts; à faire circuler les connaissances et à favoriser leur combinaison. Mais une fois cette transformation effectuée, la communauté doit se doter de ressources externes pour poursuivre son expansion. Le deuxième acte managérial consiste donc à remettre la communauté sous tension en ramenant des connaissances indépendantes pour préserver la part d'indécidable.Finalement, le pilotage de l'axe III offre des pistes de solutions aux différents enjeux intra et inter séances de co-design relevés en cours de route. Il identifie aussi deux actes managériaux supplémentaires : la consolidation de la valeur et de la communauté, ainsi que la résolution des propositions collectives et l'ouverture de nouvelles explorations. / More and more organizations turn to collective activities to design new products, services, processes or public policies with users, employees, citizens and other stakeholders. As a result, we know how to organize collective innovation under several forms : generally for moderated innovation with actors who work well together, within collectives who also function well. Yet, before discussing interactions for the purpose of innovating, we must recognize that we do not always perceive how these creative collectives emerge. Little is known about the moment it emerges. We also denote an antagonism regarding the management of communities, which is often badly perceived and potentially fatal. But then again, how can one stay on the touchlines when all the proper conditions are not in place a priori and when everything remains to be built?Thus, we are faced with a double unknown: 1) on the emergence of the creative communities, and de facto 2) on the management of the emergence of these collectives. How can we manage without being intrusive in contexts where there is nothing? Can innovation be a resource in this process and not only an effect? If that is the case, then we must understand how and for which reasons. Yet, the literature tends to separate both dimensions. It discusses innovation, but often portrays it as if it was reserved for "established" collectives ; or, on the other side, it discusses collectives, but it does not show how innovation can help in their development. Rather, the thesis demonstrates that there is a strong link between communities (relations) and innovation (for we are dealing with creative communities). That engaging in innovation (to design) strengthens the collective and that the collective strengthens the capacity of to innovate.We argue that co-design deals preciscly with this question. That this type of design poses as a tremendous space for the creation of collectives, where other methods fail, and that it gives way to creative communities where collective action was the least expected. More precisely, the thesis adresses the following three questions: 1) What are the characteristics of the collectives and the contexts "pre" community? 2) What is the role of design in the emergence of creative communities?; and 3) How to manage creative communities on the long run? By a qualitative and constructivist approach, it mobilizes a range of methodologies: multiple cases study, modelling and experimentation, as well as intervention research.Axis I deals with unstructured interpersonal relationships and contexts of innovation even less fertile than anticipated. Nevertheless, these conflicting initial relationships give way to a collective capacity to explore the unknown by the fact of engaging in co-design. The first managerial act of the genesis of a creative community lies in the capacity to transform, through a collective design activity, conflicts in common "undecidables", without solving them necessarily.Axis II demonstrates that the relational links strengthen as soon as actors engage in the generation of concepts; when they get to share and combine their knowledge in new ways. However, once this transformation has occured, communities need external resources to pursue their expansion. Thus, the second managerial act consists in putting back communities under tension by bringing in independent knowledge.Finally, the management of more elaborate and longer co-design initiatives in the third axis offers solutions to the various intra and inter sessions issues uncovered along the way. It also identifies two additional managerial acts: the consolidation of value and of the creative community, as well as the resolution collective proposals and the opening of new explorations.