Samverkan har internationellt uppmärksammats som en lösning på de utmaningar byggindustrin möter. Utmaningar har tidigare belysts som komplexa processer och idag finns en utveckling där projekten är både större och mer komplicerade, vilket kräver en bättre koordinering av resurser. Det har också visats att projektbaserade organisationer har svårt att hantera och överföra kunskap mellan projekt och inom entreprenadorganisationen. Samverkanskonceptet strävar att kombinera aktörers resurser och kunskaper i tidiga skeden av projekt. Detta för att bättre hantera komplexitet, samtidigt som samarbetet leder till bättre affärsrelationer och minskade konflikter mellan projektets olika aktörer. Sedan 2017 har ledningssystem, modeller och kontrakts mallar för samverkan lanserats och anpassats för svenska byggindustrin. Målet med dessa är att främja användandet av samverkan och skapa en enhetlig bild av konceptet i branschen. Denna masteruppsats syfte är att förbättra förutsättningar för entreprenadorganisationers arbete med kunskapsåterföring i och mellan samverkansprojekt. Masteruppsatsen studerar hur utvecklingen och arbetet med samverkansprojekt sker i entreprenadorganisationer och fokuserar på deras erfarenheter, förutsättningar, definitioner av samverkan samt samverkansprojektens roll i deras affärsplaner. Vidare undersöks vilka strukturer och mekanismer för lärande som existerar i entreprenadorganisationer och hur dessa kan bidra till utveckling av samverkansprojekt. Resultatet i studien är baserad på en kvalitativ studie där 15 respondenter intervjuades. Studien visade att de två affärsområdena har strategiskt satsat på samverkan. Trots att samverkan har blivit en stor del av entreprenadorganisationers verksamhet återstår utmaningar vid implementering av samverkan då branschen har olika erfarenhet och förståelse för att driva projekt i samverkan. Dock står det klart att samverkans projekt är en värdefull del av entreprenadorganisationens affärsplaner. Därför strävar entreprenadorganisationer till att upprätta strukturer för kunskapsåterföring i och mellan samverkansprojekt, bland annat genom nätverk, forum för kunskapsutbyte, studiebesök och strategisk samverkan. Trots att strukturer för kunskapsdelning existerar är det svårt att formalisera kunskap och erfarenheter från individer. Studien påvisar att den mest värdefulla kunskapen finns hos individen och att det är individer som i hög gradbidrar till utveckling och förbättring i samverkansprojekt. Därför måste organisationer försöka skapa en god samarbetskultur så att strukturer för kunskapsåterföring och kunskapsdelning fyller sin funktion och motiverar individerna att dela med sig av tidigare erfarenhet och kunskap och kan därmed förbättra och utveckla organisationens samverkansprojekt. / Partnering has internationally been acknowledged as a solution to the challenges that the construction industry faces. The challenges have previously been illustrated as complex processes and a development where projects have become larger and more complicated, which requires efficient coordination or resources. Furthermore, it has been proven that project-based organisations face challenges in managing and sharing knowledge between projects and within the contractor organisation. Partnering as a concept aims to combine stakeholders’ resources and knowledge in early phases of projects to better manage the complexity, in addition this collaboration improves business relations and reduces conflicts between project stakeholders. Since 2017 partnering models, management systems and contract templates have been launched and adapted to the Swedish construction industry, with the purpose to promote the use of partnering and create a common view of the concept within the industry. This Master Thesis aims to improve the prerequisites for contractor organisations work with knowledge feedback in and between partnering projects. The Master Thesis studies the development and work in partnering projects in contractor organisations and focuses on their experience, prerequisites, definitions of partnering and partnering projects role in their business plans. Furthermore, the existing structures and mechanisms for learning in contractor organisations are explored, along with how they can contribute to the development of partnering projects. The result of the study is based on a qualitative study where 15 respondents were interviewed. The study showed that the two business areas have strategically invested in partnering. Although partnering has become a large part of operations in contractor organisations, challenges remain upon implementation of partnering due to differences in experience and understanding of managing partnering projects within the industry. However, it is clear that partnering projects have a valuable role in contractor organisations business plans. Therefore, contractor organisations strive to establish structures for knowledge feedback within and between partnering projects through, amongst other things, networks, knowledge feedback forums, study visits and strategic partnering. Although structures for sharing knowledge exist, it is challenging to formalise individuals' knowledge and experience. This study demonstrates that the most valuable knowledge lies within the individual and that it is the individuals who contribute to the development and improvement in partnering projects. Therefore, organisations should aim to create a good collaboration culture so that the structures for knowledge feedback and sharing fulfil their purpose and motivate individuals to share their past experience and knowledge and therefore improve and develop partnering projects in contractor organisations.

According to conventional wisdom, the petroleum industry is classified as a ‘resource based’ and ‘mature’ industry. It is subject to the ‘resource curse’ thesis, exhausted of ‘technological opportunities’ with limited capacity for knowledge based economic growth. This study questions the adequacy of this line of reasoning. Exploring the technological complexity of the sector, a complementary argument is presented. We show that the sector has recently experienced a surge in ‘technological opportunities’. However the ‘systemic complexity of the knowledge base’ has constrained many oil producing countries’ enjoyment of these opportunities. This view highlights the role of dynamics of knowledge base complexity as an important ‘cognitive’ barrier for building innovation capabilities in endowed countries. This study is based on the extension of a ‘Sectoral Innovation Systems’ approach, highlighting the role of technological regimes in catch-up possibilities and strategies. Knowledge base complexity is explored as an under-researched element of technological regimes. The research contributes in three ways. First, it introduces a dynamic and three-dimensional view of knowledge base complexity at the conceptual level, and hypothesizes its implication for patterns of innovation and catch-up processes. Second, a quantitative methodology is developed to examine the proposed hypotheses. Third, the conceptual and methodological suggestions are empirically examined in the context of upstream petroleum industry. The findings propose that the sector has gone through phases of transformation and reconfiguration. The sector’s technological regime over the most recent period experienced high opportunities combined with rising systemic complexity of the knowledge base. We show that this trend in technological regimes is associated with shift of the sector from Schumpeter Mark I to II and with the emergence of major Integrated Service Companies as new system integrators coping with rising systemic complexity. We also observe that rising systemic complexity is associated with slow down and halt of geographical dispersion of innovation. The sector-wide cumulativeness stemming from systemic complexity creates high cognitive barriers to entry for latecomers. The very scarce examples of catch-up in a few advanced oil producing countries suggest that high innovation opportunities in complex industries are open mostly to countries with both advanced national innovation systems and accumulated production experience. For latecomer countries to benefit, their industrial policy needs to cope with increasing systemic complexity, mitigating its coordination costs and facilitating the integration of distributed catch-up processes. This highlights the key role of ‘late comer systems integrators’ for successful catch-up.

The aim of this thesis is to study whether the Swedish state’s efforts to govern the professional practice of social workers (SWs) by knowledge to achieve an evidence-based practice, address the difficulties that SWs encounter in their practice. The Swedish state’s ambition is to govern the practice of social work by ideas and methods originating from medicine. The thesis therefore compares, through four different studies, the professional practice of SWs with general practitioners (GPs) as the most comparable sub-profession in medicine. The research questions that the thesis seeks to answer are: What situations are perceived as problematic and non-problematic by SWs and GPs? How does the professionals’ relationship with clients affect the performative aspects of these occupations’ enactment of their practice? How do SW and GPs experience the state’s efforts to govern their professional practice by knowledge? What problems can arise when the Swedish state builds its knowledge governance of social work practice on a comparison with medicine, even though these professional fields exhibit a number of important differences? The empirical material in the first and second studies consists of 52 narratives, written by SWs and GPs on problematic and non-problematic situations. The third study is based on vignette-based focus group interviews with 25 SWs and GPs. And the fourth study is based on a literature review, consisting of 54 articles about SWs’ and GPs’ practice. A first finding is that professionals rarely describe lack of knowledge or difficulties with knowledge use as problematic. A second finding is that non-problematic situations are connected to professionals’ control of the intervention process. SWs gained control of the relationship with the client either by use of coercive means or by the client’s active co-operation. GPs gained control of the intervention process by the use of professional knowledge. A third finding is that an understanding of professional practice as a linear process consisting of diagnosis, inference and treatment reflects GPs’ practice but not all aspects of SWs’ practice. A fourth finding is that both professions hold ambivalent positions towards evidence-based risk reductions technologies. The responses towards organisational risk reductions technologies differ in that GPs are sceptical, whilst SWs take a more pragmatic view. A main conclusion is that the Swedish state’s efforts to govern the performative aspects of SWs’ practice by knowledge, runs the risk of becoming a insufficient strategy since they tend to exhibit two main blind spots. The first is that these efforts tend to ignore that the relationship with the client has a crucial affect on and conditions SWs’ and in problematic situations also GPs’ knowledge use. The second is that the efforts also tend to ignore that control of the intervention process is not always maintained through control of knowledge use. For SWs control of the relationship with clients represents another mode of professional control of the intervention process. / Hur använder socialarbetare och allmänläkare kunskap i praktiken?, FAS/FORTE dnr 2009-0251

This thesis focuses on the changed governance of the public sector and what it can entail for professional work in substance abuse treatment. The point of departure is one of these new forms of governing, namely ‘knowledge governance’, which refers to a policy-driven process for promoting the use of evidence-based practice.  The overall aim is to contribute to understanding and knowledge of the meaning and the conditions for knowledge governance in substance abuse treatment. The thesis studies how knowledge is interpreted by professionals and adapted to local practice in relation to organizational and professional conditions. The thesis also highlights the implications that   these conditions may have for knowledge development on a professional and organizational level. The empirical material comprises three studies. Study 1 included a document analysis and a literature review. The document analysis examines how knowledge governance is described in official documents, while the focus of the literature review is on the concept of knowledge management. In Studies 2 and 3 focus group interviews were conducted with professionals who participated in a specific project, and professionals who use structured interview methods in their work (Addiction Severity Index, ASI, or Documentation of clients, DOC). The theoretical perspectives used in the thesis are neo-institutional theory, professional theory and perspectives on workplace learning.   The results of Study 1 showed that knowledge governance embodies a steering of organizations, in comparison with knowledge management as a means for steering in organizations. The analyses from the focus group interviews demonstrate that knowledge governance becomes the subject of translations and edits to a local context. This process was affected by both organizational and professional conditions. The thesis is concluded with a discussion of the conditions that must be present if knowledge governance can lead to development of knowledge. The main result is that strategies must be tailored to each organization's specific condition and must be anchored throughout the organization.

This thesis explores the politics of biosecurity and the governance of dual-use research. It focuses on life sciences, whose rapid development brings together the issues of biological weapons, terrorism, and the dangers of scientific innovations. The thesis has three goals: first, to situate the dilemma of dual-use research historically and conceptually, second, to analyse how the attempts to govern biosecurity and regulate dual-use research in life sciences affect the relations between science and security, and third, to discuss what implications this science-security nexus has for the politics of (in)security. Approaching the subject from critical security studies, the thesis looks at how the nexus between science and security is constructed. It does so, first, by exploring the dominant political and expert discourses on biosecurity and by looking at two distinct empirical sites, which exemplify how a regime of biosecurity governance evolves at a boundary of science and security in a 'global' and 'local' context: the international biological weapons regime and the Czech system of biosecurity management. The thesis finds that the attempts to govern dual-use research in life sciences focus not only on materials and technologies but also on scientific knowledge. It conceptualizes dual-use as a problem of...

Bien que le thème des liens interconseils fasse régulièrement l’objet de discussions supposant un effet disciplinaire négatif du cumul de mandats, l’inventaire de la littérature empirique ne permet pas d’obtenir une image claire concernant l’impact des réseaux d’administrateurs sur la performance des entreprises liées. La divergence des résultats s’explique tant par la mobilisation de grilles théoriques négligeant des éléments importants des liens personnels, que des divers critères utilisés pour mesurer la création de valeur. Dans l’objectif d’obtenir des réponses plus concluantes concernant l’impact du partage d’administrateurs communs sur la création de valeur de la firme, nous avons modélisé, à l’aide d’une structure théorique « bi-céphale », les contributions potentielles des liens interconseils à la performance. Notre modèle repose sur la théorie synthétique de la gouvernance. Il mobilise deux voies d’intervention disciplinaire (la surcharge temporelle des « cumulards » et l’effet de réputation exercé par le marché du travail des administrateurs externe) et trois leviers cognitifs (l’apport d’informations et de connaissances, l’apport de compétences généralistes et spécifiques, ainsi que leur combinaison et l’exploitation). À ces facteurs s’ajoutent différentes variables médiatrices et de contrôle. Pour tester la validité de notre modèle, nous avons mené une étude empirico-comparative des liens interconseils existant entre les plus grandes entreprises françaises et allemandes, observés sur la période 2001-2005. Dans la partie descriptive, nous avons examiné, tant pour un échantillon bi-national que pour des sous-échantillons, les caractéristiques des réseaux d’administrateurs contemporains de part et d’autre du Rhin. La partie empirique teste, à l’aide de régressions en données de panel, l’influence des liens sur deux mesures de performance (un critère ex ante et un indicateur ex post). Les tests montrent que les effets de liens interconseils varient selon le type de mandats cumulés. De surcroît, le modèle confirme les contributions supposées importantes des administrateurs multimandats en termes cognitifs et leur impact majoritairement favorable sur la création de valeur. L’anticipation des effets des liens interconseils par les marchés s’avère plus forte que ce que montre l’analyse de leur influence sur la mesure de performance ex post. / Although interlocking directorates are regularly associated with a negative connotation, empirical evidence is far away from offering convincing answers about the performance effects of directorship interlocks. The huge variety of contradicting results can be explained both by the use of different theoretical frameworks and different value creation measures. In order to shed more light on the question of the role of busy directors, we develop a two-pillar model explaining the potential contributions of directorship interlocks to shareholder value creation. Based on a synthetic view of corporate governance, the model uses two disciplinary (work overload of busy directors and incentive effects coming from the external labor market of corporate directors) as well as three cognitive intervention levers (provision of information and knowledge, provision of general and specific competences, combination and exploitation of those elements). Moderating and controlling variables are added. The appropriateness of the model is tested through a 5-year comparison (2001-2005) of director networks within the largest French and German companies. We first present, both for a bi-national sample and national sub-samples, the major characteristics of the identified interlocks. In the empirical part, we conduct a panel data analysis checking for the influence of busy directors on corporate performance. We use two performance measures: one ex ante, the other ex post. Empirical tests indicate that the performance effect of interlocks depend on the type of board seats accumulated. Moreover, statistical modeling confirms the existence of cognitive contributions of director networks and shows mostly positive effects on value creation. Also, markets seem to anticipate director effects – both negative and positive – in a stronger way than an ex post performance analysis shows. / Obgleich das Thema „personelle Unternehmensverflechtungen über den Aufsichtsrat“ re-gelmäßig im Fokus öffentlicher Diskussionen steht – wobei in der Regel eine negative Wirkung der Mandatekumulation auf die Kontrolleffizienz des Überwachungsgremiums und damit letztlich auf die Unternehmensperformance unterstellt wird –, zeigt eine Analyse der empirischen Litera-tur, dass insbesondere in Kontinentaleuropa eine klare Schlussfolgerung hinsichtlich der Wirkung von Mehrfachmandaten auf die Wertschöpfung für die Aktionäre nicht möglich ist. Ursache für die starke Divergenz der Ergebnisse scheint sowohl die Verwendung verschiedener theoretischer Erklärungsmodelle als auch die Mobilisierung unterschiedlicher Messgrößen der Unternehmens-performance zu sein. Mit dem Ziel aussagekräftigere Ergebnisse zur Rolle der Mehrfachmandate und ihres Einflusses auf die Wertschöpfung zu erhalten, untersucht die nachfolgende Studie unter Zuhilfenahme eines 2-Säulen-Modells die verschiedenen potenziellen Wirkungen von Aufsichts-ratsverbindungen auf den Shareholder Value. Das erklärende Modell basiert auf einer erweiterten Governance-Theorie. Hierbei werden neben zwei traditionellen, die Disziplin im Kontrollorgan beeinflussenden Aspekte (zeitliche Überlastung der Mehrfachmandatsträger, Reputationseffekt des externen Arbeitsmarktes für Aufsichtsräte), drei kognitiv-strategische Einflüsse (Zugang zu Informationen und Kenntnissen, Einbringung genereller und spezifischer Kompetenzen, Zusam-menführung und Nutzbarmachung dieser Faktoren) modelliert. Außerdem werden diverse Media-tor- und Kontrollvariablen hinzugefügt. Die Gültigkeit des entwickelten Modelles wurde in einer vergleichen empirischen Analyse der Aufsichtsratsverflechtungen der größten deutschen und französischen Aktiengesellschaften für den Zeitraum 2001-2005 überprüft. Im deskriptiven Teil werden sowohl für eine 2-Länder-Stichprobe als auch für die nationalen Stichproben die Haupt-merkmale der Aufsichtsratsnetzwerke auf beiden Seiten des Rheins dargestellt. Im empirischen Teil wird mittels Panel-Regressionen der Einfluss der Verflechtungen auf zwei Performancemaβe untersucht (ein ex ante- und ein ex post-Indikator). Die Analysen zeigen, dass die Wirkung der Verflechtungen von der Art der zugrunde liegenden Mandatekumulation abhängen. Auf kogniti-ver Ebene können die unterstellten positiven Einflüsse von Mehrfachmandaten auf die Perfor-mance mehrheitlich bestätigt werden. Zudem kann festgestellt werden, dass die Kapitalmärkte deutlich stärker auf personelle Verflechtungsaspekte reagieren als es eine ex post-Analyse der Wertschöpfung vermuten lässt.