Economic and other forces over recent years have resulted in the rise, in size and importance, of a group within the business community known as &quotknowledge-intensive firms". These organisations typically operate in such sectors as information and communication technology, specialist engineering and other services, consulting, research spin-out companies, multimedia, advertising and education and, in effect, trade in the development, management and adaptation of contemporary knowledge. They are often small-to-medium enterprises and use new business and operational models drawing together human and social capital, contemporary ICT, technologies and networks to produce intangible knowledge products. This research work investigates the interface between those firms and the commercial property assets that provide a platform and environment for their activities. The accommodation of significant change may hold challenges for such large-scale built assets. However, this work considers that evolutionary change is achievable and will present new opportunities for property as integrated and adaptable business environments, responsive to changing demands. The research methodology involves a literature review establishing key economic, business, built environment and social capital parameters for these emerging firms and their operations. That review is reinforced by both primary data collection from 36 knowledge-intensive firms and by the investigation of four relevant but diverse case studies. To allow this wide body of information to be distilled, a Delphi process, using a panel of ten experts, has been successfully applied to prioritise the demand drivers for start-up, established and mature knowledge-intensive firms in the South East Queensland environment. Consensus was secured after four rounds. These outcomes have been again tested against the four previous case studies and a further case study not previously investigated. Conclusions establish that these firms do have priority requirements in their demands for commercial property and that such demands evolve as firms progress through their various stages of development. Overall, firms through all development stages were strongly influenced in locational decisions by business plans parameters, the importance of attracting quality staff, and the provision of an office environment most conducive to the performance of these individuals and teams. Only in the early, start-up stage was accommodation cost a determining factor. Further, the research establishes that significant opportunities exist for the development sector, particularly in the re-use of older buildings and in the creation of clusters. To achieve this, however, new approaches to development and asset and property management may be required. As a result of this research, it is anticipated that asset owners and managers will be better able to align both new and existing commercial buildings to these emerging demands and opportunities.

Knowledge-intensive firms are a growing and increasingly important part of our economy. They compete by bringing their knowledge resources to bear on their customers' challenging problems. Such knowledge resources can reside in workers, routines and work processes, stored data and knowledge, and relationships. Scholarship on these important firms, though, has focused largely on their workers' knowledge and skill, i.e., their human capital. This is in spite of the fact that the other forms of knowledge - organizational capital and social capital - both play important roles in firms. Additionally, there has been little research into the role of strategies in these firms. The research questions of this paper are designed to address these substantial gaps in our understanding of these firms. First, I examine the development and use of the full set of knowledge resources. I argue that organizational capital consists of both procedural and declarative organizational capital, and that all of these forms of intellectual capital play unique roles. Second, the paper suggests that the key strategic driver for such firms is how uncertainty impacts their ability to develop and use intellectual capital assets. Specifically, I examine the uncertainty that is brought into the firm by its customer interactions. The paper hypothesizes that the relationship between customer interaction uncertainty and organizational capital, as well as their relationships to human and social capital, will drive the performance of these firms. These questions are examined using both survey and archival data from 94 financial service organizations using linear regression and Hierarchical Linear Modeling. I find support for several of the hypotheses. Customer interaction uncertainty is positively associated with human and declarative organizational capital. Further, human and procedural organizational capital interact to impact performance, as do human capital and declarative organizational capital.

Background Incubators are important facilities for economic growth in society. The main purpose of incubators is to accelerate knowledge intensive firms onto their market by both providing resources and an entrepreneurial environment. Problem Companies within incubators are encouraged to share knowledge and experience with each other with the goal to stimulate development and invention of new technology. This exchange involves interaction on an inter-personal and inter-organizational level. Incubators need to create an open and transparent environment in order to enable this exchange on both levels. Purpose The purpose of this study is to enhance the understanding of how knowledge and experience exchange occurs within the context of incubator systems. By understanding how incubators can capture knowledge and learn from the incubator process, this study can contribute by insights of how the incubator process can be further improved. Method This bachelor thesis is written from an abductive approach and is based on a qualitative case study of Ideon Innovation in Lund. Five interviews contributed to the collection of empirical data where companies within incubator systems and the CEO of an incubator were included. Conclusion Knowledge exchange does not occur to the extent that theory and the management of Ideon Innovation suggests. Knowledge intensive firms constitutes each other’s networks and social environments where we have found new incubator effects such as motivation and the ability to talk out their anxiety related to their business. The match between companies close to each other within incubators can be controlled through managerial activities by the incubator to, in some degree, achieve more favorable market structures and a local environment that enables exchange of knowledge spillover. / Bakgrund                          Inkubatorer är viktiga faciliteter för ekonomisk tillväxt i dagen samhälle. Det huvudsakliga syftet för inkubatorer är att accelerera inkubatorföretag in på marknaden genom att erbjuda resurser och en entreprenöriell miljö. Problem                             Inom inkubatorer uppmuntras företag till dela med sig av sina kunskaper och erfarenheter till varandra med syfte till att stimulera utvecklingen och skapandet av ny innovation. Utbytet involverar interaktioner på interpersonell och interorganisatorisk nivå. Inkubatorer behöver därmed skapa en öppen och transparent miljö för att utbytet ska kunna ske på båda nivåerna. Syfte                                   Syftet med studien är att förbättra förståelsen för hur kunskap- och erfarenhetsutbyte sker inom inkubatorsystem. Genom en förståelse för hur inkubatorer kan ta åt sig kunskap och lära sig ifrån inkubatorprocessen, kan studien bidra med insikter om hur inkubatorprocessen ytterligare kan förbättras. Metod                                 Kandidatuppsatsen är skriven utifrån en abduktiv ansats och är baserade på en kvalitativ fallstudie på Ideon Innovation i Lund. Den empiriska insamlingen av data genomfördes genom fem intervjuer med företag inom inkubatorsystem och Vd:n för inkubatorn. Slutsats                               Kunskapsutbyte sker inte till den grad som teorin eller vad ledningen för Ideon Innovation förespråkar. Kunskapsintensiva företag utgör varandras nätverk och sociala miljö, och vi har funnit nya inkubatoreffekter som motivation och att företagen kan prata av sig ångest som relaterar till sin verksamhet. Genom manageriella aktiviter kan inkubatorn matcha rätt företag till att sitta nära varandra inom inkubatorn och därmed till viss grad nå mer eftertraktade konkurrenssituationer.

In today’s economy the importance of knowledge in organizations is well underscored. The management of an organization’s knowledge has become one of the most important strategic vehicles to an organization's sustainable competitive advantage. The design and success of knowledge management systems (KMS) is viewed as the next evolutionary step in the management of knowledge processes and activities. The debate over the efficacy of these systems draws attention to the differences in approach to KMS that may develop among organizations whose employees’ work involves primarily the execution of procedural routines and those who are involved in primarily creative, problem solving work. This study explored empirically the factors defining Knowledge-intensive Organizations (KIOs) and related these factors to the choices of KMS deployed in these organizations. The study was conducted in two phases and employed both quantitative and qualitative methodologies for data collection. Survey and document analysis techniques were used in the first phase of the study which examined KIO defining factors, how they relate to each other, and how they contribute to knowledge intensity in KIOs. In the second phase semi-structured, in-depth interviews and survey techniques were employed. Grounded theory method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was then utilized to uncover how knowledge-intensive defining factors interlace with the choice of KMS deployed in KIOs. The interviews were analyzed using QSR NVivo 9 qualitative data analysis software. Quantitative computations were carried out using the PASW Statistics 17.0 package. The study found that KIOs are described by unique knowledge-intense attributes and these attributes inform the design and choices of KMS implemented in KIOs. This research contributes to the literature on factors that describe knowledge intensity in organizations. It provides the research community with a new articulation of the underpinnings of KIOs and KMS, an important step in advancing subsequent theoreti¬cal developments. The study might also have practical value for sellers and systems designers who are looking at assessing user demand for new KMS design ideas and for decision makers within KIOs who would like to evaluate the offerings of sellers.

Studien har tagit sin utgångspunkt i det kunskapsintensiva arbetslivet där individen ses som kunskapsbärare. Det blir avgörande för organisationen att ta tillvara på denna kunskap och således ställs kunskapshantering centralt för studien. Syftet har varit att undersöka hur chefer upplever och uttrycker hur individburen kunskap kan komma organisationen till gagn. För kunskapsöverföring, mellan individ och organisation, har forskning betonat vikten av ett kollektivt lärande. Studien utgår därför från ett socialt perspektiv på lärande. Med hjälp av en kvalitativ strategi med semistrukturerade intervjuer inhämtades empirin. Sedermera problematiserades och analyserades resultatet utifrån Wengers teori om praktik-gemenskapen och Alvesson och Kärremans modell för kunskaps-hantering. Slutsatser som kunnat göras är bland annat att social interaktion och gemenskap är avgörande för en lärande organisation, dock kan inte praktikgemenskapen tillskrivas mening som ett managementverktyg. Teorin kan däremot anammas som förhållningssätt för cheferna i att uppmärksamma olika slags gemenskaper och deras potential till kunskapsutveckling för hela organisationen.

Building a corporate brand is as a crucial resource for the survival of companies. Social media as a tool for branding practices has been emphasized in research about startups. In such research, less focus is on certain groups of startups, such as Knowledge-intensive startups (KI Startups). This is peculiar as such startups differ in societal contributions and how they are constituted. Thus, as social media branding practices might enhance the survival rate, it is important to extend this research about KI startups.    The purpose of this thesis is to understand how and why KI startups in Sweden use social media to build their corporate brands in regards of four different branding elements.   The thesis has an exploratory and interpretivist philosophy with an abductive approach. A qualitative method was chosen to collect the empirical data. Firstly, a pilot study which contained a questionnaire was sent to a sample of KI startups to attain an initial understanding of the field. Secondly, semi-structured interviews with six KI startups were conducted for a main study.   The findings indicate that the interviewed KI startups use social media to build brand awareness, influence and engage customers, attract new employees, and to build reputation. The findings also indicate that some KI startups use social media to attain a credible and knowledgeable brand perception.    Our findings may help other KI startups when choosing a social media channel, and what content to post in the brand building process. Suggestions for further research are a similar, but more extensive study in Sweden, or a study in a country that is different to Sweden.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2015-07-06T13:02:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 José Jerônimo de Menezes Lima.pdf: 1888440 bytes, checksum: aa54ca9f171e17e14a874a7eabfe31b7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-06T13:02:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 José Jerônimo de Menezes Lima.pdf: 1888440 bytes, checksum: aa54ca9f171e17e14a874a7eabfe31b7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-07-22 / Nenhuma / O objeto de estudo desta tese é a análise dos efeitos de Comunidades de Prática (CoPs) na Capacidade Absortiva (CA) em Empresas Intensivas em Conhecimento (EICs). Esta pesquisa se situa no campo de estudos de comportamento organizacional e trata dos temas da Gestão do Conhecimento (GC) e Aprendizagem Organizacional (AO). Nessa direção, a principal contribuição desta tese é de natureza teórica e visa analisar os fatores de funcionamento dos processos de CoPs que podem contribuir para a CA em EICs avaliando a real contribuição desses fatores, visando orientar a criação e operacionalização de CoPs eficazes nessas empresas. A tese tem por pressuposto que EICs têm processos essencialmente baseados na GC; AO é fundamental para a eficácia da GC em EICs, uma vez que viabiliza o compartilhamento e a assimilação do conhecimento para a inovação e a solução de problemas; CoPs, no contexto de EICs, ao agregarem conhecimentos, pessoas, processos e tecnologias, facilitam a AO; e, ao facilitar a AO, CoPs contribuem para a CA em EICs. A partir dessas premissas, esta tese responder à seguinte questão de pesquisa: Quais são os efeitos de comunidades de prática na capacidade absortiva em empresas intensivas em conhecimento? Nessa direção, foram estabelecidas as seguintes hipóteses: CoPs são mecanismos que facilitam a dimensão Aquisição do processo da Capacidade Absortiva Potencial (CAp) em EICs (H1), CoPs são mecanismos que facilitam a dimensão Assimilação do processo da CAp em EICs (H2); CoPs são mecanismos que facilitam a dimensão Transformação do processo de Capacidade Absortiva Realizada (CAr) em EICs (H3), CoPs são mecanismos que facilitam a dimensão Aplicação do processo de CAr em EICs (H4) e CoPs são mecanismos que facilitam a CAr por decorrência da CAp em EICs (H5). Este estudo utilizou métodos de pesquisa online e partiu de uma pesquisa qualitativa exploratória baseada em netnografia, em seguida realizou pesquisa quantitativa baseada em survey e, finalmente, foi realizada pesquisa qualitativa confirmatória com gestores de CoPs e de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (P&D) das EICs estudadas. Foram pesquisadas 10 EICs, abrangendo 90 CoPs e 9.998 participantes. A pesquisa coletou 1.104 respostas. Um modelo teórico foi desenvolvido e testado por Modelagem de Equações Estruturais (MEE) para validar as hipóteses formuladas. Especificamente analisando os efeitos de CoPs na CA em EICs, a pesquisa confirma que CoPs são mecanismos eficazes de CAp, maximizando as atividades de aquisição e assimilação de conhecimentos externos e assim contribuindo diretamente para a CAp (H1 e H2). Por outro lado, não confirma que CoPs são mecanismos eficazes de CAr, e que as atividades de transformação e aplicação de conhecimentos externos pouco ou nem sempre contribuem diretamente para a inovação (H3 e H4). Ainda, a pesquisa confirma a ideia de que CoPs são mecanismos que, ao contribuírem de modo eficaz diretamente para a CAp, colaboram indiretamente para a eficácia da CAr (H5). Espera-se que esta tese tenha trazido mais luz à discussão sobre a possibilidade de que CoPs sejam considerados espaços privilegiados de aprendizagem organizacional e de articulação de saberes para melhorar CA e gerar inovação em EICs. / The object of study of this dissertation is the analysis of the effects of Communities of Practice (CoPs) on the Absorptive Capacity (AC) in Intensive Knowledge Companies (IKCs). This research lies within the field of organizational behavior studies related to Knowledge Management (KM) and Organizational Learning (OL). In this direction, the main contribution of this thesis is theoretical in nature and aims at analyzing the dynamic factors of CoPs processes that can be contributory to AC in IKCs evaluating the real contribution of these factors aiming at guiding creation and implementation of more effective CoPs in this type of company. This thesis, on principle, begins according to the following assumptions: that IKCs have essentially processes based on KM; OL is key to the effectiveness of KM in IKCs, as it enables the sharing and assimilation of knowledge for innovation and problem solving in groups; as CoPs, in the context of IKCs, aggregate knowledge, people, processes and technologies, they provide grounds to OL; and as doing so, they contribute to AC in IKCs. From these premises, this thesis searched to answer the following research question: what are the effects of CoPs in the AC in IKCs? In this direction, the following hypotheses were established: CoPs are mechanisms that facilitate the acquisition process of Potential Absorptive Capacity Process (PAC) in IKCs (H1); CoPs are mechanisms that enable the assimilation process of the PAC in IKCs (H2); CoPs are mechanisms that facilitate the transformation process of Accomplished Absorptive Capacity (AAC) in IKCs (H3); CoPs are mechanisms that facilitate the application process of the AAC in IKCs (H4); and CoPs are mechanisms that pave the way to the AAC by a result of PAC in IKCs (H5). This study used methods of online survey and came from an exploratory qualitative research based on netnography, then it conducted a quantitative survey-based research, and finally a qualitative research to confirm or disprove it with moderators and administrators of CoPs and managers of R&D of the IKCs. Ten IKCs were surveyed, covering 90 CoPs, 9,998 participants. The survey had an amount of 1,104 responses. A theoretical model was developed and tested by structural equation modeling to validate the hypotheses formulated research. Analyzing specifically the effects of CoPs in AC on IKCs, it can point out that the research confirms the idea that CoPs are effective mechanisms for PAC, maximizing the acquisition and assimilation activities of external knowledge and thus contributing directly to PAC (H1 and H2). On the other hand, this research does not confirm the idea that CoPs are effective mechanisms of AAC, and that the transformation and application activities of external knowledge little or hardly ever directly contribute to innovation (H3 and H4). Still, research confirms the idea that CoPs are mechanisms which, at the same time, contribute effectively straightforward to PAC, and collaborate indirectly to the effectiveness of the AAC (H5).

According to a dominant discourse in contemporary writings and research, we are living in a Knowledge Economy where knowledge is seen as the pre-eminent resource and the key to success for individuals as well as organizations and nations. Consequently, much effort in management research has been dedicated to devising new concepts and theories such as the knowledge-based theory of the firm and the intellectual capital perspective, all premised on the assumption that knowledge work is somehow different from other forms of work. But what, actually, is knowledge work? And what is it that makes it so different? This dissertation represents an attempt to make some sense of this discourse. Research themes investigate the role of tangible and intangible dimensions of knowledge work and organizations. Particular attention is paid to organizational identity and the physical work environment. The notion of identity is central to the Knowledge Economy Rhetoric, while the physical setting is a neglected, but potentially important, aspect of knowledge work and identity construction. Various theoretical and methodological perspectives were applied throughout the research process to illuminate these themes. The thesis covers two empirical case studies; one of a small high-tech firm in the telecommunications sector as it developed a knowledge based strategy. The other study explored the relationship between the design of the office and identity construction in a large IT/management consulting firm. In addition, a study of the literature on the organizational category of knowledge-intensive firms was conducted to explore the dominant constructions of knowledge work within the research community. The results from these studies are presented in five papers. While addressing different questions, the papers all deal with some aspect of sensemaking of, or in, knowledge work. The first paper describes how the management team in the case company went through a process to make sense of the intangible dimensions of their organization. The second paper is a conceptual treatise outlining an alternative conceptualization of strategy for knowledge-intensive firms that emphasizes the importance of identity. Paper three provides an analysis of how the category of knowledge-intensive firms is used in the research literature and the consequences thereof. In paper four branding is analyzed as a management practice. The last paper discusses the role of emotion, ambivalence and embodied experience of the physical environment in identity construction. The exposition reflects further on the insights from this journey and what they entail for making sense of knowledge work. It is argued that a better understanding of knowledge work has to take the knowledge worker – the individual – as the starting point for theorizing. Taking this position requires us to scrutinize the theoretical perspectives that guide our conceptualizations of the knowledge worker. Theoretical perspectives are constructions that allow us to see certain things and not others. Current conceptualizations are, by necessity, extensions of earlier dominant perspectives or worldviews. Based on the findings from the empirical studies, an alternative perspective is proposed that takes the embodied experience of the knowledge worker as a point of departure. Implications of this perspective for conceptualizing and studying knowledge work are then discussed. / QC 20100917

This study deals with individual possibilities for competence development in knowledge-intensive firms, especially advertising and audit firms. The study has an individual perspective which means that the organization is analyzed as subjective perception of indivi­duals. In this approach I seek for differences between people (subjective interpretations), instead of similarities (intersubjective interpretations). Different subjective interpretations are important for the understanding of different possibilities and restrictions individual competen­ce development. Different individuals can, depending on different values about work and life in general, have different experieces of possibilities for competence development. The rese­arch problem deals with different relations between the individual and the organization from the individual perspective of personal competence development. The empirical study is in two parts; case studies at the individual level and a questionnaire to people in advertising firms and audit firms. From the theoretical perspective and the empirical studies, different types of relations between man and organisation have been developed; Respectful professional, respectless professional, respectful holistic, respectless holistic, sectorial professional and holistic professional. The implications of these relations are that certain individual values seems to fit these knowledge- intensive firms better than others. These individual values have been termed respectful, pro­fessional and holistic. Individuals with these values experience their possibilities of compe­tence development better than other individuals. Individuals with the values termed re­spectless and sectorial were less pleased with their companies and their possibilities of compe­tence development. The study also show that individual commitment to organisational values is important for the experienced possibilities for personal competence development. / digitalisering@umu

p. 1 - 132 / Submitted by Santiago Fabio (fabio.ssantiago@hotmail.com) on 2013-01-21T20:37:08Z No. of bitstreams: 1 4444.pdf: 889431 bytes, checksum: 2c99c4e87bb71b00ce50a6f0d8f2e990 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-01-21T20:37:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4444.pdf: 889431 bytes, checksum: 2c99c4e87bb71b00ce50a6f0d8f2e990 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / As organizações características da sociedade do conhecimento se notabilizam, dentre outros pontos, pela utilização intensiva do conhecimento em seus processos. Portanto, para que esse valioso insumo se desenvolva na organização, a aprendizagem organizacional assume um caráter estratégico. Dentre as dimensões da aprendizagem, destaca-se a perspectiva individual-cogntivista, que tende a ocorrer desconectada do contexto, o que a torna deficiente e parcial, e a perspectiva sócio-prática, que considera os aspectos contextuais, contribuindo de forma equilibrada para a criação e disseminação do conhecimento em sua integralidade. Essa última dimensão é composta, sobretudo, por duas modalidades: a mentoria e as comunidades de prática. Diante dessa conjuntura, este trabalho tem o propósito de analisar como ocorre a aprendizagem organizacional nas organizações de comunicação intensivas em conhecimento. Para isso, foi desenvolvido um estudo de caso na Engenho Novo, empresa de comunicação, situada em Salvador-Ba. A pesquisa empírica foi, fundamentalmente, qualitativa, e se baseou na análise de documentos, entrevistas (oito ao todo) e observações pessoais. Como resultado, identificou-se que a Engenho Novo pode ser caracterizada como organização intensiva em conhecimento, apesar de apresentar alguma fragmentação em sua rede interna e de algum grau de concentração de poder na cúpula da empresa. Além disso, a perspectiva sócio-prática se sobressai na empresa estudada, havendo proeminente utilização da mentoria como forma de criar e disseminar conhecimentos. Outro ponto de grande relevância neste trabalho é a não observância de comunidades de prática na organização estudada. Esse resultado confronta a literatura, que considera como certo o surgimento das comunidades de prática no contexto organizacional, independente de aspectos culturais, profissionais, dentre outros. / Salvador