Purpose The purpose of this case study is to understand how inter-organizational knowledge management is conducted in an economic association by analysing how different actor representatives perceive the inter-organizational collaboration. Design/methodology/approach The method of this study is qualitative, with a single case study of an economic association in Dalarna, Sweden. The interviews were of semi-structured character. A total of nine respondents were interviewed; four respondents from private member organizations, three respondents from public member organizations and two respondents employed by the economic association. Findings and conclusion Six themes were found that together answers the purpose of this study. These themes are personalization, codification, collaboration, conditions, capabilities and challenges. The personalization strategy from the knowledge management framework by Hansen et al (1999) is suggested to be the main strategy in the case of the economic association, while the codification strategy is the supporting strategy working in relation to each other. In order to use those strategies in this interorganizational context, four other themes are added in a model created by the authors of this study. The four additional themes need to be taken in consideration and as the theme capabilities points out; the inter-organizational collaboration gives not only challenges, but also opportunities for the participating organizations. Furthermore, the conditions and the reasons for collaborating can be used for improving the structure of an inter-organizational collaboration. Practical Information A Swedish economic association can be described as a legal entity which involves a minimum of three partners, with a common interest and where all members of the economic association are required to participate in the activities of the economic association. Originality/Value This study contributes to the field of inter-organizational knowledge management by providing insight from a Swedish economic association perspective. There is an apparent gap pointed out between theory driven and practical driven research, where this single case study aims to contribute to the practical field of applying inter-organizational knowledge management perspective into a real case scenario. The case is particularly interesting to study since there are 33 organizations involved in knowledge management, with knowledge bases of both private and public sectors, small- and middlesized organizations and from different branches.

O processo de desenvolvimento de produto é reconhecido pela literatura como sendo de importância estratégica, mas, apesar disso, existe uma grande dificuldade para se gerenciar este processo, devido a existência de diversas visões parciais sobre sua abrangência e importância, as quais dificultam a integração entre os profissionais que atuam nessa área. No campo de ensino e pesquisa esse fenômeno também ocorre, pois o desenvolvimento de produtos é tratado de maneira incompleta pelas diferentes áreas de conhecimento especializado, criando visões parciais que apresentam linguagem e características próprias, as quais dificultam um entendimento comum dos aspectos desse processo. Para enfrentar esta situação, esse trabalho apresenta a experiência de grupos de pesquisa que formaram uma comunidade de prática em desenvolvimento de produtos, chamada PDPNet (Product Development Process Network), visando minimizar essas visões parciais. Para isso, os membros de tal comunidade envolveram-se no desenvolvimento de iniciativas e atividades conjuntas e têm a sua disposição um portal de conhecimentos para favorecer a sinergia entre os membros, apoiando o ambiente voltado à cooperação e facilitando a troca e criação de conhecimentos, o que é objetivo primordial de uma comunidade de prática. Este trabalho visa relatar e analisar criticamente as características principais da PDPNet, enfocando sua formação, estabelecimento, gestão das iniciativas e atividades para criação de conhecimentos, bem como a tecnologia de informação utilizada. Com esse trabalho, espera-se divulgar essa experiência para o meio acadêmico e empresarial interessado, de forma que suas práticas possam ser propagadas e as dificuldades consideradas. Além disso, espera-se que a análise crítica permita obter subsídios para que seus principais benefícios e dificuldades possam ser identificados e tratados pelos gestores da comunidade. / The product development process is recognized by literature as being of strategically importance, but a great difficulty exists to manage this process due to the existence of several partial visions concerning its scope. This causes some problems to integrate the professionals who work with this area. In the education & research field this phenomenon also occurs, as the product development process is incompletely treated by the different areas of specialized knowledge, creating also partial visions that have their own language and characteristics. This makes it difficult to establish a commom agreement of the aspects involved and they are not understood as complementary visions. To face this problem, this work presents the experience of some research groups that have built a community of practice on product development process in order to minimize these partial visions. The community of practice is called PDPNet (Product Development Process Network) and its practioners have been involved in a set of initiatives and joint activities. They have at hand a knowledge management portal to stimulate its members\'s synergy, supporting the cooperation environment and facilitating the exchange and creation of knowledge, which is the main objective of a community of practice. Thus, this work aims to present and to analyze the main characteristics of the PDPNet, focusing on its formation, establishment, management of the initiatives and activities for knowledge creation and management, as well as the information technology used. With this work, it is expected to disseminate the PDPNet experience for interested people from academic and organization environment, so that its success practices and difficulties can be known. Moreover, it is expected that the critical analysis give subsidies so that its main benefits and difficulties can be identified and treated by the community managers.

Esta pesquisa investiga a construção de conhecimentos voltados a otimizar a gestão pública enquanto processo de equilibração majorante. Formulam-se desafios e promovem-se vinte ciclos de desequilibração reflexão coletiva ação reequilibração majorante, consistentes na concepção e implementação de novas ferramentas gerenciais, tendentes a aprimorar a Gestão Pública de Torres. O sujeito de pesquisa é coletivo e composto pelos Gestores de Torres – RS; o campo de pesquisa, a Administração Municipal de Torres; o tempo da pesquisa, de dezembro de 2004 a dezembro de 2006, em estudo longitunidal. Os desafios adotados como fatores de perturbação compreenderam a elaboração do planejamento estratégico, a instituição de equipes de gerenciamento de projetos; a reestruturação organizacional, com a criação de comitês gestores, de gerências municipais e de grupos executivos da modernização; a confecção do Manual de Procedimentos, do Guia dos Serviços Públicos e da Matriz de Capacitação; a instituição de Escola de Gestão, de Central de Atendimento ao Cidadão e de Portal na Internet. Três ambientes de Educação a Distância do Centro Interdisciplinar de Novas Tecnologias na Educação (CINTED/PPGIE/UFRGS), foram utilizados para ampliar a interação dos Gestores de Torres entre si e com o pesquisador. Os dados coletados foram compartilhados no ambiente virtual e analisados em conjunto com os Gestores de Torres. Provocou-se a interação dos Gestores de Torres com lideranças comunitárias, com Gestores de Gramado e com acadêmicos, a fim de averiguar se tal interação potencializa a equilibração majorante da Gestão Pública. A formulação da problemática e a estruturação do Método foram impulsionadas por leituras exploratórias sobre: gênese das cidades; características das Eras Agrícola, Industrial e Digital; origens e expansão do Estado; evolução tecnológica, interligação em rede e mudanças nos governos e na educação. Os paradoxos do crescimento da riqueza e da miséria, da ampliação dos mecanismos de controle social e da corrupção, da gestão participativa imposta e da hegemonia do individualismo em detrimento à comunidade são descritos para contextualizar o ambiente em que opera a Administração Pública hoje. Assume-se que tais paradoxos interferem na capacidade de criar conhecimentos na Gestão Pública. Além disto, dão ensejo à elaboração de Representações Sociais tendentes a justificar e a conservar situações ética e socialmente questionáveis. As Representações Sociais, criações coletivas consensuais, subsidiam a leitura da realidade, emergem e se transformam, ou se mantêm, no convívio quotidiano das pessoas, influenciando-o. O modelo teórico sobre o qual se assenta a análise da equilibração majorante na Gestão Pública adota as concepções teóricas de Jean Piaget como principal substrato, adicionando-se contribuições sobre Representações Sociais (Moscovici), Criação do Conhecimento nas Empresas (Nonaka e Takeuchi), aprendizagem organizacional de circuito único e duplo (Argyris) e organização enquanto estrutura e processos (Richard Hall). O Método Clínico Organizacional foi delineado e aperfeiçoado de forma progressiva, promovendo-se um processo cíclico em espiral, inspirado no Método Clínico piagetiano e na Pesquisa ação. Identificaram-se fatores inibidores e potencializadores da equilibração majorante na Gestão Pública e constatou-se a potencialidade das concepções piagetianas para orientar pesquisas voltadas a analisar a aprendizagem organizacional enquanto a promovem. / This study developed the Clinical Organizational Method to promote and analyze the knowledge creation processes oriented towards the optimization of the City of Torres Administration, RS, Brazil. This longitudinal analysis was sponsored by the Distance Learning Project (EAD). The body of research was the collective public management staff and the field of research was the City of Torres Administration. The research was carried out between December 2004 and December 2006. The researcher put forward several challenges that tended to disturb cognitive structures and to stir up the interaction and collective thinking over the City of Torres Administration, with a view to analyzing the knowledge creation process inherent to public administration improvement. The challenges were implemented to disturb and to re-organize higher knowledge background, and consisted in the conception and implementation of new managerial tools that encompassed strategic planning, organizational restructuring, the formation of project management teams, as well as the establishment of municipal management groups, the implementation of a Procedures Manual, of a Guide to Public Services, of a Training Resource Program, and of the Civil Servant Training School. Three Distance Learning environments of the Multi-disciplinary Center for New Technologies, Federal University of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, were the sites of interaction between the Torres Administration and the researcher. The definition of the problem under study and the structure of the Clinical Organizational Method were based on investigational readings of: the characteristics of the agricultural, industrial and digital eras; the origins and causes of state expansion; and on the technological evolution, digital network progress and changes in government and education policies. Today’s public administration scenario is sketched out by the paradoxes of wealth versus poverty expansion, of the inconsistencies lying in the growth of corruption mechanisms against social control structures, of imposed social participation, and of the hegemony by the individual over the community. The reciprocal influence of knowledge creation in public management and the paradoxes listed was detected. Besides, these contradictions allow the generation of Social Representations that vindicate and protect ethically and socially debatable situations. These Social Representations are collective consensual designs that sustain the interpretation of reality, and that rise, suffer changes, or are upheld in and influence everyday life. A theory based on the teachings of Jean Piaget is defined, on which the concept of the Clinical Organizational Method is built. The theoretical model is complemented and made suitable to support the structuring of organizational research-learning processes by cognitive developments as Serge Moscovici’s Social Representations theory, by Nonaka & Takeuchi’s Theory of The Knowledge-Creating Company, by Chris Argyris’ Double-Loop and Single- Loop Learning method, and by the Organization seen as structure and process studied by Richard Hall. The Clinical Organizational Method was progressively developed and implemented during this research. The individual thinking and teamwork conclusions following the imbalances purposely created led to decisions towards the optimization of public administration. The progressively implemented transformations defined at each step were implemented, generating a new management model directed to optimization. Piaget’s views were proved potentially positive to support a research that concomitantly affords the analysis and the promotion of organizational learning.

Diversos estudos exploram temas relacionados ao monitoramento do ambiente com o intuito de auxiliar empresas a se protegerem contra ameaças e a aproveitarem oportunidades provenientes do ambiente externo. Outros pesquisadores se dedicaram aos tópicos relacionados à gestão do conhecimento, colocando o conhecimento como elemento central para o desenvolvimento e o sucesso empresarial. Contudo, identificaram-se poucos estudos que explorem as temáticas de monitoramento do ambiente e gestão do conhecimento em conjunto. Com o propósito de contribuir para o preenchimento desta lacuna, o presente estudo investiga o desenvolvimento da capacidade absortiva em processos de exploração de sinais fracos, sob a perspectiva da criação do conhecimento organizacional. Para tal investigação se utilizou método qualitativo e exploratório; tendo como técnicas de coleta de dados entrevistas semiestruturadas e análise de conteúdo para exploração dos mesmos. Constatou-se que o desempenho do processo de Inteligência pode contribuir para o desenvolvimento da capacidade absortiva, além de propiciar a criação, expansão e renovação de conhecimentos individuais e organizacionais. Observou-se, também, que a realização das atividades de Inteligência incentiva a ação e influencia na tomada de decisão de colaboradores e gestores. Os profissionais ao se sentirem melhor informados sobre oportunidades e ameaças provenientes do ambiente externo à organização passam a refletir e se responsabilizar mais por ações e decisões. / Many studies explore topics related to the environmental scanning process in order to assist companies with protecting themselves against threats and seizing opportunities that arise from external environments. Furthermore, a number of researchers have focused broadly and deeply on topics related to knowledge management, placing knowledge as a central resource to a business’s development and success. Nevertheless, there are few studies that combine the themes of environmental scanning and knowledge management. Aiming contribute to fill this gap, this study investigates the absorptive capacity developing in weak signals’ exploration process through the organization knowledge creation’ perspectives. The employed method to this qualitative and explorative research will be interviews by means of techniques for collecting data; and a content analysis for an exploitation of these data. It was found that the Intelligence process performance contributes to the development of absorptive capacity. Futhermore, the practice of Intelligence process facilitates the creation, expansion and renewal of individual and organizational knowledge. It was also observed that the realization of intelligence activities encourages action and influence in employees and managers decision making. Professionals who feel better informed about opportunities and threats from the external environment in regards to the organization start to further reflect and be more accountable for actions and decisions.

The problem addressed in this study was how knowledge managers facilitated the process of knowledge creation. Researchers identified this area as important because it begins to fill the literature gap in the dynamics surrounding knowledge creation. Using 4 research questions developed from the theory of dynamic organizational knowledge creation, the study investigated how knowledge managers facilitated and supported knowledge creation, promoted knowledge formation, and accounted for knowledge gaps. The theory was selected to provide a framework and an analytical perspective on the process of knowledge creation. A qualitative research design was used to learn from a sample of 12 Chief Knowledge Managers their experiences orchestrating a knowledge management program. In-depth interviews were conducted with each participant, transcribed and imported to NVivo. Data were analyzed using the theory and findings were validated via member checking and triangulation. The results revealed that knowledge managers facilitated knowledge creation by building on social and cultural factors, providing leadership, and incentivizing knowledge sharing. Skills identified for facilitating knowledge creation were future envisioning, change management, interpersonal communication, and culture building. Future research would benefit from studies that focused on the outcomes of knowledge management efforts, the perceptions of organization members to determine if knowledge management efforts facilitated knowledge creation and if knowledge managers follow a specific cognitive learning theory. The social change implications from the present study include strengthening the potential for knowledge creation in organizations, prompting shifts in established paradigms, and fostering trust and expectation from collaboration.

As a result of organizational restructuring, the role of the middle managers has changed over time. Studies of change processes have increasingly placed focus on middle managers. According to researchers, middle managers play a key role in implementing the change. When putting the change into practice, there are factors affecting the middle managers. However, further research is needed regarding what constrains and enables the middle manager in these change processes. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to explore the sensemaking and sensegiving process during organizational change, with focus on middle managers. To answer to the purpose, a theoretical model combining Balogun and Johnson’s (2005), Nonaka and Takeuchi’s (1995) models and theories of middle management is developed. By using the model we analyze the centralization of the accounting departments at the Swedish energy company Vattenfall. This change process constitutes the case of this thesis. The empirical findings are based on ten interviews and two group discussions with top management, middle managers, co-workers as well as other key actors in the project providing trustworthiness to our study. A qualitative method using an abductive approach is used in the thesis to explore the actors’ interpretation of the change and capture the complexity of the case. The conclusion includes enablers and constraints during the sensemaking and sensegiving process for the middle managers during the centralization of Vattenfall’s accounting departments. The identified enablers are the communication channels, a middle manager’s awareness of employees’ approach of making sense, the provided tools used to adjust working processes, some Business Units’ initial negative attitude towards the change, as well as the rejuvenated spirit. Finally, the middle managers themselves enabled the change as a result of their unique role in the organization. On the other hand, the recognized constraints in the sensemaking and sensegiving process of the middle managers are; concerns regarding middle managers’ future employment, their ‘stuck in the middle’ position, limited resources, new working processes not adopted by some co-workers, and positive attitudes that resulted to flaws in the planning at some Business Units.

As society and business is becoming more complex, the creation and management of knowledge attracts more attention. For intelligence research it offers an alternative perspective on the art and science of intelligence that challenges a previous dominance of strategy and decision-making theories. The article is based on semi-structured interviews with intelligence personnel in four different multinational companies. Through the use of Burke’s pentad this article gives an account of important challenges encountered by intelligence personnel in modern business organizations due to an increasing dependence on different knowledge processes. These challenges are summarized in four central tasks for knowledge activists; that is to initiate and focus knowledge creation, to reduce the time and cost needed for knowledge creation, to leverage knowledge creation initiatives throughout the corporation and to guide knowledge creation by the instigation of complementary reference points. By engaging in these types of activities intelligence workers are able to stage and influence different sorts of analytical conversations, where the insights from these conversations as reformed knowledge govern an evolving strategy in dispersed circumstances. Thus, intelligence workers fulfil their purpose, which in this perspective can be viewed as creating better business in whatever process they engage in.

Le modalità secondo cui iniziative imprenditoriali ad elevato impatto sociale possono amplificare il valore sociale creato mediante la propria attività costituisce uno dei temi più rilevanti per quelle imprese che intendono affrontare piaghe sociali ampiamente diffuse quali la povertà, l'accesso all'educazione e la salute. L'elaborato intende contribuire alla letteratura sull'imprenditorialità sociale discutendo le strategie, i modelli organizzativi e le competenze richieste per massimizzare l'ampiezza dell'impatto e aumentare le probabilità di successo. Tali temi sono discussi in tre articoli. Il primo, intitolato “Scaling social entrepreneurial impact: an open innovation perspective” presenta un modello teorico che mette in relazione tre differenti strategie di amplificazione dell'impatto sociale con le probabilità da parte dell'organizzazione di soddisfare le proprie attese in termini di valore creato atteso e di valore potenziale rivelato. Il modello suggerisce una relazione significativa tra l'adozione di confini organizzativi "aperti" e l'attitudine a rivelare nuovo valore potenziale. Inoltre, il grado di affinità tra i contesti in cui l'innovazione sociale è replicata modera tale relazione. Il secondo articolo, intitolato “Ba creation and Ba expansion in academic-practitioner partnerships in the social entrepreneurship field", fa riferimento all' "organizational knowledge creation theory" e propone, tramite un caso di studio longitudinale, un modello che illustra gli antecedenti della creazione e la successiva espansione del "Ba" nel contesto di una partnership tra un ateneo universitario e un'impresa sociale suggerendo in che modo gli attori coinvolti nel processo di creazione della conoscenza possano modificare i propri ruoli per produrre un impatto sociale superiore. Il terzo articolo, intitolato “Scaling Social Impact: A Replication and Extension of SCALERS” contribuisce alla letteratura replicando il primo test del modello SCALERS in un nuovo contesto internazionale (Italia) e sviluppandolo ulteriormente includendo alcune contingenze specifiche quali variabili moderatrici del modello. / Scaling social impact is among the most relevant challenges that social enterprises face in addressing global issues like poverty, access to education and health. The dissertation aims at contributing to social entrepreneurship literature by dealing with quests about how and why specific strategies and organizational models may improve the likelihood and the magnitude of the impact exerted by social organizations and which capabilities are most needed for impact to be scaled. Those issues are discussed along three essays. The first article entitled “Scaling social entrepreneurial impact: an open innovation perspective” presents a theoretical model connecting three strategies for spreading social innovation to organization’s confidence on achieving expected social impact and revealing new potential value. The model predicts that a strong relationship exists between the adoption of an open organizational structure and the attitude to reveal potential social value. Indeed, context similarity moderates this relation. The second article entitled “Ba creation and Ba expansion in academic-practitioner partnerships in the social entrepreneurship field” - by building on organizational knowledge creation theory - advances a model predicting the antecedents of ba creation and ba expansion within the framework of university – field organization partnerships, this way contributing to the social entrepreneurship field and suggesting how participants in ba creation and expansion may extend their roles in the knowledge creation process to achieve greater impact. The third article entitled “Scaling Social Impact: A Replication and Extension of SCALERS” contributes to the emerging scholarship on scaling of social impact by replicating initial results of the SCALERS model in an international context (i.e., Italy) and including some situational contingencies as moderating variables of the model.

This thesis investigates personal knowledge development in online learning environments and the impact that personal values have on it. Personal knowledge development was investigated from the perspective of Nonaka’s SECI model of organisational knowledge creation. This model served as the basis for an adapted model that conceptualises personal knowledge development in online learning at the individual level. The personal value types of the Schwartz Value Survey and the Portrait Values Questionnaire were adopted to measure personal values and their impact on personal knowledge development in online learning environments. Three data collection approaches were used. First, an exploratory study was conducted which elicited online learners’ experiences of their personal knowledge development in online learning; this study used online discussion forums for data collection. Second, a Delphi study was carried out. Experts were asked which of the ten individual-level value types by Schwartz are likely to be particularly relevant in the context of online learning. Third, an online survey was created. Its aim was to measure the impact that personal values and background variables, such as gender and age, have on personal knowledge development in online learning. A measurement instrument was devised that measures three of the SECI modes, namely Externalisation, Combination and Internalisation. This instrument measures the magnitude of online learners’ Externalisation and Combination activities as well as their level of Internalisation, i.e. the outcomes of personal knowledge development. Results of the exploratory study show that there are widely diverging experiences of personal knowledge development in online learning. The literature review suggests that the cultural situatedness of an online learning environment is an important influencing factor on personal knowledge development. The results of the Delphi study suggest that Self-Direction, Stimulation, and Achievement are particularly relevant value types in the context investigated here. Finally, the online survey confirms this view, as all three value types were found to be positively correlated with Externalisation, Combination, and Internalisation, with the exception of the Achievement-Combination relationship. A modified version of the SECI model is proposed, which extends the applicability of the original SECI model from the organisational to the individual level. It is argued that this model is suitable to describe personal knowledge development in the context of online learning. The study also contributes to closing the gap in research on the impact of personal values in the context investigated in this study. Moreover, a measurement instrument was created that can be used to measure Externalisation and Combination, i.e. personal knowledge development processes, and Internalisation, i.e. personal knowledge development outcomes.

This study aims to investigate reasons for variation in accuracy between different forecast methods by studying the choice of methods, learning processes, biases and opinions within the firms using them; enabling us to provide recommendations of how to improve accuracy within each forecast method. Eleven Swedish and international companies that are regularly forecasting commodity price-levels have been interviewed. Since there is a cultural aspect to the development of forecast methods; the authors have chosen to conduct a qualitative study, using a semi-structured interview technique that enables us to illustrate company-specific determinants. The results show that choice of methods, learning processes, biases and opinions all have potentially substantial implications on the accuracy achieved. The phenomena’s individual implication on accuracy varies amongst method-group.