This dissertation studies the topic of cross-boundary knowledge work from the perspective of sociomateriality. Cross-boundary knowledge work refers to the collaboration of actors belonging to different social worlds to achieve shared knowledge outcomes. Sociomateriality is a theoretical perspective that acknowledges the role of objects and spaces in organizational life. The empirical field of collaborative innovation provides a context for this dissertation.
Cross-boundary knowledge work is an important topic given the emergence of novel challenges that require collaboration across disciplines and organizations. Innovating across social and organizational boundaries is a demanding task that calls for new ways of working. Working in new ways refers to using new organizational models and engaging in new organizational practices. To address the increasing need for cross-boundary knowledge work, this dissertation turns to the design of objects and spaces as a defining aspect of organizational life.
The overarching goal of the dissertation is to understand what role spaces and objects (physical and digital) play within cross-boundary knowledge work. The dissertation is structured into four papers. Paper 1 builds the foundation of the dissertation by providing an extensive literature review about boundary objects—a theoretical construct that denotes objects that enable knowledge-based collaboration across diverse social worlds. The subsequent empirical papers study cross-boundary knowledge dynamics in three different collaborative innovation contexts. Paper 2 addresses how boundary objects can be designed to enable knowledge integration during interdisciplinary corporate hackathons. Paper 3 shows how innovation spaces and the objects that are part of them support collaborative innovation through knowledge integration and the development of new practices. Paper 4 conceptualizes startup accelerators as boundary spaces that lead to the creation of different types of knowledge communities.
This study makes important contributions to the fields of cross-boundary knowledge work, sociomateriality, and collaborative innovation. First, the four papers show that cross-boundary knowledge work needs to consider other dynamics happening at the boundaries within interdisciplinary and interorganizational contexts. For instance, the creation of a shared identity appears to be a fundamental aspect to consider in order to achieve knowledge goals. Second, this dissertation deepens our understanding of the actual practices afforded by objects and spaces within collaborative settings. Each paper strives to provide an in-depth account of how individual objects, systems of objects, and spaces support knowledge work. Third, this dissertation offers a relevant theoretical perspective to illustrate the challenges involved in collaborative innovation, at the same time suggesting how material infrastructure may help collaborating actors achieve shared knowledge outcomes. Finally, innovation managers can find relevant advice on how to leverage the built environment to enhance their practice.
Companies increasingly seek to foster collaborative innovation through the design of innovation spaces such as incubators, accelerators, studios, and fab labs. Innovation spaces bring together multiple actors for collaborative practices to generate new products and processes. Despite their growing popularity, many innovation spaces fail to deliver on their promises and are subsequently shut down. How can innovation spaces foster effective collaborative innovation? This article illustrates the role of space and boundary objects to facilitate collaborative innovation. Based on illustrative examples from the context of business studios, the findings show that innovation spaces enable the four affordances of convergence, generativity, socialization, and collaborative learning. Managers who design and run innovation spaces need to leverage these affordances to propel collaborative innovation.
Knowledge communities are critical for spurring innovation. For knowledge communities to develop and thrive, appropriate choices must be made around their geographic locations, as well as their physical and digital infrastructure. This paper explores the role of the materiality of boundary spaces, specifically geography and physical/digital infrastructure, in knowledge communities using startup accelerators as an empirical context through which to examine their development and structure. Based on a multi-case study of seventeen accelerators in the San Francisco Bay Area, we shed light on how to leverage boundary space design to foster knowledge communities. Using the construct of knowledge communities, we identify three accelerator archetypes – (1) knowledge spoke hubs, (2) knowledge centers, and (3) knowledge networks – and describe the distinct roles that boundary space design plays in each. The discovery of these archetypes and the associated boundary space design considerations inform a discussion about the implications for both the knowledge community and startup accelerator literature.
This chapter aims at establishing a link between family business research and regional science. Drawing from the density dependence model from organizational ecology and embeddedness theory, we develop four testable propositions to inquire about the effect of the emergence of family firms’ agglomerations in the territory on firms’ survival.
We theorize that increased family firm density reduces the likelihood of firm failure and this effect is (a) higher for family firms than for non-family firms, (b) lower in urban than in rural areas, and (c) higher in fine-grained variable environments than in stable environments. Contributions and future research implications are detailed in the concluding section.
Enabling collaboration across disciplines, business functions, departments, organizations, and industries is a critical innovation management challenge. Successful innovation depends on effective knowledge integration among diverse actors. The concept of boundary objects to achieve knowledge integration has gained increasing popularity within innovation management. Despite the growing relevance, existing literature reviews about boundary objects are sparse. This review examines how boundary objects enable knowledge integration through a systematic analysis. An integrating framework of the scholarship on boundary objects links existing contributions to key theoretical perspectives on the study of boundary spanning for knowledge integration. Relevant publications are identified through a systematic literature review and discussed according to three themes: information processing, cognitive, and learning perspective on knowledge integration. Potential contributions to broader theorizing are highlighted in relation to three innovation settings: cross-functional collaboration, open innovation, and staged product development processes.
With the advent of globalization, the track record of multinational companies (MNCs) has been vague in relation to their corporate social responsibility (CSR) in developing countries. What is even lacking is a better understanding of what exactly is required of today's MNCs to simultaneously generate profits for shareholders and satisfy the legitimate demands from the multiple stakeholders in the countries where they operate. Adopting the stakeholder theory framework and using a two-stage interview method, this study explores the CSR understanding and practices of MNCs considered as active in CSR. The findings reveal some interesting CSR practices by 11 MNCs in China. We discuss implications of the stakeholder approaches to CSR of MNCs generally and peculiarities in developing countries more specifically.
Corporate philanthropy has played an indispensable role in public welfare areas 1 in China since its emergence in the 1990s. As an "emerging philanthropic market" (Michon & Tandon, 2012) where entrepreneurship or corporate citizenship is still to be entrenched in the society, the progress of corporate philanthropy in China is crucial for cultivating the philanthropic spirit of society and fostering the growth of civil society. Therefore, it is worthwhile to pay more attention and make more investigation into the theory and practice of corporate philanthropy in China (Lu, 2002; Ge, 2007). The present paper aims to make a general review of the state of this particular area and to discuss potential ways to optimize current frameworks.