Collaborative Communities of Firms

Purpose, Process, and Design

herausgegeben von: Anne Bøllingtoft, Lex Donaldson, George P. Huber, Dorthe Døjbak Håkonsson, Charles C. Snow

Verlag: Springer New York

Buchreihe : Information and Organization Design Series

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

Faced with the ever-accelerating pace of technological change and the restructuring of markets, many firms have been questioning the appropriateness of their own organizational structure and effectiveness. Consequently, we have witnessed much organizational experimentation and the development of new forms of organizing over the last decade. Firms are more dependent than ever on the need for continuous and radical innovations – and often innovations that go beyond their existing businesses. This challenges firms in terms of knowledge and idea sharing, and often necessitates the need to expand beyond the boundaries of the single firm for multi-party collaboration to meet serious challenges and develop creative solutions.

Drawing from the Fourth International Workshop on Organization Design, and featuring contributions from an international array of specialists, this volume focuses on the expansion beyond the boundaries of the single firm and multi-firm networks, to include, for example, community-based organization designs. A community is a connected set of firms; the connections can take on many different dimensions. For organization design theory, community-based organizations have many implications. For one, organization design theory has to identify and describe designs that enhance collaborative behavior among firms without restricting the ability of the individual firm to continue to compete within its own marketplace. Moreover, organization design theory also has to identify and describe information processing strategies and designs that allow the continuous generation, sharing, and application of existing information and knowledge.

The development of effective collaborative community designs is critically important to the global economy because, increasingly, our future depends on pursuing shared goals and sustainably developing our global commons. Ideally, the ideas and findings in this book will contribute to increased attention to new organization designs capable of meeting 21st-century opportunities and challenges.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction

Abstract

This volume is the fourth in a series of books that have come out of the ongoing international workshop on organization design. The Fourth International Workshop on Organization Design was sponsored by the Aarhus School of Business and held in Aarhus, Denmark on May 29–31, 2010. The theme of the workshop was “Organizational Designs for Large-Scale, Multi-Party Collaboration.” In this introduction, I attempt to set the stage for the chapters that follow by discussing large-scale, multi-party collaboration – its roots in theory and practice, its purposes and benefits, and the organization designs that have been developed to conduct it.

Charles C. Snow

Collaborative Capabilities and Processes

Frontmatter

Chapter 2. Open Innovation Networks: The Evolution of Bureaucratic Control

Abstract

Bureaucratic control may appear to be an oxymoron for open innovation networks. Yet, such networks involve high levels of uncertainty and diverse set of participants with only partial congruence in goals, suggesting a need for bureaucratic control. In Finland, such bureaucratic control shaped collaboration and innovative behaviors in multiple ways in government-initiated open innovation networks. The nature of bureaucratic control matters: In this case, it was highly situational and ever evolving during the formative phases of the networks. Bureaucratic control evolved in response to tensions between both private and public interests in the networks. This chapter contributes to the community-based organization design (OD) literature.

Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa, Alina Wernick

Chapter 3. Network or Matrix? How Information-Processing Theory Can Help MNCs Answer This Question

Abstract

This chapter discusses the network organization and the matrix structure as alternative ways to organize MNCs. This discussion is based on information-processing theory which facilitates specifying the coordinating characteristics of organizational forms. Information processing in a network organization is quite different from that occurring in a matrix structure. Given this difference in information-processing capacities, it is argued that the network organization and the matrix structure fit different strategic contexts. Therefore, a final section specifies the contextual conditions under which the network organization or the matrix structure is most appropriate.

Joachim Wolf, William G. Egelhoff

Chapter 4. Participation in Innovation Communities: Strategies and Contingencies

Abstract

I address a firm’s form of participation in innovation communities as an organization design issue. Using the concept of organizational transparency, I develop a typology of transparency strategies for participating in innovation communities. Four different strategies are identified: limited, static, dynamic, and full. I also identify and describe three variables subject to design: organizational interfaces, task structure, and control of employee participation. Finally, I discuss internal and external contingencies that may influence the choice of a specific transparency strategy. Implications for organization design theory and practice are offered.

Poul Houman Andersen

Chapter 5. Interfirm Communities: Neither Weak nor Strong Ties

Abstract

Strong and trust-based ties are usually related to homogeneous and complex knowledge, while weak ties are associated with heterogeneous and simple knowledge. Interfirm communities have been shown to depend on trust-based ties, while also relying on getting access to heterogeneous knowledge. These results yield a paradox which the present paper aims to address. Based on an in-depth case study of how a high-tech small firm organizes its interfirm activity, I show how a hybrid social relation, that is neither weak nor strong, is a useful conception for interfirm communities. Hereby, the study also goes beyond a mere structural approach to the organization of social networks and hence proposes a tighter integration between research on social networks and organizational design.

Carsten Bergenholtz

Chapter 6. Collaborative Communities of Firms: Role of the Shared Services Provider

Abstract

Both small- and medium-size entrepreneurial firms face liabilities such as resource scarcity and scale diseconomies, making it difficult for them to innovate on a continuous basis. In response, experimentation with new ways of organizing for innovation has increased. One successful result is an organizational model called the collaborative community of firms. This chapter addresses an important organizational role in a collaborative community that of the shared services provider (SSP). The SSP acts as a facilitator in the community, helping member firms collaborate with one another and developing strategic initiatives that aid the community as a whole. We discuss the facilitator role of the SSP, contrasting it with the coordinator role found in other multi-firm organizations, and we show how SSPs function by describing three examples of collaborative communities of firms from different sectors: the US-based Blade.org and two Denmark-based communities, the Kalundborg Industrial Symbiosis and MG50. Implications for the theory and practice of organization design are discussed.

Anne Bøllingtoft, Sabine Müller, John P. Ulhøi, Charles C. Snow

Chapter 7. Organizing for Flexibility: Addressing Dynamic Capabilities and Organization Design

Abstract

The increasingly dynamic nature of organizational environments has led the research community to study organizational flexibility. Although the research literature stresses the complexity of the organizational flexibility construct, it lacks a comprehensive empirical study addressing the relationships among various dimensions of organizational flexibility. This chapter develops a theoretical framework specifying the linkages between types of flexibility and organization design characteristics. We argue for a hierarchical structure with increasing levels of flexibility and supporting organizational design. The theoretical framework is linked to observables based on a dataset of 3,259 respondents and provides strong support for the specified statistical model.

Niels P. van der Weerdt, Henk W. Volberda, Ernst Verwaal, Marten Stienstra

Technical Issues

Chapter 8. Statistico-Organizational Theory: A New Theoretical Approach to Organizational Design

Abstract

Statistico-organizational theory is a new organizational theory and this chapter suggests how it may contribute some new insights to organizational design. Statistico-organizational theory uses ideas from statistics to explain errors made by managers when drawing inferences from numerical data in their organization. For example, small numbers of observations cause random error, whereas large organizations may aggregate their data and so avoid having small numbers of observations. However, such data aggregation requires some standardization, formalization, and centralization of parts of the organizational design that deal with data recording and collation. Also, profit is prone to measurement error, rendering the divisional organizational design problematic.

Lex Donaldson

Backmatter

Titel: Collaborative Communities of Firms
herausgegeben von: Anne Bøllingtoft
Lex Donaldson
George P. Huber
Dorthe Døjbak Håkonsson
Charles C. Snow
Verlag: Springer New York
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-4614-1284-7
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-1283-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1284-7