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In organization theory, the best strategy for coping with an environmental shift remains an open question. This article investigates whether a firm should adapt to such a shift by directly modifying its value chain to fit the new environment or whether it should proceed in two steps: first, create an autonomous unit to develop an alternative value chain, and second, integrate it with the original. Our simulation model highlights that a key discriminant factor is the distribution of the changes to be made: when scattered along the value chain, the first strategy dominates, whereas when grouped in one part of the chain, the firm benefits from the second strategy. We discuss the implications of our findings in relation to transitions and managing change.

Since the Cohen and Levinthal article on absorptive capacity was published, ‘the ability to recognize the value of new information, to assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends’ (p. 128) is seen as an essential competence for a firm’s long-term performance. However, the way absorptive capacity is actually implemented in firms remains relatively poorly known. The few existing works present absorptive capacity as an essentially linear process, and the way the different phases of this process are actually carried out remains understudied. In order to enhance our understanding of the way firms absorb external knowledge, we gathered data from 23 interviews of managers from three different industrial firms. Our results suggest that, far from being linear, the process displays several feedback loops, both within and between each phase of absorption. In this study, we enrich previous absorptive capacity models.

International audience; We investigate the emergence and structuration of the research on prion. Resorting to bibliometric data and tools from social network analysis, we look at the progressive appearance of a dense social network of researchers working on prion. We suggest that the relevant unit of analysis of medical knowledge creation is the community. We then detail how isolated communities emerge and connect to one another to produce a connected network. We then investigate the link creation dynamics to understand the collaboration patterns that the emergence of the observed macro-structures explains at a micro-level, showing that these micro-dynamics evolve over time as the field matures.JEL Codes: O31, O33, D8

We rely on a qualitative study of three industrial firms to investigate the role of knowledge recombination capabilities in the absorptive process. We compare two firms aiming at “new-to-the-world” innovation with a firm aiming at producing “new-to-the-firm” innovation. We find that the formers resort to formal, codified, controlled knowledge processing systems, while the latter rather makes use of informal, loosely defined processing systems. We interpret this rather counter intuitive result by the necessity for firms engaged in radical innovation to take risk into account. We advocate taking risk into account when dealing with absorptive capacity and invite to rethink the link between knowledge management and types of innovation.JEL Codes: O32, O32, O31, D81, O32

Exploring paths for new business while exploiting current opportunities is a difficult task to fulfill, as it may make conflicting demands on organizational resources. Ambidextrous firms are able to achieve this goal by either splitting their resources between the two tasks or by allowing sufficient flexibility for employees to move between them within a network of communities of practice (CoPs). An analysis of the experiences of GDF SUEZ, a French multinational firm, show that CoPs at the business unit level serve as platforms from which knowledge is produced and broadcast to the rest of the organization and provide an environment in which individuals are able to move freely between exploration and exploitation activities. The study also offers practical guidance on how managers can best capture and leverage the knowledge that is generated through such collaborative endeavors. ©2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This article, which draws on recent literature on organizational communities, raises the question of the coherence of the firm through the analysis of the dialectic interaction between hierarchies and Knowledge-Intensive Communities (KnICs) within the firm. Focusing on the cognitive dimension of the firm, we analyze the matching between hierarchies and KnICs and draw conclusions as to the coherence of the firm. Using two key elements (the frequency of interactions and the intensity of communication between communities), we draw a typology allowing a better understanding of the processes of coordination and knowledge creation within the firm.

La creation de la connaissance dans l’entreprise resulte d’une interaction permanente entre les niveaux individuels et organisationnels constitues au niveau intermediaire de toutes sortes de communautes.