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Le 9 mai 1950, Robert Schuman prononça un discours fondateur fondé sur la mise en commun de ressources énergétiques et économiques qui engendra sept décennies de paix en Europe. 70 ans après ces évènements, les connaissances sont reconnues comme la ressource principale que les organisations mobilisent pour propulser leurs innovations, conquérir de nouveaux marchés et défendre leurs avantages concurrentiels. Si les connaissances sont le combustible qui alimente la créativité et l’innovation, les organisations en sont le creuset. La mise en commun de connaissances peut être appréhendée sous différentes angles, allant d’une vision statique où la connaissance commune est perçue comme un simple stock de ressources (un bien commun) à disposition d’un collectif défini, à une perspective dynamique où la connaissance commune représente un dispositif de coordination afin d’achever un but ultime (Bechky, 2003; Carlile, 2004; Okhuysen et Bechky, 2009; etc.). En développant une connaissance partagée par tous, chaque acteur comprend les actions et motivations des autres et peut intégrer ces comportements dans sa propre pratique et son propre apprentissage. De ce point de vue, toute collaboration, toute reconnaissance des atouts de « l’autre » doit commencer par une mise en commun des points de vue, des visions, des savoirs respectifs pour mener à bien une construction plus vaste.

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

Cette contribution propose de voir les communautés de pratique pilotées comme un support à l’ambidextrie contextuelle. En présentant la capacité de ces structures à supporter des activités d’exploration et d’exploitation, nous montrons qu’elles satisfont aux hypothèses de l’ambidextrie contextuelle. Nous développons cette proposition à travers l’étude du réseau de communautés du groupe GDF SUEZ. Cette étude permet d’affiner notre compréhension des principaux aspects de l’ambidextrie contextuelle : un contexte favorisant tant la performance que le partage de connaissances, la gestion des tensions entre exploration et exploitation au niveau individuel et la capacité à combiner alignement et flexibilité sur l’ensemble d’une organisation., In this contribution, we propose to see steered communities of practice as a support to contextual ambidexterity. We show that the way such structures support both exploration and exploitation satisfies contextual ambidexterity hypothesis. We develop this proposition through the study of GDF SUEZ network of communities of practice. This study refines our understanding of the main aspects of contextual ambidexterity : a context favoring simultaneously performance and knowledge sharing, the balance between exploration and exploitation made at the individual level, and the ability to combine alignment and flexibility throughout an organization., Esta contribución propone ver las comunidades de práctica conducidas como un soporte para la ambidestreza contextual. Al presentar la capacidad de tales estructuras para soportar las actividades de exploración y explotación, así como su naturaleza híbrida, que combina la jerarquía y la informalidad, se muestra que cumplan las hipótesis de la ambidestreza contextual. Desarrollamos la propuesta con una ilustración empírica a través del estudio del grupo GDF SUEZ y de su red de comunidades. Este estudio nos permite hacer propuestas más sutiles sobre los principales aspectos de la ambidestreza contextual : la creación de un contexto favorable tanto para el rendimiento como para el intercambio de conocimientos, la gestión de las tensiones entre la exploración y la explotación a nivel individual y la capacidad de combinar la flexibilidad y la alineación en el conjunto de una organización.

Une communaute de pratique correspond a un groupement d’individus partageant un interet commun et echangeant entre eux leurs connaissances et leurs competences de maniere creatrice afin d’accroitre la performance de l’organisation. Les communautes de pratique prennent depuis quelques annees une place croissante au sein des organisations. Pourtant, nous en savons peu sur le partage optimal des roles et des responsabilites entre divers acteurs eu egard a la creation et a la gestion de ces communautes. En nous basant sur deux etudes de cas, nous indiquons que le partage des roles et des responsabilites evolue en fonction du stade d’evolution des communautes de pratique. Puis, nous recommandons des roles a l’egard de trois grands acteurs. Dans le cas des parrains ou de la haute direction, il s’agit d’appuyer l’existence de la communaute et de lui donner un souffle, de promouvoir les connaissances que la communaute produit et de reduire son engagement avec l’evolution de la communaute. Dans le cas des animateurs, il s’agit de construire l’identite de la communaute et de veiller sur les echanges qui y ont lieu, de moduler leur engagement selon l’evolution de la communaute et de gerer le transfert des roles et des responsabilites aux membres de la communaute. Enfin, dans le cas des membres participants et des techniciens, il s’agit de participer aux echanges dans la communaute et de faciliter ceux-ci de meme que d’accroitre leur engagement avec l’evolution de la communaute.Fonctions : management, GRH, TI

Purpose – This paper aims to ask the question of the contingency of a firm’s absorptive capacity upon the type of expected outcome. Thus, this paper looks at different expected outputs in terms of more or less radical innovations and sees if there are consequences on the absorptive process underpinning cognitive structures and processes, as embodied in its organizational and social capital. Design/methodology/approach – To do so, a qualitative study was conducted. In total, 23 persons in three French industrial firms were interviewed about their firm’s absorptive capacity. One of these firms aims at “new-to-the-firm” innovations, while the other two aim at “new-to-the-world” innovations. Findings – Results suggest that while “new-to-the-firm” innovations tend to favor the use of social capital, “new-to-the-world” innovations tend to rely more on organizational capital. These rather counterintuitive results are interpreted by the necessity to take into account other variables than knowledge distance in the absorption of new knowledge. In particular, complexity and time-length would call for greater use of organizational capital, while speed and reactivity would instead require greater use of social capital. Originality/value – This is to the best of the authors’ knowledge that one of the first study evidencing the contingent nature of the absorptive process. Further, results tend to show the form absorptive capacity takes depends not only on cognitive aspects but also on the particular environment the firm evolves in.

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.

The aim of the article is to explore different aspects concerning the distinction between the expert and the consultant. We analyse theoretically and empirically these distinctions in the framework of the knowledge-based economy in order to introduce the central concepts of epistemic community and community of practice. The question is to know to which community experts and consultant belongs. We also investigate the role that some actors coming from outside the firm play in reinforcing knowledge creation and codification processes in the firm.

This article aims at deepening our understanding of the relationships between human resources management (HRM) and absorptive capacity in the context of innovation. We assume that different kinds of innovations may require different absorptive processes, sustained by pertinent HRM practices. Following the extant literature, we distinguish between flexible HRM practices and bureaucratic HRM practices. Based on a qualitative study in three French industrial firms, we find that firms pursuing “new-to-the-firm” innovations rely predominantly on flexible HRM practices, while firms pursuing new-to-the-world” innovations rather rely on bureaucratic HRM practices. We explain this finding by the fact that “new-to-the-firm” innovations call for swift redeployment of resources across projects, while “new-to-the-world” innovations entail the management of interdependencies across disparate bodies of knowledge.

We resort to a simulation study to investigate two change strategies a firm can implement when facing an environmental shift. The first strategy (termed integrate-early) consists in moving from the...

In an earlier article we studied the Communities of Practice and their conditions of emergence using an Agent based model with a set of agents facing a continuous flow of problems. We now center our analysis on the performance of this organizational structure compared to a two-level hierarchical delegation structure. Our results show the crucial role played by the communication and the specialisation of agents; especially that community structures are efficient for competence building and learning in the long term. This paper backs the claim made by (Bowles, S., Gintis, H., 2002. Social capital and community governance. The Economic Journal 112, 419–437.) that hierarchy and communities are complementary modes of governance.

This paper explores the different social structures coexisting within a biology laboratory. This work draws upon an empirical study and the results are analysed using the social network analysis toolbox. We evidence that actors form links between them in order to carry out cognitive activities. Depending on the content of this activity, resulting networks can take different shapes. When dealing with scientific knowledge, actors tend to form an epistemic community, whereas they form a community of practice when they seek to enhance their skills in setting experiments. Moreover, these two structures are connected by means of boundary objects and boundary spanners.

This contribution focuses on the simulation of the emergence and evolution of communities of practice, a concept brought forwards originally in sociology in the early 90's by Lave and Wenger (1990) and Brown and Duguid (1991). In a first part, the main theoretical principles on which relies the notion of community of practice are recalled. Then, the contribution exposes the characteristics of the simulation, and discusses the main results that have been obtained., Cette contribution est consacrée à l'étude et à la simulation de la formation et de la dynamique des communautés de pratique, mises en évidence en sociologie au début des années 90 par les travaux de Lave et Wenger (1990) et Brown et Duguid (1991). Après avoir rappelé, dans un premier temps les principes théoriques sur lesquels repose la notion de communauté de pratique, l'article expose, successivement, les principes de la simulation retenue et enfin les résultats., Dupouët Olivier, Yildizoglu Murat, Cohendet Patrick. Morphogenèse de communautés de pratique. In: Revue d'économie industrielle, vol. 103, 2e et 3e trimestre 2003. La morphogénèse des réseaux, sous la direction de Patrick Cohendet, Alan Kirman et Jean-Benoît Zimmermann. pp. 91-110.

We test the robustness of the main growth mechanisms of the original Aghion & Howitt model by relaxing two central assumptions: the homogeneity of the agents and perfect foresight. To this end, we introduce boundedly rational firms in the R&D sector that are capable of learning. Our first results show that the original AH assumptions are essential for continuous endogenous growth of the economy.

On the basis of the recent concepts of epistemic communities and communities of practice, we show that the firm can be defined according to a form of double duality: cognitive and organisational. The interest of this approach is to put ahead the differentiated behavior from the manager and the entrepreneur inside the firm. It also puts in light the important questions concerning the organisational tensions under the vision of the knowledge-based economies., En partant des concepts récents de communautés épistémiques et de communautés de pratique, nous montrons que l'entreprise peut être définie selon une forme de double dualité : cognitive et organisationnelle. L'intérêt de cette approche est de mettre en avant le comportement différencié du manager et de l'entrepreneur dans l'entreprise. Elle met également en perspective les questions importantes des tensions organisation-nelles sous l'angle de l'économie des connaissances., Créplet Frédéric, Dupouët Olivier, Kern Francis, Munier Francis. Dualité cognitive et organisationnelle de l'entreprise : le rôle différencié du manager et de l'entrepreneur. In: Revue d'économie industrielle, vol. 95, 2e trimestre 2001. pp. 9-22.

A growing number of works in the literature consider the process of production and circulation of knowledge within the firm as is the key determinant of the capability of the organisation to innovate Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Leonard-Barton, 1995; von Krogh, Roos and Kleine, 1998, etc…). It is widely agreed that the “cognitive architecture” of knowledge within the firm (the way knowledge is produced, stored, exchanged, transmitted, retrieved) strongly influences the process of organisational learning, and in turn the innovative process. As Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) emphasised, the process of creation of knowledge within firms relies on two main dimensions; the first one is the “epistemological dimension”: the critical assumption is that human knowledge is created and expanded through social interaction between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge (“knowledge conversion”); the second one is the “ontological dimension” which is concerned with the levels of knowledge creating entities (individual, group, organisational and inter-organisational). In line with the assumptions initially made by Argyris and Schon (1978), the organisation supports creative individuals or provides contexts for them to create knowledge.“Organizational knowledge creation therefore should be understood as a process that organizationally amplifies the knowledge created by individuals and crystallizes it as a part of the knowledge network of the organization. This process takes place within an ”expanding community of interaction“ which crosses intra and inter-organizational levels and boundaries”Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995. emphasised, the process of creation of knowledge within f1rms relies on two main dimensions; the first one is the “epistemological dimension”: the critical assumption is that human knowledge is created and expanded through social interaction between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge (“knowledge conversion”); the second one is the “ontological dimension” which is concerned with the levels of knowledge creating entities (individual, group, organisational and inter-organisational). In line with the assumptions initially made by Argyris and Schon (1978), the organisation supports creative individuals or provides contexts for them to create knowledge.“Organizational knowledge creation, therefore, should be understood as a process that organizationally amplifies the knowledge created by individuals and crystallizes it as a part ofthe knowledge network of the organization. This process takes place within an ”expanding community of

We address how MNCs manage human resources at headquarters and across global subsidiaries to effectively harness capabilities related to explorative and exploitative learning, i.e., ambidexterity, ...

Organizational ambidexterity has been well researched. Yet, the human resource perspective on this is non-existent. We contribute by providing an empirical understanding of HRM practices at a large MNC encompassing both structural and contextual ambidexterity. Our revelatory case design provides an in-depth investigation of a French MNC. Findings suggest that an intellectual capital configuration, with relatively high levels of human, social, and organizational capital respectively is essential for fostering ambidexterity. Additionally, both a human-capital enhancing HR system and an administrative HR system aids ambidexterity. We discuss the intellectual capital architecture, HR practices, theoretical contributions, limitations, and directions for further research., L’ambidextrie organisationnelle a été bien étudiée. Cependant, la perspective des ressources humaines reste limitée. Nous contribuons avec une étude sur les pratiques de gestion des ressources humaines dans une grande multinationale qui mobilise à la fois l’ambidextrie structurelle et contextuelle. Nous présentons une étude approfondie de cette multinationale française. Nos résultats suggèrent qu’une configuration du capital intellectuel avec des niveaux relativement élevés de capital humain, social et organisationnel est essentielle pour favoriser l’ambidextrie. Nous constatons également que la combinaison d’un système renforçant le capital humain et d’un système administratif supporte l’ambidextrie. Nous discutons des pistes de recherche ultérieures., La ambidestreza organizacional ha sido bien investigada; sin embargo, la perspectiva de los recursos humanos es inexistente. Contribuimos aportando un estudio de GRH en una corporación multinacional que abarca ambidestreza estructural y contextual. Nuestro diseño de caso proporciona una investigación en profundidad de una corporación multinacional francesa. Los hallazgos sugieren que una configuración de capital intelectual con niveles relativamente altos de capital humano, social y organizacional es esencial para fomentar la ambidestreza. Además, tanto un sistema de GRH de mejora de capital humano como un sistema administrativo de recursos humanos ayuda a la ambidestreza. Discutimos las direcciones para seguir investigando.