Knowledge brokers, social capital and open innovation
The recognition that knowledge, embodied in human beings and in technology, is the fundamental driver of sustainable competitive advantage has been a major breakthrough in management thinking. Drucker, more than 20 years ago, stated that organizational success will depend on the capacity to adapt and deploy new knowledge. This conception has unlocked completely new perspectives about how to manage human, physical and financial resources in ever-changing, increasingly complex and uncertain environments. The acceleration in the rate of change implies that knowledge and skills are exposed to a depreciation that is more rapid than before. Therefore, the success of individuals, firms, regions and countries will, more than anything else, reflect their capability to acquire, create and diffuse knowledge (Lundvall, 2002).
It is clear that successful innovation under conditions of complexity, uncertainty and change can only be achieved through collaborative approaches that integrate knowledge inside and outside the organization, involving customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. This model of open innovation is being increasingly used by organizations throughout the world. Besides speeding up innovation processes and better addressing product/service innovation according to the market needs, it enables organizations through cooperation, to access resources (e.g. people, capital, technologies) that would have been difficult to afford by pursuing a solitary way. In this regard, knowledge brokers play a major role in providing the links, knowledge sources and technical knowledge so that firms can accelerate and increase the effectiveness of their innovation processes to fully exploit the potential behind open innovation.
Moreover, another phenomenon adding value to the function of knowledge brokers is the erosion of social capital. Social capital refers to the norms and networks that enable people to act collectively for mutual benefit (Woolcock, 2000). In the last decades, scholars (Putnam, Coleman, Fukuyama) monitored an erosion of social capital in industrialized countries in terms of accrued opportunism, individualism, cynicism and greed which undermined society’s ability to regenerate its social assets in terms of trust, civic engagement, public ethics and personal honesty. The economic downturn we are currently experiencing has been in part generated by the above mentioned attitudes and behaviors.
From an organizational standpoint, social capital through its characterizing elements, trust, beliefs, norms, rules and networks (Adler and Kwon, 2000) embodies different types of knowledge which could enhance, respectively hinder, the propensity to engage and work cooperatively. The erosion of social capital might discourage the development of collective intellectual capital inhibiting the enormous potential encapsulated in the open innovation paradigm that requires knowledge flows, interactions, extended networks and the like.
In conclusion, knowledge brokers constitute an indispensable player in open innovation processes. They act as catalysts, accelerating the combination of complementary knowledge and skills necessary to solve innovation problems, by making the right connections, links with solvers and seekers (de Sousa, 2006). In this way, neutral and independent entities such as associations, networks and consortia exert an important role in increasing collaborative relationships among the different actors (industry, academia, state). They can assume this role because, besides providing the necessary skills and knowledge, they are primarily identified as trusted intermediaries creating the essential conditions to enhance cooperative work among economic actors.
John Gaffuri
Lecturer and Researcher
University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland
Department of Business and Social Sciences
References
Adler, P., S., Kwon, S.: Social Capital: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. In Lesser, E.L. (Ed.), Knowledge and Social Capital: Foundations and Applications, Butterworth-Heinemann, Burlington, MA., 2000, 89-115
Coleman, J.: Foundations of Social theory, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1990
de Sousa, M.: The Sustainable Innovation Engine, VINE: The journal of information and knowledge management systems, Vol. 36, No. 4, 2006
Drucker, P.: The coming of the new organization, Harvard Business Review, January – February 1988, 45-53
Fukuyama, F.: Trust: The social Virtues and the creation of Prosperity, New York, Free Press, 1995
Lundvall, B.A.: Innovation, growth and social cohesion, Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar 2002
Putnam, R.: Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital, Journal of Democracy 6(1), 1995, 65-78.
Woolcock, M., Narayan, D.: Social Capital: Implications for Development Theory, Research, and Policy, World Bank Research Observer, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(2), August 2000, pages 225-49
Wissen vermehren
Drei Länder, drei Communities – ein gemeinsames Ziel
Die Plattform Wissensmanagement (PWM) lud anlässlich ihres siebten Geburtstages zum "Drei-Länder-Gipfeltreffe: Community meets Community" nach Wien.
Erstmals in der Wissensmanagement-Community-Geschichte kamen jeweils ein Vertreter der größten Wissensmanagement-Communities aus Deutschland, der Schweiz und Österreich zusammen, um die Community- Konzepte der verschiedenen Organisationen vorzustellen sowie Gemeinsamtkieten un neue Anknüpfungspunkte zu diskutieren.
Das Gipfeltreffen legte den ersten Meilenstein zum Austausch und Vernetzen von Wissen zwischen den einzelnen Communities. Welche Herausforderungen sind dabei zu beachten und welcher Nutzen entsteht für die einzelnen Mitglieder?
Artikel in KM Review
Als Follow-Up zum Kurs "Certified Knowledge Manager" in Basel (04/2007) hat Barry Hardy einen Artikel in der KM Review veröffentlichen können. Diesen bieten wir hier unseren Mitgliedern zum Download an. Danke Barry!
Download
Als Mitglied des SKMF können Sie nach einloggen den Artikel hier herunterladen.