Research Group Knowledge and Organization

 

The research group focusses on three related research topics:

 

1) Knowledge management

Empirical research on knowledge sharing within organizations. Both qualitative research (case studies and ethnography) as quantitative research (surveys).

 

• KM Scan

Developing and use of instruments: ‘the KM scan’ to monitor and assess knowledge sharing routines within organizations. In cooperation with an assistant professor at UVA. (2003 - ).

 

• Knowledge Sharing in Practice (completed)

Empirical multi-case research at eleven large companies in The Netherlands on various ‘waves’ of knowledge management and IT support. In co-operation with dr. D. de Wit, Telematics Institute. Sponsored by VNO and Telematics Institute. (2002 – 2003) see e.g. ‘Knowledge Sharing in Practice, Huysman, M. and D. de Wit, Kluwer Academics). 

 

• Knowledge sharing through acquisitions (completed)

Empirical research at Harvard Business School, TOM group, sponsored by Professor Dorothy Leonard on conditions for success and failure for sharing knowledge between the newly acquired company (often former start-up companies in high tech area) and R&D department of high tech companies (2000-2001)

 

• Industry sponsored consultancy research on Knowledge Management (completed)

Selection of organizations: Unilever, EPO, Ahold, Basell (1998 – 2000)

 

2) Communities

Empirical studies on the social dynamics of knowledge circulation by (inter-firm) communities both local as well as dispersed.

 

• Knowledge sharing and innovation in regional business clusters.

Research on knowledge and innovation within the Amsterdam based game development community. Qualitative research combined with social networks analysis. This PhD research (2004 – 2008) takes place in cooperation with the research group of Prof T. Elfring, Faculty of Social Sciences, VUA. PhD researcher: Andrea Carini (acarini@feweb.vu.nl)

 

• Knowledge creation within ‘Habiforum’, a network of geographically distributed communities of experts active in the field of spatial planning.

Qualitative research on micro processes of innovation and knowledge circulation within and between inter-firm communities. The research that concentrates on diffusion of innovations within the Habiforum network, will be conducted by a post doc researcher and a phd student and be sponsored by Habiforum as part of the SRG project funded by ICES KIS. (2005 – )

 

• Open Source Software Communities

Case Study Research as well as Survey based research on the emergence and co-evolution of Blender, a global open source software community designing software for 3D pictures. This research is conducted in cooperation with a post doc researcher and a PhD student, graduate students and an assistant professor (2004 –). PhD student: Jeroen Walschots Jwalschots@feweb.vu.nl

 

• Social dynamics of online communities

Case study research on communities in which participants are dispersed and dependent on IT to share knowledge. The research concentrates on how the interactions between community members enact structural properties over time and in turn influencing future interactions. These community structures may well depart from the original intended organizational purposes and have unforeseen side effects, both positive as well as negative. This research is part of the Metis project, sponsored by Telematics Institute and will be conducted by a post doc and a phd researcher (start 1-1-2005)

 

• Knowledge and innovation within the greenhouse region in South West Netherlands.

This research is cooperation with graduate students and an assistant professor (the Nefos project). Currently research grant for a Post Doc research is applied for at NWO, Dynamics of Innovation. The research is part of an international project initiated by Prof C. Steinfield and Prof B. Pentland of Michigan State University and sponsored by NSF (cooperating international partners do not receive financial support)

 

 

3) IT and virtual communities/teams

Socio-technical research on IT use and support for virtual teams and communities. The research projects are both qualitative and quantitative.

 

• Social capital analysis to understand the role of IT in communities

Research on how social capital of distributed communities influences the use of IT. Case study research in different online community locations (commercial, open source, and special interest groups). The research empirically tests and validates a theoretical model (Huysman 2004). This research has finished the first stage of developing conceptual models, based on theory and exploratory (mostly graduate level) research. Currently a research grant for a post doc researcher is applied for at NWO ‘Netwerken van netwerken’. See also work on social capital and IT: international workshop and ‘Social Capial and IT’, Huysman, M. and V. Wulf, MIT Press 2004).

 

• Virtual teams (completed)

Case study research on virtual teams as part of INTEND (International Networked Teams of Engineering Design), a distributed research project involving case studies of geographically dispersed teams at Michigan State University, USA, University Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, St. Petersburg Technical University, Russia and University of Delft, The Netherlands. (1998-2001).

 

• Multiple case study research on distributed teams and communities (completed)

This research was sponsored by Telematics Institute as work package 7: “Telematics-supported distributed teams and communities in networked organizations”. (2000-2001)

 

• Virtual learning (completed)

Case study research (observations, interviews, quantitative research methods) on the use of a ‘Virtual Learning Environment’ (1996-1997).

 

 

Next to these empirical studies, the research group is focussed on developing theoretical contributions to the field of Knowledge and Organization. See list of publications.