Open-System Orchestration of Knowledge Networks
(2019) , 53 pages
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- Abstract
- Knowledge networks involve individuals and organizations that come together to exchange, integrate and create knowledge. The orchestration of such networks has been mostly viewed at the organizational level, and from an ego-network perspective, where the knowledge network benefits the focal organization or technology. However, as knowledge networks are often formed around diverse actors with heterogeneous motivations, we argue that the orchestration of such collectives benefits from a distinctive approach that takes into account such diversity. We build on an open-system approach that views knowledge networks as loosely-coupled collectives, where value capture of members is not controlled by an orchestrator. Existing literature has provided some evidence on such networks, but lacks understanding of the micro foundations of the orchestration activities and particularly the crucial role of the orchestrator. Building on an in-depth qualitative study with interviews among 51 members of a Belgian “GRD network”, we focus on the roles and activities of an individual that orchestrates this network, and on the benefits experienced by the network members as an outcome of the orchestration. We show that the open-system orchestration of knowledge networks involves roles that facilitate both knowledge search as well as network coordination, leading to three types of outcomes: knowledge generativity, cross-domain discovery, and social capital accumulation. Using these insights, we build an empirically-grounded integrative model of open-system orchestration in knowledge networks, and provide implications for theory and practice.
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Citations
De Kort, C., Gailly, B., & Ritalla, P. (2019). Open-System Orchestration of Knowledge Networks (Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations Working Paper Series 2019/06). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/124125