Max H. Boisot
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198296072
- eISBN:
- 9780191685194
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198296072.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management, Organization Studies
It is now widely recognized that the effective management of knowledge assets is a key requirement for securing competitive advantage in the emerging information economy. Yet the physical and ...
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It is now widely recognized that the effective management of knowledge assets is a key requirement for securing competitive advantage in the emerging information economy. Yet the physical and institutional differences between tangible assets and knowledge assets remain poorly understood. In the case of knowledge, the ownership and control of assets are becoming ever more separate, a phenomenon that is actually exacerbated by the phenomenon of learning. If we are to meet the challenges of the information economy, then we need a new approach to property rights based on a deeper theoretical understanding of knowledge assets. This book provides some of the key building blocks that are needed for a theory of knowledge assets. The author develops a conceptual framework, the Information-Space or I-Space, for exploring the way knowledge flows within and between organizations.Less
It is now widely recognized that the effective management of knowledge assets is a key requirement for securing competitive advantage in the emerging information economy. Yet the physical and institutional differences between tangible assets and knowledge assets remain poorly understood. In the case of knowledge, the ownership and control of assets are becoming ever more separate, a phenomenon that is actually exacerbated by the phenomenon of learning. If we are to meet the challenges of the information economy, then we need a new approach to property rights based on a deeper theoretical understanding of knowledge assets. This book provides some of the key building blocks that are needed for a theory of knowledge assets. The author develops a conceptual framework, the Information-Space or I-Space, for exploring the way knowledge flows within and between organizations.
Max Boisot and Dorothy Griffiths
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199259281
- eISBN:
- 9780191714306
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259281.003.0010
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies, Knowledge Management
Supporting knowledge management with information technology is widely characterized as a technical challenge — one of devising an information system in which only those people entitled to use a given ...
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Supporting knowledge management with information technology is widely characterized as a technical challenge — one of devising an information system in which only those people entitled to use a given piece of knowledge can gain access to it, and then making it as easy as possible for those people to do so. This chapter argues that the changing nature of the employment relationship poses a real challenge in getting employees to freely contribute their knowledge in the first place. When organizational competence is based on well articulated knowledge that is well diffused within a company, it may become difficult for the firm to appropriate such knowledge. In both cases, extracting full economic profits from knowledge potentially on offer becomes problematic for a firm. This dilemma is called the paradox of value. This chapter presents a fundamental conceptual framework known as the Information Space or I-Space for the examination of information flows among agents within a firm, and discusses how recent developments in information technology are likely to exacerbate the paradox of value.Less
Supporting knowledge management with information technology is widely characterized as a technical challenge — one of devising an information system in which only those people entitled to use a given piece of knowledge can gain access to it, and then making it as easy as possible for those people to do so. This chapter argues that the changing nature of the employment relationship poses a real challenge in getting employees to freely contribute their knowledge in the first place. When organizational competence is based on well articulated knowledge that is well diffused within a company, it may become difficult for the firm to appropriate such knowledge. In both cases, extracting full economic profits from knowledge potentially on offer becomes problematic for a firm. This dilemma is called the paradox of value. This chapter presents a fundamental conceptual framework known as the Information Space or I-Space for the examination of information flows among agents within a firm, and discusses how recent developments in information technology are likely to exacerbate the paradox of value.
Max Boisot and Markus Nordberg
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199567928
- eISBN:
- 9780191728945
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567928.003.0003
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management, Organization Studies
The ATLAS experiment at CERN, having entered the operational phase in September 2008, is designed to run for fifteen to twenty years. In terms of its aims, its sheer size, its complexity, and the ...
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The ATLAS experiment at CERN, having entered the operational phase in September 2008, is designed to run for fifteen to twenty years. In terms of its aims, its sheer size, its complexity, and the number of scientists involved, it is one of the most challenging scientific enterprises ever undertaken. What is the nature of this enterprise? The ATLAS detector itself can be thought of as a giant measuring instrument that interposes itself between the experimenter and the phenomenal world. Much of an experimenter's time is devoted to tending the instrument in collaboration with others. This tending process has been described as care of the self. Such care, when undertaken collectively, is dependent upon the effective flow of information and knowledge between the different groups inside the collaboration that are responsible for the ‘caring’. Since information and knowledge flows constitute the lifeblood of all organizational processes — the focus in this book — this chapter presents a conceptual framework, the Information-Space or I-Space, that helps with the exploration the nature of these knowledge and information flows in the chapters that follow.Less
The ATLAS experiment at CERN, having entered the operational phase in September 2008, is designed to run for fifteen to twenty years. In terms of its aims, its sheer size, its complexity, and the number of scientists involved, it is one of the most challenging scientific enterprises ever undertaken. What is the nature of this enterprise? The ATLAS detector itself can be thought of as a giant measuring instrument that interposes itself between the experimenter and the phenomenal world. Much of an experimenter's time is devoted to tending the instrument in collaboration with others. This tending process has been described as care of the self. Such care, when undertaken collectively, is dependent upon the effective flow of information and knowledge between the different groups inside the collaboration that are responsible for the ‘caring’. Since information and knowledge flows constitute the lifeblood of all organizational processes — the focus in this book — this chapter presents a conceptual framework, the Information-Space or I-Space, that helps with the exploration the nature of these knowledge and information flows in the chapters that follow.
Marko Arenius and Max Boisot
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199567928
- eISBN:
- 9780191728945
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567928.003.0009
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management, Organization Studies
Drawing on four short case studies of how the ATLAS collaboration selects and works with its suppliers, this chapter highlights some of the issues involved. First it briefly outlines and discusses ...
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Drawing on four short case studies of how the ATLAS collaboration selects and works with its suppliers, this chapter highlights some of the issues involved. First it briefly outlines and discusses ATLAS's supplier selection process. It then presents a conceptual framework that helps categorize ATLAS suppliers. Finally, it presents the four cases and interprets them using both the framework and the I-Space. The chapter concludes by asking to what extent ATLAS's experience with its suppliers can be of use to other organizations.Less
Drawing on four short case studies of how the ATLAS collaboration selects and works with its suppliers, this chapter highlights some of the issues involved. First it briefly outlines and discusses ATLAS's supplier selection process. It then presents a conceptual framework that helps categorize ATLAS suppliers. Finally, it presents the four cases and interprets them using both the framework and the I-Space. The chapter concludes by asking to what extent ATLAS's experience with its suppliers can be of use to other organizations.
Beatrice Bressan and Max Boisot
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199567928
- eISBN:
- 9780191728945
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567928.003.0011
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management, Organization Studies
This chapter shifts the focus to individuals working in the ATLAS Collaboration. What do they expect to get out of working in a large team such as the ATLAS Collaboration and what will others get out ...
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This chapter shifts the focus to individuals working in the ATLAS Collaboration. What do they expect to get out of working in a large team such as the ATLAS Collaboration and what will others get out of their participation? Answers to these questions lie at the interface of individual and collective learning — sometimes called ‘organization learning’. Drawing on interviews with individuals working in the ATLAS Collaboration, the chapter explores how the learning experiences offered to the individual in the ATLAS project scale up to trigger collective learning, and, in turn, how the latter, working in tandem with CERN's institutional structures, subsequently comes to shape the context of individual learning processes. The interviewees were drawn from the many different groups working on the detector — the tile calorimeter, the liquid argon detector, the pixel detector, the trigger, the software group, and so on. Some were working on their doctoral thesis in experimental physics, others were postdocs. Some were physicists, some were electronic or mechanical engineers, some were software specialists. In order better to understand the learning dynamics that characterize Big Science, the concept of social capital was used to link up the individual learning experiences of individuals to the collective outcomes that drive the social learning cycle (SLC) in the I-Space.Less
This chapter shifts the focus to individuals working in the ATLAS Collaboration. What do they expect to get out of working in a large team such as the ATLAS Collaboration and what will others get out of their participation? Answers to these questions lie at the interface of individual and collective learning — sometimes called ‘organization learning’. Drawing on interviews with individuals working in the ATLAS Collaboration, the chapter explores how the learning experiences offered to the individual in the ATLAS project scale up to trigger collective learning, and, in turn, how the latter, working in tandem with CERN's institutional structures, subsequently comes to shape the context of individual learning processes. The interviewees were drawn from the many different groups working on the detector — the tile calorimeter, the liquid argon detector, the pixel detector, the trigger, the software group, and so on. Some were working on their doctoral thesis in experimental physics, others were postdocs. Some were physicists, some were electronic or mechanical engineers, some were software specialists. In order better to understand the learning dynamics that characterize Big Science, the concept of social capital was used to link up the individual learning experiences of individuals to the collective outcomes that drive the social learning cycle (SLC) in the I-Space.
Ron Sanchez
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199669165
- eISBN:
- 9780191749346
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669165.003.0015
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies, Knowledge Management
This chapter offers some reflections on Max Boisot and his extraordinary intellect drawn from our 15 years of exchanging and crafting ideas together. I first comment on the process of working with ...
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This chapter offers some reflections on Max Boisot and his extraordinary intellect drawn from our 15 years of exchanging and crafting ideas together. I first comment on the process of working with Max, and then suggest some of the remarkable qualities of thought that I believe distinguished Max's keen intellect as I came to experience it through our collaborations. I note in particular the breadth of perspectives that Max inevitably brought to any discussion, his ability to draw multiple theoretical perspectives together in composing novel representations of economic and organizational phenomena, and his ability to rigorously categorize and usefully interrelate the many theories and concepts with which he was conversant. These qualities are illustrated through some further comments on the process of writing our 2010 paper on economic organizing. I conclude by suggesting how these qualities of thought are also reflected in Max's individual work and especially in his crowning achievement, the Information-Space Model.Less
This chapter offers some reflections on Max Boisot and his extraordinary intellect drawn from our 15 years of exchanging and crafting ideas together. I first comment on the process of working with Max, and then suggest some of the remarkable qualities of thought that I believe distinguished Max's keen intellect as I came to experience it through our collaborations. I note in particular the breadth of perspectives that Max inevitably brought to any discussion, his ability to draw multiple theoretical perspectives together in composing novel representations of economic and organizational phenomena, and his ability to rigorously categorize and usefully interrelate the many theories and concepts with which he was conversant. These qualities are illustrated through some further comments on the process of writing our 2010 paper on economic organizing. I conclude by suggesting how these qualities of thought are also reflected in Max's individual work and especially in his crowning achievement, the Information-Space Model.
Max Boisot
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199669165
- eISBN:
- 9780191749346
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669165.003.0006
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies, Knowledge Management
In ‘The Creation and Sharing of Knowledge‘, Max Boisot illustrates his approach to the effective management of knowledge resources. He starts by giving a brief historical background description of ...
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In ‘The Creation and Sharing of Knowledge‘, Max Boisot illustrates his approach to the effective management of knowledge resources. He starts by giving a brief historical background description of knowledge management, highlighting its importance for contemporary economic activity, and explaining unresolved challenges. He then describes the properties of knowledge and explains learning and the generation of new knowledge through the Information Space (I-Space) and the Social Learning Cycle (SLC). Boisot examines the difficulties encountered in valuing information and knowledge goods and shows how they differ from physical resources. He ends by discussing managerial implications, pointing to new governance arrangements and strategies for knowledge-based firms.Less
In ‘The Creation and Sharing of Knowledge‘, Max Boisot illustrates his approach to the effective management of knowledge resources. He starts by giving a brief historical background description of knowledge management, highlighting its importance for contemporary economic activity, and explaining unresolved challenges. He then describes the properties of knowledge and explains learning and the generation of new knowledge through the Information Space (I-Space) and the Social Learning Cycle (SLC). Boisot examines the difficulties encountered in valuing information and knowledge goods and shows how they differ from physical resources. He ends by discussing managerial implications, pointing to new governance arrangements and strategies for knowledge-based firms.
