Exploring the Characteristics of Publicly Facilitated Inter-organisational Networks from a Learning Perspective

Abstract

This thesis is a comparative case study of the phenomenon of facilitated inter-organisational networks (FIN). FINs constitute a type of inter-organisational learning network that is publicly facilitated and that sets out to simulate learning and collaboration between the members. The task of this thesis has been to study the characteristics of FINs, variations in their learning activities, and the learning outcomes that member companies achieve by participating in these. My findings suggest that FINs can be distinguished from prevailing conceptualisations of inter-organisational learning networks (Richardson, 1972; Kogut, 1988; Porter, 1990; Grandori and Soda, 1995; Powell et al., 1996; Gulati, 1998; Tidd and Bessant, 2009) along three main dimensions; (1) that they exist as a result of conscious development strategies carried out by social researchers and business developers on the basis of funding given from national work life development programmes, (2) that the stimulation of collaboration and learning among member companies is their primary purpose, and (3) that that in order to achieve this purpose, researchers and business developers organise and facilitate learning activities on behalf of the member companies. On the basis of an empirical exploration of four FINs that operate within different sectors or industries, these general characteristics are found to take on individual narratives and scenarios. A mapping of these has contributed new empirical knowledge about the phenomenon of FINs to the management and organisational theory literature.