Innovation and Knowledge Sharing Across Professional Boundaries: Political Interplay between Boundary Objects and Brokers

Chris Kimble (), Corinne Grenier () and Karine Goglio-Primard
Additional contact information
Corinne Grenier: Euromed Marseille - École de management - Association Euromed Management - Marseille, CERGAM - Centre d'Études et de Recherche en Gestion d'Aix-Marseille - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - UTLN - Université de Toulon
Karine Goglio-Primard: Euromed Marseille - École de management - Association Euromed Management - Marseille

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: The article examines the process of innovation and knowledge sharing from a perspective that focuses on the influence that local circumstances can have. In particular, it looks at the problems of knowledge sharing between groups of professionals. It presents a comparative analysis of two studies, one involving two groups of IT professionals; the other a network of healthcare professionals. The data was collected in two sets. The first set consisted of the results from two earlier, independent studies; the second was collected specifically for this article. We investigate the role played by boundary objects and brokers. Through an analysis of the interplay between boundary object and broker, we uncover the dynamics of the innovation process and show that the role played by the broker can be political. We identify two strategies that are used by brokers in the selection of a boundary object. The first is directed towards achieving a balance between the actors involved and the second is directed towards controlling their activities. We conclude by suggesting that other researchers should also consider the interplay between broker and boundary object when examining cross-boundary knowledge sharing.

Keywords: Boundary objects; Brokers; Interplay; Innovation; Knowledge sharing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-08-18
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00510393v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Published in International Journal of Information Management, 2010, 30 (5), pp.437 - 444. ⟨10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2010.02.002⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00510393v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Innovation and knowledge sharing across professional boundaries: Political interplay between boundary objects and brokers (2010)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00510393

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2010.02.002

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().