Research areas
Managing and organizing innovation, learning and knowledge in and across organizations. Studies of the food industry (agri- and aquaculture), and of healthcare technologies and practices. Particularly interested in how organizational and market practices and processes tend to be shaped through a complex interplay of human, technological, economic and cultural elements.
Organization studies, innovation studies, science and technology studies, practice based studies of organizations and markets, industrial networks, organizational learning.
Teaching areas
Various courses related to organization, innovation management, entrepreneurship, and strategy.
In this study we investigate collaborative social innovation from a nonprofit sector perspective. More specifically, we explore how religious organizations, and their volunteers collaborate across organizational boundaries for social innovation, involving religious, public and for-profit organizations. For the emergence of multi-actor collaborations for social innovation, we find that interorganizational shared spaces facilitate the emergence – strategic and serendipitous – of shared ambitions, ideas and initiatives. Substantial impacts of such collaborations were found, in terms of learning, synergy, and commitment. Moreover, such processes led to renewed and expanded voluntary work.
Tappel, Eirik Aadland; Løvaas, Beate Jelstad & Hoholm, Thomas (2025)
Collaborative Social Innovation in Shared Spaces. A Multiple Case Study from the Perspective of Religious Organizations
In this study we investigate collaborative social innovation from a nonprofit sector perspective. More specifically, we explore how religious organizations, and their volunteers collaborate across organizational boundaries for social innovation, involving religious, public and for-profit organizations. For the emergence of multi-actor collaborations for social innovation, we find that interorganizational shared spaces facilitate the emergence – strategic and serendipitous – of shared ambitions, ideas and initiatives. Substantial impacts of such collaborations were found, in terms of learning, synergy, and commitment. Moreover, such processes led to renewed and expanded voluntary work.
Pinnock, Susanna; Evers, Natasha & Hoholm, Thomas (2024)
Customer search strategies of entrepreneurial telehealth firms - how effective is effectuation?
Purpose – The demand for healthcare innovation is increasing, and not much is known about how entrepreneurial firms search for and sell to customers in the highly regulated and complex healthcare market. Drawing on effectuation perspectives, we explore how entrepreneurial digital healthcare firms with disruptive innovations search for early customers in the healthcare sector.
Study design/methodology/approach – This study uses a qualitative, longitudinal multiple-case design of four entrepreneurial Nordic telehealth firms. In-depth interviews were conducted with founders and senior managers over a period of 27 months.
Findings – We find that when customer buying conditions are highly flexible, case firms use effectual logic to generate customer demand for disruptive innovations. However, under constrained buying conditions firms adopt a more causal approach to customer search.
Originality/value: We contribute to effectuation literature by illustrating how customer buying conditions influence decision-making logics of entrepreneurial firms searching for customers in the healthcare sector. We contribute to entrepreneurial resource search literature by illustrating how entrepreneurial firms search for customers beyond their networks in the institutionally complex healthcare sector.
Practical implications – Managers need to gain a deep understanding of target buying environments when searching for customers. In healthcare sector markets, the degree of flexibility customers have over buying can constrain them from engaging in demand co-creation. In particular, healthcare customer access to funding streams can be a key determinant of customer flexibility.
Hungnes, Tonje; Hoholm, Thomas & Clegg, Stewart (2024)
Future-making power : a study of competing imagined futures in healthcare
This paper presents a conceptual model of strategies of power in future-making, informed by a case study in the healthcare sector. In zooming out from investigating the future-making activities of an organizational innovation project team and tracing competing imagined futures enacted by medical professionals and strategic management, this study explains how and why the project struggled to realize its mandate. In this case, we identify three strategies of power, namely mobilization, discipline and discretion, and discuss their potential controversies and combinations. Moreover, we contribute to theories on discretionary power, demonstrating how it is produced by combining interdiscursivity with management control and nondecision. Strategies of discretion are productive in the realm of future-making, particularly in exploiting forces of discipline and mobilization to enable parallel imagined futures to be created and maintained over time. On the downside, this may keep competing imagined futures hostage, potentially serving non-transparent agendas.
Pinnock, Susanna; Evers, Natasha & Hoholm, Thomas (2024)
Customer search strategies of entrepreneurial telehealth firms - how effective is effectuation?
Purpose – The demand for healthcare innovation is increasing, and not much is known about how entrepreneurial firms search for and sell to customers in the highly regulated and complex healthcare market. Drawing on effectuation perspectives, we explore how entrepreneurial digital healthcare firms with disruptive innovations search for early customers in the healthcare sector.
Study design/methodology/approach – This study uses a qualitative, longitudinal multiple-case design of four entrepreneurial Nordic telehealth firms. In-depth interviews were conducted with founders and senior managers over a period of 27 months.
Findings – We find that when customer buying conditions are highly flexible, case firms use effectual logic to generate customer demand for disruptive innovations. However, under constrained buying conditions firms adopt a more causal approach to customer search.
Originality/value: We contribute to effectuation literature by illustrating how customer buying conditions influence decision-making logics of entrepreneurial firms searching for customers in the healthcare sector. We contribute to entrepreneurial resource search literature by illustrating how entrepreneurial firms search for customers beyond their networks in the institutionally complex healthcare sector.
Practical implications – Managers need to gain a deep understanding of target buying environments when searching for customers. In healthcare sector markets, the degree of flexibility customers have over buying can constrain them from engaging in demand co-creation. In particular, healthcare customer access to funding streams can be a key determinant of customer flexibility.
Hungnes, Tonje; Hoholm, Thomas & Clegg, Stewart (2024)
Future-making power : a study of competing imagined futures in healthcare
This paper presents a conceptual model of strategies of power in future-making, informed by a case study in the healthcare sector. In zooming out from investigating the future-making activities of an organizational innovation project team and tracing competing imagined futures enacted by medical professionals and strategic management, this study explains how and why the project struggled to realize its mandate. In this case, we identify three strategies of power, namely mobilization, discipline and discretion, and discuss their potential controversies and combinations. Moreover, we contribute to theories on discretionary power, demonstrating how it is produced by combining interdiscursivity with management control and nondecision. Strategies of discretion are productive in the realm of future-making, particularly in exploiting forces of discipline and mobilization to enable parallel imagined futures to be created and maintained over time. On the downside, this may keep competing imagined futures hostage, potentially serving non-transparent agendas.
Kværner, Kari Jorunn & Hoholm, Thomas (2023)
Håndbok i helseinnovasjon. Forskningsbaserte råd og verktøy for å forme fremtidens helsetjeneste
This study addresses the scantly examined work done by individuals to develop reciprocal relationships and maintain momentum throughout public-private innovation partnerships. We combine insights from the public-private innovation partnership literature with the notion of relational work from economic-sociology to analyse cases of public procurement for innovation (PPI) and pre-commercial procurement (PCP). We identify patterns of relational work stimulating continued interaction across different phases of the PPI and PCP instruments. Contributing to the debate on creativity versus constraints in public-private innovation partnerships, we present relational work as reciprocal and intentional activities to influence the social-symbolic structures in which they are embedded.
Kværner, Kari Jorunn & Hoholm, Thomas (2023)
Håndbok i helseinnovasjon. Forskningsbaserte råd og verktøy for å forme fremtidens helsetjeneste
This study addresses the scantly examined work done by individuals to develop reciprocal relationships and maintain momentum throughout public-private innovation partnerships. We combine insights from the public-private innovation partnership literature with the notion of relational work from economic-sociology to analyse cases of public procurement for innovation (PPI) and pre-commercial procurement (PCP). We identify patterns of relational work stimulating continued interaction across different phases of the PPI and PCP instruments. Contributing to the debate on creativity versus constraints in public-private innovation partnerships, we present relational work as reciprocal and intentional activities to influence the social-symbolic structures in which they are embedded.
Stefania, Sardo; Parmiggiani, Elena & Hoholm, Thomas (2021)
Not in transition: Inter-infrastructural governance and the politics of repair in the Norwegian oil and gas offshore industry
In the past three decades, there has been an increasing interest in transitions as crucial analytical moments of socio-technical change, with infrastructures being strategic loci from where to leverage these transformations. In this article, we argue for the necessity to re-engage with not-in-transition periods, which have theoretically and analytically been oversimplified. By focusing on the socio-technical practices of repair across interconnected infrastructures under not-in-transition conditions, we provide a better understanding of how these periods are (re)produced. Our in-depth case study of the Norwegian offshore oil and gas (O&G) drilling industry shows how stability can be ensured by means of inter-infrastructural governance carried on by specific power constellations, i.e. action nodes. The way they mould infrastructural components is revealed when normal operations are endangered by adverse events, such as accidents or economic crises.
Stefania, Sardo; Parmiggiani, Elena & Hoholm, Thomas (2021)
Not in transition: Inter-infrastructural governance and the politics of repair in the Norwegian oil and gas offshore industry
In the past three decades, there has been an increasing interest in transitions as crucial analytical moments of socio-technical change, with infrastructures being strategic loci from where to leverage these transformations. In this article, we argue for the necessity to re-engage with not-in-transition periods, which have theoretically and analytically been oversimplified. By focusing on the socio-technical practices of repair across interconnected infrastructures under not-in-transition conditions, we provide a better understanding of how these periods are (re)produced. Our in-depth case study of the Norwegian offshore oil and gas (O&G) drilling industry shows how stability can be ensured by means of inter-infrastructural governance carried on by specific power constellations, i.e. action nodes. The way they mould infrastructural components is revealed when normal operations are endangered by adverse events, such as accidents or economic crises.
Hoholm, Thomas; Rocca, Antonella La & Aanestad, Margunn (2018)
Controversies in Healthcare Innovation. Service, Technology and Organization
Palgrave Macmillan
Araujo, Luis; Rocca, Antonella La & Hoholm, Thomas (2018)
Reconfiguring the relation between primary and secondary healthcare through policy instruments
In Chapter 13, Hoholm et al. discuss controversies in the healthcare sector by studying the nature of innovation projects at the Clinic of Innovation at Oslo University Hospital and its efforts to improve organizational ambidexterity in the area of service innovation. This includes more room for exploration, and improving their capacity to translate and exploit service innovations in use. Using the notions of ‘exploration’ and ‘exploitation’ (March, Organization Science 2:71–87,1991) the authors show how successful innovation requires two different organizational capacities and discuss how a complex knowledge organization like a hospital may increase its ability to handle both, often referred to as ‘organizational ambidexterity’ (Junni et al., The Academy of Management Perspectives 27:299–312, 2013). The authors propose three conditions for driving ambidexterity: organizational responsibilities and roles, provisional evaluation methods, and systematic cross-case learning.
Christie, Werner H; Hoholm, Thomas & Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2018)
Innovasjon og samhandling i helsevesenet En praksisbasert tilnærming
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of boundary objects in interaction processes within business networks. From a single case study in the grocery retail industry, we find that such objects are used within interaction processes for collaboration, but are also used extensively for handling conflict, facilitating economic negotiations, and power execution. As such, network-level boundary objects do not require broad consensus by all the involved actors, but instead narrow consensus in a particular interaction process.
Hoholm, Thomas; Rocca, Antonella La & Aanestad, Margunn (2018)
Controversies in Healthcare Innovation. Service, Technology and Organization
Palgrave Macmillan
Araujo, Luis; Rocca, Antonella La & Hoholm, Thomas (2018)
Reconfiguring the relation between primary and secondary healthcare through policy instruments
In Chapter 13, Hoholm et al. discuss controversies in the healthcare sector by studying the nature of innovation projects at the Clinic of Innovation at Oslo University Hospital and its efforts to improve organizational ambidexterity in the area of service innovation. This includes more room for exploration, and improving their capacity to translate and exploit service innovations in use. Using the notions of ‘exploration’ and ‘exploitation’ (March, Organization Science 2:71–87,1991) the authors show how successful innovation requires two different organizational capacities and discuss how a complex knowledge organization like a hospital may increase its ability to handle both, often referred to as ‘organizational ambidexterity’ (Junni et al., The Academy of Management Perspectives 27:299–312, 2013). The authors propose three conditions for driving ambidexterity: organizational responsibilities and roles, provisional evaluation methods, and systematic cross-case learning.
Christie, Werner H; Hoholm, Thomas & Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2018)
Innovasjon og samhandling i helsevesenet En praksisbasert tilnærming
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of boundary objects in interaction processes within business networks. From a single case study in the grocery retail industry, we find that such objects are used within interaction processes for collaboration, but are also used extensively for handling conflict, facilitating economic negotiations, and power execution. As such, network-level boundary objects do not require broad consensus by all the involved actors, but instead narrow consensus in a particular interaction process.
Rubach, Synnøve; Hoholm, Thomas & Håkansson, Håkan (2017)
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a longitudinal case study of a regional innovation policy initiative, in which ideas with regard to how innovation might be facilitated were changing over time. Through the scrutiny of insights in industrial network studies (IMP), the authors seek to shed light on the challenges created by policy interventions aimed at constructing complementary networks for the facilitation of innovation. That is to say, the authors endeavour to understand the interfaces between innovation networks and industrial networks, and the way in which they may influence innovation. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on a longitudinal case study of four successive regional innovation projects in Norway. Data are drawn from relevant policy documents and project documentations, as well as from participatory observation of application processes and project activities. Findings: This study shows that regional innovation policy concerns first and foremost the interaction within and between relatively established diverse networks, which affects both structuring and restructuring. Changes in innovation policy required the re-configuring of constellations of business networks, research networks and policy networks. All initiatives required mobilisation input by persistent actors – often boundary organisations or researchers. The construction of innovation networks served as an instrument in the production of new interfaces between businesses, researchers and policy makers. The use and usefulness of these networks as perceived by the business actors were heavily influenced by the way in which the networks were configured. Research limitations/implications: Generalisation based on in-depth qualitative case research requires further testing across similar and varying cases, and there have hitherto been relatively few studies of the interfaces between industrial and innovation networks. Despite this it can be argued that the conceptual distinction between constructed and emerging networks is a productive one in the study of networked innovation dynamics. During the research into this longitudinal case, it has been interesting to observe the way in which innovation research, and thus its influence on innovation policy, has changed over time. It would be beneficial if further studies were to be conducted on the way in which this has played out. Practical implications: The administration of the public funding of innovation network activities requires great care. Where innovation policy initiatives are closely related to established industrial networks, it may be possible to strengthen innovation dynamics, challenge established practices and conceptions, and contribute to expanding, or even initiate innovation activities. In the first place, new activities need to be initiated in a way that supports the long-term development of actual business networks; and second, innovation policy bodies should be prepared to stimulate activity over longer periods of time. Originality/value:This paper engages in, and combines, two parallel and rarely interacting debates on, respectively, innovation within innovation policy (innovation systems, clusters, networks) and industrial network studies (IMP and others). The authors make an “ideal type” distinction between alternative “constructed” networks and “emerging” networks, and the way in which they influence innovations.
Strønen, Fred H.; Hoholm, Thomas, Kvaerner, Kari Jorunn & Støme, Linn Nathalie (2017)
Dynamic Capabilities and Innovation Capabilities: The Case of the ‘Innovation Clinic’
In this explorative study, we investigate the relationship between dynamic capabilities and innovation capabilities. Dynamic capabilities are at the core of strategic management in terms of how firms can ensure adaptation to changing environments over time. Our paper follows two paths of argumentation. First, we review and discuss some major contributions to the theories on ordinary capabilities, dynamic capabilities, and innovation capabilities. We seek to identify different understandings of the concepts in question, in order to clarify the distinctions and relationships between dynamic capabilities and innovation capabilities. Second, we present a case study of the ’Innovation Clinic’ at a major university hospital, including four innovation projects. We use this case study to explore and discuss how dynamic capabilities can be extended, as well as to what extent innovation capabilities can be said to be dynamic. In our conclusion, we discuss the conditions for nurturing ‘dynamic innovation capabilities’ in organizations.
Rocca, Antonella La; Öberg, Christina & Hoholm, Thomas (2017)
When start-ups shift network – notes on start up journey
Background
In Norway, a government reform has recently been introduced to enhance coordination between primary and secondary care. This paper examines the effects of two newly introduced measures to improve the coordination: an ICT-based communication tool/standard and an economic incentive scheme.
Method
This qualitative study is based primarily on 27 open-ended interviews. We interviewed nine employees at a hospital (the focal actor), 17 employees from seven different municipalities, and a representative of a Regional Health Authority.
Results
ICT-based communication is perceived to facilitate information exchange between primary and secondary care, thus positively affecting coordination. However, the economic incentive scheme appears to have the opposite effect by creating tensions between the two organizations and accentuating power asymmetry in favor of secondary care.
Conclusions
The inter-organizational nature of coordination in health care makes it crucial for policymakers and management of care organizations to conceive incentives and instruments that work jointly across organizations rather than at only one of the health care organizations involved. Such an approach is likely to favor a more symmetrical pattern of collaboration between primary and secondary care.
Rocca, Antonella La; Hoholm, Thomas & Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2017)
Practice theory and the study of interaction in business relationships: Some methodological implications
Research on customer–supplier relationships in business markets has evidenced the centrality of interaction processes. However, while several studies examine interaction processes and their consequences in relation to the resource and activity layers of business relationships, the actor layer has not attracted the same attention. This raises the question: how adequate are our methodological approaches for investigating interaction processes in business networks? In this paper, we examine how practice-based approaches, with their preference for ethnography and techniques such as multi-site observations and analytical interviewing and treating actors as emergent entities, can help orient the research on business interaction. We argue that some of the themes emerging in practice-based approaches, applied to studies of interaction in business networks, could yield a better understanding of the dynamics of organizing across organizational boundaries. We conclude that research on interaction in business relationships would benefit from (1) zooming in and zooming out of multiple sites of interaction to better understand interaction processes and the role of controversies and interdependences among the different interacting roles; (2) including fluid multiple roles in business relationships that treat actors as emergent entities and transcend the ‘fixed’ conceptualization of two actor levels – individual and organizational; and (3) paying major attention to the reproduction of interaction practices and the role of materiality that permit relationships to be temporarily stabilized.
Hoholm, Thomas & Araujo, Luis (2017)
Innovation policy in an interacted world: The critical role of the context
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a longitudinal case study of a regional innovation policy initiative, in which ideas with regard to how innovation might be facilitated were changing over time. Through the scrutiny of insights in industrial network studies (IMP), the authors seek to shed light on the challenges created by policy interventions aimed at constructing complementary networks for the facilitation of innovation. That is to say, the authors endeavour to understand the interfaces between innovation networks and industrial networks, and the way in which they may influence innovation. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on a longitudinal case study of four successive regional innovation projects in Norway. Data are drawn from relevant policy documents and project documentations, as well as from participatory observation of application processes and project activities. Findings: This study shows that regional innovation policy concerns first and foremost the interaction within and between relatively established diverse networks, which affects both structuring and restructuring. Changes in innovation policy required the re-configuring of constellations of business networks, research networks and policy networks. All initiatives required mobilisation input by persistent actors – often boundary organisations or researchers. The construction of innovation networks served as an instrument in the production of new interfaces between businesses, researchers and policy makers. The use and usefulness of these networks as perceived by the business actors were heavily influenced by the way in which the networks were configured. Research limitations/implications: Generalisation based on in-depth qualitative case research requires further testing across similar and varying cases, and there have hitherto been relatively few studies of the interfaces between industrial and innovation networks. Despite this it can be argued that the conceptual distinction between constructed and emerging networks is a productive one in the study of networked innovation dynamics. During the research into this longitudinal case, it has been interesting to observe the way in which innovation research, and thus its influence on innovation policy, has changed over time. It would be beneficial if further studies were to be conducted on the way in which this has played out. Practical implications: The administration of the public funding of innovation network activities requires great care. Where innovation policy initiatives are closely related to established industrial networks, it may be possible to strengthen innovation dynamics, challenge established practices and conceptions, and contribute to expanding, or even initiate innovation activities. In the first place, new activities need to be initiated in a way that supports the long-term development of actual business networks; and second, innovation policy bodies should be prepared to stimulate activity over longer periods of time. Originality/value:This paper engages in, and combines, two parallel and rarely interacting debates on, respectively, innovation within innovation policy (innovation systems, clusters, networks) and industrial network studies (IMP and others). The authors make an “ideal type” distinction between alternative “constructed” networks and “emerging” networks, and the way in which they influence innovations.
Strønen, Fred H.; Hoholm, Thomas, Kvaerner, Kari Jorunn & Støme, Linn Nathalie (2017)
Dynamic Capabilities and Innovation Capabilities: The Case of the ‘Innovation Clinic’
In this explorative study, we investigate the relationship between dynamic capabilities and innovation capabilities. Dynamic capabilities are at the core of strategic management in terms of how firms can ensure adaptation to changing environments over time. Our paper follows two paths of argumentation. First, we review and discuss some major contributions to the theories on ordinary capabilities, dynamic capabilities, and innovation capabilities. We seek to identify different understandings of the concepts in question, in order to clarify the distinctions and relationships between dynamic capabilities and innovation capabilities. Second, we present a case study of the ’Innovation Clinic’ at a major university hospital, including four innovation projects. We use this case study to explore and discuss how dynamic capabilities can be extended, as well as to what extent innovation capabilities can be said to be dynamic. In our conclusion, we discuss the conditions for nurturing ‘dynamic innovation capabilities’ in organizations.
Rocca, Antonella La; Öberg, Christina & Hoholm, Thomas (2017)
When start-ups shift network – notes on start up journey
Background
In Norway, a government reform has recently been introduced to enhance coordination between primary and secondary care. This paper examines the effects of two newly introduced measures to improve the coordination: an ICT-based communication tool/standard and an economic incentive scheme.
Method
This qualitative study is based primarily on 27 open-ended interviews. We interviewed nine employees at a hospital (the focal actor), 17 employees from seven different municipalities, and a representative of a Regional Health Authority.
Results
ICT-based communication is perceived to facilitate information exchange between primary and secondary care, thus positively affecting coordination. However, the economic incentive scheme appears to have the opposite effect by creating tensions between the two organizations and accentuating power asymmetry in favor of secondary care.
Conclusions
The inter-organizational nature of coordination in health care makes it crucial for policymakers and management of care organizations to conceive incentives and instruments that work jointly across organizations rather than at only one of the health care organizations involved. Such an approach is likely to favor a more symmetrical pattern of collaboration between primary and secondary care.
Rocca, Antonella La; Hoholm, Thomas & Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2017)
Practice theory and the study of interaction in business relationships: Some methodological implications
Research on customer–supplier relationships in business markets has evidenced the centrality of interaction processes. However, while several studies examine interaction processes and their consequences in relation to the resource and activity layers of business relationships, the actor layer has not attracted the same attention. This raises the question: how adequate are our methodological approaches for investigating interaction processes in business networks? In this paper, we examine how practice-based approaches, with their preference for ethnography and techniques such as multi-site observations and analytical interviewing and treating actors as emergent entities, can help orient the research on business interaction. We argue that some of the themes emerging in practice-based approaches, applied to studies of interaction in business networks, could yield a better understanding of the dynamics of organizing across organizational boundaries. We conclude that research on interaction in business relationships would benefit from (1) zooming in and zooming out of multiple sites of interaction to better understand interaction processes and the role of controversies and interdependences among the different interacting roles; (2) including fluid multiple roles in business relationships that treat actors as emergent entities and transcend the ‘fixed’ conceptualization of two actor levels – individual and organizational; and (3) paying major attention to the reproduction of interaction practices and the role of materiality that permit relationships to be temporarily stabilized.
Hoholm, Thomas & Araujo, Luis (2017)
Innovation policy in an interacted world: The critical role of the context
From breakthroughs in knowledge to integration in medical practices
Capitalizing on creativity at work: Fostering the implementation of creative ideas in organizations, , s. 270-286. Doi: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781783476503
Rocca, Antonella La; Hvidsten, Adeline & Hoholm, Thomas (2016)
Making innovations work locally: the role of creativity
Capitalizing on creativity at work: Fostering the implementation of creative ideas in organizations, , s. 258-269.
Evers, Natasha; Cunningham, James & Hoholm, Thomas (2016)
International entrepreneurship in universities: Context, emergence and actors
From breakthroughs in knowledge to integration in medical practices
Capitalizing on creativity at work: Fostering the implementation of creative ideas in organizations, , s. 270-286. Doi: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781783476503
Rocca, Antonella La; Hvidsten, Adeline & Hoholm, Thomas (2016)
Making innovations work locally: the role of creativity
Capitalizing on creativity at work: Fostering the implementation of creative ideas in organizations, , s. 258-269.
Evers, Natasha; Cunningham, James & Hoholm, Thomas (2016)
International entrepreneurship in universities: Context, emergence and actors
Abstract Purpose: This paper develops the case for studying non-interaction in networks, particularly instances of intentional avoidance of interaction. Design: The paper is based on the analysis of instances of interaction avoidance across four case studies in medical technology development, food product development, food distribution network change, and regional innovation in construction. Findings: Some answers are provided to the questions of why and how actors may seek to avoid interaction. Five modes of interaction avoidance are identified and outlined. Within these modes, interaction avoidance took place in order to protect knowledge, enforce progress, economise in business networks, avoid wasting resources, and maintain opportunities respectively. This list is not seen to be exhaustive of the theme, and further studies are encouraged. Originality: Few inter-organizational network studies have dealt explicitly with interaction avoidance or non-interaction.
Abstract Purpose: This paper develops the case for studying non-interaction in networks, particularly instances of intentional avoidance of interaction. Design: The paper is based on the analysis of instances of interaction avoidance across four case studies in medical technology development, food product development, food distribution network change, and regional innovation in construction. Findings: Some answers are provided to the questions of why and how actors may seek to avoid interaction. Five modes of interaction avoidance are identified and outlined. Within these modes, interaction avoidance took place in order to protect knowledge, enforce progress, economise in business networks, avoid wasting resources, and maintain opportunities respectively. This list is not seen to be exhaustive of the theme, and further studies are encouraged. Originality: Few inter-organizational network studies have dealt explicitly with interaction avoidance or non-interaction.
Brekke, Andreas; Rubach, Synnøve & Hoholm, Thomas (2014)
This is not a building: The abductionist journey of a publicly funded (non-)innovation project
The IMP Journal, 8(1) , s. 1-12.
Olsen, Per Ingvar; Prenkert, Frans, Hoholm, Thomas & Harrison, Debbie (2014)
The Dynamics of Networked Power in a Concentrated Business Network
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamics of networked power in a concentrated business network. Power is a long standing theme in inter-organizational research, yet there is a paucity of studies about how power emerges and is constructed over time at the network level. The paper adopts process, systems and network theory to interpret a rich single case study from the food industry. Three power mechanisms are identified, gatekeeping, decoupling and resource allocation, which form the basis of a model of networked power dynamics. Empirically tracing the dynamics of networked power highlights the economic contents of interactions. The paper extends current understandings of power as ‘conflict and coercion’ to include influencing, leveraging and strategic maneuvering in the actual performance of networked power.
Brekke, Andreas; Rubach, Synnøve & Hoholm, Thomas (2014)
This is not a building: The abductionist journey of a publicly funded (non-)innovation project
The IMP Journal, 8(1) , s. 1-12.
Olsen, Per Ingvar; Prenkert, Frans, Hoholm, Thomas & Harrison, Debbie (2014)
The Dynamics of Networked Power in a Concentrated Business Network
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamics of networked power in a concentrated business network. Power is a long standing theme in inter-organizational research, yet there is a paucity of studies about how power emerges and is constructed over time at the network level. The paper adopts process, systems and network theory to interpret a rich single case study from the food industry. Three power mechanisms are identified, gatekeeping, decoupling and resource allocation, which form the basis of a model of networked power dynamics. Empirically tracing the dynamics of networked power highlights the economic contents of interactions. The paper extends current understandings of power as ‘conflict and coercion’ to include influencing, leveraging and strategic maneuvering in the actual performance of networked power.
Mørk, Bjørn Erik; Aanestad, Margunn & Hoholm, Thomas (2013)
Tverrfaglig samhandling: En praksisbasert studie av utvikling og implementering av nye praksiser i sykehus
Samhandling for helse: Kunnskap, kommunikasjon og teknologi i helsetjenesten, , s. 258-279.
Mørk, Bjørn Erik; Aanestad, Margunn & Hoholm, Thomas (2013)
Tverrfaglig samhandling: En praksisbasert studie av utvikling og implementering av nye praksiser i sykehus
Samhandling for helse: Kunnskap, kommunikasjon og teknologi i helsetjenesten, , s. 258-279.
Hoholm, Thomas & Olsen, Per Ingvar (2012)
The contrary forces of innovation: A conceptual model for studying networked innovation processes
In this paper, we argue that industrial innovation processes can productively be analyzed as consisting of two sub-processes that over time create and mobilize contrary forces within both internal and external interactions of the innovation project. One of these forces emerges from the process of mobilizing resources, activities, and actors in ensuring commitments to the project over time. The other is the process of explorative learning, which continues to create revised or even new propositions about the realities of the project and its opportunities. We argue that this analytical distinction permits us to expand our understanding of how friction forces develop over time in business networks (Håkansson & Waluszewski, 2001ab), the patterns of divergence and convergence in innovation processes as identified by Van de Ven et al. (1999) and the processes of “path creation through mindful deviation” as argued by Garud and Karnøe (2001).
This article contributes to our understanding of practices in innovating organizations. Previous studies have demonstrated how breakthroughs in knowledge may fail to be translated into practices if they are not aligned with existing practices, or if they cut across established boundaries and power structures. By drawing upon an ethnographic study of a medical R&D department that has been highly successful in developing new medical practices, this article investigates how such challenges can be overcome. To date, much of the literature has focused on coordination across single, well-defined boundaries. We here extend this focus and introduce the notion of ‘boundary organizing’ to analyse highly political and contingent processes of innovation and change within and across different practices. We add to existing literature by highlighting how the handling of multiple boundaries, the indirect effects of boundary work, the negotiation of mutual benefits and interests, and mutual adaptation are key aspects of boundary organizing.
Hoholm, Thomas & Håkansson, Håkan (2012)
Interaction to bridge network gaps. The problem opf specialization and innovation in fish technology
The IMP Journal, 6(3) , s. 254-266.
Hoholm, Thomas & Olsen, Per Ingvar (2012)
The contrary forces of innovation: A conceptual model for studying networked innovation processes
In this paper, we argue that industrial innovation processes can productively be analyzed as consisting of two sub-processes that over time create and mobilize contrary forces within both internal and external interactions of the innovation project. One of these forces emerges from the process of mobilizing resources, activities, and actors in ensuring commitments to the project over time. The other is the process of explorative learning, which continues to create revised or even new propositions about the realities of the project and its opportunities. We argue that this analytical distinction permits us to expand our understanding of how friction forces develop over time in business networks (Håkansson & Waluszewski, 2001ab), the patterns of divergence and convergence in innovation processes as identified by Van de Ven et al. (1999) and the processes of “path creation through mindful deviation” as argued by Garud and Karnøe (2001).
This article contributes to our understanding of practices in innovating organizations. Previous studies have demonstrated how breakthroughs in knowledge may fail to be translated into practices if they are not aligned with existing practices, or if they cut across established boundaries and power structures. By drawing upon an ethnographic study of a medical R&D department that has been highly successful in developing new medical practices, this article investigates how such challenges can be overcome. To date, much of the literature has focused on coordination across single, well-defined boundaries. We here extend this focus and introduce the notion of ‘boundary organizing’ to analyse highly political and contingent processes of innovation and change within and across different practices. We add to existing literature by highlighting how the handling of multiple boundaries, the indirect effects of boundary work, the negotiation of mutual benefits and interests, and mutual adaptation are key aspects of boundary organizing.
Hoholm, Thomas & Håkansson, Håkan (2012)
Interaction to bridge network gaps. The problem opf specialization and innovation in fish technology
The IMP Journal, 6(3) , s. 254-266.
Hoholm, Thomas (2011)
The Contrary Forces of Innovation: An Ethnography of Innovation in the Food Industry
Palgrave Macmillan
Hoholm, Thomas & Strønen, Fred H. (2011)
Innovation, strategy and identity: a case study from the food industry
Purpose – Current research focus on the interaction between innovation and strategy process, but less is known about how identity influences innovation and the formation of strategy. The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate the relationship between organizational identities and innovation with regards to strategy. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based upon the current research stream on innovation and strategy process. The study is based on a longitudinal case study of strategy and innovation processes in a small Norwegian food producer. Through analyzing two different innovation and product development processes in a Norwegian food producer, one related to creative recombination and the other to reproduction of established practice, we illustrate how organizational identities influence sensemaking during strategy processes, and thus the inclusion of innovation in the strategy. Findings - Identity can be used as an explanation for why some actions are deemed to be strategic while others are not, hence enforcing or limiting innovation. We find that identity needs to be considered both as a ‘soft’ and a ‘hard’ concept in the process; providing stability while at the same time being up for re-negotiation. By understanding strategizing and innovating as situated and heterogeneous processes, we identify how identity becomes a stabilizer and an organizer during emergent strategy processes, and reveal tensions between creative recombination and conservative reproduction. Orginality/ value – This paper provides a richer understanding of innovation and strategy formation by suggesting that construction of organizational identity is central to the strategy process.
Hoholm, Thomas & Araujo, Luis (2011)
Studying innovation processes in real-time: The promises and challenges of ethnography
This paper discusses the promises and challenges of innovation ethnographies. We depart from the notion that innovation processes are highly contingent, messy and non-linear and examine ways in which these processes have been studied. Our focus is on the challenges posed by the use of ethnographic methods to study innovation in-the-making. Our discussion is illustrated by an example culled from a longitudinal, real-time study of an innovation process in the food industry, inspired by actor-network theory (ANT) and its injunctions to focus on controversies and follow the actors. We conclude that although innovation ethnographies pose plenty of theoretical, methodological and practical challenges, they remain a promising and powerful method to map out the complex and tortuous paths of these processes.
Hoholm, Thomas (2011)
The Contrary Forces of Innovation: An Ethnography of Innovation in the Food Industry
Palgrave Macmillan
Hoholm, Thomas & Strønen, Fred H. (2011)
Innovation, strategy and identity: a case study from the food industry
Purpose – Current research focus on the interaction between innovation and strategy process, but less is known about how identity influences innovation and the formation of strategy. The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate the relationship between organizational identities and innovation with regards to strategy. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based upon the current research stream on innovation and strategy process. The study is based on a longitudinal case study of strategy and innovation processes in a small Norwegian food producer. Through analyzing two different innovation and product development processes in a Norwegian food producer, one related to creative recombination and the other to reproduction of established practice, we illustrate how organizational identities influence sensemaking during strategy processes, and thus the inclusion of innovation in the strategy. Findings - Identity can be used as an explanation for why some actions are deemed to be strategic while others are not, hence enforcing or limiting innovation. We find that identity needs to be considered both as a ‘soft’ and a ‘hard’ concept in the process; providing stability while at the same time being up for re-negotiation. By understanding strategizing and innovating as situated and heterogeneous processes, we identify how identity becomes a stabilizer and an organizer during emergent strategy processes, and reveal tensions between creative recombination and conservative reproduction. Orginality/ value – This paper provides a richer understanding of innovation and strategy formation by suggesting that construction of organizational identity is central to the strategy process.
Hoholm, Thomas & Araujo, Luis (2011)
Studying innovation processes in real-time: The promises and challenges of ethnography
This paper discusses the promises and challenges of innovation ethnographies. We depart from the notion that innovation processes are highly contingent, messy and non-linear and examine ways in which these processes have been studied. Our focus is on the challenges posed by the use of ethnographic methods to study innovation in-the-making. Our discussion is illustrated by an example culled from a longitudinal, real-time study of an innovation process in the food industry, inspired by actor-network theory (ANT) and its injunctions to focus on controversies and follow the actors. We conclude that although innovation ethnographies pose plenty of theoretical, methodological and practical challenges, they remain a promising and powerful method to map out the complex and tortuous paths of these processes.
