http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/5907/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38857/ 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z Abstract: The Dutch boutique sports carmaker, Spyker, acquired the Swedish carmaker Saab from General Motors (GM) in February 2010. Owing to fading fortunes across its entire business during the recent economic crisis, GM had looked to divest Saab since 2008 and eventually sold it to Spyker at a price much lower than Saab’s real worth. Although Spyker received thousands of Saab fans’ support, others doubted whether Spyker could turn Saab into a viable business. The scepticism was centered on the two companies’ huge differences in sizes and the fact that neither was profitable at the time. Spyker CEO Muller was nevertheless confident he could make Saab profitable by 2012 and restore its once iconic status, which GM had let sink. He thought it crucial to explain the logic behind his decision to those stakeholders who did not believe in the Saab-Spyker synergy. Restoring customer, dealer, investor, employee, and public confidence was his top priority in 2010. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/1781/ 2004-10-27T00:00:00Z The aim of this paper is to contribute to the discussion on the issue of when knowledge leaks between various groups and when knowledge sticks within one learning group. Theoretical insights propose that one needs strong ties for knowledge transfer and sharing. A preliminary case study, however, suggests that strong ties with people outside the learning group can hinder learning within a group. These observations suggest that strong ties outside a group are not the only condition which facilitates knowledge transfer and sharing. The same case study suggests that for knowledge sharing the various groups should differ in their adopted task and topic. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/1782/ 2004-10-27T00:00:00Z Community membership has changed over the last decades. Most people participate in different communities simultaneously in order to satisfy different individual interests. This network individualism might threaten the sustainability of modern communities, like communities of practice (CoPs). In this paper we discuss the consequences of this notion for membership in a community. The unit of analysis in this paper is not a ‘stand-alone’ community of practice but the multiple included individual as a node of various networks. This multiple inclusion is deemed to be important for the knowledge sharing between different CoPs. Taking this idea into account our analyses reveals the need to redefine the concept of ‘legitimacy’ in a community. Our underlying assumption is that broadening legitimacies facilitates multiple inclusion of an individual and, in this way, supports the sustainability of a community of practice. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/329/ 2003-05-07T00:00:00Z This paper analyses how organizational routines change. It focuses on the level of learning groups within organizations. The paper starts with a summary of the 'activity theory' of knowledge used. Next, the notion of scripts is used, to analyse organizational groups as 'systems of distributed cognition', and to identify different levels of routines and their change. Finally, the paper looks at communication routines or rules needed for different levels of change, in the formation of new 'shared beliefs'. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/134/ 2001-12-10T00:00:00Z This article investigates what learning groups there are in organizations, other than the familiar 'communities of practice'. It first develops an interdisciplinary theoretical framework for identifying, categorizing and understanding learning groups. For this, it employs a constructivist, interactionist theory of knowledge and learning. It employs elements of transaction cost theory and of social theory of trust. Transaction cost economics neglects learning and trust, but elements of the theory are still useful. The framework is used in an empirical study in a consultancy company, to explore what learning groups there are, and to see if our theory can explain their functioning and their success or failure.