Collaborative Research in Organizations: Foundations for Learning, Change, and Theoretical Development

"Adler, Shani, and Styhre, with contributions from many of the management researchers associated with the FENIX experiment, have documented the essence of collaborative research in organizations. The eighteen chapters in the book provide a window into the complexity of designing and managing collaborative research efforts in organizations . . . and present an approach that is worth reading about, reflecting upon, and exploring further. At Volvo Cars, this collaboration has been an added value to our practice."
--From the foreword by Hans-Olov Olsson, CEO and President, Volvo Car Corporation

"Through collaboration, we can deliver research outcomes not possible from solo or single team scholarship. . . . The experiments in collaborative research chronicled in this book are timely and important."
--From the foreword by Andrew M. Pettigrew, Professor of Strategy and Organization, Warwick Business school, Associate Dean, Warwick University, U.K.

"> This book responds in a timely manner to a most important subject area. > The editors have a proven track record and are well recognized in their > fields around the world. The cases exhibit broad coverage and the depth is > quite impressive."
--> Kenneth L. Murrell, University of West Florida

Collaborative Research in Organizations: Foundations for Learning, Change, and Theoretical Development leverages and sustains the role of management research while increasing the theoretical development of complex organizational and management issues. The true partnership ideal and emergent inquiry process make collaborative research complex and difficult to organize, lead, and manage. This book addresses these needs by revisiting traditional research ideals.

Collaborative Research in Organizations is organized in four sections. Part I, Framing the Challenge, provides grounding in the historical context, the emergent need, and the challenges of working in the borderland between academy and industry. Part II, Lenses and Mechanisms, presents a range of collaborative research approaches, concepts, frameworks, and mechanisms, positioning collaborative research as something other than one of many qualitative approaches. Part III, Illustrations, are intended to provide specific examples of collaborative research projects in a variety of companies and industries that show how collaborative research is realized. Most of the illustrations are based on collaborations between FENIX Program researchers at the Stockholm School of Economics and Chalmers University of Technology and leading Swedish organizations leveraging the Scandinavia tradition of boundary-spanning learning endeavours. Part IV, Lessons, highlights the common denominators between the different studies, addresses some of the critiques of collaborative research, and identifies critical challenges for future inquiry.

Niclas Adler, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden and, Director of the Fenix Program. He is a former Executive Director of the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship and board member in seven technology-based and venture capital companies. His most recent work has focused on business creation and renewal in established structures, alternative approaches in organizing complex product development and, action research methodologies in the pursuit of actionable knowledge creation. He is the author of numerous journal articles.

A.B. (Rami) Shani, Ph.D., Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Change at California Polytechnic University, USA, a Senior Research Fellow at the FENIX Centre and an Adjunct Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden. His most recent work has focused on the theoretical and application of collaborative research in organizations, creating sustainable work systems, creating the learning organization and, action research methodologies in the pursuit of actionable knowledge creation. He is the co-author or book co-editor of Collaborative Research in Organizations: Foundations for Learning (SAGE,2004) , Change and Theoretical Development; Learning by Design (Blackwell, 2003); Creating Sustainable work Systems: Emerging Perspectives and Practice (Routledge, 2003); Behavior in Organizations: An Experiential Approach, 8e (McGraw-Hill-Irwin, 2004); and Parallel Learning Structures: Creating Innovations in Bureaucracies (AW, 1990).

Alexander Styhre, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the Department of Project Management and Research Program Director at the Fenix Research Program, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. His research interest is focused on knowledge-intensive organizations and strategic human resource management practices. Styhre is widely published in refereed journals .