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This paper aims to analyze how formal, horizontal knowledge communities contribute to knowledge application. In large, complex organizations employees face multiple roles that compete for their time and may be conflicting. The paper seeks to analyze the interplay between the communities, the line organization, and the employees; specifically, to examine how the quality of management of the communities, the attitudes of line managers, and the employees' motivation for participating in the communities facilitate knowledge application.

The authors conducted a survey in an organization with several specialized, horizontal knowledge communities. In total, 2,517 responses were obtained from members of 131 different communities.

First, community management, line support and intrinsic motivation have a positive impact on knowledge application. Second, the effect of line support is stronger when employees are intrinsically motivated.

The study is limited to one organization. Future research could study knowledge processes in matrix‐like organization, as well as the role of community coordinators for knowledge sharing and application.

To enhance knowledge sharing and knowledge application, commitment from both line managers and community coordinators is vital. In a matrix‐like organization, dialogue and communication are important in order to reconcile supplementary goals and considerations.

The paper presents a study that is one of the first to analyze antecedents of knowledge application in formal communities of practice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore open innovation (OI) collaborations between high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large customers. The research aims to add new insights into how smaller firms attract and build trusting relationships with larger customers for the purpose of innovation, and to highlight customers’ contribution in SMEs’ innovation process.

This exploratory research is based on three case studies and adopts a process perspective to gather qualitative data on OI collaborations, focusing on the inherent dynamics, and evolution in long-term relationships.

The study provides insights into how SMEs develop OI relationships with both industry and research customers by building trust through various mechanisms. Motivated by the potential benefits of OI in strengthening the firms’ technological edge, the SME managers proactively and strategically developed and managed their OI relationships. The results proved that large customers contributed greatly to the SMEs’ innovation processes both directly and indirectly.

The research provides advice for smaller firms which are considering adopting an OI strategy with customers through mechanisms such as trust building and enhancing legitimacy.

The research adds to the OI literature on SMEs by exploring how smaller firms manage OI challenges, exploit benefits, and develop trusting relationships with larger customers and research institutions.

This paper aims to explore how born global firms (BGs) in business to business (B2B) markets balance the mix of physical and virtual networking through social media to gain access to resources throughout their internationalization process. Further, the research seeks to understand these firms’ network dynamics in their continual adaptation to changing resource requirements throughout the internationalization process.

This research adopts a multiple case study approach based on in-depth interviews with founders and key informants in BGs in the software industry, supplemented with extensive secondary data.

Results reveal that networking through social media is efficient and can be used to access vital resources and to build trusting relationships in a B2B context, yet in combination with physical networking. This research found several boundary conditions related to the mix of physical and virtual networking, i.e. the relationship culture in the industry, strategic importance of partner/customer, type of product complexity and managers’ perceptions of the usefulness of social media in a B2B context. These conditions could evolve over time.

This research contributes to enhanced understanding of how resource-constrained BGs balance the mix of physical and virtual networking through social media in a B2B context, influenced by boundary conditions, achieving a network dynamic to advance internationalization.

The purpose of this paper is to explore historical paths of successful companies’ sustainability commitment, discover internal and external forces that shaped today’s sustainability leaders and show how companies implemented efforts toward sustainability to respond to those circumstances. It offers an in-depth understanding of sustainability-related strategies implemented by highly sustainable companies and serves as encouraging cases for other companies willing to engage in sustainability.

This research took a case-study approach to help build a new theory toward sustainability development and approaches. A content analysis and review of both companies’ annual financial reports and corporate sustainability reports, between 1995 and 2012, and relevant news articles was performed.

Data analysis showed that companies initiated and executed various strategies sustainability in their business, which evolved into themes for their stages of growth. Findings showed that: different companies approached sustainability differently based on their varied experiences; companies’ past and present efforts help to understand their business strategies and commitments more as a holistic process. Companies were affected by external circumstances, such as rewarding partnerships, ranking indices and media criticism for their working conditions, in response to which both the companies designed and implemented their own sustainability approaches.

This study explored a longitudinal analysis of leader companies’ historical sustainability practices. It focused on how two different companies approached sustainability differently based on their varied experiences, thus showing that sustainability can be a source of competitive advantage for companies.