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Action learning is intended to enable a group of professionals (a SET) to tackle work problems, develop solutions and reflect upon the success and failure of their actions. As part of the UK construction industry's drive to improve learning and performance, four SETs of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) were established. This paper evaluates the capacity of action learning to promote innovation and use of technologies within a CIOB‐funded SET located in Watford. Construction companies were unable to address real problems related to their day‐to‐day activities due to competition. Instead, they identified an industry‐wide issue – a lack of quality recruits – and marshalled resources to provide better careers advice and promote opportunities for builders. The role of action learning in empowering construction SMEs to contribute to industry change programmes is explored.

The recent economic crisis has significantly slowed Slovenia’s recent social and economic progress and exposed some important long-term problems such as a reliance on low value added industries and lagging labor productivity. The Slovenian government has taken steps to create research partnerships between public science and the private sector and among multiple private sector companies. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a social network analysis (SNA) of the research partnerships and examine whether public funding has created the desired partnerships.

The authors employed a SNA in two stages. In the first stage, the authors treated the founding partners of government-funded 32 research centers as a single two-mode network and investigated how each of the members was bound to the network. In the second stage of the analysis the authors used project data from ten of the centers to characterize a project network based on collaborations on specific projects. Thus, the second stage overlaps the center network with the project network. The authors used information from interviews with network members to assist in interpreting the results.

Networking policies are stimulating collaborations among different types of centers and partners, but to differing degrees. While the formal collaborative network showed strong participation from the private sector, public research organizations, and higher education institutions, some of the centers are not well connected to the rest of the network. Partnership in the development of a proposal in response to a tender does not always translate into project collaboration, and the networks have evolved as project workplans and staffing plans are developed. The innovation network is evolving into an international network within and across scientific areas. Networks are path dependent and require policy stability; experienced bridging institutions can fill gaps where partners lack experience.

The definition of a network member is the company, faculty, or department. In reality, individuals within these organizations are acting on their own connections and experiences, and these may or may not encourage other individuals in the same organization to engage in partnerships. Thus, the authors may be overstating the extent to which one connection among organizations generates experience that will lead to future connection. Another important limitation of the data is that for the second stage of the analysis the authors received project information from only ten of the 32 formal center programs examined in the first stage.

Partnership is a learned behavior and the development of trust among partners takes time. The Slovenian government should provide policy stability and allow niches of technical excellence to emerge through consortium proposals. They should monitor the project partnerships and adjust funding so that it is reaching applicants that are actually partnering on projects rather than working alone or within their own institutional types. Other nations should also monitor the impact of partnership programs to ensure that as they evolve the funding is continuing to support and demonstrate the benefits partnership behavior.

Due to the path dependent nature of innovation partnerships, the authors expect participation in innovation networks to generate a change in the culture of research and development (R & D) partnerships in Slovenia. However, this transition will occur faster as organizations partner face-to-face on actual projects. Centrality in a network fosters common understanding and shared principles of collaboration.

Like many nations struggling to emerge from the recession, Slovenia has to examine its long-term strategy for upgrading its industries and improving productivity. This paper demonstrates how policies to enhance the innovation agenda might be more effective by examining how the networking resources are actually being used, whether participants are participating in networks that cross institutional types, whether policies are encouraging the exchange of information across stages of the innovation process, and therefore whether the policy will move the culture toward greater collaboration and R & D effectiveness. The results can assist Slovenia’s policymakers in redesigning innovation network policy.

Increase the workforce involvement in continuous improvement activities is one of the main recommendations of the recent report Rethinking Construction, developed by the UK Construction Task Force. In Brazil, this is also a major issue in most government and industry initiatives for the sector, particularly after the opening of the economy in the mid‐1980s. In this context, this research attempts to contribute to policy making by assessing the degree of workforce involvement in continuous improvement in English and Brazilian construction sites. The results show a generalised poor level of workforce involvement in comparison to the reported practices of other industrial sectors. Hence, the results suggest that current strategies for promoting continuous improvement in the construction sector are failing to bring real change at the operational level due to the lack of leadership and appropriate win‐win relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of what Open Innovation means within university context. Focus is also put on the role universities believe they should play in Open Innovation, as well as the changes that might have arisen as a consequence of universities’ greater awareness of this concept.

The research methodology used is an exploratory study based on in-depth semi-structured interviews of Pro-Vice-Chancellors (or equivalent level) of a variety of British universities. The study was designed around five main research themes: discourse, change, strategy, management, Open Innovation success.

In addition to the traditional teaching, research and knowledge transfer roles of university, this study has uncovered a new role of universities: trusted intermediary (or “Open Innovation Hub”). Another key finding of this study is that it highlights the diversity that prevails in the UK with regard to Open Innovation.

The number of the interviews conducted for this study is probably not large enough to allow a solid generalisation. Data saturation, however, was achieved in this study. The insight provided by this study is particularly significant as interviewees were amongst the highest-ranking executives in their respective universities. Hence the views reported in this study are what “drives” Open Innovation policies in the universities that participated in this study.

This new role of a trusted intermediary played by universities is very likely to change the existing Open Innovation landscape and re-shape policies.

The changing role of universities within Open Innovation context may potentially change the respective role of other stakeholders in the Open Innovation ecosystem.

This is the first study aimed at investigating how British universities understand Open Innovation and what opportunities and challenges they associate with this process.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the doing, using, and interacting (DUI) of Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) while developing intra- and inter-collaboration with industry. It also reviews recent literature related to the roles of absorptive capacity (AC) and social capital (SC) in interaction.

A qualitative case research on developing collaborations between UAS and small- and medium-sized enterprises for innovation activities.

Prior knowledge and contacts vary in organisations, and interaction should be supported while aiming to maximise benefits of internal and external resources available for innovation. This paper contributes by pointing out the importance of the interconnection of DUI, AC, and SC while developing collaboration.

This paper describes issues challenging the collaborative innovation activities and directions to focus on structural development to support interaction with parties having different backgrounds, goals, and strengths. The study highlights the importance of knowledge exchange with several universities and firms, and the different learning modes related to innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of decision making of managers of intermediary organizations in university-industry (UI) collaboration by probing managerial perceptions of openness in that context.

The authors conducted 11 semi-structured interviews of managers of intermediary organizations in the context of UI collaboration. Using Grounded Theory, the authors analyzed how the managers talked about openness.

The authors found that the managers perceived openness in four distinct ways: first, openness as driven by management of the relationship, second, openness as driven by bringing people together, third, openness as a driver of co-creation and fourth, openness as a driver of beneficial results. From these findings the authors induce a framework for perception of openness.

The findings are based on a relatively limited data set, which is a limitation of the study. Future research should study whether differences in perception of openness exist among different contexts or partners of UI collaboration.

The findings can potentially provide useful guidance to managers in UI collaboration as to how better understand the important concept of openness in that context.

This study addresses the lack of research on managerial perceptions on openness in the context in UI collaboration. Probing managerial perceptions of openness provides us with better understanding of managerial decision making in UI collaboration. The study contributes to scientific discussions on managerial perceptions of openness and to discussions on managerial decision making in UI collaboration.

The purpose of this paper is to resolve a tension in understanding how universities contribute to knowledge-based urban development (KBUD).

The paper is a conceptual paper, which analyses the tension as emerging between the university and the wider societal activity. The paper creates a framework for combining insights from both those theoretical frameworks to better understand why universities might choose to contribute to KBUD.

The paper argues that it is important to understand the benefits that the universities get from participating in the KBUD. This can be through the unique tacit knowledge that emerges in the social innovation process, but their might also be value for the university in terms of two other variables, material resources and symbolic legitimacy.

The paper is a literature review and therefore is limited to raising a series of future questions and directions for research in the field, as well as to providing a lens and context for existing work.

There are clear implications for those seeking to improve universities contributions to KBUD. It is not merely enough for strategic leaders to come together and agree that promoting the university will promote KBUD: it is necessary to modify a range of processes within the university to ensure that a wide range of actors are able to benefit from participating in KBUD activities, and that it facilitates their own teaching and research activities.

For universities to make a substantive contribution to promoting KBUD, policy-makers must ensure that they do not create disincentives through universities’ teaching and research activities.

This is the first time that a paper has sought to bridge between theories of urban development and social innovation, and universities’ internal institutional and organisational dynamics.

This paper presents a methodological contribution to benchmarking studies of production practices. It presents some of the main findings gathered from a benchmarking study developed between UK and Brazilian construction sites. The study was carried out within six case studies and focused on the use of visual controls in construction sites. The “cross‐case study analysis” approach used a process called “pattern matching” where the researcher looked for direct replications of theoretical propositions. In this pattern‐matching approach, empirical evidence is considered to be a “literal replication” if the observed results match the theoretical predictions. In contrast, when the case study produced contrasting results but for predictable reasons, it is called a “theoretical replication”. The results show that pattern‐matching is a highly useful approach for developing benchmarking studies in production management because it allows direct transfer of results from practice to theory.

It takes more than a computer, hard disk, diskettes, display, keyboard, and software to make a fully productive computer system. In this article, the author discusses the finishing touches: some of the peripherals (excluding printers) that you will want to consider for your new or existing personal computer. You might even consider the “ultimate peripheral,” a portable computer. The second section of this article divides portable computers into their basic categories, discusses the premium you pay for portability, and notes the greater importance of vendor survival for portable computers. The first quarter of 1993 seemed unusually rich in noteworthy articles in PC magazines. That may be at least partially because PC Sources has increased its editorial scope and partially because the author is now including several Windows‐specific magazines (one new) in the mix.