Value Creation and Collective Resilience in Communities
The symposium will be punctuated by the presence of Etienne WENGER-TRAYNER on three days:
- An inaugural Workshop where Etienne will bring his theoretical and practical lighting on value creation in communities.
- A KCO day with conversations where Etienne will answer to questions from practitioners and researchers.
The KCO's research project for the year 2022-2023 is based on the interest of integrating communities and their value creation into traditional organisational structures. Existing research describes the various forms of value of communities: increased engagement of customers, suppliers or stakeholders, acceleration of innovation and creativity, agility and resilience, resolution of complex problems, storage and transmission of knowledge as well as best practices, motivation at work, transgenerational management. Little research has focused so far on the assessment of the value created by communities and their contribution to the firm’s development and performance. The value of communities can be analyzed:
- by observing and assessing the positive (value creation) or negative effects (value destruction) generated by communities for the company, community members and other key stakeholders (sponsor, partners): identification of KPI
- in terms of direct outputs but also indirect (induced) effects
- according to the stakeholders concerned: managers, community members, leaders, sponsors, non-members (e.g. customers, suppliers, partners).
The objective of the KCO Symposium 2023 is to increase our knowledge of self-organized communities that take the lead in leveraging value creation, knowledge sharing, and performance within and around firms. A specific focus is granted on how communities foster innovation and resilience in time of crisis (Covid 19 pandemic, weather events, Russian invasion of Ukraine, energy restrictions...). In these times of emergency, the spontaneous responses of communities are multiple and striking, supporting creative efforts and promoting innovations.
Now more than ever, self-organized leadership communities (Lough 2019) appear essential to provide rapid responses to complex issues and foster collective resilience. Resilience is the capacity of individuals, societies and companies to survive and adapt despite the shocks they may experience. This notion of resilience can be approached from different angles: from psychology to ecology to computer science, from the ability of individuals to build themselves up in spite of traumatic circumstances, or the ability of an ecosystem or group of people to recover from an external disruption, to the ability of a system to continue to function even in the event of a breakdown. In the context of crisis, the resilience of companies is particularly dependent on their ability to mobilise and harness the 'human intelligence' available within organisations.
Research must equip organizations with a framework for rethinking social processes to overlap relations between individuals within and outside organizations. As an example, one such framework could be based on the theory of learning-by-doing which sheds particular light on the role played by actors in crossing frontiers of knowledge (Wenger, 1998, 2015, 2020) to facilitate interactions between individuals inside and outside organization.
Potential research questions for the theorical and empirical papers submitted to the KCO Symposium may include, but are not limited to:
- How to assess the value created by the communities in the organization (dimensions of value creation, methods of value assessment, value for whom…)?
- How to mix new organizational forms (i.e. communities of practice, collectives, and epistemic communities) to create value, innovate and respond to a crisis?
- How can self-organized communities promote a common societal cause outside the organization and obtain the adhesion and legitimacy of a great number of the population?
- How can the spontaneous responses of communities support innovation and resilience in formal hierarchical structures?
- How do self-organized communities emerge to foster collective resilience, create value within and outside organizations?
- What role does leadership play to increase the innovative capacity of such self-organized communities?
- How can dynamics of self-organized communities foster organizational, regional and societal resilience?
- In time of crisis, what are the levers that support the development of self-organized communities that take the lead to create value and identify innovative answers to a crisis?
- How to create and animate a community with experts, customers, and users, to create value, to develop innovation, agility and resilience in time of crisis?
- What value do Communities bring both to employees and to the organization itself?
Co-presidents of scientific committee:
- Karine Goglio, Associate Professor, Kedge Business School Toulon
- Florence Crespin-Mazet, Associate Professor, Kedge Business School Toulon
- Marion Neukam, Associate Professor, University of Strasbourg
- Patrick Llerena, Professor, University of Strasbourg
- Claude Guittard, Associate Professor, University of Strasbourg
- Julien Pénin, Professor, University of Strasbourg
- Laurent Simon, Professor, Mosaic HEC Montréal
- Patrick Cohendet, Professor, Mosaic HEC Montréal
- Réal Jacob, Professor, Mosaic HEC Montréal
- Guy Parmentier, Professor, University of Grenoble
- Eddie Soulier, Professor, University of Technology Troyes
Selection Process of papers and dates:
All authors should submit their full papers in English for consideration to Karine.goglio@kedgebs.com for May 2nd 2023. Full length research papers (including tables, figures, references and appendices) should be up to 10,000 words
KCO Symposium Registration fees:
- students and PhD Students: 300 euros
- professors, professionals, other: 600 euros
Publication Policy:
Management Decision Special Issue: Collective resilience: The role of self-organized leadership communities in uncertain times. | Emerald Publishing (emeraldgrouppublishing.com)
Key Deadlines Special Issue
- Opening date for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2023
- Closing date for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2023