Publication year: 2010
Source: Technological Forecasting and Social Change, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 9 October 2010

Malcolm, Eames , Jonas, Egmose

A key strength of backcasting is arguably the emphasis it places upon envisaging longer-term distant futures, allowing participants and users to think beyond incremental changes in their current lived experience and to embrace the more radical and disruptive socio-technical changes which may be necessary to deliver sustainability. In so doing, however, backcasting may run the risk of obscuring significant differences in current lived experience, negating alternative problem framings and normatively derived views of what constitutes sustainability. This paper reports an innovative UK attempt to develop an inclusive ‘bottom-up’ community foresight process for urban sustainability research. Unlike most backcasting studies, the...

System dynamics methodology and knowledge management can be integrated to enable managers to design and implement better policies for achieving sustainable organizational states. A system dynamics approach was used at a large manufacturing firm to address a critical sustainability issue. A decision maker and system dynamics consultant were interviewed to discover how the decision maker's understanding of the sustainability issue changed as a consequence of the consulting engagement. Our research reports that the engagement led to better understanding of sustainability issues and to improved stewardship of corporate assets and the environment. We propose the use of a knowledge management tool to further learning and offer six points to consider in future efforts aimed at assessing learning developed in a system dynamics consulting engagement with sustainability as a core issue.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 50-60
• DOI 10.2753/IMO0020-8825400303
• Authors
  • James P. Thompson, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Health Services & Systems Research, 8 College Road, Singapore 169857
  • Steven Cavaleri, Vance Academic Center, Central Connecticut State University, 1615 Stanley Street, New Britain, CT 06050

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  • Journal International Studies of Management and Organization
  • Print ISSN 0020-8825
  • Journal Volume Volume 40
  • Journal Issue Volume 40, Number 3 / Fall 2010

In this article, we extend social capital theory by explicating two aspects of social capital neglected so far, cognitive fit and affective fit, and we combine social capital theory with the knowledge-based view of the firm and thereby demonstrate the interrelatedness and combined importance of the two concepts. Our proposed model show that social capital and knowledge relatedness, together referred to as "relational fit," facilitate knowledge transfer and creation, which in turn positively influence organizational performance. We empirically tested our model by analyzing the influence of relational fit on German corporate venture capital units (CVCs) and their portfolio companies. Our results show that relational fit facilitates knowledge transfer and creation, which in turn positively influences organizational performance (but CVC/corporate performance only to a limited extent). We suggest that a good relational fit has a positive impact on sustainability in and of organizations.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 23-49
• DOI 10.2753/IMO0020-8825400302
• Authors
  • Christiana Weber, University Siegen, Hölderlinstr. 3, 57068 Siegen, Germany
  • Barbara Weber, Kirchgasse 22, 8001 Zurich

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  • Journal International Studies of Management and Organization
  • Print ISSN 0020-8825
  • Journal Volume Volume 40
  • Journal Issue Volume 40, Number 3 / Fall 2010

Although sustainability is often discussed solely in ecological terms, it cannot be disconnected from the way humans behave in their social environment. This article presents a theoretical approach toward sustainability that takes a human behavior and knowledge view on sustainability as a starting point. This approach requires that human behavior should change, individually and collectively, in order to achieve sustainability. Knowledge is identified as the driving force behind human behavior and its effect on the ecological and social environment. In connecting knowledge with sustainability, two concepts are introduced: knowledge of sustainability (KoS), which refers to the sustainability content of knowledge, and sustainability of knowledge (SoK), which denotes the dynamics of the continuing process of knowledge creation and application. To apply SoK and KoS, we argue that a cognitive interpretation of human behavior should be formulated within a knowledge management approach that incorporates the stages of knowledge creation, integration, and application and that ensures the critical evaluation of created knowledge. In order to show that our new approach is practical, we use existing research from the Dutch starch potato industry to reformulate possibilities for the enhancement of sustainability in terms of KoS and SoK. In addition, the research led to the development of a mechanism for evaluating knowledge. Group interaction, information technology, and decision support systems are used to realize knowledge integration. The combination of conceptual design and domain of application is common in the engineering sciences, where a design methodology is used to make the steps from conceptual design to functional design and technical implementation. A conceptual design may show ways to improve existing practices, which in turn might result in superior practices. Of course, it is necessary to empirically test the interventions in reality. For AGROBIOKON that has not been done, yet.

• Content Type Journal Article
• Pages 8-22
• DOI 10.2753/IMO0020-8825400301
• Authors
  • Niels R. Faber, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
  • Kristian Peters, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
  • Laura Maruster, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
  • Rob van Haren, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
  • René Jorna, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands

•  
  • Journal International Studies of Management and Organization
  • Print ISSN 0020-8825
  • Journal Volume Volume 40
  • Journal Issue Volume 40, Number 3 / Fall 2010