Vicarious Learning Blog
Tacit Learning in Innovation Clusters
A few days ago the Wall Street Journal online ran an article looking into the benefits of geographical clusters for related, competing and interconnected industries. Looking at over 15 clusters on 3 continents over 4 years researchers have found there to be significant benefits to the companies and research institutes involved. For one their is a symbiotic support network between innovation (e.g. from universities and graduates) and commercialisation (e.g. from risk orientated businesses). This support network bolsters the participants willingness and ability to move beyond established areas and markets. I'm inclined to draw an analogy here to the kinds of behaviours marked out in social foraging animals, in flocks and herds. Going beyond this risk taking and innovation behaviour, membership of a cluster also allows specialisation of the members, so that they can perfect their market niche. At the same time their is a compete-collaborate ethos that ensures that members hone their skills. The Sloan review from fall 2002 looked at How Location Clusters Affect Innovation. In particular how tacit knowledge sharing impacted on competitiveness and innovation. In particular the author argues that membership of a cluster affords better understanding and access to emerging and tacit knowledge such as industry and market trends, new media developments and audience responses. For businesses and research institutes at aren't members of an innovation cluster the following advice is given:
"They need to be particularly careful about developing innovation that is based on their own assessment of the market," says Gimeno. "Non-agglomerated firms may be able to provide more breakthrough innovations. But the dark side is that they are more likely to mistime entry into markets or be unaware of the attractive markets that are emerging."
Posted at 06:30PM Jun 24, 2008 by Finbar Dineen in General | Comments[0]
Team Learning, Vicariously
Team learning in the pharmaceutical industry Lessons Learned and Lessons Lost: A Multi-Method Field Study of Vicarious Team Learning Behaviour and Performance Henrik BRESMAN INSEAD Faculty & Research Working Paper 2006/50/OB, January 18 2006 Winner of the 2006 Academy of Management?s William H. Newman Award and Best Paper Award Abstract: Successful team performance depends on many things - how the team responds to time pressure, optimizes the use of scarce resources, and deals with gaps in its knowledge. Every team has to learn something before it can complete its task, whether operating within its own realm of experience or dealing with complex tasks that involve a steep learning curve. This paper looks at how teams address that learning curve and lays the groundwork for a new line of research into team learning. Download the article (Working Paper section).
Lessons Learned and Lessons Lost: A Multi-Method Field Study of Vicarious Team Learning Behaviour and Performance Henrik BRESMAN Copyright: Insead In a world where the fastest-moving, quickest-learning team wins, there are significant advantages to be gained from understanding and applying the best learning processes for the task at hand. This award-winning paper points the way to an unexplored aspect of team learning that is a significant contributor to efficiency and performance. Henrik Bresman, Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, points out that although we have a good understanding of learning within teams - experiential learning - and how teams interact with and gain knowledge about their external environment, we are less sure about how teams accumulate useful information from outside that relates directly to the way they perform the task at hand. Vicarious learning, he proposes, is the missing component in our picture of how teams improve their performance. In a preliminary qualitative investigation, Bresman conducted a two-year field study focused on in-licensing teams at a large pharmaceutical company, referred to as 'Pharmaco'. Bresman's teams were tasked with deciding whether the company should acquire novel molecules that had pharmaceutical potential, typically offered by small biotechnology firms, a strategically critical task in drug development today. Given the external origin of the molecule in question, the teams were frequently operating with little prior knowledge, and so information acquisition was extremely important. Through extensive interviews across six project teams at Pharmaco, he was able to identify distinctions that separated vicarious learning from other boundary-spanning activities as well as experiential learning. He identified the key aspects of vicarious learning and, through a detailed description of the highly successful Team Beta, highlighted how they applied vicarious learning processes to multiple areas of their task. The implication of this first investigation was that vicarious learning was distinct from other team learning activities, involved a range of behaviours, and made a significant contribution to the success of the teams studied. A second, quantitative study - of drug licensing by large pharmaceutical firms - was developed to test two hypotheses: that vicarious learning is distinct from both experiential team learning behaviour and contextual team learning behaviour; and that vicarious team learning behaviour is positively associated with performance in organizational teams independently of other team learning strategies. Bresman expanded his investigations to create a statistically testable sample of 43 teams. Recently completed tasks were examined through interviews and questionnaires, and performance ratings obtained from senior executives. Drawing on established Likert scales where possible and using standard statistical techniques, his analysis of the results supported both hypotheses. Bresman identified specific types of vicarious learning behaviours that teams use to gain advantage, such as figuring out who to contact for advice, observing outsiders working on similar tasks and inviting experienced others to discuss how not to repeat past mistakes. By avoiding reinventing the wheel, teams that made best use of vicarious learning improved their efficiency and made effective use of resources. This study demonstrates that vicarious learning is useful as a means to understand team learning processes and that it represents a valuable tool for further research in this area.
Posted at 06:28PM Jun 24, 2008 by Finbar Dineen in General | Comments[0]
Implicit Associations
Implicit associations are feelings and thoughts which are not directly accessible to an individual. For example, you may believe that all people are created equal yet, by default, tend to associate one gender, race or age group with more positive behaviors or skills compared to other people. These implicit associations are probably a deep reflection of your education, your upbringing and the society in which you live. In everyday life we are often able to override our inherent biases and overrule these more basic motivations. But how then can we find out what we really think and feel? How do we make these implicit emotions and thoughts explicit? Harvard University have a great series of implicit association tests, including ones on race, color, age, religion... To take a test, click the link -->demonstration -->various links. You can learn a lot about yourself. Perhaps some uncomfortable truths, too.
Posted at 06:22PM Jun 24, 2008 by Finbar Dineen in General | Comments[0]
