Knowledge Exchange Processes Research Articles

Knowledge exchange in the arctic environmental studies: Bridging science and the local community in dialogue

In the context of accelerated climate dynamics and uncertainties surrounding climate change research, collaborative approaches to knowledge generation are increasingly cited as a pathway needed for navigating the complexity of challenges. There is a widespread consensus that researcher-community joint expertise deepens our understanding of climatic changes. However, how this unfolds in practical settings lacks rigorous empirical support in the landscape of contemporary environmental studies. The article focuses on the intrinsic process of expert knowledge exchange and creating knowledge-in-action space for meaningful community-researcher partnerships. Addressing these issues draws upon experiences facilitating public events for diverse audiences in different countries and varying settings of scale, format and level of engagement. This account refers to the essential role of dialogue, interactivity, culturally sensitive devotion and visualization as powerful tools in building a platform for knowledge co-creation. It analyzes different ways of designing knowledge exchange that give access to a spectrum of experimentation, self-reflection and liaison with art but also requires mobilizing ethics and flexibility.

Trainee and qualified health psychologists’ views and experiences of practice-based supervision: A summary of the full report

Supervision is an important part of professional practice. This study aimed to explore trainee and qualified health psychologists’ views and experiences of supervision. A mixed methods survey design was adopted. Trainee and qualified health psychologists across the UK were invited to participate in the online survey through various channels. Twenty-eight participants (n=12 trainees, n=16 qualified) working in a range of professional settings took part. Form, frequency, duration and supervisor types varied. Thematic analysis resulted in four themes. In ‘supervisor as a mentor and guide’ we explored the supervisory relationship, future planning and practical costs and barriers. In ‘navigating the challenges of working within a relatively new discipline’ we discussed competing demands of doctoral-level training, maintaining the integrity of the profession and comparisons to other disciplines. In ‘adopting a holistic approach to supervision’ we explored the importance of personal and professional support, space for reflection and the opportunity to challenge oneself. In the final theme, ‘establishing a structured process of mutual learning and knowledge exchange’, collaboration, structure, boundaries and expectations are discussed. This study highlights the complex nature of supervision and provides a detailed understanding of the views of health psychologists, assisting educational institutions and supervisors to provide effective support.

Facilitating most population engagement with the circular economy: Challenges for academics and (as) social media influencers

The lack of consumer engagement with the Circular Economy (CE) hinders the use of recycled materials in products manufactured by the B2B companies (e.g., recycled pet bottles in industrial adhesives). Such an institutional void gives space to the rise of a type of network activity: knowledge brokerage, which is a process of knowledge exchange facilitation.This multiple case study contributes with a practical description of brokerage activities in this context. It investigated how companies could interact with academics through knowledge exchange translated into campaigns to engage most consumers with CE. The network approach, under the knowledge brokerage perspective, was the main theoretical foundation of this work.Findings indicate doubts that prevent companies from developing better green marketing campaigns. Academics could help to fill these gaps. Regarding campaign management, academics could identify the different groups of consumers, the delivery channels, campaign duration, and disclosure days/times that most engage each consumer group.Campaigns require educational materials. Academics could identify the amount of information and the presentation format in printed materials. However, engaging most of the population requires a better use of social media. Academics must investigate the posts that could change each group of people's behaviors (including consumers with a lower educational level and less purchasing power).Companies plan to financially support academics who elucidate these doubts or those who succeed in using social media to induce consumers to review their postures. Such support could increase the research funds for the projects managed by the researchers we have named “academic influencers.”

Untold Intelligence: Tacit Knowledge and Marketing Success

Salespersons are a source of invaluable market knowledge that can help change the course of organisational strategy. However, research on extracting this knowledge is scarce. Therefore, this research aims to develop and empirically test a model that explains the tacit knowledge exchange process between salespersons and marketing. Data were collected from 224 randomly selected business-to-business and business-to-consumer salespersons (boundary spanners) of commercial banks in Pakistan. Structural equation modelling (SEM) via maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) was conducted using AMOS 24. Except for inter-functional communication quality and inter-functional conflict, all antecedents significantly influence tacit knowledge exchange. Tacit knowledge exchange significantly affects relative efficiency, marketing program innovation and relative effectiveness. Training programs that bring together the sales and marketing employees to increase trust, increase socialisation opportunities and increase task conflict may strengthen the tacit knowledge exchange process in the banking sector.

Embedding technology at the grassroots: Strategies for localising technology transfer under the UNFCCC technology mechanism

AbstractTechnology transfer to the Global South involves not only technical solutions, but also ‘localising’ or adapting those solutions to place through multiparty learning and problem solving. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Technology Mechanism have largely overlooked the importance of localisation and have created a governance environment that neither reflects the ‘messiness’ of this process, nor the need for flexibility and long‐term collaboration for effective search and discovery, implementation and knowledge creation. This article focuses on the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), the Technology Mechanism's implementation arm, and the challenges it faces in orchestrating the transfer of technology to the Global South. Drawing on recent empirical research and theories of innovation and experimentalism, the article examines how the CTCN and its associated institutions could be governed in ways that better enable localisation. It argues that successful transfer is more likely to be facilitated through systemic linkages between the CTCN and associated technology processes such as Technology Needs Assessments, and by creating more active processes of technological search, learning, peer review and knowledge exchange.

Learning from failures in knowledge exchange and turning them into successes.

While the evidence base on successful practices in knowledge exchange is rapidly growing, much less attention has been given in the academic literature to documenting and reflecting on failures in trying to exchange different types of evidence between academics, practice partners and policymakers. However, learning from failures is just as important, if not more crucial, than celebrating successes. Therefore, in this introduction to the special issue on learning from failures in knowledge exchange, we discuss crosscutting themes across the seven papers. We start by comparing and theorising different definitions of failures, and by exploring the relational barriers and structural stressors underlying these failures. We argue for the creation of a 'failure culture' in organisations, in which failures are no longer avoided but actively encouraged. To turn failures into successes, we identify a need for more sharing and publishing of failures, early engagement with stakeholders in the knowledge exchange process, and illustrate the importance of boundary spanners. We conclude with recommendations for future work, related to promising theoretical approaches, such as system thinking, the re-addressing of power imbalances through leadership, and highlight art-based approaches as a mechanism for rebalancing power.

Enabling cross-country learning andexchange to support universal health coverage implementation.

As countries transition from external assistance while pursuing ambitious plans to achieve universal health coverage (UHC), there is increasing need to facilitate knowledge sharing and learning among them. Country-led and country-owned knowledge management is foundational to sustainable, more equitable external assistance for health and is a useful complement to more conventional capacity-building modalities provided under external assistance. In the context of external assistance, few initiatives use country-to-country sharing of practitioner experiences, and link learning to receiving guidance on how to adapt, apply and sustain policy changes. Dominant knowledge exchange processes are didactic, implicitly assuming static technical needs, and that practitioners in low- and middle-income countries require problem-specific, time-bound solutions. In reality, the technical challenges of achieving UHC and the group of policymakers involved continuously evolve. This paper aims to explore factors which are supportive of experience-based knowledge exchange between practitioners from diverse settings, drawing from the experience of the Joint Learning Network (JLN) for UHC-a global network of practitioners and policymakers sharing experiences about common challenges to develop and implement knowledge products supporting reforms for UHC-as an illustration of a peer-to-peer learning approach. This paper considers: (1) an analysis of JLN monitoring and evaluation data between 2020 and 2023 and (2) a qualitative inquiry to explore policymakers' engagement with the JLN using semi-structured interviews (n = 14) with stakeholders from 10 countries. The JLN's experience provides insights to factors that contribute to successful peer-to-peer learning approaches. JLN relies on engaging a network of practitioners with diverse experiences who organically identify and pursue a common learning agenda. Meaningful peer-to-peer learning requires dynamic, structured interactions, and alignment with windows of opportunity for implementation that enable rapid response to emerging and timely issues. Peer-to-peer learning can facilitate in-country knowledge sharing, learning and catalyse action at the institutional and health system levels.

Obstacles to co-producing evaluation knowledge: power, control and voluntary sector dynamics.

Despite literature recognising the huge potential of co-production as a positive approach to evidence creation, there is a dearth of evidence about how co-production principles can problematise knowledge exchange, specifically in evaluation work. To critically examine three evaluation projects commissioned by voluntary sector stakeholders to illustrate challenges in knowledge exchange linked to the co-production of evidence exchange. We critically compare the challenges experienced in co-producing evidence across three evaluations, reflecting on power dynamics, co-productive ways of working and emotions, which all impact upon successful knowledge exchange. In Project 1, internal monitoring data required for reporting was not shared. In Project 2, the commissioners' need to evidence success resulted in limited knowledge sharing, with valuable learning about partnership issues and service delivery held internally. In Project 3, evidence demonstrating the failure of a local authority model of area management for community members was partially discredited by statutory stakeholders (state actors). Bias in evaluation reporting and academic publication can arise from current knowledge exchange processes, including co-production. Voluntary sector funding is problematic as stakeholders delivering programmes also commission evaluations. Knowledge exchange is influenced by vested interests arising from the political context in which data is gathered. Evaluators can face aggression, challenge and unfair treatment resulting in damaged relationships, and failures in knowledge exchange. The emotional elements of knowledge exchange remain under-reported. Varying and shifting power dynamics also limit knowledge exchange. Changing research practice, to support power sharing, needs further exploration to facilitate improved knowledge exchange.

Learning as part of knowledge exchange processes in the context of online work, based on the example of Generation Z employees

Learning as part of knowledge exchange processes in the context of online work, based on the example of Generation Z employees

MOVING FROM INFORMAL INTERACTION TO FOCUSED KNOWLEDGE SHARING AMONG USERS IN AN AGENT-BASED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Informal interaction among users may reveal significant information regarding their behaviors in smallcommunities. Although apps like WhatsApp are very popular for informal interaction activities, they, however, lack in providing the user with contextual information of other users present in the surroundings who might be helpful in addressing the queries thus enabling focused information exchange. Thus, there is a requirement of informal interactive environments that can be built on-the-fly, providing anytime-anywhere cost-effective interaction possibilities to the users. Mobile adhoc networks that can be built over wireless networks using wi-fi enabled smart phones, can provide a promising solution to the above problem, even in regions lacking adequate infrastructure. This paper proposes MAKSS, a mobile agent-based knowledge sharing system, comprising mobile user agents to facilitate information exchange among groups of users available in a close vicinity like a college campus. In this system, a user agent belongs to two views- a) a physical view formed by cellular frequency ranges of mobile devices b) a context view constituting a group of user agents having similar interests or contexts. These views help in dissemination of user queries and responses within a group (multicasting) or their routing to the intended persons (of same context as sender but belonging to different physical views). The simulated experiment highlights that the proposed system would work well in introducing users to the focused groups and also evaluates how user agents behave in the collaborative process of knowledge exchange on the parameters of inquisitiveness, responsiveness, reciprocity and cooperativeness.

Understanding Anti-Dam Resistance Politics: A Historical and Territorial Study of Two Megadams in Coastal Ecuador

Megadams are controversial ventures. Despite their contentious benefits, the negative impacts on local communities are enormous. This has prompted substantial disapproval and resistance, particularly from the communities that endure the most of its adverse effects. While many megadams have been constructed in the face of opposition, others have been halted or altered as a result of the fierce protests of affected people and their allies. A better understanding of the latter is key to promoting equitable and just water governance throughout the implementation of hydraulic infrastructure. Based on ethnographic and historical research carried out between 2014 and 2017, the article shows the power relations, social actors and historical-contextual factors that have influenced the development of the Daule-Peripa and Baba megadams on the Ecuadorian coast. From a political ecology and subaltern studies perspective, this article describes and analyses the social, territorial, and historical interconnectedness of the local communities of Patricia Pilar and Daule-Peripa dam in coastal Ecuador that successfully stopped the construction of a dam and had a great influence on its final hydraulic design. I argue that, given the adequate socio-political conditions and a systematic process of knowledge and experience exchange among affected communities, anti-dam struggles can emerge with significant capacity to influence in their favour the megadam implementation processes and other hydraulic infrastructures.

Practices of Knowledge Exchange in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper contributes to a better understanding of a system of pandemic knowledge exchanges. Therefore, three different case studies conducted in Germany, Greece, and Turkiye and executed in multiple countries were analyzed in the context of Mode 3 knowledge production and the Quintuple Helix system. While the Quintuple Helix system describes the knowledge exchange processes between the systems of science, economy, politics, public, and natural environment of societies for sustainable innovation processes, Mode 3 emphasizes the importance of a creative environment for research and innovation. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that the need for knowledge exchange with the media-based public increased dramatically. In both models, Mode 3 and the Quintuple Helix but also in the Design Thinking approach, the creative environment incorporates the knowledge of the media-based public. Nonetheless, the reality of the public is constructed as media reality. Therefore, a mix of evidence-based and opinion-based knowledge is produced and transferred during knowledge exchange in the context of innovation processes including public engagement. It could be understood that the mediating entities media and general practitioners have a similar double function in the context of knowledge exchange with the public during the pandemic times. The results reveal the big need for knowledge communication and exchange platforms which on the one hand strengthen citizen participation by transforming opinion-based into evidence-based content. On the other hand, reach the status of a global standard medium for the pandemic knowledge exchange accepted by all stakeholders of the Quintuple Helix. This generates a shared-knowledge environment with a gain for all systems of the Quintuple Helix during the sustainable innovation processes.

Reconceptualising coproduction as activism together

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic disrupted life across the world in multiple ways and those already minoritised and disenfranchised, like care‐experienced young people, bore the brunt of losses and mental health difficulties. This article reports on the findings of ‘Feeling Well, Feeling Cared For’ an innovative knowledge exchange project on care experience and mental health in Scotland that was seriously disrupted by the pandemic. The article explores how these disruptions created new opportunities for deepening and slowing down coproductive practices, allowing relationships between collaborators to become stronger. Three finding areas are presented and discussed through the lenses of coproduction and quiet activism. These include lessons developed through the process of carrying out this project during a pandemic, the findings from our discussions with young people about mental health, and our reflections on the meanings of activism in the context of a coproductive knowledge exchange process. The discussion highlights how learning from this project might benefit coproductive practices in the future, especially as global interest in coproduction continues to grow across a range of disciplines.

Intellectual capital's contribution to innovative female agri-start-ups: a multiple case study

PurposeWomen-led enterprises can count on intellectual capital (IC) to implement a knowledge exchange process, improve managerial skills and provide themselves with more certain and reasonable financial resources. Recently, the literature has recognized a new paradigm of innovation, known as open innovation (OI) that emphasizes the strategic importance of relationships for knowledge development. The paper, first, aims to investigate if IC can support female agri-start-ups’ innovation process. Second, the aim is to analyse the ways in which IC supports female agri-start-ups.Design/methodology/approachThe work uses a qualitative methodology and a multiple case study supports the paper. Data were acquired using direct semi-structured interviews. To read and interpret them, the authors resorted to the C.A.O.S. model that permits examining the direct relationships in terms of relational capital (RC) and also, observing the effect produced by the relational circuit in terms of human capital (HC) and structural capital (SC) in small and medium enterprises.FindingsFindings reveal that RC plays a fundamental role in innovative start-up's development. The S-C and S-O links support business management and help fill the gender financial gap. This leads to improving entrepreneurial skills (HC) and promoting internal innovative solutions (SC). The S-A links can help the entrepreneur acquire more awareness of the market and compete better.Originality/valueThe research contributes to IC and gender studies, with a specific focus on RC and the innovation process. Although the literature has already investigated the role of RC in female entrepreneurship, only few previous research have conducted a qualitative analysis about the relationships established in the peculiar context of innovative agri-start-ups.

An examination of the link between job content plateau and knowledge hiding from a moral perspective: The mediating role of distrust and perceived exploitation

This research aims to address the research question of how knowledge hiding occurs from an ethical lens. Drawing on an integrated ethical decision-making model, we identified job content plateau as an important personally threatening situation that predicts knowledge hiding. We also proposed that attribution of blame—a specific mechanism of moral disengagement—explains how employees experiencing a high job content plateau bypass their moral self-regulation to engage in knowledge hiding. More specifically, employees can cognitively reconstruct themselves as faultless victims who are driven to hide their knowledge because they perceive: (a) their colleagues cannot be trusted; and (b) the knowledge-exchange process in the organization is exploitative. We tested this dual-path mediation model using time-lagged data collected from 301 working adults across three time points. The results supported the mediating roles of perceived distrust in colleagues and perceived exploitation in the organization's knowledge-exchange process, opening the door for future research to better understand knowledge hiding from a moral perspective.

Visualised AKIS Diagnosis – an Instrumental Approach to Support AKIS Appraisal

SummaryThe AKIS (Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System) concept is now widely applied in the EU partly due to latest CAP regulation. Visualisation‐based AKIS diagnosis relies on the iterative elaboration of an AKIS diagram that provides a static picture of what elements of the system are linked through what kind of relations in which socio‐economic contexts and environments. In this article we discuss the implications of using the visualised AKIS diagnosis method based on our empirical assessment of AKIS in 28 European countries. The method involved drafting AKIS diagrams based on targeted desk research, conducting dialogues with experts affiliated with or overseeing prominent knowledge organisations to adjust and refine the diagrams and to analyse actor diversity and linkages. The final diagrams and the background reports on AKIS appraisal were used to deepen the AKIS understanding among various stakeholders in the agriculture sector, as well as an input for the CAP strategic plan preparation in some countries. We conclude that the visualised AKIS diagnosis has a great potential to make complex knowledge infrastructures and exchange processes tangible. However, it also comes with risks, for example, that the snapshot in time may become misleading, through being an outdated or erroneous representation.

Reacting to rural problems or creating cognitive space? Knowledge production and the diffusion of the agroecology movement in Chiang Mai, Thailand

ABSTRACT This qualitative study explores how the agroecology movement in Chiang Mai, Thailand, has been diffused and what has contributed to its pathways to socioecological sustainability. During the diffusion of this social movement, non-governmental organization (NGO) activism, the introduction of organic farmers’ markets and local organic certification, and collaboration with universities have played significant roles. Our findings suggest that partnership, place, and knowledge have been important contributors to the agroecological transition. Utilizing the concept of cognitive praxis, we conclude that the participatory mode of knowledge production and the horizontal process of knowledge exchange have contributed to the movement’s diffusion by providing opportunities for local ecological knowledge to be produced, reinvented, and disseminated.

‘Insight unlocked’: Applying a collective intelligence approach to engage employers in informing local skills improvement planning

This paper demonstrates how the innovative application of a Collective Intelligence approach enhanced Local Skills Improvement Planning information for employers, education and skills training organisations and regional economic policy organisations. This took place within a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between a Chamber of Commerce and a University. This aimed to develop and deploy regional business intelligence for enhanced policy and decision-making in enterprise and economic development. The project converged knowledge from several research centres including economics, entrepreneurship and innovation, data science, and Artificial Intelligence. The paper presents a project case study which provides two contributions to applied knowledge. Firstly, it demonstrates how a Collective Intelligence (CI) approach can be applied to achieve rapid results in resolving the real-world problem of local skills information availability. Useful real-time data was gathered from employers in three sectors on skills requirements, supply and training. This was analysed using Artificial Intelligence tools, then shared publicly via an automated Internet portal, providing a scalable model for wider use. Secondly, it explores and evaluates how the knowledge exchange (KE) process can function effectively and quickly in applying CI-based innovation in practical ways which create new value, within a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between a University and Chamber of Commerce.environment.

Interpreting the Role of the State in Innovation Transformation:Review of “Dual Roles of the State: A National Innovation System Approach for Development and Transformation Analysis”

This article reviews the book “Dual Roles of the State: A National Innovation System Approach for Development and Transformation Analysis” by Feng Kaidong from Peking University. The neoclassical economic paradigm has limited explanatory power for innovation because it fails to grasp the non-linear, knowledge reticent character of innovation. The book explains the logic of innovation market interaction at the level of micro-network interactions. Unlike the perfect market, which is coordinated by price, the interaction between subjects in the innovation market is an organized process of mutual discovery and cooperative knowledge exchange. The “organized” market surpasses the perfect market because it is more in line with the information structure of innovation knowledge. The key to successful innovation is a smooth transition between public and private knowledge, and the best option for unlocking the knowledge conversion mechanism is the government. The state plays two roles in the innovation system: one is as an important institutional supplier and resource allocator for innovation activities, and the other is as a key driver of the transformation of the innovation economic system. Innovation transformation requires a concentration of resources by the state in strategic industries, and the transformation requires state capabilities such as the ability to allocate resources on a large scale and an information feedback mechanism that can identify strategic industries. Based on the historical analysis of innovation transformation in developed countries, the book explores the process and ways in which countries with successful transformation experiences acquire the national capabilities required for transformation, and provides new references for China's autonomous innovation system construction.

Университет как пространство интенсификации коллективного «мыследействия»: на пересечении концепций «управления знаниями» Нонако И. – Такеучи Х. и СМД-подхода Г.П. Щедровицкого

The purpose of this paper is to describe conceptually (in the discourse of G.P. Shchedrovitsky, I. Nonaka, H. Takeuchi) the parameters and the type of university capable of being a space of collective thinking intensification, i.e. such innovation platform where it is possible not only to solve the “main question” of modern university: “How to match thinking and activity?”, but also to find the balance between the laws of ‘business’ and ‘science’ functioning. We describe the ‘project part’ — the first stage of organizing such a space, thanks to which it becomes possible to intensify the processes of knowledge creation and exchange in the university, as well as the process of forming a more open innovation corporate culture. The methodological basis here is organized communication, which allows the formation of an open system of horizontal social links within the university for the implementation of its innovative activities.