Innovation, Learning, Communities, and Actor-Networks of Practice

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Author(s): Stephen Fox (Queen Mary, University of London, UK)and David Vickers (University of Central Lancashire, UK)
Copyright: 2014
Pages: 22
Source title: Learning Models for Innovation in Organizations: Examining Roles of Knowledge Transfer and Human Resources Management
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Fawzy Soliman (The University of Technology, Australia)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-4884-5.ch002

Keywords: Business & Management / Business & Organizational Research / Business and Organizational Research / Business Science Reference

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Abstract

This chapter addresses the question: Is there a virtuous circle between situated learning within communities of practice and the corporate pursuit of innovation in large companies? The authors trace a succession of ways in which it has been formulated, reframed, and addressed across a range and sequence of qualitative studies. Overall, they argue for more ethnographic studies of organizational learning and innovation and recommend further use of actor-network theory, which has potential to add considerably to communities of practice theory. The authors illustrate this argument in the chapter through a discussion of Carlile's (2002) important paper and cite a number of other studies that use actor-network theory in combination with communities of practice theory.

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