Siste publikasjoner ved Institutt for industriell økonomi og teknologiledelse

Levin, Morten; Ravn, JE. Involved in praxis and analytical at a distance. Systemic Practice and Action Research 2007;20:1-13

DOI: 10.1007/s11213-006-9045-1

Lately, society has pressed for more direct societal relevance of social research. The argument of this special issue is that engaged research is an answer to the demand for a social science that matters. We define engaged research as a praxis where researchers actively engage in a social field in the pursuit of solving important local problems, while at the same time combining this with a scientific knowledge generation process. In other words, we discuss the conditions for research when researchers “go native” to solve problems and reflect along with participants. We have been able to find several sources of arguments supporting such a research strategy, but our search for methodological guidance on how to act as an engaged researcher has been in vain. What does it take for a researcher to do engaged research? The set of articles in this special issue all address certain aspects of this challenge. Some discuss the researcher’s path towards deep field engagement, whereas others discover various challenges and skills involved in engagement, and the task of developing scientific knowledge based on engaged research.

Widding, Lars Øystein. Entrepreneurial Knowledge Management and Sustainable Opportunity Creation: A Conceptual Framework . International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital 2007;4(1/2):187-202

DOI: 10.1504/IJLIC.2007.013830

The aim of this work is to develop a dynamic conceptual model to assess and to assist entrepreneurial knowledge management and sustainable opportunity creations. The conceptual model is backed by a theoretical framework drawing on the Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm, the knowledge-based view of the firm, and entrepreneurship. The model employs the following elements: tacit and explicit knowledge; and internal, semi-internal and external knowledge reservoirs. Further, gate-keeping and processes concerning the identification of requisite knowledge, the attraction and exploitation of this knowledge, and finally, the mechanisms to protect the firm's knowledge reservoirs, are central elements. The model can be used in different scenarios, explaining and guiding a firm's challenges regarding achieving competitive advantage.

Brønmo, Geir; Christiansen, Marielle; Fagerholt, Kjetil; Nygreen, Bjørn. A multi-start local search heuristic for ship scheduling - A computational study. Computers & Operations Research 2007;34(3):900-917

DOI: 10.1016/j.cor.2005.05.017

We present a multi-start local search heuristic for a typical ship scheduling problem. A large number of initial solutions are generated by an insertion heuristic with random elements. The best initial solutions are improved by a local search heuristic that is split into a quick and an extended version. The quick local search is used to improve a given number of the best initial solutions. The extended local search heuristic is then used to further improve some of the best solutions found. The multi-start local search heuristic is compared with an optimization-based solution approach with respect to computation time and solution quality. The computational study shows that the multi-start local search method consistently returns optimal or near-optimal solutions to real-life instances of the ship scheduling problem within a reasonable amount of computation time.

Rolfsen, Monica; Johnsen, Arild; Knutstad, Gaute. Action engagement: Improving researchers' involvement in action research projects. Systemic Practice and Action Research 2007;20:53-63

DOI: 10.1007/s11213-006-9049-x

This article presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of Action Engagement. This is a methodological approach implying that researchers involve themselves in the organization by working as ordinary employees. Our problem statement is this: How will Action Engagement improve the quality of action research? Given the fact that the researcher has limited time to use in the initial phase, we intend to show that Action Engagement is an effective introduction to the daily organizational life. The data is from an automotive supplier and two hospitals in Norway. The analysis contributes to the field of action research in two respects. First, it offers a detailed and varied understanding of how a broad empirical basis can be obtained in an action research (AR) project. Second, it presents an empirically grounded understanding of how this method can be used to achieve increased credibility and trust in ways that enable the researcher to bring in new and important aspects in organizational dialogues.