KUNSKAPSDELNING I NÄTVERKSFÖRETAG

Abstract

Organizations that create competitive advantages through knowledge and creativity become more common. As a result new organization structures and working qualities among individuals are sought. One of those new organization structures is the network where several autonomous units are interconnected and cooperate to achieve better competitive advantages. Knowledge sharing within these forms of organizations can be difficult and the problem can get even more complicated when the units are not employed, as they are in traditional companies, but self-employed and probably care more about their own knowledge and competence. The purpose with this thesis was to study how network companies may improve their knowledge sharing. We chose to study four network companies and our approach was based on a theoretical knowledge sharing model which was applied and evaluated with a case study. Our research resulted in a number of conclusions which emphasizes the importance of the leadership, the initiating phase, a clear company vision, the company culture and incentives as critical factors in the process of improving the knowledge sharing in network companies.