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Introduction Methods Results Discussion Conclusion As a local response to the COVID‐19 global pandemic, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) established the UAB COVID‐19 Collaborative Outcomes Research Enterprise (CORE), an institutional learning health system (LHS) to achieve an integrated health services outcomes and research response.We developed a network of expertise and capabilities to rapidly develop and deploy an institutional‐level interdisciplinary LHS. Based upon a scoping review of the literature and the Knowledge to Action Framework, we adopted a LHS framework identifying contributors and components necessary to developing a system within and between the university academic and medical centers. We used social network analysis to examine the emergence of informal work patterns and diversified network capabilities based on the LHS framework.This experience report details three principal characteristics of the UAB COVID‐19 CORE LHS development: (a) identifying network contributors and components;(b) building the institutional network;and (c) diversifying network capabilities. Contributors and committees were identified from seven components of LHS: (a) collaborative and executive leadership committee, (b) research coordinating committee, (c) oversight and ethics committee, (d) thematic scientific working groups, (e) programmatic working groups, (f) informatics capabilities, and (g) patient advisory groups. Evolving from the topical interests of the initial CORE participants, scientific working groups emerged to support the learning system network. Programmatic working groups were charged with developing a comprehensive and mutually accessible COVID‐19 database.Our LHS framework allowed for effective integration of multiple academic and medical centers into a cohesive institutional‐level learning system. Network analysis indicated diversity of institutional disciplines, professional rank, and topical focus pertaining to COVID‐19, with each center leveraging existing institutional responsibilities to minimize gaps in network capabilities.Incorporating an adapted LHS framework designed for academic medical centers served as a foundational resource supporting further institutional‐level efforts to develop agile and responsive learning networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Learning Health Systems is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Introduction: A key barrier to translation of biomedical research discoveries is a lack of understanding among scientists regarding the complexity and process of implementation. To address this challenge, the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps™ (I-Corps™) program trains researchers in entrepreneurship. We report results from the implementation of an I-Corps™ training program aimed at biomedical scientists from institutions funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). Methods: National/regional instructors delivered 5-week I-Corps@NCATS short courses to 62 teams (150 individuals) across six institutions. Content included customer discovery, value proposition, and validating needs. Teams interviewed real-life customers and presented the value of innovations for specific end-users weekly, culminating in a “Finale” featuring their refined business thesis and business model canvas. Methodology was developed to evaluate the newly adapted program. National mixed-methods evaluation assessed program implementation, reach, effectiveness using observations of training delivery and surveys at Finale (n = 55 teams), and 3–12 months post-training (n = 34 teams). Results: Innovations related to medical devices (33%), drugs/biologics (20%), software applications (16%), and diagnostics (8%). An average of 24 interviews was conducted. Teams reported increased readiness for commercialization over time (83%, 9 months; 14%, 3 months). Thirty-nine percent met with institutional technology transfer to pursue licensing/patents and 24% pursued venture capital/investor funding following the short courses. Conclusions: I-Corps@NCATS training provided the NCATS teams a rigorous and repeatable process to aid development of a business model based on customer needs. Outcomes of this pilot program support the expansion of I-Corps™ training to biomedical scientists for accelerating research translation.

Business models that rely on social media and user-generated content have shifted from the more traditional business model, where value for the organization is derived from the one-way delivery of products and/or services, to the provision of intangible value based on user engagement. This research builds a model that hypothesizes that the user experiences from social interactions among users, operationalized as personalization, transparency, access to social resources, critical mass of social acquaintances, and risk, as well as with the technical features of the social media platform, operationalized as the completeness, flexibility, integration, and evolvability, influence user engagement and subsequent usage behavior. Using survey responses from 408 social media users, findings suggest that both social and technical factors impact user engagement and ultimately usage with additional direct impacts on usage by perceptions of the critical mass of social acquaintances and risk.

E-business based e-lance networks can impact the coordination and completion of work within organizations and improve efficiencies in global supply chains. This may be particularly true for organizations mitigating sudden demand spikes, or lacking internal expertise and bandwidth. However, little is known about what governance and social control mechanisms impact network success. Utilizing data from 14,644 projects, this research tests a theory of network governance specific to this new emerging e-lance economy by integrating transaction cost economics with the concepts of social controls. For transaction costs, findings indicate that higher average project values lead to more projects and more money being exchanged, but more bids leads to less monetary exchange. For social controls, restricting access by sealing bids and not disclosing budget amounts leads to less bidding, but not disclosing budgets is associated with more projects being posted. The authors further find that the best predictor of e-lance success across all measures is the number of projects posted in the prior time period.

Advances in computer-mediated communication technologies have increased the variety of choices individuals have when sharing knowledge both within and across organizational boundaries. This paper extends prior research by comparing face-to-face and computer-mediated communication channels (email, online communities, and knowledge repositories/wikis) for different knowledge types (computer program and expertise) in intra- and inter-organizational knowledge sharing contexts. Using vignettes, this study determines whether individuals adjust their knowledge sharing behaviors based on the different knowledge types, communication channels, and boundary conditions. Results suggest individuals are more likely to share expertise intra-organizationally via face-to-face and share a computer program intra-organizationally via knowledge repositories/wikis. Also, results suggest individuals are more likely to share expertise or a computer program inter-organizationally via face-to-face.

Special Issue Online discussion group sustainability: Investigating the interplay between structural dynamics and social dynamics over time Catherine Ridings Lehigh University ridings@lehigh.edu Molly Wasko Florida State University mwasko@cob.fsu.edu Online discussion groups have become an increasingly popular way to create social networks where individuals congregate electronically to share advice and ideas. In order to better understand sustainability, we propose that research needs to go beyond examining quantitative changes in the structural dynamics of online discussion groups (such as membership size and message volume) and include investigation of the social dynamics characterizing the underlying qualities of the interactions among members. We take a mixed-methods approach to provide qualitative and empirical support for our theory by investigating the dynamics of one successful online discussion group over a five-year period. Our data set includes all 150,267 messages posted to 27,743 threads by 9,042 unique individuals over a five year period in a group that is focused on sharing advice about a medical topic (back pain). We find support for our hypotheses that 1) shifts in the structural and social dynamics underlying resource availability lead to changes in communication activities, but in unexpected ways: Fewer members contributed significantly more message volume. In turn, 2) shifts in the structural and social dynamics underlying communication activities lead to changes in coping strategies: As message volume increased and became more social, members increased their efforts and were less likely to defect. Finally, 3) shifts in the structural and social dynamics underlying coping strategies lead to changes in attraction and retention: as individual efforts increased, more individuals were retained; however, fewer new members were attracted to join the group. Our main thesis is that each online discussion group is a product of its structural and social dynamics in combination, and the influence of these factors on sustainability is best understood when they are examined in relation to each other over time.

Electronic networks of practice are computer-mediated social spaces where individuals working on similar problems self-organize to help each other and share knowledge, advice, and perspectives about their occupational practice or common interests. These interactions occur through message postings to produce an on-line public good of knowledge, where all participants in the network can then access this knowledge, regardless of their active participation in the network. Using theories and concepts of collective action and public goods, five hypotheses are developed regarding the structural and social characteristics that support the online provision and maintenance of knowledge in an electronic network of practice. Using social network analysis, we examine the structure of message contributions that produce and sustain the public good. We then combine the results from network analysis with survey results to examine the underlying pattern of exchange, the role of the critical mass, the quality of the ties sustaining participation, the heterogeneity of resources and interests of participants, and changes in membership that impact the structural characteristics of the network. Our results suggest that the electronic network of practice chosen for this study is sustained through generalized exchange, is supported by a critical mass of active members, and that members develop strong ties with the community as a whole rather than develop interpersonal relationships. Knowledge contribution is significantly related to an individual's tenure in the occupation, expertise, availability of local resources and a desire to enhance one's reputation, and those in the critical mass are primarily responsible for creating and sustaining the public good of knowledge. Finally, we find that this structure of generalized exchange is stable over time although there is a high proportion of member churn in the network.

Studies investigating individual performance in knowledge-intensive work are finding that individual performance is a result, to some degree, of obtaining the right information to solve novel, challenging problems. Yet we know little about the role that the individual plays in the knowledge processes in multinationals and the relationship between individual knowledge sourcing activities and performance. Our expectation is that successful knowledge transfer will be based on an individual's intrinsic motivation, access to knowledge from explicit or tacit knowledge sources within and across firm boundaries, and position in the overall advice network of the multinational corporation. Using survey and social network data collected in one multinational consulting firm, we investigated the knowledge sourcing activities and informal advice networks for 1439 of the entire 1698 individuals in one multinational spread across 28 offices (84.7% response rate). Through hierarchical regression analysis we find that 1) intrinsic motivations are strongly related to creativity and efficiency and 2) MNCs should support individual level activities that include not only the use of internal knowledge sources but also the use of external knowledge sources. Research results also suggest that 3) there are different patterns of knowledge sourcing activities based on whether efficient or creative performance is the goal and 4) these differ significantly depending upon the functional group to which the individual belongs. Implications for theories of the knowledge-based view of the multinational corporation and practical implications for managers are discussed.

This article illustrates how the hermeneutic analysis of text illuminates how shared understandings affect our interpretations of lean communication in distributed work environments. It is proposed that in contrast to the pessimistic conclusions of media richness theory that lean communication channels cannot support complex or equivocal work tasks, miscommunications are not the result of technology, but rather occur due to a lack of shared understandings among the individuals communicating. An illustrative case study based on fieldwork in franchise organizations is presented to demonstrate the possibilities for how the hermeneutic analysis of coherence, invention, intention, and reference can be used to discover how workers create and recreate shared understandings through text.

As researchers today seek to understand how virtual worlds may be effectively leveraged for collaborative purposes, exploring the role of leadership in virtual world teams may help shed light on how to manage synchronous and highly interdependent work activities for better team outcomes. Based upon Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory, this study seeks to understand how leadership affects team member performance. We propose that 1) the relationship between a leader and a team member influences the degree to which a team member is allocated and develops resources and 2) to the extent which a team member receives or develops resources, their performance will be enhanced. Through a longitudinal field study of one large virtual world team in the massively-multiplayer online-game Everquest, the findings strongly suggest that the leader-member relationship does impact members' allocation and development of resources. Furthermore, it is the quantity and the type of resources that impacts performance, not the leader-member relationship.

The concept of a community of practice is emerging as an essential building block of the knowledge economy. Brown and Duguid (2001) argue that organizations should be conceptualized as consisting of autonomous communities whose interactions can foster innovation within an organization and accelerate the introduction of innovative ideas. The key to competitive advantage depends on a firm’s ability to coordinate across autonomous communities of practice internally and leverage the knowledge that flows into these communities from network connections (Brown & Duguid, 2001). But how does an organization do this? A key challenge for management is understanding how to balance strategies that capture knowledge without killing it (Brown & Duguid, 2000).

Communities of practice are promoted within organizations as sources of competitive advantage and facilitators of organizational learning. A community of practice is an emergent social collective where individuals working on similar problems self-organize to help each other and to share perspectives about their work practice, resulting in learning and innovation within the community (Brown & Duguid, 1991; Wenger, 1998). Recent advances in information and communication technologies have enabled the creation of computer-supported social networks similar to communities of practice, where individuals are able to discuss and debate issues electronically. Given the success of communities of practice for facilitating knowledge exchange, both electronically and in face-to-face settings, management has recently focused on how to formally duplicate these networks and gather their benefits in work groups and virtual teams. However, with the evolution of new technology-enabled organizational forms, theoretical development is needed to distinguish between these different types of organizational forms since there are significant differences in the dynamics of formal vs. informal membership groups and between electronic and face-to-face interactions (Hinds & Kiesler, 2002).

In this article, we focus on the role of brokers as the essential facilitators of e-collaboration. E-lance brokers are Web-based and serve as online clearinghouses for information about customers and their projects, as well as suppliers of services seeking work, allowing knowledge work to be traded like a commodity. Brokers bring together those seeking services and those who can provide those services to meet the particular needs of the customer. The study of the different ecollaboration tools used by e-lance brokers provides important insights into how loosely coupled, autonomous agents exchange services through e-lance forms of organization. Examining the different e-collaboration mechanisms and how these mechanisms translate into successful transactions, is essential for understanding the future of knowledge work. Since knowledge-based work can be codified and shared electronically, such as software development, consulting, translation, and accounting, e-collaboration tools enabled through ICTs present viable alternatives to traditional models of organizing.

This study examines knowledge exchange in a worldwide, extra-organizational, Usenet-based electronic network of practice. Participation in such networks is voluntary, globally distributed, and network participants generally do not have personal or organizational ties. The purpose of the study was to investigate two questions: first, what type of knowledge is being transferred in these networks, and second, how is knowledge transferred across individuals in electronic networks. To address these questions, we observed and saved all messages posted to comp.lang.C++ for a period of 7 weeks. Our analyses include content analysis of 1,562 messages, survey responses from 593 participants, and objective data from the electronic message postings. The study illuminates how people use computer-mediated communication to support knowledge transfer, the types of knowledge transferred, as well as how knowledge flows in this network.

Recent advances in ICT have led to the emergence of online social structures where the primary purpose is knowledge exchange. Using computer-mediated communication technologies, such as newsgroups, listservs, and bulletin boards, an unlimited number of geographically dispersed individuals with diverse organizational, national, and demographic backgrounds share knowledge through helping each other solve problems, debating issues around shared interests, and telling stories of personal experiences (Sproull & Faraj, 1995; Wasko & Faraj, 2000). Individuals benefit from participation in this online knowledge exchange since they gain access to help and expertise that are often not available locally. While knowledge exchange in traditional face-to-face communities of practice within organizations has received considerable attention, we know much less about the dynamics underlying electronic networks and have yet to reach a consensus defining the phenomenon of interest. For example, online social structures focused on knowledge exchange are commonly referred to by numerous names: virtual or electronic communities, communities of interest, and online communities. Additionally, both practitioners and researchers tend to take a unitary view of both communities of practice and electronic networks, thus masking possible heterogeneity along a number of important dimensions. Yet without clear definitions of electronic networks, it is difficult to apply overarching theories that are both appropriate and generalizable, to compare across studies, and to build a coherent stream of research. Thus, this article’s purpose is twofold: (1) to define and describe the specific characteristics of one form of online social structure, an electronic network of practice and (2) to compare electronic networks of practice with communities of practice in order to highlight the roles of each for supporting learning and knowledge exchange focused on a shared practice.

The concept of a community of practice is emerging as an essential building block of the knowledge economy. A community of practice consists of a relatively tightly knit group of members who know each other, work together face to face, and continually negotiate, communicate, and coordinate with each other directly. The demands of direct communication and coordination limit the size of the community, enhance the formation of strong interpersonal ties, and create strong norms of direct reciprocity between members (Brown & Duguid, 2000). These communities develop through the mutual engagement of individuals as they participate in shared work practices, supporting the exchange of ideas between people, which results in learning and innovation within the community (Brown & Duguid, 2000). However, typically not all of an organization’s relevant knowledge resides within its formal boundaries or within its communities of practice. To remain competitive, organizations need to ensure that new knowledge found in the external environment is integrated with knowledge that is found within the firm (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990). Organizations must rely on linkages to outside organizations and individuals to acquire knowledge, especially in dynamic fields where innovation results from inter-organizational knowledge exchange and learning (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990).

Recent advances in IS have led to the development of electronic networks that enable thousands of geographically dispersed individuals, who are typically strangers from diverse organizational, national, and demographic backgrounds, to interact (Sproull & Faraj, 1995). In these networks, individuals engage in knowledge sharing and problem solving through message postings offering professional advice, storytelling of personal experiences, and debate on relevant issues (Wasko & Faraj, 2000). Individuals benefit from these networks since they gain access to new information and expertise related to their practice that are often not available locally. Based on previous research (Wasko & Teigland, 2004), we define an electronic network of practice (ENOP) as a self-organizing, open activity system focused on a shared practice that exists through computer-mediated communication. Despite the growing interest in online social structures such as electronic networks of practice, we know surprisingly little about how or why these structures support knowledge exchange (Desanctis & Monge, 1999; Lin, 2001). Thus, the goal of this exploratory research is to investigate electronic networks of practice by drawing upon theories of public goods and collective action. Building upon work by Fulk and colleagues (Fulk, Flanagin, Kalman, Monge, & Ryan, 1996), we investigate ENOPs as a form of collective action by examining two fundamental research questions: (1) what is the pattern of interaction underlying knowledge exchange in an ENOP and (2) why do some individuals participate more than others in an ENOP. The article concludes with a discussion and areas for future research.

Communities of practice (CoPs) are regarded as essential building blocks of the knowledge economy, and organizations are promoting them as sources of competitive advantage and facilitators of organizational learning. Within organizations, CoPs have traditionally emerged through the mutual engagement in work by individuals who are either physically co-located or who frequently meet face-to-face (Orr, 1996; Wenger, 1998). In an effort to replicate traditional CoPs online and in response to hypercompetitive conditions and increasing complexity, numerous organizations have implemented online networks to facilitate knowledge sharing. We refer to these online social structures focused on knowledge exchange as “electronic networks of practice” (ENoPs).

BackgroundWithin the medical community there is persistent debate as to whether the information available through social media is trustworthy and valid, and whether physicians are ready to adopt these technologies and ultimately embrace them as a format for professional development and lifelong learning. ObjectiveTo identify how physicians are using social media to share and exchange medical information with other physicians, and to identify the factors that influence physicians’ use of social media as a component of their lifelong learning and continuing professional development. MethodsWe developed a survey instrument based on the Technology Acceptance Model, hypothesizing that technology usage is best predicted by a physician’s attitudes toward the technology, perceptions about the technology’s usefulness and ease of use, and individual factors such as personal innovativeness. The survey was distributed via email to a random sample of 1695 practicing oncologists and primary care physicians in the United States in March 2011. Responses from 485 physicians were analyzed (response rate 28.61%). ResultsOverall, 117 of 485 (24.1%) of respondents used social media daily or many times daily to scan or explore medical information, whereas 69 of 485 (14.2%) contributed new information via social media on a daily basis. On a weekly basis or more, 296 of 485 (61.0%) scanned and 223 of 485 (46.0%) contributed. In terms of attitudes toward the use of social media, 279 of 485 respondents (57.5%) perceived social media to be beneficial, engaging, and a good way to get current, high-quality information. In terms of usefulness, 281 of 485 (57.9%) of respondents stated that social media enabled them to care for patients more effectively, and 291 of 485 (60.0%) stated it improved the quality of patient care they delivered. The main factors influencing a physician’s usage of social media to share medical knowledge with other physicians were perceived ease of use and usefulness. Respondents who had positive attitudes toward the use of social media were more likely to use social media and to share medical information with other physicians through social media. Neither age nor gender had a significant impact on adoption or usage of social media. ConclusionsBased on the results of this study, the use of social media applications may be seen as an efficient and effective method for physicians to keep up-to-date and to share newly acquired medical knowledge with other physicians within the medical community and to improve the quality of patient care. Future studies are needed to examine the impact of the meaningful use of social media on physicians’ knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors in practice.