Gernot Grabher

Bio: Gernot Grabher is an academic researcher from HafenCity University Hamburg. The author has contributed to research in topics: Restructuring & Heterarchy. The author has an hindex of 27, co-authored 59 publications receiving 6340 citations. Previous affiliations of Gernot Grabher include King's College London & University of Bonn.

The embedded firm : on the socioeconomics of industrial networks

Abstract: 1. Introduction: Towards a Socio-Economics of Industrial Networks Gernot Grabher , Social Science Centre, Berlin Part I: Blurring Boundaries: Explaining Inter-Firm Co-operation in Networks 2. The Network as a Governance Structure Hakan Hakansson and Jan Johanson , both of University of Uppsala, Sweden 3. Explaining Inter-Firm Co-operation and Innovation: The Limits of the Transaction Cost Approach Bengt-Ake Lundvall , Aalborg University, Denmark Part II: High Technology Networks: Horizontal Inter-Firm Cooperation and Strategic Alliances 4. Interfirm Strategic Technology Networks and Modes of Technology Partnering in High-Tech Sectors John Hagedoorn , MERIT, The Netherlands 5. External Growth in the Computer Industry: Organizational Perspectives Mario Benassi , University of Trento, Italy 6. Knowledge in the Network and the Network Knowledge: The Structuring of the Biotechnology and Semiconductor Industries Bruce Kogutand & Weijin Shan , both of the University of Pennsylvania and Gordon Walker , Yale University Part III: Subcontracting Networks: Vertical Inter-Firm Co-operation and Disaggregation of Large Companies 7. An Exit/Voice Approach to Supplier Relations: The Case of the U.S. Automobile Industry Susan Helper , Boston University 8. Small Firms and Outsourcing as Flexibility Reservoirs of Large Companies Klaus Semlinger , Institute for Social Research, Munich 9. Vertical Disaggregation and Privatization in Hungary: Organizational Consequences Laszlo Neumann , Research Institute of Labor, Hungary Part IV: Regional Networks: Embedded in Industrial Districts 10. Factory or Putting-Out? Knitting Networks in Modena Mark H. Lazerson , State University of New York at Stony Brook 11. Power in the Decentralized Industrial Order: The Case of Baden-Wurttemberg Gary B. Herrigel , University of Chicago 12. The Weakness of Strong Ties: The Ambivalent Role of Inter-Firm Cooperation in the Ruhr Area Gernot Grabher , Social Science Centre, Berlin 13. Local, Global Networks: A Return to the Regional Economy? Ash Amin , University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Cool Projects, Boring Institutions: Temporary Collaboration in Social Context

Abstract: (2002). Cool Projects, Boring Institutions: Temporary Collaboration in Social Context. Regional Studies: Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 205-214.

The Project Ecology of Advertising: Tasks, Talents and Teams

Abstract: In economic geographic analysis, the 'firm' usually is assumed, at least implicitly, as a coherent and unitary economic actor. More recently, however, the integrity of the firm as the basic analytical unit has been undercut by organizational practices which are built instead around 'projects'. By taking up this theoretical challenge, this paper ventures an empirical investigation in which the project features as the central unit of economic action. However, rather than assuming a substitution of the firm by temporary projects, the paper seeks to explore interdependencies between projects and firms as well as other more traditional 'permanent forms' of organization. Against the empirical background of the London advertising industry, the paper delves into the interrelation between projects on the one hand and, on the other, the agencies, personal ties, localities and corporate networks which provide essential sources for project-based organizing. By consecutively embedding projects into these different org...

Temporary Architectures of Learning: Knowledge Governance in Project Ecologies

Abstract: This paper is motivated by the intention to contribute to a contextual understanding of projects. More specifically, the analysis starts from the assumption that essential processes of creating and sedimenting knowledge accrue at the interface between projects and the organizations, communities, and networks in and through which projects operate. By adopting such a contextual perspective, the chief aim of the present study is to unfold a conceptual framework for analyzing processes of project-based learning. This conceptual framework is built around the notion of the project ecology. By consecutively disentangling the constitutive layers of project ecologies — the core team, the firm, the epistemic community, and the personal networks — the basic organizational architecture of project ecologies is revealed. This architecture is employed as a theoretical template for an exploration of learning processes in two ecologies which are driven by opposing logics of creating and sedimenting knowledge. In this comp...

Ecologies of Creativity: The Village, the Group, and the Heterarchic Organisation of the British Advertising Industry:

Abstract: In the 1980s, the hegemony of the large US advertising networks has been challenged by a new breed of London-based agencies who pioneered what is known in the trade as ‘second wave’. On the one hand, second wave implied the emancipation of Soho from an ‘outpost of Madison Avenue’ to the ‘advertising village’ on the basis of momentous product and process innovations. On the other hand, a few London agencies rose to global top positions on the crest of the second wave by transforming themselves from international advertising networks into global communication groups. This paper starts from the assumption that both, the localised cluster of advertising agencies in the advertising village (the ‘Village’) and the global communications group (the ‘Group’), share basic principles of social organisation. It aims at demonstrating that the organisational logic of both the Village and the Group can be conceptualised in terms of a heterarchy. By drawing on case-study evidence from Soho on the one hand and from the wo...

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

Abstract: How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community

Abstract: The present historical moment may seem a particularly inopportune time to review Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam's latest exploration of civic decline in America. After all, the outpouring of volunteerism, solidarity, patriotism, and self-sacrifice displayed by Americans in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks appears to fly in the face of Putnam's central argument: that \"social capital\" -defined as \"social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them\" (p. 19)'has declined to dangerously low levels in America over the last three decades. However, Putnam is not fazed in the least by the recent effusion of solidarity. Quite the contrary, he sees in it the potential to \"reverse what has been a 30to 40-year steady decline in most measures of connectedness or community.\"' As an example of how the current \"war on terrorism\" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says \"permanently marked\" the generation that lived through it and had a \"terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century.\" 3 If Americans can follow this example and channel their current civic

The Sources and Consequences of Embeddedness for the Economic Performance of Organizations: The Network Effect

Abstract: In this paper I try to take the term of embededness out of the framework of the common program assumption and to disclose how the embededness and network structure influence economic action. Basing on the existed theory and ethnographic analysis of the 23 clothes production companies I worked out the methodological scheme which depicts the details, functions and the sources of embededness. On the basis of this scheme I formulated and tested a list of hypotheses with the help of the data on network interactions of all the companies producing qualitative female clothes in the New-York sewing industry. It was found out that the embededness is the exchange system providing unique opportunities in comparison to the market and that firms organized as networks had better chances to survive than those who support casual market ties. However there is a pick of positive effect of embededness at a particular level after which it starts going down.

The Sources and Consequences of Embeddedness for the Economic Performance of Organizations: The Network Effect

Abstract: L'A s'efforce de comprendre comment les structures sociales influent sur la performance economique Il s'interesse plus particulierement a la notion d'« enracinement » Il montre que celle-ci permet de saisir comment les relations sociales modelent l'activite economique Il porte de meme son attention sur les reseaux sociaux qui jouent un role important en cette affaire Il examine en premier lieu le concept d'enracinement structurel Il compare ensuite les performances economiques d'entreprises americaines qui fonctionnent en reseaux avec les resultats d'activite d'entreprises qui n'operent que par le biais du marche Il presente, a ce propos, un certain nombre de donnees collectees aux Etats-Unis, a New York entre 1990 et 1991

Proximity and Innovation: A Critical Assessment

Abstract: Boschma R. A. (2005) Proximity and innovation: a critical assessment, Regional Studies39, 61-74. A key issue in economic geography is to determine the impact of geographical proximity on interactive learning and innovation. We argue that the importance of geographical proximity cannot be assessed in isolation, but should always be examined in relation to other dimensions of proximity that may provide alternative solutions to the problem of coordination. We claim that geographical proximity per se is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for learning to take place. Nevertheless, it facilitates interactive learning, most likely by strengthening the other dimensions of proximity. However, proximity may also have negative impacts on innovation due to the problem of lock-in. Accordingly, not only too little, but also too much proximity may be detrimental to interactive learning and innovation. This may be the case for all five dimensions of proximity discussed in the paper, i.e. cognitive, organizatio...