Ack! You're forcing me to put on my MBA hat twice in a day. a record.. [dodging rotten tomatoes..]
Rafael wrote:
I think is in Innovation Management, Strategies implementation and profits by Allan Afuah that they say that virtual organizations don't get along very well with R&D companies. But this (open source) might be the opposite! Anyway, I think that several of the things you mention are important.
I took Professor Afuah's strategy courses & I have spoken with him about this topic. It's important to note that he comes from the semiconductor world, which is somewhat different than software (of course, he has attempted to apply his models to both industries.)
One of his major points is that innovation seems to crop up in limited geographic areas, regardless of how hard other areas try to replicate their success. He points to silicon valley and boston's 128 corridor as being two such places. His argument is that these places foster innovation not just because "smart people" are there, but because they all share _tacit knowledge_ with each other -- even with people from competing firms.
That is, it is the culture of hypercompetition that forms in these areas that allows the transmission of information within and across firms [as people defect from one firm to another], and causes the rapid spread of ideas.
Virtual firms, in contrast, are able to share knowledge explicitly, through structured communications like email and our famous bboards, but often fail to capture these other less formal means of communication with are often crucial to the creative process.
Thus, you shouldn't expect to see too many more places like silicon valley pop up, even if governments pump huge cash into building out areas expressly for the purpose of becoming another SV.
Can a virtual organization work? I think so, but I wouldn't expect to see too much rapid "innovation" come out of the process.
Rather, I suspect that with a worldwide community working on the product, the what gets built will be more likely to be a "jack of all trades", which reflects the broad experiences of those who built it.
Leading to a piece of work that's both reliable, and with a great deal of functionality. But "innovative"? (as in the "new, new thing"?) I have my doubts. I hope the openacs community proves me wrong. (anyone want to write a paper? 😉 )
