Areas for Future Research

9.1 Introduction

As an exploratory research project in a developing field one of the important outcomes is setting a research agenda. Presented from a macro, country/government level to a micro, human behaviour level, the following research areas will be discussed. Government involvement has been heavy in France and as such provides a rich area for investigation.

Closely related to governmental issues are the policy implications and how they can be

researched. CI intervention entities such as the CCI or consultants, follows on from policy in a public private partnership context. The methods used by such entities to change behaviours and attitudes are discussed as well as a special focus on Organisational Learning. Although not an explicit research objective of this thesis, Organisational Learning has gained attention in recent CI literature (Wright, 2011). There would appear to be convergences between progressive stages of CI development in SMEs and higher order levels of organisational learning. Related to this incremental progression of higher order CI capabilities, whether linked to Organisational Learning or not, is a need for qualitative studies to examine closely how SMEs actually progress from one stage to another. Future research avenues for CI terminology are also proposed. Finally, this chapter will discuss future directions for CI attitude antecedent studies, notably in an SME context.

Language has been identified as a barrier to the investigation of best practice in CI with France named as an example from the English speaking world perspective (Wright, 2011).

Bergeron (2000a) also spoke of the language barrier in researching governmental approaches to assisting SMEs in a CI context. Bi-lingual or possibly tri-lingual researchers who can straddle the language barriers are needed to encourage the type of research undertaken by this thesis.

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9.2 Country Level Analysis

Many country level reports have been written on CI practices. Often they have lacked

common measurement frameworks (Wright & Calof, 2006) or they have led to exaggeration, poor documentation, and scarce examples (Bergeron, 2000a) quoted by Larivet & Brouard (2012). Country comparison may be a way forward whereby a common frame of reference could compare and contrast CI approaches. The seminal work by Bergeron (2000a) did just this with eight countries, with Quebec as a central reference point, and published in French.

Government intervention and government policies are not inevitable in country level analysis of CI practice. The UK is a notable example whereby government initiatives are particularly light (Bergeron, 2000a; Wright et al, 2004). Country blocs, such as the EU, have already been the focus of research (Bergeron, 2000a) and CI initiatives (Masson, 2004). Future country level CI research needs to transcend linguistic and cultural barriers to focus on how companies can advance their CI practices. Table 9.1 contains the key questions for future country level research.

Table 9.1 Research Agenda: Country Level

CI Topic Key Questions

The relationship between the SME community and the government

 How can and do governments develop a supportive culture for SME CI practices?

 How do SMEs react to CI government initiatives?

 How do entities engage themselves in funded CI

environments whether from the public or private sector?

 What advancement in SME practices or performance can be measured in CI funded environments?

The relationship between countries

 How do or could countries collaborate on CI public policy initiatives?

 How do countries learn from other countries to conduct CI public policies?

 What are the barriers (cultural, linguistic, political, technological, and economic) to country level collaboration on CI initiatives?

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9.3 Research Agenda: Policy

France is the ideal country to examine CI public intervention because no other country in Europe has invested so much in effort and resources for so long. Even when other countries follow France with CI public policy initiatives, France becomes the country of reference (Bègin et al, 2007; Mallowan & Marcon, 2010; Franco et al, 2011; Larivet & Brouard, 2012;

Wright et al, 2012). When French central governments have taken a back seat on CI initiatives the quasi-governmental CCI has carried forward programmes in the field (Bergeron, 2000a; Clerc, 2009; Pelissier, 2009). Nevertheless, the unique cultural and economic heritage for CI in France is unlikely to be transferable (Jakobiak, 2006; Smith &

Kossou, 2008; Moinet 2010). Future studies on CI public policy initiatives should be looking at what works, innovative practices, and how a funded environment can be optimised. Table 9.2 presents the research agenda for CI policy, building on the insights from this study.

Table 9.2 Research Agenda: Policy

CI Topic Key Questions

CI policy

programmes in the field

 Which activities succeed in engaging SMEs in CI practice and CI awareness?

 How is the performance of the CI programme measured?

 Who are the key actors in the CI programme from both the private and public sectors?

 What constraints hinder the up-take of CI programmes?

Contextual factors for CI public policy

 What are the existing attitudes towards CI practices in the SME community?

 Which entities are trusted by the SME community as sources of information?

 What terminology would be appropriate for the CI community, particularly SMEs?

 Do government initiatives deter SME engagement in CI practices?

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9.4 Research Agenda: CI Advisors

Typologies of CI advisors specific to a region would assist both SMEs and governments in network building and policy initiatives. Major types of advisors, such as consultants, may need their own typologies. The relationships between advisors and governments, as well as between each other will impact how they interact with SMEs. Table 9.3 contains the research agenda for CI advisors.

Table 9.3 Research Agenda: Advisors

CI Topic Key Questions

Advisor Typologies  What type of CI advisors exist for a given sector or region?

 How do the CI advisors work together?

How do different levels of government affect the CI advisors?

 How do the skills and experience of CI advisors influence the level of input?

Advisor Users  Why do SMEs use or not use a specific CI advisor?

 How frequently are SMEs using a given advisor?

 How credible are the CI advisors for the SMEs?

 How does the performance of none users of CI advisors compare to users of CI advisors?

9.5 Organisational Learning

Organisational Learning was not one of the research objectives when the study started and the research design has not been built for investigating this subject in SMEs. The literature in CI, and more notably in KM, has nevertheless drawn links between Organisational Learning and informational practices in SMEs, as discussed in Chapter 3. One area for investigation would be the stages of Organisational Learning development in SMEs with regard to their CI attitudes and behaviours. One research design proposal is to use the CI Manifestation typology presented in Chapter 8 as a framework for deeper investigation into how

Organisational Learning takes place in SMES. Specific interest would be how the SMEs take incremental steps to becoming learning organisations. Organisational Learning indicates how

200 an SME captures, interprets and transfers knowledge to adapt and exploit changing

environments.

The following propositions are only hypothetical but they have the potential to be empirically tested:

1. Ostriches, blinded by a lack of resources, have no or very little Organisational

Learning and information is considered free, omnipresent, and not particularly relevant for the entity’s future. For Organisational Learning to take place, companies have to initiate focused information search from the business environment and apply that knowledge to process or product innovations (Wang et al, 2010).

2. Mocking Birds search for specific information for to answer a specific question (Argyris, 1994). Corrective actions are made without changing or questioning the underlying processes (Argyris, 2002). It is single loop learning.

3. Doves go beyond scanning and other passive data collection. There is an attempt at insight management, to interpret information, to change behaviours but ultimately limited resources hold them back. Consequently they do not quite make it from single to double loop learning.

4. For Kestrels the strategic orientation of CI attitudes is further manifested in a convincing progression to double loop learning. Senge (1990) referred to this as generative learning whereby new ways are invented to look at the world whereas Argyris & Schon (2002) described it as reconsidering fundamental organisational characteristics.

5. Eagles have higher order learning, or triple loop learning (Wang & Ahmed, 2003).

Their pro-active attitude stance is manifested by an obsession to learn to learn before they are forced to learn, questioning their epistemological foundation, striving for constant innovation.

Table 9.4 overleaf aligns the 5 SME CI Manifestations types with 5 stages of Organisational Learning to be investigated. This passes from Ostriches, which conduct no Organisational Learning, all the way through to Eagles, which have the most sophisticated Organisational