Developing regional communities of practice by network reflection: the case of the Norwegian electronics industry

In 2001 a cluster association of Norwegian high-technology SMEs challenged their regional university college to develop a management education programme aimed at improving both their management practices and co-operation within the cluster. To meet this challenge, the university developed an educational method, which is here denoted as network reflection. The primary objective of this empirical paper is to explore the extent to which network reflection has the capacity to increase regional co-operation, and to extend such concepts as communities of practice, networks of practice and experienced reflection to the regional level, in order to analyse the development of regional collective learning. To achieve this objective, a case study of a network reflection intervention and its longitudinal effects on forming regional co-operation has been conducted. The research questions are: (1) Does network reflection influence the development of regional co-operation and communities of practice? (2) If increases in regional co-operation and communities of practice could be identified, did these influence regional collective learning? (3) Does network reflection influence regional collective learning? The paper concludes that network reflection seems to have a capacity to increase regional co-operation, regional communities of practice and regional collective learning.

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