"The greatest barrier for innovations in health care is the "scared old men"" - A study of actors' interpretations of knowledge sharing and innovation processes

Is innovation and innovation transfer really hindered by conservative ‘scared old men’? And is innovation then fostered by the brave young ones? Both challenging this simplistic explanation, and at the same time showing how it has some relevance and pointing towards relational aspects of innovation processes, we address the issue of what facilitates or hinders knowledge sharing and transfer of innovations in complex organisations. While much literature on knowledge and innovation treat innovations as stable entities, and knowledge as context free pieces of information residing in individuals’ heads, our study adds to the research on innovation and knowledge as highly relational and situated processes within and across ‘communities of practice’. With our three case studies of interactive innovation in the health care sector, we discuss the importance of power negotiations, networking, alignment and process knowledge for transfer of medical innovations and knowledge sharing.

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