Under våren 2010 genomfördes en serie om fyra seminarier med namnet ”Från Högskolan i Borås till Humboldt: Perspektiv på universitetsidén under 200 år”. Det primära syftet var att diskutera den svenska högskolans roller i en tid präglad av stora förväntningar och motsägelsefulla krav på akademin. Denna rapport utgör en dokumentation av seminarieseriens innehåll. Professor Sven-Eric Liedman skriver med samtidskritisk udd om universitetens historia; professor Mats Benner beskriver och analyserar fyra historiska idealtyper av universitet samt belyser det förändringstryck som högskolesektorn verkar under; professor Kerstin Sahlin riktar intresset mot hur universitet skiljer sig från andra organisationer och ger sin bild av hur detta faktum bör återspegla sig i besluts- och ledningsstrukturer. Seminarieserien och rapporten är ett led i Högskolan i Borås kontinuerligt pågående självreflektion och arbete med frågor som rör professionslärosätets identitet och profil. I rapportens senare del presenteras sex korta reflektioner om och/eller seminarieseriens teman utifrån Högskolan i Borås horisont. Reflektionerna är skrivna av professorer från alla högskolans sex institutioner.

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to investigate the emerging and subtle role of the intermediaries or knowledge brokers and how to increase the learning and development of the innovation intermediaries with a governance perspective. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is the elaboration of the Mintzberg idea of rebuilding companies as communities to foster innovation in communities by using specially designed meeting format called systemic meeting. Findings – There are emerging patterns of the firms creating value networks to accelerate innovation and share knowledge. Intermediaries or knowledge brokers acting as an interface between seekers and solvers will need different mindset or approach to innovation with more of governance perspective than that of government. Originality/value – This paper extends the understanding of the intermediaries and proposed a new systemic approach to the Innovation intermediaries.

The aim of the paper is to advance our understanding of the growing role of innovation communities, in particular the role of intermediaries in such communities, and also to look for new ways of learning in innovation communities using a new meeting format. The paper provides a literature survey on innovation communities, with an emphasis on intermediaries and their functions. A new form of meeting format called the ”systemic meeting” is used to understand and enhance the knowledge and learning processes in the innovation community of Centiro, a rapidly growing Borås company specializing in IS/IT solutions for demand chain management. There is a wealth of knowledge available in different innovation communities, not the least in the global IS/IT community. But there is a dire need to develop the learning processes in order to get maximum benefit of that knowledge. Systemic meetings have shown to be powerful tools to surface the knowledge-learning interrelationship and to bridge the gap knowledge and learning in innovation communities. The paper focuses on a systemic meeting hold as a part of a Logistics Change Management class at the University of Borås. However, building on that it also provides reflections on how systemic meetings can be used as a tool for intermediaries, or for companies who want to develop their intermediating position as a way to bridge the knowledge/learning gap. The paper will deepen our understanding of how systemic meetings can be used to develop innovation communities.

Wilhelm von Humboldt låg bakom en utbildningsreform i Tyskland i början av 1800-talet. En reflektion rörande Humboldts nydanande insatser kan inspirera den nydaning av forskning och utbildning som pågår inom Högskolan i Borås. Bildningstanken var ett centralt inslag i Humboldts reform. Utmaningen för de delar av företagsekonomin och tekniken som jag arbetar med, de som centrerar sig kring begrepp som logistik och innovation, kan i förstone synas ha ganska lite med bildningstanken att göra. Men går vi till källorna för denna tanke är det lätt att se flera kopplingar och också en hel del utvecklingsmöjligheter.

The aim of the paper to investigate how a network organization; in this case by the name of Sweden Logistics, working primarily in the area around the city of Borås in Sweden, can develop its role as an intermediary in a logistics innovation community. The board of the network organization has taken several intermediating initiatives. Two of them are described in this paper. We refer to the first as a pooled initiative, and to the second as a systemic initiative. The first was pooling project resources in order to develop certain common logistics solutions in the area of distance trade return logistics. The second was aiming for a more long term and open distance trade innovation community, centering though in the first step on information support systems for distance trade. With its base in systemic theory and network theory, the paper starts up by a literature review distilling the roles of intermediaries in logistic and other types of innovation communities. On the methodological side the paper investigates the possible roles of systemic meetings as a tool for innovation community organizing. Systemic meetings were used in both of the initiatives. In the first initiative a systemic meeting proved useful for providing consumer insights and for developing ideas on how to shape return logistics in distance trade. In the second initiative a systemic meeting was used to recognize patterns in the existing distance trade innovation community, this in order to find ways to strengthen and develop this for the area important community. The second systemic meeting proved to be more problematic and the paper therefore focuses on a discussion on the possible uses of systemic meetings as a tool to develop long term and open innovation communities.

The concept of innovation communities has emerged in recent years. It has connections to the older concepts of knowledge management and communities of practice. The aim of this paper is to explore the conceptual links between the three concepts and from there on the possible roles and tools of innovation intermediaries in developing the operational links between knowledge, practice and innovation. The paper presents a literature review on knowledge management, communities of practice, innovation communities and innovation intermediaries. Connecting to this review it uses systemic theory to explore the links between the four concepts, with a particular emphasis on how intermediaries can boost innovation communities through better knowledge management and through better connections to communities of practice Systemic theory and systemic meetings have proven useful for the development of intermediary cluster roles and tools. Systemic meetings have provided practical insights of the functioning of the community, insights that can be reflected against using systemic theory as an umbrella theory for the explored conceptual theories. Innovation intermediaries of different sorts have an increasing role in the strengthening of innovation and entrepreneurship in clusters and regions. Systemic theory can be used to clarify the roles of intermediaries and systemic meetings can be used as tools for intermediary and community development.