Emergence of communities through interdependent dynamics of physical, cognitive and virtual contexts: the case of collaborative spaces

Abstract

Research about the emergence of communities has mainly focused on a single context of interaction, either physical or virtual. To uncover the relationships between different contexts (physical, cognitive, and virtual), the article investigates the progressive construction of different communities linked to collaborative spaces. Through a qualitative research based on a multiple case study, our analysis presents four distinct patterns of evolution, where different contexts were sequentially used, that continuously consolidated and enlarged the initial community. The results have significant implications not only to better understand community‐based collaborative dynamics, but they also offer useful insights about how to successfully develop and manage collaborative spaces for R&D and innovation activities.

Virtual collaborative spaces: a case study on the antecedents of collaboration in an open‐source software community

“…Their findings have reversed the traditional perspective on the relationships between physical and virtual, but they have not examined in detail the multidimensional concept of proximity in virtual contexts. This research problem -how multiple dimensions of proximity influence virtual collaborative spacesis still poorly investigated, even if its importance has emerged as crucial (see Huang et al, 2013;Capdevila and Mérindol, 2022;Clifton et al, 2022). Studies on collaborative innovation in physical spaces found that geographical proximity and institutional proximity have a positive effect on collaboration; organizational proximity is also supporting collaborative interactions; while cognitive and social proximity are key but tend also to show an inverted U-shape curve -i.e., they foster collaboration but only up to a certain point, after which similarities in terms of actors' cognition and trust have a detrimental effect on collaborative innovation (Ponds et al, 2007;Gilsing et al, 2008;D'Este et al, 2012;Steinmo and Rasmussen, 2016;Chen and Xie, 2018).…”

“…The virtual environment is primarily used to overcome geographical boundaries, especially when supporting collaborative innovation (Sawhney et al, 2005; De Maggio et al, 2009) and promoting knowledge exchange within organizations (Hwang et al, 2015). However, more recently, Capdevila and Mérindol (2022, p. 15) demonstrated that ‘the starting point of the collaborative practices for innovation is not always the physical space’, and ‘virtual networks of practices can act as precursors of local communities in collaborative spaces’. Their findings have reversed the traditional perspective on the relationships between physical and virtual, but they have not examined in detail the multidimensional concept of proximity in virtual contexts.…”

Places and spaces of collaborative R&D and innovation: navigating the role of physical and virtual contexts

“…Finally, as an article that represents both physical and virtual spaces, Capdevila and Mérindol (2022) explore the emergence of communities in collaborative spaces and how they develop over time through interdependent dynamics of physical, cognitive, and virtual contexts. The research is based on a comparative case study of 11 collaborative spaces in France and Spain, and the methodology is based on an iterative process of data collection and analysis.…”

“…The special issue articles span a spectrum of themes, from the theoretical underpinnings of collaborative spaces to the effects of virtual and physical spaces on collaborative innovation. More specifically, they are examining cross-sector partnerships (Dzhengiz and Patala, 2023), collaborative innovation workplaces (Klooker and Hölzle, 2023), living labs (Della Santa et al, 2022), makerspaces (Zakoth et al, 2023), community-based collaborative dynamics (Capdevila and Mérindol, 2022), and hubs as spaces as part of the local innovation ecosystems (Haukipuro et al, 2023). Several articles specifically examine virtual collaboration spaces as a new and underresearched formation.…”