| Companies in food- and agribusiness chains and networks are facing ever-faster changes in the international business environment, to which they must respond through 'knowledge enabling': companies should create a learning context to stimulate their professionals to develop, share, and apply knowledge. In this respect, communities of practice (CoPs) can be very fruitful. A community of practice is a special type of informal network of professionals that emerges from a desire to work more effectively or to understand work more deeply among members of a particular speciality or work group. The current research project will focus on the following main research question: Can CoPs of purchasing professionals in their organisations and in chains in food- and agribusiness foster collaborative knowledge construction and responsiveness of these professionals? First, explorative research will be carried out to determine which CoPs exist in their particular domain of purchasing and which criteria such communities should meet in order to be effective. In addition, in-depth studies are planned to determine how the effectiveness of such CoPs (in terms of knowledge construction and responsiveness) can be improved through computer-supported collaborative learning/working (CSCL) |
