*4.1.1.1 Social proximity: the challenge*

Participants' statements such as «it's because I have good relation», «he's a nice guy», «we look at affinities», «the research is between friends» and «if the chemistry is not there it does not work!» have been widely given as an answer to explain their choice of projects partners. Facilitated by the geographic proximity, the social proximity is shown as a foster for the emergence of collaborative project and an important determinant for the knowledge sharing process. According to our results, social capital is dependent on past experiences, friendship and affinities between actors. Those relationships are consolidated by the trust that people develop among themselves through their previous experiences and their evolution over time. Specifically, partners develop their trust in each other based on knowledge, trustworthiness and friendship. This is reflected in the comments of one of our respondents: «we create a certain trust between the players through the relationship» and «the social aspect is an important element that I had underestimated! That's where trust comes in! ». However, curiously, despite the importance of social proximity during the initiation phase of the project, our results throughout the progress of project, the social proximity does not play an important role. Social proximity facilitates the emergence of collaborative project, but it does not always mean it that lead to collaboration none achieve knowledge sharing.

#### *4.1.2 The set-up' project phase: the role of meso level*

The set-up project' phases highlight the importance of meso level in the knowledge sharing process. According to most of informants, the team project partners and the organisation' implication played an important role to facilitate the knowledge sharing process during the set-up projects phases.

#### *4.1.2.1 Institutional orientation*

The research results highlight the crucial role of institutional orientation of the firm and how it affects the goal of collaborative project and consequently the knowledge sharing process. Indeed, for most of our informants the involvement of the industrial firm in the CRIAQ project is seen rather as a response to a social mission, political pressure and a need for visibility. It is therefore not surprising that the organization' interest in the CRIAQ project is sometimes low and questionable. Consequently, it is obvious that the availability of team members on these projects is compromised. One of informants explained: *«So it limits the frequency of meetings, the availability of industrial very much limits the frequency of meetings ... Then if people are not available, also sometimes it puts frustrations when we want to settle things and then there is no availability».* The lack of availability affects deeply the purpose of collaboration and knowledge sharing process between partners. As the team partners do not have the availability needed to the project progress, they do not necessarily absorb and integrate in time the information and new knowledge generated by the project. In these cases, the challenge is to take advantage of this information before it becomes obsolete. This informant summarized this issue: *«So often, we will absorb the information in detail a few years later. Because when the project starts, we do not have the resources, we do not have the right resources. We follow the project, but how can I say.. with a certain distance, we are not equipped, and we do not do it from day to day».* However, the lack of project interest showed two different explanations from informant. In one hand, informants stated that the "bottom up" approach of these collaborative project does not lead necessarily to knowledge sharing process and in other hand, others informant explained that this lack in

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*Managing Inter-Organizational Knowledge Sharing: Integrating Macro, Meso and Micro...*

the interest in the project is a consequence of the absence of some individual's determinants such as communication, leaderships, insufficient skills in project

According to informants, the most important determinant to foster knowledge sharing process is leadership. As stated earlier, social proximity and affinities are just not enough to bolster knowledge sharing process. Sometimes, with disappointment some of informants explained that most of CRIAQ projects are based on social proximity to choose team projects partners. However, despite this social proximity, informants argued that tension and disappointment are experienced during most of CRIAQ project especially during the execution phases the project when the role of leader is much needed. It is worth noting that based on the rules of CRIAQ project, the academic partner should take the lead of project. Most of informants explained that the lack of «strong leader» described as problematic and lead to frustration and loss of project interest. Some respondents explain: «there are several universities and research center and they do not necessarily communicate, it's the job of academic lead normally, it's hard to promote these communications!», «Yes it slows down our involvement in CRIAQ projects definitely. Yes definitely! It's a matter of credibility…We say it starts today, but we will start in a year!». However, our results show that the leadership issues is related to misunderstanding of the reality of each other's partners. For the academic's partners, it is not lack of "strong leader" that impact the execution of project but the misunderstanding of industrials partners of the academic' challenge to build the research team. One of academic informants explained: "Sometimes that's why we can't deliver or start on time because of student recruitment, for some projects we cannot recruit international student, and because of the ability of manufacturers to bring out data internally and communicate it to us… They ask us the impossible". On the whole, the research results show the challenge that face the partners of interorganizational collaborative project especially between academics and industrials partners. For the academic' partners the feeling of misunderstanding of their realities and the challenges they faced is widely raised. In fact, despite the collaborative aspect of these project, this divide on the way how to perceive partners 'reality and challenge makes the knowledge

The purpose of this paper was to gain an in depth understanding the factors that impede and foster the inter-organizational knowledge sharing within a collaborative project. The results highlight how social proximity, which is considerate as a facilitator to collaboration and interactive learning, is needed to initiate the collaborative project but neither fosters collaboration nor facilitates the knowledge sharing process in a lack of other factors. Our finding suggests that throughout the project' progress, the lack of leadership and interest in the project tracked a failure to achieve a knowledge sharing between partners. Indeed, open innovation requires leadership [59]. Overall, more specifically, our results highlighted the existence of deep tensions and frustrations between the collaborative project' partners especially between academia and industry. As explained by open innovation and ecosystem research, the need of complementary knowledge is more and more needed through a cross-boundary collaborations. These interorganizational collaboration implies partners with different background and culture working interdependently across

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97830*

sharing process not easy to achieve.

**5. Discussion**

*4.1.3 The execution' project phase: the role of micro level*

management.

*Managing Inter-Organizational Knowledge Sharing: Integrating Macro, Meso and Micro... DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97830*

the interest in the project is a consequence of the absence of some individual's determinants such as communication, leaderships, insufficient skills in project management.

### *4.1.3 The execution' project phase: the role of micro level*

According to informants, the most important determinant to foster knowledge sharing process is leadership. As stated earlier, social proximity and affinities are just not enough to bolster knowledge sharing process. Sometimes, with disappointment some of informants explained that most of CRIAQ projects are based on social proximity to choose team projects partners. However, despite this social proximity, informants argued that tension and disappointment are experienced during most of CRIAQ project especially during the execution phases the project when the role of leader is much needed. It is worth noting that based on the rules of CRIAQ project, the academic partner should take the lead of project. Most of informants explained that the lack of «strong leader» described as problematic and lead to frustration and loss of project interest. Some respondents explain: «there are several universities and research center and they do not necessarily communicate, it's the job of academic lead normally, it's hard to promote these communications!», «Yes it slows down our involvement in CRIAQ projects definitely. Yes definitely! It's a matter of credibility…We say it starts today, but we will start in a year!». However, our results show that the leadership issues is related to misunderstanding of the reality of each other's partners. For the academic's partners, it is not lack of "strong leader" that impact the execution of project but the misunderstanding of industrials partners of the academic' challenge to build the research team. One of academic informants explained: "Sometimes that's why we can't deliver or start on time because of student recruitment, for some projects we cannot recruit international student, and because of the ability of manufacturers to bring out data internally and communicate it to us… They ask us the impossible". On the whole, the research results show the challenge that face the partners of interorganizational collaborative project especially between academics and industrials partners. For the academic' partners the feeling of misunderstanding of their realities and the challenges they faced is widely raised. In fact, despite the collaborative aspect of these project, this divide on the way how to perceive partners 'reality and challenge makes the knowledge sharing process not easy to achieve.
