Community of practice

In this living reference work entry, CoP is described, taking into consideration: components, characteristics, relationships among members in the CoP and between the CoP and organizations, benefits and limitations in activating a CoP, and factors that enable or obstacle the success of a CoP. It emerges that CoP exist in many contexts, and that the presence of inter-organizational CoP is growing, as well the diffusion of virtual CoP. Moreover, CoP must pay attention to the search for an equilibrium between formal-informal functioning, control-autonomy, and core group-peripheral members. Recently, CoP has manifested an interesting role in two key issues: innovation and sustainability. Some experiences show the conditions under which a CoP can be a center of innovation production, both incremental and radical. The lens of the theory of CoP seems to be very useful when communities face the challenge of sustainability. It represents a very promising area in which research and practice dialogue in search of the best solutions to environmental issues.