Introduction The purpose of this study was to examine how social networks of knowledge sharing contribute to building strategic

egic sensitivity. We examine social networks of a Services segment in a globally operating manufacturer of glassprocessing equipment, Glaston Corporation. The top management of the Services segment of the company had made a strategic decision to put emphasis on customer interaction and the customer information flow to increase sales. In order to accomplish this, a strategic initiative was set to increase the efficiency of customer knowledge transfer within the firm. This included a call for service and maintenance personnel in all countries to proactively recommend spare parts and pick up leads for upgrade and new machinery sales when visiting customers. Also, a requirement to have everyone in the organization to share customer and market information more efficiently across the different functions of the organization was set in place. The enhancement in the efficiency of customer knowledge transfer was expected to help the company to focus on sales efforts in different global regions and steer its R&D to correspond with the market needs. In spite of the strategic initiative in place, the top management in the Services segment was concerned that there was substantial lack of sharing of customer information between the different parts of the organization. In the interviews, the managers expressed their concern over losing significant sales potential due to the fact that local information about customer needs and sales prospects obtained by the maintenance personnel visiting customers sites did not reach the top management who makes globally effective decisions. Also, the concern was that strategic initiatives set at the headquarters were noteffectively implemented in the regional offices.

Social capital research Social capital research addresses the growing importance of cooperation between the members of an organization in accomplishing strategy initiatives and in creating strategic sensitivity. In addition to mapping the contacts between people, social capital research calls for a deeper understanding of the interactions that constitute the structure of social networks. Attention to the context of the relationships and interaction is expected to provide a deeper understanding about the everyday social dynamics, the informal organization, that constitute strategically important outcomes. We, thus, study not only the social structure but also the values and norms inherent in knowledge sharing and seek to understand how they play into the dynamics of exchange of information and knowledge creation

Glaston Ltd Glaston Ltd is an internationally operating corporation with headquarters in Finland. The company has operations in Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Australia and South Asia. In 2009, due to the global economic crisis, There was a dramatic decline in sales and operating result which led to adjusting the production capacity, optimizing the product range and streamlining the structure of sales organization. The number of employees was reduced by 20 per cent between 2008 and 2009. The top management of the corporation had a pressing need to reinforce strategic sensitivity of the firm in all global markets.

Thecorporate level demand for increasing strategic sensitivity touched upon the Services segment in particular, because the maintenance personnel visit customers sites regularly. The Services segment provides customers with preventative maintenance and servicing of the customers machines, and also, it sells machine spare parts, machine modernization and accessories, tools, remote monitoring and diagnostics, consulting and training. The main emphasis was put on what was called proactive sales. With this, the goal was to have the maintenance personnel, who were working in the customer interface, recognize sales opportunities more efficiently, actively inform the customer about the forthcoming improvement needs, and forcefully bring back and spread the market information across different functions within the Services segment. The service and maintenance personnel were considered as a valuable and yet, an under-utilized sales channel. The service personnel were the ones to visit the cust omers premises regularly, and thus, capable of building a trustful relationship with the customer. Now, they were asked to carry the sales information from the company to customers, and also, to inform colleagues within the company about the emerging sales opportunities and new signals from the market. The strategic initiative of proactive sales by the service and maintenance personnel was expected to result in the maintenance personnels increased capability and willingness to discuss sales matters with customers while solving technical problems for the customer.

In support of the initiative, the top management had already changed the organizational structure by appointing specialists whose duties included collecting customer information from a broad geographical area and providing sales support to maintenance personnel visiting customer locations. In addition, an e-tool had been launched from the headquarters in Finland to support collecting and sharing information on customers machines and other customer information. In spite of these actions, the top management was disappointed with the results. They felt they needed a deeper understanding of the individual level communication patterns within the firm to better understand what supports and what prevents the flow of customer information.

Methodology First, a workshop with top management team of the Services segment was organized to discuss the past and current business situation and the future strategic initiatives and goals of the company, and the Services segment, in particular. The issues covered were corporate structure, sales and marketing, communication and cooperation culture and business strategy issues and initiatives. Second, five directors in different locations were individually interviewed to deepen the understanding on key issues in strategic relationship management. The main interest was to discuss collaboration practices between the distant sales companies and the headquarters. Third, the target groups for the social network analysis were selected. The aim was to find the connections in technical and sales information communication. The social network surveys were directed to regions that were expected to have connections between each other. In addition to the social network questions, the respondents were asked to answer open-ended questions, which were related to their cooperation preferences, customer and sales information, and company-wide collaboration and guidance, and proactivity in sales