The joint doctoral and research colloquium of the four Universities of Applied Sciences in Brandenburg invites participants to engage in academic exchange on ongoing research and doctoral projects at the universities. In addition, challenges, tips, and practical advice related to the doctoral journey will be shared and discussed with the participants. The colloquium is open to all interested researchers. It was launched in the summer semester of 2025 and will now continue as a regular event. The sessions take place online approximately every four weeks during the lecture period.

On June 26, Matthias Papetsch, doctoral researcher at Technische Hochschule Wildau, will present his doctoral project.

Titel:  A System Dynamics-based Theory on Self-Sustaining Communities of Practice

The need for organizations to build and develop certain capabilities has been studied extensively in Management Science. The delayed effect, when short-term operational needs leave too few resources for necessary long-term capability-building efforts, has been called the 'Capability Trap'. This research aims to generate insights that organizations can leverage to design effective long-term capability-building efforts.  Organizations in general need individual combinations of several capabilities. These individual combinations are complicated and extensive to study. It will be shown that the set of Communities of Practice forms a certain kind of organization with properties that reduce complexity when examining acquisition, preservation, and adaptation of organizational capabilities. A general System Dynamics-based Grounded Theory is developed, allowing to anticipate the behavior of a given Community of Practice based on its properties and circumstances.