Table 3.

Three perspectives on CoPs and their potential application in healthcare service improvement

	Analytical perspective	Instrumental perspective	Developmental perspective
Purpose	A theoretical heuristic to analyse practice, meaning, identity and learning	A knowledge management tool aiming to deliberately engineer, or ‘cultivate’ CoPs	Analysis of relevant CoPs and their characteristics accompanied by the facilitation of their development
Types of CoPs prioritised	Existing or naturally emerging, organic, often uniprofessional	Deliberate, often multiprofessional and/or multi-organisational	Multiple, overlapping CoPs forming wider landscapes of practice
Potential application	Researching boundaries, identities and their influence on knowledge sharing; informing theory-driven implementation interventions [17]	Delivering joint projects by CoPs comprised of committed and legitimate members, placed in favourable context and supported by infrastructure and resources [55]	Implementing service improvement interventions in complex multiprofessional and multi-organisational contexts with numerous barriers to knowledge sharing