Frans van den Bosch

Bio: Frans van den Bosch is an academic researcher from Erasmus University Rotterdam. The author has contributed to research in topics: Competitive advantage & Corporate governance. The author has an hindex of 54, co-authored 215 publications receiving 19700 citations. Previous affiliations of Frans van den Bosch include Erasmus Research Institute of Management & University of Twente.

Creation of Managerial Capabilities through Managerial Knowledge Integration: A Competence-based Perspective

Abstract: The competence perspective has emphasized the importance of organizational resources and capabilities, particularly organizational knowledge. In investigating the management of organizational knowledge creation processes, the literature on new organizational forms has explicitly focused on management processes and resources at different managerial levels. By integrating and applying managerial knowledge, managers develop managerial capability and render the service of their resource. Moreover, managers' own process for learning and capability development play a critical role in organizational knowledge creation processes and in the adoption of new organizational forms that improve dynamic organizational capabilities. Given these key services of managers as a resource, it can be argued that we should now put managerial knowledge at the forefront of competitive advantage. This chapter defines what managerial knowledge and managerial capabilities are, what services are rendered by them, how they interrelate with organizational knowledge creation processes, and how front-line, middle, and top managers can contribute to a firm's organizational competences. A conceptual framework for analyzing managerial knowledge integration is developed and applied to front-line managers, middle managers, and top managers.

Reputation Management Capabilities as Decision Rules

Abstract: We draw on a detailed grounded theory study of the reactions of Dutch food firms to the recent introduction of genetically modified foods to inductively identify the capabilities that firms develop in response to reputational threats. Central to the view on capabilities we propose are the decision rules organizations use to link individual actions to organizational outcomes. Four reputation management capabilities were identified, which were aimed at, respectively: (1) engaging in a cooperative dialogue with relevant stakeholders; (2) presenting the organizational point of view favourably in the eyes of external beholders; (3) avoiding organizational 'ownership' of critical reputational threats; and (4) communicating meaningfully with affected parties, even under conditions of high adversity and time-pressure.

Boards of directors' contribution to strategy : a literature review and research agenda

Abstract: Research Question/Issue: Over the last four decades, research on the relationship between boards of directors and strategy has proliferated Yet to date there is little theoretical and empirical agreement regarding the question of how boards of directors contribute to strategy This review assesses the extant literature by highlighting emerging trends and identifying several avenues for future research Research Findings/Results: Using a content-analysis of 150 articles published in 23 management journals up to 2007, we describe and analyze how research on boards of directors and strategy has evolved over time We illustrate how topics, theories, settings, and sources of data interact and influence insights about board–strategy relationships during three specific periods Theoretical Implications: Our study illustrates that research on boards of directors and strategy evolved from normative and structural approaches to behavioral and cognitive approaches Our results encourage future studies to examine the impact of institutional and context-specific factors on the (expected) contribution of boards to strategy, and to apply alternative methods to fully capture the impact of board processes and dynamics on strategy making Practical Implications: The increasing interest in boards of directors’ contribution to strategy echoes a movement towards more strategic involvement of boards of directors However, best governance practices and the emphasis on board independence and control may hinder the board contribution to the strategic decision making Our study invites investors and policy-makers to consider the requirements for an effective strategic task when they nominate board members and develop new regulations

Absorptive Capacity: A Review, Reconceptualization, and Extension

Abstract: Researchers have used the absorptive capacity construct to explain various organizational phenomena. In this article we review the literature to identify key dimensions of absorptive capacity and offer a reconceptualization of this construct. Building upon the dynamic capabilities view of the firm, we distinguish between a firm's potential and realized capacity. We then advance a model outlining the conditions when the firm's potential and realized capacities can differentially influence the creation and sustenance of its competitive advantage.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

Abstract: How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

Clusters and knowledge: local buzz, global pipelines and the process of knowledge creation

Abstract: The paper is concerned with spatial clustering of economic activity and its relation to the spatiality of knowledge creation in interactive learning processes. It questions the view that tacit knowledge transfer is confined to local milieus whereas codified knowledge may roam the globe almost frictionlessly. The paper highlights the conditions under which both tacit and codified knowledge can be exchanged locally and globally. A distinction is made between, on the one hand, the learning processes taking place among actors embedded in a community by just being there dubbed buzz and, on the other, the knowledge attained by investing in building channels of communication called pipelines to selected providers located outside the local milieu. It is argued that the co-existence of high levels of buzz and many pipelines may provide firms located in outward-looking and lively clusters with a string of particular advantages not available to outsiders. Finally, some policy implications, stemming from this argumen...

The knowledge-creating company

Abstract: How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.