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.

How does co-creation with customers influence innovation performance? The role of connectedness

Abstract: Co-creation with customers is considered to be an important source of competitive advantage. However, prior research has provided mixed results to what extent it increases innovation performance and mainly included the role of formal coordination mechanisms within an organization in it. To contribute to address these gaps in the co-creation literature, we examine how co-creation, conceptualized by relationship learning, influences exploitative and exploratory innovation and how these effects are contingent upon an important informal coordination mechanism: connectedness within a unit. Based on a survey among Dutch care organizations, our findings indicate that relationship learning with customers has an inverted U-shaped effect on exploitative innovation, while its effect on exploratory innovation is positive. Additionally, connectedness flattens the negative effect of higher levels of relationship learning with customers on exploitative innovation, while it has a negative effect on exploratory innovation...

Industrial Training in The Netherlands: A Comparison with Some Other EC Countries

Abstract: The substantial differences in industrial training participation rates and costs at industry level are focused on. Data on costs and participation rates for the EC member states are presented and attention is drawn to differences in training systems among the countries, with special emphasis on The Netherlands. The important results of an extensive survey on industrial training in The Netherlands are reported. Remarkable differences between industrial sectors can be noticed, both in training intensity and in organisational structure. A framework is presented aimed at explaining these differences. The framework is applied to the Dutch data and preliminary results and recommendations are presented.

The Influence of Top Management Team’s Corporate Governance Orientation on Strategic Renewal Trajectories

Abstract: Using the upper echelons perspective together with corporate governance and strategic renewal literature, this paper investigates how top managers’ corporate governance orientation influences a firm’s strategic renewal trajectories over time Through both a qualitative analysis (1907-2004) and a quantitative analysis (1959-2004), we investigate this under-researched question within the context of a large incumbent firm: Royal Dutch Shell plc Our results indicate that top managers having an Anglo-Saxon corporate governance orientation are more likely to pursue exploitative and external-growth strategic renewal trajectories, while those having a Rhine corporate governance orientation are more likely to pursue exploratory and internal-growth strategic renewal trajectories We also found a positive moderating effect of the proportion of shareholders from the Anglo-Saxon countries on exploitative and external-growth strategic renewal trajectories Our findings indicate that top managers’ corporate governance orientation can be an important antecedent of strategic renewal and of organisational ambidexterity, both of which influence corporate longevity

Creation of Managerial Capabilities Through Managerial Knowledge Integration

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework of managerial knowledge integration and to illustrate the framework for three levels of management: front-line, middle, and top management Based on the framework, propositions will be derived relating managerial knowledge integration with the creation of managerial capabilities and a firm's managerial competences

Een economische analyse van de non-participatiegraad: de invloed van arbeidsongeschiktheid

Abstract: Inleiding. De non-participatiegraad, gedefinieerd als het aantal niet-werkzame c.q. niet-actieve personen als percentage van de totale bevolking per leeftijdsklasse, vertoont de laatste jaren een opmerkelijk sterke stijging. Zo is in de periode 1970-1979 de gemiddelde non-participatiegraad van de mannelijke bevolking gestegen van ca. 8%tot ca. 15%, d.w.z. in 9 jaar tijd bijna verdubbeld! Bovendien blijkt de non-participatie m.n. voor de oudere leeftijdsklassen een aanzienlijke omvang te gaan aannemen. Bedroeg in 1970 de non-participatiegraad voor de leeftijdsklasse 60-64 jaar reeds ca. 28%, in 1979 steeg dit percentage tot ca. 52%. De verreweg belangrijkste oorzaak van non-participatie is arbeidsongeschiktheid. Zo bedroeg de non-participatiegraad van de totale mannelijke bevolking uit hoofde van arbeidsongeschiktheid in 1970 ca. 5% en in 1979 reeds ruim 10% ! Dit betekent dat gemiddeld circa twee derde van de non-participatie uit arbeidsongeschiktheid voortvloeit. Een nadere economische analyse van dit verschijnsel, dat ondermeer zowel de omvang als de samenstelling van het arbeidsaanbod rechtstreeks bei'nvloedt, is dan ook van groot belang.

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.