Beyond command and control:tensions arising from empowerment initiatives

In this study, we explore how empowerment initiatives can be understood by drawing on key notions from the power literature. By conceptualizing empowerment as the transformation toward ‘power to’ by actively using ‘power over’, we uncover power-related dynamics and tensions arising from empowerment initiatives in ways that go beyond prior work. Our in-depth case study of an empowerment initiative in a military organization highlights the complex challenges that powerful actors face when attempting to enhance the power to act elsewhere in the organization. Our findings demonstrate how power-related tensions arise between and within actors, as actors combine and shift between different power practices. We find that power tensions are not merely relational in nature (i.e., between actors), but also arise when individual cognition differs from action. By showing how the interplay of different power practices may result in major tensions, our findings provide a new perspective on why organizational empowerment initiatives may produce unintended outcomes or even completely fail. Moreover, while power-over, power-to and transformative power practices are typically explored separately, this study is one of the first to shed light on the complex relation between these power practices, thereby examining them together. Finally, this study demonstrates how cross-fertilization between the empowerment and power discourses may advance both fields

Business models for growth

This report is the result of the project "Business models for growth". This project aimed to support the national Syntens growth program NLGroeit, mainly with good examples of repeatable and scalable business models for growth and with an approach for the design and implementation of business models for growth. The project focused on innovative startups and scale-ups with ambition to grow, and innovative established SME organizations in general. This report starts with a literature study performed on small firm growth, business models, and approaches for transforming business models for growth. Next, 8 example cases showing high growth and how this is achieved are described and preliminary conclusions are derived from these

Business models for growth

This report is the result of the project "Business models for growth". This project aimed to support the national Syntens growth program NLGroeit, mainly with good examples of repeatable and scalable business models for growth and with an approach for the design and implementation of business models for growth. The project focused on innovative startups and scale-ups with ambition to grow, and innovative established SME organizations in general. This report starts with a literature study performed on small firm growth, business models, and approaches for transforming business models for growth. Next, 8 example cases showing high growth and how this is achieved are described and preliminary conclusions are derived from these

Effectuation 10 year waypoint

As a concept, effectuation celebrated its tenth birthday in 2011. We use the milestone to look back at the work done to date and to look forward to new questions and issues. What we see is an idea that has added shape to the conversation regarding entrepreneurship. By offering a clear theoretical and testable perspective, effectuation has enabled both a foundation for supporting work as well as criticism. The resulting dialog has advanced our level of understanding regarding the phenomenon of entrepreneurship, and in the process it has opened exciting specific questions and entirely new directions. By inventorying as much current work and as many future questions as we could identify, we seek to encourage the interaction, and look forward to what will be created by effectuation’s twentieth birthday

Initiating cross-sectoral innovation – bringing space technology to other sectors

High innovation speed, increasing product complexity and shorter life cycles characterize the global knowledge economy. This causes organizations to search for new and effective ways to innovate. Innovation typically occurs at the boundaries between disciplines and specializations, involving the creation and combination of various types of knowledge. However, sharing knowledge among actors and organizations from different sectoral domains is challenging. Under cross-sectoral circumstances, the processes to initiate and manage boundary spanning are not well understood, making application of developed knowledge in another domain difficult. An in-depth case study from the Netherlands on commercializing space technology (i.e. satellite data) aims to address the complexity of initiating and managing boundary spanning in innovation ecosystems. The results of this study give insight into the process of managing innovation when knowledge needs to be shared and evaluated by multiple organizations. This process includes the identification of involved organizations, the development of effective boundary objects and the division of roles among the organizations from the innovation ecosystem. Hence, our findings enhance understanding of initiating boundary spanning processes across different sectoral domains

The role of middle managers in becoming lean: a systematic review and synthesis of the literature

Aims: Many organizations adopt the Lean management approach to create a culture of continuous improvement (CI), but often fail to accomplish such a change. Previous studies have explained this high failure rate in terms of poor leadership and management, including the role of middle managers. However, the body of knowledge about the role and influence of middle management in Lean CI is underdeveloped and highly dispersed. Some earlier work suggests that middle managers can both enable and hinder CI initiatives, but a systematic overview is missing. This paper provides a systematic review of the literature to develop a mechanism-based framework that explains the success and failure of CI initiatives in which middle managers are key agents. This study therefore aims to develop an evidence-based framework of key aspects of middle management roles in CI practices drawing on Lean. Methodology: We conducted a mechanism-based systematic review of the literature. In total, 203 publications were selected and then reviewed in detail. This review focuses on how middle managers influence the implementation and success/failure of Lean CI initiatives. Results: The review of the literature on CI/Lean and middle management results in two frameworks. Each of these frameworks assumes that top management consistently seeks to implement a particular (archetypical) philosophy of CI/Lean: the first framework assumes an integral management approach and the second one starts from the assumption that a cost-cutting strategy is adopted. Each of these two frameworks in itself reflects some of the key tensions and challenges arising from any CI/Lean change effort, especially for middle managers. In practice, the two conditions may overlap, which creates an additional level of complexity. Overall, our review provides an understanding of the (non)conditions in which continuous improvement initiatives are likely to succeed or fail, and as such also provides a starting point for future research as well as practical work in this area