Strategic Renewal of European Financial Incumbents; Coevolution of Environmental Selection, Institutional Effects, and Managerial Intentionality

Hoe coevolueren bedrijven en omgevingen? Hoe zijn adaptie op organisatieniveau en selectie op industrieniveau aan elkaar gerelateerd? Kunnen grote gevestigde ondernemingen zichzelf vernieuwen en zich aanpassen aan hun omgeving? We onderzoeken strategische vernieuwing van gevestigde ondernemingen aan de hand van proposities die zijn afgeleid van drie enkelvoudige theoretische perspectieven; omgevingsselectie, institutionele theorie en organisatorische intenties en een coevolutionair perspectief. Op basis van een onderscheid van drie dimensies van strategische vernieuwing worden maatstaven ontwikkeld om deze proposities te onderzoeken. Het onderzoek is uitgevoerd middels een longitudinale analyse van de Europese financiële sector waarin meerdere landen en analyseniveaus zijn betrokken.De resultaten geven aan dat, overeenkomstig het omgevingsselectieperspectief, gevestigde ondernemingen exploitatie-acties prefereren boven exploratie-acties. Nationale institutionele omgevingen blijken van invloed te zijn op de mate waarin gevestigde ondernemingen interne dan wel externe vernieuwingsacties prefereren. Organisatorische intenties bieden een verklaring voor deviant gedrag en bedrijfsspecifieke timing en frequentie van vernieuwingsacties. Coevolutionaire interactie-effecten dragen ertoe bij afwijkingen van voorspellingen van enkelvoudige theoretische perspectieven te verklaren.How do incumbent firms and environments coevolve and how are firm-level adaptation and selection at industry level interrelated? Can and do large established organizations renew themselves to adapt to their environment? We develop propositions based on three single-lens theories that relate to environmental selection, institutional theory, managerial intentionality, and to the coevolutionary perspective to investigate strategic renewal of incumbent firms. We distinguish between three dimensions of strategic renewal to develop metrics to investigate our propositions in a multi-level, multi-country, longitudinal study of the European financial services industry.The results provide the following insights. From an environmental selection perspective, we find incumbents have a preference for exploitation renewal actions. Country institutional environments appear to explain to what extent incumbents prefer internal and/or external renewal actions. Managerial intentionality seems to explain outlier behaviour and firm-specific frequency and timing of renewal actions. From a coevolutionary perspective, interaction effects contribute to explain deviations from predictions derived from the single-lens theories applied in this thesis

Het veranderende landschap in de Europese financiële sector: vooruitblik op de financiële sector in de 21ste eeuw

De Europese financiële sector wordt geconfronteerd met ingrijpende veranderingen in de omgeving die van grote invloed zijn op de concurrentieverhoudingen en de manier waarop financiële dienstverlenende bedrijven hun routines, producten en diensten voortbrengen. Dit blijkt uit onderzoek naar de snelheid waarmee EU-regelgeving en technologische innovaties zich over Groot-Brittannië, Frankrijk, Italië, Nederland en Zweden hebben verspreid gedurende de periode 1990-1999. Groot-Brittannië en Nederland komen daarin naar voren als voorlopers met betrekking tot het implementeren van nieuwe regelgeving en technologieën, terwijl Italië en Frankrijk relatief laat zijn. Uit de bevindingen blijkt verder dat reguleringen en technologieën steeds sneller algemeen verspreid worden, in tegenstelling tot het vroegere proces van verspreiding van land tot land. Het veranderende landschap stelt gevestigde ondernemingen in de financiële dienstverlening daarmee voor belangrijke uitdagingen in de nabije toekomst en maakt strategische vernieuwing een noodzaak voor de gevestigde spelers in de financiële sector

Investigating Strategic Renewal of Five Large Dutch Financial Services Firms

How do large well-established firms renew themselves in an increasing turbulent environment? Is there a generic pattern of change or is each change journey rather idiosyncratic? We posed five questions about the nature of renewal patterns. First, how do firms combine external versus internal initiatives in a trajectory of strategic renewal? Second, how does the balance of competence building and competence leveraging evolve in a trajectory of strategic renewal? Third, what are the sequences of action in a strategic renewal process? Fourth, do firms differ regarding speed of their renewal processes? Finally, do different strategic renewal trajectories give rise to different of similar outcomes? Using a simple framework and new metrics we described and analyzed the strategic renewal journeys of the five largest financial service firms in the Netherlands during the period 1990-1997. We found equifinality in viable trajectories of strategic renewal. In four out of five firms, they result in similar outcomes due to mimetic behaviour. Nonetheless, one firm showed deviant strategic behaviour

Alzheimer's disease

In this Seminar, we highlight the main developments in the field of Alzheimer's disease. The most recent data indicate that, by 2050, the prevalence of dementia will double in Europe and triple worldwide, and that estimate is 3 times higher when based on a biological (rather than clinical) definition of Alzheimer's disease. The earliest phase of Alzheimer's disease (cellular phase) happens in parallel with accumulating amyloid β, inducing the spread of tau pathology. The risk of Alzheimer's disease is 60-80% dependent on heritable factors, with more than 40 Alzheimer's disease-associated genetic risk loci already identified, of which the APOE alleles have the strongest association with the disease. Novel biomarkers include PET scans and plasma assays for amyloid β and phosphorylated tau, which show great promise for clinical and research use. Multidomain lifestyle-based prevention trials suggest cognitive benefits in participants with increased risk of dementia. Lifestyle factors do not directly affect Alzheimer's disease pathology, but can still contribute to a positive outcome in individuals with Alzheimer's disease. Promising pharmacological treatments are poised at advanced stages of clinical trials and include anti-amyloid β, anti-tau, and anti-inflammatory strategies

The informatics challenges facing biobanks:a perspective from a United Kingdom biobanking network

The challenges facing biobanks are changing from simple collections of materials to quality-assured fit-for-purpose clinically annotated samples. As a result, informatics awareness and capabilities of a biobank are now intrinsically related to quality. A biobank may be considered a data repository, in the form of raw data (the unprocessed samples), data surrounding the samples (processing and storage conditions), supplementary data (such as clinical annotations), and an increasing ethical requirement for biobanks to have a mechanism for researchers to return their data. The informatics capabilities of a biobank are no longer simply knowing sample locations; instead the capabilities will become a distinguishing factor in the ability of a biobank to provide appropriate samples. There is an increasing requirement for biobanking systems (whether in-house or com-mercially sourced) to ensure the informatics systems stay apace with the changes being experienced by the biobanking community. In turn, there is a requirement for the biobanks to have a clear informatics policy and directive that is embedded into the wider decision making process. As an example, the Breast Cancer Campaign Tissue Bank in the UK was a collaboration between four individual and diverse biobanks in the UK, and an informatics platform has been developed to address the challenges of running a distributed network. From developing such a system there are key observations about what can or cannot be achieved by informatics in isolation. This article will highlight some of the lessons learned during this development process