Sector firm and management performance in The Netherlands : the role of national governance and institutions

Paper presented to the fourth EMOT-workshop, theme 1, Economic performance outco- 1 mes in Europe, Berlin, January 30-February 1, 1997 This paper discusses performance characteristics and differences at three levels: at sector, firm and top management level. First, it explores the extent to which the particularities of the Dutch business system history influence the economic performance of different types of firms and sectors in the Netherlands. Elaborating on earlier work on the Dutch business system (Iterson and Olie, 1992; van Dijk and Punch, 1993: Sorge and Iterson, 1995, Iterson, 1997), it will be hypothesised which sectors and types of firms will prosper in the socio-institutional context and which sectors and types of firms will not. For instance, it will be brought forward that the agricultural sector, the mineral fuels and chemicals sector, the foods and detergents sector, the transport and transshipment sector and the financial services sector have emerged in a favourable socio-institutional context whereas the steel and the car sector have not. As to different types of firms, it will be brought forward that family-owned and state-owned companies are much less dominant in the Netherlands than public limited liability companies. At firm level, special attention will be given to the large multinational corporations, such as the Royal Dutch Shell Group, Unilever, AKZO, DSM and Philips. Secondly, the socially constructed managerial capabilities and discretion - again, related to economic performance - will be explored in this paper. They are to be understood as an outcome of the idiosyncratic formation of social groups in the Netherlands and the related emergent governance principles (Cf. Kristensen, 1995), which is known as `pillarisation''.management and organization theory ;

Breaking the Silence: The role of gossip in organizational culture

From the early 1980s, the number of studies pertaining to organizational culture expanded considerably to the point where it could reasonably be argued that the field had reached a level of maturity. Perhaps indicative of this maturity was the publication of the first handbook of organizational culture and climate (Ashkanasy et al. 2000). The commencement of academic interest in the topic of organizational culture generally coincided with the publication of two books mainly aimed at practitioners—Peters and Waterman’s, In search of excellence (1982) and Deal and Kennedy’s, Corporate cultures: the rites and rituals of corporate life (1982). This is not to suggest that these books account exclusively for the intellectual curiosity generated in the function and purpose of culture for an organization as there were well-known examples which had earlier sought to address the issue of organizational cultures (e.g. Pettigrew 1979). Nonetheless, these tomes were influential in raising interest in, and scope for, research on organizational culture

Physical Phenomenology of Phyllotaxis

We propose an evolutionary mechanism of phyllotaxis, regular arrangement of leaves on a plant stem. It is shown that the phyllotactic pattern with the Fibonacci sequence has a selective advantage, for it involves the least number of phyllotactic transitions during plant growth

Reawakening A Paralysed CCS Agenda in Europe - A Study of Industry Stakeholders' Positions on Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies

Abstract On the backdrop of the urgent need to combat climate change and in light of the Paris Agreement, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies are a recognised part of the solution solving the climate puzzle. Institutions such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the European Union and the International Energy Agency all define CCS as a necessary climate technology to fully enable the transition towards a sustainable low-carbon society by 2050. The steel and cement industry are heavy CO2 emitters in the European Union. A large share of these CO2 emissions are unavoidable process emissions that are not associated with fuel combustion. This demands urgent action on CO2 emission abatement in industry. At the moment CCS installation has become a recognised technological solution for decarbonisation of energy intensive industries. Due to unfavourable framework conditions an almost paralysation of movement in CCS deployment is observed in the European Union. This study investigates the relationship between industry stakeholders positions on CCS and their transition towards a sustainable low-carbon economy. It addresses a research gap by assessing the cement and steel industries positions on CCS and their identification of inadequate framework conditions currently challenging industry CCS. Furthermore the study discusses industries extended societal corporate responsibilities in a low-carbon economy in light of sustainable development. The main results indicate that industries positions on their responsibilities in a low-carbon economy are used to justify their non-engagement in large scale CCS. Industries solely recognise capturing CO2 emissions as their societal responsibility and should thus not be expected to engage in full chain CCS projects. As the needed CCS infrastructure is currently not available and unfavourable framework conditions are prevailing, the cement and steel industries associate CCS installation with unaffordable large risks. The study therefore recommends that, contrary to the polluter pays principle, public authorities should enable industries to make the necessary investments into capturing CO2. Further, public authorities should take on the task to develop the stable and predictable framework required, and initiate the construction of CO2 transport and storage capacity

Corruption Exposure Mechanisms of the EU Assessing the European Anti-Fraud Office

Currently four out of five EU citizens assume corruption as a grave issue in their own member state (Special Eurobarometer 374, 2012, p. 4). Furthermore, it is estimated that 120 billion euros a year are lost to corruption, which amounts to one per cent of the EU’s GDP (ibid.). These numbers are quite worrying, and corruption is rightly assumed to be one of the most serious social problems facing the EU and Europe today. Corruption is such an important issue, because it distorts competition of the free market, negatively affects budgets and undermines political institutions as well as democratically elected politicians (Della Porta & Vannucci, 1999). The scope of corruption is very broad and therefore difficult to define. This is due to the fact that the financial and ethical impact varies greatly and already smaller criminal offences encounter as corruption. In the context of the financial crisis, the negative effect of financial crime have been noted to be of even bigger consequence on already tight budgets and thus influences individuals directly. Thus, it becomes of considerable importance that taxpayers’ money is spent to revitalizing the European economy and not lost in the realm of criminality. Sadly enough “the European budget attracts both organised economic criminals, and opportunistic entrepreneurs who resort to fraud as means of supporting a failing enterprise or helping a company or organisation in financial difficulties” (Quirke, 2009, p. 531). It is very important to recover as much as possible of the funds that have been lost to fraud, in order to build trust in the EU institutions

The national specificity of top management teams

The authors examine top management performance in modern corporations operating in market economies. They analyse the national differences between institutions of formal company management, the value and competence systems of top managers as well as prevailing decision making practices. In their view, there is a clear difference in the power and strategies of managerial teams, reflecting the market and company differences between countries

Occupational exposure to gases/fumes and mineral dust affect DNA methylation levels of genes regulating expression

Many workers are daily exposed to occupational agents like gases/fumes, mineral dust or biological dust, which could induce adverse health effects. Epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation, have been suggested to play a role. We therefore aimed to identify differentially methylated regions (DMRs) upon occupational exposures in never-smokers and investigated if these DMRs associated with gene expression levels. To determine the effects of occupational exposures independent of smoking, 903 never-smokers of the LifeLines cohort study were included. We performed three genome-wide methylation analyses (Illumina 450 K), one per occupational exposure being gases/fumes, mineral dust and biological dust, using robust linear regression adjusted for appropriate confounders. DMRs were identified using comb-p in Python. Results were validated in the Rotterdam Study (233 never-smokers) and methylation-expression associations were assessed using Biobank-based Integrative Omics Study data (n = 2802). Of the total 21 significant DMRs, 14 DMRs were associated with gases/fumes and 7 with mineral dust. Three of these DMRs were associated with both exposures (RPLP1 and LINC02169 (2x)) and 11 DMRs were located within transcript start sites of gene expression regulating genes. We replicated two DMRs with gases/fumes (VTRNA2-1 and GNAS) and one with mineral dust (CCDC144NL). In addition, nine gases/fumes DMRs and six mineral dust DMRs significantly associated with gene expression levels. Our data suggest that occupational exposures may induce differential methylation of gene expression regulating genes and thereby may induce adverse health effects. Given the millions of workers that are exposed daily to occupational exposures, further studies on this epigenetic mechanism and health outcomes are warranted