http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/8672/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32835/ 2012-11-01T00:00:00Z Research suggests that unit-level ambidexterity positively impacts subsequent unit performance but theory and testing on this impact remain impoverished. We develop a cross-level model suggesting that structural and resource attributes of the organizational context significantly shape the relationship between unit ambidexterity and performance. Using multisource and lagged data from 285 organizational units located within 88 autonomous branches, results from hierarchical linear modeling show that this relationship is boosted when the organization is decentralized, more resource munificent, or less resource interdependent. We also find that structural differentiation of the organization does not condition the unit ambidexterity-performance relationship. Through this cross-level theory and testing, we develop a richer explanation of the effectiveness of ambidextrous units operating in multiunit contexts. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37626/ 2012-11-01T00:00:00Z Research suggests that unit-level ambidexterity positively impacts subsequent unit performance but theory and testing on this impact remain impoverished. We develop a cross-level model suggesting that structural and resource attributes of the organizational context significantly shape the relationship between unit ambidexterity and performance. Using multisource and lagged data from 285 organizational units located within 88 autonomous branches, results from hierarchical linear modeling show that this relationship is boosted when the organization is decentralized, more resource munificent, or less resource interdependent. We also find that structural differentiation of the organization does not condition the unit ambidexterity-performance relationship. Through this cross-level theory and testing, we develop a richer explanation of the effectiveness of ambidextrous units operating in multiunit contexts. Copyright http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38048/ 2012-10-01T00:00:00Z We examine how firms may accumulate and apply knowledge through their units at different locations. To that end, we assess the mediating role of units' knowledge stocks and disentangle how firms accumulate knowledge stocks through knowledge inflows and how they apply such stocks to innovative purposes at the unit level. Based on a questionnaire administered to branches of a large European financial services firm, our findings confirmed that horizontal knowledge flows develop units' breadth of knowledge stocks, which in turn positively relates to exploratory innovations. Contrary to expectations, depth of units' knowledge stocks was not fostered by vertical knowledge inflows, but instead by decentralising units. Depth of knowledge contributed not only to exploitative innovations, but also to exploratory innovations. Based on these results, our study illustrates how firms may create competitive advantage by developing and balancing distinct types of knowledge stocks at the unit level. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37436/ 2012-04-16T00:00:00Z This study attempts to increase the understanding of how offshoring influences the introduction of new products and services. Focusing on the offshoring of those business functions that provide direct knowledge inputs for innovation (i.e., production, R&D, and engineering), we propose that offshoring has an inverted U-shaped influence on firm innovativeness. Additionally, we provide an upper echelon contingency perspective by considering the moderating role of two top management team (TMT) attributes (i.e., informational diversity and shared vision). Using a cross-industry sample with lagged data, we find that offshoring has an inverted U-shaped influence on firm innovativeness and that this relationship is steeper in firms with high TMT informational diversity and in firms with low TMT shared vision. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31256/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Recent research on management innovation, i.e. new managerial processes, practices, or structures that change the nature of managerial work, suggests it can be an important source of competitive advantage. In this study, we focus on management innovation at the organization level and investigate the role of leadership behaviour as a key antecedent. Due to its prominent role within organizations, top management has the ability to greatly influence management innovation. In particular, we focus on leadership behaviour and examine transformational and transactional leadership. Additionally, as contextual variables like organizational size may influence the impact of leadership, we investigate its moderating role. Findings show that both leadership behaviours contribute to management innovation. Interestingly, our study indicates that smaller, less complex, organizations benefit more from transactional leadership in realizing management innovation. On the other hand, larger organizations need to draw on transformational leaders to compensate for their complexity and allow management innovation to flourish. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/22999/ 2011-04-14T00:00:00Z Strategic and corporate entrepreneurship have been widely acknowledged by scholars and executives alike as an effective means of revitalizing organizations to improve performance. Spurring entrepreneurial behavior and exploration within established organizations, however, remains a big challenge facing today’s businesses. As organizations grow and age over time, like people in general, they tend to become set in their ways of thinking, learning, managing and acting – they become less flexible and less willing to sense and seize new opportunities. There is little doubt that the mindsets and organizational attributes needed for exploring and leveraging new opportunities are radically different from those needed for smoothening ongoing operations, making it difficult to pursue both sets of activities at the same time within an organization. Given the importance for future sustainable growth, scholars have yet to uncover how organizations may reconcile conflicting demands and resolve the challenges associated with corporate entrepreneurship’s emphasis on leveraging existing opportunities as well as new ones ‘out there’. The aim of this inaugural address is to draw the foundations and to identify emergent opportunities for moving forward research on strategic entrepreneur - ship in general and on corporate entrepreneurship in particular. It considers the challenges associated with corporate entrepreneurship and details important organizational and managerial features of successful organizations that span different levels of analysis. The inaugural address concludes that the integration of theory and research in strategic management and entrepreneurship using such a multilevel approach generates valuable new research avenues underlying a prosperous research agenda. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/20096/ 2010-11-01T00:00:00Z Research on strategic decision making has considered advice-seeking behaviour as an important top management team attribute that influences organizational outcomes. Yet, our understanding about how top management teams utilize advice to modify current strategies and pursue exploratory innovation is still unclear. To uncover the importance of advice seeking, we delineate between external and internal advice seeking and investigate their impact on exploratory innovation. We also argue that top management team heterogeneity moderates the impact of advice seeking on exploratory innovation. Findings indicated that both external and internal advice seeking are important determinants of a firm's exploratory innovation. In addition, we observed that top management team heterogeneity facilitates firms to act upon internal advice by combining different perspectives and developing new products and services. Interestingly, heterogeneous top management teams appeared to be less effective to leverage external advice and pursue exploratory innovation. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/23502/ 2010-11-01T00:00:00Z Recent research on management innovation, i.e. new managerial processes, practices, or structures that change the nature of managerial work, suggests it can be an important source of competitive advantage. In this study, we focus on management innovation at the organization level and investigate the role of leadership behaviour as a key antecedent. Due to its prominent role within organizations, top management has the ability to greatly influence management innovation. In particular, we focus on leadership behaviour and examine transformational and transactional leadership. Additionally, as contextual variables like organizational size may influence the impact of leadership, we investigate its moderating role. Findings show that both leadership behaviours contribute to management innovation. Interestingly, our study indicates that smaller, less complex, organizations benefit more from transactional leadership in realizing management innovation. On the other hand, larger organizations need to draw on transformational leaders to compensate for their complexity and allow management innovation to flourish. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31062/ 2009-07-01T00:00:00Z Prior studies have emphasized that structural attributes are crucial to simultaneously pursuing exploration and exploitation, yet our understanding of antecedents of ambidexterity is still limited. Structural differentiation can help ambidextrous organizations to maintain multiple inconsistent and conflicting demands; however, differentiated exploratory and exploitative activities need to be mobilized, coordinated, integrated, and applied. Based on this idea, we delineate formal and informal senior team integration mechanisms (e.g., contingency rewards and social integration) and formal and informal organizational integration mechanisms (e.g., cross-functional interfaces and connectedness) and examine how they mediate the relationship between structural differentiation and ambidexterity. Overall, our findings suggest that the previously asserted direct effect of structural differentiation on ambidexterity operates through informal senior team (i.e., senior team social integration) and formal organizational (i.e., cross-functional interfaces) integration mechanisms. Through this richer explanation and empirical assessment, we contribute to a greater clarity and better understanding of how organizations may effectively pursue exploration and exploitation simultaneously to achieve ambidexterity. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/15326/ 2009-05-01T00:00:00Z Research has suggested that corporate venturing is crucial to strategic renewal and firm performance, yet scholars still debate the appropriate organizational configurations to facilitate the creation of new businesses in existing organizations. Our study investigates the effectiveness of combining structural differentiation with formal and informal organizational as well as top management team integration mechanisms in establishing an appropriate context for venturing activities. Our findings suggest that structural differentiation has a positive effect on corporate venturing. In addition, our study indicates that a shared vision has a positive effect on venturing in a structurally differentiated context. Socially integrated senior teams and cross-functional interfaces, however, are ineffective integration mechanisms for establishing linkages across differentiated units and for successfully pursuing corporate venturing. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/14959/ 2009-02-01T00:00:00Z This study advances prior theoretical research by linking transformational and transactional behaviors of strategic leaders to two critical outputs of organizational learning: exploratory and exploitative innovation. Findings indicate that transformational leadership behaviors contribute significantly to adopting generative thinking and pursuing exploratory innovation. Transactional leadership behaviors, on the other hand, facilitate improving and extending existing knowledge and are associated with exploitative innovation. In addition, we argue that environmental dynamism needs to be taken into account to fully understand the effectiveness of strategic leaders. Our study provides new insights that misfits rather than fits between leadership behaviors and innovative outcomes matter in dynamic environments. Hence, we contribute to the debate on the role of strategic leaders in managing exploration and exploitation, not only by examining how specific leadership behaviors impact innovative outcomes, but also by revealing how the impact of leadership is contingent upon dynamic environmental conditions. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/13836/ 2008-11-05T00:00:00Z Prior studies have emphasized that structural attributes are crucial to simultaneously pursuing exploration and exploitation, yet our understanding of antecedents of ambidexterity is still limited. Structural differentiation can help ambidextrous organizations to maintain multiple inconsistent and conflicting demands; however, differentiated exploratory and exploitative activities need to mobilized, coordinated, integrated, and applied. Based on this idea, we delineate formal and informal senior team integration mechanisms (i.e. contingency rewards and social integration) and formal and informal organizational integration mechanisms (i.e. cross-functional interfaces and connectedness) and examine how they mediate the relationship between structural differentiation and ambidexterity. Overall, our findings suggest that the previously asserted direct effect of structural differentiation on ambidexterity operates through informal senior team (i.e. senior team social integration) and formal organizational (i.e. cross-functional interfaces) integration mechanisms. Through this richer explanation and empirical assessment, we contribute to a greater clarity and better understanding of how organizations may effectively pursue exploration and exploitation simultaneously to achieve ambidexterity. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/14656/ 2008-07-01T00:00:00Z Organizations capable of pursuing exploration and exploitation simultaneously have been suggested to obtain superior performance. Combining both types of activities and achieving organizational ambidexterity, however, leads to the presence of multiple and often conflicting goals, and poses considerable challenges to senior teams in ambidextrous organizations. This study explores the role of senior team attributes and leadership behaviour in reconciling conflicting interests among senior team members and achieving organizational ambidexterity. Findings indicate that a senior team shared vision and contingency rewards are associated with a firm's ability to combine high levels of exploratory and exploitative innovations. In addition, our study shows that an executive director's transformational leadership increases the effectiveness of senior team attributes in ambidextrous organizations and moderates the effectiveness of senior team social integration and contingency rewards. Hence, our study clarifies how senior executives reconcile conflicting demands and facilitate the balancing of seemingly contradictory forces in ambidextrous organizations. Implications for literatures on senior team attributes, transformational leadership and organizational ambidexterity are discussed. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/13657/ 2008-05-02T00:00:00Z Research on organizational knowledge transfer is burgeoning, and yet our understanding of its antecedents and consequences remains rather unclear. Although conceptual and qualitative reviews of the organizational knowledge transfer literature have emerged, no study has attempted to summarize previous quantitative empirical findings. As a first step towards that goal, we use meta-analytic techniques to examine how knowledge, organization and network level antecedents differentially impact organizational knowledge transfer. Additionally, we consolidate research on the relationship between knowledge transfer and its consequences. We also demonstrate how the intra- and inter-organizational context, the directionality of knowledge transfers, and measurement characteristics moderate the relationships studied. By aggregating and consolidating existing research, our study not only reveals new insights into the levers and outcomes of organizational knowledge transfer, but also provides meaningful directions for future research. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10924/ 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10929/ 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31697/ 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/14772/ 2006-11-01T00:00:00Z Research on exploration and exploitation is burgeoning, yet our understanding of the antecedents and consequences of both activities remains rather unclear. We advance the growing body of literature by focusing on the apparent differences of exploration and exploitation and examining implications for using formal (i.e., centralization and formalization) and informal (i.e., connectedness) coordination mechanisms. This study further examines how environmental aspects (i.e., dynamism and competitiveness) moderate the effectiveness of exploratory and exploitative innovation. Results indicate that centralization negatively affects exploratory innovation, whereas formalization positively influences exploitative innovation. Interestingly, connectedness within units appears to be an important antecedent of both exploratory and exploitative innovation. Furthermore, our findings reveal that pursuing exploratory innovation is more effective in dynamic environments, whereas pursuing exploitative innovation is more beneficial to a unit's financial performance in more competitive environments. Through this richer explanation and empirical assessment, we contribute to a greater clarity and better understanding of how ambidextrous organizations coordinate the development of exploratory and exploitative innovation in organizational units and successfully respond to multiple environmental conditions. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/7892/ 2006-08-14T00:00:00Z Research on exploration and exploitation is burgeoning, yet our understanding of the antecedents and consequences of both activities remains rather unclear. We advance the growing body of literature by focusing on the apparent differences of exploration and exploitation and examining implications for using formal (i.e. centralization and formalization) and informal (i.e. connectedness) coordination mechanisms. This study further examines how environmental aspects (i.e. dynamism and competitiveness) moderate the effectiveness of exploratory and exploitative innovation. Results indicate that centralization negatively affects exploratory innovation while formalization positively influences exploitative innovation. Interestingly, connectedness within units appears to be an important antecedent of both exploratory and exploitative innovation. Furthermore, our findings reveal that pursuing exploratory innovation is more effective in dynamic environments whereas pursuing exploitative innovation is more beneficial to a unit’s financial performance in more competitive environments. Through this richer explanation and empirical assessment, we contribute to a greater clarity and better understanding of how ambidextrous organizations coordinate the development of exploratory and exploitative innovation in organizational units and successfully respond to multiple environmental conditions. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10930/ 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z Strategische vernieuwing in ondernemingen staat hoog op de agenda van managers en onderzoekers. De aandacht voor nonprofit-organisaties in dit verband is echter beperkt. Zo is er weinig bekend over de mate, de oorzaken en de implicaties van strategische vernieuwing. Dit artikel gaat in op dit thema. Met behulp van een enquête en twee casestudies wordt voor het eerst de vernieuwingsdynamiek van Nederlandse nonprofit-organisaties in kaart gebracht. De resultaten laten zien dat strategische vernieuwing door nonprofit-organisaties leidt tot een hoger prestatieniveau. Druk vanuit het management en/ of bestuur en druk vanuit de sociale omgeving blijken belangrijke determinanten voor de mate van strategische vernieuwing http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/14539/ 2005-12-01T00:00:00Z Exploring how organizational antecedents affect potential and realized absorptive capacity, this study identifies differing effects for both components of absorptive capacity. Results indicate that organizational mechanisms associated with coordination capabilities (cross-functional interfaces, participation in decision making, and job rotation) primarily enhance a unit's potential absorptive capacity. Organizational mechanisms associated with socialization capabilities (connectedness and socialization tactics) primarily increase a unit's realized absorptive capacity. Our findings reveal why units may have difficulty managing levels of potential and realized absorptive capacity and vary in their ability to create value from their absorptive capacity. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10932/ 2005-10-01T00:00:00Z Organizational ambidexterity (i.e., the ability to pursue exploratory and exploitative innovation simultaneously) is crucial to firm survival. In this study we explore how multiunit firms might develop ambidextrous organizational units in response to environmental demands. We examine how environmental and organizational antecedents affect a unit’s level of organizational ambidexterity. Our study reveals that multiunit firms develop ambidextrous organizational units to compete in dynamically competitive environments. Moreover, we show that organizational units with decentralized and densely connected social relations are able to act ambidextrously and pursue exploratory and exploitative innovations simultaneously. Our study provides new insights how multiunit firms can cope with contradictorily pressures for exploratory and exploitative innovations. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/6550/ 2005-05-10T00:00:00Z This study explores how organizational antecedents affect potential and realized absorptive capacity. Our study identifies differential effects for both components of absorptive capacity. Results indicate that organizational mechanisms associated with coordination capabilities (i.e. cross-functional interfaces, participation in decision-making, and job rotation) primarily enhance a unit’s potential absorptive capacity. Organizational mechanisms associated with socialization capabilities (i.e. connectedness and socialization tactics) primarily increase a unit’s realized absorptive capacity. Our findings reveal why units may have difficulties in managing levels of potential and realized absorptive capacity and vary in their ability to create value from their absorptive capacity. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/6774/ 2005-04-29T00:00:00Z Balancing and synchronizing exploration and exploitation is fundamental to the competitive success of firms in dynamic environments. Despite the importance of reconciling exploration and exploitation within organizations, however, relatively little empirical research has examined this challenge facing numerous organizations. This study develops a multi-level framework and explores how ambidextrous organizations can successfully cope with both types of innovations across organizational units. It not only examines performance implications of organizational ambidexterity, but also investigates how organizational units develop exploratory and exploitative innovations. Results indicate that the most effective ambidextrous organizations balance exploratory and exploitative innovation by separating both types of activities in different organizational units. Moreover, findings demonstrate that organizational units require different types of combinative capabilities to influence their absorptive capacity, and subsequently, their exploratory and exploitative innovations. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10245/ 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z BACKGROUND: In epidemiological studies on physical workloads and back complaints, among the important features in modelling dose-response relations are the measurement strategy of the exposure and the nature of the dose-response relation that is assumed. AIM: To evaluate the effect of these two features on the strength of the dose-response relation between physical load and severe low back pain. METHODS: The study population consisted of 769 workers in nursing homes and homes for the elderly. Observations at the workplace were made of 212 subjects. These observations were analysed to determine exposure to physical load according to two measurement strategies: the individual approach and the group approach. The nature of the dose-response relation was evaluated with nested logistic regression models. RESULTS: The group approach resulted in higher odds ratios for the associations between physical load and low back pain than the individual approach. Spline logistic regression models appeared to describe the dose-response relation between physical load and low back pain best. The corresponding curve showed small changes in risk for small changes in exposure, whereas the categorical model only showed sudden large changes in risk at predefined exposure values. CONCLUSION: The choice for a particular measurement strategy of physical load influences the strength of the associations between physical load and severe low back pain. Spline models allow changes in risk over the whole exposure range and are therefore a promising approach to identify quantitative dose-response patterns between physical load and low back pain. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/6484/ 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z Strategische vernieuwing in ondernemingen staat hoog op de agenda van managers en onderzoekers. De aandacht voor nonprofit-organisaties in dit verband is echter beperkt. Zo is er weinig bekend over de mate, de oorzaken en de implicaties van strategische vernieuwing. Dit artikel gaat in op dit thema. Met behulp van een enquête en twee casestudies wordt voor het eerst de vernieuwingsdynamiek van Nederlandse nonprofit-organisaties in kaart gebracht. De resultaten laten zien dat strategische vernieuwing door nonprofit-organisaties leidt tot een hoger prestatieniveau. Druk vanuit het management en/ of bestuur en druk vanuit de sociale omgeving blijken belangrijke determinanten voor de mate van strategische vernieuwing.