Manuscript Type
Empirical
Research Question/Issue
The authors posit that to understand the effects of board demographic diversity on board performance, it is critical to recognize that board members ...often do not come to a board as independent entities but rather as delegates of specific interest groups so that the board has factions. The authors propose that demographic differences between these factions are likely to negatively affect board performance through social categorization processes.
Research Findings/Insight
A study of 318 Dutch pension fund boards shows that factional demographic faultlines negatively affect board performance, measured as perceived board effectiveness, and financial return on investment, through the perception of board members that the board is split into factional subgroups (i.e., faultline activation). At the same time, the disruptive effects from factional demographic faultlines are found to be reduced by board reflexivity.
Theoretical/Academic Implications
Based on social categorization theory, this study shows that demographic faultlines between factions affect board performance to the extent that the faultlines are activated. If unnoticed by board members, demographic faultlines are unlikely to influence board behavior. The attenuating effect of board reflexivity underlines the importance of insight into the factors that drive social categorization within boards.
Practitioner/Policy Implications
Practitioners should be aware that although factional demographic faultlines can be disruptive, there are ways to reduce these negative aspects. By overtly reflecting on board processes, board members can prevent factional demographic faultlines from resulting in social categorization within boards.
This paper is concerned with how firms in a project‐based industry cooperate in technological innovation projects in the construction industry. The main focus of the paper is on the sharing of ...capabilities in cooperative innovation projects and how these cooperations are governed. A knowledge‐based perspective is applied, and four cooperative innovation projects in the construction industry are compared. Based on the case studies, a set of propositions is defined. First, a cooperation aimed at a mutual strategic benefit in mutually gaining access to the knowledge bases of the involved firms, while maintaining their own differentiated knowledge base, can result in more stable and long term relationships with mutual trust between the cooperating firms. Second, in a cooperation aimed at a mutual strategic benefit in mutually gaining access to the knowledge bases of the involved firms, partners not only gain access to each other's technological capabilities but also develop and share knowledge about organizational aspects and market situations and gain knowledge about the way of working of the partner firm. Third, in a cooperation aimed at mutual strategic benefit in mutually gaining access to the knowledge bases of the involved firms, noncodifiability of the capabilities is conditional to create a win–win situation. And fourth, cooperation aimed at a mutual strategic benefit in mutually gaining access to the knowledge bases of the involved firms is based on mutual competence and intentional trust as its main governance mechanism, whereas contracting between market parties aimed at knowledge–output transactions is represented by limited trust and arms' length (contractual) relationships as its main governance mechanism.
In this study we examine governance factors affecting knowledge transfer in interorganisational development projects. There is a gap in the literature indicating a need for more insights into ...processes of knowledge sharing and governance of interorganisational development projects. By using cases from the Dutch construction industry, we discus how interorganisational development projects are governed and what impact this has on knowledge transfer between the firms involved. We find that knowledge transfer towards participating firms cooperating in an interorganisational development project is positively influenced when partners govern their cooperation by using mutual trust and contract complementary.
What strategic choices do business leaders make when implementing new business models? This study tries to answer this question by analyzing the development of several business model innovations that ...were new to the industry. We find that business model innovators face four strategic trade-offs and accompanying tensions during the implementation of their business model innovation process: (1) the level of independence granted to the developer (independence vs. dependence), (2) the degree to which the roadmap is planned in advance (discovery vs. planned execution), (3) the degree to which the value proposition challenges the status quo (challenging vs. maintaining status quo), and (4) the rigor to which business model innovators preserve the logic of the initial value proposition (solid vs. fluid logic). Our in-depth analysis reveals that business model innovators make pragmatic decisions that may deviate from the guidelines offered by existing literature, and we offer insights into the drivers behind these decisions.
Venture capitalists (VCs) contribute to entrepreneurial firms by engaging in governance activities, such as providing services and monitoring the entrepreneurial firm's operations and performance. ...This study examines the role and influence of the VC's governance activities on 93 Dutch entrepreneurial firms. Results suggest that while the VC's governance activities may help to stimulate the use of the entrepreneurial firm's control systems, they also moderate the relationship between the entrepreneurial firm's use of control systems and its financial performance. It appears in particular that cost control systems contribute positively to the entrepreneurial firm's financial performance when the VC provides service activities. However, the use of cost control systems tends to be negatively related to the entrepreneurial firm's financial performance when the VC is highly focused on monitoring.
In this article, we discuss a dilemma consisting of the market-oriented perspective of users of medical technology versus the long-term technology foresight perspective. The context of medical ...technology is interesting, because we have to cope with complex future-oriented multi-level and multi-actor strategic decision making. In order to deal with this dilemma we suggest combining the results of a (group) expert opinion forecasting approach with a more market-oriented scenario-approach. More specifically, we use the results of the Delphi-technique as the main input for the development of various capacity (Market-based) scenarios. We exemplify this approach by a real life example directed at the future of imaging techniques for cancer care in The Netherlands and focus on a set of scenarios that deal with the application of the MRI-technique in the period 2005–2015. The Delphi-panel's expectations with respect to imaging technology representing the technological forecasts, combined with other relevant developments (such as demographic and epidemiological developments) are translated into alternative inputs for assumptions of the scenario-model. This model is basic to the future projections in terms of needed MRI-scanners, manpower and investments. We argue that the results provide motivation to continue to explore the methodological interesting area of innovation, aligning the market-oriented perspective of users of (medical) technology with the long-term technology forecasting perspective.
Existing literature suggests that the contents of corporate governance codes are similar due to external forces, such as increased integration of countries in the global economy, the increased role ...of foreign institutional investors and recommendations on corporate governance practices of international organisations. This paper analyzes and compares the code contents of seven Eastern European countries with respect to generally accepted best practice recommendations on disclosure rules, strengthening shareholder rights and modernising boards. We show that for some countries the contents of the country codes are actually rather different as compared to these best practices, suggesting that domestic forces related to country-specific characteristics of corporate governance systems may have helped shaping the contents of corporate governance codes.
Die bisherige Fachliteratur argumentiert, dass die Inhalte der Corporate Governance Kodizes relativ ähnlich sind aufgrund von externen Faktoren wie der wachsenden Integration der Länder in die globale Wirtschaft, der verstärkten Rolle von ausländischen institutionellen Investoren und den Empfehlungen für Corporate Governance - Praktiken in internationalen Organisationen. Dieser Aufsatz analysiert und vergleicht die Inhalte der Kodizes von sieben osteuropäischen Ländern im Hinblick auf allgemein akzeptierte best practice - Empfehlungen bezüglich Offenlegung, Stärkung der Aktionärsrechte und der Modernisierung der Führungsgremien. Wir zeigen auf, dass in einigen Ländern die Kodizes stark von den best practice - Empfehlungen abweichen, was darauf hinweist, dass lokale Kräfte mit Bezug auf die Eigenheiten des nationalen Corporate Governance Systems die Entwicklung der Kodizes wesentlich geprägt haben.
► We show how scenario analysis reduces the fuzziness of front-end NPD. ► We link the functions of scenario analysis to the innovation management problems. ► Innovation management problems relate to ...the management of ideas and attention. ► Two case studies explore if and how scenario analysis reduces these problems.
The front-end of new product development involves the identification and analysis of product or service opportunities, idea generation, and the selection of new product and service concepts. It is often referred to as non-routine, dynamic, and highly uncertain. Authors have made attempts to improve the manageability of this phase by proposing several methods and techniques. This paper explores the possible contribution of scenario analysis to increase the quality and effectiveness of the front-end of new product development process by linking a set of functions of scenario analysis as is recognized in the literature as possible solutions to various front-end problems. Two case studies are used to explore if and how the scenario analysis functions contribute to the front-end of new product development process in an empirical setting.
Neurological disorders are now the leading source of disability globally, and ageing is increasing the burden of neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's disease. We aimed to determine the ...global burden of Parkinson's disease between 1990 and 2016 to identify trends and to enable appropriate public health, medical, and scientific responses.
Through a systematic analysis of epidemiological studies, we estimated global, regional, and country-specific prevalence and years of life lived with disability for Parkinson's disease from 1990 to 2016. We estimated the proportion of mild, moderate, and severe Parkinson's disease on the basis of studies that used the Hoehn and Yahr scale and assigned disability weights to each level. We jointly modelled prevalence and excess mortality risk in a natural history model to derive estimates of deaths due to Parkinson's disease. Death counts were multiplied by values from the Global Burden of Disease study's standard life expectancy to compute years of life lost. Disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) were computed as the sum of years lived with disability and years of life lost. We also analysed results based on the Socio-demographic Index, a compound measure of income per capita, education, and fertility.
In 2016, 6·1 million (95% uncertainty interval UI 5·0–7·3) individuals had Parkinson's disease globally, compared with 2·5 million (2·0–3·0) in 1990. This increase was not solely due to increasing numbers of older people, because age-standardised prevalence rates increased by 21·7% (95% UI 18·1–25·3) over the same period (compared with an increase of 74·3%, 95% UI 69·2–79·6, for crude prevalence rates). Parkinson's disease caused 3·2 million (95% UI 2·6–4·0) DALYs and 211 296 deaths (95% UI 167 771–265 160) in 2016. The male-to-female ratios of age-standardised prevalence rates were similar in 2016 (1·40, 95% UI 1·36–1·43) and 1990 (1·37, 1·34–1·40). From 1990 to 2016, age-standardised prevalence, DALY rates, and death rates increased for all global burden of disease regions except for southern Latin America, eastern Europe, and Oceania. In addition, age-standardised DALY rates generally increased across the Socio-demographic Index.
Over the past generation, the global burden of Parkinson's disease has more than doubled as a result of increasing numbers of older people, with potential contributions from longer disease duration and environmental factors. Demographic and potentially other factors are poised to increase the future burden of Parkinson's disease substantially.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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