This paper develops propositions on the added value of normatively-based, employee-oriented corporate social responsibility, specifically on the issue whether an individual owner-manager can add value within a foreign subsidiary by means of normatively-based, employee-oriented CSR. We suggest that this emerging research area sheds light on managerial discretion within a foreign environment and on the question if globalisation of business, based on economic rationality, inevitably leads to a race to the bottom or that normative resources - the view of owner-managers on the role of employees within their company - add value as well.Based on five case studies, this study develops propositions about the impact of international employee oriented CSR policies on mutual value creation within multinational SMEs. We detect conditions under which employee-oriented CSR adds value, what the influence is of the host country institutional environment and suggest differences across sectors and investment motives. The results suggest that not only motives but also the skills of the owner/manager as an institutional entrepreneur are critical in dealing with institutional variance.Conference paper bij het: 1st Interdisciplinary Conference on Stakeholders, Resources and Value Creation, Barcelona, 7-8 juni 2011
This paper develops propositions on the added value of normatively-based, employee-oriented corporate social responsibility, specifically on the issue whether an individual owner-manager can add value within a foreign subsidiary by means of normatively-based, employee-oriented CSR. We suggest that this emerging research area sheds light on managerial discretion within a foreign environment and on the question if globalisation of business, based on economic rationality, inevitably leads to a race to the bottom or that normative resources - the view of owner-managers on the role of employees within their company - add value as well.Based on five case studies, this study develops propositions about the impact of international employee oriented CSR policies on mutual value creation within multinational SMEs. We detect conditions under which employee-oriented CSR adds value, what the influence is of the host country institutional environment and suggest differences across sectors and investment motives. The results suggest that not only motives but also the skills of the owner/manager as an institutional entrepreneur are critical in dealing with institutional variance.Conference paper bij het: 1st Interdisciplinary Conference on Stakeholders, Resources and Value Creation, Barcelona, 7-8 juni 2011
The Dutch greenhouse horticulture industry is characterized by world leadership in high-tech innovation. The dynamics of this playing field are innovation in production systems and automation, reduction in energy consumption and sharing limited space. However, international competitive advantage of the industry is under pressure and sustainable growth of individual enterprises is no longer a certainty. The sector's ambition is to innovate better and grow faster than the competition in the rest of the world. Realizing this ambition requires strengthening the knowledge base, stimulating entrepreneurship, innovation (not just technological, but especially business process innovation). It also requires educating and professionalizing people. However, knowledge transfer in this industry is often fragmented and innovation through horizontal and vertical collaboration throughout the value chain is limited. This paper focuses on the question: how can the grower and the supplier in the greenhouse horticulture chain gain competitive advantage through radical product and process innovation. The challenge lies in time- to-market, in customer relationship, in developing new product/market combinations and in innovative entrepreneurship. In this paper an innovation and entrepreneurial educational and research programme is introduced. The programme aims at strengthening multidisciplinary collaboration between enterprise, education and research. Using best practice examples, the paper illustrates how companies can realize growth and improve the innovative capacity of the organization as well as the individual by linking economic and social sustainability. The paper continues to show how participants of the program develop competencies by means of going through a learning cycle of single-loop, double-loop and triple loop learning: reduction of mistakes, change towards new concepts and improvement of the ability to learn. Finally, the paper illustrates the importance of combining enterprise, education and research in regional networks, with examples from the greenhouse horticulture sector. These networks generate economic growth and international competitiveness by acting as business accelerators.
