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Enabling older people to live independently

Characteristics of high performance organization and knowledge productivity of independent professionals

High Performance Organization (HPO) characteristics indicate why an organization is able to achieve significantly better results than other organizations and these characteristics can facilitate associations to optimize employees’ work outcomes. The independent professional (IP) is an increasingly occurring phenomenon in the labor market that fulfils an organizations’ need for flexibility in knowledge productivity. This study focuses on the contribution of HPO characteristics to the knowledge productivity of IP's. It was conducted among managers and HRM professionals in various Dutch knowledge-intensive organizations that frequently enlist the services of IPs. This study found a number of HPO attributes that appeared to contribute to the IPs' knowledge productivity, namely the quality of management, an open and actionfocused organizational culture, and continual improvement and innovation. We will use these results to look ahead and consider the future consequences for professional practice. Managers and HRM professionals should strive to contribute to the incorporation of these characteristics within the organization in order to safeguard and enhance knowledge productivity of independent professionals.

Scenes of Independence

After the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia, a flourishing cultural scene was established in Croatia’s capital Zagreb. The scene calls itself: independent culture. In this book, Sepp Eckenhaussen explores the history of Zagreb’s independent culture through three questions: How were independent cultures born? To whom do they belong? And what is the independence in independent culture? The result is a genealogy, a personal travel log, a mapping of cores of criticality, a search for futurologies, and a theory of the scene.Once again, it turns out that localist perspectives have become urgent to culture. The untranslatability of the local term ‘independent culture’ makes it hard for the outsider to get a thorough understanding of it. But it also makes the term into a crystal of significance and a catalyst of meaning-making towards a theory of independent culture.

Strategic Marketing as Solution for Growing Uncertainties among National Non-Profit Sport Federations in the Netherlands - Research Design.

Dutch National Sports Organizations (NSFs) is currently experiencing financial pressures. Two indications for this are described in this paper i.e. increased competition in the sports sector and changes in subsidy division. Decreasing incomes from subsidies can be compensated with either increasing incomes from a commercial domain or increasing incomes from member contributions. This latter solution is gaining interest as a solution for the uncertainties. Many NSFs have therefore participated in a special marketing program in order to enlarge their marketing awareness and create a marketing strategy, in order to (re)win market share on the sports participation market and gain a more stable financial situation. This paper introduces my research related to the introduction of marketing techniques within NSFs and the change-over to become market oriented. An overview of existing literature about creating marketing strategies, their implementation, and market orientation is given. This outline makes obvious that the existing literature is not sufficient for studying the implementation of marketing techniques and market orientation within NSFs. Therefore, it shows the scientific relevance of my research. The paper concludes with the chosen research methodology.

Pathways to energy autonomy – challenges and opportunities

The need to reduce carbon emissions calls for more use of renewable generation, particularly distributed resources. The intermittency of renewable generation, and concerns about energy security, require us to become more independent of central grid operation by use of local or regional (micro-grid) electricity systems. Distributed generation, allied to the commercial availability of battery storage products, permits this–the pathway to energy autonomy. This paper reviews the contribution of different renewable energy sources (RES), trends in energy storage technologies to enable energy autonomy, and the centralised and decentralised techniques that coordinate the associated energy management. The paper covers energy autonomy at different scales, ranging from household levels to district levels. The improvements in grid independency are measured accordingly. There is discussion of this measurement and of the economic and ecological benefits from energy autonomy in the context of policy frameworks.

Marketing, Marktonderzoek en Innovatie

Op 1 januari 2007 is officieel bij de faculteit Economie en Management (FEM) van Hogeschool Utrecht het kenniscentrum InnBus van start gegaan. InnBus kan gezien worden als een faculteitsbreed kenniscentrum1 waarbinnen alle lectoraten worden ondergebracht. De naam InnBus staat daarbij voor Innovatie en Business. Bij de inrichting van dit kenniscentrum naar domeinen voor de lectoraten is op een specifieke wijze aansluiting gezocht bij bestaande, algemeen geaccepteerde indelingen naar de Business-deelvakgebieden: Finance; Accountancy; Organisatie & Strategie; Informatiekunde; Marketing. Door hergroepering, splitsing en het uitlichten van International Business is een centrum in ontwikkeling ontstaan, waarbinnen in de nabije toekomst zes lectoraten functioneren. De achterliggende gedachte is het positioneren van de faculteit Economie en Management als kennisonderneming met taken op het gebied van kennisontwikkeling en kennisspreiding, gericht op de versterking van het innoverende vermogen van bedrijven en instellingen in de regio. De daarbij geformuleerde randvoorwaarden luiden: Te ontwikkelen kennis ontstaat vanuit aangetoonde maatschappelijke behoeften; De nieuwe kennis is gericht op professionalisering van de beroepspraktijk; De kennisontwikkeling voldoet aan methodische vereisten. Kort samengevat: binnen het faculteitsbrede kenniscentrum wordt bedrijfeconomisch relevant toegepast onderzoek gedaan, gericht op bedrijven en instellingen in de regio. De keuze voor de regio heeft tot gevolg dat er een zekere voorkeur voor branches of sectoren ontstaat. Kennisspreiding binnen de FEM-organisatie ontstaat door zowel docenten als studenten bij de uitvoering van dit onderzoek te betrekken en op onderzoek gebaseerde curricula verder te ontwikkelen. Sinds 1 januari 2007 heb ik de eervolle taak om samen met mijn medewerkers het proces van kennisontwikkeling en kennisspreiding gestalte te geven binnen het vakgebied van de kenniskring Lectoraat Marketing, Marktonderzoek en Innovatie. In deze openbare les wil ik aangeven wat dit voor ons inhoudt door allereerst aandacht te besteden aan de begrippen innovatie en innoveren en daarna de koppeling te leggen met het vakgebied Marketing en Marktonderzoek.