63 research outputs found
Sustainable Entrepreneurship in the Dutch Construction Industry
No full textThis article discusses the strategies that sustainable entrepreneurs use to interact with their environment in the Dutch construction industry. The Dutch construction industry is under great pressure to move towards sustainability, and entrepreneurs are believed to be able to play a large role in this transition by introducing new products and new business practices. But how can entrepreneurs prosper in an environment that is not geared up towards such a change? And which strategies do they use to bend conditions in their favor? In this article we make use of the Market and System Failure Framework to analyze the pressures that entrepreneurs are confronted with when introducing sustainable innovations. We recognize that these pressures can be seen as bottlenecks, but that market and system failures can also create entrepreneurial opportunities. We interviewed 16 entrepreneurs in the Dutch construction industry to determine the influences they experienced from their environment and the strategies they use to deal with these. We conclude that we can distinguish between system building and following entrepreneurs, where the former aims to build a new system to challenge the old one, whereas the latter rather makes use of existing structures to build a business. We find that both strategies can be successful and that overall, the entrepreneurs confirm the belief that sustainability on people, planet and transparency aspects, can contribute very well to the long term profitability of the businesses the entrepreneurs are running. These in-depth insights into the influences from the context on the one hand, and the entrepreneurs' strategic reactions on the other hand, contribute to our understanding of the interactions between entrepreneurs and the system context. This can help us to more effectively stimulate and support innovating entrepreneurs to contribute to the transition towards sustainability. © 2010 by the authors
Trust under pressure; empirical investigations of trust and trust building in uncertain circumstances
No full textDoes trust breed heed? Differential effects of trust on heed and performance in a network and a divisional form of organizing
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Tussen actor en systeem: een theoretische en empirische verkenning van leerprocessen en de rol van NIDO als systeeminstrument
No full textSleeping with the enemy: about trust and dependence in inter-organisational relationships in a technological setting
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Sleeping with the enemy. Trust, dependence and contract in interorganisational relationships
No full text'Sleeping with the enemy' refers to the fragile relationship that is built when parties have to cooperate without knowing whether their partner can be trusted. In the development of new products or technologies companies often have to establish such relationships. They depend on each other's knowledge and capacity, they have to be open, share information, and give insights into their way of working. In line with the sense of becoming partners and creating something new together, inventors and engineers often talk about 'a marriage' when referring to their relationship, and to 'their baby' when referring to the joint project.There are, however, situations where parties have to cooperate with their enemies. If they know this, they can try to protect themselves by withholding information, drawing up extensive contracts or, for example, by establishing a joint venture. In most cases though, parties are not sure whether their partner is, or will ever become, their enemy. Will he keep information confidential, will he not run off just when you need him most, will he share costs and benefits fairly and not try to reap disproportionate gains, will he not become your competitor with the knowledge you gave him?These questions can never be answered with certainty. Doubts will always exist. To cope with this, people search for ways to reduce uncertainty. Contracts can be a means to this end, but trust is just as essential to enable open and constructive cooperation and problem solving. How trust, dependence and contracts are related to each other, and how they influence the success of high technology interorganisational relationships, are the focus of this thesis
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