Today, knowledge is the most crucial element to stimulate organizational competitiveness and economic development. The ability of a firm to quickly recognize, assimilate, and utilize external... Show moreToday, knowledge is the most crucial element to stimulate organizational competitiveness and economic development. The ability of a firm to quickly recognize, assimilate, and utilize external knowledge is one of the core capabilities that bring organizational competitive advantages. Such an ability is called absorptive capacity (AC). This study focuses on three AC-related topics in the context of Chinese SMEs: 1) How do SMEs absorb external knowledge in terms of its recognition, assimilation, and utilization? 2) What challenges do SMEs face when absorbing external knowledge? And, 3)Which knowledge assimilation mechanisms do have an impact on the performance of SMEs? Show less
A New Technology-Based Firm (NTBF) is a significant enabler of job creation and a driver of the economy through stimulating innovation. In the last two decades, we have seen an enormous development... Show moreA New Technology-Based Firm (NTBF) is a significant enabler of job creation and a driver of the economy through stimulating innovation. In the last two decades, we have seen an enormous development of the NTBFs. However, the liability of smallness, newness, and weak networking ties are three important obstacles in the early stages of an NTBF’s lifecycle. Consequently, there is a high rate of failure among NTBFs.A remedy to avoid these failures is in using the support and resources by Business Incubators (BIs). BIs provide supportive services to promote the NTBFs capabilities and to help them address their liabilities.So far, there is almost no reliable evidence on the effectiveness of BIs on the performance of NTBFs. Therefore, we aim to identify the supportive activities by BIs and, to understand to what extent the supports by them have a serious impact on the performance of their NTBFs. Building on qualitative and quantitative research methods, a model to measure the impact of support by BIs on the performances of NTBFs is developed, and tested among Dutch and German NTBFs. The research results provide practical guidelines for the management teams of the incubators, which can increase the effectiveness of their performances. Show less
Producing the local: Javanese performance on Indonesian television explores how television represents Javaneseness, as a factor designed to catch and keep the attention of its putative... Show moreProducing the local: Javanese performance on Indonesian television explores how television represents Javaneseness, as a factor designed to catch and keep the attention of its putative audiences. Central is the question of how people make use of national, regional, local, public and private television in Indonesia – each in their own way and with their own goals – to represent the local and, in particular, how they construct images of Javaneseness through the production and dissemination of performance. Performance in Javanese has been used by the Indonesian television industry to achieve various purposes: to entertain and inform its audiences, to represent the local/the regional, to preserve and nurture the traditional and to build national culture, for persuasive (commercial or propaganda) aims, as a counter-voice of diversification towards global or Jakartan influences, and to express multiculturalism. These issues have been put into the framework of discursive practices about local, national and global cultures in the electronic audiovisual media in Indonesia. Three main themes structure the study: representing tradition, localizing persuasion and mediating the local. Above all, this dissertation is a plea for a more thorough study of the role of proximity in the production, dissemination and reception of local television programmes. Show less
In art history, performance is categorized as performance art and defined as live-act. However, performance is no longer conceived of by artists as live-act only. Rather, the art of producing... Show moreIn art history, performance is categorized as performance art and defined as live-act. However, performance is no longer conceived of by artists as live-act only. Rather, the art of producing performances, according to artists, also includes considerations of their documentation and mediatization. In these contexts a paratextual perspective would enable considering documentation practices as part of performance art, which would also mean to acknowledge that performance is a practice associated with other practices that go beyond the enactment or staging which precedes or follows it. It is my claim that the potential of performance in visual art lies exactly in this ability to divest itself of a stable medial identity. This is to say that performance does not only have the practical need, but also the general potential to connect itself with other media, such as texts and audiovisual records. I think that contemporary performances in visual art cannot be viewed as distinct from the intermedial and paratextual issues with which they are connected. They engage, intermingle and enter into reciprocal relationships with these issues. So, I propose to understand performances in and through their relations to texts. Show less
The southern campaigns were a series of military endeavors, undertaken by Russia against the Ottoman and Safavid empires between 1695 and 1739. These campaigns played a vital role in the... Show moreThe southern campaigns were a series of military endeavors, undertaken by Russia against the Ottoman and Safavid empires between 1695 and 1739. These campaigns played a vital role in the military evolution of early modern Russia and influenced the reform policy, carried out by the tsars in order to restructure the old Muscovite army into a new, imperial one. The dissertation aims at depicting and defining the interrelation between reform and battlefield performance in the case to eighteenth-century Russia and also to outline the main factors, which influenced the development and conduct to the tsarist forces. Show less
Public organizations are responsible for the delivery and provision of public services on which citizens rely. To maintain the quality of or improve these services, public organizations... Show more Public organizations are responsible for the delivery and provision of public services on which citizens rely. To maintain the quality of or improve these services, public organizations must exploit resources from the environment of the organization. To attain a predictable and controllable flow of resources, public managers must interact with a wide array of different organizations and actors in the organization’s environment that are potential sources of support. The main question of this dissertation concerns the conditions under which public managers’ interactions with organizations and actors in the environments of their organizations contribute to organizational performance. The context of this study is Dutch primary education. Specifically, we study the networking activities of Dutch primary school principals. One of the main conclusions of this dissertation is that specific managerial networking activities moderate the negative effect of specific environmental challenges. We find, for example, that the negative effect of red tape on school performance is attenuated by school principals’ networking activities with external organizations, such as local- and national government organizations and interest groups. Insights into the conditions under which specific managerial networking activities are beneficial can help public managers make strategic decisions about which networking activities to prioritize in certain situations. Show less
Performances of solo keyboard repertoire can sound more or less polyphonic depending on the performer’s use of divergence in expression. Rather than being a purely cerebral experience, this... Show morePerformances of solo keyboard repertoire can sound more or less polyphonic depending on the performer’s use of divergence in expression. Rather than being a purely cerebral experience, this expressive divergence is situated in an ecological relationship between keyboard and player where the gestural dynamics of technique and musicianship overlap. Specific body schemata relating to expressive divergence are therefore foundational to the interpretive freedom of the performer in creating polyphonic expression, and feature transparently in the musical result. This dissertation theorises expressive divergence by examining the embodiment of single voices through the hierarchical structuring of coarticulation, and by showing how these multi-layered gestures combine in the polyphony of expression. This performative view of polyphony is contextualised not only in musical practice, but also in the wider interdisciplinary use of polyphony as a metaphor. Single-player polyphonic expression is shown to enact or demonstrate an inner experience of the plurality of subjective agency, an experience made possible by its embodied dimension. Besides verbalising and theorising polyphonic expression, this dissertation provides experiments and exercises useful for developing such a practice, as well as examples of its application in concert Show less
What motivates people, and when do they perform optimally at work? In this dissertation, a regulatory focus perspective is taken (RFT, Higgins, 1997) to provide answers to these important questions... Show moreWhat motivates people, and when do they perform optimally at work? In this dissertation, a regulatory focus perspective is taken (RFT, Higgins, 1997) to provide answers to these important questions. The results of multiple studies, conducted in complex organizational environments are reported. In many of those environments, there is a clear preference for promotion oriented employees and leaders. Yet, many jobs contain both promotion and prevention tasks. The results show that the use of the prevention orientation contributes importantly to both individual and organizational performance. Show less
Since the 1990s, the number of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) has grown rapidly worldwide. NHRIs are widely believed to be able to contribute to the realisation of human rights, by... Show moreSince the 1990s, the number of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) has grown rapidly worldwide. NHRIs are widely believed to be able to contribute to the realisation of human rights, by embedding international norms in domestic structures. Promoting Human Rights: National Human Rights Commissions in Indonesia and Malaysia addresses this issue by a comparative analysis of two NHRIs in Southeast Asia. It traces the development of both organisations since their inception, as well as their performance and effectiveness in three case studies regarding the freedom of religion, the right to a fair trial and the right to adequate housing. It reveals that the manner in which NHRIs address human rights issues differs between categories of rights, and that the promotion of international human rights standards is often hampered by the contestation of these norms, both within and outside of the organisation. At the same time, this study highlights some of the contributions the NHRIs have made to the realisation of human rights in challenging circumstances. The author therefore argues that NHRIs play a crucial role in making human rights an integral part of both the state and society. Show less
The artistic PhD research "Shifting Identities" investigates the musicians' professional identity and how this identity might shift when musicians start acting as theatrical performers. In most of... Show moreThe artistic PhD research "Shifting Identities" investigates the musicians' professional identity and how this identity might shift when musicians start acting as theatrical performers. In most of the theatrical situations where musicians "perform", their profession is extended by additional tasks such as walking on stage or reciting text. As an alternative strategy to extension, this research introduces and focuses on reduction, which means the abstracting away of specific qualities or abilities of the musician's profession. The audience watches musicians not doing certain things that usually belong to their profession. Both the expansive and the reductive approaches are concepts of working theatrically with musicians. They are different, perhaps even contradictory strategies, but both bear the ability to enrich the musician's professional identity with a more theatrical appearance. In order to build an understanding of what is extended or reduced when the identity shifts from a musician to a theatrical (musician-)performer a dynamic model is developed which builds strongly on what musicians actually do, a model that categorises the musician's professional activities into internal, external and contextual elements. Show less
This publication aims at the analysis of the performance of a corpus of Fongbe stories that I collected in three villages in the south of Benin in 1976 and 1977. The corpus consists of 37 stories ... Show moreThis publication aims at the analysis of the performance of a corpus of Fongbe stories that I collected in three villages in the south of Benin in 1976 and 1977. The corpus consists of 37 stories (57.000 words). The stories aim at children__s education. Seven stories in my corpus are similar, although told by different performers in different villages. These stories stage an identical topic, central participant and pair of agents. However, the plot is different. The analyses give insight in the degree of improvisation. The corpus consists of dramatic and comic stories. The basic topic of the stories is the diviner__s consultation of the __guardian spirit__ through Fa. The statistical analyses of the narrative discourse show a constant speech rate, with the exception of rhetorical highlights and songs. The graphics show that the performers use a pattern of pauses that functions as content marker. The performers use a single particle as the clause-final topic as well as a definite marker of a noun. The framework of the story is rudimentary, although several grammatical functions, lexical markers and rhetorical phenomena obligatorily convey parts of the plot. On the other hand, the performer uses the storyboard technique to structure the performance. __Verbal art of the Fon (Benin)__ is published by Ruediger Koeppe Verlag P.O. Box 45 06 43 50881 Cologne__Germany Show less
Installation art is one of the most common forms of contemporary art. Installations constitute themselves both in space and time. They are made of multiple media and materials. Often they are... Show moreInstallation art is one of the most common forms of contemporary art. Installations constitute themselves both in space and time. They are made of multiple media and materials. Often they are compared to stage sets, which the viewer can enter physically. Well-known installations are the site-specific works created by Carsten Höller, Doris Salcedo and Olafur Eliasson for the Turbine Hall of London’s Tate Modern. Installation art is particularly known for the kind of spectatorship that it has brought about. Installations are said to turn passive viewers into active participants. This dissertation aims to analyze this spectatorship: How do we experience works of installation art, what is so particular about this spectatorship, and how does it reflect on the ‘experience society’ we are supposed to be living in? The aim of my research is to contribute to the theoretical reflection on spectatorship. I contend that installation art transforms the viewer into a ‘performing observer’. In experiencing an installation viewers revert to their own memories, associations, wishes and dreams. Inadvertently they are writing themselves into the ‘play’ that is suggested by the scenario in which they find themselves. Performing an installation means entering into a playful yet reflective interaction with one’s surroundings. Show less
This dissertation provides a balanced picture of the experiences that individuals can have in the combination of their work and family roles. Extending the common focus in previous literature on... Show moreThis dissertation provides a balanced picture of the experiences that individuals can have in the combination of their work and family roles. Extending the common focus in previous literature on experiences of role conflict (and their detrimental consequences), the present research also addresses the positive side of role combination and reveals the different ways in which work and family roles can facilitate each other (energy-based, time-based, behavioral, and psychological facilitation). This research shows that experiencing work-family facilitation has beneficial consequences for employees__ well-being at work and at home (e.g., higher work satisfaction, higher life satisfaction), contributes to employees__ mental and physical health (e.g., lower depressive complaints, lower cholesterol level, healthier body weight), and results in concrete gains for the organization as well (e.g., enhanced objective job performance, lower absenteeism). Furthermore, this research indicates that facilitation can be stimulated by means of informational (appraisal) support and by providing support for family issues in the work environment (a family supportive work environment) as well as support for work issues at home (a work supportive home environment). Thus, this dissertation provides a positive perspective on the combination of work and family roles, which hopefully also find its way to a non-academic audience. Show less
