Marjolein C. Achterkamp

Stakeholder identification in innovation projects: Going beyond classification

Purpose – The management of stakeholder involvement within innovation projects is a task of growing importance. The purpose of this paper is to present a method for the first challenge in stakeholder management: the identification of those stakeholders to be involved in innovation projects.Design/methodology/approach – Analysis of stakeholder literature leads to the conclusion that stakeholder identification is considered a problem of classification. Although the availability of a classification model is necessary, it is argued that for a classification model to be of use in identifying stakeholders, such a model needs to be supplemented with an identification procedure for identifying real world parties. Furthermore, a classification model should fit the context the stakeholders are identified for, in this case for innovation projects. These insights have led to the development of a classification model fitting the innovation context, and to the embedding of this model, along with a matching identificati...

Disseminating educational innovations in health care practice: Training versus social networks

Improvements and innovation in health service organization and delivery have become more and more important due to the gap between knowledge and practice, rising costs, medical errors, and the organization of health care systems. Since training and education is widely used to convey and distribute innovative initiatives, we examined the effect that following an intensive Teach-the-Teacher training had on the dissemination of a new structured competency-based feedback technique of assessing clinical competencies among medical specialists in the Netherlands. We compared this with the effect of the structure of the social network of medical specialists, specifically the network tie strength (strong ties versus weak ties). We measured dissemination of the feedback technique by using a questionnaire filled in by Obstetrics & Gynecology and Pediatrics residents (n=63). Data on network tie strength was gathered with a structured questionnaire given to medical specialists (n=81). Social network analysis was used to compose the required network coefficients. We found a strong effect for network tie strength and no effect for the Teach-the-Teacher training course on the dissemination of the new structured feedback technique. This paper shows the potential that social networks have for disseminating innovations in health service delivery and organization. Further research is needed into the role and structure of social networks on the diffusion of innovations between departments and the various types of innovations involved.

Facilitators and barriers to a nationwide implementation of competency-based postgraduate medical curricula : A qualitative study

Background: Postgraduate medical education (PGME) curricula are being redesigned across the western world. Aim: This study examined the implementation process (what works where and why) of new competency-based PGME curricula and relevant factors influencing this process. Methods: In a nationwide project (2006–2010) in the Netherlands, competency-based PGME curricula were implemented for residents in Pediatrics and Obstetrics & Gynecology. The authors conducted 25 semi-structured interviews and used a multi-level theoretical framework to guide coding. Results: The implementation process proved to be highly dynamic, non-linear, and influenced by many factors. These could be divided into attributes of the innovations/adopters, the implementation process, and the organization. The context determined the speed, quality, and direction of the process and how a factor affected the process. Conclusions: We identified specific features of PGME innovation: the challenge of implementing other competencies than that of the medical expert; the importance of regional implementation strategies and educational support; the balance between training and patient care; and the need for regional inter-organizational networks of hospitals. The authors recommend: design the curriculum with the needs of the users in mind; facilitate knowledge sharing; organize educational support; translate the national curriculum to the local workplace; and promote regional inter-organizational networks between hospitals.

How Do Social Networks and Faculty Development Courses Affect Clinical Supervisors' Adoption of a Medical Education Innovation? An Exploratory Study

Purpose To examine the impact of social networks and a two-day faculty development course on clinical supervisors’ adoption of an educational innovation. Method During 2007–2010, 571 residents and 613 clinical supervisors in four specialties in the Netherlands were invited to complete a Web-based questionnaire. Residents rated their clinical supervisors’ adoption of an educational innovation, the use of structured and constructive (S&C) feedback. Clinical supervisors self-assessed their adoption of this innovation and rated their communication intensity with other clinical supervisors in their department. For each supervisor, a centrality score was calculated, representing the extent to which the supervisor was connected to departmental colleagues. The authors analyzed the effects of supervisor centrality and participation in a two-day Teach-the-Teacher course on the degree of innovation adoption using hierarchical linear modeling, adjusting for age, gender, and attitude toward the S&C feedback innovation. Results Respondents included 370 (60%) supervisors and 357 (63%) residents. Although Teach-the-Teacher course participation (n = 172; 46.5%) was significantly related to supervisors’ self-assessments of adoption (P = .001), it had no effect on residents’ assessments of supervisors’ adoption (P = .371). Supervisor centrality was significantly related to innovation adoption in both residents’ assessments (P = .023) and supervisors’ self-assessments (P = .024). Conclusions A clinical supervisor’s social network may be as important as faculty development course participation in determining whether the supervisor adopts an educational innovation. Faculty development initiatives should use faculty members’ social networks to improve the adoption of educational innovations and help build and maintain communities of practice.

Images of new product success: a case study in search of local validity

Purpose – This paper aims to measure new product success within a Dutch mailing company and to hypothesize that there exists no definition of new product success which is generally applicable, or valid in all circumstances. It seeks to opine that the best that can be achieved is a “local” definition: a definition valid only in a specific local context. In this article, a method is described on how to develop such a local measure.Design/methodology/approach – To prevent this framing bias, a multidimensional scaling approach is used, in which data collection and analysis have relevant new product success features as output instead of input.Findings – The method was applied to a Dutch mailing company, and it was found that in this case only two dimensions of new product success were prevalent. These were ROI and customer acceptance. From this, it was inferred that local valid measures in this particular situation were only a subset of all measures of new product success mentioned in the literature. Originali...

Challenge Versus Exchange in Collective Decision Making: A Comparison of Two Simulation Models Based on Simulated Data

In collective decision making, actors can use different influence strategies to get their way. Differences in influence strategies may, or may not, be connected to differences in collective outcomes. This research studies two influence strategies: the exchange strategy and the challenge strategy. In the existing literature, these strategies are analyzed and compared using simulation models in which actor behavior regarding influence attempts based on one of the strategies is modeled explicitly. Until now, these models have been tested only empirically on limited data sets. However, a theoretical test is necessary to gain more precise insights in the effect of characteristics of collective decision making situations on the collective outcomes. In the present research, computer simulations are used in a structured comparison of two competing models (the iterative exchange model and challenge model). The analyses show that the outcomes of both models are captured for a large part in the actor characteristics on the issues. Besides this, the expected directions of challenges and exchanges play a major part in explaining the outcomes of the models. This research shows that the use of simulated data allows a structured search of the input space, which led to new insights into the iterative exchange model and challenge model, and therefore in the exchange strategy and the challenge strategy.

The importance of being systematically surprisable : Comparative social simulation as experimental technique

We argue that computer simulation can serve as a functional equivalent for the experimental method in sociology, with respect to theory development. To this end we present accounts of experimentation and simulation by experimenting/simulating scientists and sociologists of science. From these analyses we conclude desirable features of a simulation method: generality, surprisability and power to separate. That means that it should be widely applicable, capable of surprising the researcher, and capable of separating surprising results that originate from sociological features of the model from those that stem from technical features. We demonstrate three methods that may provide these features: emergence, fixing points of reference, and comparative response testing. We develop the latter method in greater depth by discussing an exemplary simulation study.

Standardizing the segmentation index S3

The segmentation index S 3 of Baerveldt and Snijders (1994) is used in the research of social cohesion. However, as is often the case with network level measures, the index is sensitive to network size and density. Therefore, networks of different size or density are not easily comparable. Of course, this seriously limits the research using this index. In this article we propose a standardization of the segmentation index that solves this problem. The standardization uses the expected value and the maximum value of the index, within certain network types, the so-called network families. We show how these values can be calculated. Furthermore, we present a figure that can be used to derive the expected values and a table for easy determination of the maximum values for all network families existing of 4 to 20 members. This allows the calculation of the standardized index for all networks within these families.

Exchange and challenge in collective decision making

Two models of collective decision making (the Exchange model of Stokman and Van Oosten (1994a) and the Expected Utility model of Bueno de Mesquita (Bueno de Mesquita, 1994; Bueno de Mesquita et al., 1985)) which use the same basic assumptions and input data, are modified in such a way that they only differ in assumed influence strategy. This enables the study of the effect of assumed influence strategy on the predictive power of models of collective decision making.

Bridging the transactional and relational view on management-stakeholder cooperation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a 2 × 2-perspective of management–stakeholder cooperation in organizational issues. The model encompasses the perspectives of both management and stakeholder and bridges the two dominant views in stakeholder thinking, namely, the transactional and the relational view. Design/methodology/approach – From a state-of-the-art elaboration of the stakeholder literature, this paper combines two separate perspectives on management–stakeholder cooperation. Findings – The bilateral perspective stresses that the ease of this collaboration not only depends on the willingness of management to pursue cooperation, but also on that of the stakeholder. The double-motive perspective signifies that both parties can be dominantly motivated by either individual, issue-based reasons (transactional motives) or by the desire to establish lasting relationships (relational motives). Originality/value – This paper presents a more elaborate picture of management–stakeholder cooperatio...