Henk Volberda

Henk Volberda is Professor of Strategic Management and Business Policy, Chairman of the Department of Strategic Management at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Director of the Erasmus Strategic Renewal Center and Scientific Director of INSCOPE. He has been a visiting scholar at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and City University Business School, London. Professor Volberda obtained his docotorate 'cum laude' in Business Administration of the University of Groningen. His research on organizational flexibility and strategic renewal received many awards, o.a. Igor Ansoff Strategic Management Award 1993, Erasmus University Research Award 1997, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Strategy Award 2005. His work on strategic renewal, coevolution and new organizational forms has been published in a  large variety of academic journals, o.a. Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Journal of Managements Studies, Long Range Planning. His book 'Building the Flexible Firm: How to Remain Competitive' (1998) published by Oxford University Press received wide acclaim. His book with Tom Elfring 'Rethinking Strategy' (Sage, 2001) was awarded with the ERIM Best Book Award.

Research interests:

  • Strategic Renewal, Strategic Change and Revitalization
  • Strategic Flexibility, Hypercompetition and New Organizational Forms
  • Coevolution of Industries and Firms
  • Strategy Innovation
  • Knowledge Flows and Absorptive Capacity

Selected publications:

  • Burgers, J.H., Van den Bosch, F.A.J. & Volberda, H.W. (2008), Why New Business Development Projects Fail: Coping with the Differences of Technological versus Market Knowledge, Long Range Planning, 41 (1), 55 - 73. Click here to download the full paper
  • Bezemer. P., Maassen, G.F., Van den Bosch, F.A.J. & Volberda, H.W. (2007) Investigating the development of the internal and external service tasks of non-executive directors: The case of the Netherlands (1997-2005). Corporate governance, 15 (6), 1119 - 1129. Click here to download full paper
  • Sidhu, J.S., Commandeur, H.R. & Volberda, H.W. (2007), The Multifaceted Nature of Exploration and Exploitation: Value of Supply, Demand and Spatial Search for Innovation, Organization Science, 18 (1): 20-38.
  • Mom, T.J.M, Bosch, F.A.J. Van Den & Volberda, H.W. (2006), “Investigating Managers’ Exploration and Exploitation Activities: The Influence of Top-down , Bottum-up, and Horizontal Knowledge Inflows, Journal of Management Studies, forthcoming.
  • Spedale, S., Bosch F.A.J. Van den & Volberda, H.W. (2006), “Preservation and Dissolution of the Target Firm’s Embedded Ties in Acquisition”, Organization Studies, forthcoming
  • Vlaar, P.W.L., Van den Bosch, F.A.J., Volberda, H.W. (2006), On the Evolution of Trust, Distrust, and Formal Coordination and Control in Interorganizational Relationships: Towards an Integrative Framework, Group & Organization Management, forthcoming.
  • Vermeulen, P.A.M., Van den Bosch, F.A.J., Volberda, H.W. (2006) Complex Incremental Product Innovation in Established Service Firms: A Micro Institutional Perspective, Organization Studies, forthcoming.
  • Vlaar, P.W.L., Van Den Bosch, F.A.J., Volberda, H.W. (2006), Coping with Problems of Understanding in Interorganizational Relationships: Using Formalization as a Mean to make Sense, Organization Studies, Special Issue “Karl Weick”, 27 (11), 1617 – 1638.
  • Jansen, J.J.P., Bosch, F.A.J. van den & Volberda, H.W. (2006), Exploratory Innovation, Exploitative Innovation, and Performance effects of organizational antecedents and environmental moderators, Management Science, forthcoming.
  • Jansen, J., Bosch, F.A.J. van den & Volberda, H.W. (2005), Managing Potential and Realized Absorptive Capacity: How do Organizational Antecedents Matter? Academy of Management Journal, 48 (6), pp. 999 – 1015.
  • Sidhu, J.S., Volberda, H.W. & Commandeur, H. (2004), Exploring Exploration Orientation and its Determinants: Some Empirical Evidence. Journal of Management Studies, 41 (6): 913-932.
  • Flier, B., Van Den Bosch, F.A.J., Volberda, H.W. (2003), Coevolution in the Strategic Renewal Behaviour of British, Dutch and French Financial Incumbents: Interaction of Environmental Selection, Institutional Effects, and Managerial Intentionality, Journal of Management Studies, 40 (8), p. 2163-2187
  • Lewin, A.Y. & Volberda, H.W. (2003), Beyond Adaptation-Selection Research: Organizing Self-Renewal in Co-Evolving Environments, Journal of Management Studies, 40 (8): 2109-2110.
  • Volberda H.W. & Lewin, A.Y. (2003), Co-evolutionary Dynamics Within and Between Firms: From Evolution to Co-evolution. Journal of Management Studies, 40 (8): 2111-2136.
  • Volberda, H.W. & Elfring, T. (2001), Rethinking Strategy, London
  • Volberda, H.W., Ch. Baden-Fuller and F.A.J. Van Den Bosch (2001), Mastering strategic renewal: Mobilising renewal journeys in multi-unit firms, Long Range Planning, 34 (2) p. 159-178.
  • Volberda, H.W., F.A.J. Van Den Bosch, B. Flier and E. Gedajlovic (2001), Following the Herd or not? Long Range Planning, 34 (2) p. 209-229.
  • Huygens, M. Ch. Baden-Fuller, F.A.J. Van Den Bosch, H.W. Volberda (2001), Coevolution of Firm Capabilities and Industry Competition: Investigating the Music Industry 1877-1997, Organisation Studies, vol. 22, no. 6, p. 971-1011.
  • Van den Bosch, F.A.J., H.W. Volberda, M. de Boer (1999), Co-evolution of Firm Absorptive Capacity and Knowledge Environment: Organization Forms and Combinative Capabilities, Organization Science, vol. 10, 5, p. 551-568.
  • Dijksterhuis, M., F.A.J. Van Den Bosch, H.W. Volberda (1999), Where do New Organization Forms come from? Management Logics as a Source of Co-evolution, Organization Science, vol. 10, 5, p. 569-582.
  • Boer, M. de, F.A.J. Van Den Bosch, H.W. Volberda (1999), Managing Organizational Knowledge Integration in the Emerging Multimedia Complex, Journal of Management Studies, vol. 36, 3, p. 379-398.
  • Volberda, H.W. (1999), Building the Flexible Firm: How to Remain Competitive. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 349 pp (paperback).
  • Volberda, H. W. (1996), Towards The Flexible Form: How To Remain Vital in Hypercompetitive Environments, Organization Science, 7 (4): 359-387.

For complete publications list, click here.

Works on:

  • Structural Differentiation and Ambidexterity
    28 January 2009, Article

    Prior studies have emphasized that structural attributes are crucial to simultaneously pursuing exploration and exploitation, yet our understanding of antecedents of ambidexterity is still limited. Structural differentation can help ambidextrous organizations to maintain multiple inconsistent and conflicting demands; however, differentiated exploratory and exploitative activities need to be mobilized, coordinated, integrated, and applied. Based on this idea, we delineate formal and informal senior team integration mechanisms (e.g. contingency rewards and social integration) and formal and informal organizational integration mechanisms (e.g. cross-functional interfaces and connectedness) and examine  how they mediate the relationship between structural differentiation and ambidexterity. Overall, our findings suggest that the previously asserted direct effect of structural differentation on ambidexterity operates through informal senior team (i.e., senior team social integration) and formal organizational (i.e., cross-functional interfaces) integration mechanisms. Through this richer explanation and empirical assessment, we contribute to a greater clarity and better understanding of how organizations may effectively pursue exploration and exploitation simultaneously to achieve ambidexterity.

  • Understanding variation in managers' ambidexterity
    6 April 2009, Working Paper

    Previous research focuses on firm and business unit level ambidexterity. Therefore, conceptual and empirically validated understanding about ambidexterity at the individual level of analysis is very scarce. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by investigating managers’ ambidexterity,delivering three contributions to theory and empirical research on ambidexterity. First, by proposing three related characteristics of ambidextrous managers. Second, by developing a model and associated hypotheses on both the direct and interaction effects of formal structural and personal coordination mechanisms on managers’ ambidexterity. And third, by testing the hypotheses based on a sample of 716 business unit level and operational level managers.

    Findings regarding the formal structural mechanisms indicate that a manager’s decision making authority positively relates to this manager’s ambidexterity whereas formalization of a manager’s tasks has no significant relationship with this manager’s ambidexterity. Regarding the personal coordination mechanisms, findings indicate that both participation of a manager in crossfunctional interfaces and connectedness of a manager to other organization members, positively relate to this manager’s ambidexterity. Furthermore, results show positive interaction effects between the formal structural and personal coordination mechanisms on managers’ ambidexterity. The paper’s theoretical contributions and the empirical results increase our understanding about managers’ ambidexterity and about how different types and combinations of coordination mechanisms relate to variation in managers’ ambidexterity.

     

  • Why New Business Development Projects Fail
    9 April 2009, Article

    Managing through projects has become important for generating new knowledge to cope with technological and market discontinuities. This paper examines how the fit between the creation of technological and market knowledge and important project management characteristics, i.e. project autonomy and completion criteria, influences the success of new business development (NBD) projects. In-depth longitudinal case research on NBD projects commercialised from 1993 to 2003 in the consumer electronics industry highlights that project management characteristics focusing only on the creation of technological knowledge contributed to the failure of those NBD projects that required new market knowledge as well. The findings indicate that senior management support and engaging in an alliance with partners possessing complementary market knowledge can offset this misalignment of the organisation of NBD projects.

  • Structural differentiation and corporate venturing
    9 April 2009, Article

    Research has suggested that corporate venturing is crucial to strategic renewal and firm performance, yet scholars still debate the appropiate organizational configurations to facilitate the creation of new business in existing organizations. Our study investigates the effectiveness of combining structural differentiation with formal and informal organizational as well as top management team integration mechanisms in establishing an appropiate context for venturing activities. Our findings suggest that structural differentiation has a positive effect on corporate venturing. In addition, our study indicates that a shared vision has a positive effect on venturing in a structurally differentiated context. Socially integrated senior teams and cross-functional interfaces, however, are ineffective integration mechanisms for establishing linkages across differentiated units and for successfully pursuing corportate venturing.