Case Study
Randstad’s business model of innovation: Results from an exploratory study in the temporary staffing industry
Pim den Hertog
Dialogic Innovation and Interaction BV, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Gjalt de Jong
Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Abstract
Official statistics suggest that European service corporations seem to be ignoring the importance of R&D and innovation activities. It is worthwhile to look at whether and how European service companies innovate in order to reap the associated benefits. In this article, we will introduce the Randstad model of corporate service innovation, showing how their particular innovation strategy, structure and decision-making processes help to develop learning capabilities that have fostered this company's long-term competitive advantage. And what lessons are to be learned from the Randstad example that could assist the implementation of the model in other organizations.
Keywords
innovation, services, business models, temporary staffing industry
References
Alam, I & C Perry (2002) A customer-oriented new service development process. Journal of Service Marketing 16: 515-534.
Ark, B van, SK Kuipers & G Kuper (2000) (eds) Productivity, technology and economic growth. Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht.
Ark, B van, L Broersma & P den Hertog (2003) Service innovation, performance and policy: A review. Research Series No. 6 The Hague: Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Argyris, C & D Schön (1978) Organizational learning. Addison-Wesley, Reading MA.
Argyris, C (2003) A life full of learning. Organization Studies 24: 1178-1192.
Barney, JB (1991) Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management 17: 99-120.
Barras, R (1986) Towards a theory of innovation in services. Research Policy 15: 161-173.
Barras, R (1990) Interactive innovation in financial and business services: the vanguard of the service revolution. Research Policy 19: 215-237.
Boden, M & I Miles (2000) (eds) Service and the knowledge-based economy. Continuum, London.
Cainelli, G, R Evangelista & M Savona (2006) Innovation and economic performance in services: a firm-level analysis. Cambridge Journal of Economics 30: 435-458.
Conner, KR (1991) A historical comparison of resourcebased theory and five schools of thought within industrial organization economics: Do we have a new theory of the firm? Journal of Management 17: 121-154.
Edvardsson, B, L Haglund & J Mattsson (2002) Analysis, planning, improvisation and control in the development of new services. International Journal of Service Industry Management 2: 24-35.
Hertog, P den (2000) Knowledge-intensive business services as co-producers of innovation. International Journal of Innovation Management 4: 491-528.
Dahlgaard, JJ & SMP. Dahlgaard (1999) Integrating business excellence and innovation management: developing a culture for innovation. Total Quality Management 10: 465-472.
Djellal, F & F Gallouj (2001) Innovation surveys for service industries: a review, in: European Commission, Pim den Hertog and Gjalt de Jong Innovation and enterprise creation: statistics and indicators, pp 70-76, Luxembourg (EUR 17083).
Dodgson, M (1993) Organizational learning. A review of some literatures. Organization Studies 14: 375-394.
Dodgson, M (2000) The management of technological innovation: An international and strategic approach. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Dodgson, M, D Gann & A Salter (2005) Think, play, do: Technology, innovation and organization. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
De Brentani, U (2001) Innovative versus incremental new business services: different keys for achieving success. Journal of Product Innovation Management 18: 169-187.
Eisenhardt, KM (1989) Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review 14: 532-550.
European Commission (2003) The competitiveness of business-related services and their contribution to the performance of European Enterprises. Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European parliament, COM(2003) 747, Brussels.
European Commission (2005) More research and innovation - Investing for growth and employment: A common approach. Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European parliament, COM(2005) 488, Brussels.
Evangelista, R & M Savona (1998) Patterns of innovation in services. The results of the Italian innovation survey. Working paper presented at the VIII Annual RESER Conference, Berlin.
Foss, N & C Knudsen (1996) (eds) Towards a competence theory of the firm. Routledge, London.
Gadrey, J, F Gallouj & O Weinstein (1995) New modes of innovation. How services benefit industry. International Journal of Services Industry Management 6: 4-16.
Gallouj, F & O Wienstein (1997) Innovation in services. Research Policy 26: 537-556.
Gallouj, F (2002) Innovation in the service economy: the new wealth of nations. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham: Gilsing, A & B Nooteboom (2006) Exploration and exploitation in biotechnology. Research Policy 35: 1-23.
Hart, SJ & LM Service (1993) Cross-functional integration in the new product introduction process: an application of action science in services. International Journal of Service Industry Management 4: 50-66.
Henderson, R & K Clark (1990) Architectural innovation: the reconfiguration of existing product technologies and the failure of established firms. Administrative Science Quarterly 35: 9-30.
Hertog, P den, L Broersma & B van Ark (2003) On the soft side of innovation: service innovation and its policy implication. De Economist 151: 433-452.
Howells, J (2001) The nature of innovation in services, in: OECD, Innovation and productivity in services, pp 55-79, OECD, Paris.
Howells, J (2004) Innovation, consumption and information technology in services. Canadian Journal of Economics 32: 364-381.
Howells, J & B Tehter (2004) Innovation in services: Issues and trends. DG Enterprise, Brussels.
Inklaar, R, MP Timmer & B van Ark (2007) Mind the gap! International comparisons of productivity in services and goods production. German Economic Review 8: 281-307.
Kelly, D & C Storey (2000) New service development: initiation strategies. International Journal of Service Industry Management 11: 45-62.
Kline, SJ & Rosenberg, N (1986) An overview of innovation. In: R Landau & N Rosenberg (eds), The positive sum strategy, pp 275-305, National Academy Press, Washington.
Løwendahl, BR (2005) Professional service firms. Copenhagen Business School Press, Copenhagen.
Mankiw, NG & P Swagel (2006) The politics and economics of offshore outsourcing. Journal of Monetary Economics 5: 1027-1056.
March, J (1991) Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning. Organization Science 2: 71-87.
Mazzacuto, M (2000) Firm size, innovation and market structure. The evolution of industrial concentration and instability. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
Metcalfe, S & I Miles (2000) (eds) Innovation systems in the service economy: Measurement and case study analysis. Kluwer Academic, London.
Meyer, MH & A DeTore (2001) Perspective: creating a platform-based approach for developing new services. Journal of Product Innovation Management 18: 188-204.
Miles, I (1993) Services in the new industrial economy.Futures 25: 653-672.
Nonaka, I & H Takeuchi (1995) The knowledge creating company. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Nooteboom, B (2000) Learning and innovation in organizations and economies. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Norman, R (1991) Service management. Strategy and leadership in service business. John Wiley, London.
Nijhoff, A, K Krabbendam & JK Looise (2002) Innovation through exemptions: building upon the creativity of employees. Technovation 22: 675-683.
OECD (1999) Temporary and part-time employment. OECD, Paris.
OECD (2005a) Enhancing the performance of the services sector. OECD, Paris.
OECD (2005b) Promoting innovation in services. OECD, Paris.
Oke, A (2004) Barriers to innovation management in service companies. Journal of Change Management 4: 31-44.
Oke, A (2002) Making it happen: how to improve innovative capability in a service company. Journal of Change Management 2: 272-281.
Ozdemir, S, P Trot & A Hoecht (2007) New service development. Insights from an explorative study into the Turkish retail banking sector. Innovation: Management, Policy and Practice 9: 45-63.
Peteraf, MA (1993) The cornerstones of competitive Results from an exploratory study in the temporary staffing industry advantage: A resource-based view. Strategic Management Journal 14: 179-191.
Pettigrew, AM & EM Fenton (2000) (eds) The innovating organization. Sage, London.
Pilat, D (2001) Innovation and productivity in services: state of the art. Innovation and Productivity in services. OECD, Paris.
Quinn, JB (1992) Intelligent enterprise. Free Press, New York.
Senge, PM (1990) The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. Doubleday, New York.
Sharma, SK, JND Gupta, N Wickramasinghe (2005) A framework for building a learning organisation in the 21st century. International Journal of Innovation and Learning 2: 261-273.
Soete, L & M Miozzo (1989) Trade and development in services: a technological perspective. Working paper 89-031, MERIT, University of Maastricht.
Sundbo, J, F Orfila-Sintes & F Sørenson (2007) The innovative behaviour of tourism firms - Comparative studies of Denmark and Spain. Research Policy 36: 88-106.
Sundbo, J & F Gallouj (2000) Innovation as a loosely coupled systems in services. In: JS Metcalfe & I Miles (eds), Identifying Innovation systems in the service economy, measurement and case study analysis. Kluwer Academic Press, London.
Tether, B (2003) The sources and aims of innovation in services: variety between and within sectors.
Economics of Innovation and New Technology 12: 481-505.
Tether, BS, C Hipp, & I Miles (2001) Standardisation and particularisation in services: Evidence from Germany. Research Policy 30: 1115-1138.
Tidd, J & FM Hull (2003) Service innovation. Organizational responses to technological opportunities and market imperatives. Series on technology management, volume 9, Imperial College Press, London UK.
Vermeulen, PAM & B Dankbaar (2002) The organisation of product innovation in the financial sector. The Service Industries Journal 22: 77-98.
Verspagen, B (2005) Innovation and economic growth, in J Fagerberg, D Mowery & R Nelson (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Innovation. New York/Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Volberda, HW (1998) Building the flexible firm. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Yin, RK (2004) (ed) The case study anthology. Sage, Thousand Oaks.

eContent Home




