Ben Dankbaar

A fundamental challenge in democracy is how to control civil service organizations. This challenge has been primarily addressed by creating horizontal accountability arrangements, in which independent agencies act as auditors and evaluators of civil service organizations. However, horizontal accountability only partially resolves this control challenge. In this paper, we adopt a design science approach and draw on insights from game theory to develop a set of design principles for controlling civil service organizations. Based on these design principles, a system for controlling civil service staff was created and implemented in a medium-sized Dutch municipality. The results obtained in this municipality are rather promising regarding the enhanced efficiency and transparency of the civil service organization, while the high level of job satisfaction among civil servants is sustained. These findings suggest that the benefits of increased transparency in how civil servants are monitored appear to outweigh the fact that they may have less discretion in their work.

Dutch riverine areas are managed intensively to ensure the provision of various ecosystem services. Vegetation management, including pruning and mowing, produces a woody and grassy biomass as a by-product. In the past, this residual biomass has been treated as a waste product. Now there is a change of perspective; biomass is valued as a potential additional ecosystem service instead of a waste product. In this study, we explore the transition from waste to ecosystem service of residual biomass in Dutch water management organisations. We found several trends in the organisation of biomass use. There is a development away from the traditional approach of choosing the cheapest or easiest way to get rid of biomass towards exploring various uses of biomass that fulfil additional, societally relevant, functions. This trend alters the organisation of vegetation management and subsequent biomass use. Selection based on sustainable biomass uses is gaining importance, and there is a growing desire within public organisations to be able to steer towards sustainable use of residual biomass. However, there is a lack of applicable, objective ranking instruments.

How to facilitate learning by novices (students) on their road to expertise has attracted the attention of a vast number of researchers in cognitive and educational psychology as well in the field of learning and instruction. Although many studies have investigated the phenomenon of expertise development, the implications of the findings for instruction are scattered throughout the literature. This article reports the results of a systematic literature review of 37 studies on expertise development. Using Tynjälä's Integrative Pedagogy Model as an organising framework, the implications for educational practice described in these studies are presented as 10 instructional principles. This study takes a step towards translating expertise development research into guidelines for instruction. Implications for future research are discussed.

The organization of industry–science collaboration in case of knowledge transfer for radical innovation is central to this study. Based on a contingency notion, the relation between research and development (R&D) projects’ properties and the way of collaboration is explored. By means of in-depth interviews with industrial managers 32 projects were studied. We found two configurations: consortium-deluxe and research services-plus. The invention’s time-to-market was identified as the discriminating factor. The first configuration represents a large-scale consortium in which a firm over time informally adjusts the activities of some academic partners towards the objectives of its own project. In the research services-plus configuration, firms are looking for specific knowledge to complete their own, highly confidential projects. Because of internal deadlines, delay is undesired and the level of control is high. On the contrary to ‘classic’ research services, mobility plays an important role in services-plus. These configurations will help to reach more effective knowledge transfer.

Vissers G. and Dankbaar B. Spatial aspects of interfirm collaboration: an exploration of firm-level knowledge dynamics, Regional Studies. The days of vertical integration are over. Product development, manufacturing and other activities once done by single firms are now fields of collaboration. This raises questions about the spatial aspects of interfirm collaboration. Firms have partners in their direct environment, at a distance or in between, which means that traditional views on regional economic development no longer apply. It also means that a local–global dichotomy does not adequately describe today's economic landscape. This paper distinguishes four spatial scales – local, regional, national and international – and explores the distribution of interfirm collaboration across them, while taking project development over time into account.