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Macro‐environmental scanning is a first step in strategic planning, which is essential in an emerging industry such as liquid biofuels. The purpose of this paper is to identify the dimensions within which the governments of Brazil, the USA and Germany have constructed the macro‐environment for liquid biofuels over time and to test for similarities between the governments’ constructs.

Documentary research was carried out on official public policies and program documents on the topic of liquid biofuels, covering a ten‐year period from 1997 to 2006. The database consisted of 624 documents from the Brazilian government, 854 from the American government and 168 documents from the German government. Text mining was used to extract information from the texts by applying a specific analysis structure that was built on macro‐environmental dimensions as expressed by their respective dimensional words “d‐words”. The “d‐words” were selected based on their usage frequency in the knowledge fields related to each dimension.

The results indicate that the macro‐environments for liquid biofuels, as configured by the governments under analysis, differ systematically and over time in their emphasis of specific macro‐environmental dimensions.

There are two primary aspects of this study which are original and valuable: the application of text‐mining techniques as a tool for strategic planning and the development of a particular tool to extract knowledge from text documents and to categorize them according to their macro‐environmental dimensions.

The purpose of this paper is to discover an uncontested market space in the European fruit and vegetables industry (EFVI), and thereby assess the ex‐ante applicability of the Blue Ocean Strategy of Kim and Mauborgne.

The search for an untapped market space made it necessary to first configure the logic of the Blue Ocean Strategy, which the authors coined the BOS‐framework. Next, the application to the EFVI required a two‐stage research strategy, namely desk research with six case studies, and a large survey.

The findings confirm that the Blue Ocean Strategy‐framework enables one to identify ex ante an untapped market space, characterized by the combination of sweeties' attributes with fresh fruit. The revolutionary untapped market space which the authors arrived at is “Youngfruit”, targeted at the new buyer group children and teenagers.

The research provides important insights in future key success factors to set oneself apart from competitors and change the rules of the game in the very competitive EFVI. Furthermore, this paper is (one of) the first to assess empirically the qualities and limitations of the Blue Ocean Strategy.

Recent studies have questioned the direct relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and firm performance (e.g., Rauch, Wiklund, Lumpkin, & Frese, 2009; Wales, Gupta, & Mousa, 2013). Following this stream of research, this study examines this relationship by identifying the intermediate steps between these two variables (Alegre & Chiva, 2013; Wales, 2016; Zahra, Sapienza, & Davidsson, 2006). EO is considered essential for new market entry and new business foundation, which is why this study focuses on startups. Startups search for viable business opportunities, and this search is highly dependent on organizational learning (Kreiser, 2011). Previous studies suggest that organizational learning mediates the relationship between EO and performance (e.g., Real, Roldan, & Leal, 2014; Wang, 2008). This study investigates the role of organizational learning in this relationship by analyzing how EO and absorptive capacity (AC) interact. We propose a more direct and fine-grained measure of entrepreneurial success by developing a conceptual model that includes opportunity identification as an early outcome measure for startups. Drawing on a sample of 95 academic spin-offs in the Netherlands, this study examines the mediating role of AC and market readiness in the relationship between EO and market opportunities. The findings indicate that AC and market readiness mediate the direct effect of EO on market opportunity identification. By using opportunity identification as an outcome measure for EO, this study adopts a more direct measure for firm performance, resonating with recent discussions on the main effect of EO for organizations. These findings suggest that academic spin-offs’ AC leads entrepreneurial efforts to achieve a better product-market fit, and in return, helps to identify more market opportunities.

The large‐scale introduction of a new packaging concept requires co‐ordination in two areas: organisational co‐ordination is necessary (negotiations between the parties involved), as well as technical co‐ordination (technical specifications). These aspects are analysed in this paper on the basis of standardisation and strategic management literature. The theory is illustrated using the successful introduction in The Netherlands of the Versfust (Freshcrate): a standard crate for the distribution of fresh food products. A systematic approach to standard packaging is both desirable and possible, as emerges from literature and from the Freshcrate product.

Facility management (FM) teams must deal with the creation of value in the physical world of resources and a virtual world made of information. Therefore, an innovative approach in the day‐to‐day FM operation is crucial. Studying the innovative ability of the FM teams contributes to the ongoing discussion in the field concerning the innovative ability of in‐house FM departments in comparison to their outsourced counterparts. The focus of this article is on the innovative ability of in‐house and outsourced FM teams. The article addresses the issue of innovative ability of FM teams from a theoretical perspective, suggesting an assessment framework to be used, providing an overview of implementation mechanisms of an innovation project. It concludes with a methodological application of the framework developed.

The innovation patterns and processes in facility management (FM) organizations are crucial for the development of FM as a discipline, but they are not yet fully explored and understood. This paper aims to clarify FM innovation from the perspective of innovation processes and the innovativeness of FM organizations.

It explores the innovation patterns in FM organizations by applying the innovation management concepts to FM practices. A sample of four FM organizations is analyzed by means of a comparative case study approach. Based on their innovative performance, the sample of FM organizations are divided into two groups – a group of high‐performers and a group of low‐performers. The major similarities and differences in managing the innovation process between these two groups are described.

Based on this study it is concluded that FM organizations innovate only mildly. The innovation in FM industry is incremental due to the day‐to‐day nature of decision‐making in FM projects and fast changing demands and needs of the client organizations.

Further research should concentrate on a specific type of innovation projects, where the points of interest would be the routines followed, activities performed and the tools used by the FM teams when carrying out the innovation projects.

This paper provides a different perspective on studying the innovation patterns in FM industry.

This chapter synthesizes works contained within the volume and paints a picture of where entrepreneurial orientation (EO) research stands today and where it is likely heading in the future. From the necessity for better theorizing and measurement to new directions and context, today’s research into EO is setting the foundation for future research that brings greater understanding to what it means for firms and organizations of all types to be entrepreneurial.

The Dutch agricultural sector nowadays experiences many challenges. To deal with these, the sector has been interested in finding ways to improve performance. Mostly, the improvement research has concentrated in the areas of innovation of products and quality, supply chain management, cooperatives, entrepreneurship and human resources. However, hardly any research has been done into ways to strengthen the internal organisation, encompassing the quality of management, employees and processes and systems of the agriculture company. This paper aims to address this research gap by evaluating whether the high performance organisation (HPO) framework, a scientific validated analysis and improvement technique, can be used to help agricultural enterprises to strengthen their internal organisation.

The HPO Questionnaire was applied at four Dutch horticulture companies to evaluate their performance. Subsequently, at each company, interviews were held to obtain more information about the scores. Then, a workshop was organised with the management of all four companies to discuss the study results.

The workshop showed that the framework was suitable for the participating companies to start improving their organisations, as management of all four companies agreed that the analysis and recommendations, derived from analysing the questionnaire data and the interviews, were highly relevant to their business.

As there is no holistic organisational evaluation and improvement technique which looks specifically at the internal organisation of horticulture companies, available for the agricultural sector, the application of the HPO Framework in this sector is the first of its kind.

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the knowledge flow between companies and universities based on national and sectoral systems of innovation perspective. It is argued here that high-tech sectors can describe a knowledge flow mainly based on scientific research, while sectors with lower technological impact may establish relations based on technical needs.

A case study research was conducted in the horticulture and aerospace sectors in Brazil. Thirteen interviews were performed with chief executive officer’s and academic researchers from both fields.

Results demonstrated differences in technology development and knowledge infrastructure when comparing both sectors, reflecting the impacts of national and sectoral systems of innovation. The horticulture sector presented technological limitations due to restricted eating habits, logistics, knowledge development at universities and difficulties on the establishment of partnerships between local companies and Embrapa, the main public research centre. Such restrictions limit academic activities while companies look for research partnerships abroad. Space industry also has limited technological development due to international embargoes and lack of research alignment between companies and universities. Companies end up developing research activities internally, usually funded by governmental tenders.

The horticulture sector has limitations, as it is not the main agriculture area in science and technology applications. Future studies may analyse areas like soy beans, sugar cane and coffee, which may present differences specially regarding sectoral systems of innovation.

The finding of this paper may influence the review of sectoral innovation policies, improving the development of local research activities which may be a source of valuable knowledge to companies. It also demonstrates the importance of the knowledge flow to improve sector’s technology level.