Flanders DC Studies
Vrouwelijk ondernemerschap in Vlaanderen, onontgonnen creatief potentieel
Het belang van vrouwelijk ondernemerschap voor de economische groei is de afgelopen jaren sterk gestegen. In dit rapport worden zowel vrouwelijk ondernemerschap als vrouwelijke waargerichte ondernemers onderzocht want deze laatste zijn immers belangrijk om te evolueren naar een innovatiegedreven en creatieve economie. Daarnaast lees je in deze studie ook 2 cases over vrouwelijke waardegerichte ondernemers: Inge Geerdens (CVWarehouse) en Conny Vandendriesschie (Accent Jobs For People).
Sustaining Competitive Advantage through Product Innovation
According to the management literature, firms have 3 options to stay ahead of the competition. One of them being: firms can offer customers leading-edge products or services that consistently enhance features, performance or the experience associated with those products or services. This study zooms in on companies that choose for this option. In the first part of the study you can read what it means and what it takes to be a product leader. The second part investigates to what extent product leadership can be applied to the service industry. In this part you can read 8 case studies os service companies that differentiate from their competitors throug product leadership.
Vergelijk uw bedrijf met andere organisaties op de markt en identificeer de punten die voor verbetering vatbaar zijn.
Naar de Product Leadership Tool
The position of plants in Flanders within global manufacturing networks: benchmarking tool
As competition is globalizing and the environment in which companies operate becomes increasingly complex, managing an integrated international network is a crucial task for manufacturing managers. It is commonly accepted that one of the main reasons for the existence of multinationals is the possibility to acquire, create, and transfer technological assets across national boundaries. Networking can therefore be seen as highly important for the future competitiveness of production plants in Flanders. A global manufacturing network consists of different types of plants. Those plants play a different strategic role in the company, have their own focus, and differ in age, autonomy, and level of resources and investments. The evolution of the plant depends to some extent on the network role of the plant. One earlier research has shown that plants that play the role of ‘lead plants’, which means they innovate and actively share their innovations with the other plants in their network, are likely to survive. In contrast, plants that occupy a more isolated position are more likely to disappear. Moreover, coordination with suppliers and customers helps to improve the performance of the plant.
Foreign direct investments: location choices across the value chain
Until the end of the 20th century, the global economy still suffered from trade and investment barriers due to economic nationalism. As this nationalism eroded, firms benefited from the effect of this liberalisation on their worldwide trade. Other important evolutions include the information technology and transportation developments. Due to significant quality improvements and considerably lower costs, the establishment of a real worldwide firm became possible and affordable.
Mainly due to the economic liberalisation and the IT revolutions, global firms tend to not locate their entire value chain in one country anymore. They try to generate strategic advantages or cost benefits by sourcing activities of the value chain towards different countries.
The report therefore analyses firms in terms of single business activities. By connecting the specific location needs of each activity to a country’s relative strength of each activity, the relative location advantage of the activity can be determined. These finding are enclosed in an innovative framework which reveals the strengths and weaknesses of each country in the attraction of business activities.
The purpose of this project is to give stakeholders that are involved in developing the new long term vision on Flanders’ attractiveness for foreign investments some essential insights into the latest evolutions in international business and economic geography, as well as of Flanders’ changing position. This report is the second of two reports on this topic.
Developing a go-to-market strategy: art or craft?
Flanders struggles with the so-called innovation paradox, where substantial resources directed at R&D do not necessarily translate into innovative products and/or services. This paradox invokes the question what goes wrong in the process between R&D and product launch. A thriving company needs a conversion ability, the ability to translate a given idea into a launched product. This project focuses on two specific aspects of the missing link between invention and innovation: formulating an appropriate business model as part of the go-to-market strategy.
