Research projects GovernanceLAB
Female board index
The Dutch Female Board Index© is an annual survey of female directors in Dutch listed companies. The publication is a study by Prof. Mijntje Lückerath-Rovers (TIAS School for Business and Society).
Read the latest results of the Female Board Index here
National Supervisory Board Member Survey
National Supervisory Board Member Survey (Nationaal Commissarissen Onderzoek) is an annual survey. In recent years, the survey has given rise to several publications and contributed to the debate on governance and supervision in various sectors. Several hundred non-executive directors and supervisors in these sectors, including listed companies, family businesses, healthcare institutions, housing associations, etc., participate every year and thus increase our knowledge of their supervision mechanisms.
The survey is conducted by Prof. Mijntje Lückerath-Rovers (TIAS) and Prof. Auke de Bos RA (Erasmus University Rotterdam).
Read the latest results of the National Supervisory Board Member Survey here (in Dutch)
Management within complex systems
With worldwide movements of decentralization, autonomy magnification and a development “from government to governance”, management within complex systems has become a hot topic. This applies to both academic research and policy. It concerns diverse social sectors, including education, healthcare, and housing. This research focuses on education and aims to generate conclusions that would be relevant to other policy areas involving management within complex systems, with multiple managing centers (poly-centric) and multiple managed layers (multi-level).
The research is supervised by Prof. Sietske Waslander (TIAS) and Prof. Edith Hooge (TIAS). For more information on this study consult the website of the Nationaal Regieorgaan Onderwijsonderzoek (National Steering Body for Education Research).
Management within complex systems
This study focuses on the administrative capacity of school boards in primary education in relation to how, and to what extent, the boards manage the quality of education. The concept of administrative capacity is researched using social capital theory where school boards are regarded as social networks. Social network analysis and multilevel analysis are used to find out whether and how administrative capacity affects the management of the quality of education. To this end, school directors, administrative staff members, and school principals of 491 schools in 23 school boards of primary education, ranging in denomination, size and degree of urbanization, were asked to take part in a digital survey. This study provides insight into what the concept of administrative capacity entails for, and how it is linked to, the performance of school boards seen as a social network. The sociological perspective of social capital helps highlight the important fact that management is a social construct.
The research is conducted by Prof. Edith Hooge (TIAS), Selma Janssen MSc (TIAS), Karin van Look MSc (Utrecht University), Nienke Moolenaar (Utrecht University), Prof. Peter Sleegers (University of Twente).
The excellent teacher
In September 2013, Onderwijsgroep Tilburg (the organization of a group of high schools and vocational schools in Tilburg) started with a program called ‘The excellent teacher’. This education program for teachers of the schools of Onderwijsgroep Tilburg is focusing on professionalization of teachers. The GovernanceLAB of TIAS will monitor the program, in order to determine the perceived added value of the program, for the individual participating teacher as well as the organization as a whole.
The monitoring research project will take two years and is conducted by Prof. Edith Hooge (TIAS) en Eva Buwalda-Groeneweg MA (TIAS).
Phd-research: Recruitment and selection of managers and executives
Within the Vanderkruis Chair ‘Leadership in public-private sector enterprises’ at the GovernanceLAB of TIAS, Phd-research is conducted about the recruitment and selection of managers and executives of these organizations. On 2 July 2019 Morris Oosterling successfully defended his doctorate thesis at Tilburg University. Drs. Morris Oosterling (TIAS) was supervisioned by Prof. Theo Camps (TIAS, Vanderkruis Chair) and Prof. Marc Vermeulen.
His research consists of three parts, successively he refers to the changing demands on the management of public-private sector enterprises, the determining factors in the process of recruitment and selection and the question how different parts of the organizations are judging certain characteristics of managers.
Cooperation and innovation in SMEs
Compared to large organizations, Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) have fewer means for innovation. Collaborating with others may help them to improve their innovation performance. How these collaborations are structured and under which conditions they lead to innovations are the core themes within the ICOON knowledge center. These questions are addressed in several studies, such as two PhD studies and three empirical studies of innovations in the areas of care, human resource management, and services. The research program is supervised by Prof. Ferry Koster (TIAS/Erasmus University Rotterdam), Van Spaendonck Chair Innovative Collaboration.
PhD-research: Personal characteristics of CEO’s and the performance of banks
Do personal characteristics of CEO’s (f.e. narcism, background, education) and governance factors (f.e. performance rewards of the CEO and characteristics of the Supervisory Board) influence the performance of a bank? This is the question Joris van Toor MSc tries to answer in his dissertation Essays on Finance: Drivers of Bank Performance and The International Cost of Equity, which he defends on December 15th 2019. For the United States, he analyses differences between banks that needed support during the financial crisis or even were bankrupted and banks that survived the crisis on their own.
Also, he investigates for the United States and Europe the influence of the performance of banks before and after the financial crisis on the Stock Returns. At last, he examines for a large European bank what the influence is of the characteristics of the local CEO and the quality of the local Supervisory Board on the performance of banks. Joris van Toor is conducting his research under the supervision of Prof. Kees Cools.
Policy and legislation create new strategic choices for housing associations
What strategic choices will housing associations make between 2015 and 2020 because of recent changes in their force field? This question was central to the last phase of a multi-year research program on the future of housing associations, conducted by Prof. Cor van Montfort, Dr. Martin Schulz and Eva Buwalda-Groeneweg MA (TIAS School for Business and Society) in cooperation with Aedes.
Availability, affordability, and financial continuity will be central to the strategic considerations of housing associations in the coming years, according to this study. Corporations feel compelled to make choices in their organization's mission, in particular because of developments driven by policy and legislation (such as the landlord task, the core task discussion, rent increases, and the separation of commercial and social real estate). Against this background, cooperation within a network of different public and private parties becomes more important than ever before. The housing association can act as an initiator and director in this network, without assuming all of the responsibility. The researchers plead in this regard for ‘social entrepreneurship 2.0’.
Read more
Montfort, C.J., Schulz, M. & Buwalda-Groeneweg, E.Y. (2015). Van meedeinen naar koers zetten. Strategische keuzes van woningcorporaties in een veranderend krachtenveld. Tilburg: TIAS School for Business and Society. (PDF)
Principals of secondary schools can learn a lot from each other
Collegiate managerial visitations provide good opportunities for secondary school principals to professionalize further. They can systematically learn from their own practice by looking at it through the eyes of fellow principals. TIAS Professor Edith Hooge and her colleague Hartger Wassink have carried out research for the Secondary Education Academy into optimal conditions for collegiate managerial visitations in secondary education. The Secondary Education Academy will now develop the idea of collegiate managerial visitation in collaboration with the principals in the industry.
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Hooge, E.H. & Wassink, H. (2015). Leren van besturen. Collegiale bestuurlijke visitatie in het voortgezet onderwijs. Tilburg/Nijmegen: TIAS School for Business and Society/De Professionele Dialoog. (PDF)
The establishment of new schools in local education markets
To help Secretary of State for Education Sander Dekker prepare a new policy, Professors Sietske Waslander and Edith Hooge from TIAS GovernanceLAB have carried out an international comparative study on the establishment of new schools in local education markets. Important factors in making education policy are: rules for the establishing and closing of schools; rules for and the financing of housing; whether the same or entirely different rules apply to new schools; and whether schools can select pupils directly or indirectly. It depends on the combination of all these factors which effects have ‘more room for new schools’.
Dekker advocates ‘more room for new schools’. Few new primary and secondary schools have been established in the Netherlands in recent years. If new schools do come into existence, this usually happens in new housing developments. Dekker wants to change the situation in order to better align ‘supply and demand’.
The preliminary study by Waslander and Hooge is based on a wide range of scientific research and studied experiences with ‘friskolor’ in Sweden, free schools in England, charter schools in Texas, and new schools in New Orleans after the devastation that Hurricane Katrina left behind. Despite the substantial differences, there are some lessons to be learned for the Netherlands.
Read more
Hooge, E.H. & Waslander, S. (2015). Nieuwe toetreders in het onderwijs. Voorstudie op basis van wetenschappelijk onderwijs. Tilburg: TIAS School for Business and Society. (PDF)
The transformation of social policies involves high risks
In the Netherlands, social policies are transforming radical. From now on the local government (municipalities) has to take care of the social support of vulnerable groups and youth care. This new policy offers great advantages for improvement but also high risks, as has been shown in other places in Europe. There we saw that sometimes local government can’t keep the quality of help and care on a certain level. Moreover, often it seems not possible to bridge the gap between local and specialized care.
In the Dutch situation the transformation has to strengthen the role of citizens and lead to a shift form intensive to preventive forms of support and help. This is a thorough ambition. In his book ‘Steunend stelsel’ (in English: ‘Supporting system’), Dr. Pieterjan van Delden (TIAS) describes that this ambition can only be accomplished with the start of three central goals: building social networks of citizens, the creation of a salient local supporting structure and cohesion of the total offer.
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Delden, P. (2014). Steunend stelsel. Transformatie van het sociaal domein. Amsterdam: Van Gennep. (More information)
Internal supervision should identify issues without intervening
At the request of Verus (association for Christian education), Rienk Goodijk examined the association of management and internal supervision with stakeholders such as the school’s Participation Council or the parents. This was one of four studies within the framework of good governance in Christian education. As schools look to connect more and more with society, stakeholder policy is an important topic on the agenda of directors and supervisors. Still, defining that policy remains a difficult issue for many schools.
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Goodijk, R. (2014). Strategisch partnerschap gestalte geven. De relatie tussen bestuur en toezicht binnen onderwijsinstellingen. Woerden: Verus. (PDF)
Cooperation school management and municipality essential in improving education quality
Cooperation between school management boards and the municipality is a prerequisite in steering the quality of education on an urban level. Professor Edith Hooge presented the results of her study in which the Rotterdam approach Beter Presteren is compared to urban programs for the purpose of improving education in Almere and Amsterdam. Hooge gave her presentation on Thursday 5 June 2014 as part of the final conference on the Rotterdam program Beter Presteren.
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Hooge, E., Hendriks, S. & Meuleners, N. (2014). Leren van Beter Presteren. Stedelijk sturen van onderwijskwaliteit. Rotterdam: Beter Presteren i.s.m. BMC Advies en TIAS School for Business and Society. (PDF)
Housing corporations compared to Education and Health Care
At the request of the Parlementaire Enquetecommissie Woningcorporaties (in English: Parliamentary Commity of inquiry Housing corporations) Prof. Cor van Montfort, Eva Buwalda-Groeneweg MA and Prof. Rienk Goodijk accomplished a comparative research of the Education sector and Health Care sector toward the Housing corporations. This comparison was aimed to place the housing corporations in a broader perspective. Namely, in the three sectors can be similar problems and (possible) solutions. The analysis is consisting of a factual, analytical and reflective part.
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Montfort, C.J., Buwalda-Groeneweg, E.Y. & Goodijk, R. (2014). Omgevingsanalyse: woningcorporaties vergeleken met onderwijs en zorg. Onderzoek in opdracht van de Parlementaire Enquêtecommissie Woningcorporaties. Tilburg. (Meer informatie)
Future scenarios for housing corporations in the Netherlands
In 2011 a multi-year research program on the future of housing associations started at TIAS, supervised by Prof. Cor van Montfort, and in cooperation with Aedes. In the first phase, a research is conducted to policy alternatives for the sector. This leaded to an interim publication ‘Publieke meerwaarde in tijden van crisis en krimp’ (2011, in English: ‘Public value in periods of crisis and scarcity’). A follow up of this publication is an essay in the rapportage ‘Voorbij de waan van de dag: over mogelijke toekomsten van de sociale huisvesting in Nederland’ (2014), the result of scenario studies form 2012 up to 2014 for housing corporations in the Netherlands.
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Montfort, C. van, Schulz, M., Metze, T., Van de Wijdeven, T. Brandsen, T., Helderman, J.-K. & Frankowski, A. (2014). Voorbij de waan van de dag: Over mogelijke toekomsten voor de sociale huisvesting in Nederland. Tilburg: TiasNimbas Business School. (PDF)