This relationship between external knowledge providers, e.g. consultants and academic institutions, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is a difficult one. SME entrepreneurs think external advice is expensive, not required and/or not useful. In this paper these arguments are explored against the specific characteristics of SMEs. The argument of price probably tells more about the consultants inability to quantify the returns on their advice than about the cost of their services. Support policies enable free consults for SMEs on numerous topics, but the use of these facilities is relatively low. The suggestion that SME entrepreneurs do not need external knowledge is contradicted by their own assessment of their qualities. Typically the entrepreneurs lack expertise in supporting business functions like HR, IT, Finance and Legal. In SMEs these blank spots are not compensated by specialist staff members because the of the scale of the organization. The argument that the advice of an external consultant is generally not useful raises the question whether the insights gained in several business sciences only apply to large companies. This seems unlikely. Given the characteristics of SMEs the difference is probably more the context in which the insights are applied than the content of the insights itself. From the analysis of the characteristics of SMEs the dominant influence of the person of the owner/director, together with the absence of specialist staff, appeared as two of the most significant differences between SMEs and large companies. Given the personal profiles of these owners/directors as studied by Blom (Blom, 2001), the external knowledge providers should realize the three ways in consulting. The first way is the way of thinking. For this way it was stated already that the content of business sciences is not likely to differ for SMEs. The second way, the way of working, represents for the way information is gathered and the entrepreneur and his staff is involved in the process of developing the advice. In this way the consultant should allow for interaction and should make it fun for the participants. In this aspect, the process approach of consulting shows promising. The third way, the way of communicating, represents the way the knowledge is transferred from the advisor to the entrepreneur. In this way it is crucial to acknowledge the different personal profiles of SME entrepreneurs and consultants and to adjust the communication accordingly. Taking the three ways into account, the conclusion could be that the transfer of knowledge should be more the sharing of experiences. The Chair of Management Consulting will adjust her activities to explore this insight further.
In het boek is een overzicht te vinden van de verschillende kenniscentra en lectoren van de HU. Per kenniscentrum worden de verschillende onderzoeksterreinen beschreven en de lectoren voorgesteld.
We assess the incidence of numeracy skills mismatch in five countries: Belgium, Chile, Italy, Netherlands, and the United States of America. To do this, we make use of a new approach (Brun-Schamme & Rey, 2021), namely by identifying someone as being mismatched if the score for numeracy skills is outside the interval [median – SD , median + SD]. We make use of the PIAAC dataset, collected by the OECD, a survey that measures adults’ proficiency in numeracy among other type of skills. We find that 14% of the workers are over-skilled, whereas 16% are under-skilled. Being over-skilled is more likely for men, younger age-groups, having a high level of education, using numeracy skills often at work, and having studied science, mathematics, and engineering.
De Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen (HAN) en de hogeschool Saxion hebben beide de ambitie om met onderwijs en praktijkgericht onderzoek bij te dragen aan de energietransitie in Oost-Nederland. Saxion heeft dit geformuleerd in haar zwaartepunt Smart Energy Transition, de HAN in haar zwaartepunt Sustainable Energy & Environment (SEE). Bij beide hoge-scholen zijn meerdere lectoraten met verschillende expertises actief op dit thema. In het kader van het SIA SPRONG-programma willen HAN en Saxion hun ambities bundelen tot een krachtige onderzoeks-groep 'Decentrale Waterstof'. Vanuit het technische perspectief van systeemintegratie wil de groep decentrale waterstof-oplossingen engineeren, met oog voor meer dan techniek. In acht jaar tijd willen we met bedrijven en kennisinstellingen in de regio Oost-Nederland doorgroeien naar een sterke onderzoeksgroep met voldoende kritische massa om ook in Europa te worden gezien. Met bereikbaar onderzoek, hoogstaand onderwijs en cursussen op bachelor- en master-niveau, shared facilities, living labs, en (inter)nationale projecten voegen we waarde toe aan het onderwijs, de bedrijven en de energie-transitie. Dit borgen we in een Knowledge Base met meetdata, resultaten van experimenten, modellen, lesmateriaal en publicaties. Vanuit deze Knowledge Base zijn ook andere SPRONG-groepen te ondersteunen op bijvoorbeeld hun logistieke modellen of digital twins van de energietransitie. Zoals geformuleerd in de Kennis Innovatie Agenda Energietransitie & Duurzaamheid sluit duurzame waterstof aan bij de maatschappelijke behoefte rondom de energietransitie en bij een groeiende groep technologiebedrijven in de regio. Het decentrale karakter sluit aan bij mobiliteit, bij lokale warmtebehoeftes en bij de energie infrastructuur van Oost-Nederland, waar we het spel van vraag, aanbod en opslag van duurzame energie slim leren spelen in wijk, mobiliteit en buitengebied. De onderzoeksgroep krijgt ruime support uit de regio en sluit aan bij lopende regionale initiatieven, zoals Connectr Energy innovation, H2Hub Twente, GROHW, en bij de Centres of Expertise SEECE en ACE.
