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The Model Innovation and Organizational Structure: A Zoom Lens on Organizational Structure

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European Perspectives on Innovation Management

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Abstract

This chapter presents a comparison of the first 17 applications of the Model Innovation and Organizational Structure (or ‘the MIOS’) in organizations. This MIOS is a cybernetic model containing ‘necessary and sufficient’ functions that should be fulfilled in an organization that aims to remain viable. It is both a research and diagnostic tool developed to study organizational structures, including the ‘innovation structure’, by making a systematic description. By systematically comparing organizational structures of successfully innovating organizations, the ultimate aim is to deliver concrete design guidelines for a well-integrated embedded innovation structure. This should help to improve the persistently low performance of innovation and change activities (less than 30% success on average) by organizations. To date, seventeen organizations have been studied. In spite of the pragmatic sampling by the student researchers and the limited number of very different cases, the comparison shows a few promising results:

  • The comparison yields seven observations on the innovation structures and the way they are designed.

  • This allows us to conclude that the MIOS is usable for further empirical research and diagnostic application.

Reviewing the applications of a cybernetic tool for researching and diagnosing an organizational structure and the embedded innovation structure.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Note: References to the student case studies are in Appendix 2.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to all five organizations participating in the PhD project by Lekkerkerk (2012) and those in the MSc graduation projects of students. This chapter is largely based on a paper presented by the author at the 2015 STS-RT conference in Leuven, Belgium. Colleagues Kristina Lauche and Armand Smits provided useful feedback on earlier versions of this paper, as did participants of EGOS2014 and STS-RT2015. Finally, the editors of this book, Rob Dekkers and Laure Morel, and an anonymous reviewer provided insightful feedback.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nijmegen School of Management, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    L. J. Lekkerkerk

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  1. L. J. Lekkerkerk
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Correspondence to L. J. Lekkerkerk .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Rob Dekkers

  2. ERPI Laboratory, University of Lorraine, Nancy, France

    Laure Morel

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 5.

Table 5 Combined and condensed data on 17 cases (5 by author and 12 by students supervised by author + peer review of master thesis at defence)
Full size table

Appendix 2

References to Student Case Studies

Archives of all MSc theses, including digital versions and most of the transcripts and other data, with the author.

The nine non-confidential theses are publicly available in the Nijmegen School of Management MSc thesis collection (a.k.a. Radboud Repository).

S1:

Geukers, J. (2011). Innovation in an engineer-to-order organization. A case-study in the superyachting industry. (confidential) MSc-thesis, Business Administration, Radboud University, Nijmegen

S2:

Sadelhoff, A. van (2011). A recommendation regarding process planning for Royal Huisman Shipyard. MSc-thesis, Business Administration, Radboud University, Nijmegen

S3:

Hosson, F. de (2011). The structural dilemma of Topicus. A story of cowboys and chameleons: evolution of an extraordinary organism. MSc-thesis, Business Administration, Radboud University, Nijmegen

S4:

Maas, J. (2012). Can structure fix multiple problems? A diagnosis of the current and future organizational structure of “S4”. (confidential) MSc-thesis, Business Administration, Radboud University, Nijmegen

S5:

Dijkhuis, K. (2012). Organizing the future. (confidential) MSc-thesis, Business Administration, Radboud University, Nijmegen

S6:

Melgers, D. (2012). A diagnosis of the innovation structure of the Nederlandse Voedsel- en warenauthoriteit. MSc-thesis, Business Administration, Radboud University, Nijmegen

S7:

Biesmans, mrs. M. (2012). The reorganization of “S7”. A research project focusing on the organization structure of “S7” and the involved parties at “mother company” in order to increase performance. (confidential) MSc-thesis, Business Administration, Radboud University, Nijmegen

S8:

Hogeveen, J. (2012). Innovation structures for firms in the financial servces industry. A case study analysis at ING Bank the Netherlands. MSc-thesis, Business Administration, Radboud University, Nijmegen

S9:

Fikken, T.W. (2012). Design of the organizational structure fitting the Wwnv. A research project aimed at the design of an organizational structure fitting the demands arising from the ‘Wet werken naar vermogen’. (for Delta Zutphen), MSc-thesis, Business Administration, Radboud University, Nijmegen

S10:

Korteweg, M.E.H. (2012). How to measure the innovation performance of KPN Consulting. A design-oriented case-study on how the innovation performance can be measured. MSc-thesis, Business Administration, Radboud University, Nijmegen

S11:

Bouwhuis, P.M. (2013). Diagnosing the Radiology Department of the CWZ. A diagnostic research, focused on the organization structure of the radiology department in order to improve the innovation process. MSc-thesis, Business Administration, Radboud University, Nijmegen

S12:

Rozemeijer, S.W. (2013). The infrastructure of the future for an urban freight transport sustainability concept. (for Binnenstadservice Nederland). MSc-thesis, Business Administration, Radboud University, Nijmegen

S13:

Halmans, S. (2014). Process innovation, innovation structure and project portfolio management within ‘S13’; a diagnosis. (confidential) MSc-thesis, Business Administration, Radboud University, Nijmegen

S14:

Nijman, G. (2014). Harvesting the fruits of organizational research. Research of the organizational and control structure of Munckhof BV. MSc-thesis, Business Administration, Radboud University, Nijmegen

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Lekkerkerk, L.J. (2024). The Model Innovation and Organizational Structure: A Zoom Lens on Organizational Structure. In: Dekkers, R., Morel, L. (eds) European Perspectives on Innovation Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41796-2_2

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