@article{Schout:138083,
      recid = {138083},
      author = {Schout, Henk J. and Harkema, Saskia J.M.},
      title = {GREEN NETWORKS: INNOVATIVE CAPACITY OF SMES IN THE DUTCH  GREENHOUSE HORTICULTURE INDUSTRY},
      journal = {APSTRACT: Applied Studies in Agribusiness and Commerce},
      address = {2012-09-01},
      number = {1033-2016-84051},
      series = {6},
      pages = {8},
      month = {Sep},
      year = {2012},
      abstract = {The Dutch greenhouse horticulture industry is  characterized by world leadership in high-tech innovation.  The dynamics of this
playing field are innovation in  production systems and automation, reduction in energy  consumption and sharing limited space.  However,
international competitive advantage of the  industry is under pressure and sustainable growth of  individual enterprises is no longer a certainty.
The  sector’s ambition is to innovate better and grow faster  than the competition in the rest of the world. Realizing  this ambition requires
strengthening the knowledge base,  stimulating entrepreneurship, innovation (not just  technological, but especially business process
innovation).  It also requires educating and professionalizing people.  However, knowledge transfer in this industry is often  fragmented and
innovation through horizontal and vertical  collaboration throughout the value chain is limited. This  paper focuses on the question: how can
the grower and the  supplier in the greenhouse horticulture chain gain  competitive advantage through radical product and process  innovation.
The challenge lies in time- to-market, in  customer relationship, in developing new product/market  combinations and in innovative
entrepreneurship. In this  paper an innovation and entrepreneurial educational and  research programme is introduced. The programme aims
at  strengthening multidisciplinary collaboration between  enterprise, education and research. Using best practice  examples, the paper
illustrates how companies can realize  growth and improve the innovative capacity of the  organization as well as the individual by linking
economic  and social sustainability. The paper continues to show how  participants of the program develop competencies by means  of going
through a learning cycle of single-loop,  double-loop and triple loop learning: reduction of  mistakes, change towards new concepts and
improvement of  the ability to learn. Finally, the paper illustrates the  importance of combining enterprise, education and research  in regional
networks, with examples from the greenhouse  horticulture sector. These networks generate economic  growth and international
competitiveness by acting as  business accelerators.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/138083},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.138083},
}