Applied research

GOIN is an action-based research project funded by a Comenius Grant of The Netherlands Initiative for Education Research (NRO). It aims to improve the international curriculum of the International School of Business (ISB) HAN University of Applied Sciences by integrating students as a knowledge agent through a method called 2Ms method.

Students as Knowledge and Network Agents

GOIN proposes a curriculum design that allows the integration of a global perspective in the curriculum content by leveraging students’ knowledge and networks.  Looking at the context of ISB, the student population consists of around 65 different nationalities. These students come from all over the world, not only from Europe but also from Asia, Latin America and Africa. They bring with them their knowledge and networks that offer rich materials for developing an international curriculum content that is characterised by a global perspective. They can be an agent of knowledge in the classroom.

2Ms Method

At the heart of GOIN is the 2Ms method, which realises students’ potential to be knowledge agents in the classroom through mapping and matching stages. In the mapping stage, the needs for an international content in a particular module and students’ available expertise will be identified. Based on these inputs, in the matching stage, an appropriate teaching activity will then be selected in which students play a role as a knowledge agent. In this project, we are developing various tools for implementing the 2Ms method in the curriculum development of an international business school.

More information is also available at goinginternationalfromwithin.com.

Crossing Borders without Crossing Borders with Akita International University in Japan
国境を越えずに国境を超える（AIU-HAN共同科目）

The theme is global citizenship in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals. This initiative aims to allow students from the International School of Business in the Netherlands and Akita International University in Japan to work together through group work on local business issues from an international perspective. In addition, the project aims to directly develop the intercultural competencies which are relevant for working with diversity, which will benefit the students and the international organizations that employ them.

Crossing Borders without Crossing Borders is a research project funded by the Dutch Virtueel Internationale Samenwerkingsprojecten, Ministerie van Volksgezondheid en Sport (VIS).

Please contact Ingrid.Bartels@han.nl if you have any question about the project Crossing Borders without Crossing Borders with Akita International University.

Conference paper published in 2020 by Dr. Florentin Popescu, Dr. Ingrid Van Rompay-Bartels, Jorcho van Vlijmen, Annet de Lange & Koos Wagensveld.

This paper proposes a new model to conduct case comparative studies with respect to social entrepreneurship and sustainable development goals; examining different organizational processes, stakeholder perspectives and taking multiple value-creation into account (social, human, financial, intellectual, natural, and manufactured). This model was developed based on literature research and several pilot case studies of cases of social entrepreneurship in the region of Arnhem and Nijmegen (the Netherlands) with relevant social entrepreneurship in the region of Bangalore (India). Social entrepreneurs should identify, evaluate and prioritize sustainable development issues which maximize outcomes for the six capitals and hence their contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets. To create social value, the activities of social entrepreneurs represented in their business models require inputs, transformation and output in terms of the six capitals. The authors propose a new Social Entrepreneurship Model that frames social entrepreneurship in a cross-cultural context where co-creation is essential by providing stakeholders with knowledge, insights and skills in how they can overcome social problems and improve communities in their local contexts.

Raising Global Citizens at Home is a research project funded by a Comenius Grant of The Netherlands Initiative for Education Research (NRO).

Internationalisation, diversity, and inclusiveness are important themes worldwide, but unknown makes unloved: we tend to exclude people through stereotyping and bias. Online learning has developed quickly during the COVID-19 crisis and allows us to integrate these themes into curricula without requiring students to travel. It also grants students with limited financial resources access to internationalisation programmes. However, online learning also leads to procrastination, motivational problems, and superficial knowledge. In collaboration with international partner universities, this project aims to design educational working methods for international virtual workgroup interactions, improving students’ collaborative and reflective skills in dealing with intercultural themes.

Please contact Ingrid.Bartels@han.nl if you have any question about the project global citizenship and International Business.

Article published by Marjon Elshof and Bram Hendrawan in May 2022

Purpose

Many organisations wrestle with how to develop value-oriented businesses and societies. A humanistic communication approach that promotes understanding and dialogue amongst stakeholders can contribute to a solution. Communication professionals play a pivotal role in achieving a humanistic communication process. This paper aims to determine the significance of humanistic communication professionals and their characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach

A literature review was conducted to identify the characteristics of humanistic communication professionals. Thereafter, the extent to which such characteristics have been implemented in competency models in the Netherlands was investigated. This country’s strong tradition of developing competencies for communication professionals has resulted in competency models that serve as standards for professional development.

Findings

The literature review shows that a humanistic approach to communication is characterised by dialogic engagement and social listening to build and maintain trust, foster transparency and create engagement with stakeholders. Communication professionals can act as “cultural interpreters”, “organisational listeners” and “stewards of meaning”. The human element plays a key factor in the competency standards for communication professionals in the Netherlands, although the extent to which they are embedded varies. The analysis shows a shift from passing on a message towards dialogue and engagement.

Originality/value

Most studies of communication professionals’ competencies have been based on roles or tasks they perform. Little scholarly attention has been paid to competencies that add to developing value-oriented businesses and societies. This paper focuses specifically on how communication professionals can contribute to creating humanistic organisations.

Published by Dr. Nikolaos Misirlis, Marjon Elshof, Maro Vlachopoulou in January 2021.

Purpose:

In this article we aim to model social media users’ behavior in relation with the use of specified Facebook pages and groups, related to eHealth, specifically to healthy diet and sport activities. The study represents to the best of our knowledge the first region-focused on a specific geographical area research.

Methods:

The users’ personality is measured through the well-known Big Five model and the behavior is predicted with the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Structural Equation Modeling is used in order to statistically control the associations among the diverse observed and latent variables.

Results:

The results suggest an extended theory of planned behavior in combination with personality traits, on eHealth field. Openness and Extraversion do not seem to have positive effect on Attitude. Users’ attitude can be affected positively from Agreeableness and Subjective Norms, guiding to finally positive affection of users’ actual behavior. Agreeableness cannot influence behavior, directly, nor through SN, since the hypothesis path A-SN is not verified, but it can through Attitude. Neuroticism was negatively correlated to PBC but this hypothesis was not, also, confirmed in the proposed model.

Implications:

While literature confirms all of our hypotheses, in our study only 8 in 12 are finally confirmed. The difference between the present model and literature findings can be located on the different cultural dimensions among the different studies. The present survey is focused on the Greek region with all the participants to be Greeks. This location-based limitation could be surpassed by conducting the same research on different geographical regions and then confront the outcomes.

The purpose of this project is to explore opportunities in the SSCF of coffee and provide alternative strategies from the dual perspective of a disruptive coffee SME: Peeze (Arnhem).

The SSCF of coffee between Vietnam and the EU is an interesting object of study. Vietnam is internationally the second-largest coffee exporter with twice as many exports as Colombia. In this research, advanced models in data-driven SSCF are applied.

The project is led by Kennis DC Logistics Gelderland and the Center for International Business Research (CIBR). Partners are: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogota, Colombia) and Windesheim UAS (Zwolle, the Netherlands).

The expected results and outcomes of this project are:

• Publication of interdisciplinary case studies for the benefit of education from the perspective of promoting co-creation and transdicplinary didactics. 
• Support of local businesses, cross-border impact, Global Citizenship and contribution to key themes of CIBR such as sustainable international business.
• Development of a framework for sustainable logistics/supply chain management in an integrated manner.

Questions about the case study on coffee's Sustainable Supply Chain Finance? Please email Kia.Goolesorkhi@han.nl.

An Empirical Analysis of the Euronext Food Industry

Dr. Moradi supervised Oleksandra Zamiatlinska for her 4th year GPR paper 'The Effects of Sustainable Supply Chain Activities on Profitability’ which she also shared at the conference at the University of Barcelona. Oleksandra was awarded the ISB Thesis Award in the academic year 2021-22 for this project. After her thorough empirical analysis, she concluded that companies DID experience a profit when incorporating environmental initiatives into their activities. 

This paper investigates the impact of sustainable supply chain activities on the profitability amongst 62 Euronext listed firms active in the food industry of nine European countries during 2019-20. We first define sustainability in the supply chain, and then outline KPIs to measure it with a focus on the food industry. A set of regression models are constructed based on the triple bottom line approach to examine the relationship among variables. This study shows that environmental practices in the supply chain positively affect financial performance, while social responsibility scores have a negative correlation with profitability. Also, it illustrates that the relationship between sustainability scores and the rate of return on share price is insignificant, while ROA positively influences the rate of return. Finally, two main recommendations are provided for firms active in the food industry to improve the impact of their sustainability policies on profitability.