Strategic decision-making in a declining sector
04 February 2010
The importance of the industrial sector as a driving force behind economic growth and employment in the Netherlands is steadily shrinking. The textile industry - as one of the larger branches within the sector - has been a forerunner in this process of de-industrialization. Only a handful of textile companies have won this battle for survival. These are the conclusions reached by H.J. Hesselink in his dissertation Strategic decision-making in a declining sector, which he defended on Wednesday, 27 January 2010 at the Faculty of Management and Governance at the University of Twente.
For many years Hesselink was employed in management and
administrative positions within the textile industry. His most
recent position was with Koninklijke Nijverdal - Ten Cate, which
now goes by the name of Koninklijke Ten Cate NV. Against the
background of the macro-economic development of the Netherlands
between 1950 and 2000, he identifies the external and internal
factors which were key in the structural decline of the
Netherlands' textile industry and describes how the fall of the
sector came to pass. Hesselink offers a quantitative understanding
of the wide range of strategic measures taken by individual
companies in an effort to escape their looming downfall. He
determines which of these measures were successful in the
short-term and in the long-term, and which were to no avail.
Since his study covers the entire sector (the cotton, rayon and
linen industries) and is based on past experiences, it constructs a
reliable image of the successes and failures of the strategic
measures within a context of structural decline. Adopting the motto
"those who refuse to learn from past mistakes are doomed to repeat
them", Hesselink provides a practical and an academic contribution
to the modern-day theme of business strategy, with a special focus
on sectors in decline.
Publication details
H.J. Hesselink's dissertation Strategische
besluitvorming in een neergaande bedrijfstak has been
published (in Dutch) by Eburon Academic Publishers, Delft, info@eburon.nl.
Further details
Please contact Janneke van den Elshout at the University
of Twente's Faculty of Management & Governance (tel. +31 (0)53
4895432, e-mail j.g.m.vandenelshout@utwente.nl)
or Berend Meijering at the University of Twente's Public Relations
department (tel. +31 (0)53 4894385, e-mail b.meijering@utwente.nl).
