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Master thesis
Perceived threats and opportunities
of new technologies
by professional associations.
Han van Wieringen
314745jw@eur.nl
Economics and informatics
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Tel: 06-4973 8720
Councilor
Gert van der Pijl
Economics and informatics
Erasmus University Rotterdam
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Contents
1.
2.
Summary.........................................................................................................................3
Background .....................................................................................................................4
2.1. New developments .................................................................................................. 5
2.2. “Branche organisatie” / Trade associations ............................................................. 6
2.2.1. Other types of organization .............................................................................. 7
2.3. Models .................................................................................................................... 9
2.3.1. Propeller model ................................................................................................ 9
2.3.2. Star berenschot ...............................................................................................10
2.4. Types of threats and opportunities expected ..........................................................12
3. Research methods ........................................................................................................14
3.1. Case studies ..........................................................................................................14
3.2. Literature study ......................................................................................................14
3.3. Research question .................................................................................................15
3.4. Which questions were asked? ................................................................................16
4. Case analysis ................................................................................................................17
4.1. The case associations ............................................................................................17
4.2. Open Questions and discussion trends ..................................................................19
4.2.1. Minimalist strategy / maximizing strategy ........................................................19
4.2.2. Web 2.0...........................................................................................................19
4.2.3. Size as a factor ...............................................................................................19
4.2.4. Transparency ..................................................................................................20
4.2.5. Competing with commercial organizations ......................................................20
4.2.6. Competing with other associations ..................................................................21
4.2.7. Impossible for commercial organizations to take over activities .......................21
4.2.8. Not using possibilities ......................................................................................21
4.2.9. Low threat, big impact .....................................................................................22
4.2.10.
Low threat, big opportunity...........................................................................22
4.3. Closed questions scores ........................................................................................22
4.4. Charts for closed questions ....................................................................................23
4.4.1. Businesses are the largest perceived source of threat. ...................................23
4.4.2. Main activity threat is low while opportunity is high. .........................................24
4.4.3. Expected impact is high ..................................................................................24
4.4.4. Business as main threat and overall threat ......................................................25
4.4.5. Perceived opportunities ...................................................................................25
5. Considerations ..............................................................................................................26
6. Conclusions...................................................................................................................28
6.1. Ideas for future research ........................................................................................32
7. Bibliography ..................................................................................................................33
Appendix A Cases ................................................................................................................39
Appendix B Overview case scores .......................................................................................81
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1. Summary
This paper describes an exploratory case study of nine associations to discover how they
perceive and deal with the changing technological environment. The idea behind it was that
the new developments have made easier for other organizations to invest in activities that
border on or are included in the activities of an association. These are representation,
network, services, internal and external agreements.
The internet as an independent entity is also a factor because some types of website already
provide services similar to some association activities. Networking sites for professionals are
growing steadily and specialized information is much more widely available.
There seem to be two strategies used by associations regarding problems like this, the
minimizing and maximizing strategy. Minimizing involves giving way to whatever market
forces effect the trade and only investing in new activities if there is a clear obvious need for
them. Maximizing is trying to maintain a stable position in the market by partaking in as many
activities as possible to maintain influence and benefits for members.
Developments like social networks and user generated content are candidates to be used by
associations to augment their activities as well. Most cases indicate that they see
opportunities in them, but these are not yet utilized by any of the associations. Some tests
have been done on the subject by the associations, but they were not pursued further.
The case studies are based on a series of interviews with the resident strategy or tech
experts of the association. The interviews consisted of a series of open questions and
discussion about the association and recent developments as well as some closed questions
with scores to compare.
The main finding of the paper is the observation that associations see great opportunities in
and expect a big impact from social networks and web 2.0, but are not exploring these
further. An important part of the issue is associations do not view businesses as a threat,
even though they often then also say businesses are the main source of threat and models
suggest that say that combined with the new developments there should be increased
competition among different types of organization. This could be attributed to viewing other
types of organization as businesses even though they are classified otherwise when looking
at their activities.
Other observations include impact being expected to be high, some independent online
sources are already causing problems for associations and that currently available social
networks are perceived as not specialized and professional enough to fit the needs of the
associations.
Hopefully this paper can serve as motivation to resume testing and explore issues further
again.
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2. Background
This research paper is the result of the question:
“What is up with trade associations recently?”
First casually mentioned during the discussing of a previous research, the question popped
up and was discussed until it became clear that something really was up and deserved
researching. To illustrate: There was a seminar on associations and web projects which had
an 80% response to invites.
The link to new technology was an obvious starting point since many things have changed
there. Initial thought went out to web 2.0, this has been the biggest development on the
internet in some years, which consists of an interactive relation with users and requires
organizational changes to make proper use of these relations. However, because some of
the early conversations on the subject also introduced some other technology that did not
really fit under that header the term “new developments” is primarily used. This resulted in
the research question found in 3.3.
Case studies were used for this research, because as a single student I do not have the
resources for large scale research and I expected to find that the associations had different
organizational priorities and processes. To properly explore any factors that might be
relevant to the issue personal interviews would be required and these would need to explore
more about the organization than just their opinions about new developments.
The subjects of this research are the subjective perceived threats and opportunities of these
new developments. The objective threats and opportunities would require more in depth
knowledge of the use of each development as well several similar associations to compare
properly. If that objective analysis is going to be made papers like to this one should be
useful for such research, as discovery of the current attitude towards the developments and
will highlight the more important ones.
There are several subjects that influence the current association climate and that are of
importance to this research and will be discussed in the next chapter.
Starting with the technological developments, some have been categorized as web 2.0, but
there are more factors that need to be specified. The blur between organization types
consists of commercial organizations, Trade associations, Professionals associations and
Unions. Each of these can be active in an industry and each has their own properties.
Competition is expected between these, depending on their activities.
The star model and the propeller model both describe the workings of associations. These
models can show how and why certain threats and opportunities exist, but they do both give
a different perspective on associations. The threats and opportunities expected to
accompany each of these subjects will be addressed as well.
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2.1.
Han van Wieringen
New developments
There are many developments that are of importance for trade associations, but in the
interest of achievable scope it will be limited to web 2.0 and surrounding developments rather
than all technologies and developments which could quickly grow to unmanageable size.
(The mckinsey quarterly, 2007),(ASSOCIATIONS NOW, 2007).
The following developments are relevant for this study:
Web 2.0
“Web 2.0 is one of the most hyped and misunderstood concepts in IT” (Smith, 2006) not
surprising considering that it has been given many definitions and is still being debated. In
2004 the term ´web 2.0´ was coined by O´reilly media (O´reilly, 2007) (musser, 2007) and
they have since defined it as “any project that grows exponentially more valuable as the
number of members grow”
To avoid confusion this research will only focus on the parts of web 2.0 that might actually
matter to trade associations. Only properties that can be linked to activities will be used. For
example one often mentioned characteristic is perpetual beta, but this is not applicable for
this research.
Taking the concept of web 2.0 further people have labeled the next step “web 3.0”. Again the
concept is largely still undefined. It seems to be used primarily for services that automatically
provide for the user without having to ask. This research will not look at this topic.
Profile sites / social networks
Any part of web 2.0 type sites where users upload their own content and information to a
profile area can qualify as one. These sites have become extremely lucrative for businesses
to focus marketing campaigns on and more groups are always forming representing certain
demographics. Social networks are very much like associations and people see opportunities
in it. (VM-online, 2009)
Friends’ networks
MySpace, Hyves & facebook are all types of friends’ social networks. People can fill in a
profile page for themselves and link themselves to other profiles. This builds a web of people
linked to each other via other people. The ability for people to view their relation to other via
their network defines social network sites. The informal setting encourages people to post
trivial information and express themselves, thus opening up to each other and making
friends. Various other services on the sites create slight variation in the final product, for
example attribute matching might assist in finding new people.
Professional networks
LinkedIn for example is also a social network service in some ways very similar to friends’
networks, with the simple difference that it was set up with a different goal. The slightly
different template for filling in a profile could easily be offered by the other sites, but because
it promoted itself as a network for professional usage, that’s what it became.
Packages
Some software developers have created packages offering standard software resembling
some of these more popular websites. They believe there will be some demand for
organizations setting up their own network rather than using existing ones.
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News networks
Twitter is the most popular example of these, allowing people to post news stories and rating
other people´s stories importance. Meta-data is added to the stories to archive them and
allow fast searching.
Plein66
D66 has a large collection of social networks scattered across the internet. On multiple of the
large networks is some presence. Attempts are being made to unify these into a more
centralized one.
KVK HaLLo community
The Dutch chamber of commerce has also started an initiative to provide a gathering point
for organizations to meet and form groups.
Wikipedia clones
The source for Wikipedia is available for the world and many organizations have already tried
using it in some way to build a repository of knowledge specific to them. A common
complaint about these is that it is unreliable because everyone can edit them or it fails
because updates are not made on a regular basis. This can of course be managed much
better in a smaller environment for a single organization where security measures can be
taken and updating can be a mandated part of the process.
2.2.
“Branche organisatie” / Trade associations
For this research we will look at any organization that:
A. has members paying contribution.
B. claims to be governed by the members
C. Acts to benefit these members
D. is aimed at professionals in a trade or industry
There are many types of associations and more types of organizations that are more or less
similar to associations. Some associations do not call themselves one, while others call
themselves one while they are not. Even if a specific definition is used the internal activities
can result in it being divided up again, so each case must be analyzed to judge if it is valid to
include it in this research.
Plenty of papers have been written on the effects of web 2.0 of business and enterprise,
what makes a trade association different is that it´s role of unifying people into a group could
be replaced by the services of web 2.0 as opposed to other businesses. Also, services
offered by businesses gathering groups of people could start encroaching on the services of
the trade associations.
Trade associations are a very broad organization type and fulfill many different functions,
though which of them they fulfill is self imposed. Depending on which is their primary activity,
the type of association changes.
According to the Dutch chamber of commerce there are 1873 branches for trade
associations (KVK, 2009). Within these branches multiple associations still diversify more.
Niche markets (Bennett, 1999) are sub-categories of branches that somehow end up
requiring their own association representatives separate from the main branch.
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Sharing information (Vives, 1990) (Kirby, 1988) is one of the most common services of a
trade associations, acting as a knowledge repository for its members, keeping track of
developments in its field and maintaining a standard of expertise.
I assume size is most likely an important factor in how easily it is affected by technological
changes. Small associations might be more easily replaced by others, while larger ones
might have more benefits from new services.
2.2.1. Other types of organization
There are many types of different of organization that are all similar by being organizations
that represent a group in a trade and act in their interest, but there are distinct differences
that must be noted before any study can be made of them. This is because language is a
fluid thing and will change over time causing several words to mean the same thing. The
differences between countries are present besides just differences in languages. This causes
research on the subject to run into several hurdles when trying to search for a specific
subject, therefore included is a description of the major categories of this type of
organization. Please note that other terms are possible as names and there are plenty of
sub-categories that will be explored later. (Tim van der Rijken, 2005), (Peter Tack, 2002),
(Dedan schmidt, 2008 ).
There are many terms used to describe the same thing, compounded by the issue of
language of sources, so the first thing to do is describe clearly exactly what is meant by
“Beroeps organisaties” / Professionals association
While the focus of a trade association focus is more on the health of that industry, a
professional’s association´s focus is on the benefits of their members much like a union.
While they do not neglect what is best for the industry their primary goal is the immediate
benefit of their members.
“Werknemersbond” / Labor union
A labor union is an organization for the rights if the laborer and its primary function is to serve
as a united front against any that would exploit them. Trade unions are a large divers and
interesting area, but for this research it is defined as that services are hardly provided to its
members beyond representation and making demands of other groups, calling for strikes
when deemed necessary.
The FNV and CNV are primarily unions, but they have services that are like an association
for different trades. However, it will always take the side of employees over employers. The
competition between them and the associations is interesting.
“Werkgeversbond” / Employers federation
The employers’ federations are a response to labor unions and represent the employers to
provide a front against the labor unions so negotiation is possible.
Governing bodies / FEBI´s
Trade associations usually belong to larger organizations that contain the branch
organizations of that sector. MKB Nederland for all the small to medium businesses for
example. These can overlap somewhat though and so it is possible for these organizations
to fight over who gets these customers.
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Publiekrechtelijke Beroeps- en Bedrijfsorganisaties / Public law Vocational and Business
Organizations
Some professions are legally protected. Not everyone can call themselves a Register
Accountant (RA) and lawyer for example. To protect these, an association is appointed as a
PBO to be legally responsible for it. This limits the possibilities of these associations.
“Bedrijfschappen”&”Productschappen” / government trade groups
Public bodies appointed by the Social Economic Committee (Sociaal Economische Raad)
are Bedrijfschappen and Productschappen. “Bedrijfschappen” / government trade groups are
different from trade associations because they are instigated by the government. They are
created for sectors where a normal trade association can provide limited direct use to the
members. Being a part of the government means that they are regulated differently. Since
there are currently only a few in the Netherlands this will most likely be of little influence.
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2.3.
Han van Wieringen
Models
There are only two relevant models that describe the inner workings of associations. They
are the Tack propeller model (Paul de Ruijter, 2006) (Frans Huizinga, 2009) (Peter Tack,
2002) and the Berenschot star model (Dedan schmidt, 2008 ). Each has a different
perspective of the inner workings of an association, but they are compatible because the
propeller model looks at the abstract while the star model looks at more practical activities.
2.3.1. Propeller model
Peter Tack´s model shows how an association is driven forward (propelled) by positioning
strategic interest followed by collective organization followed by individual gain after which it
starts over with the new situation. This is held together by the infrastructure of the
organization. (Peter Tack, 2002)
At its core, this is all an association is, a group of people, working together for whatever goal
is mutually beneficial. There are many different forms of association discussed in 2.2 that fit
this model even if they aren’t the focus of the research question.
The propeller model is quite well known and was brought up during some of the interviews,
but has more use as an explanatory model and provides little information for strategic
decisions.
The star model is more useful for this research because it does not just focus on a single
goal.
The propeller model
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2.3.2. Star berenschot
The star model of the five association activities
The Berenschot star model (Dedan schmidt, 2008 ) shows how different activities make up
an association. The model acts as a tool to show how much is put into an activity. Relevant
for this research are the five activities that make up an association and how these overlap
with the new technology.
The activities are Lobbying, Services, Feedback, internal- and externally binding
agreements. Any of these activities could be performed with the help of new technology to
make them faster, more accurate and capable of more, but what activities are going to
experience big chances?
Lobbying is the representation of needs of the members to governing bodies. Local, national,
international and with umbrella and organizations all have occasions where the issues
relevant to the association might come up. Communication to and from these bodies can be
very labor intensive.
Services offered by associations can vary greatly. Some don’t offer any, some have multiple.
Specialist information databases, meeting arrangements, financial support services,
collective purchasing, judicial advice, best practice cases from other members, collective
payment or investment plans to name some.
Identity: the communication with the members and the association about their wishes and
seeing where these overlap and coincide. The traditional form of this is the members
meeting, having periodic meetings free to attend by members for them to present their
opinion and discuss it with others. With new technology this has been enhanced a lot.
Forums on the internet, instant messaging and video chat have been around for a while, but
newer trends like social networks, twitter, VoIP, online conferencing and text voting are also
available now. These have consequences for the style of communication such as not being
face to face anymore, but also that is has a much faster response time.
Internally binding agreements are those made with the members the association in the form
of labor agreements, certification, education, regulations and enforcing these.
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Externally binding agreements are those made with parties not directly associated with the
organization like labor agreements (other side), pension plans, ARBO agreements,
reintegration projects and similar project.
Depending on what activity is the primary activity an association becomes one of five
archetypes: Diplomat, negotiator, guild, society or advisor.
Overview of types of organizations bordering associations.
A dangerous aspect this model illustrates is what happens if an organization goes too far in
any direction. With too many services they become a business, with too much representation
of their members they become an advocate.
Ultimately a healthy association should probably be moderate in each of these areas.
Another way to look at this model is that those outer organizations already exist and
depending on their size, they border the association. If they grow they can push against and
compete with the association on a certain activity. How this is affected by new developments
is an important question.
Two strategies towards the competition with other organizations are minimizing and
maximizing. By minimizing an associations services offered and activities performed to what
is not yet offered by the market. According to Schmidt (Dedan schmidt, 2008) this is the
attitude associations should have.
The other strategy is to try to gain members by offering as much incentive as possible in the
form of services and activities. This brings the danger of going too far in an activity
mentioned above.
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2.4.
Han van Wieringen
Types of threats and opportunities expected
One threat from the internet is that it could result in a loss of members for an association,
because services like a social network or professional advice are gotten there instead. Some
threats might exist as a result of actions taken or because of how other companies have
developed with the new technology. Similarly opportunities might come directly from using
new sources available, or from how other groups have reacted or developed. We will explore
some of these indirect threats here. (GILCHRIST, 2007)
Losing members to other types of organizations
The function of an association can be fulfilled in more and more other ways. Internet provides
ways for networks of professionals to form, other organizations offer services to groups and
expand their customer base to include functions previously provided by trade associations.
This of course varies heavily depending on the exact functions fulfilled by a specific trade
organization, but it does appear to be a common problem.
Breach of charter
While trying to expand business and solve some problems, other problems appear. When
created an association sets its limits and goals in a charter that then guide it as an
organization. This can also restrain it from fulfilling certain functions like commercial
investment or expanding its customer base, for example dental associations not including
dental hygienists.
Government influence
Associations are for a large part free from direct government influence, and some have taken
to influencing the government for certain goals. Sometimes though the government sees fit to
influence a part of a country or business that a trade association effects. In this case there
might be some conflicts to be resolved. Then there is also direct government influence, when
legislation is made to effect trade associations.
Entrepreneurs risk / commercialization
Can an organization that is mostly getting income from membership fees take this money
and make a risky investment? Even to provide a service to its members? Much less if it is a
large investment for which the trade association acts as collateral? These issues must be
addressed if any new services are to be provided.
Trade associations are different from commercial organizations when they provide a service,
because commercial organizations are mostly profit driven. This allows trade associations to
be trusted more easily with some things, but what kind if fee should be charged for these
services? And where is the line between commercial organization and trade association?
The best current example of this is the NMT, which wanted to provide its members with an
automated service for invoicing. This resulted in a separate organization to handle this,
because the NMT felt this activity would be too commercial for a trade association.
Competition from internet
Services offered by trade associations can be broken down into parts as described, these
services can also be offered by other parties if they can get organized. The increased ability
of people to get organized on the internet thanks to web 2.0 features means that this offers
competition.
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Not just groups organizing themselves, but existing groups can have services offered to them
much easier by businesses. These are currently also exploring how the new internet can be
fully utilized.
This situation created another question that may or may not be answered during this
research: Where the boundaries lie between association doing commercial activities and
businesses offering association services and what this means for either. Also see Types of
threats and opportunities expected.
Advanced feedback
Feedback is one of the most important parts of any trade association because without it the
members cannot be represented. The new internet allows much more people to give
feedback faster and more accurate. As well as having structure that keeps better track of
history and allows member interaction and insight into what
Added services
With new technology come new possibilities. These could be very useful to members
depending on trade and other existing similar services, or at least can allow services
currently offered to exist in a more modern form.
Other developments, technologies and partnerships
This research will focus on IT technology, but sometimes other things drive current
developments in associations. If a change in an association was partially or mostly caused
by things other than IT technology. These must be fully identified and described in the case
study to distinguish what is relevant for this paper.
This includes partnerships, changes in the industry the association is active in and
technological development independent of the internet.
Other issues
International law / Regional law
When groups and organizations spread across borders, laws and norms tend to change.
These changes can cause problems for any organization entrenched in their current ones,
resulting in it being much more attractive to just stay put.
Expected issues from interaction between these subjects
The primary issue is expected to come from the core principles of web 2.0 and associations.
As seen in the propeller model an association basically comes down to gathering people with
things in common and organizing them for collective benefits. Web 2.0 developments include
social networks (gathering people with things in common) and user contribution (single users
contribute for use and benefit by all).
The exact role the software that gets used and the exact activities of an association it
complements are more intricate. A Wikipedia for example can be used to allow users to
discuss and share their expertise on a specific subject, but a YouTube style upload system
documents the discussing rather than the result.
Being a part of Hyves or a similar network allows people to invite friends and co-workers in
the industry casually or LinkedIn if things need to be more formal.
These networks and services already exist outside out the associations and chances are
their members are already a part of these networks. Associations can set up their own
networks, but it might be easier to make use of existing ones.
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3. Research methods
The issue being investigated is associations and their perceptions, but the issues that factor
into it all this are largely unknown. Because of this an in-depth exploration of the subject
would be the most beneficial to the industry. This is best achieved though a multiple-case
study where we try to fully explore the subject. (Yin, 2009).
Before starting a larger scale research 2 interviews were held NMT and ZLTO. From these
we concluded that detailed information was required about each trade to be able to judge the
association. This further promoted multiple in-depth case studies (in addition to literature of
course.)
3.1.
Case studies
Because of the limited number of available organizations that could be interviewed and
processed by a single student in a limited amount of time, a quantitative research is
impossible at the moment. The diversity between organizations also makes it difficult to
generalize. Therefore the best methodology for this project is using cases to describe a few
organizations to illustrate their developments in the area of web 2.0. Organizations will be
chosen because they have contacts with Mazars and some because they portray
characteristics that would be useful to illustrate a specific issue, such as the three real-estate
associations. These are interviewed and documented in a case study to be used as
illustrations and examples of certain issues.
These cases are built from interviews of personnel from the associations and its members
about the perceived and observed threat from web 2.0.
Interviews
The goal of the interviews is to gain insight into the thoughts of the technological changes
and the threats and opportunities they are considering. These interviews will initially be
several open questions as not to plant any ideas. Afterwards a checklist of several topics will
be discussed to make sure there is clear classification of the organizations activities and that
the results are comparable to each other.
3.2.
Literature study
As with any paper a large part of the information must come from previous research and
literature on the subject. Topics introduced during interviews and sources they recommend
will be added if deemed interesting.
This had largely already been done before the proposal was even made, but additional topics
can be explored and added as well when the subject arises and will be added or expanded in
the subject section. Any information deemed important enough to be of direct consequence
on the results will also receive mention with those results when applicable, but the literature
study is not the focus of this research and will be purely supportive.
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3.3.
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Research question
With the methods described above there should be enough information to get some
conclusions on the views of associations on the new developments. To properly address this
issue it must be distilled into a research question that illustrated that this is an exploration for
the views of professional associations on the new developments in technology like web 2.0
and results these developments might have on their organization and related organizations.
To shorten this, the main question then becomes:
“How do trade associations react to the threats and opportunities of web 2.0 and the like?”
To complete this we need both sides of the views as the sub-questions:
“What parts of web 2.0 pose a threat to trade associations? “
What is the perceived threat?
Is the threat coming from the independent web 2.0?
Is the threat coming from the organizations using it?
How are they acting to counter these threats?
One of the main initial ideas was that associations were scared into action lately by new
developments so that should be investigated to settle the questions as well as to provide
some tangible information for the organizations.
And “How can web 2.0 be used by trade associations to their advantage?”
What are the perceived opportunities?
How does it fit with their activities?
How does it fit with their business model?
How are they using these opportunities?
To illustrate the views on the subject and provide additional directly useful information for
associations, overviews will be created that show what the perceived threats and
opportunities are of the new developments.
Keep in mind that this does not try to answer what the actual threats and opportunities are,
nor does it try to predict future actions will be taken or what action should be taken.
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Which questions were asked?
The interviews that are the basis for cases all try to follow the same structure and topics.
During an interview these topics might be explored further if deemed interesting by the
interviewee or may be skipped if discussed during a previous question. However, the design
is to have a structure where one question leads into another and have discussed all
necessary topics. The main topics are:
Has the organization observed technological developments that might be important
either as a threat or opportunity in the last 2 years?
An opener to expand on during the conversation, meant to give an idea of the various topics
that might arise during the interview. As well as a means to see what are currently used
technologies without explicitly mentioning one and planting suggestions, such as social
networks.
What are these threats and opportunities in the area of information technology?
What has the organization considered about for these things so far? Do they only see
positive or negative developments? Or have they implemented them for other reasons?
How far could businesses take over their activities?
Competition from business should according to my interpretation of the star model be an
increased source of competition to associations. Equally important is what kind of
organization they feel have impact and what does not.
How have you responded to all this?
Actions can give a much better view of how the organization as a whole perceives an issue
rather than the opinion of the interviewee.
How does this affect your business model?
Have there been any changes to the type of organization the association is? Big investment
projects can change the primary activities of an organization sometimes.
What are your views on commercialization of trade associations?
If your organization does change into something else, how would you respond? Are
associations allowed to provide a wider range of services and have segments that make
profit or do they need to be restricted?
What do you feel would be the best solution for this issue? Both for the market and
your organization.
If the developments are found to have any effect at all, positive or negative, what are the
plans for the future?
Also includes further discussion of the subject and any ideas I haven´t thought of before.
The closed questions
There are not only open questions, but also some closed ones. Each pair of questions is to
try to get a measurement of perceived threat, opportunity or impact compared with a more
general threat, opportunity or impact.
Which of these activities does the association perform and which is their primary activity?
Which activity is most likely to be replaced or enhanced by new technologies?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback.
What do you feel is the most likely source of threat for your trade association?
What do you feel is the most likely source of opportunity for your trade association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, internal changes.
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4. Case analysis
Cases that form the basis for this research are created from interviews with experts on the
use of technology as well as the strategic activities of an association. These associations
were picked because of already available contacts, information that they had a special
project going or that they had a special property that could provide insight.
These cases are neither a random sample nor best suited examples, but attempts were
made to make the set as diverse as possible.
The cases themselves are in the attachments, this section will give a short overview of the
cases and relevant information that has come from them. It will start with the summaries of
the interviewed associations in 4.1, followed by discussion of topics that came to light during
the open questions in 4.2, and then an overview of the closed questions related charts in 4.3
and finally analyzing some of these charts in 4.4.
4.1.
The case associations
Representatives of the following associations were interviewed:
ZLTO
One of the agricultural trade associations is a massive organization with funding and
influence all over the place. Has a very progressive network and approach to their work.
They are investing heavily in digitalizing their organization.
NMT
A dentists association has the privilege of being a trade left out of medical legislation, but the
trade is behind on digitalization. They are catching up now because of some possible new
experimental legislation that would be beneficial to them. A while ago they founded NMT
Fenqs as a new digital financial service for their members to which has been a large
success.
Aedes
The rental home corporation association has a very conservative approach to offering
services. Uses quite a bit of new technologies for themselves, but is not reacting to other
organizations starting association-like activities themselves. Worries that it´s member will act
on their own without involving the association, but acknowledges that ultimately they are just
businesses.
BN
The construction association has a more traditional structure to their activities, but does
focus on what technology can do for their members. Digitalization is mostly to save paper
and costs, but they ignore most new developments.
Bedrijfschap Afbouw
A government appointed umbrella organization for the (construction) finishing trade. This
case shows the relation between unions and trade associations in a different perspective.
Because of their government status, there are no worries threats besides government.
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VBZ
The association for bake ware and candy actively experiences companies offering similar
services causing a member loss. If they do not keep production fresh content for their
members, they will leave and get their services elsewhere.
The real-estate associations
This set of three cases forms a set looking at a single industry. Viewing this as a set allows
us to ignore industry specifics as a variable in determining the importance of size. Also it
allows us to view competition from multiple sides at once.
They all have in common that the real-estate agents title no longer requires oath since 2001
resulting in a massive influx in numbers. Also there is Funda, a website offering a list of all for
sale real-estate. Founded by the NVM it was initially exclusive to NVM agents, but has been
opened up for all associations since 2008.
On a European level they are mostly in agreement with each other, but do still send their own
representatives to European meeting.
None of them make use of social networks or IT service beyond a one-way news website,
although they do all claim to be experimenting with some ideas.
LMV
The smallest of the real-estate agent associations is more free-trade oriented than the
others. It is the only one that allows trade of property by the agents and tries to be as
commercially friendly as possible by being cheap and offering cheap additional 3rd party
services. Part of this is because they have limited size and this limits their ability to start
some of these services themselves.
VBO
The middle of the real-estate agent associations sees itself as a protector of the consumer
rather than its members and has taken the initiative to propose and create many regulations
and governing bodies for specific issues that then often get used by the entire industry soon
after.
NVM
The largest of the real-estate agent associations sees itself as a quality label for its
members. It is the oldest and was originally a PBO and now tries to offer many services and
requirements for members to distinguish themselves. They have an advantage of being the
largest and has used this to set up in-house education and several other services.
Cancelled appointments
These organizations were contacted and the subject was discussed briefly, but contact
ended without an interview because they did now have someone who knew enough about it /
had time / felt like it.
VVAA, Orde van medisch spec, ANWB, CHzorg and FNV bouw
And some that were unable to be contacted for various reasons.
These do still function as excellent examples of organizations that are in between association
in a unique position and can be used for follow-up research or as verification.
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Han van Wieringen
Open Questions and discussion trends
The main part of the interviews consisted of discussing seven open questions (see 3.4)
about the state of new developments within the association. Often these topics were
discussed in depth to make sure context and meaning were correctly interpreted. However,
these topics were often spread out over all seven questions. This was compiled into a seven
question format for the cases, but to get most meaningful information requires comparing the
cases side by side.
This chapter will therefore look at the trends that were found across the cases. Rather than
comparing answers given for each question, topics will be discussed by category as seen in
chapter 2. These illustrate some of the more noteworthy findings as well as factors to be of
influence ahead of time.
4.2.1. Minimalist strategy / maximizing strategy
Although consensus among interviewed seems to be that the position of an association
should be minimalist, allowing the market take over any services and activities where
possible, among the interviewed organizations only Aedes seems to be actively pursuing this
as a strategy. Most associations seem to not have an explicit strategy regarding this, but do
claim working together with other associations whenever interests overlap and to use
business solutions as 3rd party if they are available.
In compliance to the ideas that new possibilities have opened up through the internet being
used and competition is forcing more services to encourage membership, associations do all
have some investments in services
4.2.2. Web 2.0
The use of social networks seems to be largely non-existent, neither use of existing networks
nor having their own network. However, at the same time it´s been said that groups do form
independently online and can cause problems for the associations like the niche groups of
ZLTO or the afbouwnet.nl of the bedrijfschap afbouw. Overall, web 2.0 seems to be ignored
and as shown this can caused problems as those examples illustrate.
Most IT developments have been affecting the members of the trade itself rather than the
association. For every example mentioned during the interviews the first response was
always the effect on the members.
4.2.3. Size as a factor
The real-estate agent associations’ cases served as the best example of size as a factor. It is
not possible to compare associations of different sizes in different trades properly since there
might be other factors influencing whatever threat or opportunity. There are also still
problems with comparing associations within an industry, namely differences in policy are not
the primary reason for selecting a different association as you would have in an ideal
situation to compare.
The only impact that size seems to have on the actions of an association is that larger ones
provide in-house services. Smaller associations simply do not have the funds to start these
most of the time and prefer 3rd party services. Other observations about size relating to
perceived threat and opportunity are inconclusive, but the cases would suggest that the
percentage of the market as members, total number of members or numbers of services
offered do not have an obvious correlation to opinions about technology
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4.2.4. Transparency
Almost every association acknowledged that transparency is important for members to be
able to have insight in the activities of the association and stay in control and that internet
can be very useful in achieving that. However, none of them currently had any system in
place for it.
Transparency is of course an almost automatic side effect of web 2.0 development; because
information the whole point of the whole point of such system is interaction and user
generated content would need to be transparent to work.
4.2.5. Competing with commercial organizations
A few associations have acknowledged that they are somewhat threatened by businesses
that are or are trying to compete with their services for members (This is to be expected
according to Schmidt.) Competing on other activities though is almost universally denied,
saying that some activities simply cannot be taken over.
Overview of types of originations bordering associations.
But if we look at the Star model again we can see that at the far sides of each of the activities
is a commercial organization fulfilling those tasks. Perhaps an association cannot be split into
five organizations, but if some of the outer layer organizations are active in an industry, we
do expect competition on at least that activity. And that’s exactly what we do see in some
cases. NMT is worried about insurance companies, VBZ is worried about advice bureaus
and online societies are mentioned as an issue by several. The real-estate agents have
started to enforce internal regulation much more since the government has dropped its
regulation of it, a stricter government would result in less to do for internal and external
regulation (it would most likely result in more lobbying though.)
This competition can be viewed in a slightly different model as well (Tim van der Rijken,
2005), but the point remains that although denied it is quite possible to receive competition in
these areas.
This ties nicely into the whole technology issue, because the new technology facilitates the
means for any organization to be active in broader fields more easily. Meaning that although
there was no competition before, organizations could have spread to that field since the
technology has become available.
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4.2.6. Competing with other associations
Those associations that have multiple associations in the industry whether it’s a
professionals association or a related industry´s trade association (dentist and mouth
hygienists for example) the common response is that they will cooperate as soon as interests
overlap. Any straight up competition that takes place is usually about a small issue, while
they agree on most other things.
This would mean that they are only interested in the greater good, but as the bedrijfschap
afbouw put it, they are often just as concerned with who gets the credit for it. Depending on
how many issues are currently at play in the trade member numbers can fluctuate quite
heavily and they do feel pressure from this, although no tangible membership requirement
threshold was giving.
4.2.7. Impossible for commercial organizations to take over
activities
More than half of the interviewees said that business were the most likely source of threat,
but also more than half said that businesses cannot take over the activities of an association.
I think the misunderstanding here is that the services activity offered by associations is the
primary place to compete with businesses, but the other activities performed by an
association can also be considered services (networking, representation or guidelines even.)
The organizations that offer these are not businesses, but without being explicitly aware of
the distinction it is hard to perceive them as such.
Associations might be aware that other types of organizations can cost them members, but
they tend to see them as businesses. The activity that is threatened varies with each type of
organization. Businesses do not supply internal regulations for the industry for example, but
franchises do. Looking at this issue through the star model could help an association better
deal with this issue.
4.2.8. Not using possibilities
Multiple of the above trends point to associations not using the available possibilities. Even
though most of associations indicate that they see opportunities, they do not seem to be
making use of them. There is a mismatch between their expectations and how much they are
actively pursuing the issues.
In most cases there is no effort being made to invest in setting up their own social network or
joining an existing network, they are usually explained as it not being necessary.
General digitalization seems up to modern standards in term of website usage for news,
logins for member service and internal links to the site are often recently established or in the
making. However, the developments that were suspected of having the biggest impacts
(social networks, online knowledge databases and communication systems) were only
experimental at best, usually with negative results so far. LMV, BN and VBZ have all
mentioned tests with chat , forums and networks that they ended up not using.
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4.2.9. Low threat, big impact
On average the associations do not experience threat from technological developments, but
do expect an often huge impact (as can be seen below in 4.3 and 4.4.) This could be
attributed to that they also often have quite highly perceived opportunities, but this does not
fit with the fact that they often did not have any plans for the new developments. If there are
opportunities real enough that an impact can be expected, why aren’t there more tangible
examples of investments in these?
4.2.10.
Low threat, big opportunity
This is the most common response to the situation, but it also seems like a quick easy
answer. It is easier to say you see opportunities and do not see threats, regardless of what
you actually feel about the situation. This is shown in that their actions usually do not reflect
this, as very little investment is made in new developments. However, the poll by VM-online
last December (VM-online 2009) does give the same result. In that 85% of respond that
social networks would be a usefull tool for associations, 7% that social networks are direct
competition and 7% that association members did not use those things.
4.3.
Closed questions scores
The interviews also contained a closed questions component that was used to ask some
simple, but quantifiable questions regarding the main activities and other organizations about
threats and opportunities. This complements the information from the open interviews.
A complete overview of answers is available in appendix B
This table gives a summary of answers the questions of what the main activity or source was
before they graded it. This illustrates how answers are very evenly distributed, with the
exception of source of threat where businesses take a big lead.
Tabel 1 summary of closed questions
Main activity
lobbying
services
feedback
internal agreements
external agreements
2
2
2
2
1
Main impacted activity
lobbying
services
feedback
internal agreements
external agreements
2
2
3
0
1
Main source of threat
members
businesses
online sources
internal changes
1
5
2
1
Main opportunity
members
online sources
internal changes
technology
other associations
1
2
1
2
2
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Han van Wieringen
Charts for closed questions
Alone these numbers mean very little and are hard to read, so to illustrate the most notable
trends I have included charts that highlight them.
First we look at a find in the summary table of the main source of threat, then we look at
some comparisons of the scores associations gave to threats and opportunities.
The questions were meant to be viewed in pairs to remove the difference in threat and
opportunity bias that each organization might have and to illustrate this difference while
keeping each question useful in itself.
4.4.1. Businesses are the largest perceived source of threat.
The only noteworthy find in the tally of activity and source components of the closed
questions was that businesses are named as the most likely source of threat to the
association 5 out of 9 times.
This could be interpreted as a sign that associations are focusing more on services and are
therefore competing with businesses, but this could also be the result of associations seeing
any organization that isn’t an association as a business.
Main source of
threat summary
members
businesses
online sources
internal changes
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1
5
2
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4.4.2. Main activity threat is low while opportunity is high.
Average of threat to and opportunity to main activity
2,78
6,78
The common answer is that the opportunity to the main activity of the association is much
higher than any threat. The main activities are equally divided, but none of them seems to
have a pattern to it. This data could be taken as a sign that primary activities aren’t
threatened, but this cannot be discerned without asking different questions.
4.4.3. Expected impact is high
Average of impact on most affected activity and on all
7,17
5,61
Main impact is mostly very high and overall impact is often expected to be high in most cases
as well, except for some that are very low (NMT, BN and LMV.) Interestingly these all have
technology/online sources as their main threat. ZLTO also had this, but has a radically
different policy compared to the former.
Internal and external agreements are understandably less a choice as main impact since it is
harder to digitalize those.
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4.4.4. Business as main threat and overall threat
Average of threat from most threatening source and
average threat
6,17
4,72
The perceived threats are somewhat spread out, but interestingly most have named
businesses as their main threat even though they also have all said that they cannot take
over activities.
4.4.5. Perceived opportunities
Average opportunity from most beneficial source and
2,78
6,78
average
The perceived opportunities are high all around with no noteworthy relations seen, though it
might be noted that there is no preferred reason for the opportunities, so technology cannot
get credit for it.
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5. Considerations
During any research project decisions are made that steer the course of the project and
could be called into question by any readers. Though not every one of these can be
predicted, some predictable comments can be answered ahead of time.
The political representation is the core activity of an association and can never be
replaced by for example a business offering services.
This may or may not be true; businesses have found some creative solutions before. More
importantly, the importance of the lobbying service varies heavily between associations as
well as the current political environment varies over time. If there is nothing to represent at a
time, and the member go to another organization because they have better benefits, then
when a situation does arise and the new organization decides to lobby for it, it seems quite
feasible. Even if they do not, the association might already have lost so many members that
it can no longer effectively pressure politics.
You have only interviewed a few associations; this is not representative of the country
and the ones you have selected are biased.
This research certainly can´t claim to represent all associations in the netherlands and the
small number makes it very susceptible to bias. I attempted to avoid bias by contacting
associations of different sizes and fields. The interviews have so far been often surprising
and the results on some opinions seem to vary quite a bit. It might be possible that the
organizations avoided making an appointment actually did not have anyone involved in these
issues and is therefore biased against those, similarly any organization that does not have its
information on the internet has a small chance of being noticed and contacted, but almost
every organization is online in some form these days.
Your source material is limited
While this might be my lack of skill, I have had help from a colleague at Mazars in finding
relevant papers and articles. So I have confidence that there are no important sources I have
overlooked. The main problems seem to be that the terms we are searching for a fairly
ambiguous and there simple seem to be few papers on the subjects. Also, while this
literature gives an idea of “why” the situation might be as it is, it is fairly irrelevant as to the
main question “what is the perceived threat”.
Case XX has a flaw in it / contradicts itself / has left something out.
The cases included in this research are not transcripts of the interviews, often a conversation
would go on tangents and sometimes the subject would sometimes be misunderstood
because the case in question has no examples. Also sometimes a person would change
their mind about a situation during the conversation as they understood what I was
researching more. The interview was then restructured in the form of the question format in
order to make them more comparable. Each case was given back to the person interviewed
for comments before using it.
You should have used more new web technology yourself for this research since you
are about it.
Multiple times during this research I have thought about and attempted to set up some
surveys or research blog, but I have always cancelled because the questions require a bit of
depth and conversation to be useful. Associations contacted this way would be biases to
being more IT skilled and using technology with which I am not an expert as a main
information source for a master thesis seemed like a bad idea.
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Organization maturity is important to their perception of these things, you did not
select on this.
Maturity is a term that describes multiple things about an organization and is fairly hard to
measure. On top of that, maturity doesn´t even guarantee anything about their response, if it
is a factor in these cases then is should be clear through the context of the cases how the
results should be viewed.
The organizations you did not talk to would have made this a much better paper
It´s not like I didn´t try to contact them, I just failed to get an appointment in the end. Of
course feel free to take them as a recommended starting point for any future research since I
did feel like they could contribute something.
You saw these things in the cases because you wanted to, you did not stay objective.
I admit that I want a nice story, something that fits together somehow, whether there is a
threat, no threat, big opportunities, as long as there is some common thread I am happy. The
last thing I want is that the cases go all over the place and all disagree with each other, BUT
while interviewing the people I hardly knew yet if I needed a specific outcome to make the
story fit, I just pursued whatever they thought were important at the time. Afterwards cases
were sent back to them to review in case I said something untrue.
Why didn´t you use the competing organizations from the star model as basis for
questions Q5 through Q8?
This is most likely just a design flaw on my part, by the time I had considered using these as
basis for the questions several cases had already been made. On the bright side very few
associations seemed to even be aware of competing with other types of organization than
businesses. This might not have come to light otherwise.
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6. Conclusions
The whole point of this research was to answer the research question
“How do trade associations react to the threats and opportunities of web 2.0?”
This consisted of the two parts, what parts pose a threat? And how can it be used to their
advantage? Remember that all questions focus on the association´s experience and
perception of the subjects and that a quantifiable true threat and opportunity is not dealt with
here. I wish I could have presented more objective results since those are harder to argue
against and are less subject to interpretation, but the subjective threats and opportunities will
provide insight into actions.
First we´ll take a look at the research question, then other noteworthy finding and opinions
that could benefit any involved party.
What parts of web 2.0 pose a threat to trade associations?
There is a small amount of threat from independent use of web 2.0 and quite a bit
from businesses using it.
Some of the independent groups are using social networks and independent
initiatives, which can result in uncontrolled sub-groups.
Of all sources businesses are most often named as the main source of threat.
To counter these threats very little preventive actions are taken. Social networks are
monitored, but policies seem to be to “wait and see.”
How can web 2.0 be used by trade associations to their advantage?
Whenever new opportunities were mentioned it always pointed to general
digitalization rather than web 2.0 specifically. The things that did serve as examples
of web 2.0 were mostly called impractical.
Services and identity/feedback seem to be the most popular applications for the new
technology and fits with their activities nicely.
To fit with their business model small changes might have to be made when
introducing new services, but no changes are planned to the overall setup. Strange
considering since quite a few do expect a large impact on the association.
They are using these opportunities (besides general digitalization of information)
mostly by keeping an eye on social networks, but not actively doing anything with
them.
The benefits of setting up a web services or a community contribution system are
most likely dependant on the organization type. Service oriented associations will
need to make use of everything available just to stay competitive. Those that focus on
internal regulation will most likely feel the least effect, but can still benefit greatly from
using social networks to communicate and reach out to members.
So, how do trade associations perceive the threats and opportunities of web 2.0?
The observation simple seems to be that they do not. They do not seem to be aware of the
possibilities or the all the threats or the overall effect it has on their field of work. I would say
that they are not using it to its full potential, but we do not know what that potential is for
associations yet. Associations are still uneducated on the subject and cannot make proper
decisions. Sometimes LinkedIn is mentioned as a more professional network and then they
acknowledge how useful it is and that members use it, but they seem to regard most other
networks (Hyves usually) as unprofessional, without seeing that there are others or one
could be started themselves.
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Outer organizations pushing back
Quite a few of the associations worried about competition from another source then internet
or other associations, but most were grouped under “businesses” even though that is
probably not the right term for them. The idea that the organizations on the outer edge of the
star model were competing with associations came up in the latter part of the research and
so was not included in the interviews However, re-interpreting the cases with it in mind does
seem to indicate that this is the case. This also means that interviews that called businesses
their primary threat source but did not have services as their main activity to make more
sense.
Trade associations are surrounded by other types of associations and similar organizations.
These are all potential competitors for the same members, as they are not often member of
multiple associations when one offers the same services as the other. The cases usually
described their relationship with these other associations as a non-conflict. If there ever was
a situation where interests overlapped it would be resolved between them, even the realestate associations agreed with each other on most of the issues. Most associations simply
seem to have a disposition towards cooperation with other organizations.
Changing mentality?
The main development in IT is that communication is 2-way now, but this cannot completely
be responsible for some of changes seen in businesses competing with associations. In their
words “Businesses are becoming more like associations”, this cannot all be the result of
them having new technology, but unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to talk to a
business to get their point of view on the matter.
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The main threat
Specifically in the area between Identity and services we expected to find the most perceived
threat (this topic was discussed with Dedan Schmidt), partly because services are covered
more by businesses than any other area and identity because that’s where the most
developments have taken place.
Businesses are considered the biggest threat along with online sources, but the others seem
almost neglected. This might be because of a classification error and everything gets lumped
under `business`.
Threatened area
Easily sub-grouped area
Warning for associations
If you look at the lobbying and internal regulation activities they are fairly easy to apply to any
group. The developments in social networks and others focus explicitly on forming groups
and as we have seen, associations are not using them.
Combining a minimalist strategy with a development that you yourself have deemed to have
a big impact and a threat seems like a really bad idea. Businesses can offer services, the
government and franchises can offer regulation, the internet can offer networking
opportunities and unless an association would be ok with existing only when an issue arises
and thinks it can rally members just for the occasion, representation would be all that’s left.
Schmidt (Dedan Schmidt, 2008) suggest that the proper strategy for an association is filling
only the gaps left by the other factors in the market, and for the most part this seems to be
exactly what they are doing. When government regulations or market services step in,
associations take a step back and they step in when businesses and government take a step
back.
However, in the areas of internal regulation, identity and representation everyone seems free
to add to identity of the trade and group forming. If you have a group, you are free to have
internal regulations in it and represent it. The means to do this are now also available to
everyone with the internet. The effectiveness of this is of course dependant on how well you
organize, but it is quite possible to get very close to the core of an association with just that
(see also the propeller model.)
Is having a minimalist strategy still valid when potentially faced with an onslaught of
competition that takes up more than a little part of the activities chart?
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Implications for businesses
Businesses that are interested in expanding into any field can apply much of the topics
discusses here to their advantage as well. By viewing the product as a service provided to a
network you can then expand services to related activities in the star model.
For example it is easy enough to go from a franchise to setting number of internal and
external standards in the industry. Or go towards marketing the image of the industry, like
how McDonalds is trying to portray fast-food as organic and healthy.
Cooperation with associations is another option. Most associations have said to work with
businesses if that would provide benefits to their members.
Implications for users of social networks
One of the more often named threats is members acting on their own. One of the main parts
of the new developments is social networks; these allow users to form groups online that
would previously have required more work. Because of this, users can act on their own to
rally people should they disagree with the actions of the association or if the association isn´t
acting on an issue. Additionally, as shown by the star diagram, there are many alternatives
for associations when active on a specific activity. If in any trade the main association does
not engage in an activity (for example setting a norm for a new technology), nothing is
stopping the members from forming their own co-operation. Though the association would
most likely jump is as soon as it becomes viable for the whole trade.
The accounting world (Including Mazars) currently has a new system they have to use
“XBRL”. The association NIVRA (not a case) is currently not providing any assistance or
guidelines on the issue, so accounting firms could band together and organize something
themselves.
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6.1.
Han van Wieringen
Ideas for future research
During the time I have worked on this project its limitations have become obvious and many
topics have come up that would be interesting to explore. I can´t deal with objective threat
and the field of associations is still difficult to understand because every association plays by
their own rules, not to mention differences internationally. Some of you reading this might be
working on something related, another thesis or research project. For those readers, here
are some suggestions for that research.
How far can association activities be taken over by a single organization?
Can businesses really grow in all an associations activities and still be a business. Several
large organizations that have a monopoly in their industry seem to have positions like that.
How far can association activities be taken over when split among multiple organizations?
Can the members be split among several organizations, each providing their own part
association activities? Or would one simple grow and take over the others?
How does the commercial competition experience the new technology and the associations?
I wanted to interview a few companies, but did not get around to it.
Is this research applicable to other countries?
Netherlands has kind of a special environment for associations and the standard of IT is fairly
high here, how is this elsewhere?
What are the possibilities of treating society/guild regulation/ representation as a single
activity?
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7. Bibliography
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11 AND 12 .
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Erasmus university.
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Collins, E. (2004, November 8). Strategic schizophrenia: The strategic use of trade associations In
New Zealand. Journal of Communication Management Vol. 9, 3 256–266 # Henry Stewart
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deBruin, J. (1999). Management in netwerken. Centraal Boekhuis.
Dedan schmidt, L. v. (2008). Maatschappelijke Brancheorganisaties. Beekbergen: VM uitgevers.
Dedan Schmidt, M. S. (2008). Dienstverlenende Brancheorganisaties. Beekbergen: VM uitgevers.
Dogan, G. (2009). The stability of exchange networks. 31 118–125.
Fabernovel consulting. (2007). Facebook: the “social media” revolutionA study and analysisof the
phenomenon.
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GILCHRIST, A. (2007). Can Web 2.0 be Used Effectively Inside Organisations?
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Hilton, J. (1919). A Study of Trade Organisations and Combinations in the United Kingdom: Based
Upon Evidence Given and Documents Laid Before the Committee on Trusts. Harrison.
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Kirby, A. J. (1988). Trade associations as information exchange mechanisms. Vol. 19, No. 1 (Spring,
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Phelps, N. (n.d.). Clusters, Dispersion and the Spaces in Between: For an Economic Geography of the
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PROFESSIONAL BODIES. European Business review .
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Australian World-Wide web conference (pp. 21-25). Coffs Harbour: NSW.
schmidt, D. (2003). Ondernemende brancheorganisaties: balanceren tussen belangen. Van Gorcum.
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(december).
Tim van der Rijken, D. S. (2005). Wat zijn effectieve concurentiestrategien? VM magazine , 3
(december).
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Vives, X. (1990). Trade association disclosure rules, incentives to share information, and welfare. Vol.
21, No. 3 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 409-430.
VM-online. (2009). Peiling #5 Social networks zijn een regelrechte concurent voor verenigingen. VMonline , 1.
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Yin, R. (2009). Case Study Research: Design and Methods. California: SAGE publications.
ASSOCIATIONS NOW, January (2007). Tech on parade.
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Case VBZ 0.1
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Appendix A Cases
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Case VBZ 0.1
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40
Case VBZ 0.1
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Organisation Vereniging van bakkers en
zoetwaren
Interviewed Ton Baas
Monday august 10
Size: Medium
Trade: Baking and sweets industry
Diversity of services: Medium
Description
The association for the baking and sweet ware industry is the results of a fusion of several
smaller associations of different industries. They are currently one of the largest players in
the industry in Europe and have influence in large number of political and industrial
developments. Do not underestimate how large a part of the food market baking is, as well
as how much of a sweet tooth the Dutch have, just look at how many aisles are dedicated to
them in a local supermarket.
The industry is one of cut-throat competition, there is no real room to grow in market share
(we only eat so much) and so any growth is at the price of another product. However it is
also a market of easy entrance, anyone can start a bakery or sweets production. It is also a
very fluctuating and unstable market, even the big parties don´t have more than 15% market
share and products of every kind are constantly appearing and disappearing.
Questions and discussed subjects
When introducing the subject to Mr. Baas he immediately agreed that commercial
organizations pose a very real threat to associations. The main factor in this according to him
was that member look at their own benefits for the money they pay and compare it to similar
services offered from other parties. If you can´t compete, you will lose members.
Open questions
Has the organisation observed technological developments that might be important
either as a threat or opportunity in the last 2 years?
One of the main developments for the VBZ is their online knowledge database for their
members. Here they keep not just regulations and relevant interesting information, but post
new information packages that they actively create and research. These kinds of services
are required because just political representation and acting as a social hub aren´t enough to
keep members.
What are these threats and opportunities in the area of information technology?
This information is protected from non-members by a log-in, but the new information
packages can still easily leak out through members, log-ins being shared and various other
means that result in hard fought for advantages becoming everyone’s common knowledge.
Accountants, legal advisers and personnel departments leak information everywhere.
Financial service providers, auditors and consultancy companies all take the information
packages and use them to offer services to members and potential members.
A big factor in everything is how speed has changed. You cannot afford to be a week late
with updates, you need them every hour. Information can be found by anyone if it´s out there
and requires your activities to be visible and transparent to your members because the
response of leaving your organisation is also a lot faster.
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How far could other organisations take over association activities?
Political representation, regulating the industry through certificates so the government
doesn´t interfere, COA negotiations and managing labour are important activities that cannot
easily be taken over. But the advice and support services can be taken over easily,
companies that offer these are a big threat.
Marketing groups, where businesses share their data in order to get information about similar
companies in order to compare numbers and obtain trend information are also becoming
more association like.
How have you responded to all this?
The focus has shifted to being more supportive of entrepreneurs in the industry, offering
support for members in the problems encountered by everyone. By fortifying the support
services they are less at risk.
Partially this is a response to the companies posing a threat, but mostly it´s to act on what
the industry needs.
How does this affect your business model?
Pressure to increase performances have resulted in the association becoming more
businesslike and needing to be able to account for everything spent, as well as trying to
come up with ways to save money. We are held accountable for how many members we
have and how happy they are with the situation.
One way was going from several CAO´s to a single one for the industry, which saves a large
amount of time and money spent. This is also why we push for general digitalisation;
correspondents are less needed now for example.
Resources had to be shifted to make new research was done and product packages for
members are made.
What are your views on commercialisation of trade associations?
The current main source for information are the large members, they provide information
from experience for the rest of the industry to learn from, but only after they have exhausted
the advantage gained from it for themselves of course.
Third party services could be used for additional services, but they would be maintained by
the association as much as possible.
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What do you feel would be the best solution for this issue? Both for the market and
your organisation.
To maintain an effective position VBZ needs to have a pro-active stance. Projects are being
started like border control (douane) initiative, energy scan and entrepreneur scan.
Working with other associations if necessary if that’s what the industry needs.
One danger though is the mega-companies; the ones pretty much own an entire industry.
These don´t need an association anymore, but we suppose that for those instances it´s
needed it would form as a part of such a mega-company.
Additional discussion.
Social networks are an issue for every association as niche groups tend to form on them
often. VBZ tries to be a member of them and be involved in them as opposed to starting their
own network.
Relations with the industry are important so several events are held per year to meet and
greet the people and maintain relationships and bind members. It is perceived as vital to the
existence of the association that a trusted environment (ons-kent-ons) is maintained.
Certificates are a dangerous tool, if too much value is placed on it you can create “good
companies” vs “bad companies”, this should be avoided.
Other related organisations like the FNLI (the food umbrella organisation) have influence in
the industry and there is constant uncertainty as to what activities belong to what
organisation.
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Closed questions
Which of these activities does the trade association perform and which is their
primary activity?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
Services, you got to maintain a lead.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to this activity from new technology?
How much opportunity is there for this activity from new technology?
2
8
Which activity is most likely to be replaced or enhanced by new technologies and
how?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
Lobbying, FNLI will big a big change
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How big an impact will this change have on the activity?
How big an impact will this change have on the organisation?
8
7
What do you feel is the most likely source of threat for your trade association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
Businesses, stealing information
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to your organisation from this source?
How much threat is there to your organisation from all sources collectively on average?
6.5
5.5
What do you feel is the most likely source of opportunity for your trade
association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
Cooperation with other associations, but we got to try to be the ones in control.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much opportunity is there to your organisation from this source?
How much opportunity is there for your organisation thanks to these sources on
average?
7
4
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In closing
It is nice to have an organisation have such a clear idea from the beginning that the issues
predicted at the start of this research are true. Certainly this does not mean they are true in
any way, nor should I let it affect my conclusion more than the other cases, but it is nice to
see an outspoken opinion on it.
VBZ is good example of an association that is aware that surroundings can change and tries
to act on feedback it receives about this. Any organisation needs feedback on a number of
factors and often finance is the only thing really looked at.
According to VBZ in the last 3 or 4 years developments like the ones discussed have caught
the attention of research organisations like Berenschot as well. Perhaps these should be
contacted to discuss the subject, because as of this writing Dhr. Peck doesn´t seem to be
available at all anymore.
45
Organization ZLTO
Interviewed Ruud Hoosemans
Monday 15 June 2009
Size: Large
Trade: Agriculture
Diversity of services: Large
Description
The ZLTO is a large agricultural trade association in the southern half of the Netherlands. It
owns multiple other organizations besides the trade association, but considers that to be its
core. The agricultural sector was described as one in which associations have formed early
in history and therefore has a mix of corporations and associations overlapping. It also
consists of a large number of niche markets that tend to form their own sub-associations and
groups.
Questions and discussed subjects
Open questions
Has the organisation observed technological developments that might be important
either as a threat or opportunity in the last 2 years?
In the past years ZLTO has digitised their periodical newsletter into a constantly updated
website that also functions as a central platform for a huge number of other services offered.
Investment have been made to support electronic billing, single sign-on redirecting to the
members relevant services and some interesting advanced things.
Satellite imaging for example is now used by members to calculate required watering as well
as being used for a number of real-estate functions. This service was initially developed by a
company who decided the quickest way to get their product into the market was via the
association. Other than that new services are constantly being explored.
What are these threats and opportunities in the area of information technology?
These investments so far have already proven to be a great opportunity to expand their
quality members and they expect new developments to be equally important. LinkedIn is
already being used and on their site a social community package is being implemented.
Existing networks currently out on the net like Hyves are not being used, although it was
admitted that groups can and do form on these, particularly in the niche markets. These can
form their own association and get picked up as a market by companies if ignored.
How far could businesses take over their activities?
Because of the nature of the agricultural trade big companies often already somewhat
overlap with association activities, they have their own networks and services for members.
However while admittedly a trade associations activities should therefore be easy enough to
take over ZLTO considers itself active on a level above this. It considering itself fulfilling a
“spider in the web” or “director´s seat” function and therefore not as threatened.
How have you responded to all this?
They are trying to stay ahead technologically. As many options as possible are explored and
those that are deemed impractical or unprofitable are discarded, the rest are used. This has
resulted in the whole organisation digitalising. Every service and activity currently performed
must have a digital equivalent that should replace it as soon as possible. This goes for
meetings, discussions, payments, newsletters, knowledge banks and services. As a result of
digitalisation internal processes are currently undergoing some big changes, mostly as a
result of both digital and real world version needing to co-exist.
Case ZLTO 0.1
Han van Wieringen
How does this affect your business model?
Because of the nature of the agricultural trade the line between pure association and
business was blurred quite some time ago. ZLTO owns several businesses that act as a
source of finance as well as having a fund where other businesses invest in ZLTO. These
are primarily used to fund the activities of the association besides member contribution at
about a 1 to 5 ratio. ZLTO does claim however it primarily and most importantly considers
itself in service of its members.
What are your views on commercialisation of trade associations?
It should not be a problem for a trade association to get funding from other sources then
members as long as in the event of a conflict of interest the members and good of the
industry. This was claimed to be upheld and supported by the fact that there is a separate
component for each (LTO member benefits and LTO commerce.) However no example of a
true conflict of interest occurring was discussed.
What do you feel would be the best solution for this issue? Both for the market and
your organisation.
ZLTO maintains it position as above the network and trying to maintain productive relations
between all parties beneficial of the whole industry. Therefore it feels that all issues should
be able to be resolved in cooperation somehow it will continue to provide as many high
quality services to as many parties and members as possible to accomplice this. In the
event of a dispute however between two similarly sized parties with opposing viewpoints or
simple unwillingness to cooperate for whatever reason, highest quality of services and
increasing member’s numbers are the only option.
Additional discussion.
Membership numbers is ultimately a simple goal for an association and an effective way to
measure threat and opportunity with. While no association is expected to ever directly state
this as one of their main goals, ZLTO did acknowledge that there is truth in it.
Competition between associations and businesses was also acknowledged with large firms
like Campina being a big example of one building its own network and offering services.
Because of the nature of the industry this is not a big deal and members are often part of
multiple networks. Uniqueness is required to keep them a part of it.
The expanding of reach for an association also means that ZLTO will no longer be limited to
the southern region of the Netherlands, and while no international developments were
mentioned competition with the northern LTO was expected. Whether there will be
cooperation or competition between them is yet unknown.
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Closed questions
Which of these activities does the trade association perform and which is their
primary activity?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
Services are the main activities, followed by the feedback with members.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to this activity from new technology?
How much opportunity is there for this activity from new technology?
4
8
Which activity is most likely to be replaced or enhanced by new technologies and
how?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
Feedback, the current non digital method is not only time consuming but distance is also.
This requires more capacity, more speed and more creative methods to have all members
represented. This is simply not possible with conventional methods and requires an overhaul
in the associations processes as well.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How big an impact will this change have on the activity?
How big an impact will this change have on the organisation?
8
8
What do you feel is the most likely source of threat for your trade association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
Businesses, the big firms all have their networks and services close to what an association
can offer and if not kept up they could really put a damper on member numbers. Other
sources not so much.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to your organisation from this source?
7
How much threat is there to your organisation from all sources collectively on average? 4
What do you feel is the most likely source of opportunity for your trade
association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
Online sources most likely, if these are going to form on their own we should use that
somehow. But all these have their opportunities for us.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much opportunity is there to your organisation from this source?
How much opportunity is there for your organisation thanks to these sources on
average?
8
7.5
In closing
While ZLTO considers there to be far more opportunities then threats from the
developments, they do reveal that if the organisation does not keep with the new trends the
threats can suddenly become very real very fast.
49
Organization Aedes
Interviewed Ellen de Vries
Friday 10 July 2009
Added: IT report Aedes
Size: Large
Trade: Rental housing
Diversity of services: Small
Description
Aedes is the association for rental home corporations. It´s most notable feature is that it is far
less devoted to services as other associations thus far observed and instead focuses on
dealing with politics. Te government tries to manage the housing market and this often leads
to situations that the association has to react to.
Questions and discussed subjects
Open questions
Has the organisation observed technological developments that might be important
either as a threat or opportunity in the last 2 years?
The internal structure of the organisation has changes a few years ago and the software has
been updated to support these changes. This includes internal knowledge management,
network management tools and detailed information about what colleges have done or are
planning. Windex and SharePoint were mentioned as two packages.
Aedesnet is the website of the association, with separate functions for members. The main
function is currently to act as a meeting platform for network building and maintenance.
There is currently no link between functionality of the website and processes in the
association.
What are these threats and opportunities in the area of information technology?
When people have connected with each other via their network they act independently of it
from that point on and there is no need for the association anymore. Often corporations will
also have their own similar services.
How far could businesses take over their activities?
The networking and knowledge management functions are being taken often (although
constantly shifting somewhat) by the corporations themselves, leaving Aedes to focus on
lobbying functions.
How have you responded to all this?
These changes are not considered threats, focus is shifted to lobbying and is slowly being
filtered out from all other activities. If the members ever feel that a central organisation like
Aedes should offer certain services they will bring it up.
There are some thought about social network software to support in these activities, but
these are still experimental and not very active.
Case Aedes 0.1
Han van Wieringen
How does this affect your business model?
Part of the corporations doing more themselves is because they are fusing and growing
rapidly lately. This means fewer members, but they have different needs. The recent
restructuring of the internal organisation was to accommodate this. Besides lobbying we
have taken up more internal regulation, maintaining a positive image for the market, halting
observed excesses and codes of conduct.
What are your views on commercialisation of trade associations?
Real-estate agents could take over contacts and specialised law offices can because central
advice sources, but seems unlikely that lobbying will be taken over. The association is
nothing more than a collection of members, if they want to do something else with it, they
will.
What do you feel would be the best solution for this issue? Both for the market and
your organisation.
No reaction on out part is needed, the members are all entrepreneurs. Meaning they are the
kind to take initiative if they can benefit from it. As long as at least 50% of the country´s
corporations are members there is no need to worry about continued existence and Aedes is
at 98% membership at the moment.
Additional discussion.
The building of new homes for rent overlaps with that of homes for sale. Though Aedes is
only for corporations (who rent homes) this is a possible area of expansion, since according
to them there is currently no such body in existence for sold homes. This is mainly because
these are built through either independent contractors or project developers.
However the corporations running Aedes most likely are not interested in this.
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Case Aedes 0.1
Han van Wieringen
Closed questions
Which of these activities does the trade association perform and which is their
primary activity?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
Lobbying, it pretty much all we do.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to this activity from new technology?
How much opportunity is there for this activity from new technology?
2
8
Which activity is most likely to be replaced or enhanced by new technologies and
how?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
Feedback from and to members, other activities are changing at the moment, but not
because of technology.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How big an impact will this change have on the activity?
How big an impact will this change have on the organisation?
8
8
What do you feel is the most likely source of threat for your trade association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
Corporations growing, fusing and then acting independently from the rest of the association
of initiatives that would be more effective if done on a national scale.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to your organisation from this source?
How much threat is there to your organisation from all sources collectively on average?
5
2
What do you feel is the most likely source of opportunity for your trade
association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
Corporations growing and demanding different services and structure from the association to
meet the needs, this allows for new ideas and structure to best support the trade.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much opportunity is there to your organisation from this source?
How much opportunity is there for your organisation thanks to these sources on
average?
9
6.5
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Case Aedes 0.1
Han van Wieringen
IT audit questions
What are the five most important strategic goals of the association?
Binding the members, structuring the trade, lobby their needs and provide additional
services.
What is your IT strategy? Could you name five points?
Just one, support the main strategy.
How do you let your IT strategy match your business strategy?
The people in charge try to maintain as much link as possible.
Who in your organisation is responsible for the IT Policy?
One director plus the head of daily affairs (hoofd bedrijfsvoering) are in charge.
Do you ever have your IT environment tested by an auditor?
Yes, Mazars and Nobel for example.
If you do, does this include the strategy and governance planning?
Yes, matching that is basically the only goal.
What part of your IT strategy are you insecure about at the moment or would like
additional security about? (not just content, but handling of it as well)
The separation of intra / extranet, currently both are separated IT project and there is very
little communication between digital front and back office because of it. Some integration
would really help things.
Questions were reviewed and possible modified for new reports after this report was made.
In closing
Aedes is a nice example of an association focussing on a single task rather than trying to
offer as many as possible and a nice example of letting the members run the organisation
rather than just having the members respond if they aren’t pleased.
If the idea about new technology posing a threat to associations is correct, then we would
expect to see it in organisations like Aedes (small amount of services), but they appear to not
experience it like that at the moment.
54
Organization bedrijfschap afbouw
Interviewed Anton van Kruistum
Monday august 10
Size: Small
Trade: Construction
Diversity of services: Small
Description
Because this was a different type of organization from the associations seen so far, the
questions asked focused more on the exact role of that type of organization and the
connection between the different types of organization then before.
A “Bedrijfschap” is an organization that performs activities very similar to a trade association,
but it is mandated by law that all organizations in that industry register at it. This type of
organization was introduced by the Germans in the Second World War and has been around
since. Whether it should exist is occasionally subject to debate.
The creation of this type of organization requires that social partners (organizations
representing both sides of the industry, employers and employees) request the government
for the creation of one. These social partners also have the power to disband it if either feels
it is no longer desired.
The social partners for afbouw are the FNV afbouw and the NOA. For an industry with
multiple associations active in it participation on the board are still required to be 50%
employers’ representation and 50% employees’ representation (except for the neutral
chairman).
Activities of a bedrijfschap can be anything a normal association would do, but usually the
social partners will want to do as much activities as possible themselves because it allows
them to appear actively involved and draw members that way. Any activity that benefits the
industry as a whole but requires either too much resources or data not available to the
partners is done by the organization.
Recently a big reorganization took place cutting most of the employees. Efforts were made to
move as much activities to the social partners as possible.
To be lawfully representative an organization needs 60% of the workforce as a member.
This same percentage applies to all associations that want to act as representatives for
lobbying purposes. This illustrates the need for all associations to hand on to members.
Questions and discussed subjects
Open questions
Has the organisation observed technological developments that might be important
either as a threat or opportunity in the last 2 years?
Most of the employees active in the industry mostly if not completely ignore IT for their work.
However the organisation wants to stimulate a certain amount of digitalisation and provides
as much as possible information on their website to at least be there if needed. Because a
bedrijfschap legally requires membership is has no need for member-only services, but can
offer everything to everyone interested.
What are these threats and opportunities in the area of information technology?
Because the workers in the industry are so far behind to the point of almost disliking reading
information must be delivered to them in an extremely carefully prepared manner. With
some new handheld devices and mobile websites information delivery could advance hugely
to a very practical level for workers.
Case Bedrijfschap afbouw 0.1Han van Wieringen
How far could other organisations take over association activities?
The social partners are the foundation of the organisation, therefore it will never do
something to conflict or compete with those interests. However some business might come
close to overlapping with either of the social partners, but these are dependent on each other
already so any action that overlaps too much would have to come from newcomers to the
market. As a 3rd party service the cooperation between association and business is almost
always more profitable.
Independent groups though have in the past played a part. Five years ago the ceiling and
wall workers felt that they had not been treated fairly for the contribution they had paid and
went on afbouwnet.nl to rant about their plight and almost formed a niche group of their own.
How have you responded to all this?
Afbouwnet.nl was taken over by the social partners and other social networks are somewhat
being monitored.
Efforts are being made to do what is best for the industry, even if its member might not want
it. Workers that have completed an education are not inclined to pay for another person’s
education for example. This is blamed on a massive short sightedness that is prevalent
throughout the industry combined with the niche being younger than most of the construction
trade. If not taken care of properly certain issues will eventually cause problems
How does this affect your business model?
The big reorganisation left some people specialised for the IT information services.
There is a new regulation that bedrijfschappen have to be polls every 4 years among the
employers about services and necessity.
What are your views on commercialisation of trade associations?
As a bedrijfschap it offers no extra services besides what is deemed necessary for the good
of the industry by the social partners. No association should ever use have their position be
to make money. However the position of the association to influence the workers and
through them the market should not be underestimated. An example was given of the type of
plaster used and how producers already try to influence the workers rather than the
employers who have to purchase it.
What do you feel would be the best solution for this issue? Both for the market and
your organisation.
This is an extremely fickle industry and any rash actions taken can result in other parties
turning against you. Multiple organisations and groups are often intertwined in ways that are
much more delicate than seems at first glance. Advertisements in a magazine being stopped
can result in the whole industry back lashing against a brand. Appearances at meetings and
socials greatly impact trades. Cars executives are seen in can break their career, but then
this does apply to all trades to a degree.
Additional discussion.
One example of stimulating technology was that a new edition of a book was available on the
website and the plan was not to have it in physical form yet for a year, thus rewarding those
who use the technology without revealing it to be the intention. This in my opinion is a good
approach to the problem.
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Case Bedrijfschap afbouw 0.1Han van Wieringen
Closed questions
Which of these activities does the trade association perform and which is their
primary activity?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
Internally binding agreements, setting regulations and inspections.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to this activity from new technology?
How much opportunity is there for this activity from new technology?
Money is a big restricting factor for most workers to realistically a 3
1
8
Which activity is most likely to be replaced or enhanced by new technologies and
how?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
Feedback
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How big an impact will this change have on the activity?
How big an impact will this change have on the organisation?
8
7
What do you feel is the most likely source of threat for your trade association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
Commercial organisations for the social partners.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to your organisation from this source?
Politics is also a big threat, but on a different level, 7
How much threat is there to your organisation from all sources collectively on average?
4
5.5
What do you feel is the most likely source of opportunity for your trade
association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
Better relations with the employers / employees (internal)
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much opportunity is there to your organisation from this source?
How much opportunity is there for your organisation thanks to these sources on
average?
7
8
57
Case Bedrijfschap afbouw 0.1Han van Wieringen
In closing
Bedrijfschap afbouw serves as a unique case among the others. It gives some insight into
the workings of associations that they would not normally admit to themselves. Mainly how
money driven they are on some aspects and how they can manipulate memberships at
times. The relationships between the different types of organizations and the competitions
between them is shown somewhat, although because of the limited amount within this trade
it might not be fully applicable to others.
Also the 60% representation limit is important and that this is well known and closely
monitored by most associations. It means that there is a physical line that competition from
commercial and other sources can push it against. The separation of employers and
employees is much more dependent on the industry though.
Please keep in mind that the questions in this case were often not discussed in order and
style of a normal association and that any question not relevant to the bedrijfschap would be
about the associations in that trade in general. This interview was primarily an exploration of
the relations between the different types of organization and the perspective on the issues as
viewed from an organization that is theoretically outside of the influence of threat.
58
Organization Bouwend Nederland
Interviewed Herman Meerbach
Wednesday aug 5
Size: Large
Trade: Construction
Diversity of services: Small
Description
BN is the largest trade association for the construction industry in the Netherlands, its
primary focus is on political representation and maintaining a healthy industry after the big
fraud scandals of the previous years.
Questions and discussed subjects
Open questions
Has the organisation observed technological developments that might be important
either as a threat or opportunity in the last 2 years?
A general digitalisation has been promoted in the organisation for some time now, but
because people in this industry seem to prefer physical versions it is expected that complete
digitalisation will take at least another year up to five years. Online social networks have
resulted in several independent groups forming, they are trying to stay in contact with these
and feel that they should stay at the forefront with these developments.
The website for the organisation has been renovated, but is still has very little special
member features.
What are these threats and opportunities in the area of information technology?
The independent groups are an issue and are being monitored, but it is still being evaluated
how big an issue it is. The new developments are considered mostly a benefit for the daily
activities of the members than an opportunity for the association.
How far could businesses take over their activities?
There is a remote possibility businesses will become competitors, but the idea was mostly
just considered impossible as there are mostly political and industry wide activities by the
organisation and any business would sooner want to work with them then compete with
them. Although there is “de zaak” which is trying, but little threat is perceived from this at the
moment.
The FNV´s Construction focuses on the independents and if they grow into more mature
businesses they will join BN, so they are not considered an issue.
How have you responded to all this?
BN is already the result of a fusion to respond to a lot of problems in the industry, though a
judicial service has also been started a while ago to provide extra benefits for members. This
service is financed by having the guilty paying for the costs rather than from the contribution
pool.
Case Bouwend Nederland 0.1Han van Wieringen
How does this affect your business model?
The industry is changing to a pre-fabricated based one from the traditional build at location
style. Virtualised blueprints are taking over and designs and changes are made much later
then they used to. This will bring different requirements for the members and will have to
provide new services and most likely via new technology.
The digital issues and competitors are not important enough to influence the business model.
What are your views on commercialisation of trade associations?
An association should never take chances with member cash, everything is done through 3rd
parties. Businesses will never see it profitable to compete with us and would rather use our
network. This is fine since everything goes through 3rd party services anyway.
What do you feel would be the best solution for this issue? Both for the market and
your organisation.
Associations should never start their own business; rather use whatever is available already.
Additional discussion.
A number of topics were discussed about how new developments influenced the industry,
rather than how they influenced BN. Maps are becoming digital rather than classic blueprints,
allowing for virtual 3d maps and allowing every phase of to be working with the same data.
This can lead to new ways of looking at workflows and processes, and as an association we
should be ready to support the industry in whatever that may bring.
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Case Bouwend Nederland 0.1Han van Wieringen
Closed questions
Which of these activities does the trade association perform and which is their
primary activity?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
Lobbying
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to this activity from new technology?
How much opportunity is there for this activity from new technology?
2
3
Which activity is most likely to be replaced or enhanced by new technologies and
how?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
Lobbying
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How big an impact will this change have on the activity?
How big an impact will this change have on the organisation?
4
2
What do you feel is the most likely source of threat for your trade association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
Networking sites
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to your organisation from this source?
How much threat is there to your organisation from all sources collectively on average?
5
5
What do you feel is the most likely source of opportunity for your trade
association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
Networking sites
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much opportunity is there to your organisation from this source?
How much opportunity is there for your organisation thanks to these sources on
average?
7
6
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Case Bouwend Nederland 0.1Han van Wieringen
In closing
BN seems more interested in the daily needs of its members then it is in what developments
can mean for themselves. This might be because they have been reformed quite recently
and it hasn´t come up yet.
There is some technology being used and even new options being explored, they just don´t
seem to really be important at the moment. This makes it difficult to access what the
perceived threats and opportunities are, but the closed questions do indicate that they worry
about everything equally and do not expect a lot of impact from anything.
Also, they perceived trade development as being a separate activity for an association, this
might be worth discussing.
62
LMV
Interviewed Pieter Kuijt
Tuesday 15 sep
Size: Small
Trade: Real-estate agents
Diversity of services: Medium
Description
The LMV (landelijke makelaars vereniging) is one of five associations active in the same
trade. The NVM, VBO and LMV are al real-estate agent associations and the RVD and NVR
are property agent associations. The LMV is the result of a split in 1985 from the NVM after
disagreements about some policies.
A few years ago there was a single initiation as real-estate agent and appraiser. That has
since split into two separate ones. Now people can call themselves real-estate agent much
easier, resulting in a fourfold increase in agents, but the same number of buildings.
Recently the LMV and the RVD attempted to fuse into the first professions associations in
the trade. This failed by one vote, for now the LMV will attempt to perform this role
themselves.
Questions and discussed subjects
Open questions
Has the organisation observed technological developments that might be important
either as a threat or opportunity in the last 2 years?
“Funda” is the Netherlands´ largest real-estate website containing the data of all members of
each of the associations. Initially set-up and owned 51% by the NVM it did not allow other
associations access until recently. It now covers about 60% of real-estate agents in the
Netherlands.
“Makelaarsland” is a website that focuses on private sales, providing a place for those that
used to avoid real-estate agents and place an advertisement on the wall at the local grocery
store. It is not really considered a threat at the moment because the users were not using
real-estate agents anyway.
“Realnext” is a database network for real-estate agent files that allows access to all data
inside for members for a fee and adding their data. The LMV uses this collectively for its
members.
Several smaller sites such as auction sites have started appearing lately, each promise great
solutions to users, but these have been unpopular so far.
What are these threats and opportunities in the area of information technology?
Internet has massively changed the industry, prices have dropped massively and internet is
now the first place people look rather than contacting an agent directly. A bigger problem
right now is that there are too many associations active in the trade. On European delegation
we are not being taken seriously because we are too splintered.
“Realnext” can be a threat because sometimes members feel being listed themselves rather
than with the LMV and not paying for LMV services is cheaper.
Case LMV 0.1
Han van Wieringen
How far could other organisations take over association activities?
They would rather work with us then compete in any way. However Google is currently active
in the real-estate business in Australia and if they expand that test to the rest of the world it
will probably have a huge impact on the market. If that is the case we would have to make
sure our members are listed on Google’s service as well.
How have you responded to all this?
We have been highly active on a weblog, Hyves and Twitter are being used, so far the
response has been minimal but we are seeing an increase in younger members of the trade
so we expect it to pick up.
We are talking about an umbrella organisation for the trade (similar to BOVAG or Bouwend
Nederland) to combat the splintered associations.
How does this affect your business model?
We had recently already had a big reorganisation so it’s hard to say what the result of
technology is. We certainly were behind on technology and we hope that we have caught up
somewhat.
What are your views on commercialisation of trade associations?
This is where we split from NVM, they and the VBO have a much more commercially minded
approach to associations. We maintain that there must be zero profit margin. We also do not
have in-house services like them (their education courses for example), instead everything is
through a third party and therefore much cheaper.
What do you feel would be the best solution for this issue? Both for the market and
your organisation.
We should have an umbrella organisation so we are more unified in the trade. We should
collectively be playing the market rather then everyone for themselves. And associations
should maintain a no-profit aspect.
Additional discussion.
The associations agree with each other on 95% of the topics so cooperation should not be a
big issue, however odds of cooperation are currently low for various unnamed reasons.
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Case LMV 0.1
Han van Wieringen
Closed questions
Which of these activities does the trade association perform and which is their
primary activity?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
Feedback
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to this activity from new technology?
How much opportunity is there for this activity from new technology?
3
8
Which activity is most likely to be replaced or enhanced by new technologies and
how?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
External regulation, EPA is coming back
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How big an impact will this change have on the activity?
How big an impact will this change have on the organisation?
5
2.5
What do you feel is the most likely source of threat for your trade association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
Google entering the real estate market
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to your organisation from this source?
How much threat is there to your organisation from all sources collectively on average?
7
4
What do you feel is the most likely source of opportunity for your trade
association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
New technology
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much opportunity is there to your organisation from this source?
How much opportunity is there for your organisation thanks to these sources on
average?
7.5
8
65
Case LMV 0.1
Han van Wieringen
In closing
LMV was the first of the real-estate agent associations I have interviewed for these cases.
The relations between associations will need to be verified from the others viewpoints.
The other cases will no doubt overlap somewhat and parts of the industry will likely be
discussed again, but it will be required to be able to compare them properly.
The difference in size within a single trade allows us to see if there is any correlation
between size and perceived treat and opportunity.
Because of the competition between the associations in the same trade I am expecting some
interesting results about how they perceive threat from each other.
Because of limited available time, this interview was done by phone as opposed to all the
others which were efface-to-face. Any impact this has on the quality must be evaluated
afterwards, but it seemed better then not having the case since the real-estate cases make a
set.
66
Organization NMT
Interviewed Ton van Groeningen
Friday 19 June 2009
Size: Large
Trade: Dental
Diversity of services: Large
Description
The NMT is the Dutch association for the dental profession. A trade that has been through a
few unique changes in Dutch medical regulation, resulting in there being very little incentive
for dentists to technologically advance in the last few decades, most dentists are still about a
decade behind technologically. However current initiatives being taken by the NMT would
provide a huge jump forward in benefits.
Questions and discussed subjects
Open questions
Has the organisation observed technological developments that might be important
either as a threat or opportunity in the last 2 years?
A financial service has been started by the NMT (as NMT Fencs) offering to bundle the billing
of the dentist and take over the cashing and administration of these. Other software
packages are being discussed with developers to offer integrated support for this and other
future services.
These services require an online platform to host them. NMT is working on a main portal site
to act as this platform and experiments are running to explore what is possible with it.
What are these threats and opportunities in the area of information technology?
Most dentists are not comfortable yet with online services for business though and it shows
in that several tests with online discussion and meetings have been disappointing so far.
Another experiment with a knowledge database wiki which also has a telephone helpdesk
version available is getting more positive results. This success was credited to it being less
digital.
The reason current efforts are being made is because government is considering a “rate
free” experiment which would be very beneficial, but requires digitalisation to be successful.
Efforts have to being made to elevate members to a level where these more advanced
services can be offered, but the technology gap does mean that no threat has been formed
by IT in the past years.
How far could businesses take over their activities?
Commercial organisation have attempted to become more like associations in the services
they offer and trying to appear like an association (VVAA for example.) Businesses try to get
close to dentists because of the money in the costs they have to make, but this is more in the
technical aspects then in services the NMT offers. Most businesses are too specialised to
offer a service that is broad enough to be attractive on its own. Additionally the only real
competitors would be the insurance bureaus, there are only four major ones and for them the
dental profession would be too specialised.
How have you responded to all this?
The main defence against this is the associations’ advantage of already having knowledge of
all aspects of the dental world and its dedication to the members. Even though businesses
might be attempting to blur the boundaries, the NMT tries to set itself apart as purely
dedicated to the members non-profit.
Case NMT 0.1
Han van Wieringen
How does this affect your business model?
No change at all is expected, all investments in services are treated like a third party, no
process changes are expected, nor are changes in organisation. At most another private
company will be founded to handle the service. The reason for starting a private company
rather than the NMT handling the service themselves is because there are large amount of
the member´s money being handled. If anything went wrong with the NMT or if fraud was
committed the two should be firmly separated.
What are your views on commercialisation of trade associations?
As long as the members agree with whatever actions the association takes it is a non-issue.
Riskier investments are monitored by a separate part of the organisation. Other associations
that do commercialise (NVP for example) to the point that member interests are downplayed
and additional money is charged will ultimately suffer for it.
What do you feel would be the best solution for this issue? Both for the market and
your organisation.
It shouldn´t be possible for competitors to a trade association to arise, but if it did it would
most likely work out a partnership to ensure the best for the members. Associations will
always maintain a unique role because of their central position, no change is expected in
this.
Some threats are actually beneficial to the NMT because pressure on the dentists will cause
more to because members, but obviously those should be dealt with by us anyway.
Additional discussion.
The technological gap experienced by the dental profession means that if services were now
offered that perfectly fitted with their requirements not only for now but also for future
regulations it would be very attractive. The gap does mean that considerable investments
must be made in digitalising the field and that some special half-way or dual solutions might
be necessary to accommodate in the transition.
If the boundaries between commercial organisations and associations fade then association
must find a way to keep members and keep their right to exist. When a large association with
lots of services is in this position it can compensate, but if an association with only a few
services has competition it might lose member because of it and lose whatever influence it
has in the trade.
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Case NMT 0.1
Han van Wieringen
Closed questions
Which of these activities does the trade association perform and which is their
primary activity?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
Member communication and external agreements
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to this activity from new technology?
How much opportunity is there for this activity from new technology?
6.5
6.5
Which activity is most likely to be replaced or enhanced by new technologies and
how?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
The third party services are modular, they could easily be completely removed with future
developments, with little to no affect on the association.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How big an impact will this change have on the activity?
7
How big an impact will this change have on the organisation?
1
What do you feel is the most likely source of threat for your trade association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
Commercial entities imitating trade associations might be a big problem, everything else is
can be ignored.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to your organisation from this source?
7
How much threat is there to your organisation from all sources collectively on average? 2.5
What do you feel is the most likely source of opportunity for your trade
association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
It is unlikely anything can really cause a boost in membership numbers, but the best
opportunity to invest in technology is most likely now. If we don´t businesses might catch up
in a few years.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much opportunity is there to your organisation from this source?
7.5
How much opportunity is there for your organisation thanks to these sources on
5.5
average?
In closing
The technological gap of the dental profession creates a weird case for this research. The
switch from web 1.0 to 2.0 isn´t all this research is about, but arguments can be made as to
its relevance. Interestingly though NMT is still investing in current technology, although it
needs to be seem what form will actually be accepted by their users. This handling of a
technological gap could be the subject of research in and of itself.
69
NVM
Interviewed Roeland Kimman
Monday 22 sep
Size: Large
Trade: Real-estate agents
Diversity of services: Medium
Description
NVM is the largest of the three real-estate agent trade associations in the Netherlands; they
have approximately 75% of the agents as a member. It describes itself as having higher
quality services than the others at higher cost. They currently focus on setting and upholding
a code of conduct for their members to set standards and protect the consumers as a
replacement for the initiation oath that was removed in 2001. The removal of this initiation
has resulted in four times as many real-estate agents. This along with the economic crisis,
changing mentality towards housing and technological changes is resulting in a somewhat
turbulent time for them.
One big difference between associations is that VBO and LMV allow their agents to trade
housing rather than just act as intermediaries.
Questions and discussed subjects
Open questions
Has the organisation observed technological developments that might be important
either as a threat or opportunity in the last 2 years?
Funda was started longer ago, but is still relevant. It is the largest website for real-estate in
the Netherlands, having close to 90% of all housing for sale in it. This includes the other
associations since recently, because it is more beneficial to the consumer if they have a
complete view of the market. Also, if they did not, another site would sooner or later by
“spidering” their data. (spidering is the mining of information from one site and presenting it
on another, often together with more from similar sites.)
Social networks are being monitored because the agents use them to obtain knowledge
about their specialised areas, but the association does not do anything with them.
What are these threats and opportunities in the area of information technology?
The services offered by the NVM are tailored to the needs of its members, because they
have many different types of members they have kinds of services that not all of them use. If
the market changes, as it will because of the new developments, then the association must
change with it.
An expected development is that action websites will become increasingly important.
Another is that people can use our gathered statistics and data to present their own data to
the media.
But besides impact via the members, there is little going on that is not just a normal part of
advancing technology and market. There are always changes, there is nothing special about
these.
Case NVM 0.1
Han van Wieringen
How far could other organisations take over association activities?
Google´s entry into the market through its test in Australia was also called a huge threat, in
England a large supermarket chain has entered the real-estate business (Tesco´s) and their
entry into the market will make big changes in the association necessary to adapt.
NVM´s activities include setting a code of conduct, educating, legal and business advice and
lobbying, some of these can be taken over, but this has always been the case and is not a
result of recent developments.
How have you responded to all this?
The NMA (Netherlands Competition Authority) has already taken quite a few steps to prevent
us from legally being able to mandate a bunch of services and services, we must allow
alternatives to the ones we offer. Because we are the largest association any action we take
will be closely monitored and
Over the last few years NVM has tried to change from an association that is only “against”
developments to one that supports and initiates them.
How does this affect your business model?
Things are more digitalised all over these days, press releases and newsletters have
changed to keep up, but lobbying and member meetings require an amount of personal
interacting that isn´t possible through those means yet.
What are your views on commercialisation of trade associations?
Associations should not be businesses, but there is a big grey area. The NVM has NVM
service bv, realworks, black berry service, funda and press work all as daughter companies
that at one point broke away from the main organisation. These are now businesses, but are
still considered part of NVM. (by the NMA as well, they don´t allow redirecting members to
them for example.)
What do you feel would be the best solution for this issue? Both for the market and
your organisation.
Lobbying and the code of conduct are the core of the association, anything else that needs to
change should not be an issue. The industry should be kept healthy, since any problems that
occur in there do directly impact out income.
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Case NVM 0.1
Han van Wieringen
Additional discussion.
NVM considers being a label its primary activity, this comes from its code of conduct and
enforcing of it. Currently it is used as a mark of quality, but because so many already have it,
it is no longer a means for agents to differentiate themselves from others. One idea was to
introduce a “golden NVM” label for the top one hundred for example.
Representing the differences between groups is a problem for the association because the
agents are by no means homogenous. There are big and small ones, but also is different
fields, areas and activities they perform. This means they almost never agree on anything,
and services must be offered for each of them without being paid by contribution and without
being something one side disapproves of.
Promoting the industry is one of the tasks of an association; a new campaign focuses on
using them intelligently. Many consumers talk to the selling agent thinking he´s helping them
get a good deal for example. People must be made aware of the added value an agent still
has these days.
On the European level NVM agrees that it could use an umbrella organization of some sort
for the associations, but did not go into details about how it would work.
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Case NVM 0.1
Han van Wieringen
Closed questions
Which of these activities does the trade association perform and which is their
primary activity?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
internal
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to this activity from new technology?
How much opportunity is there for this activity from new technology?
2
6
Which activity is most likely to be replaced or enhanced by new technologies and
how?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
A bit of everything
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How big an impact will this change have on the activity?
How big an impact will this change have on the organisation?
9
9
What do you feel is the most likely source of threat for your trade association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
Internal, but also the others
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to your organisation from this source?
How much threat is there to your organisation from all sources collectively on average?
7
7
What do you feel is the most likely source of opportunity for your trade
association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
You can´t ignore any of them.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much opportunity is there to your organisation from this source?
How much opportunity is there for your organisation thanks to these sources on
average?
7
7
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Case NVM 0.1
Han van Wieringen
In closing
If any trade has multiple associations I expect the difference between them to be their stance
on an issue, and this would be the deciding factor for becoming a member. But according to
this interview it seems that there are so many things separating the associations
(Size, amount of services, reputation of label, quality, price, stance on trading)
that any member will most likely get unwanted things no matter what association they join.
I will have to wait until I talk to VBO to get a complete view.
NVM claims to act in best interest of the consumers, but representing the agents and being
forced by the NMA. How these are possible at the same time and what motivated which
action exactly is probably a bit complicated.
Interesting is how the approach of associations as a label is alike to that of the VBZ, although
they still had some doubt as to whether or not it would create “good” vs. “bad” companies.
That does seem to be the case here; at least that they perceive the other labels to be lesser
than theirs.
75
VBO
Interviewed Bart Rijgwart & Iwan Wind
Friday 13 nov
Size: Medium
Trade: Real-estate agents
Diversity of services: Medium
Description
VBO is the middle sized of the real-estate agent associations, though like LMV it considers
itself active in the same field as RVD and VNR as well. It´s goal is more focused on the
consumers and quality of the industry then the other associations and its primary type of
member is smaller businesses.
Since its conception VBO has been responsible for many initiatives that provide stability and
security for the consumer, these have often been adopted soon after by the other
associations afterwards.
It attempts to keep a more personal relationship between the association and its members as
well as its members and their customers.
Questions and discussed subjects
Open questions
Has the organisation observed technological developments that might be important
either as a threat or opportunity in the last 2 years?
The agents themselves have been reluctant to get involved with any new developments
regarding their trade online, only after Funda did they start rushing online. Interestingly there
is currently a discussion ongoing about how information online is unreliable and how the
primary contribution an agent can give their customers is personally specified information.
Social networks, knowledge centres and online services have been avoided by the VBO,
although LinkedIn was named as being used more by their members lately.
What are these threats and opportunities in the area of information technology?
A big threat to the industry is that the consumers are using the internet as if it was completely
trustworthy and getting too much unnecessary information along with it. This will impact the
role of the real-estate agent in the future, it will most likely take some time for people to
realise this about internet.
Google´s entry into the market only compounds this problem, but this has already been
anticipated. The plan is to spread the information wide rather than in a single site to get
higher ranking on Google’s real-estate tool.
How far could other organisations take over association activities?
Franchises and big companies would never go to the extent the association in regulating the
industry. New services will only be created by the association if they do not yet exist in or are
of insufficient quality, otherwise they will be used as a 3rd party service instead.
Saying that there was no profit in it for any such party the issue was dismissed.
Case NVM 0.1
Han van Wieringen
How have you responded to all this?
Recently the management of VBO was redesigned for speed and more suited roles to
accommodate recent growth.
Preparations have been made to fit into Google’s real-estate rankings and there has been
some expansion of services, including doing the administration for members through the
association back-office.
How does this affect your business model?
It doesn´t, if anything their resolve to establish a traditional role for their members and
themselves has been strengthened. Although the recent changes to management could be
just the start of some bigger changes. Some new services have been started recently
though, but these do not affect the core model and activities of the association.
What are your views on commercialisation of trade associations?
Investing in new services and activities can distract from the main goal of the association.
The investment risk should also be avoided, but sometimes it is unavoidable for the good of
the industry, services are then set up so they pay themselves back and are monitored closely
to make sure nothing can go wrong.
What do you feel would be the best solution for this issue? Both for the market and
your organisation.
No need to start one yourself if the market offers enough of them, maybe offering a discount
to members with one provider. Only set something up yourself if the quality of the currently
available is insufficient. Focus on your main activities.
Additional discussion.
Recently membership numbers have been increasing for VBO while the other associations
have had somewhat decreasing numbers (according to VBO). This could have several
reasons; the price / quality offer could be better which can count for a lot in a financial crisis,
the agents could also be realizing that the more personal approach is what they prefer or
what has a future as the role of a real-estate agent.
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Case NVM 0.1
Han van Wieringen
Closed questions
Which of these activities does the trade association perform and which is their
primary activity?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
The propeller model activities are equally important
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to this activity from new technology?
How much opportunity is there for this activity from new technology?
2.5
5.5
Which activity is most likely to be replaced or enhanced by new technologies and
how?
Internally binding agreements, externally binding agreements, lobby, services, feedback
services
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How big an impact will this change have on the activity?
How big an impact will this change have on the organisation?
7.5
6
What do you feel is the most likely source of threat for your trade association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
Online sources like social networks
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much threat is there to your organisation from this source?
How much threat is there to your organisation from all sources collectively on average?
7
7
What do you feel is the most likely source of opportunity for your trade
association?
Other associations, online sources, businesses, or internal changes.
Other associations
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being none 10 being gigantic,
How much opportunity is there to your organisation from this source?
How much opportunity is there for your organisation thanks to these sources on
average?
8
7.5
79
Case NVM 0.1
Han van Wieringen
In closing
This was the last of the last of the three real-estate cases and the last one total before
finishing up the paper, so the style might have changed somewhat since the first case. It is
also important to note that this is the only interview where a second person was present;
however at no point was there disagreement expressed about any of the issues.
Again focus in this association seems to be more on what can be done for the members then
how it affects them as an organization. This does seem to be a common trend that most
likely will end up in the conclusions.
So far it seems that the focus of each association seems so different that it is hard to think of
them in the same field unless you remember that they do have some mutually exclusive
regulations. Since they do have a shared opinion on most issues I wonder if there isn´t a
more effective way of sorting the few issues that do divide them.
80
Appendix B Overview case scores
Case NVM 0.1
Han van Wieringen
82
Bouwend Nederland
Lobbying
Lobbying
Which of these activities does the trade association
perform and which is their primary activity?
2
2
How much threat is there to this activity from new
technology?
8
3
How much opportunity is there for this activity
from new technology?
Feedback
Lobbying
Which activity is most likely to be replaced or
enhanced by new technologies and how?
8
4
How big an impact will this change have on the
activity?
8
2
How big an impact will this change have on the
organisation?
Members
Networking sites 5
What do you feel is the most likely source of threat
for your trade association?
5
2
5
How much threat is there to your organisation from
all sources collectively on average?
Members
Networking sites 7
What do you feel is the most likely source of
opportunity for your trade association?
9
6,5
6
How much opportunity is there for your
organisation thanks to these sources on average?
How much opportunity is there to your
organisation from this source?
How much threat is there to your organisation from
this source?
5,5
Aedes
7,5
NMT
7,5
Technology
8
Bedrijfschap afbouw
8
2,5
7
4
Online sources
7
Internal
7
4
Businesses
5,5
Other
associations
7
Businesses (for
4
partners)
5,5
Businesses
1
6,5
8
7
7
Businesses
8
Services
8
7
Feedback
6,5
Feedback
8
8
6,5
8
Lobbying
4
1
8
8
Services
2
7,5
ZLTO
Services
Technology
Feedback and
external
Internal
agreements
VBZ
4
7,5
7
8
VBO
Businesses
/online
Other
associations
7
2,5
7
7
5
7
All
External
agreements
Online sources
7
8
6
Internal changes 7
3
7,5
9
Feedback
Services
9
LMV
5,5
All
6,67
6
Propeller model
2,5
activities*
Internal
2
agreements
NVM
7,56
4,72
5,61
6,17
7,17
6,78
2,78
average
83
The following table shows an overview of the answers and scores given to the closed
questions segment of the interview.
Case NVM 0.1
Han van Wieringen