The rise of the bioeconomy is usually associated with increased sustainability. However, various controversies suggest doubts about this assumed relationship. The objective of this paper is to identify different visions and the current understanding of the relationship between the bioeconomy and sustainability in the scientific literature by means of a systematic review. After a search in several databases, 87 scientific journal articles were selected for review. Results show that visions about the relationship between bioeconomy and sustainability differ substantially. Four different visions were identified, including: (1) the assumption that sustainability is an inherent characteristic of the bioeconomy; (2) the expectation of benefits under certain conditions; (3) tentative criticism under consideration of potential pitfalls; and (4) the assumption of a negative impact of the bioeconomy on sustainability. There is considerable attention for sustainability in the scientific bioeconomy debate, and the results show that the bioeconomy cannot be considered as self-evidently sustainable. In further research and policy development, good consideration should therefore be given to the question of how the bioeconomy could contribute to a more sustainable future. Furthermore, it is stressed that the bioeconomy should be approached in a more interdisciplinary or trans-disciplinary way. The consideration of sustainability may serve as a basis for such an approach.

Organization redesign has become widely accepted as a regular task for management, recently invigorated by the interest in Business Process Reengineering. In spite of that, it is still a neglected area in organization science. This paper emphasizes the importance of design theory and design-oriented research. The potential role of design theory is exemplified by the description of Integral Organizational Renewal (I0R), a design theory grounded in practical experience in the Netherlands. This approach can be viewed as a Dutch variant of Sociotechnical Systems Design. The essence of this approach lies in the transformation of complex organizations offering simple jobs into simple organizations offering complex jobs. IOR can both be regarded as an expert approach and as a route for self-design. The approach enables the members of the organization to develop and use their own design expertise. IOR is therefore not only a strategy for organization design, but for organization development as well. The paper points to opportunities to make organization research more relevant to organization practice.

This paper makes a comparison between the basic elements of lean production and sociotechnical systems design (STSD) and compares them both with the characteristics of the traditional Fordist system of mass production. It argues that lean production can hardly be considered as an alternative to mass production, as its proponents suggest, but is on the contrary extending the life of mass production methods. However, lean production does appear to contain some building blocks for the innovative production systems that are expected to prevail in the 21st century. STSD, which has always presented itself as an alternative and possible successor to Fordist methods, will need to link its traditional concerns for quality of work and flexibility of work organizations with the new issues of continuous improvement, learning, and innovation.

The main message of the proponents of strategic outsourcing is that it pays off to concentrate on the activities that you are good at. The result of specialization along the value chain will be a product that will be more competitive in terms of price, quality, and innovation. Globalization has many dimensions, but here we mainly want to consider the movement of manufacturing activities to low wage locations. In this paper we will investigate the implications of global sourcing for the innovative capacity of the outsourcing company. We will argue that these implications will be more pronounced in the case of global sourcing, because in that case the loss of organizational proximity that is inherent in outsourcing is compounded by the increase in geographical distance. The findings presented in this paper are the results from an ongoing research project on the relationships between research, development, and manufacturing against the background of increased global outsourcing of manufacturing. These observations give rise to a whole series of questions. Is there any reason to assume that research can be maintained as an in-house activity in the long run, if development and manufacturing have been outsourced? In other words: we are interested in the conditions for long-term viability of companies outsourcing most or all of their manufacturing, especially if such outsourcing is directed to low wage locations at a large distance from the research laboratories.