Kees Boersma

The early history of the Philips National Laboratory began in the winter of 1913 when Gerard Philips and his brother Anton founded a research organization as a separate part of their company in Eindhoven. The Philips brothers hired Gilles Holst and others to carry out scientific experiments in order to improve existing light bulb technology and later to create new products such as x-ray tubes and radio sets. Holst became the leader and organizer of the research laboratory. Scientists who worked under him proved the business value of industrial research for the Philips company. The National Laboratory story indicates that it was not enough for Philips to simply have a tradition of innovation-the company also needed to create a culture and structure that permitted the coordination between people and resources that was necessary for developing innovations in an industrial context. These innovations spaw such diverse topics as irradication of plants with artificial light and creating an agricultural research network of particular interest is comparisons drawn between Philips and General Electric. Kees Boersma shows that the National Laboratory history in the first decades of the twentieth century can be seen as part of a broader development internationally. During the function of the industrial research laboratory became institutionalized. The institutionalization process of industrial research involved an intentional structuring of the research organization in the company, in which various persons worked together in specific business contexts. At a local level, Philips people, headed by Holst, reinvented the research function. It is exactly this process that is central this book. This will be a welcome addition to the literature on business history-informed as it is by a sense of social theory and social organizations. Kees Boersma is a historian who works as a researcher in the group of Culture, Organization and Management of the Faculty of Social Studies at the Free University of Amsterdam. His research expertise is grounded in the areas of science, technology, culture, and organization studies.

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