News

		The Impact of Managerial Diversity on Strategic Renewal In his PhD thesis “Essays on Upper Echelons & Strategic Renewal: A Multilevel Contingency Approach”, Mariano L.M. Heyden finds that top management teams make different decisions because different elements of knowledge, experience, and skill sets are activated in relation to different challenges.
		15-05-2012

		Managing Entrepreneurial Orientation Internal entrepreneurs are of great relevance to firms’ innovation and growth. So how do companies make optimal use of their entrepreneurial talent? In his PhD dissertation entitled “Managing Entrepreneurial Orientation” Sebastiaan van Doorn looks at the strategies that best support entrepreneurial activities of existing firms.
		15-05-2012

		Animal Spirits and Extreme Confidence: No Guts, No Glory? For any organisation it is important to be aware of managerial biases, such as extreme confidence about corporate performance. In her dissertation entitled Animal Spirits and Extreme Confidence: No Guts, No Glory?, Mariska Douwens-Zonneveld constructs an alternative measure of company confidence, which is based on deeds rather than words. ­
		29-03-2012

		Steering consumer decision-making processes Internet as a combined communication and sales channel has blurred the borders between abstract messages that are traditionally communicated via advertisements, commercials and billboards and concrete messages that are traditionally communicated by promotions on the shop floor. This leads to questions like: “What is the best message to communicate on the introductory page of a webshop? Is it effective to communicate an abstract message (e.g. “Yoghurt is healthy”), or is it more effective to communicate about specific products (e.g. “Products X, Y and Z are healthy”)?
		22-03-2012

		The right conditions for generating good ideas in business Leadership, learning and exchanging knowledge and ideas for social networks all contribute to an organisation being able to capitalise on its potential to innovate from within. In his PhD dissertation entitled Idea Management: Perspectives from Leadership, Learning, and Network Theory, Dirk Deichmann explores the factors that create the right conditions for people within organisations to continuously generate good quality ideas that can move the organisation forward.
		05-02-2012

		PhD Vacancies in Management Ambitious young researchers are invited to apply for ERIM’s advanced PhD programme in Management.
		26-01-2012

		“Short” positions impact market participants, prices and portfolio allocations Short selling leads to price inflation beyond the most optimistic valuation in that it can be attributed to the prospect of the future securities lending income. In her PhD dissertation T he Long and Short Side of Real Estate, Real Estate Stocks, and Equity, Melissa Porras Prado focuses on the interaction between “Long” and “Short” positions and their impact on market participants, prices and portfolio allocations. Porras Prado argues that the business of securities lending is a lucrative one for funds with large portfolios of stocks, and investors are willing to pay the premium associated with lending fees.
		18-01-2012

		Profit or Professionalism? Designing Professional Service Firms Given the economic crisis, Professional Service Firms (PSFs) with public functions in sectors such as law, accounting and architecture are starting to behave more like ‘regular’ organisations, adjusting their structures and processes to be able to merge, diversify and internationalise. Historically, PSFs were organised around their public function. Now they have a double objective; providing public services such as a well-run legal system and reliable corporate audits, and at the same time making profits. But these two objectives, the public and private, can sometimes be at odds.
		09-01-2012

		Does your brain urge you to take risks in order to be like others? How do our brains make daily choices and judgments? How does the surrounding context influence this process? In her PhD thesis entitled Context Effects in Valuation, Judgment and Choice: A Neuroscientific Approach, Kaisa Hytönen investigates these questions in risky and social settings. Her findings imply that prior experiences influence subsequent choices by changing the balance between emotional and deliberative brain processes. Results from her study also suggest that people learn to behave as others do quite automatically.
		04-01-2012

		Econometric Advances in Diffusion Models Diffusion models, although introduced in marketing over 40 years ago, have recently found their way into the toolbox of marketing management. Diffusion models can be used to explain the pattern of the adoption of products, where adoption is the first time a customer buys a product. In particular, these models can be used to explain the first time purchase of a product or service, or the sales of a durable good, as customers often purchase these goods only once.
		03-12-2011

		Customer First? The Relationship between Advisors and Consumers of Financial Products Consumers face difficulties dealing with interest rates. Not only are they generally unable to correctly estimate the number of months it takes to settle a loan, they also systematically underestimate this number of months of payments. In her dissertation entitled Customer First? The Relationship between Advisors and Consumers of Financial Products, PhD candidate Anita Vlam argues that a simple tool for consumers should be available to help the consumers obtaining information on interest rates.
		03-12-2011

		End-of-Life Inventory Decisions of Service Parts As technology development advances,  new products are being introduced to the market everyday, making it harder for the production of some products to survive. However, companies are obliged to satisfy demands for service parts of the old generation products, due to warranty or service contracts. Thus, on the one hand, service satisfaction is a priority for firms and on the other hand excessive parts being held renders extra carrying cost and risk of obsolescence. In his dissertation entitled End-of-Life Inventory Decisions of Service Parts, PhD candidate Morteza Pourakbar attempts to explain that in order to mitigate these risks, firms resort to employing various countermeasures.
		03-12-2011

		Understanding the working of markets: boundedly rational behaviour of market participants Economic modeling can be seen as a major tool to analyze and interpret the working of markets. In his dissertation entitled Computational and Game-Theoretic Approaches for Modeling Bounded Rationality, PhD candidate Ludo Waltman introduces approaches to economic modeling that are unconventional in the way that they do not rely on the assumption that economic agents behave fully rational. Instead, economic agents are assumed to be boundedly rational which brings numerous consequences on how economic reality is modeled.
		28-10-2011

		Visualizing the world of science Maps have long been used predominantly for showing geographical information. However, in his dissertation entitled ‘Methodological Advances in Bibliometric Mapping of Science’, PhD candidate Nees Jan van Eck focuses on maps beyond showing geographical information by providing techniques to visualize all kinds of intellectual landscapes.
		28-10-2011

		Social entrepreneurship: welfare phenomenon attracts entrepreneurs with a deviant profile Many inspiring cases of entrepreneurs who are successfully addressing the most pressing ills of our time make social entrepreneurship a promising field with a ‘warm glow’. Despite the growing attention from media, support organizations, policymakers, business schools, and researchers, we still know little regarding the social entrepreneur and its occurrence.
		18-10-2011

		Steering Through: How Organizations Negotiate Permanent Uncertainty and Unresolvable Choices Multinational companies, public bureaucracies, and individuals often have to function in societies devoid of permanent institutions and common agreements on moral preferences. It is interesting to analyze the process through which organisations negotiate and steer through the divergent conflicting demands that arise from such a fractured and transforming global society.
		14-10-2011

		Information Content of Mutual Fund Portfolio Disclosure Mutual funds have been among the largest investors in the U.S. economy and world financial markets for the past 20 years. Where does the enormous appeal of mutual funds among investors come from? Do actively managed portfolios add value?
		05-10-2011

		The Impact of Investor Demand on Security Offerings On the supply side of the market for convertible bonds, firms generally aim for financing under the most favourable conditions. On the demand side of the market, investors such as hedge funds look for an interesting investment opportunity. So where do they meet? And how? Research indicates that firms may be influenced to implement policies that cater to investors in order to raise funds.
		04-10-2011

		On the Psychology of Displaying Ethical Leadership: A Behavioral Ethics Approach Given the abundance of recent high-profile ethical scandals, it is not surprising that social scientists have increasingly turned their attention to the subject of ethical leadership. After all, leaders are expected to not only act ethically themselves, but also to promote ethical behaviour among their employees.
		04-10-2011

		Structure and Cooptition in Urban Networks Over the past decades, demographic changes, advances in transportation and communication technology, and the growth of the services sector have had a significant impact on the spatial structure of regions. To what extent are regions becoming more polycentric and spatially integrated? Are relationships between cities in polycentric, spatially integrated regions complementary rather than competitive?
		29-09-2011

		Health and Marketing: Essays on Physician and Patient Decision-Making Patient-physician relationships are changing fast. Even though patients are increasingly seen as active participants in medical decision-making and are expected to help physicians choose the best medications to treat their own illnesses, there are many questions regarding the role each party should have in the deliberation process and choice of medical treatment.  In his dissertation entitled Health and Marketing: Essays on Physician and Patient Decision-Making, awarded cum laude, Nuno Camacho addresses key consequences of this changing context and of the interaction between patients and physicians.
		25-07-2011

		The Effectiveness of Pharmaceutical Marketing How can pharmaceutical firms successfully market their products to doctors and patients? In his PhD thesis, Eelco Kappe extensively answers this question, providing insights both for academics and marketing managers.
		18-07-2011

		CEO Narcissism: Measurement and Impact Narcissism forms an essential element for effective leadership and is as such an important personal characteristic for CEOs. In her dissertation entitled CEO Narcissism: Measurement and Impact, Antoinette Rijsenbilt describes the objective measurement of CEO narcissism and its impact on organizational outcomes.
		07-07-2011

		Project-level Governance, Monetary Incentives and Performance in Strategic R&D Alliances Strategic R&D alliances between firms have brought us new products like the coffee machine Senseo and the antiviral drug Tamiflu. Still, many R&D alliances fail. In his PhD project, Mahmut Ozdemir took a closer look at the governance mechanisms of alliances. He found that the positive effects of relatively higher monetary incentives are usually offset by the negative effects of intense project-level governance.
		07-07-2011

		Contingencies: Learning Numerical and Emotional Associations in an Uncertain World Contrary to the academic consensus, Bart de Langhe argues it’s fair to judge managers and other decision makers on the quality of their decisions, instead of the process through which they arrive at them. It’s one of the key findings from his excellent PhD research, which deals with human cognition, especially the ability to detect and learn systematic associations between cues and outcomes. Bart de Langhe was awarded cum laude for his dissertation.
		10-06-2011

		Nationality Heterogeneity and Interpersonal Relationships at Work Employees often have valuable ideas for improving their organisation, but do not share them with their supervisors. This creates an unfortunate paradox for managers; business is often too complex for ‘figuring it out from the top’ so many managers rely on the input of employees, especially those with different cultural backgrounds with novel ideas for improving business because of their unique experiences and views. Unfortunately, these employees are often in the minority in the workplace, and can be too afraid to speak up.
		10-06-2011

		The Entrepreneurial Process: An International Analysis of Entry and Exit Under which conditions do individuals decide to become entrepreneurs? And when do they decide to cease their entrepreneurial activities? In his dissertation, Peter van der Zwan answers these questions. His findings are relevant for policy makers who seek to stimulate entrepreneurship.
		10-06-2011

		In Money we Trust? Trust Repair and the Psychology of Financial Compensations Given the widespread use of financial compensations as a response to harm, it seems strange that until now, not much has been known empirically about their effectiveness and their ability to restore trust between people in economic relations. In his PhD dissertation In Money we Trust? Trust Repair and the Psychology of Financial Compensations, Pieter Desmet analyses the psychological processes that victims experience when they are confronted with harm and subsequently, when they receive compensation.
		13-05-2011

		The Dynamics of Formal Organization: Essays on Bureaucracy and Formal Rules Rules and bureaucratic formalities are a very recognizable and striking part of many organizations, despite numerous predictions by scholars and public figures of the rise of radically different forms of organization that would render bureaucracy obsolete. When dealing with organizations, we all experience situations when we might wonder why particular bureaucratic rules have suddenly changed, or why a rule can remain unchanged for a very long time.
		02-05-2011

		Behavioral Finance and Agent-Based Artificial Markets A research into individual investors and their behavior has received a lot of consideration during the past, and is increasingly in the focus of interest of many scientists, not being confined only to economists. However, the particular way of looking at an individual investor has been subject to a great paradigmatic shift with the inclusion of the findings and the methodology of psychology into the financial studies. Despite many ongoing debates, this has slowly led to the establishment of behavioral economics and behavioral finance as widely recognized subdisciplines. In his dissertation, entitled Behavioral Finance and Agent-Based Artificial Markets, Milan Lovric analyzes market-wise implications of investor behavior and their irrationalities by means of agent-based simulations of financial markets.
		06-04-2011

		Configurations of Inter-Firm Relations in Management Innovation: A Study in China’s Biopharmaceutical Industry While the global biopharmaceutical industry maintains its promise of a bright future, it remains economically underperforming and continues to burn capital at an unprecedented pace. Experts argue that one reason for this staggering underperformance lies in the absence of appropriate managerial instruments that allow to fully exploit the potentials of the available scientific approaches. In his PhD dissertation Configurations of Inter-Firm Relations in Management Innovation: A Study in China’s Biopharmaceutical Industry, Johannes Meuer argues that the situation in the biopharmaceutical industry in China is unique. Its rapidly changing institutional infrastructure, the large number and diversity of organisations, and their intensive reliance on each other to access unique scientific competencies, make for an environment that induces firms to challenge existing and experiment with new management techniques.
		31-03-2011

		Extreme Dependence in Asset Markets Around the Globe In the last two decades several major financial crises occurred, including the 1994 Peso crisis, the 1997-1998 Asian crisis, the burst of the internet bubble in 2001-2002, and more recently the 2008-2009 credit crisis. During these financial crises the dependence between asset prices increases to levels exceeding those observed during tranquil periods. Due to this increased dependence, different markets tend to crash together during crises period. This has some important implications for practice. In his thesis, Extreme Dependence in Asset Markets Around the Globe, Thijs Markwat shows that the dependence between large stock returns is higher than the dependence between small to moderate stock returns.
		31-03-2011

		An Institution-Based View of Ownership The association between ownership concentration and firm performance is very much influenced by both formal institutions like a country’s legal framework, labor protection and shareholder provisions as well as informal institutions like culture and codes of good corporate governance influence. The same goes for the association between firm performance and executive remuneration, as well as for the level of underpricing of initial public offerings (IPO). The results of empirical research in the area of ownership concentration and the identity of large shareholders of North-American listed companies indicate that these shareholders do not have any significant positive effect on the value or profitability of these companies. Therefore, there is little empirical evidence for one of the most important and most researched internal corporate governance mechanism. This disconnect between on the one hand the dominant agency theory on the role and influence of ownership concentration and on the other hand the currently available empirical evidence, shows that a thorough re-evaluation of the role of shareholders within corporate governance is necessary. In his PhD thesis An Institution-Based View of Ownership, which was awarded cum laude, Marc van Essen contributes to this re-evaluation of ownership by examining two broad issues.
		10-03-2011

		Benchmarking Benchmarks Do current benchmark asset pricing models adequately describe the cross-section of stock returns? David Blitz believes that these benchmarks can be challenged, and proposes new ones. In his thesis, Benchmarking Benchmarks, Blitz presents a momentum strategy based on residual stock returns that vastly improves upon traditional momentum strategies.
		07-03-2011

		Rolling Stock Rescheduling in Passenger Railways Reliable and punctual public transportation is of chief importance for workforce mobility and access to cities. In particular, the performance of passenger intercity railway systems continues to receive much public attention in the Netherlands and other European countries. Over the last decade, an increasing amount of effort has been put into developing innovative methods for planning railway resources in order to improve service levels and cut costs. In his doctoral thesis Rolling Stock Rescheduling in Passenger Railways, Lars Nielsen analyses the real-time control of passenger railway systems and in particular on the rescheduling of railway resources during and after disruptions. In this process the rescheduling of the rolling stock, i.e. the train units, poses a major challenge for the dispatchers.
		17-02-2011

		IQ tests: Measure of merit or the key to performance enhancing resources? New research by doctoral candidate Eliza Byington and Dr. Will Felps challenges the idea that people with high IQs are better performers simply because they are smart.
		10-02-2011

		Financial Services and Emerging Markets In his PhD dissertation entitled Financial Services and Emerging Markets, Bas Karreman addresses the organization and strategy of firms in emerging markets. The main topics relate to the expansion strategies of multinational banks in Central and Eastern Europe, and the organization of the demand for capital by Chinese firms across the financial centers of mainland China and Hong Kong. Overall, the findings indicate that, in an increasingly competitive and globalizing financial industry, the organization and strategy of firms in emerging markets largely depend on the characteristics of the institutional and business environment.
		01-02-2011

		Customer Information Driven After Sales Service Management: Lessons from Spare Parts Logistics The growth of service level agreements has changed the business dynamics of after sales service providers. This is a complex task that required vertical and horizontal integration of maintenance service management, spare parts logistics management, as well as spare part returns management; after sales service also needs to account for varying service needs of heterogeneous customer bases with limited service resources at hand. In his PhD thesis Customer Information Driven After Sales Service Management: Lessons from Spare Parts Logistics, Muhammad Naiman Jalil studies the changing business dynamics of after sales service and highlights how a customer information driven strategy can help service providers to meet expectations of a heterogeneous customer base, while generating additional value from their service operations.
		01-02-2011

		The Relationship between Offshoring Strategies and Firm Performance: Impact of Innovation, Absorptive Capacity and Firm Size Managers need to be more aware of the possibilities but also of the possible performance effects of offshoring. In her PhD dissertation entitled The Relationship between Offshoring Strategies and Firm Performance, Marja Roza analyses the attributes of an offshoring strategy and their relationship with company performance. Her research shows that clear strategic goals, organisational choices and firm capabilities enable firms to execute and tailor an offshoring strategy to generate performance effects which supports overall firm strategy.
		19-01-2011

		Understanding Crowdsourcing: Effects of motivation and rewards on participation and performance in voluntary online activities Organisations increasingly outsource activities to volunteers that they approach via an open call on the internet. The phenomenon is called ‘crowd sourcing’. For an effective use of crowd sourcing, it is important to understand what motivates these online volunteers and what the influence of a reward system is. In her PhD dissertation entitled Understanding Crowdsourcing: Effects of motivation and rewards on participation and performance in voluntary online activities, Irma Borst examines the effects of motivation and rewards on the participation and performance of online community members. She studied motivation, rewards and contributions in three crowdsourcing initiatives that vary in reward systems.
		19-01-2011

		Motivation, Coordination and Cognition in Cooperatives Cooperation among people dates back as far as human beings team up in production for mutual benefit. Modern cooperatives are founded also for members’ mutual economic and social benefit. Cooperatives differ from conventional firms in many aspects. They are owned by a group of suppliers or consumers, rather than investors in business corporations. This special kind of ownership leads to a distinct way of managerial motivation, production coordination and allocation of cognition. How do these differences influence the comparative advantage or disadvantage of cooperatives? In her dissertation Motivation, Coordination and Cognition in Cooperatives, awarded cum laude, Li Feng compares the efficiency of cooperatives and a number of other organisational forms from various perspectives.
		15-12-2010

		Industrial Tourism: Where the Public Meets the Private Industrial tourism comprehends visits to sites that enable visitors to learn about economic activities in the past, the present and the future. It can be seen as a small but growing segment of the tourism industry. In his dissertation, Alexander Otgaar provides insight in how to employ industrial tourism as a tool of marketing and public relations and an additional source of income. It also informs businesses about how to cooperate with regional organisations that look at industrial tourism from a different point of view.
		15-12-2010

		Language Abstraction in Word of Mouth In conversations, consumers like to discuss their product and service experiences with other consumers. These conversations are important and influential sources of information as they may impact consumer buying decisions. In her dissertation entitled Language Abstraction in Word of Mouth, Gaby Schellekens analyses the language consumers use when they describe their product experiences.
		15-12-2010

		Simple operational decisions can have a large impact on worker’s performance and well-being Managers may influence the productivity and well-being of their workers with a large array of simple decisions. Setting challenging production goals (even without direct rewards), deciding on the location of products on a warehouse, and inserting strategic rests are all simple solutions that give measurable results in terms of performance and the worker’s well-being. These are some of the findings in José Antonio Larco Martinelli’s PhD thesis entitled Incorporating worker-specific factors in operations management models.
		29-11-2010

		The success of the Port of Rotterdam is dependent on how firms in the port do business In his PhD thesis entitled Leader Firms: The value of companies for the competitiveness of the Rotterdam seaport cluster, Michiel Nijdam looks at the port from the company perspective. He sees that the leader firms in the Port of Rotterdam have an important role to play when it comes to the competitiveness of the port. Understanding the way these leader firms act, will increase the possibilities to strengthen the port cluster.
		18-11-2010

		Scanning sales people's brains for factors that enhance their performance In his research, Roeland Dietvorst has attempted to measure sales talent with the help of brain scans. With the use of these scans, he was able to pinpoint what processes underlie a salesperson’s ability to step into the mental shoes of a customer and understand their thoughts, feelings and intentions, and thereby gauge needs and find possible solutions.
		11-11-2010

		System Markets: Indirect Network Effects in Action, or Inaction? Indirect network effects are the source of positive feedback in system markets, or so network effect theory tells us. In his dissertation, Jeroen Binken examined demand-side and supply-side indirect network effects.
		11-11-2010

		Innovating management – how leaders can change the work of managers Innovation in managerial practices, processes and structures has important implications for what people within the organisation do, how they relate to each other, and how their efforts are aligned towards achieving organisational goals. So managers should have a key role as the central ‘internal change agents’, capable of pursuing and implementing management innovation within firms, according to new research by Ignacio Vaccaro.
		11-11-2010

		Dress to impress Many people hold consultants in awe; they drive fancy cars, wear designer suits, and carry themselves with certain gravity. But does all this ’power dressing’ actually have a net effect on the influence of the advice they offer?
		08-11-2010

		Knowledge, Entrepreneurship and Performance: Evidence from country-level and firm-level studies On Thursday, September 9, 2010 Haibo Zhou defended her PhD thesis entitled Knowledge, Entrepreneurship and Performance, Evidence from Country-level and Firm-level Studies. Supervisors were Professor Roy Thurik and Professor Lorraine Uhlaner.
		20-09-2010

		Exploratory Innovation: The Role of Organisational and Top Management Team Social Capital What makes companies adaptable to changes and crises, and thus ensures their long-term survival? The magic word seems to be ‘innovation’, but yet many companies fail to innovate. In his PhD thesis Exploratory Innovation: The Role of Organisational and Top Management Team Social Capital, Alexander Alexiev looked at what distinguishes companies succeeding to innovate from those who do not succeed irrespective of the industry they are in. He found that indeed it seems difficult for companies to acquire new knowledge that diverges away from their existing knowledge base.
		20-09-2010

		Scheduling with Time Lags Scheduling means allocating limited resources to the many activities that have to be done within an organisation. Applications of scheduling theory can be found in multiple manufacturing and service industries, where production, transportation, distribution, procurement, information processing, and communication efforts are restricted by limited resources. In his dissertation Scheduling with Time Lags, Xiandong Zhang focuses on a subset of scheduling problems which are characterised by time lag constraints, where time lags refer to the time delays between the execution of two consecutive operations of the same activity. Time lags can represent transportation delays, activities that require no limited resources, or intermediate processes between two bottleneck machines or procedures. The objective of this research was to develop efficient algorithms for solving these particular scheduling problems. Here, the word efficient means that these algorithms have relatively short running time and may result in relatively short job sequences.
		14-07-2010

		What gets measured, gets done An issue faced by many organisations is not a lack of information but their limited capacity to deal with it. This is primarily true in the current days, where individuals and organisations are bombarded by information. The context where organisations find themselves has increased in complexity and the number of issues vying for attention is countless. How do organisations attend and respond to this information overload?
		06-07-2010

		Three top candidates ready to start their ERIM Open PhD Project ERIM proudly announces the selection and appointment of the first three top candidates for the Open PhD Projects made possible by the prestigious NWO Graduate School Grant 2009, where ERIM was selected as one of a selected group of innovative Graduate School programmes.
		02-07-2010

		Access Regulation for Naturally Monopolistic Port Terminals The dissertation Access Regulation for Naturally Monopolistic Port Terminals: Lessons from Regulated Network Industries of Enzo Defilippi analyzes the characteristics of access policies implemented in the telecommunications, electricity supply, natural gas and railways industries. It uses the lessons learned from these experiences to propose a model suitable for the port industry. Its relevance resides in the importance of the subject for the formulation of development strategies in developing countries, and the lack of previous studies in the field.
		30-06-2010

		Marketing Modeling for New Products Managers and firms everywhere are launching new products or new generations of products at an extremely fast pace. The management of these products requires precise introduction timing, adequate pricing policies, the right consumer targeting and the identification of the influential markets that drive their sales and their fast adoption. The thesis of Carlos Hernandez Marketing Modeling for New Products presents several managerial insights on these topics and these insights are backed up with scientific research and new econometric methodologies.
		30-06-2010

		Transition During IT Outsourcing For IT managers, immediately after signing the contract to outsource certain IT activities, the critical stage of Transition arises that determines how exactly to transfer outsourced activities from the client to the vendor firm. Vinay Tiwari’s dissertation Transition Process and Performance in IT Outsourcing: Evidence from a Field Study and Laboratory Experiments, provides insights on Transition for both academic scholars and practitioners.
		30-06-2010

		Advances in Inventory Management Dynamic Models Due to rapid developments in technology and information systems, the speed and the nature of the flow of goods in supply chains have changed drastically. Today, to meet the increased customer expectations, companies need to offer larger assortments, shorter delivery times and better quality for lower prices. As more and newer products are developed and introduced to the markets, the average product life cycles got shorter. Obsolescence risk as well as demand uncertainty has increased significantly. The higher dynamism of markets made the costs more volatile and difficult to predict. As a result of these changes in the surrounding environment, inventory systems became more dynamic.
		29-06-2010

		How to infuse brands with feelings: EMAC and McKinsey honour Sweldens’ marketing dissertation Research shows that simultaneous presentation of a brand and its endorsers is more effective than sequential presentation. Simultaneous presentation of a brand and its endorsers transfers positive feelings directly to the brand. This feeling transfer can occur without consumers' awareness, is immune to advertising clutter, and is resistant to consumers' suspicions about being influenced.
		17-06-2010

		IT as a means of enhancing busines agility in partner networks In the current marketplace, service organisations increasingly need to collaborate in partner networks. Competition thus also tends to move away from the organisation itself into the network. However, such networked organisations require new business models based on business agility to sense and respond quickly to highly uncertain events, which can be either threats or opportunities in the market place. Price wars, fast changing customer demands, new governmental legislation and reorganisations cause a lot of uncertainty and are perceived as major drivers for business agility need. In these dynamic networks, quick-connect and data sharing with (changing) business partners becomes a necessity in order to succeed as a business over time.
		17-06-2010

		Geerten van de Kaa wins best dissertation award Quality Management 2010 Dr. Geerten van de Kaa has won the Research Award Quality Management 2010, organized by the Dutch Network for Quality Management (NNK). The award has been handed over during the Business Improvement Event on June 4th in Amersfoort. Van de Kaa defended his dissertation last year at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. He now works at Delft University of Technology as an assistant professor at the faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, section Technology, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship.
		09-06-2010

		Is cutting prices the best battle strategy in a pricing war? What are the best pricing and promotional strategies in a price war? What should a brand manager do when confronted with a retail price war, such as that started by Albert Heijn in 2003? Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the brand manager’s choices appear to be to fight by resisting the urge to cut prices, or to support retailers by offering lower prices.
		09-06-2010

		Bundling Strategies in Global Supply Chains Acciaro’s dissertation Bundling Strategies in Global Supply Chains focuses on the application of the business practice of package sales to the logistics industry. Although the use of package sales, also known as bundling, is a pervasive business practice, its use in the logistics and ocean transportation industries has been rather limited. As a consequence of the increasing complexity of the ways we move products and raw materials from factories to warehouses and final consumers, producers and retailers increasingly demand door-to-door prices for bundles of logistics services, similarly to the way passengers demand simple airline tariffs.
		09-06-2010

		Analysis of Occupational Pension Provision As the stock market currently performs poorly, pension funds are in closely followed to assess whether they can pay their beneficiaries the promised pension benefits. Xiaohong Huang’s dissertation An Analysis of Occupational Pension Provision: From Evaluation to Redesign examines the investment performance of Dutch industry-wide pension funds. Huang also studies the impact on pension funds’ financial health and investment strategy of different models for the financial markets. She proposes a new pension plan design to overcome the weakness of implicit value transfers in the current collective pension design.
		04-06-2010

		Justin Jansen named endowed professor of Corporate Entrepreneurship As of June 1st, 2010 Justin Jansen will occupy the Erasmus Trustfund endowed professorship Chair of Corporate Entrepreneurship to concentrate on entrepreneurship inside companies. Jansen’s main research focus will be on the renewal of organisations, strategic change and organisational ambidexterity.
		21-05-2010

		Advances in Online Shopping Interfaces In his dissertation “Advances in Online Shopping Interfaces”, Martijn Kagie introduces a framework to create map-based shopping interfaces. Its focus is specifically on how to position available products on a website and on the recommendation products to users.
		21-05-2010

		Inter-company collaboration and coordination of supply chain operations can lead to strategic and operational benefits Coordination of decisions on supply chain operations between firms can improve supply chain performance, according to Bas Verheijen’s dissertation ‘Vendor-Buyer Coordination in Supply Chains’. Verheijen studied the impact of resources of limited capacity, such as trucks, on supply chain operations and costs. Transport costs are studied in detail, as transports costs may be significantly reduced by improving supply chain coordination. Furthermore, he shows how a simple form of incentive alignment between firms in a supply chain can lead to near-optimal supply chain operation.
		21-05-2010

		Successful firms contribute to democracy In his dissertation “A Republican Settlement Theory of the Firm”, Manuel Hensmans finds that once such an above mentioned platform is created, firms can contribute significantly to a settlement between supporters of rivaling dynamics of democratization in the nation-state(s) they are affiliated with. This benefits the geopolitical ranking of the nation-state in terms of its ability to express popular sovereignty and exercise the right to self-determination. Such rankings are performed by as varied agencies as governments, stock market investors, NGOs, the UN, credit rating agencies, companies, Freedom House, etc…
		16-05-2010

		Focus on shareholder value proves to be counterproductive An emphasis on shareholder value is adversely affecting the financial performance of the Dutch top-100 listed companies. This is one of the conclusions of the doctoral research carried out by Pieter-Jan Bezemer. His thesis, entitled Diffusion of Corporate Governance Beliefs, provides support for widespread criticism of the Anglo-Saxon economic model that is driven by market forces. He has defended his thesis on March 19, 2010.
		19-03-2010

		Organising for Ambidexterity: how to serve current markets as well as respond to change? Many firms are very capable of serving their current customers, and perform well in doing so. However, when a change comes along in the market, many of these firms find they cannot respond adequately. Likewise, there are firms that are good at creating new solutions or products, yet somehow never seem to be able to fully exploit these ideas to generate profits. It would seem that trying to combine both ways of thinking and corresponding ways of organising would be most effective to firms, but is challenging. This concept is called ambidexterity. Ambidextrous firms are good at serving current markets (exploitation) as well as responding to change (exploration).
		07-03-2010

		Less time for the road… Port container terminals are by nature intermodal facilities. When containers come into a port or rail facility by either boat or train they must be transferred to another mode (usually a truck) for transport to a final destination. Trucks transporting containers to and from a port or rail facilities are not always equipped to serve multiple jobs in an efficient manner. The business of transporting containers from port or rail terminals a short distance to customer locations is termed drayage. The research in Jordan Srour’s dissertation examines routing in drayage operations as a means to improve efficiency.
		12-02-2010

		Cum Laude PhD Defense Maarten Wubben: “If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” Is it really 'unprofessional' or 'unproductive' to express emotions on the workfloor or in the office? This is the key question Maarten Wubben studied in his PhD dissertation Social Functions of Emotions in Social Dilemmas. His main conclusion is that, contrary to popular belief, actually showing emotions often helps employees to cooperate more and achieve better team results.
		05-02-2010

		Analysis of Mutual Fund Performance In her PhD thesis The Analysis of Mutual Fund Performance: Evidence from U.S. Equity Mutual Funds, Diana Budiono finds that the performance of mutual funds persists. From a business perspective, it is relieving for funds investors that the existence of persistence comes from both the good-performing funds as well as poor-performing funds and that the strategy of selecting a fraction of past good-performing funds still returns profitable outcome during ex-post periods.
		04-02-2010

		Economic recovery from the financial crisis in spite of banking regulation? This is one of the findings of Ying Xu’s PhD thesis Empirical Essays on the Stock Returns, Risk Management, and Liquidity Creation of Banks. The focus of this thesis is on commercial banks, which are at the center of the subprime crisis and the resulting global financial meltdown. Directly at the heart of the financial crisis, the topics addressed in this thesis all contribute to the analysis or understanding of the cause and consequence of the practices by different groups of stakeholders of banks, namely the shareholders, the regulators and the banks themselves.
		29-01-2010

		Analysts bias their language during conference calls Erik Roelofsen has defended his thesis on Wednesday, January 27, 13.30 hours. His promoters are Prof. dr. G.M.H. Mertens, Professor of Financial Analysis, and Prof. dr. L.G. van der Tas RA, Professor of Financial Accounting, both from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. Other members of the doctoral committee are Prof. dr. M.N. Hoogendoorn RA, Prof. dr. C.B.M. van Riel and Prof. dr. P.G.J. Roosenboom.
		29-01-2010

		Military as an example for the corporate world How can a company enhance its innovative strength while retaining its stability, so that its urge for modernization does not degenerate into chaos? To provide an answer to this question, Erik de Waard’s dissertation Engaging Environmental Turbulence: Organizational Determinants for Repetitive, Quick and Adequate Responses holds up today’s Western armed forces as an example of a typical quick-response organization from which companies can learn. On Friday 22 January, 13.30 pm, De Waard will defend his thesis at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.
		28-01-2010

		Empowering leaders to empower Why is it that leaders do or do not empower their employees? Why do leaders behave the way they do? In her dissertation entitled Leader Empowering Behaviour: The Leader's Perspective, Natalia Hakimi aims to get a better understanding about what leaders and companies should focus on when enforcing a empowerment programme.
		27-01-2010

		ERIM Awards Ceremony 2009: and the awards go to… At the annual ERIM Awards Presentation Ceremony, ERIM (the Erasmus Institute of Management) honoured its best researchers of the joint institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics. The prizes are divided into different academic disciplines such as the Dissertation Award, the Book Award and the Impact Award.
		10-12-2009

		Could servant-leadership have prevented the financial crisis? Inge Nuijten has defended her thesis on December. Her promoter is Prof.dr. Daan van Knippenberg, Professor of, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. Copromotor is Dr. D. van Dierendonck. Other members of the doctoral committee are Prof. dr. D. De Cremer, Prof. dr. M. Kaptein and Prof. dr. A Nauta.
		08-12-2009

		What is our social impact? Karen Maas has defended her thesis entitled ‘Corporate Social Performance: From Output Measurement to Impact Measurement’ on December 2. Her promoter is Prof. dr. H.R. Commandeur. Copromoter is Dr. F.A.A. Boons. Other members of the doctoral committee are Prof. dr. W.B.F. Brouwer, Prof. dr. A.G.Z. Kemna and Prof. dr. E. Peelen.
		02-12-2009

		Essays on Port, Container, and Bulk Chemical Logistics Optimization Eelco van Asperen has defended his thesis entitled ‘Essays on Port, Container, and Bulk Chemical Logistics Optimization’ on November 18. His promoter is Prof.dr.ir. R. Dekker, Professor of Operations Research, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University. Other members of the doctoral committee are Prof. dr. ir. U. Kaymak, Prof.dr. H. Haralambides and Prof.dr. S. Voß.
		23-11-2009

		Applying Mathematical Models to Surgical Patient Planning On September 4, Jeroen van Oostrum has defended his PhD thesis entitled “Applying Mathematical Models to Surgical Patient Planning”. On a daily basis, doctors have to deal with cancellations of operations, overtime at operating rooms (OR) and unexpected emergency surgeries. In his thesis, van Oostrum examines several common practices that can easily cause inefficiency of OR usage.
		03-09-2009

		Making the Most of Warehouse Space On September 3, Yeming Gong has defended his PhD thesis entitled “Stochastic Models and Analysis of Warehouse Operations”. Web-based stores like Amazon and Alibaba do not require physical selling space or shops. Therefore, they can invest more in warehouses, admittedly a traditional facility but still compulsory to store products in this ''new'' business era. Another new development is the fact that customers tend to order more frequently, in smaller quantities, and require customised service. In general, lead times are under pressure while clients still expect rapid and timely delivery within tight time windows. This is particularly true for online retailers. In his PhD thesis entitled “Stochastic Models and Analysis of Warehouse Operations”, Yeming Gong provides an optimal method for searching the most efficient batch sizes as well as a polling-based dynamic order picking system for the warehouses in an online retailer environment. This will allow better and swifter service and lower cost.
		02-09-2009

		Leader power does not corrupt Last year, John Thain, the ousted CEO of Merrill Lynch, spent $ 1.2 Million on redecorating his downtown Manhattan office, as the company was firing employees and was on the brink of bankruptcy. Needless to say, this lavish spending of company money at a time when rank and file employees were losing their livelihoods drew the ire of the general public and the body politic. Similar accounts of leader hubris such as profligate spending on lavish perquisites in the form of executives’ personal use of company jets and lofty bonuses have generated headlines in various business media outlets. Given the spectre of negative consequences carried by leader self-serving behaviour, the question begging for an answer is: what causes leaders to act self-servingly rather than group-servingly? Diana Rus explored this question in her PhD thesis entitled “The Dark Side of Leadership: Exploring the Psychology of Leader Self-serving Behaviour”
		02-09-2009

		Riding asset bubbles On June 30, Nadja Günster has defended her PhD thesis entitled “Investment Strategies Based on Social Responsibility and Bubbles”. What should investors do if they learn about a stock market bubble? Is it a bad plan to invest in a stock market bubble? Take for example the internet or the housing bubble. Many investors gained, but also many lost. So, what would have been the right strategy beforehand? In her PhD thesis, Nadja Günster analyses this question based on a large sample of bubbles. Her approach takes into account that investors do not know for sure that a bubble is inflating, nor when it may crash. She shows that investing in a bubble produces high average returns but also big price drops in returns from time to time. Overall, the gains outweigh the losses and investing in bubbles is a profitable strategy. Günster concludes that an investor in bubbles is not simply blind for risks but may have made a rational and wise decision.
		06-07-2009

		The true potential of multi-agent systems On June 25, Hans Moonen has defended his PhD thesis entitled “Multi-Agent Systems for Transportation Planning and Coordination”. What are the requirements and key challenges in setting up systems for transportation? Can multi-agent systems contribute to better performing, and easier-to-implement systems for transportation? Multi-agent systems have indeed potential for supply chains, and, in particular, transportation. They can enable a different planning & control paradigm that is focused on coordination through communication & negotiation rather than isolated optimisation, and do not only offer information sharing, but also selective information hiding, which is very important in inter-organisational applications.
		25-06-2009

		Sustained strategic renewal – how do companies survive time? Zenlin Kwee has defended her PhD thesis entitled “Investigating Three Key Principles of Sustained Strategic Renewal: A Longitudinal Study of Long-Lived Firms” on June 25. How do large incumbent firms like Royal Dutch Shell change over time and adjust to the changes in their external environment? In her thesis Zenlin Kwee deals with this question. Using an analysis timeframe from 1907-2008, she studies Shell and uses British Petroleum (1970-2008) as a comparative study.
		25-06-2009

		Organisational flexibility in turbulent times On June 23, Niels van der Weerdt has defended his PhD thesis entitled “Organizational Flexibility for Hypercompetitive Markets”. How can firms develop flexible organisations? While facing fierce competition, do flexible firms really perform better? Niels van der Weerdt focuses on the ability of organisations to adapt itself to an increasingly turbulent business environment. He investigates the following questions. How can firms develop flexible organisations? How does firm size affect the flexibility of the organisation and its potential to profit? The effects of high flexibility on company performance are demonstrated using a database containing rich information on the flexibility of more than 1900 companies.
		23-06-2009

		A new model for measuring system and process performance Chien-Ming Chen has defended his PhD thesis entitled “Evaluation and Design of Supply Chain Operations Using DEA” on June 19.Performance evaluation has been one of the most critical components in management. As production systems nowadays consist of a growing number of integrated and interacting processes, the interrelationship among processes have created a major challenge in measuring system and process performance. Moreover, rapid information obsolescence has become a commonplace in today’s high-speed environment. Process design decisions managers need to take, are therefore often based on incomplete information regarding the future market.
		19-06-2009

		Corporate Gatekeepers Captured by Overconfident CEOs On June 16, Fred Gertsen has defended his PhD thesis entitled “Riding a Tiger without Being Eaten: How Companies and Analysts Tame Financial Restatements and Influence Corporate Reputation”. In his PhD thesis Fred Gertsen investigates how companies and analysts deal with financial restatements. These corrections of errors of earlier published financial statements caused panic and great declines in stock prices in the financial markets at the beginning of this century, for example during the Ahold and Enron accounting scandals.
		17-06-2009

		Where do I list my company? On June 12, Tao Jiao has defended her PhD thesis entitled “Essays in Financial Accounting”. Her thesis is devoted to investigate the interaction between the quality of accounting information and the external environment where firms operate, such as stock exchange and stock market. The quality of accounting information is the key for investors to make their investment decisions and to evaluate the performance of managers.
		12-06-2009

		How to make the best of your teams – managing team performance On June 11, Bart Dietz has defended his PhD thesis entitled “Managing (Sales) People towards Performance: HR Strategy, Leadership & Teamwork”. In his thesis, Dietz explores several business relevant topics in the field of HRM. His findings indicate that managers can indeed manage people towards performance by managing the organisational environment
		11-06-2009

		Electricity markets do not yet exist (in the Netherlands and France) Regulation continues to play a pervasive role in the liberalised electricity industries. It influences the attributes of the electricity transactions, the new governance structures and the adaptation process towards the new structures. Moreover, the vertically integrated hierarchies that characterised the industries before the liberalisation are more efficient structures to coordinate the electricity transactions, and the current hybrid structures should therefore be regarded as second-best solutions.
		05-06-2009

		NETSCAPE: Cities and Global Corporate Networks On June 5, Ronald Wall has defended his PhD thesis entitled “NETSCAPE: Cities and Global Corporate Networks”. This dissertation is focused on empirically showing that the fate of cities is strongly related to their hierarchic importance within global corporate networks. These connections concern the shares held between multinational headquarters and their thousands of subsidiaries around the world. It is shown that urban development should not only be concerned with economic development within the municipal boundaries but should compliment this with understanding and improving the number and diversity of connections with other cities worldwide. In this way in future a more effective urban development can be created which unites local and global knowledge. The study is based on several advanced network analysis techniques and most importantly, unique datasets on corporate networks. Furthermore, it is well founded in economic network literature.
		29-05-2009

		Brand versus image On May 29, Steven Sweldens has defended his PhD thesis entitled “Evaluative Conditioning 2.0: Direct versus Associative Transfer of Affect to Brands”. Brands become better liked when they appear in positive contexts. For example, brands can sponsor rock concerts, appear with adored celebrities, or simply be perceived in combination with beautiful images in advertisements. Repeated co-occurrences or pairings of brands with such positive affective stimuli make the brand more well-liked. These are some of the conclusions of Steven Sweldens’s PhD thesis entitled “Evaluative Conditioning 2.0: Direct versus Associative Transfer of Affect to Brands”.
		26-05-2009

		Broad technology standards are beneficial to all Geerten van der Kaa has defended his PhD thesis entitled “Standards Battles for Complex Systems; Empirical Research on the Home Network” on May 26. Have you ever tried to play movies directly from your computer on your television? To accomplish this, you will have to connect your computer to your television and that sounds easier than it actually is. Take a few moments to look at the available ports on a laptop and try to find similar ports on a television and you are in for a big surprise; the two technologies are incompatible. Why is there no USB port on hardly any television set - or an HDMI port on a computer? To make all of our lives simpler, a choice will have to be made between the different possible standards. But then again, which of these standards would be the best choice?
		13-05-2009

		Cum Laude PhD Defense Joost van Rosmalen On April 9, Joost van Rosmalen has defended his PhD thesis entitled “Segmentation and Dimension Reduction: Exploratory and Model-Based Approaches”. The dissertation of Van Rosmalen is about developing new statistical techniques that can be used to summarize and visualize the information in a data set. In the thesis, he focuses on two types of statistical techniques. The first technique is dimension reduction, which tries to reduce the complexity of the data by identifying underlying dimensions or factors. These factors or dimensions can be used to visualize and help explain the data. The second technique is clustering, which divides the observations into a limited number of homogeneous groups (clusters). Van Rosmalen specifically focuses on two-mode clustering, in which the rows and columns of a data matrix are assigned to clusters simultaneously. He obtained his degree Cum Laude.
		14-04-2009

		Private Software Entrepreneurs in Hangzhou, China Mark Greeven has defended his PhD thesis entitled “Innovation in an Uncertain Institutional Environment: Private Software Entrepreneurs in Hangzhou, China”, on April 2. The thesis provides insights that can be used by foreign firms contemplating to enter China in one way or the other, Chinese entrepreneurs in high-tech sectors and policy makers inside and outside of China.
		02-04-2009

		Demand Management in E-fulfillment On April 2, Niels Agatz has defended his PhD thesis entitled “Demand Management in E-fulfillment”. Internet retailers are in a unique position to adjust, in real-time, the product and service offering to the customer and to change the corresponding prices. While this flexibility provides a vast potential for demand management to enhance profitability, exploiting them requires sophisticated decision support. The various interrelated trade-offs between customer preferences, incentives, and operational considerations are much too complex for simple intuition to suffice. The number of quantitative models currently available in the literature to support demand management in e-fulfillment is rather limited.
		02-04-2009