BizDissNews; Showcasing recent PhD dissertations in Business Research

Containerized transportation has become an essential part of the intermodal freight transport. Millions of containers pass through container terminals on an annual basis. Handling a large number of containers arriving and leaving terminals by different modalities including the new mega-size ships significantly affects the performance of terminals. Container terminal operators are always looking for new technologies and smart solutions to maintain efficiency. They need to know how different operations at the terminal interact and affect the performance of the terminal as a whole. Among all operations, the stacking area is of special importance since almost every container must be stacked in this area for a period of time. If the stacking operations of the terminal are not well managed, then the response time of the terminal significantly increases and consequently the performance decreases. In this dissertation, we propose, develop, and test optimization methods to support the decisions of container terminal operators in the stacking area. First, we study how to sequence storage and retrieval containers to be carried out by a single or two automated stacking cranes in a block of containers. The objective is to minimize the makespan of the cranes. Finally, we study how to minimize the expected number of reshuffles when incoming containers have to be stacked in a block of containers. A reshuffle is the removal of a container stacked on top of a desired container. Reshuffling containers is one of the daily operations at a container terminal which is time consuming and increases a ship's berthing time.

Fulltext:

http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37779/EPS2012269LIS9789058923158.pdf

Hoever’s dissertation investigates the conditions and processes that enable teams to develop more creative solutions and optimally use their informational resources for higher creativity. Whereas teams, especially those composed of members with different task-relevant information and perspectives, are considered a particularly viable means to the end of higher creativity, systematic research on the factors that facilitate team creativity and the processes conducive to it is sparse and its findings remain fragmented to date. The three empirical studies included in this dissertation contribute to a more complete understanding of how teams achieve creative outcomes by addressing different aspects of this question. Hoever’s findings highlight that other-focused behaviours such as perspective taking and mutual feedback between team members represent important mechanisms to bring out the potential of team diversity for team creativity. Furthermore, on the basis of an in-depth behavioural observation of the teams throughout their creative process, she was able to develop a more nuanced understanding of the processes that underlie these observed effects. This analysis yields converging evidence for the importance of information elaboration as a precursor of higher creativity in diverse teams but not for other processes frequently suggested to transmit the benefits of diversity when they occur. Finally, the reported research points to the differential impact of formal external interventions in shaping team processes and information processing mechanisms in teams with diverse informational resources. Together, the reported research has important implications for future work on team creativity, diversity, and team processes. With regards to team creativity and diversity the results call into question the straightforward nature of the frequently proposed link between diversity and creativity and highlight a number of important moderators of this effect. Moreover, the findings indicate that the relationship between creativity and its antecedents at the team level do not fully mirror the effects observed at the individual level of analysis. Finally, they direct attention to the need to systematically investigate the extent to which diverse and homogeneous teams react differently to common managerial interventions such as feedback.

Fulltext: http://hdl.handle.net/1765/37392

To survive and prosper firms have to renew their strategies to maintain a dynamic strategic fit with their changing environments. Strategic renewal can be understood as the adaptive choices and actions a firm undertakes to alter its path dependence and maintain a dynamic strategic fit with changing environments over time. In this dissertation we endeavor to develop and test theory on how, and under what environmental, firm, and team conditions, the organization’s key decision makers –its Upper Echelons, pursue particular adaptive responses. We focus on some contingencies that prompt Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Top Management Teams (TMTs), and Middle Managers (MMs) to adapt through internal and/or external modes of renewal. We propose that heterogeneity in adaptive strategic choices ensues from the contingent search patterns (behavioral, cognitive, and informational) adopted by the organization’s Upper Echelons. In the first study we find asymmetric behavioral search patterns of CEOs in relation to different cross-level correlates. In study two we find that TMT attributes influence cognitive search-focus in dynamic environments to explain heterogeneous adaptive responses. In the third study we find that TMT and MM attributes can either enable or hamper changes in structures, processes, and practices. Study four exposes how the complex interaction between TMT diversity and shared TMT vision drive new knowledge creation from the stock of knowledge acquired through informational search activities by TMTs. The findings from the four studies, each adopting a unique database, provide evidence on how contingent search patterns of Upper Echelons drive different modes of renewal.

Fulltext: http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32167/EPS2012259STR9789058923042.pdf

ERIM PhD Series: http://repub.eur.nl/res/col/292/

In this dissertation, we focus on how leadership styles, individual learning behaviors, and social network structures drive or inhibit organizational members to repeatedly generate and develop innovative ideas. Taking the idea management programs of three multinational companies as the research setting, we investigate, in four empirical papers using different sources and methods, how innovative behavior can be supported, influenced, or changed. Within this context, we concentrate on a) the quantity of ideas, b) the quality of ideas, and c) the repeated participation of employees in idea management programs. The findings demonstrate that managers can stimulate employees to submit more ideas through a combination of their leadership style and the organizational mindset they embrace. We also find that people whose prior ideas were rejected in the past are more inclined to initiate new ideas. However, only employees who successfully initiated ideas in the past learn to improve or demonstrate consistency in the quality of their subsequent ideas. We further show that the embeddedness of ties in a network predicts how much time people invest in the development of an idea. Moreover, we find that social network structures dynamically evolve between one idea to the next. In particular, strong ties and a higher network size influence the quality of ideas and vice versa. Together, the insights of the studies illustrate how through leadership, learning, and social networks idea inventors exchange knowledge, build on each other’s expertise, make sense of experiences, and become motivated to constantly generate ideas that move the organization forward.

With the growth of online shopping, a new era of market communication is administered. Internet as a combined communication- and sales-channel has blurred the borders between persuasive communications to activate goals (i.e., abstract messages that are traditionally communicated via advertisements, commercials and billboards) and concrete recommendations to activate choices (i.e., concrete messages that are traditionally communicated by promotions on the shop floor). The blurring borders between abstract persuasive communications and concrete recommendations call for new research to gain insight in the interplay between abstract and concrete product messages. In the first essay we investigate the differential impact of abstract benefit messages and concrete product examples on goal activation and choice behavior. In the second essay we further unravel the cognitive structure in consumers’ minds that underlies the behavior we observed in essay 1. In essay 3 we broaden the applicability of our findings, by investigating the impact of abstract benefit messages versus concrete product messages on consumer behavior outside the focal product category mentioned in the messages. Our findings are based on consumer data gathered in lab-experiments and from a panel survey. All of our essays discuss applications to health related products. In summary, this dissertation shows some interesting theoretical findings about the relative impact of abstract versus concrete product messages. It is also of particular interest to commercial companies and public policy makers, because it provides suggestions on how to steer consumer decision-making processes with product messages to promote healthier consumer choices.

Research on professional service firms (PSFs) did not come off the ground until recently. This lack of attention is surprising, given their integral role in contemporary knowledge-based economies. In this dissertation, I focus on two professional industries: law and accounting. Historically, these industries were infused with a dominant professional logic, with its corresponding Professional Partnership configuration as dominant form of enterprise organization. However, changes in economic and social trends, government policies, and client preferences have led to the spread of a commercial ethos in the professions, with the corresponding configuration of the Managed Professional Business. This shift from the professional to the commercial logic is the point of departure for this dissertation. But what are the effects of this changing logic from professionalism to commercialism on PSFs? This dissertation shows, first, that the shift from professionalism to commercialism is not complete for all PSFs, as many professionals in mid-sized firms resist this new logic. Second, although in conflict with the logic of professionalism and the corresponding organizational practices, novel-to-context practices of strategy formation and formal governance do contribute to the performance of PSFs. Yet they do so at a cost, third, as they increase misconduct of lawyers which in Professional Partnerships were effectively remedied by collegial controls. Fourth, PSFs face a choice about the corporate objective function they pursue, as my final study suggests that combining professional and commercial logics in a single configuration is seemingly impossible.

This thesis gives new and important insights in modeling diffusion data in marketing. It addresses modeling multiple series instead of just one series such that one can learn from the differences and similarities across products and countries. Additionally, this thesis addresses the current availability of higher frequency diffusion data. The two issues provide challenges for modeling of diffusion processes. In this thesis we provide solutions to these challenges, and we also suggest another look at some older issues with a particular focus on parameter estimation. In the first chapters we deal with the estimation of diffusion parameters for a single series. We start with an overview of currently used estimation methods and we suggest that a new method is needed. In fact, our new method does not suffer from bias as it properly incorporates the source of noise and the observational frequency. In the next chapters we focus on modeling high-frequency diffusion data, where we specifically address mixed-frequency diffusion data and seasonality. Finally, we propose a new approach to jointly modeling many diffusion series, where we allow for cross effects between products and countries.

With the spurt of technology and innovation the life cycles of parts and products have become shorter and service parts enter their final phases earlier. Final phase of a typical service part starts once the part production is ceased and ends when the last service or warranty contract expires. One popular tactic, in practice, to sustain service operations is placing a final order. The prime challenge of a firm while deciding a final order quantity is to minimize inventory-carrying costs together with the risk of obsolescence at the end of the planning period. In this study, end-of-life inventory decisions for an array of products including both consumer electronics and capital-intensive products are investigated. For consumer electronics we show that considering an alternative service policy, such as swapping the defective product with a new one, besides a regular repair policy improves cost efficiency. Moreover, for capital-intensive products we study systems with phase-out returns and systems with customer differentiation in the end-of-life phase. Our analysis reveals that taming the uncertainty associated with phase-out arrivals engenders a remarkable efficiency improvement. Moreover, including rationing decisions in the end-of-life phase enhances the performance of the system by a significant reduction in cost and risk of obsolescence.

This thesis studies various computational and game-theoretic approaches to economic modeling. Unlike traditional approaches to economic modeling, the approaches studied in this thesis do not rely on the assumption that economic agents behave in a fully rational way. Instead, economic agents are assumed to be boundedly rational. Abandoning the assumption of full rationality has a number of consequences for the way in which economic reality is being modeled. Traditionally, economic models are mostly of a static nature and have a strong focus on deriving equilibria. Also, models are usually analyzed mathematically. In models of boundedly rational behavior, dynamic elements play a much more prominent role and there is less emphasis on equilibrium behavior. Also, to analyze models of boundedly rational behavior, researchers not only use mathematical techniques but they also rely heavily on computer simulations. This thesis presents four studies into the modeling of boundedly rational behavior of economic agents. Two studies are concerned with investigating the emergence of cooperation among boundedly rational agents. One study focuses on cooperation among firms in a Cournot oligopoly market, while the other study examines cooperation in a spatial model of price-competing firms. The other two studies in this thesis are concerned with methodological issues in the use of evolutionary algorithms for economic modeling purposes. One study shows how evolutionary algorithms can be analyzed mathematically rather than using computer simulations. The other study criticizes the use of a so-called binary encoding in evolutionary algorithms.

Recent research has tried to understand moral behavior in the workplace mainly from an intra-personal perspective, blaming ethical failures on the person’s moral character, moral development or moral identity, or on isolated aspects of the situation. In doing so, little attention has been paid to the interplay between the person and the interpersonal context in which this behavior takes place. Thus, an important angle for investigating the question why good people do bad things has yet remained unexplored. In this thesis I present four chapters that illustrate this interpersonal influence in the context of ethical behavior within organizations – I discuss how leaders and followers influence each other’s moral behavior, how the organization’s moral norms influence employees moral decisions especially when they identify strongly with the organization, how follower moral awareness influences the effects of ethical leadership on the employee’s deviant behavior, and how demographic differences between leaders and followers influences the effect moral leadership has on employee performance. Together these chapters aim to increase understanding of the importance of factors in the interpersonal for moral decision making by individuals.

Fulltext:

http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38028/EPS2012270ORG.pdf

The overarching goal of this dissertation is to study the role of consumer effort within the context of online decision making. We show that consumer effort may not be necessarily malevolent and that some sources and measures of greater consumer effort can lead to beneficial outcomes. A better understanding of the role of consumer effort may help firms to evaluate their investments in reducing consumer effort and justify the cost associated with implementing such strategies. First, we suggest that user effort reduction can be beneficial when it concerns the size of the content of the information but not when it regards the involvement of users in the process of getting the information. These opposing effects can be attributed to the mediating role of content learning. Second, we use the complexity of the composition of the recommended choice set as a source of consumer effort and we propose that greater complexity (through increasing consumer effort) increases objective consumer knowledge due to greater required cognitive elaboration but decreases choice confidence and subjective product knowledge. We validate that these effects on product knowledge are managerially meaningful due to their positive effect on website conversion and consumer willingness to pay. In the third study, we examine the role of time as a measure of consumer effort in the context of online product recommendations. We distinguish between consumer inspection time-based effort at the choice set and at the product-level and suggest that whereas in the first case, inspection time decreases website conversion, at the product level, greater inspection time has the opposite effect due to the different antecedents. Accordingly we suggest improvements on the composition of the recommended choice sets in a way that the allocation of consumers’ time spent is effectively balanced.

Fulltext:

http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37542/EPS2012268MKT9789058923134.pdf

In this dissertation, we evaluate the roles senior management teams and individual middle managers play in realizing the performance benefits of entrepreneurial orientations. We investigate the role of senior management teams by focusing on a sample of 9.000 firms in the Netherlands. The first study focuses on antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation, i.e. internal and external knowledge acquisition of senior management teams. We find that both internal and external knowledge acquisition are important and that a premium in terms of the entrepreneurial orientation of the firm may be obtained by simultaneously sourcing for both types of knowledge. Our second study presents a model for top management teams aiming to enhance the performance benefits of the entrepreneurial orientation of the firm. We investigate team attributes such as team heterogeneity and shared vision and find some compelling results with respect to their context specific applicability for leveraging the entrepreneurial orientation of the firm. Our final study, based within the European branch of a single firm operating at the intersection of hardware, software and IT consulting, examines the individual entrepreneurial orientation of middle managers and subsequent performance benefits. We find that strong network ties of relatively higher placed middle managers are instrumental for realizing the inherent value of entrepreneurial orientation. Together, our results emphasize the performance benefits that may be obtained if the entrepreneurial orientation of organizations and individuals is appropriately managed. Attention for knowledge acquisition, team composition, the environmental context as well as network ties and the hierarchical position of individual managers represent essential aspects of effective management of entrepreneurial orientations.

Fulltext: http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32166/EPS2012258STR9789058923055.pdf

ERIM PhD Series: http://repub.eur.nl/res/col/292/

This study investigates to what extent extreme confidence of either management or security analysts may impact financial or operating performance. We construct a multidimensional degree of company confidence measure from a wide range of corporate decisions. We empirically test this measure for large US companies from 1980 -2008 and find significantly different company and performance characteristics between confidence extremes. Diffident firms tend to be smaller, more distressed, less conservatively financed and, except for the new millennium, yield a lower return on invested capital with higher variability. When adjusting stock returns for risk, the performance differences prior to moving to extreme confidence become even more pronounced. Extreme confidence could also distort earnings forecasts as analyst may overly rely on an anchor or make insufficient adjustments. Innate bias, anchoring to prior year earnings, risk attitude and responses to recent news are conditional on the level of analysis. Innate optimism prevails on the industry and analyst level. We find no support for anchoring by analysts with a long track record or across industries, which suggests a bottom-up approach. Long-term risk is considered as upside and short-term risk as downside potential. There is also a tendency to underreact to news, the extent of which seems conditional on the direction.

It is well known that our choices and judgments depend on the context. For instance, prior experiences can influence subsequent decisions. People tend to make riskier decisions if they have a chance to win back a previous loss or if they can gamble with previously won money. Another example of context is social environment. People often change their judgments to conform to observed group behavior. Since the reasons driving such context effects are less clear, this dissertation explores the mechanisms behind behavioral patterns with the help of a modern neuroscience technique, functional magnetic resonance imaging. The dissertation concentrates particularly on choice and judgment in risky and in social settings. It consists of three parts. The first part provides a primer on the methodology of neuroeconomics and a synthesis of the body of knowledge on the brain mechanisms of valuation and choice. The second part investigates risk behavior in sequential choice situations. The findings suggest that decision makers tend to take excessive risk after both wins and losses, due to increasing affective arousal and decreasing control. The third part of this dissertation focuses on the influence of social context on judgment. Results indicate that people automatically learn to behave as others do—being different from others is processed in the brain in a similar way to behavioral errors. This indicates the great power of relevant social groups in influencing our behavior. Overall, this dissertation highlights the reasons behind context dependency and demonstrates the power of modern neuroscientific methods for understanding economic behavior.

Customer First is an important issue of the recently introduced banking code in the Netherlands. It mainly concerns customer satisfaction and it is aimed at regaining trust of customers. Interestingly, the code does not address the urgency of improving customers’ financial literacy and their ability to make sound financial decisions, given that they consult a financial advisor. This dissertation specifically considers these two topics. In the first chapters we present empirical results about the sheer size of consumer debts and about the difficulties that consumers have with interest rate computations. With newly acquired data, we also document that the willingness to purchase on credit gets reduced when the total amount involved is mentioned explicitly. As consumers apparently need help, many turn to financial advisors. The second part of this dissertation deals with an extensive survey amongst financial advisors and their customers. This unique database could be compiled with the help of two Netherlands-based financial institutions. We address the perceived expertise of the advisor and the advisee, the satisfaction levels and the relevance of the disclosure of the advisor’s fee. We also contrast the answers of advisors and consumers and we document a substantial difference in opinions about the same topics.

Bibliometric mapping of science is concerned with quantitative methods for visually representing scientific literature based on bibliographic data. Since the first pioneering efforts in the 1970s, a large number of methods and techniques for bibliometric mapping have been proposed and tested. Although this has not resulted in a single generally accepted methodological standard, it did result in a limited set of commonly used methods and techniques. In this thesis, a new methodology for bibliometric mapping is presented. It is argued that some well-known methods and techniques for bibliometric mapping have serious shortcomings. For instance, the mathematical justification of a number of commonly used normalization methods is criticized, and popular multidimensional-scaling-based approaches for constructing bibliometric maps are shown to suffer from artifacts, especially when working with larger data sets. The methodology introduced in this thesis aims to provide improved methods and techniques for bibliometric mapping. The thesis contains an extensive mathematical analysis of normalization methods, indicating that the so-called association strength measure has the most satisfactory mathematical properties. The thesis also introduces the VOS technique for constructing bibliometric maps, where VOS stands for visualization of similarities. Compared with well-known multidimensional-scaling-based approaches, the VOS technique is shown to produce more satisfactory maps. In addition to the VOS mapping technique, the thesis also presents the VOS clustering technique. Together, these two techniques provide a unified framework for mapping and clustering. Finally, the VOSviewer software for constructing, displaying, and exploring bibliometric maps is introduced.