2022
Long-run effects of unemployment training programmes: 5% higher earnings
Date:15 December 2022
Recently, professor Gerard van den Berg and professor Johan Vikström (IFAU Institute and University of Uppsala, Sweden), published an article in Econometrica. The journal belongs to the top 5 of economics journals worldwide and publishes on a range of economic and econometric subjects.
External collaboration in complex situations: effective when combined with strong internal integration
Date:14 December 2022
Teams perform better when they collaborate and actively share information with other external teams outside their own organization. External collaboration enables teams to share best-practices and get access to original (external) ideas that can lead to creative solutions and innovation. This is primarily important when teams work on complex projects or deal with complex situations. At the same time, it is very difficult to organize external collaboration well when the teams involved deal with complex work situations. During such complex situations, team members are generally very busy, which puts the external collaboration under pressure. This could lead to teams not paying enough attention to external collaboration or not having time for it altogether, regardless of how important it might be. An important question is thus how teams can effectively organize external collaboration in complex (work) situations. Mitchell van den Adel, Thom de Vries, and Dirk Pieter van Donk examined this issue. In this blog article, they will give a summary of the most important findings.
Tracking Chinese aid reveals shifts in aid exports before and after the COVID-19 outbreak
Date:06 December 2022
In the past decades, China has become one of the world’s leading donors of foreign aid. However, an official dataset on China’s foreign aid did not yet exist. In one of their projects, Assistant Professor Feicheng Wang and co-authors from the University of Göttingen introduce a systematic way to measure China’s foreign aid in almost real time through official customs records and assemble a Chinese Aid Exports Database, which the researchers make available for public use. Relying on it, the authors depict a comprehensive picture of China’s aid exports and find remarkable shifts in aid allocation before and after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The effect of moral appeals on influenza vaccination upate among health care workers
Date:01 December 2022
Influenza vaccination uptake among health care workers (HCWs) protects patients and staff. Still, many health institutions’ coverage rates are unsatisfactory. Associate professor Laetitia Mulder and doctor Mariëtte Lokate (University Medical Center Groningen) aimed to test the effect of communicating moral appeals in increasing vaccination uptake in a real life setting.
From preferences to policy: turnout, accountability and policy responsiveness in Dutch local government
Date:29 November 2022
According to Harm Rienks, who will defend his PhD at FEB next week, we need to improve our democratic institutions to make them more effective in solving our modern societal challenges. He strongly believes that any change in our democracy should be preceded by good research, since this mitigates some of the risks that are associated with tinkering with democracy. That is why Rienks dedicated his PhD to investigating how democracy functions and testing this using data about Dutch local democracy.
The Dutch government’s energy price cap could put upward pressure on prices
Date:18 November 2022
Starting in January, consumers in the Netherlands will pay a fixed low price for the energy they consume below a generous threshold. For consumption above that level, they pay market prices. This price cap system is likely to raise energy prices even further, FEB professor Marco Haan and other competition experts from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and SEO (an institute for economic research) predict.
Ahmed Skali: QAnon is destructive in the realms of health and politics
Date:08 November 2022
With his research Assistant Professor Ahmed Skali aims to discover what triggers the rise of destructive social movements (and linked conspiracy theories) that threaten our social and political institutions and what motivates people to participate in these movements. Together with co-authors Ho Fai Chan (Queensland University of Technology), Stephanie Rizio (FEB) and Benno Torgler (Queensland University of Technology), he investigates whether social distancing restrictions are met with conspiratorial backlash, and if so, why, and whether there are public health consequences.
The Pursuit of Health: Motivating Healthy Food Choices and Physical Activity
Date:01 November 2022
Health – a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being – is a crucial determinant of people’s happiness. This is something Julia Storch, PhD candidate at FEB’s Marketing department, firmly believes. However, she knows that engaging in health-promoting practices and abstaining from health-preventing behaviors can at times be easier said than done. Her mantra is that when we understand why exactly people struggle to lead a healthy lifestyle, we can come up with interventions to help them overcome possible obstacles. That is why Storch dedicated her PhD research to investigating how consumers can be motivated to implement healthy food choices and physical activity into their daily lives.
The organizational implications of digital transformation
Date:27 October 2022
Digital transformation, the adoption of digital technology in all areas of a business, will have deep consequences for how companies operate and the way they create and deliver value. Thus, firms need to find a way to integrate such technology successfully to be future proof. Nicolai Fabian, Assistant Professor of Information Systems at FEB, finds it fascinating how organizations adopt technologies and manage the process of change. After Covid 19 hit us, that becoming more digital is vital for companies is nothing new. In his PhD thesis, which he will defend on 31 October, Fabian sheds light on the implications of digital transformation for organizations, with focus on small to medium enterprises (SME) in the third chapter.
Beyond external economic barriers: understanding women empowerment in the local context
Date:05 October 2022
Recent empirical evidence in economics indicates the existence of internal constraints as a potential barrier to women empowerment, which can take the form of internalized psychological barriers such as lack of aspirations, low perceived agency (or belief in oneself) or low hope, and more. To understand how these internal constraints can be alleviated to promote women’s empowerment and spur development, the Faculty of Economics and Business is involved in two international projects. One in collaboration with a microfinance institution in Vietnam, and another aimed at improving food and nutrition security by enhancing women's empowerment in Bangladesh and Ethiopia. Claire Stein, a PhD candidate at FEB, is part of the Vietnam project’s research team. To acquire input for the further project, she met with local organizations in the country and performed qualitative research with women in Vietnam to understand empowerment in the local context.
Stefan Pichler: Do not go to work sick
Date:20 September 2022
In his work, Associate Professor Stefan Pichler focuses on the economic consequences of infectious diseases and is an expert on sick leave. In recent research together with Johanna Catherine Maclean (George Mason University) and Nicolas R. Ziebarth (ZEW Mannheim), Pichler and his co-authors study the coverage, utilization, and welfare effects of mandated sick pay in the US.
New in Groningen: Stephanie Rizio and Ahmed Skali
Date:14 September 2022
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, assistant professors Stephanie Rizio and Ahmed Skali decided to make a change. They moved their family from Australia to Groningen and continued their research at FEB. They told us about their experiences here, their research and their future plans.
From Groningen to New York and Illinois
Date:06 September 2022
Research is often an international endeavor, a collaborative effort together with colleagues from other universities abroad. FEB Research spoke to Nevena Ivanovic and Guido Berends, PhD candidates at FEB who both recently visited universities in the US for their projects. They are now back in the Netherlands and told us about their research and their experiences abroad.
Vici: conquering creative challenges
Date:30 August 2022
Bernard Nijstad, professor at the department of Human Resource Management & Organizational Behavior, received a prestigious Vici grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) in 2016. The grant enabled him to delve deep into the topic of creativity and study how people come up with creative ideas and explore how creativity can be man-aged within organizations in such a way that it can actually be used to create profitable innovation. As his Vici project comes to a close, he shares his main findings with FEB Research and looks to the future.
The effectiveness of employee ownership programs
Date:25 August 2022
It has been a while since the slogan “war-for-talent” emerged. Especially, established firms in Europe still struggle in finding and retaining talent. On the other hand, many start-up firms succeeded by establishing employee ownership programs and thus became more attractive in the eyes of the employees. Now, also more and more established firms introduce these programs, not only for their managers but also for rank-and-file employees. However, little is known about whether these programs actually help retain the talents in the firm.
FAR Grant: how relational interfaces impact audit quality
Date:23 August 2022
Dennis Veltrop, Reggy Hooghiemstra and Floor Rink received a research grant of approximately € 510.000 from the Foundation for Auditing Research (FAR) with € 265.000 matching from FEB, this amounts to a total grant of € 775.000 to fund a six year thematic research project in cooperation with Dutch audit firms.
New research into achieving equity in Dutch academia
Date:27 July 2022
In line with increased attention for Diversity & Inclusion in Dutch Higher Education[1], specifically focusing on anti-racism interventions, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) has initiated a call for ‘ Advancing Equity in Academia through Innovation’. Researchers, diversity officers, and possible collaboration partners were invited to apply for a Sandpit Workshop 27-30 June 2022. From FEB, Edwina Wong (PhD candidate Human Resource Management/Organizational Behavior) and Ella Sebamalai (Diversity & Inclusion Officer) were selected after an application procedure earlier this year.
Energy research for the future of the Netherlands
Date:23 June 2022
Evrim Ursavas has been very successful in obtaining external funding for her research. She is currently an associate professor at FEB and her research field is in Supply Chain Design with an emphasis on Energy and Logistics. These are both very important...
The metaverse: why are so many companies investing in this virtual world?
Date:16 June 2022
Facebook’s announcement to change into 'Meta' in October 2021 indicates how important 'metaverse' 1 is for the future of the parent company. Since that name change, Facebook's share price has plummeted due to a global outage, privacy scandals, and a...
Multinationals, R&D and Global Carbon Emission
Date:08 June 2022
Creating technologies to manage carbon reduction goals requires high investments in Research and Development (R&D). Halit Gonenc, an associate professor at the department of Economics, Econometrics & Finance, studies the effect of R&D investments on carbon emissions for both Domestic Companies (DCs) and Multinational Companies (MNCs). In this blog, he shares his thoughts and findings.
“For the people in power in Russia, it does not really matter whether or not Coca-Cola or McDonald’s operate in Moscow”
Date:19 May 2022
As professor in Financial Ethics, Boudewijn de Bruin focuses on a myriad of topics, such as ethics and behavior in financial institutions, codes of conduct, remuneration policies in the financial sector and in other large firms and more recently sustainable finance and the role of financing in climate change. As the war in Ukraine drags on, how does he view the ethical challenges and ethical risks that businesses operating in Russia face?
The effect of induced earthquakes on the housing market
Date:16 May 2022
Nicolás Durán dedicated his PhD research to investigating what the indirect and overlooked effects from earthquakes induced by gas extraction are on the housing market and successfully defended his thesis on May 12th. In this blog article, Durán reflects on the research process and discusses his findings.
When Do We See Poverty Convergence?
Date:26 April 2022
Convergence is the process of levelling living standards, economic as well as social, across multiple countries or regions. It implies that, over time, differences in given development outcomes shrink. A study by FEB-researcher Konstantin M. Wacker, Jesus Crespo Cuaresma (Vienna University of Economics and Business) and the late Stephan Klasen (University of Göttingen) explains why countries starting out with high poverty rates often do not achieve a higher proportionate reduction in poverty.
Introducing new professor Mellie Pullman
Date:22 April 2022
Mellie Pullman has recently been appointed as professor of Sustainable Supply Chain Management in the research programme Operations Management and Operations Research (OPERA). Pullman worked at universities in the United States and the United Kingdom...
CONTRAST part 2 - Economic evaluations of stroke care treatments
Date:14 April 2022
Chi Nguyen is a PhD students who ispart of the CONTRAST project. Her research will focus on the economic evaluations of stroke care treatments and their organization in the Netherlands. She works along with PhD student Willemijn Maas from the UMCG.
Measuring the Private and Social Returns to R&D: Unintended Spillovers versus Technology Markets
Date:12 April 2022
The notion of knowledge spillovers has been very influential in shaping research and in motivating innovation policies all over the globe, yet it isn’t the only manner in which knowledge (from R&D) diffuses in the current innovation landscape. Knowledge also often diffuses through voluntary technology transfers. FEB-researcher Pere Arque-Castells and Daniel Spulber, a colleague from Northwestern University (US, Illinois), take both channels into account and study their implications on innovation policies and the innovation landscape as a whole.
CONTRAST - a multi-disciplinary research into organizing regional actue stroke care
Date:07 April 2022
FEB researchers Durk-Jouke van der Zee and Erik Buskens joined forces with their colleagues Maarten Lahr and Maarten Uyttenboogaart from the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) to work on new solutions for organizing regional acute stroke care, thereby participating in externally funded projects.
Polarization in the Netherlands - part two
Date:31 March 2022
Last week on our blog, we featured the book Sjoerd Beugelsdijk wrote about polarization in the Netherlands. Beugelsdijk was one of Juliette de Wit’s supervisors during her PhD research. Her PhD thesis also looks at the same topic. She found three different profiles that capture the way the Dutch identify with the Netherlands. And it seems that we have more in common than we think.
Mission impossible: operations management in complex, extreme, and hostile environments
Date:28 March 2022
Although knotty crisis situations are increasing in frequency, duration, and impact, their implications for operations management remain ill-understood. Having read a lot about the great failures of humanitarian organizations in responding to major disasters, Nonhlanhla Dube set out to investigate exactly how badly they performed in terms of timeliness in delivering assistance where it is needed. The researcher, who is affiliated both to FEB and Lancaster University, studied the response of international humanitarian organizations from the viewpoint of supply chain resilience.
Polarization in the Netherlands - part one
Date:24 March 2022
Polarization is a hot topic. Sjoerd Beugelsdijk wrote a book about it (De Verdeelde Nederlanden) and it has been discussed extensively in Dutch media. The Volkskrant recently gave his book 5 stars
Sport as medicine for health and health inequalities
Date:15 March 2022
Sport participation seems to be an important means to improve health, decrease health inequalities and reduce average health care costs, Willem de Boer’s research shows. The sports economist, who is affiliated with both FEB and the HAN University of Applied Sciences, studied different types of physical activity and the ways in which they affected health outcomes, health inequalities and health care costs.
Fear of war and preference for sons
Date:03 March 2022
With the Russian invasion into the Ukraine, Anna Minasyan’s forthcoming publication gives insight into parents' preference of having sons rather than daughters when facing a (possible) war. This preference is usually realized either through sex-selective...
Towards effective support for small businesses in developing countries
Date:27 January 2022
Small-scale entrepreneurship in developing countries is viewed as one of the most prominent solutions to alleviate poverty and reduce unemployment among young people and women. To promote small-scale entrepreneurship, governments, microfinance...
How do founders’ personal backgrounds affect their firms’ likelihood to engage in R&D cooperation? Evidence from individuals’ exposure to authoritarian regimes.
Date:25 January 2022
How does the experience of living in an authoritarian regime affect the decision-making of an individual in their later life as a founder and leader of a firm in the context of a liberal market economy? Researchers from the Department of Innovation...
Multiple teams, multiple roles? Why it is best to wear the same hat in each team.
Date:18 January 2022
It is more and more common for employees to be a member of multiple teams at the same time. In multiple projects, committees, or medical teams, for instance. Multiple team membership (MTM) is often unavoidable, but also has considerable disadvantages....