IB&M student Janine Elbertsen wins FBK/BRUG Thesis Prize

On Monday the 8th of January a joint New Year reception was organised for the Faculty of Economics & Business (currently merging). This was jointly arranged by the student unions BIG and EFV. During this reception the ‘FBK/BRUG Thesis Prize’ from the Faculty of Management & Organization and the Alumni Association BRUG was presented to Janine Elbertsen. Janine is an International Business & Management student. The title of her thesis is ‘The one and two tier board structure related to its nationality mix’.

Subject of thesis
The research of Janine analyses the implications of the characteristics of the one and two tier board structure for the nationality mix among corporate boards from a European perspective. Differences and similarities in law, codes of corporate governance, formal structures and formal roles, election procedures, ownership patterns and the influence of shareholders have been analysed and compared across three countries. Data has been collected from 1,443 corporate board members of listed companies in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany. The analysis supports the argument that the pattern of nationality mix is mainly caused by the presence of special election mechanisms such as co-optation in the Netherlands and co-determination in Germany. Janine was supervised by Kees van Veen and Florian Becker-Ritterspach. Janine received a grade 9 for her thesis.

Project: European top management teams
This thesis is part of a larger project of Dr.Kees van Veen which focuses on the differences and similarities between European top management teams. In the next issue of ‘Tijdschrift voor arbeidsvraagstukken’, an article will be published with the title ‘Is er een Europese arbeidsmarkt voor topmanagers?’ (How European is the labour market for top managers? An English version is presently under review). In this article, the Executive Boards of 363 multinationals in 15 European countries will be compared. Differences are described and a number of possible explanations are tested. For more information concerning the project and this article: k.van.veen rug.nl

The verdict
The prize of € 1,500 was presented to Janine by the Vice Dean of the Faculty Board of Management and Organization, Frans Rutten. The members of the panel were Gosse Korte (member BRUG Board), Henk G. Sol (Dean) and Roger Leenders (Associate Professor Business Development). The selection took place based on criteria such as originality, use and innovation of theories, relevance and applicability. The verdict of the panel was as follows: it is an original thesis, which shows quality of work throughout. The data collection is impressive. In addition, hypotheses have been formulated in an accurate way and have been tested statistically. The subject is very relevant to society and to the field of management research.

The Faculty has introduced this prize to increase and stimulate the level of student dissertations. The winner will deliver a presentation in February for third year students.