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Collateral Damage: The Relationship Between High-Salience Events and Variation in Racial Discrimination
No full textTo what extent are individual or organizational biases affected by racially salient events? We propose that acts of discrimination and the individual biases that undergird them are sensitive to high-salience events and will oscillate with the salience of the focal attribute. In short, that the propensity to discriminate reflects both individual and environmental differences, and therefore a given person may become more prone to discriminate in the aftermath of a high-salience event. We test our hypothesis in three online experiments that examine how varying the salience of race affects the evaluation of in-group or out-group founders. We find that respondents evaluate their in-group members more favorably, and out-group members less favorably, when exposed to a high-salience event, which translates into a significant disadvantage for the minority (African American) group. We complement these studies with an assessment of how police shootings affect fundraising outcomes on Kickstarter to confirm the external validity of our findings. Together, these studies indicate that racially salient events depress the quality evaluations and success odds of African American entrepreneurs relative to others. Hence, discrimination levels can be affected by salient yet unrelated events, and such events are consequential for the economic fortunes of individuals belonging to minority and disadvantaged groups. History: This paper has been accepted for the Organization Science Special Issue on Experiments in Organizational Theory. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1527 .The authors thank audiences at the West Coast Research Symposium and Academy of Management conferences for their helpful feedback on early versions of this project. Over the years, the authors bounced this idea off all manner of colleagues: Keyvan Kashkooli, Ming Leung, Andrew Nelson, Samer Srivastava, and many others offered helpful advice. They also thank the very patient and encouraging editors and reviewers of this special issue, who helped guide the paper to its present state
Data-driven preventive maintenance for a heterogeneous machine portfolio
Get PDFWe describe a data-driven approach to optimize periodic maintenance policies for a heterogeneous portfolio with different machine profiles. When insufficient data are available per profile to assess failure intensities and costs accurately, we pool the data of all machine profiles and evaluate the effect of (observable) machine characteristics by calibrating appropriate statistical models. This reduces maintenance costs compared to a stratified approach that splits the data into subsets per profile and a uniform approach that treats all profiles the same
Teaching Science Students to Communicate: A Practical Guide
No full textLet us be honest: Making mistakes while communicating is the normality rather than the exception. However, we tend to run away from this inconvenient truth, with consequences. The fear of “messing up” makes us tense, inflexible and distant from the audience exactly when they want to find us relaxed, joyful and receptive. This chapter introduces a way to become comfortable with unexpected deviations during communicating, to go boldly to where the fear is and to establish emotional safety between the speaker and the audience
Doing Academic Careers Differently
No full textA clown’s tale’ tells the story of the author turning from an academic business educator into a theatre and clown performer. It gives a colourful insight of how life-changing, transformative and healing the contact with Performing Arts can be, on both personal and professional levels. For the author, this contact has not only been a turning point in his personal development and healing journey. It was a crucial moment for him on how to perceive, face and change typical academic working conditions. The chapter therefore mirrors the alienating impact of mainstream academic working conditions. A work context that calls for fierce competition and relentless self-marketing in precarious work settings builds ground for self-alienation and emotional self-disconnection, generally fuelling biographically established self-doubt and self-denial. The story therefore provides a strong testimony about how impactful Performing Arts can support individuals in breaking free of alienating and devaluating contexts, finding personal ground and a stance to operate truthfully from. Performing Arts does have immense immanent powers for personal and societal transformation, and this story is only a tiny example of that
Well-being of business stakeholders : salesforce well-being : an overlooked determinant of favorable outcomes in business-to-business environments
No full textFluvius driving towards sustainability: Building a supply chain ecosystem to drive transformation and positive change
No full textLike many organizations, Fluvius, the Belgian multi-utility company, pledged net-zero emissions across its operations by 2050. Fluvius is also the preferred partner of the local authorities to drive the energy transition in Flanders and to implement the European Green Deal actions and guidelines. As Head of Procurement, Gunther is convinced he can make a difference in both Fluvius's sustainability priorities: (1) reducing its ecological footprint, and (2) enhancing sustainability within its supply chain. Gunther and his Procurement Team have made solid progress in consolidating the supply chain for the energy transition, but engaging the partners with the Fluvius CSR charter is still a work in progress. Fluvius is part of a network of more than 3,000 partners, of which more than half are small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) that do not necessarily have the knowledge and the resources to start their own sustainability journey. However, Gunther understood that the only way to achieve their net-zero emissions ambitions requires working closely and helping their suppliers adopt sustainable practices. Doing so requires a combination of strategic, operational, and cultural initiatives serving as incentives to adopt greener practices and operate a sustainable business model
Text analytics to study interfirm contracts; Text analytics to study interfirm contracts
No full textIn today's highly competitive environment, innovation has become crucial for a firm's survival. Therefore, many firms rely on collaborations with external partners for their R&D activities. This dissertation demonstrates the use of text analytics in studying such interfirm (R&D) contracts. In Chapter 1 introduces the use of correlated topic modelling (CTM) algorithm to uncover the contextual richness and framing of contractual clauses. Chapter 2 zooms in on a specific contextual factor, technology maturity, and examines its impact on contract design and the framing of clauses. The final chapter delves into how partner experience influences language customization in contracts. Overall, the findings emphasize the rich dimensionality of contractual language and the significance of textual analysis techniques in unraveling the complexities of interfirm contractual language
Exploring the relationship between middle managers’ proactive strategic behavior and other proactive behaviors
No full textResearch Goals and Why the Work was Worth Doing. How are middle managers proactively initiating changes in their organizations? Fast-moving, complex organizational environments leave only limited space for top-down decision-making (Ashford et al., 2018). Scholars have argued that organizations require every level, from front-line employees to middle managers and senior-managers and executives, to be proactive i.e., to anticipate and self-initiate changes (Crossley et al., 2013; Grant & Ashford, 2008; Strauss et al., 2009). While research has predominantly focused on proactivity oriented towards shaping one’s own role and immediate work environment (e.g., by seeking feedback or job crafting), far less research has explored proactive behavior directed at the organization’s larger goals, such as proactive strategic behavior (Parker & Collins, 2010). Given that especially for managers, contributing to the larger organization is expected and valued, we examine how middle managers’ strategic behavior affects their performance. Specifically, we suggest that middle managers’ proactive strategic behavior (i.e., strategic scanning) will improve their performance, especially when used in combination with proactive behavior focused on the fit with their immediate work environment (i.e., feedback-seeking) and proactive behavior focused on making improvements in their work environment (i.e., voice). In doing so, we advance research on proactive strategic behavior and contribute by increasing our understanding of the relationship between proactive strategic behavior and other proactive behaviors and the impact of proactivity on performance outcomes. Theoretical Background By and large, proactivity literature distinguishes three different categories of proactive behaviors, i.e., proactive work behavior, proactive person-environment fit behavior, and proactive strategic behavior (Parker & Collins, 2010). Despite the advances of proactivity literature has made over the last two decades, research on proactive strategic behavior is still lacking and little is known about the relationship between proactive strategic behavior and other proactive behaviors. Building on prior research we develop a conceptual model to explore this gap in the present study. Methodology We tested our model in a sample of 266 middle manager-supervisor dyads from different companies. Results The results of the analysis show support for the hypothesized relationships in our model. Middle managers’ strategic scanning positively predicts performance and voice acts as a mediator in this relationship, while high levels of feedback-seeking act as a moderator.Limitations The main limitation is based on the cross-sectional survey design in this study. ConclusionsWe show that middle managers use a combination of proactive strategic behavior, proactive work behavior and proactive person-environment fit behavior, which positively affects their performance. Our results indicate that middle managers who scan their environment to identify opportunities and threats can use voice and feedback-seeking to effectively communicate these in their organization and thereby increase their performance
Are you part of the crowd? The role of sex and environmental characteristics for crowdfunding awareness
No full textCrowdfunding has become an alternative source of financing for entrepreneurial new ventures and social projects. While identifying and “tapping the right crowd” of backers has been shown to be crucial for the success of crowdfunding campaigns, we still lack a basic understanding of why individuals become backers in the first place and why so many others do not. Building on information processing theory, we advance crowdfunding awareness as an important precedent to actual engagement as a backer. We hypothesize and—using a sample of 1,042 individuals in Flanders (Belgium)—show that individuals’ crowdfunding awareness depends on whether they are male or female, as well as on the (perceived) socioeconomic environment they are in. Furthermore, our findings suggest that women tend to derive their crowdfunding awareness to a larger extent from these environmental characteristics than men. These results have important implications for theory and practice