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Academy of Management Proceedings
No full textEntrepreneurial finance scholars address the questions and themes related to which, how, when, and why ventures attract external funding and how it affects their future development (Bellavitis et al., 2017b; Block et al., 2018; Cumming et al., 2019a; Cumming & Groh, 2018; Cumming et al., 2022a). Most attention has been devoted to equity capital because of its pivotal role in the financing of high-growth entrepreneurship (Drover et al., 2017) and significant firm-level implications (Bonini et al., 2019; Eldridge et al., 2021; Manigart et al., 2002). While the entrepreneurial finance field is well-established, recent disruptive trends have attracted substantial scholarly attention. Specifically, radical financial market innovations such as digitization, invigorated research opportunities in traditional topics such as VC research, and novel statistical approaches and data sources have created a promising and exciting space to study entrepreneurial finance. This panel aims to inform researchers by discussing these disruptive trends and their implications for future research with prominent entrepreneurial finance scholars
Cross-border mid-market M&A compass report 2022. A research report for moore global corporate finance
No full textIn an ever-increasingly globalized world, firms of all sizes are searching for opportunities to expand their business activities outside their home country. Cross-border mergers & acquisitions (M&A) is an important and common strategy for expanding abroad. Among other things, cross-border M&A is seen as a means of facilitating entry into foreign markets, accessing new resources, capabilities and technologies, and diversifying. While large (or mega) deals get a lot of public attention, mid-market M&A deals often occur below the radar of publicity. However, comprising almost 60% of all deals, the mid-market M&A segment is the core of the M&A market worldwide
The career perspectives of graduates. Update 2023
No full text29% of master students and 57% of advanced master students indicate that they would like to set up their own business in the future. For their first job, though, they would prefer to work for an SME or a big company. Final-year students show a clear preference for businesses that have a quality label identifying them as good employers. Job security is not a priority. The students would rather work for a wide range of companies in the course of their careers, enabling them to continue developing their skills and knowledge in the long term. Last but not least, Generation Z students have very high expectations of their first employer. These are the most striking conclusions from the 11th edition of a major study among final-year higher education students into their expectations of their first employer and the labour market, as well as into their longer-term career plans. 472 students, of whom 268 were master students and 204 were taking an advanced master, took the survey in the spring of 2023. This survey, which is conducted every two years, was carried out by Professor Dirk Buyens and researchers Valérie Legrand and Silke Van Gansbeke from the Centre for Excellence in Strategic Talent Management at Vlerick Business School. Entrepreneurial ambitions on the rise 29% of master students and 57% of advanced master students indicate that they would like to set up their own business in the future. Starting out as an entrepreneur straight after graduation is less popular: only 10% of master students and 27% of advanced master students have such plans. Furthermore, there is a striking lack of interest in embarking on a career as a freelancer or contractor (less than 10%). The vast majority would prefer to start in a salaried position with an SME or a big company. Dirk Buyens, Professor of Human Resources Management at Vlerick Business School: “We have observed a growing desire among young people to become independent entrepreneurs one day, although there is a clear preference to gain a few years’ work experience in a salaried position first. A possible way for employers to cater to this trend might be to promote intrapreneurship within the company. That means that employers encourage a climate of entrepreneurship where young employees can develop their entrepreneurial ambitions for the benefit of the company as well as for themselves. This can be done by giving them plenty of freedom to try out new things and by offering them opportunities to grow within the organisation.” Quality labels for employers are worth their weight in gold Companies that have a quality label identifying them as good employers are in high demand among final-year students. 79% of respondents say they would rather apply to a company with an accredited label to show that its current employees experience it as a good employer. Additionally, 60% indicate that they would be more inclined to stay with such a company for longer. Dirk Buyens: “These ‘employer of choice’ labels are based on a systematic survey of the employees at the organisations concerned. In other words, companies that make long-term investments in creating a good working environment based on trust, credibility, respect, honesty and collegiality are at an advantage when it comes to attracting young talent from Gen Z.” Career security is more important than job security Only 43% of final-year students state that long-term job security is a priority for them. They clearly have a cosmopolitan vision of their careers: 69% expect that they will work for a wide range of different companies during their working lives. They see the relationship with their first employer as temporary, and 88% want a career that allows them to continue developing their skills and engage in lifelong learning. Only one in five is prepared to remain with the same employer for their entire career. 72% view their first job as a stepping stone to something better at a different company. Almost half (47%) are planning to stay with their first employer for no longer than three years. The economic context does play a role: Students who graduate during a recession report less economic optimism and a greater preference for job security than students who graduate during a period of economic growth. High expectations Gen Z have high expectations of their first employers. Their top priority is interaction with their colleagues and leaders: 94% hope to end up in a sociable environment with a positive atmosphere and 88% expect good, open communication with colleagues. They also attach great importance to an attractive salary and perks (85%), and to many opportunities for training and personal development (84%)
In AI we Trust: Determinants of continuous trust in the user/system interaction
No full textThe main objective of this study is to examine which factors influence users’ continuous trust in automated systems – and, more specifically, AI-based systems – and, subsequently, to develop an empirical model representing those factors. Influenced by the fourth wave of industrialisation, society and business undergo significant changes (Hancock, 2017; Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2017). This wave comes with a vast array of new digital technologies (Schwab, 2016a; Schwab, 2016b) – consider artificial intelligence (Hansen & Bogh, 2020) – that are positioned as assets to leverage digital transformation efforts (Besson & Rowe, 2012). People and digital technology (Kane, 2015) interact in this context (Christ-Brendemühl & Schaarschmidt, 2019; Glikson & Woolley, 2020), and automation frequently acts on behalf of humans (Russel & Norvig, 2009; Xu, Mak, and Brintrup, 2021). However, less-rational factors (such as fear) are more at play, even more so often higher levels of automation appear (Sarter, Woods, and Billings, 1997). Organisations risk employees developing technology perceptions that breed resistance (Venkatesh, 2006), reluctance (Kane et al., 2019), and disappointment. These, in turn, impact people’s interactions with technology (Bardakei & Ünver, 2019) which leads to users neglecting beneficial decision aids (Davis & Kotteman, 1995) and discounting advice from algorithms (Prahl & Van Swol, 2017). Faulty interactions like these ould cause a decrease in trust and subsequent disuse or sabotage of technology (Parasuraman & Riley, 1997). Various theories emerged in the technology and acceptance literature (e.g., Technology Acceptance Model (TAM3; Vankatesh & Bala, 2008)), where trust, considered the cornerstone of social interaction (Blau, 1964), was also found to mediate human-technology relationships (Taddeo, 2017) and is seen as the degree to which a user can rely on the technology to achieve their goals under conditions of uncertainty and vulnerability (Lee & See, 2004). Especially when the system becomes too complex to be understood completely, will trust navigate complexity and enable reliance (Gsenger & Strle, 2021). Focusing on AI, we found that many concerns relating to AI usage link back to trust (e.g., the perception of AI as a black box; Logg et al., 2019; Lockey et al., 2021). The concept of trust, however, has received very little attention in AI literature thus far (Emaminejad et al., 2015). When trust is researched, the primary focus is on aspects of the technology itself rather than also including aspects of the individual and the environment (Toreini et al., 2019). We did not find any model in the literature that explains trust in systems deploying AI. Nor could we find any survey that allows for measuring trust (Böckle et al., 2021). As it stands, the majority of the current state of knowledge of human-machine interaction and the trust relationship draws on research in the context of automation. Further explorative research in the realm of AI is warranted.Given that explorative research is required, we opt for qualitative research through Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1994) and collect our data through semi-structured interviews with practitioners that use AI-based systems in their work context. We will use an interview guide with open-ended questions and transcribe the nterviews verbatim. After every inte incorporate our reflections into the interview guide before continuing a new round (Charmaz, 2006). This cycle (from recruiting data to coding and comparing excerpts in Nviv12) will be repeated until theoretical saturation is reached. This will allow us to build the first empirical model of the antecedents of trust in AI-based systems. 593Results have not yet been obtained, but we are confident to have a final empirical model before the EAWOP conference. As this study is primarily explorative, the emerging antecedents and model will require testing to analyse their reliability and utility. While conclusions cannot yet be drawn, we aim to increase the understanding of both academics and practitioners on users’ continuous trust in AI-based systems. This research also lays the fundament for a follow-up study to build and validate a survey to measure trust in AI-based systems.Studying continuous trust in AI systems connects to the changing world of work, especially given that the amount of human-technology interactions has increased over recent decades and is expected to continue increasing. This topic links to EAWOP’s topic 16 (i.e., technology) and, specifically, subitems Artificial Intelligence and Human-Machine-System
Methodological Decolonisation and Local Epistemologies in Business Ethics Research
No full textAbstract
This paper contributes to the discussion on methodological decolonisation in business ethics research by illustrating how local epistemologies can shape methodology. Historically, business ethics research has been dominated by Western methodologies, which have been argued to be restrictive and limit contextually relevant theorising in non-Western contexts. Over the past decade, scholarship has called for more diversity in research methods and epistemologies. This paper regards arguments founded along neatly divided universalist versus contextualised methodologies as a false dilemma. Instead, we explore how ubuntu, a sub-Saharan African epistemology, can contribute as a complementary epistemology and methodology to interpretivism when conducting business ethics research in sub-Saharan Africa. The paper discusses four aspects—research agenda, access, power relations, and context-sensitive methods—that highlight practical ways in which ubuntu epistemology, with its communitarian and relational underpinnings, can enhance business ethics research. We illustrate that methodological decolonisation can be achieved by fusing relevant elements of local epistemologies and methodologies and conventional methodologies to generate context-relevant research approaches
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management
No full textBoth the absorptive capacity (AC) and international business (IB) literatures are interested in knowledge processes and learning in organizations. Although originating from different streams of research, AC and IB were thus meant to meet and reinforce each other. Fundamentally, the role of AC in IB is to condition the performance outcome of firms’ internationalization efforts. Firms benefit from their IB activities conditional on being able to absorb new knowledge and learn. In other words, multinational corporations (MNCs) need to have the necessary AC to overcome their liabilities of foreignness and outsidership. Short of AC, the costs and challenges of entering foreign markets and operating across countries are likely to outweigh potential performance gains. Moreover, AC plays a role in the technological upgrade and economic development of nations, as it helps firms in emerging economies to benefit from spillovers of foreign direct investments by MNCs from more economically advanced economies. And national governments can play an important role to facilitate this effect by developing appropriate economic and innovation policies that support knowledge creation and learning. Firms can also proactively develop AC. For instance, MNCs can nurture a broad knowledge base that can be leveraged in different contexts and opt for a decentralized structure with mechanisms that help subsidiaries access the knowledge base of the parent organization. They can also practice specific routines to identify and access relevant knowledge from their external environment, transfer that knowledge in their organization, and assimilate it in their own knowledge creation processes. Moreover, MNCs can adopt human resources management practices that help raise the capacity and motivation of their employees to acquire and exploit new knowledge. Ultimately, the most important contribution of AC in IB might be to help MNCs develop the strategic flexibility that enables them to thrive in dynamic environments. High-AC MNCs may indeed be in a better position than other firms to (a) build diverse options to prepare for uncertain evolutions in the market, (b) access flexible resources to allocate to new courses of actions, and (c) redeploy resources across options over time. Unpacking the exact mechanisms as well as boundary conditions for the role of AC in building strategic flexibility offers ample opportunities for future research on a highly relevant topic for MNCs
Measuring patient value in value-based healthcare – The role of data envelopment analysis
No full textThe myth of mediator neutrality
No full textBecause I’ve been fortunate to observe the ADR scene for much of its recent development, I’m often asked my views of where we stand now. My somewhat flip answer is, ‘On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I think we’ve made amazing progress. On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, ADR seems more like a grain of sand on the adversary system beach.’ So I think we have a way to go – Prof. Frank Sander
Determinants of users' trust in business intelligence systems
No full textThis study investigates users’ trust in Business Intelligence systems in quality management as part of an organisational implementation and adoption journey. Semi-structured interviews (n = 20) were conducted and analysed thematically. Various subthemes emerged related to (1) user factors, (2) system factors, and (3) organisational factors. In this paper, we specifically zoom in on two of the subthemes of organisational factors, being (i) change management and (ii) parties involved. The outcomes of this research are of relevance given the high costs of integrating new or upgrading existing systems, and the key role of users in success or failure