Vlerick Repository
Not a member yet
7319 research outputs found
Sort by
A social-psychological perspective on angel investment decision-making
No full textAcademics and practitioners have all often claimed that acquiring resources is a challenging task that entrepreneurs need to overcome to develop their ventures (e.g., Stinchcombe, 1965). This challenge is particularly acute for young, high-growth potential ventures because they often involve unproven technologies or business models (e.g., Berger & Udell, 1998). Angel investors are a primary source of early-stage (i.e., seed and startup) risk capital available to such entrepreneurs, and tend to come in after entrepreneurs have depleted their personal savings and money from family and friends (e.g., Drover et al., 2017). Many highly successful companies such as Zoom, Airbnb, Google, Starbucks, The Body Shop, Innocent Smoothies, and Showpad have all been backed by angels. The pitch represents a critical first step towards raising interest among angel investors and securing much-needed funding (e.g., Chen et al., 2009; Kanze, Huang, Conley, & Higgins, 2018; Maxwell, Jeffrey, & Lévesque, 2011). The pitch is a decisive moment in entrepreneurs' quest for money as investors reject 70 to 90 percent of pitches (e.g., Chen et al., 2009; Huang & Pearce, 2015; Maxwell et al., 2011). This dissertation contributes to the growing stream of research that examines angels' investment decision-making. By drawing on theories from social psychology literature, this dissertation seeks to offer a more relational perspective to explore how angels judge entrepreneurs during their pitch and how angel and entrepreneur interact with each other during their first face-to-face meeting. The first paper of this dissertation focuses on the impact of angel's judgment about the entrepreneur on their decision to invest at the end of the pitching phase (i.e., after Q&A session), the second paper focuses on explaining why angels lose interest to invest within the pitching phase (from after the presentation to after the Q&A session) and the third paper focuses on the social interaction between entrepreneur and angel during the Q&A session. More specifically, building on social judgment research and resource allocation theory, the first study explores entrepreneur's warmth and competence as two critical dimensions along which angels perceive and judge entrepreneurs when making investment decisions and how angels' mental resources explain the interplay between perceived warmth, perceived competence and pitch sequence. The second study builds on the Elaboration Likelihood Model as dual-process theory to examine the impact of angel's experience and entrepreneur's verbal and nonverbal behavior on angel's likelihood to lose interest to invest from the presentation to after the Q&A session. In the third study examines the impact of angel's power words when asking questions on entrepreneur's answers
A leading macroeconomic indicators’ based framework to automatically generate tactical sales forecasts
No full textTactical sales forecasting is fundamental to production, transportation and personnel decisions at all levels of a supply chain. Traditional forecasting methods extrapolate historical sales information to predict future sales. As a result, these methods are not capable of anticipating macroeconomic changes in the business environment that often have a significant impact on the demand. To account for these macroeconomic changes, companies adjust either their statistical forecast manually or rely on an expert forecast. However, both approaches are notoriously biased and expensive. This paper investigates the use of leading macroeconomic indicators in the tactical sales forecasting process. A forecasting framework is established that automatically selects the relevant variables and predicts future sales. Next, the seasonal component is predicted by the seasonal naive method and the long-term trend using a LASSO regression method with macroeconomic indicators, while keeping the size of the indicator’s set as small as possible. Finally, the accuracy of the proposed framework is evaluated by quantifying the impact of each individual component. The carried out analysis has shown that the proposed framework achieves a reduction of 54.5% in mean absolute percentage error when compared to the naive forecasting method. Moreover, compared to the best performing conventional methods, a reduction of 25.6% is achieved in the tactical time window over three different real-life case studies from different geographical areas
Opening the gates: A framework for an open banking strategy
No full textThis paper provides decision makers in digital banking with a framework for developing their open banking strategies. Based on interviews with experts from leading banks and insurers, FinTech and big tech, a large consultancy and the regulator, we have identified five strategic dimensions of open banking — product innovation, customer experience integration, ecosystem competition, datascape and geographical scope — and mapped the relationships between them. Decision makers in financial services can assess their position on these important dimensions of open banking and set their strategic direction. Using the framework, we also illustrate how hitherto relatively closed banks with a dominant market position are starting to transform into open ecosystem players that embrace digital innovation. Likewise, we show how open banking initiatives of big tech and FinTech can be mapped on the framework. In addition, the paper reviews how regulation, market and digital technology impact open banking strategy
The offer you can't refuse - Wat als klanten meer willen dan een uitstekende service?
No full textMaatschappelijke dimensie van klantenrelaties concreet gemaakt Wat als klanten meer verwachten dan alleen een goed product, uitstekende service en perfect werkende digitale interfaces? En wat als nieuwe technologieën zoals 5G, artificiële intelligentie, quantum computing en robotica mogelijkheden bieden die verder gaan dan alleen gebruiksgemak creëren? Digitaal gebruiksgemak is het nieuwe minimum. Het is een commodity. De klant vindt het ondertussen de meest normale zaak van de wereld om met één druk op de knop toegang te hebben tot een reeks diensten en producten. De komende jaren zullen bedrijven een actieve rol moeten spelen in de 'life journey' van klanten: dromen mee helpen uitkomen en problemen in het dagelijks leven wegnemen. Daarnaast kijken klanten meer naar bedrijven dan naar overheden om maatschappelijke problemen zoals klimaat, gezondheidszorg en mobiliteit aan te pakken. Als je bedrijf erin slaagt een goed werkende digitale dienstverlening aan te bieden, een levenspartner van klanten te worden en mee een oplossing te zijn voor maatschappelijke uitdagingen, dan bouw je 'an offer you can't refuse'
Academy of Management Proceedings
No full textOrganisations make strategic decisions in a world of uncertainty, and their success or failure depends on their ability to organize this uncertainty and exploit or mitigate the associated risks. At the apex of this risk-strategy nexus is the board of directors. We use the institutional logics perspective to investigate how board directors make sense of and act on their authority and accountability for risk management in an environment of conflicting social identities and goals that are bounded by limited resources and cognition. Through the analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews with executive and non-executive directors we find that boards are struggling to reconcile competing supra-organisational logics of ´risk as opportunity´ and ´risk as threat´. Many boards adopt a ‘governance and compliance’ logic for risk management, emphasizing threat reduction/value protection over the exploitation of opportunities/value creation. A very few opt for a ‘strategic-swashbuckling’ logic that gives primacy to value creation via opportunity exploitation. We also find evidence of a nascent ‘appetite aware’ logic, rooted in the object of the risk appetite statement and spread by directors acting as cultural entrepreneurs. Discovery of the appetite aware logic adds to the evidence on logic modularisation and the ability of cultural entrepreneurs to act as change agents by transferring elements of institutional orders from one situation to another. We find that the introduction of a risk appetite statement can influence board risk narratives and management practices.
Values and Corporate Responsibility
No full textIn times when numerous scandals have challenged companies’ social legitimacy, CSR might serve as a legitimacy booster. But which is the most effective CSR strategy for improving legitimacy? This study examines how corporate social responsibility activity (CSRA) and corporate social responsibility communication (CSRC) impact legitimacy. The empirical results indicate that neither CSRA nor CSRC has a standalone effect; nonetheless, CSR is important for legitimacy: A CSR strategy that combines high levels of CSRA with low levels of CSRC emerges as the most effective for (re)gaining legitimacy, while an opposite strategy that combines low levels of CSRA with high levels of CSRC emerges as the worst
Barriers and Opportunities for Implementation of Outcome-Based Spread Payments for High-Cost, One-Shot Curative Therapies
No full textBackground: The challenging market access of high-cost one-time curative therapies has inspired the development of alternative reimbursement structures, such as outcome-based spread payments, to mitigate their unaffordability and answer remaining uncertainties. This study aimed to provide a broad overview of barriers and possible opportunities for the practical implementation of outcome-based spread payments for the reimbursement of one-shot therapies in European healthcare systems. Methods: A systematic literature review was performed investigating published literature and publicly available documents to identify barriers and implementation opportunities for both spreading payments and for implementing outcome-based agreements. Data was analyzed via qualitative content analysis by extracting data with a reporting template. Results: A total of 1,503 publications were screened and 174 were included. Main identified barriers for the implementation of spread payments are reaching an agreement on financial terms while considering 12-months budget cycles and the possible violation of corresponding international accounting rules. Furthermore, outcome correction of payments is currently hindered by the need for additional data collection, the lack of clear governance structures and the resulting administrative burden and cost. The use of spread payments adjusted by population- or individual-level data collected within automated registries and overseen by a governance committee and external advisory board may alleviate several barriers and may support the reimbursement of highly innovative therapies. Conclusion: High-cost advanced therapy medicinal products pose a substantial affordability challenge on healthcare systems worldwide. Outcome-based spread payments may mitigate the initial budget impact and alleviate existing uncertainties; however, their effective implementation still faces several barriers and will be facilitated by realizing the required organizational changes.This work was supported by a PhD fellowship strategic basic research of the Research Foundation - Flanders (1S70720N)
A Systematic Review of the Value Assessment Frameworks Used within Health Technology Assessment of Omics Technologies and Their Actual Adoption from HTA Agencies
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Omics technologies, enabling the measurements of genes (genomics), mRNA (transcriptomics), proteins (proteomics) and metabolites (metabolomics), are valuable tools for personalized decision-making. We aimed to identify the existing value assessment frameworks used by health technology assessment (HTA) doers for the evaluation of omics technologies through a systematic review.
METHODS: PubMed, Scopus, Embase and Web of Science databases were searched to retrieve potential eligible articles published until 31 May 2020 in English. Additionally, through a desk research in HTA agencies' repositories, we retrieved the published reports on the practical use of these frameworks.
RESULTS: Twenty-three articles were included in the systematic review. Twenty-two frameworks, which addressed genetic and/or genomic technologies, were described. Most of them derived from the ACCE framework and evaluated the domains of analytical validity, clinical validity and clinical utility. We retrieved forty-five reports, which mainly addressed the commercial transcriptomic prognostics and next generation sequencing, and evaluated clinical effectiveness, economic aspects, and description and technical characteristics.
CONCLUSIONS: A value assessment framework for the HTA evaluation of omics technologies is not standardized and accepted, yet. Our work reports that the most evaluated domains are analytical validity, clinical validity and clinical utility and economic aspects.This research was supported by the European Network Staff Exchange for Integrating Precision Health in the Health Care Systems project (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange no. 823995)