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In her dissertation, 'Exploring the Role of Context and Interpretative Dynamics in Large-Scale Cross-Cultural Collaborations', ERIM’s Chuqiao Zhou explored how contexts and interpretative dynamics affect the processes of large-scale cross-cultural collaborations. Going against the majority of organizational research approaching the same topic, Chuqiao argued that organizations do not operate in a vacuum. Different kinds of context can give rise to different organizational activities and have further implications for research. In particular, hostile contexts include societal criticisms towards certain groups of organizations and can further impact the decision-making processes of these organizations. The role of context is still insufficiently studied in the field of cross-cultural management. Chuqiao's dissertation contributes to the existing literatures by underscoring the significant yet neglected role of contexts and their interactions with actors’ interpretations.

In his dissertation, 'An Indigenous Perspective on Institutions for Sustainable Business in China', ERIM’s Wenjie Liu built endemically Chinese theoretical explanations on how institutions shape businesses' ability to simultaneously contribute to economic expansion, environmental protection, and social equity through three findings. First, he provided insights into how to fit classic Western management theories with Chinese institutional contexts more tightly. Second, he found that collaboration with foreign MNEs presenting an opportunity structure to these NGOs is crucial to predict their effectiveness. Yet local governments’ own level of commitment to the natural environment substitutes for the main effect. Finally, he discovered that state political ideology can be used to impose clan-like control on corporations, but its effectiveness depends on the central state’s ability to intervene in local governments. These findings together shaped an integrated framework for understanding institutional arrangements that promote sustainability among Chinese businesses.

In his dissertation, 'A New Frontier for the Study of the Commons: Open-Source Hardware', ERIM’s Pascal Carpentier explored, in three studies, the role commons play in helping Open-Source Hardware communities deliver and scale up end products. Commons have existed since antiquity and have structured the use, protection, and consumption of shared resources, usually subject to social dilemmas. Recently, commons have been highlighted as inspirational governance models to help face the combined threat of COVID-19 and the environmental crisis. Pascal's dissertation offers fresh insight into the Open-Source Hardware movement, stating that it has more complexity than previously realized and requires a constantly evolving governance.

In her dissertation, 'Wait for Others? Social and Intertemporal Preferences in Allocation of Healthcare Resources', ERIM’s Merel van Hulsen studied the joint effect of peoples' social and intertemporal preferences on allocation decisions, focusing on decision-making in healthcare. Most countries' budgets for healthcare is limited; therefore, decisions must be made on how to spend this budget, who receives treatment, and when, which may have significant temporal and social consequences.

In her dissertation, 'Unringing the Stigma Bell: Investigating Informational and Social Mechanisms Behind Boards of Directors’ Appointments', ERIM’s Ilaria Orlandi focused on how people make decisions when a lot of information is unknown or kept hidden. Ilaria examined this by exploring the appointment of directors by board members: How do board members gather information, evaluate it, and make their decisions?

In his dissertation, 'Vulnerability Through Vertical Collaboration in Transportation: A Complex Networks Approach', ERIM’s Camill Harter showed that vulnerability in collaborative transport networks is strongly influenced by the market structure of carriers; systems with mainly similar-sized carriers are robust to targeted disruption, whereas the total magnitude of potential failure is very large; systems with a few dominating players have a lower magnitude of failure but are highly susceptible to targeted disruption; moreover, there is an optimal level of collaboration where the increasing risk of disruption cascades outweighs the decreasing marginal added benefits of additional collaboration.

In her dissertation, 'Behavioural Insights from the COVID-19 Pandemic. Studies on Compliance, Vaccination, and Entrepreneurship', ERIM’s Annelot Wismans studied the understanding of behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic. She covered three themes: Compliance with COVID-19 measures, COVID-19 vaccination, and entrepreneurship during the pandemic.

Entrepreneurs have lower vaccination willingness and female students were less likely to have entrepreneurial aspirations during the corona pandemic, according to the PhD research of Annelot Wismans of Erasmus School of Economics. Conducting surveys among students also yielded interesting behavioural insights on compliance with COVID-19 regulations.

In his dissertation, 'Valorizing Innovation through Imaginativeness in Business Venturing', Brian Chung developed a deeper understanding of innovation. He studied the psychology and imaginativeness behind innovation and the effectiveness of this when exploring market opportunities. His research uncovered that the psychological and motivational attributes that mould an entrepreneur can affect their ability to innovate and spot opportunities for development and marked market expansion.

In her dissertation, 'Essays on Consumers and Numbers', Manissa Gunadi focused on consumers' relationship with numerical information. Numbers are becoming increasingly omnipresent; as individuals we encounter numerical information in a variety of the different decisions and activities we undertake in our daily lives. Manissa states that consumers' relationship with numbers is in fact complex and nuanced, and should not only be viewed from a purely normative and mathematical perspective.