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In his dissertation, "Vehicle Routing with Varying Levels of Demand Information", ERIM's Ymro Hoogendoorn studied the vehicle routing problem, for which he centred the exact methodology in three different levels of demand information: deterministic, stochastic and sensor-driven. The vehicle routing problem encompasses the challenge of efficiently serving a set of customers with a fleet of vehicles while minimising the travel costs and ensuring each vehicle starts and ends at a central depot. Ymro enhanced the branch-price-and-cut algorithm, introducing resource-robust cuts for the capacitated vehicle routing problem with deterministic demands, resulting in speedups for specific instances. Additionally, he pioneered an advanced integer L-shaped method for optimal solutions in stochastic demand situations. Applied to waste collection with sensors, the algorithm recommended optimal sensor placement for locations with variable waste. Overall, Ymro’s research significantly contributes to improving routing efficiency, showcasing potential cost savings and environmental benefits.

In his dissertation, "Externalities in Economics and Finance: Essays on Spillover Effects and Economic Decisions", ERIM's Francesco Mazzola investigated the behaviour of investors, buyers, and the public sector in illiquid markets during turmoil times of financial and health crises, centring the role of externalities – the impact of one party’s actions on others. The dissertation suggested that individuals exposed to externalities often internalise externalities in their decision-making process. Through his study, Francesco proposed the implications of externalities and associated economic inefficiency for governments and policymakers to prevent individually rational but socially wasteful behaviour through policy intervention. As the presence and size of externalities often justify Government intervention, studying the propagation of spillover effects across market agents is a prerequisite to designing optimal policy.

In her dissertation, "Making Sense of Sensitivity in the Workplace: Coping With Contextual Information in Innovation and Social Networks", ERIM's Qi Zhang deviated from existing research on sensory processing sensitivity to view innate sensitivity from a different perspective: an asset in the workplace instead of a potential risk factor. Specifically, Qi's research delved into how individuals forecast the potential of creative ideas and develop and utilise their social networks under the constraint of their innate sensitivity. Findings from the dissertation shed light on how individuals with varying sensitivity levels can thrive in their respective contexts and inform organisations on how to improve organisational decision-making in innovation management and create a more inclusive social environment where everyone can flourish.

In his dissertation, "Essays on Financial Disclosure and Innovation", ERIM's Mengfan Liu examined firms’ incentives to engage in R&D activities and disclose R&D information. Corporate innovation activities hold an influential role across industries and societies. Nevertheless, investment in innovation activities is hindered by information asymmetry. Mengfan Liu further delved into three areas: firms’ strategic concerns in financial reporting in the race for R&D, a Chinese stock market with an information disclosure mandate, and the impact of a firm’s political connections on innovation. Results from his research provided valuable insights into firms’ decision-making processes and outcomes in innovation, instrumental in aiding policymakers and researchers in formulating policies that encourage investment in innovation activities while addressing information asymmetry in corporate R&D.

In his dissertation, 'Leader-Follower Relationships in Technologically Advanced Operations', ERIM’s Alexandros Pasparakis explored the leader-follower relationships in traditional human-to-human contexts and the novel human-robot interaction in the increasingly technologically-driven field of operations management. Through his research, Alexandros concluded ways to design and implement advanced technologies to optimize human workers’ objective performance while considering their subjective experience.

In his dissertation, 'Creating Shared Value: An Operations and Supply Chain Management Perspective', ERIM's Hamed Vafa Arani delved into the concept of creating shared value to identify holistic strategies that offer a comprehensive grasp of people, planet, and profit objectives. Specifically, the dissertation explores two areas where this integration is crucial: servicising business models and drug shortages. Based on the research findings, Hamed proposed pricing policies for businesses that can achieve profitability, reduce ecological footprints, and enhance consumer welfare, as well as a mitigation strategy for policymakers to address drug shortages.

Loneliness and its undesirable consequences have been studied extensively in the domains of psychology, sociology, and philosophy over the past few decades, yet only recently has it gained traction in the management field. In his dissertation, Lonely-ship: The Emergence and Experience of Leader Loneliness, ERIM’s Hodar Lam investigated the oftentimes overlooked phenomenon of loneliness in leadership contexts through multiple perspectives and research methods. The dissertation’s findings highlight the notion of loneliness experiences at top-level positions, hence advocating for more attention to leader emotional challenges in both research and practice.

Over the summer, there have been many changes in the ERIM Office. We have said goodbye to Prof. dr. Kirsten Rohde, Dr. Frank Wijen, Bep Klop, Felicia Mok, and Dr. Phoebe Mui. On the other hand, we warmly welcome Prof. dr. Pilar Garcia-Gomez, Dr. Rebecca (Bex) Hewett, Silvija Prancane-Verhoef, and Vusala Guliyeva.

In his dissertation, 'Asymmetric Information in Programmatic Advertising.
Three studies on adverse selection, mechanism choices, and fee structures.', ERIM's Francesco Balocco delved into the world of programmatic advertising supply chain, where he investigated the role of asymmetric information in the relationships between advertisers (buyers), publishers (sellers), and Ad Exchanges (auction platforms). Through three studies, Francesco’s research addressed the complexities of asymmetric information, conflicting incentives, and mechanism choices existing within programmatic advertising - opening up new avenues for improving the programmatic advertising supply chain, fostering greater trust, and shaping the future of digital advertising.

In her inaugural address, The Reality of a Virtual World Creating Value for Companies, Consumers, and Society, ERIM’s Yvonne van Everdingen delved into how virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) can create value for companies, consumers, and society, by providing several examples from business practice. The increasing adoption of VR and AR in the business realm has propelled these technologies to gain more traction in the field of marketing, both as a focus of studies and as a new research tool. Yvonne's research has sparked some insights into how consumers’ application of AR in online shopping may potentially reduce product return rates and provided initial evidence suggesting the possibility of VR experiences to substitute real-life experiences. She also addressed how VR could enhance existing research methodologies and showed three ways of conducting research with VR at the Erasmus Behavioural Lab.