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In her dissertation 'Context Dependent Valuation. A neuroscientific perspective on consumer decision-making’, Linda Couwenberg takes an interdisciplinary approach to study how different types of contextual information can increase the desirability of anticipated outcomes and thereby influence common, everyday, consumer behaviors.

In his dissertation 'Changing the Narrative: The Behavioral Effects of Social Evaluations on the Decision Making of Organizations’, Hesam Fasaei extends and combines theories from literature on corporate reputation, status shifts, celebrity, performance feedback and expectations of market analysts, and exploration/exploitation.

In his dissertation 'Managing External Temporal Constraints in Manual Warehouses’, Arpan Rijal studies the impact of external temporal constraints in three operational planning problems at manual warehouses. By developing mathematical models for the problem, this dissertation proposes solution approaches for them and conducts computational experiments to derive insights.

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded Dr Niels Rietveld of Erasmus School of Economics an ERC Starting Grant. The ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros is awarded to talented early-career researchers (2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD) who have a scientific track record that shows great promise and have the potential to be a true research leader in their respective field. This grant enables Niels Rietveld to conduct his groundbreaking research for the coming five years.

Is COVID-19 a threat to banks and financial stability in Europe? And which economic sectors are hit hardest by the COVID-19 crisis? Prof. Mathijs van Dijk, Prof. Dirk Schoenmaker and Henk Jan Reinders from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) have been awarded a ZonMW grant of €79,930 to investigate answers to these questions. The grant is part of a subsidy by the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and national research organisation NWO: ‘Covid-19 Societal Dynamics’. It is awarded for short-term research aimed at the societal effects of the corona pandemic and of the possible policy measures to mitigate these effects. The proposed research aims to provide an up-to-date assessment of expected loan losses for European banks using real-time market valuations to determine the impact of COVID-19 on Europe’s financial stability.

The Dutch network for studies on pensions, aging and retirement (Netspar) has awarded two of its Topicality Grants, each worth € 20,000, to research projects of researchers at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM). Both projects promote a wider understanding of the economic and social implications of pensions, aging and retirement in the Netherlands and Europe.
The first project involves ‘Climate change and long-horizon portfolio choice: combining theory and empirics’ with Dr Mathijs Cosemans, Prof. Mathijs van Dijk, and PhD candidate Xander Hut. The second project will answer the question ‘Do more sustainable companies perform better during the corona crisis?’. This is a collaboration between Prof. Mathijs van Dijk and Prof. Gianfranco Gianfrate (EDHEC Business School).

As part of its 50th anniversary, the Journal of Economic Theory presents a special issue that includes the 50 most influential papers the journal has published over the years. One of these selected papers is An index of loss aversion, written by Peter Wakker, Professor of Decisions under Uncertainty at Erasmus School of Economics, together with Veronika Köbberling.

Which factors determine whether innovation and corporate venturing activities survive a crisis such as Covid-19? Prof. Vareska van de Vrande from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) has been awarded a ZonMW grant as part of a subsidy by the Dutch Ministery of Health, Welfare and Sport and national research organisation NWO: ‘Covid-19 Science for Society’. These grants are awarded to short-term research that helps answer questions and addresses practical problems organisations face in dealing with the corona crisis. Her research aims to determine the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the innovation and corporate venturing activities of organisations.

In her dissertation 'The Hard Power Of Soft Power: A behavioral strategy perspective on how power, reputation, and status affect firms’, Radina Blagoeva seeks to shed light on how evaluations by financial markets affect firm decision making and how strategic decisions are evaluated by those markets in three empirical studies.

In her dissertation 'Contextualized Consumers: Theories and Evidence on Consumer Ethics, Product Recommendations, and Self-Control’, Phyliss Jia Gai claims that the new age gives rise to novel challenges regarding how to promote consumer welfare.