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Unethical behaviour by employees remains a formidable challenge for organizations well into the 21st century, and it is still regrettably common in the workplace: from private, public, to non-governmental. In his dissertation, "Unravelling Team Ethical Culture: The Existence, Relevance and Implications for Ethics Management", ERIM's Guillem Casoliva Cabana explored the role of team ethical culture (TEC) in the prevention of unethical behaviour. His dissertation aims to improve our understanding of TEC and its role in designing an ethics program effective at preventing unethical behaviour. Overall, this dissertation’s novelty in the study of ethical culture is the use of one organization as a case study, while contributing to a better understanding of the effectiveness of ethics programs in preventing unethical behaviour across teams.

The Erasmus Research Institute of Management celebrates a remarkable achievement by the Marketing department and our esteemed doctoral alumni. In the special 50th anniversary issue of the Journal of Consumer Research published in June 2024, there are three out of the sixteen featured articles authored by graduates from ERIM's PhD programme. These outstanding achievements are proof of the excellent quality of research at ERIM as one of the top management research institutes in Europe, as well as our PhD programmes and their contribution to the stream of global thought leadership.

In his dissertation, "New Forms of Leadership," ERIM's Folkert Mulder explored how global developments had altered the business environment, creating a need for innovative leadership approaches. Folkert argued that traditional hierarchical leadership structures were no longer sufficient to address the complexities of modern organizations, which faced evolving demands, innovative business models, intricate supply chains, and rapid digitalization. Through his research, he highlighted the importance of moving beyond singular leadership models, advocating for a pluralistic approach where multiple leaders collectively navigate challenges, ensuring efficiency, transparency, and resilience. This shift towards a more distributed leadership structure enables organizations to better manage the dynamic and interconnected landscape, ultimately enhancing their ability to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world.

In her dissertation, "The Dark Side of the NGO Halo: Exploring moral goodness as a driver for NGO unethical behavior", ERIM's Isabel de Bruin Cardoso drew on social identity theory and cognitive dissonance theory to develop a conceptual framework of the NGO halo effect to explain unethical behaviour through NGO perceived moral goodness. She introduced the concept of the NGO halo effect to explain how people in NGOs can idealise and accordingly prioritise the moral goodness of their organisation’s mission, morals, and people. As a result, NGOs' unethical behaviour is masked by such prioritisation. Results from Isabel's research shed light on how NGO halo can drive unethical behaviour through moral justification, moral superiority, and moral naivety. 

In her dissertation, "Receiving by Giving: The Examining of Cross-Border Diasporic and Bi-cultural Philanthropy", ERIM's Malika Ouacha zoomed into the context of the Netherlands to examine the cross-border diasporic and bi-cultural philanthropy. Morocco was taken as an example of a homeland of diaspora and bi-cultural groups and as representative of one side of the spectrum of Western and non-Western countries, cultures, religions and civilizations. Malika's research showed that diasporic philanthropy is about much more than mere support of the homeland. Instead, the dissertation underscored the impact of cultural identity, intercultural traditions of giving behaviour, and multi-cultural civil society in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. As a result, Malika's work concluded that voluntary and philanthropic energy through diaspora and bi-cultural groups can form invaluable bridges for international business. However, businesses and practitioners must first understand what drives these groups constantly towards the homeland and the Global South as a whole in order to form successful collaborations with them.

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.