RSS 1.0Vlerick Repository
The Vlerick Repository is a searchable Open Access publication database, containing the complete archive of research output (articles, books, cases, doctoral dissertations,…) written by Vlerick faculty and researchers and preserved by the Vlerick Library.
Find out more about Open Access.
Call to action!
Making your past and future work Open Access in the Vlerick Repository is easy. Send the details of your research output (incl. post-print version) to research@vlerick.com.
Communities in Vlerick Repository
Select a community to browse its collections.
Recently Added
-
Preparing for scaling: A study on founder role evolutionOne of the major entrepreneurial challenges faced by scaling firms involves changing their internal organization. Our study focuses on a particular aspect of internal organizing—namely, how founder roles evolve in preparation for scaling. By means of an in-depth case study and a combination of data collection methods, we study the evolution of formal and informal founder roles. For both types of roles, we identify a founder-driven and an interaction-driven phase, during which founder and/or joiner role-crafting take place. Through both types of role-crafting, founder roles are (re)shaped. Particularly unique to our study is that we identify three scaling-specific paths through which the role-crafting of joiners shapes founders' roles. Specifically, founders experience a role efficiency increase as they take over some of the joiner-introduced role behaviors, or a role set decrease as joiners take over some of their (formal or informal) roles. We further point to the importance of psychological safety and value fit for successful joiner role-crafting to occur and for founder roles to change following founder-joiner interactions. Our study adds to the literatures on scaling and entrepreneurship as well as to role theory and role-crafting literature.
-
Organizational frontlines in the digital age: The consumer–autonomous technology–worker (CAW) frameworkWhile organizational frontlines in the digital age involve complex interactions between consumers, autonomous technology (AT), and frontline workers, research so far largely focuses on the effect of AT on either the consumer or the worker. Bridging the fields of marketing and organizational behavior, we develop the Consumer–Autonomous Technology–Worker (CAW) framework, which reflects the implications of consumer–worker–AT interactions. We consider that AT can be consumer-facing, such as service robots, or worker-facing, such as AT-enabled knowledge-based systems supporting a worker’s decision-making. Drawing on illustrative interviews in hospitality contexts with workers who co-work with robots and the consumers served, we develop research propositions that highlight avenues for future research. We expect consumer–worker relations to strengthen when AT augments instead of replaces the worker. Human leadership is critical for consumers’ and workers’ acceptance of AT, while AT anthropomorphism is less critical in the presence of a human worker.
-
How digitally mature is your finance office?As more CFOs try to capitalize on the promise of data and analytics, many find their offices aren’t seeing the expected gains. What separates digital finance leaders from the laggards? How can CFOs that struggle with the use of advanced analytics catch up with — and even surpass — their more successful colleagues? In this article, I offer a framework to help CFOs assess their office’s current data sophistication, and I illustrate how finance teams can improve their analytics capability by focusing on seven areas: strategic use of advanced analytics, model explainability, cross-functional data collaboration, analytics skills, exploration and experimentation, data-driven culture, and digital inclusivity.
-
Stability and accuracy of deterministic project duration forecasting methods in earned value managementEarned Value Management (EVM) is a project monitoring and control technique that enables the forecasting of a project’s duration. Many EVM metrics and project duration forecasting methods have been proposed. However, very few studies have compared their accuracy and stability. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents an exhaustive stability and accuracy analysis of deterministic EVM project duration forecasting methods. Stability is measured via Pearson’s, Spearman’s and Kendall’s correlation coefficients while accuracy is measured by Mean Squared and Mean Absolute Percentage Errors. These parameters are determined at ten percentile intervals to track a given project’s progress across 4,100 artificial project networks with varied topologies. Findings – Findings support that stability and accuracy are inversely correlated for most forecasting methods, and also suggest that both significantly worsen as project networks become increasingly parallel. However, the AT þ PD-ESmin forecasting method stands out as being the most accurate and reliable. Practical implications – Implications of this study will allow construction project managers to resort to the simplest, most accurate and most stable EVM metrics when forecasting project duration. They will also be able to anticipate how the project topology (i.e., the network of activity predecessors) and the stage of project progress can condition their accuracy and stability. Originality/value – Unlike previous research comparing EVM forecasting methods, this one includes all deterministic methods (classical and recent alike) and measures their performance in accordance with project duration.
-
Harnessing the potential of older workers through relationships at work: Social support, feedback, and performanceWith the aging of the global workforce, it is crucial to deepen our understanding of how to keep older workers healthy, motivated, and productive. In this research, we integrate job design with socioemotional selectivity theory to propose that social job characteristics relate to employee performance differently for older and younger workers. Specifically, in a three-wave survey (N=454), we tested employee age as a moderator of the relationships between receiving social support and feedback at work, and performance, as well as giving social support and feedback at work, and performance. The results showed that, in general, both receiving and giving social support and feedback are associated more strongly with the performance of older than younger workers. The findings provide important theoretical implications for the study of aging and work; they also offer practical applications for creating workplaces in which older workers can reap the benefits of social relationships to remain productive.