Vlerick Repository

• Determinants of open innovation adoption in public organizations: A systematic review

  De Coninck, Ben; Gasco-Hernandez, M.; Viaene, Stijn; Leysen, J. (Public Management Review, 2021)

  This article presents a synthesizing framework of the determinants of open innovation adoption in public organizations. We examine the fragmented literature and integrate earlier results. To provide a theoretical foundation to our understanding of open innovation adoption, we categorize determinants identified in the literature based on three theoretical perspectives on organizations: transaction cost theory, resource-based theory, and institutional theory. Our study finds that a resource-based rationale is dominant in the literature. Considerations regarding transaction costs and institutional pressures have received less attention. We end the article with suggestions for future research.
• Why pausing digital transformations is OK

  Viaene, Stijn (Ivey Business Journal, 2020)

  Thanks to the economic uncertainty and workplace turmoil created by the COVID-19 pandemic, more than a few companies have put digital transformation projects on hold, which is contributing to a decline in global spending on information technology. While the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many enterprise transformation projects taking a back seat to short-term IT priorities, the digital revolution in general has been accelerated. But it took a CIO's visionary introduction of a comprehensive framework called "analytics as a service" to really get the company started on its true journey of innovating with analytics.
• Revisiting women empowerment through a cultural lens a in-depth analysis of empowerment methodologies in horticulture in rural Ethiopia

  De Smet, Sarah; Boros, Smaranda (Frontiers in Psychology, 2021)

  As previous research in international development has clearly demonstrated (see Banerjee and Prasad, 2008 for an overview), cultural values have an impact on the conceptualization of empowerment. In this paper we explore the implications of Power Distance as a cultural dimension for the use of participatory methodologies toward achieving women empowerment in rural areas in the Global South. Our critical analysis of cultural differences between the intervention facilitator (a Western-based NGO) and a rural community in SNNPR (Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Regions) in Ethiopia reveals how discrepancies in the perception of cultural values impacted the different stages of the intervention. These discrepancies ranged from the principles of facilitation (facilitation from the back and its paradoxical effects in such hierarchical contexts) to the focus on tools (on equality between individuals rather than focus on the family as the smallest unit). Discrepancies also surfaced from the selection criteria of participants (highly vulnerable groups; one spouse per family; number of participants from one community all of which prevented the impact of the intervention to be more powerful in the long run) and from how the participants are organized during trainings (the ratio of mixed vs. segregated groups and the criteria of group segregation – this can play a large role in regard to the potential openness of conversations and the creation of safe spaces to explore new identities which are the key to empowerment). Through all the stages of the intervention, we make suggestions on how to better implement such methodologies in the future, in a context-sensitive manner, by considering the cultural differences in assumptions and practices.
• Forward-looking distribution network charges considering lumpy investments

  Govaerts, Niels; Bruninx, Kenneth; Le Cadre, Helene; Meeus, Leonardo; Delarue, Erik (Journal of Regulatory Economics, 2021)

  Many regulators are pushing for more cost-reflective distribution network charges to inform end users of the grid infrastructure costs their behavior causes. Since future investment costs can be avoided by reducing simultaneous peak loads, forward-looking, coincident peak charges are often proposed. Under the assumption of convex network costs, it has been shown that optimal charges signal long-run marginal network costs, triggering an optimal trade-off between network expansion and peak load reduction. In practice, however, network investments are lumpy, requiring engineering methods to estimate ill-defined marginal costs based on long-term peak demand forecasts. In this paper, we derive the optimal forward-looking network charge set by a social welfare maximizing regulator, endogenously considering investment lumpiness and uncertain consumer demand. While the optimal tariff still equals marginal network costs in essence, it now depends on a multitude of network- and demand-related parameters. Our results demonstrate that forward-looking network charges require accurate information on willingness to pay for peak demand, which currently is typically unknown to regulators.
• Innovation, policy, and regulation in electricity markets

  Kiesling, Lynne; Meeus, Leonardo; Pollitt, Michael (Energies, 2021)

  The rise of intermittent renewable energy generation, the coming mass penetration of electric vehicles and moves to decarbonise the gas grid are leading to widespread innovation experiments within electricity systems and their associated markets. These innovative experiments give rise to policy and regulatory questions, which must be ad dressed if innovations are to become business as usual within the lower voltage electricity distribution grid

View more