Search

For more than thirty-five years corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a subject of great interest among management scholars and is today increasingly viewed by managers as a critical aspect of organizations’ strategy and daily operations. In the academic debate, the business case for CSR has enjoyed particular attention at the macro-level through the analysis of a direct link between corporate social and financial performance. Although recent meta-analytic reviews reported that CSR performance has a weak but positive influence on firms’ financial performance, the literature still needs to clarify why CSR initiatives can impact this performance. Therefore, a new priority in this field is no longer to investigate whether CSR works, but rather to investigate the underlying mechanisms explaining why, how and under which conditions CSR’s initiatives positively impact organizations’ performance. In this vein, scholars suggested that the business case for CSR may be better explained through intermediate performance variables pertaining to stakeholder attitudes towards a company. While most studies adopting this perspective have focused their attention on external stakeholders situated at the macro-level of analysis (e.g., organizational, institutional, (trans)national stakeholders), less attention has been paid to what happens inside the organization. This constitutes an important gap in knowledge, given that employees are critical contributors to organizational core functioning and thus performance. Moreover, employees, as members of the firm, are concerned about, contribute to, and react to organizations’ CSR initiatives, and as such, largely contribute to its social performance. To date the few studies taking employees as a unit of analysis have consistently showed that specific CSR initiatives, mainly directed at external stakeholders’ well-being, influence employees’ commitment in the workplace. However, our understanding of the underlying mechanisms through, (IAG 3) -- UCL, 2013

Developing large and complex information systems with the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software components has become fundamental in today's enterprise information systems development. Such an approach does not require to develop the system from scratch but rather to adequately integrate third party software packages into the system under development. The potential benefits of this approach are essentially lower cost and shorter time of development. However, the use COTS software components in software system development presents new challenges tending to limit their use. This thesis aims to buid, apply and validate an original methodology, which is based on the software development methodologies proposed in the agent-oriented software engineering, for developing COTS-based system in the most efficient manner possible., (ECON 3) -- UCL, 2013

This doctoral dissertation, which consists of three essays, aims at providing new insights into consumer responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication campaigns. To achieve this objective, two situations for which existing literature does not clearly establish whether CSR communication can have a positive effect, or instead a negative effect, on consumer responses are examined: the occurrence of a crisis involving corporate social irresponsibility and the promotion of luxury products. The first essay investigates how consumers’ perceptions of corporate crises emerge and intertwine with their perceptions of corporate social (ir)responsibility, and offers a consumer-based classification of corporate crises that highlights their connections with CSR. The second essay investigates when communicating about CSR is more likely to mitigate or instead to strengthen the negative impact of a CSR-relevant crisis that subsequently surfaces, and demonstrates that the independence of the source in which the CSR communication appears determines which effect takes place. The third essay contributes to the discussion surrounding the notion of “responsible luxury” by showing that the defining characteristics of luxury products influence consumers’ perceptions of (in)compatibility between luxury and CSR., (IAG 3) -- UCL, 2013

This dissertation consists of four essays. The first essay offers a review of the literature devoted to necessity and opportunity entrepreneurship. The second essay focuses on the impact of the creator’s socio-economic characteristics on his/her necessity-opportunity positioning. The third and fourth essays analyze the impact of necessity and opportunity motivations on two aspects of the firm creation process. The third essay examines whether or not the necessity and/or the opportunity motivations can have an impact on the choice of the economic sector in which a business is started. The fourth essay focuses on the differences between necessity and opportunity entrepreneurs in terms of the gestation activities, i.e. the activities undertaken by nascent entrepreneurs during the organization’s creation process., (IAG 3) -- UCL, 2012

This doctoral thesis includes three essays on the notion of interactive use of management control systems. The first essay aims to improve the theoretical and empirical understanding of what does the interactive use of management control systems mean. The second essay investigates the empirical impact of the strategic uncertainty on the interactive use of management control systems and how this impact fluctuates according to different organizational contexts in which top-level hospital managers make decisions and control. The third essay examines the relative contribution of the strategic priorities (i.e., organizational driver) and top-level hospital managers’ personal characteristics (i.e., individual driver) to explain the interactive use of management control systems. Based on these three essays, this doctoral thesis enlarges the knowledge on the theoretical and empirical meaning of the interactive use of management control systems and provides empirical evidence on the drivers of the interactive use of management control systems in a hospital setting., (IAG 3) -- UCL, 2012

This dissertation deals with social entrepreneurship – that is, the pursuit of a social mission by means of entrepreneurial strategies. In their concurrent search for social impact and financial viability, the organizations of social entrepreneurship, called Social Entrepreneurial Ventures, face important challenges. In the four essays that compose this dissertation, we focus on definitional, contextual, and governance issues. In the first essay, by extensively reviewing the literature, we address the lack of clear definitions of social entrepreneurship and its related concepts, and formulate some propositions that help the field move forward. The second essay examines the differences, at the organizational level, between social and commercial entrepreneurship. We stress the influence of the socio-economic-political context on our understanding of social entrepreneurship. In the third essay, we tackle distinctive governance issues that take place in Social Entrepreneurial Ventures. We develop a theoretical argumentation that stewardship theory is more appropriate than agency theory when an organization pursues two objectives that are rooted in competing, if not contradicting, logics. The fourth essay empirically examines the effects of social entrepreneurs’ agency and stewardship mindsets on the development of organizational capabilities that facilitate the concurrent achievement of social impact and financial viability. We conclude by proposing several future research avenues., (IAG 3) -- UCL, 2012

In this editorial the previous and current state of studies in the subject of sustainability are considered and the role of HRM examined. Particular attention is drawn to the range of definitions of ‘sustainability’ and to prior approaches to Sustainable HRM. The difficulties of studying the complexities of the topics especially the varying perspectives from geographical locations and from practice and academia are observed. Meanwhile the opportunities for academic research to add value to the world of practice are identified. The editors then outline the contributions by the authors of the three papers and an extended book review that make up the Special Edition. Finally, there are suggestions for the course of future research on this increasingly important topic – for academics, for practitioners and for humanity in general.

Using a large sample of chief audit executives and internal audit managers from 19 countries, we investigate potential associations between cultural dimensions and variations in perceived use/compliance with the internal auditing standards. We find uncertainty avoidance to be inversely related to both use and compliance. We also find assertiveness and human orientation to be positively related to compliance but not to use of Standards. Among control variables, we find positive associations for the length of Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) membership, professional certification in internal auditing, and hours of continuing professional education (CPE) training on both perceived use and compliance. Finally, we find “Cost of compliance” and “Compliance not expected in my country” to be inversely related to perceived use/compliance. Implications of these findings are discussed.

This study investigates (1) whether agency variables are associated with the relative size of the internal audit function (IAF); (2) whether the IAF is complementary to other monitoring mechanisms such as independent board members and an active audit committee; and (3) the impact of the control environment on the relative size of the IAF. We use data from a sample of Belgian firms. We find evidence of a monitoring role for the IAF in corporate governance. Specifically, the relative IAF size is positively related to management share ownership. Also, we find evidence for a substitution effect between independent board members and the IAF. Finally, it turns out that a supportive control environment also has a positive impact on the relative size of the IAF. Our results can benefit companies interested in assessing the current size of their IAF and the role that it can play in corporate governance.

Relationships between supervisor support, organizational commitment, and employee outcomes are traditionally investigated at the individual level. This paper extends prior research by testing such relationships at both individual and work-unit level. First, it explores the mediating effect of employee organizational commitment between perceived supervisor support and employee customer orientation and withdrawal behavior. Second, this study investigates the mediating effect of work-unit level of commitment between supervisor support climate and work-unit performance measured by customer-perceived service quality and annual sales. We thus suggest that organizational commitment functions as a mediator both at the individual level and at the work-unit level. Even though the construct’s content remains the same across levels, theoretical rationales for the effects of commitment at different levels differ: commitment at the individual level mediates the effect of supervisor support on employee outcomes according to a norm of reciprocity and social exchange process, whereas work-unit level of commitment mediates the effect of supervisor support climate on work-unit performance by changing the general climate in which the group operates. Furthermore, we posit that the mediating effect of work-unit commitment is moderated by customer orientation climate. We suggest that supervisor support climate strength has a cross-level interactive effect on the relationship between employee’s supervisor support perceptions and commitment. Hierarchical linear modeling and bootstrap regression analyses conducted on data collected from 857 employees belonging to 31 hotels, and from hotels’ customers, and on objective data (annual sales) confirmed our predictions. First, results of bootstrap analyses showed that employee commitment mediated the effect of supervisor support on both customer orientation and turnover intention. At the work-unit level, commitment mediated the effect of superviso

Purpose: This study seeks to analyze and explore whether the organizational profile, the size of the internal audit function (IAF) and internal audit (IA) practices are related to the age of the IAF. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on data collected from the Common Body of Knowledge study conducted by the Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation in 2006. In total, 9,366 practitioners completed the questionnaire, representing 92 countries. Findings: This study has identified three clusters of IAF based on their age. The findings show that: the organizational profile is significantly different between these three clusters; the current size of the IAF is related to the age of the IAF; those IAFs that were set up in the early days of the IIA (established in 1941) are more likely to use the IIA Standards and have more internal auditors with internal auditing qualifications; a quality assurance and improvement program is more common within older IAFs; and older IAFs have a more diversified IA agenda and more frequently perform advanced IA activities. Research limitations/implications: This paper does not allow conclusions to be reached on causality: the results in this paper are based only on univariate association tests. Given that age of the IAF is not a proxy for its maturity, a multidimensional measure of the maturity of an IAF could be developed. Practical implications: The results reported in this paper can be useful for practitioners who wish to benchmark their IAF and for the IIA to continue implementing their mission “progress through sharing”. Originality/value: This is the first large‐scale study focusing on the age of the IAF. The results of this study have resulted in interesting directions for future research.

The implementation of clinical pathways (CPs) is a quality improvement process that uses a horizontal and multidisciplinary approach far different from the silo approach usually present in hospital structures. Because hospitals are pluralistic organizations characterized by multiple objectives and diffuse power, CP implementation represents a complex intervention. By focusing on the initiation stage, our research aims to understand the key managerial success factors to take into account during this critical period. Using a qualitative approach, we analyse the CP change initiation stage within 11 Belgian hospitals. Based on a double success indicator collected one year and a half after CP project's initiation, we focus on CP failures and successful CP implementations. This research suggests three key factors supporting CP's effective implementation: the importance of alignment between direction's goals and piloting team's expectations (alignment of goals), the piloting team's acceptance of CP choice (alignment of logics of action), and the importance of complementarities between multiple leaders (alignment of leaders' roles). In conclusion, change initiation in a complex organizational environment is a major strategic stake for its managers. The suggested triple organizational alignment is useful for any CP implementation, but also for the initiation stage of any changes in pluralistic organizations.

Given a graph with nonnegative edge weights and node pairs Q, we study the problem of constructing a minimum weight set of edges so that the induced subgraph contains at least K edge-disjoint paths containing at most L edges between each pair in Q. Using the layered representation introduced by Gouveia, we present a formulation for the problem valid for any K; L >= 1. We use a Benders decomposition method to efficiently handle the big number of variables and constraints. We show that our Benders cuts contain the constraints used by Huygens et al. to formulate the problem for L = 2; 3; 4, as well as new inequalities when L >= 5. While some recent works on Benders decomposition study the impact of the normalization constraint in the dual subproblem, we focus here on when to generate the Benders cuts. We present a thorough computational study of various branchand- cut algorithms on a large set of instances including the real based instances from SNDlib. Our best branch-and-cut algorithm combined with an efficient heuristic is able to solve the instances signicantly faster than CPLEX 12 on the extended formulation.

Using a rich dataset of orders and trades for a sample of stocks listed on the four European markets of NYSE Euronext, we apply principal component analysis and provide evidence on the existence and magnitude of commonality in returns, order flow and liquidity. We show that commonality in order flow mainly comes from foreign market members acting for their own account. Proprietary trading is a major driver in trade imbalance and return commonality. Next, we provide evidence on commonality in hidden liquidity. In contrast to commonality in visible depth that is the strongest for large firms, comovements in hidden depth seem to be stronger for small caps. We also show that commonality in returns, order flow and liquidity is not constant throughout the day. The opening of US markets is a key moment where commonality often reaches its maximum level.

La nouvelle théorie des droits de propriété constitue, en apparence, une tentative de dépassement des deux conceptions traditionnelles et antinomiques du gouvernement d’entreprise, que sont les approches « shareholder » et « stakeholder ». L’hypothèse structurante de cette thèse est que la nouvelle théorie des droits de propriété relaie, dans le champ des théories du gouvernement d’entreprise, le « nouvel esprit du capitalisme », c’est-à-dire l’idéologie justifiant l’essor du capitalisme contemporain selon Boltanski et Chiapello. Après avoir apparié ces deux approches théoriques (au niveau de leur conception de la firme, des enjeux et modes de gouvernance), le « nouvel esprit du capitalisme » est mobilisé comme une ressource critique en vue d’examiner si la nouvelle théorie des droits de propriété vise véritablement à restaurer la justice dans un monde connexionniste dominé par la logique de la valeur actionnariale, ou légitime au contraire une intensification de l’exploitation des parties prenantes. L’exploitation en question trouve principalement son origine dans la transformation du non-capital en capital (de l’être humain en capital humain) et dans un rapport de force lié à la mobilité, raison pour laquelle ce travail critique s’enracine dans une réflexion préalable et approfondie sur les concepts de « capital humain » et de sa « spécialisation » à la firme. Le principal matériau exploité dans cette thèse étant constitué des justifications avancées par diverses théories économiques de la firme, notre propos sera illustré par l’analyse d’un dispositif concret de gouvernance des salariés, à savoir l’octroi d’actions et de stock-options au titre de rémunération., (IAG 3) -- UCL, 2011

From his birth, every human being is facing constant uncertainty. This initial uncertainty is reduced by two kinds of learning that differ from one culture to another: those from the physical environment and those from the socio-cultural linguistic environment. However, one can hypothesize that all societies are organized to reduce uncertainty. Among institutions which reduce uncertainty, insurance is different through its ability to manage risk, and create mechanisms for the prevention and settlement of claims. Vulnerability and insecurity that threaten human require solidarity participation. Insurance institutions have been developed in this vision. By their transfer functions of risk, support for capital markets, and allocation of information and knowledge; the insurance systems allow reducing uncertainty in all human activities, controlling the physical and human environment, and minimizing economic costs of transactions and production. Therefore, they are one of the vectors catalysts of the socio-economic development process. This is the main purpose of this study from the reference models to an adapted application in the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo., Dès sa naissance, chaque être humain est confronté à une incertitude permanente. Cette incertitude initiale est réduite par des apprentissages de deux sortes qui diffèrent d’une culture à l’autre : ceux provenant de l’environnement physique et ceux provenant de l’environnement linguistique socioculturel. Cependant, on peut formuler l’hypothèse que toutes les sociétés s’organisent pour réduire l’incertitude. Parmi les institutions de réduction de l’incertitude, l’assurance se démarque par sa capacité de gérer les risques, et de créer des mécanismes de prévention et d’indemnisation des sinistres. La vulnérabilité et la précarité qui menacent l’homme nécessitent une solidarité participative. Les institutions d’assurance se sont développées dans cette conception. Par leurs fonctions de transfert des risques, de soutien aux marchés des capitaux, d’allocation des informations et des connaissances ; les systèmes des assurances permettent : la réduction de l’incertitude dans toutes les activités humaines, la maîtrise de l’environnement physique et humain, ainsi que la minimisation des coûts économiques des transactions et de la production. De ce fait, ils constituent l’un des vecteurs catalyseurs du processus de développement socio-économique. C’est l’objet principal de cette étude à partir des modèles de références pour une application au cas de la République Démocratique du Congo., (IAG 3) -- UCL, 2011

The collective creation of value has remained underexplored in management research. Drawing on social psychology and behavioral economics, we analyze the impact of the mix of employee motives to cooperate and compare the collective value generated by three motivational systems: individual monetary incentives, benevolent cooperation, and disciplined cooperation. Aligning the motivational system with the mix of motives in the workforce allows firms to foster cooperation and realize the value creation potential of their resources.

This article presents the past, present and future of model-based user interface development. After 30 years of research there has been significant success in modeling user interfaces. This article aims to give a comprehensive overview of the history, describes important aspects and current approaches, lists actual challenges of model-based user interface development and gives implications for the next generation.

Purpose – This paper aims to present a case study of the application of a methodology that represents an innovative strategy that integrates researches on interaction design and business process management with practical implications. This methodology is devoted to aligning the needs of enterprise system users with business processes (BPs). Design/methodology/approach – This approach establishes an unbroken network of links between BPs, task models and abstract representations of user interfaces. Once the models are linked, it is possible to identify the impact that any change on these models may produce in other models. The main challenge is to organize the linked models according to the organizational context and manage those links with consistency in order to support improving process efficiency and user productivity. This approach has been applied in a large telecommunications organization during four months with its application in two different projects and validated with a cost-benefit analysis. Findings – Applying this approach in large organizations has demonstrated that: every involved stakeholder is capable of understanding the whole approach in one working day; creating the models and linking them with the corresponding business process models takes around three men/day per core business process; and applying this approach brings up to 60 per cent of return on investment related to process improvement and user experience. Originality/value – The main differentials of this methodology include using simple models; considering light actions; preserving the independence of technology; and adopting a human-oriented approach assuring that every managed information impacts people and not only systems, thus enabling fast adaptation to the business dynamism.

The analysis of manufacturing systems with finite capacity and with general service time distributions is made of two steps: the distributions have first to be transformed into tractable phase-type distributions, and then the modified system can be analytically modelled. In this paper, we propose a new alternative in order to build tractable phase-type distributions, and study its effects on the global modelling process. Called “probability masses fitting” (PMF), the approach is quite simple: the probability masses on regular intervals are computed and aggregated on a single value in the corresponding interval, leading to a discrete distribution. PMF shows some interesting properties: it is bounding, monotonic, refinable, it approximates distributions with finite support and it conserves the shape of the distribution. With the resulting discrete distributions, the evolution of the system is then exactly modelled by a Markov chain. Here, we focus on flow lines and show that the method allows us to compute upper and lower bounds on the throughput as well as good approximations of the cycle time distributions. Finally, the global modelling method is shown, by numerical experiments, to compute accurate estimations of the throughput and of various performance measures, reaching accuracy levels of a few tenths of a percent.

Social entrepreneurial ventures pursue a double bottom line, i.e., they try to achieve simultaneous social and financial performance. Governance has been shown to be a critical issue for firm performance. However, this issue has been neglected in the SE literature. This exploratory study empirically addresses this gap by proposing a mediational model between governance behaviors (agency and stewardship) and financial performance and social impact. Although showing mixed results about the mediation by organizational capabilities, this study shows that these are good predictors of both financial performance and social impact, and that agents’ opportunistic behaviors negatively influence the development of these organizational capabilities.