Working papers overview 2002

  • 2002/22 - Evaluation of age-related labels by senior citizens

    Authors: Weijters, B., Geuens, M.
    The age-related labels '50+,' 'senior'and 'retired' are evaluated by a 45+ sample. Results show the appreciation of the terms increases upon entering the 50+ / senior / retirement group and keeps on increasing with age once the treshold age is crossed.

  • 2002/21 - The reorganization decisions of troubled firms: exit, downscale or relocate

    Authors: Sleuwaegen, L., Pennings, E.
    Poorly performing firms need to improve their profitability through restructuring their operations. In many cases this means downsizing by means of collective layoff of employees.

  • 2002/20 - Why do European venture capital companies syndicate?

    Authors: Manigart, S., Lockett, A., Meuleman, M., Wright, M., Landström, H., Bruining, H., Desbrieres, P., Hommel, U.
    Financial theory, resource-based theory and access to deal flow are used to explain syndication practices among European venture capital (VC) firms. The desire to share risk and increase portfolio diversification is a more important motive for syndication than the desire to access additional intangible resources or deal flow.

  • 2002/19 - Optimal due date assignment in project scheduling

    Authors: Vanhoucke, M.
    In this paper we introduce the concept of due date assignment in the project scheduling literature. Despite the fact that due date assignment problems belongs to the core of the machine scheduling literature, no attempts have been made to tackle this problem in a project scheduling environment.

  • 2002/18 - New computational results for the discrete time/cost trade-off problem with time-switch constraints

    Authors: Vanhoucke, M.
    Recently, time-switch constraints have been introduced in literature by Yang and Chen (2000). Basically, these constraints impose a specified starting time on the project activities and force them to be inactive during specified time periods.

  • 2002/17 - Value-based management control processes to create value through integration: a literature review

    Authors: Ameels, A., Bruggeman, W., Scheipers, G.
    In the last decades, management accounting faced increasing challenges to adopt new approaches, designed to fit the changes in the economic environment and to correct perceived inefficiencies in existing controlling structures. This paper focuses on one of those recent developments, viz. value-based management (VBM).

  • 2002/16 - Financial and investment interdependencies in unquoted Belgian companies: the role of venture capital.

    Authors: Manigart, S., Baeyens, K., Verschueren, I.
    There is ample empirical evidence that investments in (public) companies are correlated with cash flow. This may either be explained as evidence of financing constraints (Fazzari, Hubbard and Petersen, 1988), as excessive conservatism by managers, restraining investments to the internally generated cash flow (Kaplan and Zingales, 2000).

  • 2002/15 - Venture capitalists in Asia: a comparison with the U.S. and Europe.

    Authors: Bruton, Gary D., Manigart, S., Fried, V., Sapienza, H.J.
    This research utilizes an institutional perspective to examine the behavior of venture capital professionals in three distinct regions of the world (Asia, U.S., Europe). Based upon a mail survey, we find reasonably consistent views around the world on the relative importance of various venture capitalist roles.

  • 2002/14 - Does foreign direct investment crowd out domestic entrepreneurship?

    Authors: De Backer, K., Sleuwaegen, L.
    In analyzing firm entry and exit across Belgian manufacturing industries, this paper presents evidence that import competition and foreign direct investment discourage entry and stimulate exit of domestic entrepreneurs.

  • 2002/13 - Foreign ownership and productivity dynamics

    Authors: De Backer, K., Sleuwaegen, L.
    In analyzing the distinctive contribution of foreign subsidiaries and domestic firms to productivity growth in aggregate Belgian manufacturing, this paper shows that foreign ownership is an important source of firm heterogeneity affecting productivity dynamics.

  • 2002/12 - Retrospective insights from Real Options in R&D

    Authors: Lint, O.
    The concept of real options acknowledges that downside risk is limited and upward potential is maximized if management can alter the sequence of actions and investment. However, real options generally require control over the underlying asset whereas financial options typically do not.

  • 2002/11 - A framework for assessing commitment to change. Process and context variables of organizational change

    Authors: Devos, G., Vanderheyden, K., Van den Broeck, H.
    Major organizational changes yield limited success. Failure of change is frequently due to a lack of commitment and motivation of the employees who have to implement the change. In this paper a framework is developed in which employees' emotional involvement and their commitment to change is explained by change process variables and internal context variables.

  • 2002/10 - The Option Value of Developing Two Product Standards Simultaneously when the Final Standard is Uncertain

    Authors: Lint, O., Pennings, E.
    This paper presents a framework for valuing managerial flexibility within the context of product standardization. The framework originates in a major standardization problem concerning digital tape recording at Philips Electronics.

  • 2002/9 - Is design-manufacturing integration that important?

    Authors: Vandevelde, A., Van Dierdonck, R., Clarysse, B., Debackere, K.
    There is limited empirical evidence to support the importance of design-manufacturing (DM) integration on the performance of new product development projects. This article focuses on the impact of integration processes and their outcomes on multidimensional project performance.

  • 2002/8 - Managing the design-manufacturing interface

    Authors: Vandevelde, A., Van Dierdonck, R., Clarysse, B.
    This article describes the major barriers across the design-manufacturing interface and examines ways to overcome them to achieve a smooth production start-up. An integration model reveals that formalization facilitates a smooth production start-up.

  • 2002/7 - The role of physical prototyping in the product development process

    Authors: Vandevelde, A., Van Dierdonck, R., Clarysse, B.
    The aim of this paper was to achieve a better understanding of the specific role of physical prototyping in the product development process. Data from a survey of 25 companies revealed that the direct effect of prototyping on multidimensional project performance is limited.

  • 2002/6 - Practitioner's view on project performance: a three-polar construct

    Authors: Vandevelde, A., Van Dierdonck, R., Debackere, K.
    There is no consensus on the construct project performance. This article examines how to suitably operationalise ‘project performance’ as it is viewed by practitioners. An alternative research approach, based on the repertory grid method, was used in combination with a survey to develop a three-polar framework of the construct project performance.

  • 2002/5 - The V-shaped value evolution of R&D-projects

    Authors: Lint, O., Pennings, E.
    On average the expected value at the moment of commercialization of an R&D project should remain constant during the different stages of new product development. Contrary to this intuition however, we find a systematic, non-constant pattern in the average expected value of an R&D project.

  • 2002/4 - Employment implications of downsizing strategies and reorientation practices: an empirical exploration

    Authors: Dewettinck, K., Buyens, D.
    The aim of this study is to investigate the employment implications of different downsizing approaches. Therefore we executed 19 case studies in Belgian organizations that recently were confronted with downsizing.

  • 2002/3 - Are failure prediction models transferable from one country to another? An empirical study using Belgian financial statements

    Authors: Ooghe, H., Balcaen, S.
    Faced with the question as to whether failure prediction models (multiple discriminant and logit analysis) from different countries can easily be transferred to other countries, this study examines the validity of a range of models on a dataset of Belgian company accounts, both when using the original and re-estimated coefficients.

  • 2002/2 - What drives consumer participation to loyalty programs? A conjoint analytical approach

    Authors: De Wulf, K., Odekerken-Schroder, G., De Cannière, M. H., Van Oppen, C.
    Little is known about the way in which different loyalty program attributes underlie consumers’ intentions to participate in such a program. Based upon equity theory, the current study distinguished between consumer inputs (personal data release, participation cost, purchase frequency, participation exclusivity, and participation efforts) and outputs (program) benefits, number of program providers, and program duration) as underlying attributes potentially affecting participation in a loyalty program.

  • 2002/1 - The impact of trust on private equity contracts

    Authors: Manigart, S., Korsgaard, M. A., Folger, R., Sapienza, H. J., Baeyens, K.
    This paper adresses the impact of trust on private equity contracts. Trust between investor and entrepreneur is essential to help overcome control problems, especially in an environment with severe agency risks and incomplete contracts.