Research Christophe Boone

Abstract

Understanding the roots of fairness is crucial to sustain democracy, human well-being, and economic systems. An abundance of research has shown that fairness preferences are malleable, influenced by dispositional (traits) and contextual (state) factors. Mostly, these two approaches are studied independently. We propose to integrate the trait- and state- approach in an interdisciplinary study that addresses how, when, and for whom, context is likely to affect fairness preferences and behavior. We will conduct behavioral- and neuro-imaging experiments to test how power asymmetry and inter-group conflict alter fairness judgments and decisions depending on values and reasoning capacity. We further investigate how neural networks of individuals with different social value orientations change when making decisions in contexts that vary with respect to power asymmetry and inte ersonal conflict. Together these experiments will reveal why some people are more prone to change their fairness norms in function of their power position and the level of conflict. Given that many personal and economic transactions are embedded in hierarchical, fragmented, or competing groups, understanding how power and conflict can strengthen or compromise fairness may have important societal implications.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Declerck Carolyn
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The project investigates how fairness and inequity aversion, two human universals with well-known effects on economic behavior, are subject to change within the hierarchy of a leader-follower relationship. Following identity theory, we propose that adopting the role of leader or follower induces a norm transformation that decreases the fairness concerns of the leader and increases the tolerance of the follower. We propose a set of behavioral experiments to first test (1) to what extent priming a leader/follower identity alters fairness considerations and inequity aversion, and (2) how the identity shift resulting from priming leader/follower roles is moderated by the experienced power asymmetry and personality differences. Next, we explore (3) if the changes in fairness considerations and inequity aversion can in part be explained by the actions of the neurohormone oxytocin, given its known role in regulating mammalian social behavior. Finally (4), we zoom in on different types of followers and investigate how their inequity aversion and with it their physical arousal respond to leaders with differing ethical principles. Gaining insights into the factors that substantiate the behavioral changes elicited by a leader/follower identity shift, and in the reasons why some followers comply while others resist, will help us to better understand why, and how, social hierarchies are sustainable.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Declerck Carolyn
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe
• Fellow: Schödler Cathrin

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Organizations are challenged by radical changes in their demographic landscape. Because populations are ageing and people retire later, workforce age diversity is higher than ever and still on the rise. Never before had so many different ages worked together, all with other values, needs, knowledge and experience. What are the implications of workforce age diversity and how can firms manage them? This is the encompassing question guiding this project, as productively dealing with age-diverse workforces is necessary for the future prosperity of firms and economies overall. Thus far, research has established that workforce age diversity can have both positive and negative effects on firm performance. However, there is little understanding of how and when the opposite effects come about. As a result, it is unclear how firms can capitalize on the benefits and avoid the drawbacks of age diversity. We take four steps to better understand the implications and successful management of organizational age diversity. First, we uncover the key intergenerational mechanisms underlying the performance effects of age diversity. Second, we examine the multilevel effects of workforce age diversity, proposing the effects depend on firms' work structure (who works with whom?). Third, we investigate how employees' perceptions of age diversity influence these effects. Fourth, we study the success of age-inclusive management in managing workforce age diversity.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Boone Christophe
• Fellow: De Meulenaere Kim

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Universal principles of fairness and inequity aversion play an important role in leader-follower relationships. We experimentally study decision-making of leaders (fairness) and followers (inequity aversion) by unraveling the interactive effects of incentives, leader/follower role, and social value orientation. Behavioral and hormonal studies will identify the biological mechanisms accounting for the variability in fairness and inequity aversion.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Boone Christophe
• Co-promoter: Declerck Carolyn
• Fellow: Schödler Cathrin

Research team(s)

• Management

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

An essential feature of our era is that increasingly competition between organizations is not only about resources but also about ideology, which often goes hand in hand with the emergence of oppositional institutional logics that compete for dominance (in this setting conventional vs. Islamic banking). What is currently missing in the literature are studies that recognize that ideological competition in a world of competing logics is of strategic importance for organizations because the choices that an organization makes to position itself in ideological space affect its very identity with far-reaching consequences for its fate. Such choices often relate to the strategic trade-off between ideological purity vs. pragmatism and hybridization. Unfortunately, the strategic management of an organization's ideological template – its ideologically informed organizing principles and practices --, and the role of the dominant coalition (or so-called Upper Echelon) in shaping it have received scant attention. We try to fill this gap focusing on a fascinating setting, i.e. Islamic banking (in the period 2002-2016) and propose a research project that examines the way in which Islamic banks solve this strategic trade-off in a set of original but related quantitative and qualitative studies.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Boone Christophe

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Recently, the interest of both scholars and practitioners in the creation of technological breakthroughs has increased strongly. Despite the key claim in the literature that innovation activities need specific guidance from the top, the role of a firm´s senior leadership as a key antecedent for innovation and organizational renewal remains underdeveloped. To address this, the aim of this proposal is to develop an in-depth understanding to what extent and in what specific ways a firm´s senior leadership influences (1) its internal technological search and innovation activities and (2) how this possibly materializes into technological breakthroughs. The project considers as a firm's senior leadership both its top management team (TMT) and its Board of Directors (BoD). First, I will start with an exploratory approach aimed at developing an in-depth understanding of the organizational processes and mechanisms through which the role of a firm's senior leadership materializes into the creation of technological breakthroughs. Second, I examine to what extent TMT compositional characteristics lead to a differential effect on a firm's ability to create technological breakthroughs. Third, I consider the role of the board of directors and examine to what extent their interplay with a firm´s TMT carries (dis)synergetic effects for their creation. I will consider these topics within a high-tech setting and rely on patents to measure the creation of technological breakthroughs.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Gilsing Victor
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe
• Fellow: van de Wal Nino

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Recently, both researchers and practitioners have developed an increased interest in the creation of technological breakthroughs. This Odysseus proposal attends to this topic by studying the role and influence of a firm´s top managers and its boards of directors in the process of their creation. Whereas the role of a firm's senior leadership is crucial in the management of innovation and the creation of breakthroughs, still most what we know of their role in this process remains in its infancy. To address this, this Odysseus proposal aims to develop an in-depth understanding to what extent and in what specific ways a firm´s senior leadership influences its (1) internal technological search processes, (2) its external collaborations for innovation, and (3) how this possibly materializes into technological breakthroughs.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Gilsing Victor
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The main aim of this project is to develop an in-depth understanding to what extent and in what ways a firm´s senior leadership deals with the trade-off between local and distant search, and how this affects a firm's search process and the creation of technological breakthroughs.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Gilsing Victor
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe
• Fellow: van de Wal Nino

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

With this project, we aim to understand the impact of executives on organizational values and long-term organizational performance stability. The main goal of this project is to unravel how executives' social backgrounds affect organizational outcomes, such as long-term stability, through organizations' espoused and enacted values concerning justice/fairness.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Boone Christophe
• Co-promoter: Buyl Tine

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The project proposes to investigate the neural processes along with the contingencies that underlie the relation between eye cues and cooperative behavior in social dilemmas. We differentiate between real and stylized, (iconic) eye cues, and we propose that only the former provide social information and are capable of eliciting trust by affecting the brain's social cognition system (temporo-parietal junction, medial frontal cortex, and amygdala), while the latter, inducing a feeling of being watched, influence a person's reputation concerns by affecting neural activity in the lateral PFC. In addition, we expect that the effect of real versus stylized eyes (and underlying patterns of brain activation) should vary according to a person's social value orientation (SVO). We test these hypotheses in three different contexts, a simultaneously and sequentially played prisoner's dilemma game and an assurance game because these three games differ in their motives of greed and fear that typically drive people towards non-cooperation. We test if real versus stylized eye cues curb fear and greed respectively (thereby increasing cooperation), depending on a person's SVO.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Declerck Carolyn
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe
• Fellow: Pauwels Loren

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Our main objective is to develop and empirically test a comprehensive research model concerning the combined effects of executive characteristics, compensation, and institutional context on organizational behavior and performance. More in particular, we focus on banks' risk-taking behavior, how it is jointly driven by executive characteristics, compensation, and institutional context, and how it affects banks' performance. In general, risk-taking involves investments with uncertain outcomes. One example of banks' risk-taking behavior concerns mortgage-backed securities, because of the limited experience banks have with the probabilities and potential outcomes of these investment as opposed to more traditional loans (Stulz, 2008).

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Boone Christophe
• Fellow: Buyl Tine

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) has been shown to play a crucial role in establishing trust and cooperation due to its anxiolytic effect and regulation of social affiliation. Recent research indicates that individual differences in OT metabolism correlate with differences in several aspects of social behavior (including empathy, stress reactivity, and an increased likelihood of autism). In addition, the effect of OT on trust and social affiliation appears to depend on contextual inputs and vary with personal characteristics. The purpose of the current study is therefore threefold. First, we intend to investigate the moderating influence of the social context and personality traits on the behavioral consequences of extraneous nasal OT (versus placebo) administration. Second, we want to gain more insight into the underlying neural mechanism by which OT induces trust and affiliation. Specifically, we explore by means of fMRI and DTI the functional and anatomical connectivity between the neural correlates of fear regulation (amygdala) and social approach (nucleus accumbens). Third, we explore if there might be a relation between low plasma levels of OT and/or the workings of OT on the one hand, and social delinquency on the other hand. Gaining knowledge into the interaction between a hormone that regulates fear and social affiliation, the social environment, and delinquent behavior, might prove to be useful in developing appropriate clinical and behavioural therapies for youth who suffer from social integration problems.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Declerck Carolyn
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe
• Co-promoter: Parizel Paul

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The goal of this research is twofold. First, we want to gain insight in the antecedents of diversity, by investigating sorting processes and entry and exit of individuals into and out of organizations. Second, we want to investigate the consequences of diversity, thereby discovering the circumstances that allow diversity to have positive effects for teams or organizations, or vice versa, the circumstances in which diversity will be disadvantageous. In studying both research questions, we will focus on the role of an organization's human resource management style as a main driver of the dynamics of demographic diversity.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Boone Christophe
• Co-promoter: Bogaert Sandy

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The aim of this research project is to study governance practices from a holistic perspective, in contrast to the piecemeal approach of the extant literature and to develop a contingency model of governance. Taking into account that universal remedies are counterproductive (Ostrom, 2007), we develop a contingency perspective that diagnoses the specific conditions needed to make specific governance practices contribute to organizational outcome (e.g. success or failure measured by multi-attributes). The specific conditions relate to actor characteristics (owners, directors, managers and employees), to the institutional environment, to the organizational form and to other intervening variables (e.g. life cycle of the company, industry antecedents, etcetera). Besides the development of the contingency model for governance, individual research themes in the individual workpackages will be addressed too. (e.g. changes in governance practices over the life cycle of an organization, the introduction of family heterogeneity in family governance research, the impact of works council's demographic variables on organizational outcome).

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Jorissen Ann
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe
• Co-promoter: Deloof Marc
• Co-promoter: van Witteloostuijn Arjen

Research team(s)

• Accountancy and Finance

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The project aims to gain insights into the origin of individual differences in impuls control and self regulation. We test the hypothesis that activity in three hypothesized brain regions correlates on the one hand with dopamine receptor gene polymorphisme, and on the other hand with stable personality traits reflecting motivated, persistent, and adaptive behavior.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Declerck Carolyn
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe
• Co-promoter: Parizel Paul

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that management team (MT) knowledge diversity acts as a two-edged sword: on the one hand highly diverse MTs will benefit from a broader range of relevant information and skills, on the other hand these teams often experience difficulties with the exchange and/or integration of the diverse knowledge within the team. In this study, we focus on the process and effectiveness consequences of MT knowledge diversity and we try to find out how internal MT processes are affected by knowledge diversity and how and in which circumstances MT knowledge diversity can boost firm performance. In various substudies, we investigate for instance the influence of the CEO in integrating diverse knowledge within the MT, the impact of MT knowledge diversity on innovation capacity, and the individual decision power of the MT members.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Boone Christophe
• Promoter: Matthyssens Paul
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe
• Co-promoter: Matthyssens Paul
• Fellow: Buyl Tine

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Jorissen Ann
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe
• Co-promoter: Deloof Marc
• Co-promoter: van Witteloostuijn Arjen

Research team(s)

• Accountancy and Finance

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Boone Christophe

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project deals with the antecedents and consequences fo demographic diversity in the realm of teams, organizations, industries, networks and communities. Demographic diversity refers to groups of people or organizations. Both can be more or less diverse in terms of e.g. age, gender and personality (people) or age, size, strategy (organizations). The key questions are where this extent of diversity comes from and what it implies for the behaviour and performance of the social entities involved. The proposed research programme is groundbreaking by providing centre stage to demographic diversity of social entities. Moreover, it is unique in its multi-method, multi-disciplinary and multi-level approach. First, theory will be developed by building models using mathematical and simulation techniques, whilst the empirical studies will analyze novel panel datasets by applying advanced multivariate statistical tools. Second, insights from different economic and social science disciplines will be combined and integrated, notably economics, public administration, economics, economic geography, political science, psychology and sociology. Third, the multi-level perspective will be explored systematically, implying that interactions across different levels of analysis will be investigated.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Boone Christophe
• Promoter: van Witteloostuijn Arjen
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The proposed research draws on insights in economics, psychology, and the neurosciences to better understand why human decision-making so often deviates from game-theoretic predictions. The specific aim is to examine by means of fMRI what the underlying roles of emotional versus cognitive brain networks might be while people are choosing a cooperative versus a competitive strategy in a social dilemma. The role of personality and the context of the dilemma are also investigated.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Declerck Carolyn
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe
• Co-promoter: Parizel Paul

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Matthyssens Paul
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe
• Fellow: Buyl Tine

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Boone Christophe
• Fellow: van Witteloostuijn Arjen

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Deviations from economically "rational" decisions in anonymous, one-shot strategic interactions remain difficult to explain from a purely economic point of view. We propose an experimental study to investigate how strategy selection depends on the environmental context and individual differences. We hypothesize that (1) strategy selection depends on the extent to which the context of the interaction will activate the socio-emotional versus cognitive information processing networks in the brain, and (2) individual differences will influence strategy selection to the extent that they correlate with the activation of socio-emotional processing.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Declerck Carolyn
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In professional organizations, overall organizational performance is largely determined by the behavior of individual employees (i.e. individual performance and turnover). In our study, we will focus on the determinants of turnover and on the impact of turnover on performance. An individual's demographic fit, as well as his or her relational embeddedness within the organization, in interaction with the organization's HRM systems, might impact on these variables. In order to study this, an extensive database will is needed.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Boone Christophe

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that the personality trait locus of control of the CEO is significantly related to firm performance. In this investigation we try to find out which intervening variables such as team composition, role complementarity and strategic decision making style, can offer an explanation for this relationship.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Brabander Albert
• Co-promoter: Boone Christophe

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project