Faculty of Economics and Business

In the face of societal and environmental challenges, organizations need to do more than just make symbolic gestures or resort to greenwashing. The real change-makers are often found within the organizations themselves. They are the insider social change agents. These individuals are driving change and have the potential to significantly impact societal transformations. However, their efforts need to extend beyond isolated wins within their organizations.In a recent review in the Academy of Management Annals, Assistant Professor Katrin Heucher, along with a team of international co-authors, delves into how these individual efforts can aggregate and lead to broader, more impactful change.

As a researcher and Professor of Service Marketing, Jenny van Doorn strives to be on the forefront of new developments and is passionate about discovering consumers’ reactions to societal transitions. One of the next frontiers of societal transitions is the use of social service robots, something she is fascinated by and has already spent some years studying. Having recently received a grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), she can continue to do so.

In the face of significant societal and environmental challenges, the imperative to reevaluate and adjust prevailing social norms and practices is becoming increasingly apparent. A recent article featured in the Journal of Management Studies by Marvin Hanisch, Associate Professor at FEB, underscores the importance of integrating prescriptive studies into management research to drive positive change. Departing from a current emphasis on understanding the existing status quo, this approach involves envisioning how the world “should be” and the developing strategies to achieve those goals.

Creating societal impact is one of the ambitions of FEB's research policy. This case is one of the impact cases rewarded by FEB in 2023. Paul Buijs’ research on sustainable urban freight transport actively engages with practice. Activities initially focused on Groningen and its surrounding areas, but have now expanded to national and international contexts. His involvement with practice has resulted in contributions to policy documents, but also to the development, implementation, and evaluation of sustainable urban freight transport solutions with the goal of improving accessibility and quality of life in cities.

Weining Wang recently joined the Faculty of Economics and Business as Professor of Econometrics. Before coming to Groningen, she worked at various universities in Europe: in Germany and the United Kingdom. Her research focuses broadly on financial and theoretical econometrics. More specifically, Wang works with modern machine learning methods and their applications in finance. In her new role as professor at FEB, she strives to enhance and further integrate data science research.

De PVV heeft zoals bekend op 22 november 2023 een overweldigende verkiezingsoverwinning behaald. In de aanloop van de verkiezingen werd al op een PVV-overwinning gerekend, maar de uiteindelijke omvang van de verkiezingswinst van de PVV kwam als een grote verrassing. De implicatie van deze overwinning is dat het programma van deze partij centraal zal komen te staan bij de komende formatie. Steven Brakman, Harry Garretsen en Tristan Kohl rekende een deel van het PVV verkiezingsprogramma door. In dit blog lees je over hun bevindingen.

Last year, at the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27), developed countries acknowledged their responsibility in causing most of today’s climate change and formally agreed to financially aid developing countries for their climate change-related losses (of ecosystems, heritage and culture) and excess damages (from the excess losses from extreme weather events). This is widely referred to as the UN ‘loss and damage’ fund. Bert Kramer, lecturer at FEB and head of climate research at Ortec Finance, together with co-authors from Ortec Finance, Cadlas, the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, and QuTec Srl, published an opinion piece in 'Nature' on a mechanism to make this climate loss and damage funding work.

Globally, the ranks of firms with an explicit corporate purpose statement are quickly growing. Advice on how to “get purpose done” is proliferating. Should all firms join the bandwagon? What approach to purpose suits a firm? There are different suggestions as to how to set a firm’s purpose. In a recent paper in Strategy Science, Assistant Professor Björn Mitzinneck, together with professor Marya Besharov (University of Oxford), set out to bring structure into this wild-growth of recommendations. 

Co-creation and interdisciplinarity are two themes that have long taken centre stage in the work of Iris Vis, who was recently appointed Captain of Science of the Top Sector Logistics. The UG's communication department met up with her to talk about this role. How did Vis’s appointment as Captain of Science come about? And what are her plans for the future?

Extinction Rebellion has achieved what academics could not, says Bert Scholtens, Professor of Sustainable Banking and Finance. The environmental movement has put the massive and pervasive subsidies for fossil fuels on the political agenda. The rebels have a cause and are making it clear that fossil fuels are a curse, not a blessing. It is time to phase out fossil fuel subsidies for a healthier and more sustainable planet.