The Maastricht Research Based Learning for Excellence programme facilitates the development of research projects for highly motivated and excellent undergraduate students.
A Prerequisite for Accountability: Access to Information in the German European Affairs Council
Negotiations in the Council of the European Union have been described as non-transparent since access to certain documents concerning the deliberations is restricted. As a result, national parliaments struggle to hold their national governments to account. Parliaments, providing a direct link between voters and the executive, play a vital role in granting legitimacy to the EU. Their incapacity weakens the democratic legitimacy of the European project. Existing literature on the topic has examined the formal powers of national parliaments and how active they are. However, it has failed to explore their access to information. This paper analyses the access to information on deliberations in the Council by the German European Affairs Committee (EAC) in the Bundestag. Interviews were conducted with members of the German EAC and their EU policy advisors. The analysis revealed that the German EAC employs an extensive network of direct oversight, manually scrutinizing a large number of documents. Certain limitations of this method were revealed, as due to capacity constraints only select decisions were examined. Individual citizens, organized interest and the media were shown to play a role in triggering the oversight at times, thus providing the impetus to start the scrutiny process.
Wait, who Controls the Council? The Role of the Dutch Parliament and Organized Interests to Hold the Council of Ministers Accountable
This paper examines the role of organized interests as indirect scrutinizers of the Council of Ministers. Whereas the ministers of the Council are only accountable to national parliaments, the latter face many difficulties in controlling the former. This is problematic as it potentially increases the EU’s democratic deficit. This thesis researches a possible solution to this problem by testing McCubbins and Schwartz’s fire-alarm theory. McCubbins and Schwartz argue that organized interests can alarm national parliaments who can then scrutinize better. The research focuses on the Netherlands as a most likely case-study. Eleven interviews with prominent Dutch organized interests led to the conclusion that the fire-alarm model functions limitedly at best. The analysis points at two structural impediments -tradeoff and issue-dependence- that explain the lack of interaction between organized interests and national parliaments. Indeed, organized interests prefer contact and collaboration with other actors; most notably the Commission and the EP.
And yet, it moves: Lobbying Regulation in the Council of Ministers of the European Union
This study aims to explain the commitment of the Council of the European Union to the Inter-Institutional Agreement on a common Transparency Register for interest representatives with the Commission and European Parliament in 2021. To scrutinize this surprising turn in the hitherto transparency-averse position of the Council, this study draws on a set of elite interviews with Council sources and transparency stakeholders. The emerging data are analyzed through a theoretical framework grounded in institutionalist theory, grouped in a strategic, institutional, and ideational dimension. Evidence on a strategic dimension suggests a transparency-averse majority in the Council that explains the overall skepticism of the institution towards advancing lobbying transparency. The institutional dimension reveals the Council as compelled by norm-entrepreneurship and a logic of appropriateness instilled by other institutional actors in the Inter-Institutional Agreement. Lastly, the ideational dimension reveals shifting notions of transparency, as well as effective change agency and knowledge sharing through pro-transparency actors within the Council. The study concludes that, while a merely strategic analysis of institutional change fails to explain reform, a holistic institutionalist perspective, considering different dimensions of institutional change, is well suited to explain the advance of lobbying transparency in the Council. Further research could draw on the tentative findings of this research and attempt a longitudinal assessment of drivers and inhibitors of lobbying transparency in the Council.
Media and National Accountability in the European Union
In Western democracies, mass media are the main means through which citizens receive information regarding the European Union. Although national ministers play an important role at the EU level, citizens are not always aware of the national ministers’ activities within the Council. Since citizens mainly experience politics through the media, which act as mediators between the politicians and the public, this paper conceptualizes the media as an accountability forum. The research aims to explore the impediments EU-journalists face in fulfilling their watchdog role towards national governments. By conducting 26 in-depth semi-structured interviews in two EU member states Germany and Italy, this research explores the impediments journalists face at the structural and individual level. The findings revealed that although there is an increasing homogenization of the informational impediments, journalists seem to experience differences due to preferential treatments. Finally, organizational impediments such as political and economic pressure, and the way journalists conceptualize their role, also affect how and what they decide to report.
Will the Real Scrutinizer Please Stand Up? The Role and Control of the French European Affairs Committee Over Its Executive
While traditionally considered the losers of European integration, scholars argue that national parliaments have clawed their way back to European affairs. The Lisbon Treaty has also sought to formally empower the national legislatures. However, little academic attention has focused on studying through which channels national parliaments have a say in the supranational arena. This explorative research aims at tackling this issue by analyzing what role the French European Affairs Committee (EAC) plays in EU affairs’ scrutiny and control of the executive. Through a qualitative design based on interviews with EAC members and content analysis, this paper shows that this French committee makes use of police-patrol oversight, rather than fire-alarm scrutiny to follow its executive’s behavior in the EU. However, the EAC remains legislatively powerless in the face of EU negotiations in the Council. Interviews reveal nonetheless that this is not perceived as a problem, as many respondents explain that national interests align at the supranational level, regardless of one’s political affiliation. This contradicts the argument of the importance of opposition in scrutinizing executive conduct. Instead, the French EAC is best conceived as an information hub, for other deputies and citizens, which reinforces the communicative function of the national legislature. This, in turn, questions the legitimacy of empowering national parliaments to solve the democratic deficit of the EU.
The Implications of Europeanized EU-Journalists on the Citizens and its Government
The national media plays a central role for European citizens by functioning as an information transmitter, ensuring fact-orientated news coverage, to ultimately fulfill a democratic role within the EU system. Not least due to enhanced EU integration, European news coverage of EU-related matters has significantly increased. This is important, as good news coverage is essential for citizens to hold their national government accountable. By conducting 26 semi-structured interviews with German and Italian EU-journalists, this research identifies EU-journalists´ exposure to Europeanization and assesses its impact on their views and framing of EU news. The research explores two potential effects from Europeanisation; a first looks at the possible detachment from the national audience while a second focuses on the quality of a journalists information network as a result of Europeanisation. The findings that Europeanization of EU-journalists improves access to exclusive information through an established quality information network thereby strengthening their accountability role. By contrast, Europeanisation can compromise journalists bridging role as they need to prioritizing the national audience´s interest when selecting EU affairs topics.
Repairing the Link? Civil Society’s Role Regarding Accountability Deficits of the German Government in EU Affairs
National governments acting in the Council of the European Union can rarely be held to account by parliaments and the public. This is because secrecy prevails in Council negotiations, and institutions of democratic scrutiny often lack information and resources to effectively control the executive. This study focuses on the involvement of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) as a potential remedy to the lack of democratic control over governments’ positions in Council negotiations. Examining the German case, a qualitative analysis of 13 interviews with German CSO representatives shows that CSO involvement concentrates on direct dialogue with the German government: Although lacking formal sanctioning powers, CSOs engage in an informal, voluntary consultation with policy-makers, based on co-dependency. Thus, they enact a loose form of social accountability with the German government. In this role, CSOs are however constrained by several factors, such as access to policy-making arenas. The paper further shows that CSOs seldom trigger formal scrutiny mechanisms by alarming the Bundestag or the public on potential governmental wrongdoings. Therefore, they rarely make use of their second potential role as political accountability facilitators. As a result, this raises the question whether CSOs’ impact on the accountability deficit can make up for the lack of popular scrutiny in EU policy-making.
Reputation, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Financial Performance of Banks
This paper investigates the effects of reputation and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the financial performance of a global sample of banks. Firstly, reputation and CSR are found to be complements rather than substitutes. Reputation is found to increase return on equity, return on invested capital, and return on assets. CSR is found to be positively related to the above, as well as net interest income. Its relationship with the share price remains unclear. These relations are more pronounced for less reputable and less socially responsible banks, indicating a curvilinear relationship. It is further argued that investing in CSR poses a better opportunity for extracting economic value than reputation. The findings suggest that profits are earned on CSR and reputation, and thereby provide continued incentives for banks to maintain their status.
The Driving Forces behind the Victory of Donald J. Trump
The purpose of this study is to establish how important economic factors are for individual voting behaviour. To that regard the analysis focuses on determining which factors influenced the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election by considering county level data on several economic and non-economic variables. Individual voting behaviour is thus inferred from county level variation. The results of the analysis suggest that economic factors, especially income and income inequality, have a considerable impact on electoral choice. Further, several non-economic factors are predicted to influence the electoral outcome as well. The magnitude of the effect economic and non-economic variables exhibit is comparable, stressing that economic factors were important determinants of the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and significantly influence voting behaviour.
Audit Market Dynamics: Effects on Audit Quality
This study researches the effects of market share dynamics on audit quality in the U.S. audit market from fiscal years 2005 to 2013. Thus far, the audit market has only been researched in terms of static market share mobility. This research reflects competition more accurately by using market structure dynamics to map the U.S. audit market. The study finds that there is in fact a rather high degree of market share instability within the audit market, which indicates a high degree of competition. Moreover, two out of three models show a significant influence of market share instability on proxies for audit quality. The directions of these effects indicate that market share instability has a positive effect on audit quality. The paper therefore concludes that audit market share dynamics have a positive effect on audit quality.
Investigating the relation between legal disclosure environments and IT governance transparency
The relevance of information technology has steadily increased over past decades. As a result, corporate disclosure about IT governance aspects is of considerable interest to investors. Despite such disclosure being voluntary and not enforced by law, this research investigates whether there is any relation between varying legal disclosure environments and the level of IT governance disclosure by companies. To investigate this relationship, 48 companies´ 2015 annual reports are analysed in accordance with an IT governance disclosure framework previously constructed by Bollen et al. (2013). Moreover, the World Bank’s Business Extent of Disclosure Index is used as a proxy for legal disclosure environments. The results imply no significant relation between legal disclosure environments and the level of IT governance disclosure which indicates that other factors on the industry and firm-level play a more significant role in determining the level of IT governance disclosure.
Culture and organisational context: how it influences voice behaviour
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how business practitioners can encourage voice behaviour (i.e. communicating opinions and concerns to improve business functioning). This paper specifically focuses on individuals’ ideas of power distance as a predictor of voice. Furthermore, it evaluates the moderating effect of work discipline on this relationship between power distance and voice. Data was collected from a survey sent out to mainly Dutch and German employees who are active on the labour market. A sample of 139 responses was used to regress power distance, voice behaviour and an interaction variable of work discipline and power distance. The results show that power distance is negatively related to voice behaviour. The larger the power distance the less voice is expressed. Work discipline, the moderator, did not prove to have significant effects on the relationship. Exploratory findings show that a significant moderating effect may exist when solely looking at the private sector. This study contributes to previous research in its extension of proof of the negative relationship between power distance and voice. It furthermore contributes to the assessment of work discipline and its influence on voice behaviour.
Estimating Insurance Premiums using Credibility Theory and Quantiles
This thesis is based on the paper \textit{`Quantile credibility models'} by Georgios Pitselis, which was published in 2013. It introduces credibility theory and shows how quantiles can be incorporated in the B\"uhlmann-Straub model and the Hachemeister's regression model. For each model, a numeric example is presented.
Chinese public investment in Ecuador– an analysis of the motivational framework for Chinese state financing in the Latin American context
The paper examines the underlying determinants of Chinese foreign finance allocation in Latin America and outlines the implications of these dynamics for receiver countries in the region. A case study on Ecuador is used in order to enrich the analysis with detail on country-level. Underlying drivers for aid allocation cannot be identified from the statistical analysis. However, the results do not lend support to the popular hypotheses of resource-driven or power-driven Chinese aid allocation either. In terms of less concessional financing, natural resource endowment results as the driving factor for Chinese fund allocation while the findings suggest that the country’s risk profile and investment environment play a minor role in Chinese public financing.
A Machine Learning Approach to Shipment Consolidation
This research analyzes the current approach used by a client of DHL LLP for the transportation of shipments from suppliers to production sites. As a result of this analysis, several improvements are proposed that can be used to reduce the costs of transportation in the logistics network. Focus is put on shipment consolidation, rather than on the rerouting of shipments. In this paper, two consolidation methods are introduced. Cluster analysis groups together suppliers that are geographically close and generally ship to the same production sites, and a time-based policy that introduces a maximum waiting time for shipments before they are released. While only marginal improvements are obtained when applying these techniques indepen- dently, a combination of the two provides a powerful synergy. A trade-off between the savings and proportion of on-time shipments arises, when a maximum waiting time is introduced. The potential savings, therefore, depends on the company’s tol- erance for late shipments. While the proposed techniques work in theory, practical and organizational challenges emerge when applying them in the real world.
RFID technology in the retail industry – bound for success or failure? A two-factor approach
In this thesis, the adoption of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in the retail industry is analysed. Upon the review of substantial literature on technology adoption in the information management field, a two-factor model is established. This model incorporates enablers and inhibitors of RFID adoption, retrieved from reviewing supply chain management literature. The model is then tested in three expert interviews and based on the insights gained from those, a revised model is created which incorporates the main enablers and inhibitors as perceived by the experts. Additionally, an overview of the current status of the technology in the retail industry is given
Beating the Odds - A State Space Model for predicting match results in the Australian Football League
This thesis investigates whether state space models have the potential to pre- dict the outcome of Australian Rules Football matches and can produce significant positive return over the bookmaker’s odds. The point of departure is a sample of 18 Australian football teams over the period 2012 to 2016. Modeling and predicting a football match is a challenging task, since the model should incorporate two di↵er- ent random processes. Firstly, the evolution of parameters, i.e. the team strengths change over time as it incorporates changes in team composition, coaching, train- ing ground, injuries etc. Secondly, the distribution of ranking data with these time-varying propensities changes stochastically over time. Given that we cannot observe all team-specific and location-specific factors, a dynamic state space model for team strengths is introduced. The team strengths are assumed to follow an order-one autoregressive process and are estimated using a recursive Kalman filter algorithm. Smoothed state estimates are applicable for ranking teams and predict- ing future outcomes of the matches. We show that beating the bookmaker’s odds is a challenging task indicating that the betting markets are ecient. Keywords: Sport Analytics; Kalman Filter Algorithm; State Space models; Predictive inference; Ranking; Australian Rules Football.
School Choice: An analysis of the strategic behaviour of students and schools in the student high-school allocation problem
We investigate how the one-to-one deferred acceptance algorithm can be used to solve the many-to-one school choice problem. In the first part of the paper we derive the important properties of the one-to-one Deferred Acceptance algorithm. In the second part of the paper, we consider the Deferred Acceptance algorithm for solving the many-to-one school choice problem. Using insights from the first two parts of the paper we show that the Deferred Acceptance algorithm is strategy proof for students, and manipulable by schools under specific conditions.
Evaluating the effectiveness of emergency relief of the Central Emergency Response Fund after natural disasters
Natural disasters are increasingly common and emergency relief is often provided to help the affected countries recover. The United Nations started the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) in 2005 that allows for fast allocation of money to providers of humanitarian aid. This thesis evaluates this fund with respect to natural disasters, since its effectiveness can have implications for future emergency relief allocations. The following question is answered: To what extent can the grants provided by the Central Emergency Response Fund decrease the output growth volatility caused by natural disasters? A panel database is constructed and dynamic panel models are estimated by applying the Generalised Method of Moments. Results show that when CERF funding is provided after a natural disaster, the expected effect on output growth volatility of the natural disaster is neutralised and close to zero. This implies that CERF funding is effective, however, reports on the functioning of CERF report possible improvements concerning the allocation. Furthermore, alternative estimation methods might provide consistent results.
Does Innovation Pay Off in Terms of Firm Performance? - Evidence from the European Automotive Industry –
ABSTRACT Given a more intense competition and substantial investments in research and development (R&D), this paper investigates the impact of innovation on performance in the European automotive industry. More specifically, using secondary data for 98 observations and running multiple regression models, this study examines the effect of the number of both total and green patent applications, and R&D intensity on return on assets (ROA). The evidence suggests that both patent applications and R&D intensity have a positive and significant impact on ROA, whereas green patents are marginally insignificant at the 10% significance level. The results have important implications for business leaders in the industry indicating that innovation does indeed improve performance.
The Islamic Vehicle Financing Market in Malaysia: Identification of Factors Influencing Price Sensitivity
In recent years, Islamic finance has gained increasing attention by financial corporations in countries that are marked by a considerable Muslim population. In conjunction, Malaysia’s Islamic vehicle finance market has experienced a period of rapid growth and is now maturely coexisting besides conventional vehicle financing. Nonetheless, corporations question in how far it is viable to charge a price premium for Islamic products to compensate the additional effort required. As little research is in existence about the price sensitivity of customers towards these product offerings, this study aims to examine factors that influence the price sensitivity in the Islamic vehicle financing market. Potential influencing factors were identified in literature covering Islamic banking and a model is subsequently tested by an experimental survey that was distributed within Malaysia. The study concludes that not only the belongingness to Islam is influential, but also the way of practicing the religion and the knowledge about Islamic finance. The awareness of the specific Islamic vehicle financing product makes customers less price sensitive as well as the marital status. The results of this study are beneficial to corporation who perform pricing decisions according to specific customer segments.
Determinants of Chinese FDI to Sub-Saharan Africa: a regional analysis and Guinea-Bissau case study
This thesis aims to contribute to the literature concerned with putting the nature of South-South economic ties into perspective. Specifically, it empirically examines which characteristics of Sub-Saharan African nations are related to higher foreign direct investment inflows from China. A comprehensive literature review yields a range of factors that are hypothesized to play a role in this regard. For a case study of Guinea-Bissau results suggest that even though high endowments of natural resources are inherent to the country, Chinese money inflows in the form of foreign direct investments only occur sporadically. In the regional comparison my panel data regression analysis yields that the country factors with significant, positive association to Chinese direct-investment sums are more democratic regimes, bigger markets, a non-French and non-British colonial legacy, as well as a higher agricultural potential. Contrary to what the existing literature suggests, no evidence is found that countries with higher natural-resource endowments actually receive more foreign direct investments from China.
The State of Open Government Data in Dutch Municipalities: Transparency, Accountability & Innovation
This MaRBLe projects focusses on Open Government Data (OGD) in Dutch municipalities. This is government published data that available for anyone to use and reuse without any restrictions and no costs. This type of information is not just published with the aim of enhancing government transparency but is supposed to have positive outcomes on innovation as well. Through interviews with relevant stakeholders in the OGD publication process, such as Dutch municipalities and NGOs, this paper identifies which problems have hampered the potential benefits of OGD from not being fully realized yet. It concludes that in each phase of the publication process there are various problems that obstruct the effective usage of OGD.
Toward a Surveillance Society? Issues of Privacy and Surveillance in the Bundestag Debates
This study has analysed the frames related to privacy and surveillance in the Bundestag debates in the period between 2014-2017. By performing the inductive framing analysis of the Parliamentary protocols this research identified three privacy and three surveillance frames. The analysis has shown what frames are used by the grand coalition, which has the most influence on the legislative outcome, as well as the opposition in the Bundestag. As a result, it revealed the goals German politicians pursue in relation to privacy and surveillance. One of the main findings is that privacy is discussed less often than surveillance, and is mainly presented as personal data. The dominant privacy frame discusses privacy as threatened by the flawed technologies and unsecure data sharing practices. Another important finding is that the grand coalition considers freedoms and security as conflicting rights that should be brought into balance. As evidence of this approach, one of the surveillance frames interprets surveillance as a democratic response to security issues. However, the dominant surveillance frame portrays surveillance as an excessive practice of national secret services. The most important is that this study has identified the shift how politicians portray surveillance. In the beginning of 2014, due to Snowden’s revelations about the USA’s global surveillance practices, surveillance was intensively discussed as an anti-democratic practice of foreign secret services. However, after the attack on Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, Bundestag members present surveillance as an acceptable democratic tool to ensure security and prevent terrorism.
Transparency is hard to pin down. While it can be a condition as well as a means and social end, it is the people determining who and what is transparent in which way and why. While this volume’s eight contributions reflect different approaches towards analyzing and discussing different directions of transparency, they overall demonstrate that the phenomenon of transparency is and remains an inexhaustible and highly relevant domain for research.
Transparency is hard to pin down. It can be the condition of a substance or a physical object, a goal, or an everyday practice of private or public persons, companies, organizations and institutions (e.g. Bessire, 2006; Hansen, Christensen, & Flyverborn, 2015). People and the ways in which they determine and shape directions of transparency – being made transparent and making transparent – are the foci of this volume’s eight contributions. The first five contributions can be related to upwards transparency in that they discuss different situations in which people are made transparent. The last three contributions follow the downwards transparency perspective in that they discuss how institutions and organizations can, or cannot, be transparent for people and how people themselves may demand more transparency.
Framing the Right to Be Forgotten: A Transatlantic Cultural Clash? A Comparative Newspaper Analysis
This research tests the presence of a difference of approaches to the Right to Be Forgotten (RTBF), as introduced in Article 17 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in the media and public sphere. The focus is put on how European and US newspapers have framed the Right between 2010 and 2018. The objective is to understand how news media have presented and described the RTBF to their readers at the national level in Italy, the UK, and the US, and how such discourses reflect alleged cultural disparities. The RTBF is hereby conceptualized as a multi-dimensional notion. It is argued that the Right can be seen from perspectives other than those related to free speech and privacy, as advanced by the academic literature. The umbrella concept of transparency is introduced as a new way to frame the RTBF, concerning transparency for and from the people, on an individual level. On the one hand, Article 17 GDPR refers to a right to transparency for the people, to know and access lawful online information about, in particular, public figures or criminals. The notion also entails a form of transparency from the people: individuals should be transparent about their past, in real life and online. On the other hand, the RTBF can also refer to a right to be “not fully transparent” online, or a right to non-transparency from the people. This implies that not all information should be published on the Internet, especially when it represents personal and sensitive data.
Between Privacy Protection and Data Progression - The GDPR in the Context of People Analytics
New analytical capabilities have revolutionized the field of Human Resources (HR). With the incessant creation of data and data sources, a new field of practice has developed: people analytics.However, people analytics raises crucial privacy concerns for employees. The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is supposed to provide more transparency and stronger protection for individuals. By conducting interviews with experts in people analytics and carrying out a survey with people analytics practitioners, this paper examines how the GDPR can be expected to affect organisations using people analytics and their employees. The results of this research indicate that the GDPR will provide stronger privacy and data protection for employees and still allow organisations to conduct people analytics.
The End of Privacy? Paradoxes and Dilemmas of Internet Use and Online Surveillance
With the Internet growing in importance in our daily lives, concerns about privacy and data protection have emerged. While people worry about where they data may end up, they continue making themselves openly transparent by sharing information about themselves and their lives online. This study aims to understand the paradoxes between privacy considerations – mainly, the wish to keep individual data private and secure – and the actions that people undertake in reality. More specifically, it focuses on three paradoxes and dilemmas of privacy: age, perceived usefulness, and rewards. These will be studied by analyzing the results of a survey, in which respondents from the EU, North America and East Asia were asked about their online habits and their opinions on various security issues and privacy measures. The analysis ultimately aims to further the understanding of privacy paradoxes, and what hinders people from protecting their data sufficiently.
On the Ones Who Hear the Whistle: Towards an Analytical Framework for Analysing Complaint Recipients
Tax avoidance, fraud, endangerment of public safety – criminal offences that would often remain hidden without whistleblowers. Although whistleblowing is a common research subject (e.g. Brown, 2008; Culiberg & Mihelic, 2017), few studies systematically focus on the recipients of whistleblowers’ reports. This lack of attention is striking in light of the decisive role of complaint recipients in the whistleblowing process (e.g. Lewis, Brown, & Moberly, 2014; Read & Rama, 2003). Often, it depends on the recipient’s response, whether the process comes to a standstill and injustice prevails, or whether corrective action is initiated. Drawing on the scant existing literature, this study develops and applies a comparative framework which allows for a comprehensive analysis of the role of whistleblowing complaint recipients. Findings confirm the framework’s utility to assess recipients, their responses and responsibilities. Hence, this study paves the way for the application of a novel analytical focus within whistleblowing research.