How calibration committees can mitigate performance evaluation bias: An analysis of implicit incentives

While prior research on performance evaluation bias has mainly focused on the determinants and consequences of rating errors, we investigate how a firm can provide implicit incentives to supervisors to mitigate these errors via its calibration committee. We empirically examine the extent to which a calibration committee incorporates supervisors' evaluation behavior with respect to their subordinates in the performance evaluation outcomes, i.e., performance ratings and promotion decisions, for these supervisors. In our study, we distinguish between lack of skills and opportunism as two important facets of evaluation behavior, which we expect the calibration committee to address differently. Using panel data of a professional service firm, we show that supervisors' opportunistic behavior to strategically inflate subordinates' performance ratings is disciplined through a decrease in the supervisors' own performance rating, while the supervisors' skills to provide less compressed and thus more informative performance ratings is rewarded through a higher likelihood of promotion.Series: Department of Strategy and Innovation Working Paper Serie

Modelling welfare effects of a liberalisation of the Dutch electricity market

The Dutch electricity sector has traditionally been dominated by the public sector. Although this organisational structure resulted in a reliable and low-priced system, it is said not to be completely stable and efficient. National and international developments stimulate the introduction of a liberalised system. In this article, we present the model NEDMOD which is used to estimate possible welfare gains of an implementation of a liberalised market system in the Dutch electricity market

De groene koningin

In de vorige aflevering van Bijenhouden beschreef ik dat mijn bijenkoningin met gele stip er met de helft van haar gevolg vandoor was gegaan. Daarna heb ik de rest van het volk samen met één gesloten moerdop verder met rust gelaten had. Iedere avond legde ik mijn oor tegen de kast, maar ik hoorde geen getuut en gekwaak. Dat zou ik alleen maar horen als ik nog een andere moerdop over het hoofd had gezien. Dat kan namelijk heel goed gebeuren. Mijn bijen zijn er niet voor niets vandoor gegaan! Ik kon luisteren wat ik wilde, maar geen getuut te horen. Ik dacht: “Hopelijk heb ik niets fout gedaan”. Later hoorde ik dat een koningin die alleen geboren wordt, niet tuut. Weer wat geleerd

Dynamics of femtosecond laser-induced melting and amorphization of indium phosphide

7 pages, 5 figures.-- PACS: 64.70.Dv; 81.30.Fb; 61.80.Ba; 78.66.Fd; 61.82.FkLaser-induced melting and resolidification of single-crystalline indium phosphide (InP) upon irradiation with 150 fs laser pulses at 800 nm has been investigated by means of real-time-reflectivity measurements with subnanosecond time resolution. Melting of the surface is observed to occur very rapidly on a time scale shorter than our experimental resolution while the lifetime of the liquid phase is several tens of nanoseconds. As a result of the subsequent rapid solidification process, a thin layer of amorphous material with a thickness of several tens of nanometers is formed on the surface. The formation of this amorphous layer has been observed for every fluence above the melting and below the ablation threshold. The evolution of the reflectivity has been modeled for several different solidification scenarios and compared to the experimental results. This comparison shows that solidification proceeds interfacially from the solid interface towards the surface. A lower limit for the critical solid-liquid interface velocity for amorphization in this compound semiconductor has been estimated to be in the range of 1–4 m/s.This work has been partially supported by the EU in the frame of the TMR Project XPOSE (Grant No. HPRN-CT- 2000-00160). S.M.W. acknowledges the funding in the frame of the same project. J.B. acknowledges the funding of the CSIC through a contract in the frame of the I3P programme (Ref. I3P-PC2002), co-funded by the European Social Fund.Peer reviewe

The need for coherence between institutions and technology in liberalized infrastructures: the case of network unbundling in electricity and railways

This paper addresses the question of the coherence in the infrastructures. More precisely, it examines the articulation between technical and institutional coherence. It assumes that a certain degree of such coherence is necessary for infrastructures (network industries) not only to properly function, but moreover to be both economically and socially performing. The paper takes the current unbundling of the electricity and the railways sectors as cases so as to analyze whether and how the dynamics of deregulation (liberalization) leads to such incoherence. It is therefore grounded in organizational behaviour and institutional analysis and focuses on the strategies of the actors in a liberalized environment. The paper is therefore primarily conceptual in nature, as it seeks to frame the dynamics of the liberalizing network industries in terms of a co-evolution between technology and institutions

Designing for justice in electricity systems: A comparison of smart grid experiments in the Netherlands

In future urban energy systems, smart grid systems will be crucial for the integration of renewable energy. However, their deployment has moral implications, for example regarding data privacy, user autonomy, or distribution of responsibilities. ‘Energy justice’ is one of the most comprehensive frameworks to address these implications, but remains limited regarding smart grids, and regarding concrete guidelines for designers and policymakers. In this paper, we fill this gap by answering the following research question: How do design choices in smart grid projects impact energy justice? Thereby, four smart grid pilot projects are evaluated in a comparative qualitative case study research design. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and a content analysis. Our findings contribute to the energy justice literature with insights regarding the design for distributive, recognition, and procedural justice. They underscore the importance of fairness in data governance, participatory design, user control and autonomy, technology inclusiveness, and the design for expansion and replication. Future research should explore the feasibility to govern smart grids as commons and the relationship between trust and perceptions of justice. We conclude with policy recommendations for funding future smart grid experiments and for facilitating the implementation of storage through electricity sector regulation

Governing the dynamics of the network industries

This paper wants to further develop the theory of co-evolution between technology and institutions in the network industries by addressing one of the critiques that is generally raised, namely the lack of taking into account its dynamics. The paper outlines the main steps in the conceptualization of the evolving network industries in the context of liberalization and concludes with considerations about how to govern their dynamics