In spite of the growing availability of COVID-19 vaccines, a substantial number of people is reluctant or uncertain about getting the vaccine. Nudges may improve vaccine uptake but it is unclear... Show moreIn spite of the growing availability of COVID-19 vaccines, a substantial number of people is reluctant or uncertain about getting the vaccine. Nudges may improve vaccine uptake but it is unclear how this plays out with the experience of autonomous choice, decision competence, decision satisfaction, and being pressured to make a choice. In an online experiment among a representative sample (N = 884), we examined whether a social norm nudge or a default nudge (either or not transparent) was effective in steering the desired choice of making a hypothetical early vaccination appointment as compared to making a later appointment or no appointment. We also examined how both nudges affected autonomy and related downstream consequences. None of the nudges proved effective in making the desired choice of early vaccination and neither did they impact on downstream consequences. Rather, our results indicate that participants who were certain about their choice (i.e., opted for the earliest available vaccination opportunity or not getting vaccinated at all) reported higher levels of autonomy, competence and satisfaction than participants who did not know yet about vaccination or who postponed the moment of getting their vaccination. We conclude that the experience of autonomy and related downstream consequences is determined by having made up one's mind about vaccination, and is not affected by attempts to nudge the individual. Show less
Targeted advertising is the primary revenue stream for the largest online platforms that act as the internet’s gatekeepers, such as Alphabet and Meta. The financial incentives drive targeted... Show moreTargeted advertising is the primary revenue stream for the largest online platforms that act as the internet’s gatekeepers, such as Alphabet and Meta. The financial incentives drive targeted advertising towards maximizing the efficiency of algorithmically matching advertisements with consumers, which typically requires building fine-grained profiles that rely on consumers’ personal data. In the European Union (EU), the protection of personal data is a fundamental right operationalized by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), establishing the limits of targeted advertising to the extent that it relies on the processing of personal data. Nevertheless, as online interface design and fine-grained personalization allow platforms and other publishers new ways to influence consumers, targeted advertising is also associated with the potential for consumer manipulation.While the consumer protection framework in the EU is the primary field that protects consumers from manipulation, it has received little attention in academia in the context of targeted advertising whencompared with the GDPR. In 2022, the EU adopted proposals for the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which contain consumer protection rules that directly limit targeted advertising. These developments in consumer protection law may fundamentally transform the internet, as its gatekeepers are now faced with a new legal regime that regulates their primary source of revenue.This Article provides an overview of the myriad of legislation that comprises the EU consumer protection framework—including how it intersects with the data protection framework—and analyzes how andthe extent to which it coalesces to limit targeted advertising. Show less
Wachner, J.; Adriaanse, M.; Hoven, M. van den; Ridder, D. de 2022
Defaults have been shown to increase the number of organ donor registrations but it is unclear whether they violate personal autonomy of the people being registered. The implementation of a new... Show moreDefaults have been shown to increase the number of organ donor registrations but it is unclear whether they violate personal autonomy of the people being registered. The implementation of a new Donor Act in the Netherlands, providing people with the opportunity for active registration before being defaulted, allowed for examining to what extent default registration affects personal autonomy and associated concepts. In an online survey among a representative sample (N = 1259), four groups were compared regarding autonomy, decision -making competence, decision satisfaction, and being pressured to register as a donor: people (1) who had registered their status prior to the Donor Act, (2) who had not yet received an invitation for default registration, (3) who had received an invitation and then registered their choice, and (4) who had received an invitation but took no action and were defaulted into donor registration. We found that among the three groups who were the target population of the new arrangement, people who registered their status reported relatively high levels of autonomy and related concepts. However, people who were invited to register but passed the opportunity to respond reported lower scores on these outcomes. We conclude that default organ donation registration may bear negative consequences for a minority of people who feel unable to take action after having been invited to make a choice for registration.Superscript/Subscript Available Show less
This paper examines mentorship as a mechanism for individuals to acquire and develop creativity. More specifically, we study the effect of mentor creativity on protégé creativity and how this... Show moreThis paper examines mentorship as a mechanism for individuals to acquire and develop creativity. More specifically, we study the effect of mentor creativity on protégé creativity and how this effect is moderated by the mentoring styles of autonomy and exploration. Our empirical analysis focuses on formal PhD supervision and training, drawing on survey and bibliometric data for 143 life-science professors (mentors) and their 685 PhD students (protégés). We find that the effect of mentor creativity on protégé creativity is insignificant during protégés’ PhD studies but becomes significantly positive after protégés hold faculty positions, suggesting that the mentorship effect takes time to manifest but is enduring. Furthermore, the effect of mentor creativity on protégé creativity is significant only when protégés have high levels of autonomy and exploration during PhD studies. This suggests the importance of autonomy and exploration in the effective transfer of creativity from mentors to protégés. Show less
This thesis investigated the extent to which types of civil service appointments shape the attitudes and behaviour of civil servants in neo-patrimonial settings, with a focus on the Ghanaian... Show moreThis thesis investigated the extent to which types of civil service appointments shape the attitudes and behaviour of civil servants in neo-patrimonial settings, with a focus on the Ghanaian experience. Despite the theoretical view in public administration literature about the consequences of the type of a civil servants’ appointment on his/her attitude and behaviour, the empirical data is marginal in emerging democracies such as Ghana. Regarding the attitudes and behaviour of concern, the study focused on the level of bureaucrats’ autonomy, loyalty and responsiveness. To investigate this phenomenon, the study adopted a mixed-method approach to understand why civil servants, despite their apolitical cloak, demonstrate varied attitudes and behaviour in contravention with their professionalism and, in particular, determine how their type of appointment influenced such attitudes and behaviour. The findings confirmed the study’s hypothesis that the type of a bureaucrats’ appointment into the bureaucracy indeed influenced his/her attitudes and behaviour. However, further analysis of this finding impugned mainstream discourses regarding the expected impact of types of appointment. For example, the study found that regardless of how merit-based the process of appointing a bureaucrat is, his/her autonomy is limited in Ghana. Secondly, whilst the general theoretical predictions concerning patronage and hybrid appointments’ impact on loyalty and responsiveness were confirmed respectively, the findings also suggest that such loyalties and responsiveness are not absolute, due to regulatory mechanisms and competing interests. Furthermore, this study’s findings support the class of scholars who call into question the orthodox view in bureaucratic politics that patronage is damaging because this study finds otherwise. It therefore adds to discussions on the need to move beyond the monistic conception of patronage as negative to encompass its beneficial outcomes. The study also proposes legal-constitutional and policy reforms that go beyond the merit-principle to embrace patronage and hybrid considerations where necessary. Show less
The idea of citizens and public professionals collaborating to provide public services has widely spread in several countries around the globe. Co-production is often presented as the go-to... Show moreThe idea of citizens and public professionals collaborating to provide public services has widely spread in several countries around the globe. Co-production is often presented as the go-to solution for challenges like a legitimacy crisis of both the government and the market, and financial concerns. Yet, co-production also brings new challenges for the citizens, public professionals and public organizations involved. Why do citizens sometimes become disappointed with coproduction? Why do professionals at times feel constrained when interacting with citizens? Although co-production literature is booming, these issues still remain unsolved. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of why individual citizens and public professionals engage in co-production, and what the role of mutual perceptions of this engagement is. The study is innovative in both its approach (focusing on the individuals involved instead of on the collaborative networks, processes, and organizations) and the research methods applied (proposing a mixed method research design in a research field dominated by single case studies and qualitative research methods). The book presents a variety of studies to empirically unravel citizens’ and professionals’ engagement in the co-production of public services. The cases include client councils in healthcare organizations, neighborhood watch schemes, and representative advisory councils at primary schools. Show less
In een periode waarin het volgens Mulisch leek of alles was versteend, klonken in de literaire tijdschriften felle proteststemmen tegen de literatuur van 'het klein geluk' en de burgerlijke... Show moreIn een periode waarin het volgens Mulisch leek of alles was versteend, klonken in de literaire tijdschriften felle proteststemmen tegen de literatuur van 'het klein geluk' en de burgerlijke consensuscultuur. De verschrikkingen van het recente verleden en de vrees voor een nieuwe oorlog beheersten het politiek-maatschappelijke klimaat. Tegelijkertijd hield Nederland krampachtig vast aan zijn rol als modelkolonisator. Deze veranderde wereld vroeg om stellingname, ook in de literatuur: 'Lyriek is de moeder der politiek', stelde Lucebert. Marije Groos laat zien hoe auteurs als Lucebert, Harry Mulisch, Jan Wolkers, Gerrit Kouwenaar, Henk Hofland en J.B. Charles in intrigerende teksten vorm gaven aan een kritisch engagement. Zij laten een ander, afwijkend geluid horen uit de 'lange jaren vijftig'. Daarnaast gaat Groos uitvoerig in op het specifiek literaire karakter van het engagement. Haar boek draagt daarmee bij aan het doorlopende debat over literatuur, autonomie en engagement. Show less
Nowadays, there is a continuous need for many corporations to renew their business portfolio strategically in anticipation of changes in the business environment (e.g., technological change). The... Show moreNowadays, there is a continuous need for many corporations to renew their business portfolio strategically in anticipation of changes in the business environment (e.g., technological change). The ongoing booming of founding international start-ups suggests that small entrepreneurial teams are an effective means to develop new businesses. Corporations should be able to benefit from this form of self-organized innovation when entering novel business domains for strategic renewal. However, corporations that establish small entrepreneurial teams (corporate ventures) are facing two obstacles. First, corporate ventures often fail for reasons that are not well explored. Second, it remains unclear how the partial successes may be improved to large successes. Although the key success factors remain ambiguous, there is little hope that corporate ventures will be successful without effective management. Since an empirical model for corporate venture management does not exists so far, the thesis formulates and answers the following problem statement: How can corporate management effectively manage corporate ventures? Building on qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, a model for effective corporate venture management is developed and tested statistically in the German IT consulting industry. The research results reveal some of the essential management principles through which corporate management can increase corporate venture success systematically. Show less
This article addresses the question whether the European Union defaulted on the ‘strict observance’ of international law and ‘respect’ for the UN Charter, which are now express objectives of the... Show moreThis article addresses the question whether the European Union defaulted on the ‘strict observance’ of international law and ‘respect’ for the UN Charter, which are now express objectives of the EU following the Lisbon reform, in the course of the famous Kadi cases. With the final appeals judgment having been handed down by the Court of Justice of the European Union in July 2013, this question can now be conclusively answered in the negative. Despite the general tension these legal challenges created between EU law and international law, the EU managed, in the course of twelve years, to weave a seamless coat of compliance with international law. The article contrasts this finding with the general academic discourse on this case law, which tends to depict Kadi as a ‘sacrifice’ of compliance with international law for the benefit of fundamental rights (as well as the autonomy of the EU legal order). By retracing the entirety of this string of cases, the article demonstrates that, all rhetoric aside and for all practical purposes, the EU courts and other institutions managed to avoid any violations of international legal obligations towards the UN Security Council in this matter. The EU discontinued its own sanctions against Mr Kadi only after he had been delisted by the UN by means of a political decision, not by virtue of judicial intervention. Show less
The thesis explores how indigenous people access land rights through claims. Land claims happens on the encounters between different regimes of property. The authors found indigenous people have... Show moreThe thesis explores how indigenous people access land rights through claims. Land claims happens on the encounters between different regimes of property. The authors found indigenous people have many ways to express their land claims since Japanese time. There are individual claims on lands like reservation land that suggests individualism among indigenous communities. There are collective claims on autonomy, co-management of river resources and development projects. Various mapping activities are analyzed to show how indigenous connect them with the lands. The thesis constructs a framework to express land property claims that are based on indigenous ideas on human unit, institution, rights and land resources. Show less
he creation of European Union agencies is arguably one of the most prominent institutional innovations at the EU level in recent history. Especially since the early 1990s, the EU and its member... Show morehe creation of European Union agencies is arguably one of the most prominent institutional innovations at the EU level in recent history. Especially since the early 1990s, the EU and its member states delegated a wide range of (semi-)regulatory, monitoring, and coordination tasks to a quickly growing number of agencies. Most existing research focuses on the creation of these agencies. As a result, we do not know much about how agencies develop after their creation. EU agencies are formally independent, but do they also behave autonomously in practice? How does actual autonomy vary across EU agencies and how does this affect the role these agencies play in the multi-level system of European governance? This study addresses these questions theoretically and empirically by comparing six EU agencies – the European Medicines Agency (EMEA), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Environm ent Agency (EEA), the European Monitoring Centre for Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), Europol and Eurojust. It shows how some of these agencies develop into relatively autonomous entities by acquiring a distinct organisational character and by generating support from actors in their environment, whereas other agencies do so to a much lesser extent or not at all. Show less
