School of Business and Economics

The EU’s response to COVID-19: success or lost opportunity?

The COVID-19 crisis represents a common threat for all 27 member states of the European Union; however, Europe has been criticised for being slow to formulate a collective response. We reached out to Prof. Clemens Kool, professor of Macroeconomics and International Monetary Economics to hear his thoughts on the matter.

Sofía Castro: an exchange student’s experience staying in Maastricht during COVID-19

When Sofía Castro found out that she would be doing her exchange in Maastricht at SBE, she couldn't wait for her trip! This would be her first time in Europe and she had big plans. But after just one and half months in the Netherlands, the corona crisis hit, forcing her to adapt these plans.

Humanity as an integral part of Sustainability

'Recovering ecosystems due to an economic crisis will not solve the problem of global warming if we return to do “business as usual” after the pandemic fades. Instead, we should work on improving our economic system in a way that it reduces its reliance of the depletion of natural resources and an ever-increasing economic growth.’ 

CIRCULAR X: new EU-funded project on Circular Service Business Models

Lead by Professor Nancy Bocken, CIRCULAR X will develop a new field of research on experimentation with circular service business models (CSBMs) in the transition to a circular economy.

Connecting with loved ones during the final stages of life

Adjusting to this new way of life during the Corona crisis is a challenge all of us are facing, but for some people, the reality of this crisis is more acute. For those people affected by the loss of a loved one to Covid-19, how to say goodbye, provide support and begin to mourn that loss under such difficult circumstances is also part of this new and difficult reality. 

Facing the corona crisis with entrepreneurship and innovation

The goal of the Maastricht University Centre of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) is to boost the entrepreneurial eco-system of Maastricht University and leverage the innovative potential of SMEs in the region. Due to the corona crisis, the centre has had to postpone several of its activities; however, the CEI team has now shifted their priorities to helping local businesses create more sustainable business models and be innovative in these uncertain times. 

SBE students conduct market research for DSM’s sustainable engineering plastics

In this year’s edition of the course Customer-centric Supply Chain Management, our 2^nd year IBE bachelor students conducted market research for DSM’s sustainable engineering plastics. Within seven weeks, students learned about the principles of market research and got to design as well as implement full-blown market research to examine an SCM-related problem from a consumer point of view. Due to the Covid19 pandemic, the best 13 teams delivered their pitch to DSM management online and two teams were awarded the first place.

Two UM students share their experience living through the corona crisis in South Africa

Jens and Chris, two students from Maastricht University's School of Business and Economics (SBE) were spending this semester abroad in South Africa when the corona crisis hit. As concerns for their safety grew, they made the difficult decision to return to their homes in Germany. However, this turned out to be a lot more difficult than expected. Read more about Jens and Chris's experience and how they made the best of a difficult situation. 

UM student interviews global entrepreneur on the business impact of COVID-19

SBE student Sandro Esposito interviews global entrepreneur Suvra Chakraborty to find out more about the business impact of COVID-19.

Adapting to virtual: Real life problem-based learning

We wanted to find out how some of SBE’s teaching staff have been experiencing the move to online teaching and learning so we interrupted their online creativity momentarily to find out what life is like behind the scenes of an online learning environment.

Shula Mensah: my work-from-home survival guide

As a person who is easily distracted, working from home is not the most ideal situation for me. This is why I always studied in the library because lowkey, the peer pressure of seeing others work hard made me do the same. But this is our life for now so being in this situation forced me to adjust my ways. In this article I share some tips that have helped me to survive (so far). 

Gender equality in academia: creating an environment where all talent can flourish

In the lead up to International Women’s Day on Sunday 8 March, we spoke with several SBE academics to explore some of the reasons behind the striking gender imbalance in academia and to find out what the SBE community is doing to address the situation.   

An algorithm could do this better and on less coffee

UM’s Mark Levels set up TECHNEQUALITY, a consortium of leading scholars around Europe. Their mission: to find out how AI and robotisation will affect the labour market and what policies are best suited to cushioning the blow – and hopefully tide me over to retirement.

In Memoriam Geert Hofstede (1928-2020)

It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Geert Hofstede, professor emeritus of Organizational Anthropology and International Management. Geert reached the blessed age of 91. This world-renowned cultural scholar is survived by his wife Maaike, his four children, ten grandchildren and five greatgrandchildren. According to his oldest son Gert Jan, with whom Geert co-authored major work and who will go on carry the torch, his father was ‘ready to go’.

A snapshot of the first BISCI event

The Brightlands Institute for Supply Chain Innovation had its first event at the Brightlands Greenport Campus hosting around 200 guests with exiting workshops around digital and sustainability.

Urban greenspace as motor for exercising, meeting and relaxing

Last year, the Maastricht Sustainability Institute joined forces with the public health service (GGD) of Zuid Limburg to investigate the influence of 'green in the neighborhood' on the health of residents in Maastricht.

A Valentine’s Day missive - head, heart or gut-reaction?

Love it or hate it, Valentine’s Day comes around every year, tempting, taunting us and playing with our minds.  If, like most people, you believe that your decisions are a result of a rational analysis of available alternatives, think again! You may not be as immune to these marketing tactics as you think, but not necessarily in the ways you might expect. Science finds that emotions greatly influence or even determine our decisions.

Catching up with BISCI: ambitious agenda to create digital and sustainable supply chain innovation

Set up by Maastricht University and the Province of Limburg in early 2019, the Brightlands Institute for Supply Chain Innovation (BISCI) drives state-of-the art digital and sustainable supply chain innovation, combining expertise from knowledge institutions, businesses and government. Last week, we caught up with BISCI’s business development director Ton Geurts and BISCI’s scientific director Bart Vos to get an update on the institute’s first year and find out about their plans for the future.

Subsidy awarded to 'RuimteGIDS': towards an environment that stimulates healthy behavior

ZonMw has awarded a four-tonne subsidy to the South Limburg consortium "Making space for health in the city" (RuimteGIDS).

Erasmus+ Grant for developing executive study module on Service Design Thinking

Together with Tallinn University, Stockholm School of Economics and consultancy firm Brand Manual, the Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management (SBE) and the Service Science Factory (UMIO) received an Erasmus+ Grant to realise this programme to co-develop an executive study programme in the field of Service Design.

Tom van Veen on internationalisation (and why it matters)

We reached out to Professor Tom van Veen, one of SBE's first faculty members and the former Dean Internationalisation of Education, to find out how SBE became the international faculty it is today and to hear his thoughts on the recent pushback against internationalisation in the Netherlands.

Running a business is psychology

Aukje Kuypers had no intention of following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather. Yet she is now managing director of the family business, Kuijpers, with more than 1,300 employees and an annual turnover of almost €250 million. This technical installation company is primarily focused on innovation, energy transition, digitisation and circular construction. “Technically speaking, everything is possible,” says the Businesswoman of the Year 2018, “but it’s about persuading people to get on board with you.”

Jasper Brinkerink winner Best Doctoral Dissertation Award

UM academics react to the Nobel Prize in economics

This week, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2019 to Abhijit Banerjee (MIT), Esther Duflo (MIT) and Michael Kremer (Harvard) for their work to alleviate poverty. The news of the prize was received with great enthusiasm here in Maastricht. We spoke to several academics with expertise in the field of development economics to hear their initial thoughts.

BISCI workshop during Dutch Food Week

During the Dutch Food Week, Bart Vos hosted the interactive workshop ‘Sustainable food, how does it get on our plate?’ at BISCI’s home turf, the Villa Flora in Venlo. While the focus of the Dutch Food Week is mainly on what we eat, Bart’s workshop addressed how we get food where we want to consume it.

BISCI participates in funding workshop on shorter logistics chains & bundling

BISCI participated in a workshop hosted by TKI Dinalog for the Nationale WetenschapsAgenda (NWA)-route 16 on ‘Logistics, Transportation and Mobility’ on Friday 4 October.

Jean-Jacques Herings selected as Economic Theory Fellow

Jean-Jacques Herings, Professor of Microeconomics at Maastricht University, was elected Economic Theory Fellow by the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET). Economic Theory Fellows are selected for their scientific excellence, originality, and leadership; high education standards; and scholarly and creative achievement.

UM researchers lead European project to tackle challenges linked to technical innovations

Led by Mark Levels with the help of Raymond Montizaan and Didier Fouarge, TECHNEQUALITY’s findings are expected to inform policy-makers working to support their populations through technological transformation. We sat down with Mark to find out more about this fascinating project and how it came to be.

Encouraging children to be more physically active does not always lead to better school performance

Ten primary schools introduced the Active Living Programme for children between the ages of 8 and 12. The programme aimed at increasing physical activity during and outside of recess, as well as walking or cycling to school.

Ton Geurts joins BISCI as new Business Development Director

Ton Geurts will join BISCI as Business Development Director. He will support Greenport Venlo logistics and supply chain management from the Brightlands Campus in the Limburg region through smart and sustainable innovations.

Breaking free of the Great Recession: Maastricht researchers join Horizon 2020 project

GROWINPRO, a new EU-funded project led in part by Prof. Pierre Mohnen and Assistant Prof. Tania Treibich will provide a raft of joined-up policies to set Europe on a more balanced course of development – one fuelled by innovation but sensitive to issues like climate, demographic and labour changes. Six months into the project, we caught up with Pierre and Tania to hear the latest updates.  

Leadership down to a fine art

The highlight of the Maastricht art scene is TEFAF (The European Fine Art Fair), the annual March event that draws hundreds of high-end dealers and collectors and thousands of visitors to the city from all over the world. This year, the same week saw another – smaller – group of international visitors break new ground: the first cohort of the Executive Master in Cultural Leadership.

UM professors contribute to the Dutch pension reforms

At Maastricht University’s School of Business and Economics (SBE), our academics regularly carry out research that has a direct impact on society. Today, we sit down with one of these academics: Professor Antoon Pelsser who regularly contributes to the nation-wide debate surrounding pension funds in the Netherlands.

A numbers game

Maastricht University’s delegation secured a silver medal in this year’s Econometric Game in Amsterdam. To appease fans frustrated by the lack of mainstream media coverage, we asked one of their number, Lea Bottmer, to tell us more.

A summer in the life of an academic

Ever wonder what academics do during the summer break? Well, wonder no more! Associate Professor of economics Christian Seel shares with us his summer plans and, as you'll quickly find out, they consist of a lot more than three months of sipping cocktails on the beach.

Meet the team conducting research on the exciting future of Augmented Reality

Housed at SBE, the Augmented Research Initiative is a global research group dedicated to studying AR technologies for Marketing. The group investigates the value-added through AR applications in a variety of B2C and B2B contexts, such as online and offline retail, warehousing and logistics.

Creating an inclusive social innovation ecosystem in Lesvos, Greece

In May, Dr Jarrod Ormiston, Assistant Professor in Social Entrepreneurship, was a keynote speaker at the Changemakers Summit in Lesvos where he presented his insights from the Inter agency (UNCTAD / IOM / UNHCR) Policy Guide on Entrepreneurship for Refugees and Migrants.

Dean Peter Møllgaard on the value of university rankings

Each year, various publications such as the Financial Times and Times Higher Education release university rankings, rating schools on various criteria to indicate which programmes offer the best educational investment. Although there are differing views on what these ratings actually reveal, Peter Møllgaard, SBE’s Dean for the last year, believes they are quite valuable.  

Meet Melanie Feeney: an advocate of interdisciplinary research

Originally from Australia, Melanie Feeney's career path includes the completion of a master's degree in sustainability in Sydney, research on sustainable business in remote and rural Australia and Southeast Asia as well as a role as Education Development Officer at UM. Building on her extensive experience, Feeney has decided to now focus her research on how organisations transition towards sustainability, under the umbrella of the SBE research theme Sustainable Development.

The Maastricht Debate 2019: a student's opinion

The Maastricht debate, a political debate between the “Spitzenkandidaten” of the leading European parties took place last Monday, 29 April at the theatre at the Vrijthof. Simultaneously, the debate was live broadcast on the Vrijthof square for all interested spectators who did not get the chance to join the debate inside the theatre. A unique aspect of this debate was that it targeted in particular young voters.

Silver medal at the World Championships of Econometrics

The Econometric Game is a yearly event in Amsterdam, often dubbed as the World Championships of Econometrics, and took place this year from April 10th to April 12th. Maastricht University has been a consistent participant in the game for the last ten years, battling it out with the likes of Harvard University, Universidad Carlos III, and the University of Monash for eternal glory.
We are proud to announce that team SBE came in 2nd place during this final case, and therefore also placed 2nd of all 30 teams!

SBE students conduct market research for Zalando

In 28 March 2019, Maastricht University had the pleasure of welcoming Christian Klein, Operations Manager Process Management and Daniel Rausch, Business Developer from Zalando as jury members for determining the best marketing research project (MRP) as part of the Marketing & Supply Chain Management course.

MaastrichtMBA reclaims top spot in global MBA ranking

UMIO’s MaastrichtMBA ranks 13th globally according to CEO Magazine’s Global Executive MBA Ranking 2019.

Math/Maastricht, an alternative guide to the city

What do the Basilica of Saint Servatius, the bear pit at Aldenhofpark and the gate to the university library have in common? One: they’re special places to visit, and two: they all somehow remind Maastricht University’s math-oriented researchers of their work.

Master in BISS: for the data architects of the future

The MMM, more than the sum of its parts

Maastricht University has its own international maths competition: the Mathematical Modelling competition Maastricht (MMM). The event for high school students has been going strong since 1995.

UM researcher Stephan Smeekes to join Young Academy

Euroregions: stronger than we think

How do you empower citizens and Euroregions within the European Union?

Does my turtle look disappointed?

To contribute to sustainable human–animal relationships, Bingtao Su, under the supervision of Pim Martens, researched the relationship between the ethical outlook of pet owners.

Presentation Neimed during first Euregio Summer School

From 10 to 15 September 2018, the cross-border and multidisciplinary Euregio Summer School in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion was organised for the first time. 45 students from higher education institutions and representatives from knowledge institutes in the Euroregion came together with one goal: to develop visions of the future on the theme 'Improving inclusive Mobility in the Digital Age' in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion.

A match made in Maastricht: Alex and Lisa Brüggen

On 14 September, exactly 17 years after they first met, Lisa and Alex will celebrate becoming Professors Brüggen and Brüggen. The SBE scholars who share a last name and a life together reflect on joint inaugural lectures, coincidence and coffee, private and professional spheres, and Lufthansa’s close attention to academic titles.

Eight Veni grants for young UM scientists

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded a Veni grant to eight young, highly promising UM scientists. Maastricht University congratulates the eight UM laureates: dr. Vigjilenca Abazi (FdR), dr. Matthijs Cluitmans (FHML), dr. Tim Hendrikx (FHML), dr. Laurentius Huber (FPN), dr. Miriam Meissner (FASoS), dr. Tim Snijders (FHML), dr. Thomas van Sloten (FHML), and dr. Emiel van der Vorst (FHML).

Professor thanks to his mother’s kidney

Sustainability on economists’ radar

Sustainability has become firmly ensconced in the world of economists. These days, no calculation is made without accounting for environmental effects, corporate responsibility and the long term.

How do you sell a BMW motorcycle in Asia?

The write stuff: if you want to get more out of that training session, review it

How can companies motivate their sales employees to take work-related training aimed at developing their skill sets? “Make them write reviews about their learning experience,” advises Dominik Mahr of Maastricht University’s School of Business and Economics in a research paper published in the March 2018 issue of the Journal of Marketing.

New Master in Emerging Markets strengthens UM’s expertise

Emerging Markets is the latest specialisation in the bachelor’s programmes in International Business and Economics & Business Economics at Maastricht University. New as it may be, it is already popular. It has even spurred on the development of a follow-up programme to be launched next autumn: the Master in Economics and Strategy in Emerging Markets.

Samantha finds an ING internship

Samantha ten Holt (master's student in Marketing Finance and Sustainable Finance) about how she found an ING internship after participating in Master Yourself workshops.

UM alumna Aukje Kuypers named Businesswoman of the Year 2018

UM alumna Aukje Kuypers (Economics and Business Administration) was named Businesswoman of the Year 2018 this week.

Maastricht University - Campus Venlo students win FACE-UP Air Cargo Competition 2018

Caroline Larisch alumna (graduated in 2018) and Danny Jonker are both among the three winners of the FACE-UP Air Cargo Competition 2018, a competition for recent graduates to present their thesis at the World Cargo Symposium (WCS) in Dallas, United States.

Peter Møllgaard appointed new Dean of UM School of Business and Economics

Peter Møllgaard (Denmark, 1964), Professor of Industrial Organization at Copenhagen Business School (CBS), has been appointed as the new dean of the Maastricht University School of Business and Economics (SBE).

Blue skies and clear deliverables: how setting targets can boost employees’ creativity

Most firms want to encourage creativity or innovation or process improvement, but it’s always a struggle to know how you can foster that. A study co-authored by  Alexander Brüggen, his SBE colleague Feichter and US-based scholar Michael G. Williamson, and part-funded by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, may hold some answers.

Charity with impact

How much money do society’s “haves” – high net worth individuals, in bankers’ language – give to worthy causes, and to which ones? And do wealthy people in the Netherlands behave differently to their French counterparts? Associate professor of finance Paul Smeets has some intriguing answers.

Weighing career prospects pays off for vocational education students

Vocational education students who carefully weighed the associated career prospects when choosing a degree programme were more likely to succeed on the labour market.

May the best (wo)man win

Isabella Grabner believes that the way performance is measured makes a huge difference on the work floor. She has conducted groundbreaking research in this field.

Hot topic: Nora Pankratz wins FIR-PRI grant to study financial impact of heat exposure

How serious are the negative effects of higher-than-average temperatures? Armed with some help from a prestigious FIR-PRI Awards PhD research grant, Nora Pankratz, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Finance, is determined to find out.

Missionary of the open-access message

She is blunt when it comes to her colleagues’ awareness of the issue of open access: what awareness? According to Lisa Brüggen, professor of Financial Services at the School of Business and Economics (SBE), there is much work to do. To promote awareness of open access, the week starting 23 October has been declared International Open Access Week.

The motives behind sustainable construction

Estate investors financially benefit from sustainable buildings, says associate professor of the Maastricht University School of Business and Economics. His research into the financial effects of sustainable construction is discussed in an article in the Huffington Post.

Game on: UM to lead game theory network

The COST Action award, worth some 500,000 euros and supported by the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020, will facilitate the creation of the European Network for Game Theory (GAMENET), with Maastricht University as its leader.

UM joins UNDP partnership

On Friday 22 September, Maastricht University signed a new partnership with the United Nations Social Impact Fund (UNSIF) and nine leading universities worldwide to join the UNSIF Research Council.

Jeannette Hommes: problem-based learning champion and 'DNA of SBE' waves farewell

Juan Palacios serves up some home (and office) truths

School of Business and Economics receives re-accreditation from AACSB

On 19 April 2017 AACSB International announced that it will be extending the business accreditation of Maastricht University’s School of Business and Economics (SBE). Founded in 1916, AACSB is the longest-serving global accrediting body for business schools that offer undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in business and accounting. By obtaining this re-accreditation, SBE retains the prestigious ‘Triple Crown’ which consists of accreditations awarded by the American AASCB, the British AMBA and the European-wide EQUIS. Only 1% of business schools worldwide have been able to achieve this.