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In the current business environment, an organization’s continuation is getting more dependent on the use of big data applications. For one, big data technologies generally provide firms with a head start compared to close competitors through better decision making. The Literature has declared that the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of today should take on the role of a catalysator towards more extended use of big data analytics. As such, an organization’s future might stand or fall with the CFO’s decision-making behaviour. Through the use of a questionnaire, data has been collected from 104 CFOs with the aim of investigating whether there is a significant link between the cognitive style of a CFO and his/her investment behaviour. More specifically, the investment behaviour related to descriptive, predictive and prescriptive big data techniques on the one hand, and the investment behaviour related to an integrated big data platform on the other hand. In this research, some significant indications are found concerning the effect of the cognitive style of a CFO on the application of prescriptive big data techniques and the application of an integrated big data platform.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

In the current business environment, an organization’s continuation is getting more dependent on the use of big data applications. For one, big data technologies generally provide firms with a head start compared to close competitors through better decision making. The Literature has declared that the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of today should take on the role of a catalysator towards more extended use of big data analytics. As such, an organization’s future might stand or fall with the CFO’s decision-making behaviour. Through the use of a questionnaire, data has been collected from 104 CFOs with the aim of investigating whether there is a significant link between the cognitive style of a CFO and his/her investment behaviour. More specifically, the investment behaviour related to descriptive, predictive and prescriptive big data techniques on the one hand, and the investment behaviour related to an integrated big data platform on the other hand. In this research, some significant indications are found concerning the effect of the cognitive style of a CFO on the application of prescriptive big data techniques and the application of an integrated big data platform.

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• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The digital area has completely changed the role of the CFO. Today, researchers and practitioners indicate that CFOs are well-positioned to take the lead in the digital transformation of their company because of their data management and financial planning responsibilities. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of the CFO’s personality on the digital maturity within small and medium-sized enterprises. Digital maturity is an indication for the digital progress that does not only take into account the technology dimension but rather looks at the broader picture. Furthermore, the paper investigates the digitalisation in more detail by designing a new Digital Maturity Model (DMM) that develops four digital maturity stages describing an evolution path towards full digital maturity. By subsequently assigning the companies to the resulting stages, an overview is provided of where Belgian SMEs are located today in their digital transformation process. For these purposes, an online questionnaire was developed and spread among Belgian CFOs active in SMEs. The results provide evidence for the effects of the CFO’s characteristics on the digital maturity of the company. In addition, the digital maturity research shows that many SMEs have set their course to become more digitalised but that the implementation of new technologies remains the biggest challenge in the digital transformation.

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We analyze the influence of national culture on the content of inter-firm R&D contracts regarding Intellectual Property Rights, Confidentiality and Task Description & Project Management provisions. Our dataset comprises of 455 contracts between our Belgian case organization and Belgian, German, American or Japanese firms. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are used to assess and compare the cultural differences between these firms’ countries of origin. Using this framework, we examine whether cultural differences between the countries can account for variations between the percentual importance attached to the contractual provisions mentioned above. The results from our logistic regression analysis show that in some cases our hypotheses were supported, while in others they were not substantiated.

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In this master thesis we explore the non-GAAP disclosures in the specific Belgian reporting framework. Starting with 77 unique listed firms from Belgium we try to see what the reasoning for firms to use pro forma earnings and what items are mostly left out of these kinds of earnings. When we look deeper into the difference between these earnings for firms who report EBIT, EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA we see a big difference between EBIT and the other two metrics in our sample. However the difference between EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA is minimal. Which could be an indication that adjusted EBITDA really is a measure for a better representation of how a firm’s financial situation is. Furthermore, we find evidence that bigger firms are more likely to report pro forma earnings in Belgium. Lastly, we couldn’t find any evidence for the influence of profitability on firms which report pro forma earnings. The main purpose of this master thesis is the explanatory side in which we set the possible groundwork for future research studies regarding the use of pro forma earnings in Belgium.