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There is still much debate about the integration of international students during their study abroad. To this end, this research investigates which factors influence students’ integration, more specifically academic integration, social integration with international students and social integration with local students. Furthermore, the effect of integration on academic performance during a stay abroad is examined. The data set that is used consists of a survey with 224 international students at the FEB at the KU Leuven, and a database with respondents’ grades provided by the FEB. Consequently, (ordered) logit regressions and OLS regressions are carried out to analyze integration and its effect on academic performance. Difficulty to adapt to the academic system and level has a negative effect on academic integration. Furthermore, hours spent on studying, courses and assignments have mixed effects on integration. Different motivations to study abroad and financing means influence integration positively. Moreover, all forms of integration influence each other positively. Integration only has a limited negative effect on academic performance.

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This thesis investigates the impact of an Academy of Finland research grant on subsequent scientific productivity of a 100 applicants between 2005 and 2009. Scientific output is measured in number of publications, citations and in terms of quality with the h-index. Data on researchers output after applying for a grant is compared between those that were successful in receiving the grant and those that did not. There is no evidence found of a significant relation between the receipt of an Academy of Finland research grant and increased productivity. The most likely reason for this finding is that not receiving the Academy of Finland grant does not necessarily mean the researcher will give up on the proposal, but will look for other funding options to continue his/her work.

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This thesis estimates the effect of product and process innovations on employment at the firm-level. The thesis also provides a very theoretical part of the difference in innovation according to the firm size in different sectors. To conduct our research, we use a database retrieved from the Community Innovation Report (CIS) covering a panel data set of Belgian firms from 2004 until 2018. Using this database, we have not found a significant effect between product innovations and the level of employment. However, we find significant negative effects of process innovation on the employment rate. The importance of the interaction term is well illustrated by the significant positive relationship it has on the performance of the firm and more specifically on the employment rate. We were also able to prove that large innovative firms are more present in capital-intensive industries since there are more large firms situated in sectors such as transport, pharmacy and machinery.

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While many literature has already focused on various elements of student exchanges, only a few have focused on the combination of foreign language knowledge and academic performance. This thesis tries to fill in this gap by investigating the effect of foreign language knowledge on the academic performance of students during and after the student exchange. The research is based on a database of students at the Faculty of Economics and Business. Through a series of five research questions, we found that foreign language knowledge has a significant positive effect on the academic experience and performance of students while on exchange. However, there seems to be no significant effect of foreign language knowledge on grades after students have returned. On top of this main goal, we also examined whether student exchanges increase the academic performance of students upon returning. We did this to get an idea of the general academic value of student exchanges from the student’s perspective. Contrary to some other literature, we found that student exchanges have a rather negative effect on the grades of a student after return. Student exchanges seem thus to be more interesting for gaining other benefits rather than increasing the student’s academic performance. Nonetheless should there be a strong focus on the foreign language knowledge as this does increase the academic experience and performance, on top of other benefits discussed in other literature.

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The purpose of this study is to delineate the value of editorial associations in promoting scientific integrity. We present an empirical analysis of the impact that the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) has on the number of retractions of its member journals. For the analysis, retraction data is used for the period 1992 to 2007 from Retraction Watch’s database, currently the most well-known and complete retraction tracker. It is complemented with data on the periods in which COPE member journals were granted membership, which was retrieved from COPE’s annual reports. The analysis was carried out by comparing the number of retractions that occurred at member journals before and after membership periods. Findings show that there is a significant upswing in the number of retractions among member journals in the years after membership compared to those before membership. Nevertheless, this rise appears to be insignificantly related to COPE membership. Rather, it is likely to be caused by a general journal-level trend of better editorial oversight, regardless of COPE membership.