@phdthesis{Weber2019, author = {Weber, Marie-Christin}, title = {Performance Enhancing Strategies in Different Negotiation Phases}, publisher = {Kovac}, address = {Hamburg}, isbn = {978-3-339-10946-0}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {78}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The present dissertation investigates profit-maximizing behavior in different phases of the negotiation process. Over the last decades, research dealt in detail with behavior of negotiation actors with the aim of identifying performance enhancing factors. The majority of those studies focused on behavior within the main negotiation phase. This work, however, considers phases which are, so far, underrepresented in research but show an impact on the negotiation process and outcome. Those phases are the pre-negotiation, the first offer, and the main negotiation phase which is further divided by breaks into several rounds. Within these phases, traits of behavior are analyzed that can be used strategically in order to impact the negotiation outcome. The dissertation contains three papers, each one dealing with a specific strategy within one phase. The first paper investigates communication behavior in the pre-negotiation phase. Content analysis of a negotiation experiment shows that the employment of positive communication elements such as the generation of enthusiasm for an upcoming project results in an increase of agreements on entering a negotiation and also leads to a higher willingness to make concessions. The second paper explores the impact of a semantic first anchor, which does not contain a specific number but only gives a numerical direction, on the opponent's concession behavior and the final outcome. By means of two scenario-based questionnaires and a negotiation experiment it is demonstrated that semantic offers reveal an anchoring effect and lead to better negotiation outcomes. The third paper deals with the introduction of breaks and their effect on the following negotiation process. Therefore, content and outcome of another negotiation experiment are investigated. The analysis shows that breaks evoke a dominant impression but can negatively impact the atmosphere and thereby also the outcome. Finally, the gathered insights are brought together and discussed. The dissertation closes with implications for practice, limitations of the work, and ideas for future research.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Mielke2018, author = {Mielke, Jahel}, title = {Coordination on Green Investment}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-42745}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-427459}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {viii, 209}, year = {2018}, abstract = {To reach its climate targets, the European Union has to implement a major sustainability transition in the coming decades. While the socio-technical change required for this transition is well discussed in the academic literature, the economics that go along with it are often reduced to a cost-benefit perspective of climate policy measures. By investigating climate change mitigation as a coordination problem, this thesis offers a novel perspective: It integrates the economic and the socio-technical dimension and thus allows to better understand the opportunities of a sustainability transition in Europe. First, a game theoretic framework is developed to illustrate coordination on green or brown investment from an agent perspective. A model based on the coordination game "stag hunt" is used to discuss the influence of narratives and signals for green investment as a means to coordinate expectations towards green growth. Public and private green investment impulses - triggered by credible climate policy measures and targets - serve as an example for a green growth perspective for Europe in line with a sustainability transition. This perspective also embodies a critical view on classical analyses of climate policy measures. Secondly, this analysis is enriched with empirical results derived from stakeholder involvement. In interviews and with a survey among European insurance companies, coordination mechanisms such as market and policy signals are identified and evaluated by their impact on investment strategies for green infrastructure. The latter, here defined as renewable energy, electricity distribution and transmission as well as energy efficiency improvements, is considered a central element of the transition to a low-carbon society. Thirdly, this thesis identifies and analyzes major criticisms raised towards stakeholder involvement in sustainability science. On a conceptual level, different ways of conducting such qualitative research are classified. This conceptualization is then evaluated by scientists, thereby generating empirical evidence on ideals and practices of stakeholder involvement in sustainability science. Through the combination of theoretical and empirical research on coordination problems, this thesis offers several contributions: On the one hand, it outlines an approach that allows to assess the economic opportunities of sustainability transitions. This is helpful for policy makers in Europe that are striving to implement climate policy measures addressing the targets of the Paris Agreement as well as to encourage a shift of investments towards green infrastructure. On the other hand, this thesis enhances the stabilization of the theoretical foundations in sustainability science. Therefore, it can aid researchers who involve stakeholders when studying sustainability transitions.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Bielefeldt2019, author = {Bielefeldt, Jonas}, title = {Toward Service-based Value Creation}, series = {Schriftenreihe zum Business Development ; 7}, journal = {Schriftenreihe zum Business Development ; 7}, publisher = {Kovac}, address = {Hamburg}, isbn = {978-3-339-10642-1}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {134}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Over the past decade, society has witnessed an increasing expansion of service economies as manufacturing (i.e., product-oriented) companies break free from their product-based business model and move toward more service-oriented value creation as a result of several economic, technological, and social changes. As they shift from products to (service) solutions, manufacturing companies pursue new strategic direction, inter alia, by extensively employing service business development activities. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the considerable (re-)emerging stream of service business development by providing vital insights for academia and management into important focus areas that have hardly, if at all, been (empirically) investigated in the existing literature before. Therefore, these findings can be vital to informing a differentiation in current and future marketing strategies in business practice. First of all, this dissertation focuses on the extent to which service business development is transposed into business practice. Because scarce empirical-quantitative research has studied the current state of service business development across various industry and market sectors, this study analyzes a unique, manually collected dataset of 266 (product and service) business development activities. In so doing, this investigation contributes to literature by presenting a comprehensive, industry-wide status quo and trend report of service business development in practice. Furthermore, given the surprisingly limited scientific attention paid to the question of how service business development is strategically configured and further applied to different environmental circumstances, this dissertation provides comprehensive theoretical and practical implications by analyzing in detail a sample of 137 service business developments of 66 product-oriented companies. Lastly, manufacturers are recognizing that service-oriented value creation is moving toward a more collaborative process of co-creation as a promising measure to achieve competitive advantage, and even more as an appropriate response to complex business environments. Thus, an increasing number of companies around the world have recently introduced business models related to access-based services such as car-, scooter-, and bike-sharing systems. But despite the considerable advantages of access-based services as an alternative to ownership, these companies are now seeing that consumer adoption and (re-)usage rates remain insufficient. Owing to the lack of general and cross-national scientific knowledge, the purpose of this dissertation continues to explore which factors impede diffusion of related service business development activities from a consumer perspective and what kind of differences can be established between countries. Consequently, with a total of 1,443 participants, a cross-national survey was carried out in three countries, i.e., the United States, Germany, and China, to measure a vast number of different adoption barriers derived from a developed integrated framework that combines established theories within innovation and adoption behavior research.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Konon2018, author = {Konon, Alexander}, title = {Essays on career choice under risk and ambiguity}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-416466}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {x, 250, xxxv}, year = {2018}, abstract = {This dissertation consists of five self-contained essays, addressing different aspects of career choices, especially the choice of entrepreneurship, under risk and ambiguity. In Chapter 2, the first essay develops an occupational choice model with boundedly rational agents, who lack information, receive noisy feedback, and are restricted in their decisions by their personality, to analyze and explain puzzling empirical evidence on entrepreneurial decision processes. In the second essay, in Chapter 3, I contribute to the literature on entrepreneurial choice by constructing a general career choice model on the basis of the assumption that outcomes are partially ambiguous. The third essay, in Chapter 4, theoretically and empirically analyzes the impact of media on career choices, where information on entrepreneurship provided by the media is treated as an informational shock affecting prior beliefs. The fourth essay, presented in Chapter 5, contains an empirical analysis of the effects of cyclical macro variables (GDP and unemployment) on innovative start-ups in Germany. In the fifth, and last, essay in Chapter 6, we examine whether information on personality is useful for advice, using the example of career advice.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Weiss2018, author = {Weiß, Katharina}, title = {Three Essays on EFRAG}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-415355}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {II, 180}, year = {2018}, abstract = {This cumulative doctoral thesis consists of three papers that deal with the role of one specific European accounting player in the international accounting standard-setting, namely the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG). The first paper examines whether and how EFRAG generally fulfills its role in articulating Europe's interests toward the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). The qualitative data from the conducted interviews reveal that EFRAG influences the IASB's decision making at a very early stage, long before other constituents are officially asked to comment on the IASB's proposals. The second paper uses quantitative data and investigates the formal participation behavior of European constituents that seek to determine EFRAG's voice. More precisely, this paper analyzes the nature of the constituents' participation in EFRAG's due process in terms of representation (constituent groups and geographical distribution) and the drivers of their participation behavior. EFRAG's official decision making process is dominated by some specific constituent groups (such as preparers and the accounting profession) and by constituents from some specific countries (e.g. those with effective enforcement regimes). The third paper investigates in a first step who of the European constituents choose which lobbying channel (participation only at IASB, only at EFRAG, or at both institutions) and unveils in a second step possible reasons for their lobbying choices. The paper comprises quantitative and qualitative data. It reveals that English skills, time issues, the size of the constituent, and the country of origin are factors that can explain why the majority participates only in the IASB's due process.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schiprowski2017, author = {Schiprowski, Amelie}, title = {Four empirical essays on the economics of job search}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-413508}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xiii, 209}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Modern welfare states aim at designing unemployment insurance (UI) schemes which minimize the length of unemployment spells. A variety of institutions and incentives, which are embedded in UI schemes across OECD countries, reflect this attempt. For instance, job seekers entering UI are often provided with personal support through a caseworker. They also face the requirement to regularly submit a minimum number of job applications, which is typically enforced through benefit cuts in the case of non-compliance. Moreover, job seekers may systematically receive information on their re-employment prospects. As a consequence, UI design has become a complex task. Policy makers need to define not only the amount and duration of benefit payments, but also several other choice parameters. These include the intensity and quality of personal support through caseworkers, the level of job search requirements, the strictness of enforcement, and the information provided to unemployed individuals. Causal estimates on how these parameters affect re-employment outcomes are thus central inputs to the design of modern UI systems: how much do individual caseworkers influence the transition out of unemployment? Does the requirement of an additional job application translate into increased job finding? Do individuals behave differently when facing a strict versus mild enforcement system? And how does information on re-employment prospects influence the job search decision? This dissertation proposes four novel research designs to answer this question. Chapters one to three elaborate quasi-experimental identification strategies, which are applied to large-scale administrative data from Switzerland. They, respectively, measure how personal interactions with caseworkers (chapter one), the level of job search requirements (chapter two) and the strictness of enforcement (chapter three) affect re-employment outcomes. Chapter four proposes a structural estimation approach, based on linked survey and administrative data from Germany. It studies how over-optimism on future wage offers affects the decision to search for work, and how the provision of information changes this decision.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Kraft2018, author = {Kraft, Frederik}, title = {Be Creative, Now!}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-414009}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {VII, 230}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Purpose - This thesis set out to explore, describe, and evaluate the reality behind the rhetoric of freedom and control in the context of creativity. The overarching subject is concerned with the relationship between creativity, freedom, and control, considering freedom is also seen as an element of control to manage creativity. Design/methodology/approach - In-depth qualitative data gathered from at two innovative start-ups. Two ethnographic studies were conducted. The data are based on participatory observations, interviews, and secondary sources, each of which included a three months field study and a total of 41 interviews from both organizations. Findings - The thesis provides explanations for the practice of freedom and the control of creativity within organizations and expands the existing theory of neo-normative control. The findings indicate that organizations use complex control systems that allow a high degree of freedom that paradoxically leads to more control. Freedom is a cover of control, which in turn leads to creativity. Covert control even results in the responsibility to be creative outside working hours. Practical implications - Organizations, which rely on creativity might use the results of this thesis. Positive workplace control of creativity provides both freedom and structure for creative work. While freedom leads to organizational members being more motivated and committing themselves more strongly to their and the organization's goals, and a specific structure also helps to provide the requirements for creativity. Originality/value - The thesis provides an insight into an approach to workplace control, which has mostly neglected in creativity research and proposes a modified concept of neo-normative control. It serves to provide a further understanding of freedom for creativity and to challenge the liberal claims of new control forms.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Weissenberger2017, author = {Weißenberger, Martin}, title = {Start-up subsidies for the unemployed - New evaluation approaches and insights}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-406362}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {viii, 239}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Start-up incentives targeted at unemployed individuals have become an important tool of the Active Labor Market Policy (ALMP) to fight unemployment in many countries in recent years. In contrast to traditional ALMP instruments like training measures, wage subsidies, or job creation schemes, which are aimed at reintegrating unemployed individuals into dependent employment, start-up incentives are a fundamentally different approach to ALMP, in that they intend to encourage and help unemployed individuals to exit unemployment by entering self-employment and, thus, by creating their own jobs. In this sense, start-up incentives for unemployed individuals serve not only as employment and social policy to activate job seekers and combat unemployment but also as business policy to promote entrepreneurship. The corresponding empirical literature on this topic so far has been mainly focused on the individual labor market perspective, however. The main part of the thesis at hand examines the new start-up subsidy ("Gr{\"u}ndungszuschuss") in Germany and consists of four empirical analyses that extend the existing evidence on start-up incentives for unemployed individuals from multiple perspectives and in the following directions: First, it provides the first impact evaluation of the new start-up subsidy in Germany. The results indicate that participation in the new start-up subsidy has significant positive and persistent effects on both reintegration into the labor market as well as the income profiles of participants, in line with previous evidence on comparable German and international programs, which emphasizes the general potential of start-up incentives as part of the broader ALMP toolset. Furthermore, a new innovative sensitivity analysis of the applied propensity score matching approach integrates findings from entrepreneurship and labor market research about the key role of an individual's personality on start-up decision, business performance, as well as general labor market outcomes, into the impact evaluation of start-up incentives. The sensitivity analysis with regard to the inclusion and exclusion of usually unobserved personality variables reveals that differences in the estimated treatment effects are small in magnitude and mostly insignificant. Consequently, concerns about potential overestimation of treatment effects in previous evaluation studies of similar start-up incentives due to usually unobservable personality variables are less justified, as long as the set of observed control variables is sufficiently informative (Chapter 2). Second, the thesis expands our knowledge about the longer-term business performance and potential of subsidized businesses arising from the start-up subsidy program. In absolute terms, the analysis shows that a relatively high share of subsidized founders successfully survives in the market with their original businesses in the medium to long run. The subsidy also yields a "double dividend" to a certain extent in terms of additional job creation. Compared to "regular", i.e., non-subsidized new businesses founded by non-unemployed individuals in the same quarter, however, the economic and growth-related impulses set by participants of the subsidy program are only limited with regard to employment growth, innovation activity, or investment. Further investigations of possible reasons for these differences show that differential business growth paths of subsidized founders in the longer run seem to be mainly limited by higher restrictions to access capital and by unobserved factors, such as less growth-oriented business strategies and intentions, as well as lower (subjective) entrepreneurial persistence. Taken together, the program has only limited potential as a business and entrepreneurship policy intended to induce innovation and economic growth (Chapters 3 and 4). And third, an empirical analysis on the level of German regional labor markets yields that there is a high regional variation in subsidized start-up activity relative to overall new business formation. The positive correlation between regular start-up intensity and the share among all unemployed individuals who participate in the start-up subsidy program suggests that (nascent) unemployed founders also profit from the beneficial effects of regional entrepreneurship capital. Moreover, the analysis of potential deadweight and displacement effects from an aggregated regional perspective emphasizes that the start-up subsidy for unemployed individuals represents a market intervention into existing markets, which affects incumbents and potentially produces inefficiencies and market distortions. This macro perspective deserves more attention and research in the future (Chapter 5).}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Preuss2018, author = {Preuß, Melanie}, title = {New Perspectives on Negotiation Styles}, series = {Schriftenreihe zum Verhandlungsmanagement}, journal = {Schriftenreihe zum Verhandlungsmanagement}, number = {7}, publisher = {Verlag Dr. Kovač}, address = {Hamburg}, isbn = {978-3-8300-9794-5}, issn = {2365-7898}, pages = {XI, 110}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Companies have a keen interest in developing skilled negotiators in order to improve their negotiation outcome. A crucial determinant of the negotiation outcome are negotiation styles that represent the negotiator's actual behavior during the negotiation process. In this context, the author examines the variation in negotiation styles throughout the negotiation process, points out the relevance of the negotiator's characteristics and situational context as determinants of negotiation styles, and emphasizes the importance not only of actual but also of perceived negotiation behavior. As a result, existing negotiation research is advanced as new perspectives on negotiation styles are offered to improve a negotiator's performance.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Thaler2017, author = {Thaler, Verena}, title = {The interdependence between business development and brand management}, series = {Schriftenreihe zum Business Development}, journal = {Schriftenreihe zum Business Development}, number = {3}, publisher = {Dr. Kovač}, address = {Hamburg}, isbn = {978-3-8300-9744-0}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {XIII, 121}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Langfristiges Wachstum zu generieren, ist eine der bedeutendsten Herausforderungen von Unternehmen. Sie sind zunehmend mit saturierten (Kern-)M{\"a}rkten und immer k{\"u}rzer werdenden Produktlebenszyklen konfrontiert. Um die eigene Marktposition zu erhalten und zu wachsen, ist es daher f{\"u}r Unternehmen wichtiger denn je, kontinuierlich neue Gesch{\"a}ftsfelder zu erschließen. Gleichzeitig gewinnt der Aufbau einer starken Marke an Bedeutung, um die Kundenloyalit{\"a}t zu erh{\"o}hen und sich einem direkten Preiskampf zu entziehen. Vor diesem Hintergrund haben sich Business Development sowie Markenmanagement als strategische Kernfunktionen etabliert. Dieses Buch untersucht die Interdependenzen zwischen Business Development und Markenmanagement. Aufgrund der dominanten Stellung von Innovationen innerhalb des Business Developments bilden diese den Fokus der Untersuchung, und es wird analysiert, wie Innovations- und Markenmanagement voneinander profitieren k{\"o}nnen. Innovationen werden h{\"a}ufig als essentiell angesehen, um eine starke Marke aufzubauen und um deren Images kontinuierlich zu revitalisieren. Umgekehrt kann die Verwendung einer etablierten Marke eine Innovation bei deren Markteinf{\"u}hrung unterst{\"u}tzen. Marken dienen Konsumenten hierbei als erstes Qualit{\"a}tssignal und k{\"o}nnen somit Unsicherheiten minimieren, die mit dem Produktkauf verbunden sind. Die Autorin untersucht empirisch, ob solche Interdependenzen zwischen Innovations- und Markenmanagement existieren und wie Unternehmen diese bestm{\"o}glich f{\"u}r ihre Innovations- und Branding-Aktivit{\"a}ten nutzen k{\"o}nnen. Dabei wird analysiert, (1) wie Innovationen die Wahrnehmung und Einstellung von Konsumenten einer Marke gegen{\"u}ber ver{\"a}ndern k{\"o}nnen, (2) wie Branding den Markterfolg einer Innovation unterst{\"u}tzen kann und (3) wie der Aufbau von Brand Equity vor negativen Auswirkungen, zum Beispiel durch einen Produktskandal, sch{\"u}tzen kann. Die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse bieten relevante Implikationen f{\"u}r die Managementpraxis und Forschung. Sie zeigen Managern, wie Innovationen am besten eingesetzt werden k{\"o}nnen, um ihre jeweilige Marke zu st{\"a}rken und umgekehrt, unter welchen Umst{\"a}nden es f{\"u}r den Erfolg einer Innovation am f{\"o}rderlichsten ist, sie unter einer bestehenden Marke am Markt einzuf{\"u}hren oder eine neue Marke daf{\"u}r zu entwickeln.}, language = {en} }