Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (20239) (remove)
Language
- English (20239) (remove)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (20239) (remove)
Keywords
- climate change (90)
- Germany (67)
- stars: massive (55)
- gamma rays: general (46)
- stars: early-type (46)
- diffusion (44)
- stars: winds, outflows (44)
- German (43)
- Climate change (42)
- Arabidopsis thaliana (40)
Institute
- Institut für Physik und Astronomie (3910)
- Institut für Biochemie und Biologie (3300)
- Institut für Geowissenschaften (2530)
- Institut für Chemie (2216)
- Department Psychologie (1112)
- Institut für Mathematik (931)
- Institut für Ernährungswissenschaft (703)
- Department Linguistik (678)
- Institut für Informatik und Computational Science (532)
- Institut für Umweltwissenschaften und Geographie (513)
The planetary commons
(2024)
The Anthropocene signifies the start of a no- analogue trajectory of the Earth system that is fundamentally different from the Holocene. This new trajectory is characterized by rising risks of triggering irreversible and unmanageable shifts in Earth system functioning. We urgently need a new global approach to safeguard critical Earth system regulating functions more effectively and comprehensively. The global commons framework is the closest example of an existing approach with the aim of governing biophysical systems on Earth upon which the world collectively depends. Derived during stable Holocene conditions, the global commons framework must now evolve in the light of new Anthropocene dynamics. This requires a fundamental shift from a focus only on governing shared resources beyond national jurisdiction, to one that secures critical functions of the Earth system irrespective of national boundaries. We propose a new framework—the planetary commons—which differs from the global commons framework by including not only globally shared geographic regions but also critical biophysical systems that regulate the resilience and state, and therefore livability, on Earth. The new planetary commons should articulate and create comprehensive stewardship obligations through Earth system governance aimed at restoring and strengthening planetary resilience and justice.
It has been highlighted many times how difficult it is to draw a boundary between gift and bribe, and how the same transfer can be interpreted in different ways according to the position of the observer and the narrative frame into which it is inserted. This also applied of course to Ancient Rome; in both the Republic and Principate lawgivers tried to define the limits of acceptable transfers and thus also to identify what we might call ‘corruption’. Yet, such definitions remained to a large extent blurred, and what was constructed was mostly a ‘code of conduct’, allowing Roman politicians to perform their own ‘honesty’ in public duty – while being aware at all times that their involvement in different kinds of transfer might be used by their opponents against them and presented as a case of ‘corrupt’ behaviour.
This chapter provides an overview of methods to capture developments and changes in motivational beliefs. Motivational research has recently begun to venture beyond just examining average developmental trends in motivational variables by starting to investigate how developmental changes in motivational variables differ between and within individuals in different learning situations and across contexts. Although studies have started to uncover differences in motivational changes, a systematic overview of suitable methods for capturing motivational differences in developmental processes is still missing. In this chapter, we review key methods of change modelling, bringing together variable-centred approaches, such as growth modelling and true intraindividual change (TIC) models, and person-centred approaches, such as latent transition and growth mixture models. We illustrate the value of the reviewed statistical methods for the analysis of context-specific motivational changes by reviewing recent empirical studies that identify different patterns and trajectories of such motivational beliefs across time. Our focus is thereby on research grounded in situated expectancy-value theory as a core theory in motivational research.
This paper provides novel evidence on the impact of public transport subsidies on air pollution. We obtain causal estimates by leveraging a unique policy intervention in Germany that temporarily reduced nationwide prices for regional public transport to a monthly flat rate price of 9 Euros. Using DiD estimation strategies on air pollutant data, we show that this intervention causally reduced a benchmark air pollution index by more than eight percent and, after its termination, increased again. Our results illustrate that public transport subsidies – especially in the context of spatially constrained cities – offer a viable alternative for policymakers and city planers to improve air quality, which has been shown to crucially affect health outcomes.
Navigating the unknown
(2024)
Visionary leadership is considered to be one of the most important elements of effective leadership. Among other things, it is related to followers' perceived meaningfulness of their work. However, little is known about whether uncertainty in the workplace affects visionary leadership's effects. Given that uncertainty is rising in many, if not most, workplaces, it is vital to understand whether this development influences the extent to which visionary leadership is associated with followers' perceived meaningfulness. In a two-source, lagged design field study of 258 leader-follower dyads from different settings, we show that uncertainty moderates the relation between visionary leadership and followers' perceived meaningfulness such that this relation is more strongly positive when uncertainty is high, rather than low. Moreover, we show that with increasing uncertainty, visionary leadership is more negatively related to followers' turnover intentions via perceived meaningfulness. This research broadens our understanding of how visionary leadership may be a particularly potent tool in times of increasing uncertainty.
In many churches nowadays, there has been a standardized approach to premarital counseling for couples involving social, pastoral, and psychological perspectives. In contrast, many rabbis and other Jewish officials still concentrate on legal aspects alone. The need for resolving important issues on the verge of wedlock is too often left to secular experts in law, psychology, or counseling. However, in recent years, this lack of formal training for marriage preparation has also been acknowledged by the Jewish clergy in order to incorporate it in the preparatory period before the bond is tied. This case study focuses on Jewish and Roman Catholic conceptions of marriage, past and present. We intend to do a comparative analysis of the prerequisites of religious marriage based on the assumption that both Judaism and the Roman Catholic Church have a distinct legal framework to assess marriage preparation.
Invisible iterations: how formal and informal organization shape knowledge networks for coordination
(2024)
This study takes a network approach to investigate coordination among knowledge workers as grounded in both formal and informal organization. We first derive hypotheses regarding patterns of knowledge-sharing relationships by which workers pass on and exchange tacit and codified knowledge within and across organizational hierarchies to address the challenges that underpin contemporary knowledge work. We use survey data and apply exponential random graph models to test our hypotheses. We then extend the quantitative network analysis with insights from qualitative interviews and demonstrate that the identified knowledge-sharing patterns are the micro-foundational traces of collective coordination resulting from two underlying coordination mechanisms which we label ‘invisible iterations’ and ‘bringing in the big guns’. These mechanisms and, by extension, the associated knowledge-sharing patterns enable knowledge workers to perform in a setting that is characterized by complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. Our research contributes to theory on the interplay between formal and informal organization for coordination by showing how self-directed, informal action is supported by the formal organizational hierarchy. In doing so, it also extends understanding of the role that hierarchy plays for knowledge-intensive work. Finally, it establishes the collective need to coordinate work as a previously overlooked driver of knowledge network relationships and network patterns. © 2024 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
With the surging reliance on videoconferencing tools, users may find themselves staring at their reflections for hours a day. We refer to this phenomenon as self-referential information (SRI) consumption and examine its consequences and the mechanism behind them. Building on self-awareness research and the strength model of self-control, we argue that SRI consumption heightens the state of self-awareness and thereby depletes participants’ mental resources, eventually undermining virtual meeting (VM) outcomes. Our findings from a European employee sample revealed contrary effects of SRI consumption across speaker vs listener roles. Engagement with self-view is positively associated with self-awareness, which, in turn, is negatively related to satisfaction with VM process, perceived productivity, and enjoyment. Looking at the self while listening to others exhibits adverse direct and indirect (via self-awareness) effects on VM outcomes. However, looking at the self when speaking exhibits positive direct effects on satisfaction with VM process and enjoyment.
Enhancing higher entrepreneurship education: insights from practitioners for curriculum improvement
(2024)
Curricula for higher entrepreneurship education should meet the requirements of both a solid theoretical foundation and a practical orientation. When these curricula are designed by education specialists, entrepreneurs are usually not consulted. To explore practitioners’ curricular recommendations, we conducted 73 semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs with at least five years of professional experience. We collected 49 items for teaching and learning objectives, 37 for contents, 28 for teaching methods, and 17 for assessment methods. The respondents are convinced that students should acquire solid knowledge in business and management, legal issues, and entrepreneurship. For the latter, only some core aspects are provided. The entrepreneurs put greater emphasis on entrepreneurial skills and attitudes and consider experiential learning designs as most suitable, both in the secure setting of the classroom and in real life. The findings can help reflect on current entrepreneurship curriculum designs.
In the debate on epistemic injustice, it is generally assumed that testimonial injustice as one form of epistemic injustice cannot be committed (fully) deliberately or intentionally because it involves unconscious identity prejudices. Drawing on the case of sexual violence against refugees in European refugee camps, this paper argues that there is a form of testimonial injustice—willful testimonial injustice—that is deliberate. To do so, the paper argues (a) that the hearer intentionally utilizes negative identity prejudices for a particular purpose and (b) that the hearer is aware of the fact that the intentionally used prejudices are in fact prejudices. Furthermore, the paper shows how testimonial injustice relates to recognition failures both in terms of a causal as well as a constitutive claim. In fact, introducing willful testimonial injustice can support the constitutive claim of such a relation that has so far received little attention. Besides arguing for a novel form of testimonial injustice and contributing to the recent debate on the relation between epistemic injustice and recognition failures, this paper is also motivated by the attempt to draw attention to the inhumane conditions for refugees at the border of Europe as well as elsewhere.
The growing use of digital tools in policy implementation has altered the work of street-level bureaucrats who are granted substantial discretionary power in decision-making. Digital tools can constrain discretionary power, like the curtailment thesis proposed, or serve as action resources, like the enablement thesis suggested. This article assesses empirical evidence of the impact of digital tools on street-level work and decision-making in service-oriented and regulation-oriented organisations based on a systematic literature review and thematic qualitative content analysis of 36 empirical studies published until 2021. The findings demonstrate different effects with regard to the role of digital tools and the core tasks of the public administration, depending on political and managerial goals and consequent system design. Leading or decisive digital tools mostly curtail discretion, especially in service-oriented organisations. In contrast, an enhanced information base or recommendations for actions enable decision-making, in particular in regulation-oriented organisations. By showing how street-level bureaucrats actively try to resist the curtailing effects caused by rigid design to address individual circumstances, for instance by establishing ways of coping like rule bending or rule breaking, using personal resources or prioritising among clients, this study demonstrates the importance of the continuation thesis and the persistently crucial role of human judgement in policy implementation.
Enhancing economic efficiency in modular production systems through deep reinforcement learning
(2024)
In times of increasingly complex production processes and volatile customer demands, the production adaptability is crucial for a company's profitability and competitiveness. The ability to cope with rapidly changing customer requirements and unexpected internal and external events guarantees robust and efficient production processes, requiring a dedicated control concept at the shop floor level. Yet in today's practice, conventional control approaches remain in use, which may not keep up with the dynamic behaviour due to their scenario-specific and rigid properties. To address this challenge, deep learning methods were increasingly deployed due to their optimization and scalability properties. However, these approaches were often tested in specific operational applications and focused on technical performance indicators such as order tardiness or total throughput. In this paper, we propose a deep reinforcement learning based production control to optimize combined techno-financial performance measures. Based on pre-defined manufacturing modules that are supplied and operated by multiple agents, positive effects were observed in terms of increased revenue and reduced penalties due to lower throughput times and fewer delayed products. The combined modular and multi-staged approach as well as the distributed decision-making further leverage scalability and transferability to other scenarios.
Comparative vote switching
(2024)
Large literatures focus on voter reactions to parties’ policy strategies, agency, or legislative performance. While many inquiries make explicit assumptions about the direction and magnitude of voter flows between parties, comparative empirical analyses of vote switching remain rare. In this article, we overcome three challenges that have previously impeded the comparative study of dynamic party competition based on voter flows: we present a novel conceptual framework for studying voter retention, defection, and attraction in multiparty systems, showcase a newly compiled data infrastructure that marries comparative vote switching data with information on party behavior and party systems in over 250 electoral contexts, and introduce a statistical model that renders our conceptual framework operable. These innovations enable first-time inquiries into the polyadic vote switching patterns underlying multiparty competition and unlock major research potentials on party competition and party system change.
We conduct a laboratory experiment to study how locus of control operates through people’s preferences and beliefs to influence their decisions. Using the principal–agent setting of the delegation game, we test four key channels that conceptually link locus of control to decision-making: (i) preference for agency, (ii) optimism and (iii) confidence regarding the return to effort, and (iv) illusion of control. Knowing the return and cost of stated effort, principals either retain or delegate the right to make an investment decision that generates payoffs for themselves and their agents. Extending the game to the context in which the return to stated effort is unknown allows us to explicitly study the relationship between locus of control and beliefs about the return to effort. We find that internal locus of control is linked to the preference for agency, an effect that is driven by women. We find no evidence that locus of control influences optimism and confidence about the return to stated effort, or that it operates through an illusion of control.
Sulfur is an important element that is incorporated into many biomolecules in humans. The incorporation and transfer of sulfur into biomolecules is, however, facilitated by a series of different sulfurtransferases. Among these sulfurtransferases is the human mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase (MPST) also designated as tRNA thiouridine modification protein (TUM1). The role of the human TUM1 protein has been suggested in a wide range of physiological processes in the cell among which are but not limited to involvement in Molybdenum cofactor (Moco) biosynthesis, cytosolic tRNA thiolation and generation of H2S as signaling molecule both in mitochondria and the cytosol. Previous interaction studies showed that TUM1 interacts with the L-cysteine desulfurase NFS1 and the Molybdenum cofactor biosynthesis protein 3 (MOCS3). Here, we show the roles of TUM1 in human cells using CRISPR/Cas9 genetically modified Human Embryonic Kidney cells. Here, we show that TUM1 is involved in the sulfur transfer for Molybdenum cofactor synthesis and tRNA thiomodification by spectrophotometric measurement of the activity of sulfite oxidase and liquid chromatography quantification of the level of sulfur-modified tRNA. Further, we show that TUM1 has a role in hydrogen sulfide production and cellular bioenergetics.
In late summer, migratory bats of the temperate zone face the challenge of accomplishing two energy-demanding tasks almost at the same time: migration and mating. Both require information and involve search efforts, such as localizing prey or finding potential mates. In non-migrating bat species, playback studies showed that listening to vocalizations of other bats, both con-and heterospecifics, may help a recipient bat to find foraging patches and mating sites. However, we are still unaware of the degree to which migrating bats depend on con-or heterospecific vocalizations for identifying potential feeding or mating opportunities during nightly transit flights. Here, we investigated the vocal responses of Nathusius’ pipistrelle bats, Pipistrellus nathusii, to simulated feeding and courtship aggregations at a coastal migration corridor. We presented migrating bats either feeding buzzes or courtship calls of their own or a heterospecific migratory species, the common noctule, Nyctalus noctula. We expected that during migratory transit flights, simulated feeding opportunities would be particularly attractive to bats, as well as simulated mating opportunities which may indicate suitable roosts for a stopover. However, we found that when compared to the natural silence of both pre-and post-playback phases, bats called indifferently during the playback of conspecific feeding sounds, whereas P. nathusii echolocation call activity increased during simulated feeding of N. noctula. In contrast, the call activity of P. nathusii decreased during the playback of conspecific courtship calls, while no response could be detected when heterospecific call types were broadcasted. Our results suggest that while on migratory transits, P. nathusii circumnavigate conspecific mating aggregations, possibly to save time or to reduce the risks associated with social interactions where aggression due to territoriality might be expected. This avoidance behavior could be a result of optimization strategies by P. nathusii when performing long-distance migratory flights, and it could also explain the lack of a response to simulated conspecific feeding. However, the observed increase of activity in response to simulated feeding of N. noctula, suggests that P. nathusii individuals may be eavesdropping on other aerial hawking insectivorous species during migration, especially if these occupy a slightly different foraging niche.
Its properties make copper one of the world’s most important functional metals. Numerous megatrends are increasing the demand for copper. This requires the prospection and exploration of new deposits, as well as the monitoring of copper quality in the various production steps. A promising technique to perform these tasks is Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). Its unique feature, among others, is the ability to measure on site without sample collection and preparation. In this work, copper-bearing minerals from two different deposits are studied. The first set of field samples come from a volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit, the second part from a stratiform sedimentary copper (SSC) deposit. Different approaches are used to analyze the data. First, univariate regression (UVR) is used. However, due to the strong influence of matrix effects, this is not suitable for the quantitative analysis of copper grades. Second, the multivariate method of partial least squares regression (PLSR) is used, which is more suitable for quantification. In addition, the effects of the surrounding matrices on the LIBS data are characterized by principal component analysis (PCA), alternative regression methods to PLSR are tested and the PLSR calibration is validated using field samples.
Networking fast and slow
(2023)
Growing interest in network dynamics has led to insights about patterns of network change, drivers of tie formation, and the temporal unfolding of the consequences of networks. To this area of inquiry, we introduce networking speed—the time that it takes for individuals to form a network tie—as an important but so far largely overlooked aspect. We develop a theory of networking speed that explains how different catalysts enable professionals to introduce variation into the speed with which they form interpersonal network ties. We discuss how such variation in the speed with which ties have been formed influences relational outcomes and the network returns that these ties generate. This discussion illustrates that high networking speed can entail advantages as well as pitfalls. We also explore temporal implications of networking speed—for instance, the persistence of the effects of speed over time. Overall, we conceptualize networking speed as a constitutive element of how interpersonal networks function in professional settings, and we propose a future research program for the integration of this novel concept into organizational network research.
Digitalization, as well as sustainability, are gaining increased relevance and have attracted significant attention in research and practice. However, the research already published about this topic examining digitalization in the retail sector does not consider the acceptance of related innovations, nor their impact on sustainability. Therefore, this article critically analyzes the acceptance of customers towards digital technologies in fashion stores as well as their impact on sustainability in the textile industry. The comprehensive analysis of the literature and the current state of research provide the basis of this paper. Theoretical models, such as the Technology-Acceptance-Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT 2) enable the evaluation of expectations and acceptance, as well as the assessment of possible inhibitory factors for the subsequent descriptive and statistical examination of the acceptance of digital technologies in fashion stores. The research on this subject was examined in a quantitative way. The key findings show that customers do accept digital technologies in fashion stores. The final part of this contribution describes the innovative Digitalization 4 Sustainability Framework which shows that digital technologies at the point of sale (PoS) in fashion stores could have a positive impact on sustainability. Overall, this paper shows that it is particularly important for fashion stores to concentrate on their individual strengths and customer needs as well as to indicate a more sustainable way by using digital technologies, in order to achieve added value for the customers and to set themselves apart from the competition while designing a more sustainable future. Moreover, fashion stores should make it a point of their honor to harness the power of digitalization for sake of sustainability and economic value creation.
Achilles tendinopathy (AT) is a debilitating injury in athletes, especially for those engaged in repetitive stretch-shortening cycle activities. Clinical risk factors are numerous, but it has been suggested that altered biomechanics might be associated with AT. No systematic review has been conducted investigating these biomechanical alterations in specifically athletic populations. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review was to compare the lower-limb biomechanics of athletes with AT to athletically matched asymptomatic controls. Databases were searched for relevant studies investigating biomechanics during gait activities and other motor tasks such as hopping, isolated strength tasks, and reflex responses. Inclusion criteria for studies were an AT diagnosis in at least one group, cross-sectional or prospective data, at least one outcome comparing biomechanical data between an AT and healthy group, and athletic populations. Studies were excluded if patients had Achilles tendon rupture/surgery, participants reported injuries other than AT, and when only within-subject data was available.. Effect sizes (Cohen's d) with 95% confidence intervals were calculated for relevant outcomes. The initial search yielded 4,442 studies. After screening, twenty studies (775 total participants) were synthesised, reporting on a wide range of biomechanical outcomes. Females were under-represented and patients in the AT group were three years older on average. Biomechanical alterations were identified in some studies during running, hopping, jumping, strength tasks and reflex activity. Equally, several biomechanical variables studied were not associated with AT in included studies, indicating a conflicting picture. Kinematics in AT patients appeared to be altered in the lower limb, potentially indicating a pattern of “medial collapse”. Muscular activity of the calf and hips was different between groups, whereby AT patients exhibited greater calf electromyographic amplitudes despite lower plantar flexor strength. Overall, dynamic maximal strength of the plantar flexors, and isometric strength of the hips might be reduced in the AT group. This systematic review reports on several biomechanical alterations in athletes with AT. With further research, these factors could potentially form treatment targets for clinicians, although clinical approaches should take other contributing health factors into account. The studies included were of low quality, and currently no solid conclusions can be drawn.
In this paper, we show how socialist planning can be based on input-output data. We argue that the information required for this can be obtained by a central planning agency and thus dismiss Hayek’s information argument against socialism. We further show how economic planning can be made responsive to consumer demand through a feedback control mechanism. Output targets of products would be adjusted in response to observed consumer demand or based on predictions about future demand. Planners can use machine learning to make more accurate forecasts. The valuation of goods plays an important role in the feedback control mechanism. The values of goods can either be measured by the labour time necessary for their production (labour values) or through shadow prices based on linear programming.
A right to research?
(2023)
Terminology is a critical instrument for each researcher. Different terminologies for the same research object may arise in different research communities. By this inconsistency, many synergistic effects get lost. Theories and models will be more understandable and reusable if a common terminology is applied. This paper examines the terminological (in)consistence for the research field of job-shop scheduling by a literature review. There is an enormous variety in the choice of terms and mathematical notation for the same concept. The comparability, reusability and combinability of scheduling methods is unnecessarily hampered by the arbitrary use of homonyms and synonyms. The acceptance in the community of used variables and notation forms is shown by means of a compliance quotient. This is proven by the evaluation of 240 scientific publications on planning methods.
Competence development must change at all didactic levels to meet the new requirements triggered by digitization. Unlike classic learning theories and the resulting popular approaches (e.g., sender-receiver model), future-oriented vocational training must include new learning theory impulses in the discussion about competence acquisition. On the one hand, these impulses are often very well elaborated on the theoretical side, but the transfer into innovative learning environments - such as learning factories - is often still missing. On the other hand, actual learning factory (design) approaches often concentrate primarily on the technical side. Subject-oriented learning theory enables the design of competence development-oriented vocational training projectsin learning factories in which persons can obtain relevant competencies for digitization. At the same time, such learning theory approaches assume a potentially infinite number of learning interests and reasons. Following this, competence development is always located in an institutional or organizational context. The paper conceptionally answers how this theoryimmanent challenge is synthesizable with the reality of organizationally competence development requirements.
Many widely used observational data sets are comprised of several overlapping instrument records. While data inter-calibration techniques often yield continuous and reliable data for trend analysis, less attention is generally paid to maintaining higher-order statistics such as variance and autocorrelation. A growing body of work uses these metrics to quantify the stability or resilience of a system under study and potentially to anticipate an approaching critical transition in the system. Exploring the degree to which changes in resilience indicators such as the variance or autocorrelation can be attributed to non-stationary characteristics of the measurement process – rather than actual changes in the dynamical properties of the system – is important in this context. In this work we use both synthetic and empirical data to explore how changes in the noise structure of a data set are propagated into the commonly used resilience metrics lag-one autocorrelation and variance. We focus on examples from remotely sensed vegetation indicators such as vegetation optical depth and the normalized difference vegetation index from different satellite sources. We find that time series resulting from mixing signals from sensors with varied uncertainties and covering overlapping time spans can lead to biases in inferred resilience changes. These biases are typically more pronounced when resilience metrics are aggregated (for example, by land-cover type or region), whereas estimates for individual time series remain reliable at reasonable sensor signal-to-noise ratios. Our work provides guidelines for the treatment and aggregation of multi-instrument data in studies of critical transitions and resilience.
Development of self-concept and task interest has been shown to be affected by social comparison processes in a variety of cross-sectional studies. A potential explanation for these effects is an effect of social comparative performance feedback on an individual’s self-evaluation of performance, which in turn influences development of self-concept and task interest. There are, however, only few studies addressing this topic with experimental designs. This study was aimed at closing this research gap by experimentally manipulating social comparative performance. Feedback given was based on 2 × 2 experimental conditions: social position (high vs. low) and average performance of the reference group (high vs. low). Results show a strong effect of social position on self-evaluation of performance and smaller effects on self-concept and task interest.
The retention of actinides in different oxidation states (An(X), X = III, IV, VI) by a calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H) phase with a Ca/Si (C/S) ratio of 0.8 was investigated in the presence of gluconate (GLU). The actinides considered were Am(III), Th(IV), Pu(IV), and U(VI). Eu(III) was investigated as chemical analogue for Am(III) and Cm(III). In addition to the ternary systems An(X)/GLU/C-S-H, also binary systems An(X)/C-S-H, GLU/C-S-H, and An(X)/GLU were studied. Complementary analytical techniques were applied to address the different specific aspects of the binary and ternary systems. Time-resolved laser-induced luminescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) was applied in combination with parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) to identify retained species and to monitor species-selective sorption kinetics. ¹³C and ²⁹Si magic-angle-spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were applied to determine the bulk structure and the composition of the C-S-H surface, respectively, in the absence and presence of GLU. The interaction of Th(IV) with GLU in different electrolytes was studied by capillary electrophoresis-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (CE-ICP-MS). The influence of GLU on An(X) retention was investigated for a large concentration range up to 10⁻² M. The results showed that GLU had little to no effect on the overall An(X) retention by C-S-H with C/S of 0.8, regardless of the oxidation state of the actinides. For Eu(III), the TRLFS investigations additionally implied the formation of a Eu(III)-bearing precipitate with dissolved constituents of the C-S-H phase, which becomes structurally altered by the presence of GLU. For U(VI) sorption on the C-S-H phase, only a small influence of GLU could be established in the luminescence spectroscopic investigations, and no precipitation of U(VI)-containing secondary phases could be identified.
Defining the metaverse
(2023)
The term Metaverse is emerging as a result of the late push by multinational technology conglomerates and a recent surge of interest in Web 3.0, Blockchain, NFT, and Cryptocurrencies. From a scientific point of view, there is no definite consensus on what the Metaverse will be like. This paper collects, analyzes, and synthesizes scientific definitions and the accompanying major characteristics of the Metaverse using the methodology of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Two revised definitions for the Metaverse are presented, both condensing the key attributes, where the first one is rather simplistic holistic describing “a three-dimensional online environment in which users represented by avatars interact with each other in virtual spaces decoupled from the real physical world”. In contrast, the second definition is specified in a more detailed manner in the paper and further discussed. These comprehensive definitions offer specialized and general scholars an application within and beyond the scientific context of the system science, information system science, computer science, and business informatics, by also introducing open research challenges. Furthermore, an outlook on the social, economic, and technical implications is given, and the preconditions that are necessary for a successful implementation are discussed.
Using time-resolved x-ray diffraction, we demonstrate the manipulation of the picosecond strain response of a metallic heterostructure consisting of a dysprosium (Dy) transducer and a niobium (Nb) detection layer by an external magnetic field. We utilize the first-order ferromagnetic–antiferromagnetic phase transition of the Dy layer, which provides an additional large contractive stress upon laser excitation compared to its zerofield response. This enhances the laser-induced contraction of the transducer and changes the shape of the picosecond strain pulses driven in Dy and detected within the buried Nb layer. Based on our experiment with rare-earth metals we discuss required properties for functional transducers, which may allow for novel field-control of the emitted picosecond strain pulses.
A review of all research papers published in the European Sociological Review in 2016 and 2017 (N = 118) shows that only a minority of papers clearly define the parameter of interest and provide sufficient reasoning for the selected control variables of the statistical analysis. Thus, the vast majority of papers does not reach minimal standards for the selection of control variables. Consequently, a majority of papers interpret biased coefficients, or statistics without proper sociological meaning. We postulate that authors and reviewers should be more careful about control variable selection. We propose graphical causal models in the form of directed acyclic graphs as an example for a parsimonious and powerful means to that end.
Dotting the “I think”
(2023)
This chapter discusses a central problem in Sebastian Rödl’s Self-Consciousness and Objectivity and in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. In a statement of the form “I think p”, the words “I think” do not contribute to the content, and yet they are not redundant. In other words, a thinking subject is not something and yet not nothing. But then in what sense is a thinking subject a part of the world? The problem is intractable on a merely negative understanding of “I think”, like Anscombe’s merely negative thesis, endorsed by Rödl, that “I” is not a referring expression. In search of a positive understanding, this chapter proposes to understand “I think” by comparison to “hello”. A speaking subject is the expression of mutual presence in conversation – in that sense a limit of the world. Such expression may be compared to facial expression, with the crucial difference that a verbal expression can be taken up – i.e., repeated – in the third person. A speaking subject, then, is potentially absent from conversation, and in that sense a part of the world.
Humboldtian science aims at an empirically supported transdisciplinary and at the same time transareal development of a world consciousness. In the development of this world consciousness, not only Europe and the Americas, but also Central Asia and especially China play an important role. The Humboldt Center for Transdisciplinary Studies (HCTS) in Changsha, is attempting to address the fact that China has been largely left out of international Humboldt studies and that Alexander von Humboldt was intensively engaged with Central Asia and China for decades. Therefore, the Humboldt Center in Changsha sets itself the goal of expanding Humboldt Studies to include this important aspect, to stimulate and coordinate special research work, and to build scientific and cultural bridges between Germany and China, Europe and Asia.
Megatrends, affecting multiple aspects of future society, economy, and technology, drive today's business world. They are expected to impact all areas in companies and will, therefore, most likely occur in business negotiations. Although several studies address future developments of different business divisions, the megatrends' impact on negotiations has, thus far, not been analyzed. We designed a model including the three megatrends, i.e., globalization and economic shift, digitalization and new technologies, and demographic and social change, which have main effects on specific negotiation aspects. Our study combined an online survey and expert interviews with negotiation practitioners to provide a first broad view of how megatrends affect future business negotiations. The results confirm our model and reveal a close connection of megatrends and single negotiation aspects. Among others, we examine an orientation toward global partners, an increased interconnection through various electronic systems, as well as two opposite relationship directions - long-term and integrative through strategic cooperation vs. short-term and distributive through competition and new technologies.
The genetic structure of Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera brydei) on the central and western North Pacific feeding grounds was investigated using a total of 1195 mitochondrial control region sequences and 1182 microsatellite genotypes at 17 loci in specimens collected from three longitudinal areas, 1W (135 degrees E-165 degrees E), 1E (165 degrees E-180 degrees), and 2 (180 degrees-155 degrees W). Genetic diversities were similar among areas and a haplotype network did not show any geographic structure, while an analysis of molecular variance found evidence of genetic structure in this species. Pairwise FST and G'ST estimates and heterogeneity tests attributed this structure to weak but significant differentiation between areas 1W/1E and 2. A Mantel test and a high-resolution analysis of genetic diversity statistics showed a weak spatial cline of genetic differentiation. These findings could be reconciled by two possible stock structure scenarios: (1) a single population with kin-association affecting feeding ground preference and (2) two populations with feeding ground preference for either area 1W or area 2. An estimated dispersal rate between areas 1W and 2 indicates that both scenarios should be considered as a precautionary principle in stock assessments.
Transferability of data-driven models to predict urban pluvial flood water depth in Berlin, Germany
(2023)
Data-driven models have been recently suggested to surrogate computationally expensive hydrodynamic models to map flood hazards. However, most studies focused on developing models for the same area or the same precipitation event. It is thus not obvious how transferable the models are in space. This study evaluates the performance of a convolutional neural network (CNN) based on the U-Net architecture and the random forest (RF) algorithm to predict flood water depth, the models' transferability in space and performance improvement using transfer learning techniques. We used three study areas in Berlin to train, validate and test the models. The results showed that (1) the RF models outperformed the CNN models for predictions within the training domain, presumable at the cost of overfitting; (2) the CNN models had significantly higher potential than the RF models to generalize beyond the training domain; and (3) the CNN models could better benefit from transfer learning technique to boost their performance outside training domains than RF models.
Thus far, research into reservations to treaties has often overlooked reservations formulated to both European Social Charters (and its Protocols) and the relevant European Committee of Social Rights practices. There are several pressing reasons to further explore this gap in existing literature. First, an analysis of practices within the European Social Charters (and Protocols) will provide a fuller picture of the reservations and responses of treaty bodies. Second, in the context of previous landmark events it is worth noting the practices of another human rights treaty monitoring body that is often omitted from analyses. Third, the very fact that the formulation of reservations to treaties gives parties such far-reaching flexibility to shape their contractual obligations (à la carte) is surprising. An important outcome of the research is the finding that, despite the far-reaching flexibility present in the treaties analysed, both the States Parties and the European Committee of Social Rights generally treat them as conventional treaties to which the general rules on reservations apply. Consequently, there is no basis for assuming that the mere fact of adopting the à la carte system in a treaty with no reservation clause implies a formal prohibition of reservations or otherwise discourages their formulation.
Multiplexity, the coexistence of more than one type of relationship between two actors, is a prevalent phenomenon with clear relevance for a wide range of management settings and phenomena. While there is a substantial body of work on multiplexity, the absence of a shared terminology and a typology for the mechanisms and arguments that are used in theorizing about its implications nevertheless hamper its appeal to organizational network scholars and slow its progress. Based on content analysis of 103 studies, we propose “relational harmony,” “task complementarity,” and “relational scope” as three categories to integrate the mechanisms and arguments used in the literature to theorize about the implications of multiplexity. We then survey the literature in light of this typology to show how it is also useful in revealing patterns of theorizing; for example, with respect to the types of relationships that are studied in relation to multiplexity. We conclude with suggestions for future research directions, focusing on how these can be pursued based on our integrative typology. We hope that the common ground we provide for theorizing about the implications of multiplexity will make it an even more engaging topic for organizational network and management scholars, and place it in the company of more prominently used relational constructs in management research, as aligned with its prevalence and relevance.
This essay takes an Anglophone Cultural Studies approach to reflect on the interdependence among as well as the individual (implicit) impact of the elements constituting our (embodied) power structures. These are, e.g., bodily experience/s such as shame and fear, everyday and institutional discourses and practices, but also manifestations of differences and particularities that we transform into phenomena such as “norms”, “binary systems” and “binary organisations”. The analysis of seemingly cyclic “Othering processes” and patterns of violence shows how people who identify as trans*, inter*, or non-binary have to live through and embody epistemological, emotional, and/or physical violence. At the same time, the descriptions illustrate numberless potential forms of resistance and change.
Introduction
(2023)
This study analyses the impact of managers’ risk preferences on their training allocation decisions. We begin by providing nationally representative evidence that managers’ risk-aversion is negatively correlated with the likelihood that their firms engage in any worker training. Using a novel vignette study, we then demonstrate that risk-tolerant and risk-averse decision makers have significantly different training preferences. Risk aversion results in increased sensitivity to turnover risk. Managers who are risk-averse offer less general training and are more reluctant to train workers with a history of job mobility. Adopting a weighting approach to flexibly control for observed differences in the characteristics of risk-averse and risk-tolerant managers, we show that our findings cannot be explained by heterogeneity in either managers’ observed characteristics or the type of firms where they work. All managers, irrespective of their risk preferences, are sensitive to the investment risk associated with training, avoiding training that is more costly or that targets those with less occupational expertise or nearing retirement. This provides suggestive evidence that the risks of training are primarily due to the risk that trained workers will leave the firm (turnover risk) rather than the risk that the benefits of training do not outweigh the costs (investment risk).
Satisfaction and frustration of the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, as assessed with the 24-item Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS), have been found to be crucial indicators of individuals’ psychological health. To increase the usability of this scale within a clinical and health services research context, we aimed to validate a German short version (12 items) of this scale in individuals with depression including the examination of the relations from need frustration and need satisfaction to ill-being and quality of life (QOL). This cross-sectional study involved 344 adults diagnosed with depression (Mage (SD) = 47.5 years (11.1); 71.8% females). Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the short version of the BPNSFS was not only reliable, but also fitted a six-factor structure (i.e., satisfaction/frustration X type of need). Subsequent structural equation modeling showed that need frustration related positively to indicators of ill-being and negatively to QOL. Surprisingly, need satisfaction did not predict differences in ill-being or QOL. The short form of the BPNSFS represents a practical instrument to measure need satisfaction and frustration in people with depression. Further, the results support recent evidence on the importance of especially need frustration in the prediction of psychopathology.
This paper examines how wealth and income inequality dynamics are related to fluctuations in the functional income distribution over the business cycle. In a panel estimation for OECD countries between 1970 and 2016, although inequality is, on average countercyclical and significantly associated with the capital share, one-third of the countries display a pro- or noncyclical relationship. To analyze the observed pattern, we incorporate distributive shocks into an RBC model, where agents are ex ante heterogeneous with respect to wealth and ability. We find that whether wealth and income inequality behave countercyclically or not depends on the elasticity of intertemporal substitution and the persistence of shocks. We match the model to quarterly US data using Bayesian techniques. The parameter estimates point toward a non-monotonic relationship between productivity and inequality fluctuations. On impact, inequality increases in response to TFP shocks but subsequently declines. Furthermore, TFP shocks explain 17% of inequality fluctuations.
The abrahamic religions
(2023)
In recent experimental work, arguments for or against Condition C reconstruction in A'-movement have been based on low/high availability of coreference in sentences with and without A'-movement. We argue that this reasoning is problematic: It involves arbitrary thresholds, and the results are potentially confounded by the different surface orders of the compared structures and non-syntactic factors. We present three experiments with designs that do not require defining thresholds of 'low' or 'high' coreference values. Instead, we focus on grammatical contrasts (wh-movement vs. relativization, subject vs. object wh-movement) and aim to identify and reduce confounds. The results show that reconstruction for A'-movement of DPs is not very robust in German, contra previous findings. Our results are compatible with the view that the surface order and non-syntactic factors (e.g. plausibility, referential accessibility of an R-expression) heavily influence coreference possibilities. Thus, the data argue against a theory that includes both reconstruction and a hard Condition C constraint. There is a residual contrast between sentences with subject/object movement, which is compatible with an account without reconstruction (and an additional non-syntactic factor) or an account with reconstruction (and a soft Condition C constraint).
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) moves atmospheric carbon to geological or land-based sinks. In a first-best setting, the optimal use of CDR is achieved by a removal subsidy that equals the optimal carbon tax and marginal damages. We derive second-best policy rules for CDR subsidies and carbon taxes when no global carbon price exists but a national government implements a unilateral climate policy. We find that the optimal carbon tax differs from an optimal CDR subsidy because of carbon leakage and a balance of resource trade effect. First, the optimal removal subsidy tends to be larger than the carbon tax because of lower supply-side leakage on fossil resource markets. Second, net carbon exporters exacerbate this wedge to increase producer surplus of their carbon resource producers, implying even larger removal subsidies. Third, net carbon importers may set their removal subsidy even below their carbon tax when marginal environmental damages are small, to appropriate producer surplus from carbon exporters.
This meta-analysis synthesizes 332 effect sizes of various methods to enhance creativity. We clustered all studies into 12 methods to identify the most effective creativity enhancement methods. We found that, on average, creativity can be enhanced, Hedges’ g = 0.53, 95% CI [0.44, 0.61], with 70.09% of the participants in the enhancement conditions being more creative than the average person in the control conditions. Complex training courses, meditation, and cultural exposure were the most effective (gs = 0.66) while the use of cognitive manipulation drugs was the least and also noneffective, g = 0.10. The type of training material was also important. For instance, figural methods were more effective in enhancing creativity, and enhancing converging thinking was more effective than enhancing divergent thinking. Study effect sizes varied considerably across all studies and for many subgroup analyses, suggesting that researchers can plausibly expect to find reversed effects occasionally. We found no evidence of publication bias. We discuss theoretical implications and suggest future directions for best practices in enhancing creativity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
Divergent thinking is the ability to produce numerous and diverse responses to questions or tasks, and it is used as a predictor of creative achievement. It plays a significant role in the business organization’s innovation process and the recognition of new business opportunities. Drawing upon the cumulative process model of creativity in entrepreneurship, we hypothesize that divergent thinking has a lasting effect on post-launch entrepreneurial outcomes related to innovation and growth, but that this relation might not always be linear. Additionally, we hypothesize that domain-specific experience has a moderating role in this relation. We test our hypotheses based on a representative longitudinal sample of 457 German business founders, which we observe up until 40 months after start-up. We find strong relative effects for innovation and growth outcomes. For survival, we find conclusive evidence for non-linearities in the effects of divergent thinking. Additionally, we show that such effects are moderated by the type of domain-specific experience that entrepreneurs gathered pre-launch, as it shapes the individual’s ideational abilities to fit into more sophisticated strategies regarding entrepreneurial creative achievement. Our findings have relevant policy implications in characterizing and identifying business start-ups with growth and innovation potential, allowing a more efficient allocation of public and private funds.
The COVID-19 pandemic and related closures of day care centres and schools significantly increased the amount of care work done by parents. There has been much speculation over whether the pandemic increased or decreased gender equality in parental care work. Based on representative data for Germany from spring 2020 and winter 2021 we present an empirical analysis that shows that although gender inequality in the division of care work increased to some extent in the beginning of the pandemic, it returned to the pre-pandemic level in the second lockdown almost nine months later. These results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic neither aggravated nor lessened inequality in the division of unpaid care work among mothers and fathers in any persistent way in Germany.
Gravitating exogenous shocks to the next normal through entrepreneurial coopetive interactions
(2023)
Purpose: Entrepreneurship can be viewed as an individual or group pursuit of market opportunities irrespective of the context. But when an exogenous shock alters and permanently alters the known normal, entrepreneurs can do no more than cope with the immediate impact. Covid-19 changed the normal for every-one, and the current study aims to analyse how the pandemic changed the context and entrepreneurial perspective of business owners geographically located in different cultural environments. Various experiences impacted them as they tried to navigate and mitigate the effects of the crisis on the wider economy and their business. We seek to identify the probable relevant entrepreneurial configurations in which one or more combinations of antecedent conditions are needed to cause entrepreneurs to adapt their behavior in order to increase their coopetitive interactions further, to mitigate the effects of the crisis.Originality: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical study to address an entrepreneurial phenomenon using an integrative approach using PLS-SEM and fsQCA as separate prediction-oriented methods in order to validate the proposed conceptual model and to create a preliminary scaffolding for building the Theory of Unplanned Behavior in a crisis context.
Objective
Leaders differ in their personalities from non-leaders. However, when do these differences emerge? Are leaders "born to be leaders" or does their personality change in preparation for a leadership role and due to increasing leadership experience?
Method
Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study, we examined personality differences between leaders (N = 2683 leaders, women: n = 967; 36.04%) and non-leaders (N = 33,663) as well as personality changes before and after becoming a leader.
Results
Already in the years before starting a leadership position, leaders-to-be were more extraverted, open, emotionally stable, conscientious, and willing to take risks, felt to have greater control, and trusted others more than non-leaders. Moreover, personality changed in emergent leaders: While approaching a leadership position, leaders-to-be (especially men) became gradually more extraverted, open, and willing to take risks and felt to have more control over their life. After becoming a leader, they became less extraverted, less willing to take risks, and less conscientious but gained self-esteem.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that people are not simply "born to be leaders" but that their personalities change considerably in preparation for a leadership role and due to leadership experience. Some changes are transient, but others last for a long time.
Reply and Counter-Reply
(2023)
Records from ocean bottom seismometers (OBSs) are highly contaminated by noise, which is much stronger compared to data from most land stations, especially on the horizontal components. As a consequence, the high energy of the oceanic noise at frequencies below 1 Hz considerably complicates the analysis of the teleseismic earthquake signals recorded by OBSs.
Previous studies suggested different approaches to remove low-frequency noises from OBS recordings but mainly focused on the vertical component. The records of horizontal components, which are crucial for the application of many methods in passive seismological analysis of body and surface waves, could not be much improved in the teleseismic frequency band. Here we introduce a noise reduction method, which is derived from the harmonic–percussive separation algorithms used in Zali et al. (2021), in order to separate long-lasting narrowband signals from broadband transients in the OBS signal. This leads to significant noise reduction of OBS records on both the vertical and horizontal components and increases the earthquake signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) without distortion of the broadband earthquake waveforms. This is demonstrated through tests with synthetic data. Both SNR and cross-correlation coefficients showed significant improvements for different realistic noise realizations. The application of denoised signals in surface wave analysis and receiver functions is discussed through tests with synthetic and real data.
This article responds to critical reflections on my Beyond Presidentialism and Parliamentarism by Sarah Birch, Kevin J. Elliott, Claudia Landwehr and James L. Wilson. It discusses how different types of representative democracy, especially different forms of government (presidential, parliamentary or hybrid), can be justified. It clarifies, among other things, the distinction between procedural and process equality, the strengths of semi-parliamentary government, the potential instability of constitutional designs, and the difference that theories can make in actual processes of constitutional reform.
Influence of generational status on immigrants’ entrepreneurial intentions to start new ventures
(2023)
Purpose: This study aims to identify the intentions of immigrant entrepreneurs to start new projects by investigating the role of influence of institutional support, social context, cultural intelligence, self-efficacy, optimizing personality traits and hierarchy legitimacy on intentions to start new ventures. In addition, the strength of the relationship for such factors and intentions to start new ventures was determined through the moderator role of easy access to venture capital.
Design/methodology/approach: To this end, this study complements the academic literature by integrating the structural equation modeling (SEM) and multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques. Thus, the MCDM (i.e. analytic hierarchy process and vlsekriterijumska optimizcija i kaompromisno resenje [VIKOR]) is an effective approach to solving the problem of complexity and evaluation (i.e. multiple evaluation criteria, important criteria and data variation). Hence, to complete the strategic guideline solution, this study uses a survey for collecting data from 202 immigrants in Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Singapore.
Findings
The results from SEM prove several critical factors of immigrants’ entrepreneurs. These factors of immigrants’ entrepreneurs can be vital for academics and host countries. By focusing on these aspects and by developing some personality traits (such as self-efficacy and optimal personality traits), these factors can contribute a good deal to increasing the capabilities of immigrant’s entrepreneurs toward entrepreneurial intentions. In the validation, the statistical objective method indicates that the immigrants' prioritizations in all countries are supported by the systematic ranking. Thus, entrepreneurial intentions for immigrants can pursue the order proven by the VIKOR results.
Research limitations/implications: This study has some significant practical and theoretical implications. Practically, the study findings will enable managers to develop strategies to support immigrants for entrepreneurial intentions to start new ventures.
Originality/value: The novelty of the context under given circumstances of global environment adds to the originality of this study. Several previous studies have also emphasized the need for this type of study in other contexts. The findings can call managers’ attention toward a critical issue of immigrants’ entrepreneurial intentions to start new ventures.
This research examines the impact of firms’ decision-making, crisis management, and risk-taking behaviors on their sustainability and circular economy behaviors through the mediating role of their eco-innovation behavior in the energy industry in Iraq. Firms are exploring applicable mechanisms to increase green practices. This requires the industry to possess the essential skills to overcome the challenges that reduce sustainable activities. We applied a dual-stage structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach to explore the linear relationships between variables, determine the weight of the criteria, and rank energy companies based on a circular economy. The online questionnaire was sent to 549 managers and heads of departments of Iraqi electric power companies. Out of these, 384 questionnaires were collected. The results indicate that firms’ crisis management, decision-making, and risk-taking behaviors are significantly and positively linked to their eco-innovation behavior. This study confirms the significant and positive impact of firms’ eco-innovation behavior on their sustainability and circular economy behaviors. Likewise, eco-innovation behavior has a fully mediating role. For the MCDM methods, ranking energy companies according to the circular economy can support policymakers’ decisions to renew contracts with leading companies in the ranking. Practitioners can also impose government regulations on low-ranked companies. Thus, governments can reduce the problems of greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental pollution.
Our study applies legitimacy theorizing to service research, zooming in on co-prosumption service business models, which reside on significant direct contacts among provider-actors and customers as well as fellow customers in the service space. Our findings are based on a longitudinal flexible pattern matching method on 17 coworking spaces. The service cocreation nuances the double role of customers as evaluators and cocreators of legitimacy. This is because customers can have immediate perceptions of the actions and values of the services in their legitimacy evaluation while cocreating the service. Legitimacy shaped via social and recursive processes occurs in three stages: provisional, calibrated, and affirmed legitimacy. Findings inform four trajectory mechanisms of value-in-use pattern provenance, emergent Business Model development adaptive to the spatial context and loyal customers, visible trances as well as inside-out and outside-in identification processes. Further, the processes in the micro-ecosystem of an interstitial service space can develop a superordinate logic which overlays the potentially present coopetive and heterogenous institutional logics and interests of service customers.
Entrepreneurship education has gained widespread attention in both education practice and research over the past three decades. However, whereas research has a strong focus on its effects and many normative concepts exist, little is known about how entrepreneurship is actually taught. To address this research gap, we conduct a curriculum analysis of the 50 best programs in entrepreneurship, according to the 2018 Financial Times ranking “Top MBAs for Entrepreneurship 2018”. In particular, we examine their objectives, learning contents and teaching as well as assessment methods as four major dimensions of a graduate entrepreneurship curriculum. The results show that the programs are primarily business and management programs, with a comparatively small share of entrepreneurship itself. Entrepreneurship-specific goals are entrepreneurial attitudes and competences, such as entrepreneurial leadership, entrepreneurial mindset, entrepreneurial skills, opportunity creation, opportunity identification, and transforming uncertainty into opportunity. The learning contents also focus on business, management, and law, whereas the contents relating to entrepreneurship include entrepreneurial failure, entrepreneurial management, entrepreneurial thinking, and entrepreneurship in general. Teaching methods are mainly the ones usually found in higher education, with business plans and prototyping as additional entrepreneurial ones. Assessment methods do not differ from those in business and management education.
Behavioral strategy
(2023)
Purpose: Behavioral strategy, as a cognitive- and social-psychological view on strategic management, has gained increased attention. However, its conceptualization is still fuzzy and deserves an in-depth investigation. The authors aim to provide a holistic overview and classification of previous research and identify gaps to be addressed in future research.
Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a systematic literature review on behavioral strategy. The final sample includes 46 articles from leading management journals, based on which the authors develop a research framework.
Findings: The results reveal cognition and traits as major internal factors. Besides, organizational and environmental contingencies are major external factors of behavioral strategy.
Originality/value: To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first holistic systematic literature review on behavioral strategy, which categorizes previous research.
In social networks or, more specifically, online communities on tech-products, opinion leaders are important sources of advice for other consumers in the adoption and diffusion of new products. However, possibilities for potential users to exert their influence on opinion leadership are ignored. This study determines whether and how lead users may serve as opinion leaders in social networks and advise other consumers in the adoption and diffusion of new products. Our survey with 308 users in the Xiaomi and Huawei communities suggests that higher lead userness is positively and significantly associated with the likelihood of opinion giving and passing. Product-possessing innovativeness has a higher impact compared with information-possessing innovativeness. Product involvement does not enhance the effect of information-possessing innovativeness. The findings provide a better understanding of the formation of opinion leadership in social networks for an accelerated diffusion of new products.
PyFin-sentiment
(2023)
Responding to the poor performance of generic automated sentiment analysis solutions on domain-specific texts, we collect a dataset of 10,000 tweets discussing the topics of finance and investing. We manually assign each tweet its market sentiment, i.e., the investor’s anticipation of a stock’s future return. Using this data, we show that all existing sentiment models trained on adjacent domains struggle with accurate market sentiment analysis due to the task’s specialized vocabulary. Consequently, we design, train, and deploy our own sentiment model. It outperforms all previous models (VADER, NTUSD-Fin, FinBERT, TwitterRoBERTa) when evaluated on Twitter posts. On posts from a different platform, our model performs on par with BERT-based large language models. We achieve this result at a fraction of the training and inference costs due to the model’s simple design. We publish the artifact as a python library to facilitate its use by future researchers and practitioners.
Review symposium
(2023)
Steffen Ganghof’s Beyond Presidentialism and Parliamentarism: Democratic Design and the Separation of Powers (Oxford University Press, 2021) posits that “in a democracy, a constitutional separation of powers between the executive and the assembly may be desirable, but the constitutional concentration of executive power in a single human being is not” (Ganghof, 2021). To consider, examine and theorise about this, Ganghof urges engagement with semi-parliamentarism. As explained by Ganghof, legislative power is shared between two democratically legitimate sections of parliament in a semi-parliamentary system, but only one of those sections selects the government and can remove it in a no-confidence vote. Consequently, power is dispersed and not concentrated in the hands of any one person, which, Ganghof argues, can lead to an enhanced form of parliamentary democracy. In this book review symposium, George Tsebelis, Michael Thies, José Antonio Cheibub, Rosalind Dixon and Daniel Bogéa review Steffen Ganghof’s book and engage with the author about aspects of research design, case selection and theoretical argument. This symposium arose from an engaging and constructive discussion of the book at a seminar hosted by Texas A&M University in 2022. We thank Prof José Cheibub (Texas A&M) for organising that seminar and Dr Anna Fruhstorfer (University of Potsdam) for initiating this book review symposium.
The crises of both the climate and the biosphere are manifestations of the imbalance between human extractive, and polluting activities and the Earth’s regenerative capacity. Planetary boundaries define limits for biophysical systems and processes that regulate the stability and life support capacity of the Earth system, and thereby also define a safe operating space for humanity on Earth. Budgets associated to planetary boundaries can be understood as global commons: common pool resources that can be utilized within finite limits. Despite the analytical interpretation of planetary boundaries as global commons, the planetary boundaries framework is missing a thorough integration into economic theory. We aim to bridge the gap between welfare economic theory and planetary boundaries as derived in the natural sciences by presenting a unified theory of cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis. Our pragmatic approach aims to overcome shortcomings of the practical applications of CEA and CBA to environmental problems of a planetary scale. To do so, we develop a model framework and explore decision paradigms that give guidance to setting limits on human activities. This conceptual framework is then applied to planetary boundaries. We conclude by using the realized insights to derive a research agenda that builds on the understanding of planetary boundaries as global commons.
Here, we demonstrate the utility of native membrane derived vesicles (nMVs) as tools for expeditious electrophysiological analysis of membrane proteins. We used a cell-free (CF) and a cell-based (CB) approach for preparing protein-enriched nMVs. We utilized the Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) lysate-based cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) system to enrich ER-derived microsomes in the lysate with the primary human cardiac voltage-gated sodium channel 1.5 (hNaV1.5; SCN5A) in 3 h. Subsequently, CB-nMVs were isolated from fractions of nitrogen-cavitated CHO cells overexpressing the hNaV1.5. In an integrative approach, nMVs were micro-transplanted into Xenopus laevis oocytes. CB-nMVs expressed native lidocaine-sensitive hNaV1.5 currents within 24 h; CF-nMVs did not elicit any response. Both the CB- and CF-nMV preparations evoked single-channel activity on the planar lipid bilayer while retaining sensitivity to lidocaine application. Our findings suggest a high usability of the quick-synthesis CF-nMVs and maintenance-free CB-nMVs as ready-to-use tools for in-vitro analysis of electrogenic membrane proteins and large, voltage-gated ion channels.
Exercise or not?
(2023)
Objective: Individuals’ decisions to engage in exercise are often the result of in-the-moment choices between exercise and a competing behavioral alternative. The purpose of this study was to investigate processes that occur in-the-moment (i.e., situated processes) when individuals are faced with the choice between exercise and a behavioral alternative during a computerized task. These were analyzed against the background of interindividual differences in individuals’ automatic valuation and controlled evaluation of exercise.
Method: In a behavioral alternatives task 101 participants were asked whether they would rather choose an exercise option or a behavioral alternative in 25 trials. Participants’ gaze behavior (first gaze and fixations) was recorded using eye-tracking. An exercise-specific affect misattribution procedure (AMP) was used to assess participants’ automatic valuation of exercise before the task. After the task, self-reported feelings towards exercise (controlled evaluation) and usual weekly exercise volume were assessed. Mixed effects models with random effects for subjects and trials were used for data analysis.
Results: Choosing exercise was positively correlated with individuals’ automatic valuation (r = 0.20, p = 0.05), controlled evaluation (r = 0.58, p < 0.001), and their weekly exercise volume (r = 0.43, p < 0.001). Participants showed no bias in their initial gaze or number of fixations towards the exercise or the non-exercise alternative. However, participants were 1.30 times more likely to fixate on the chosen alternative first and more frequently, but this gaze behavior was not related to individuals’ automatic valuation, controlled evaluation, or weekly exercise volume.
Conclusion: The results suggest that situated processes arising from defined behavioral alternatives may be independent of individuals’ general preferences. Despite one’s best general intention to exercise more, the choice of a non-exercise alternative behavior may seem more appealing in-the-moment and eventually be chosen. New psychological theories of health behavior change should therefore better consider the role of potentially conflicting alternatives when it comes to initiating physical activity or exercise.
Web scraping, a technique for extracting data from web pages, has been in use for decades, yet its utilization in the field of migration, mobility, and migrant integration studies has been limited. The field faces notorious limitations regarding data access and availability, particularly in low-income settings. Web scraping has the potential to provide new datasets for further qualitative and quantitative analysis. Web scraping requires no financial resources, is agnostic to epistemic divides in the field, reduces researcher bias, and increases transparency and replicability of data collection. As large providers of digital data such as Facebook or Twitter increasingly restrict access to their data for researchers, web scraping will become more important in the future and deserves its place in the toolbox of migration and mobility scholars. This short and nontechnical methods note introduces the fundamental concepts of web scraping, provides guidance on how to learn the technique, showcases practical applications of web scraping in the study of migrant populations, and discusses potential future use cases.
Online businesses are increasingly relying on targeted advertisements as a revenue stream, which might lead to privacy concerns and hinder product adoption. Therefore, it is crucial for online companies to understand which types of targeted advertisements consumers will accept. In recent years, users have been increasingly targeted by political advertisements, which has caused adverse reactions in media and society. Nonetheless, few studies experimentally investigate user privacy concerns and their role in acceptance decisions in response to targeted political advertisements. To fill this gap, we explore the magnitude of privacy concerns towards targeted political ads compared to “traditional” targeting in the product context. Surprisingly, we find no notable differences in privacy concerns between these data use purposes. In the next step, user preferences over ad types are elicited with the help of a discrete choice experiment in the mobile app adoption context. Our findings suggest that while targeted political advertising is somewhat less desirable than targeted product advertising, the odds of choosing an app are statistically insignificant between two data use purposes. Together, these results contribute to a better understanding of users’ privacy concerns and preferences in the context of targeted political advertising online.
Higher eco-efficiency will not be enough to slow global warming caused by climate change. To keep global warming to 2 degrees, people also need to reduce their consumption. At present, however, many who would be able to do so seem unwilling to comply. Given the threats of a runaway climate change, urgent measures are needed to promote less personal consumption. This study, therefore, examines whether social marketing consume-less appeals can be used to encourage consumers to voluntarily abstain from consumption. As part of an online experiment with nearly 2000 randomly sampled users of an online platform for sustainable consumption, we tested the effectiveness of five different “consume-less” appeals based on traditional advertising formats (including emotional, informational, and social claims). The study shows that consume-less appeals are capable of limiting personal desire to buy. However, significant differences in the effectiveness of the appeal formats used in this study were observed. In addition, we found evidence of rebound effects, which leads us to critically evaluate the overall potential of social marketing to promote more resource-conserving lifestyles. While commercial consumer-free appeals have previously been studied (e.g., Patagonia’s “Don’t Buy This Jacked”), this study on the effectiveness of non-commercial consume-free appeals is novel and provides new insights.
Purpose
Given inconsistent results in prior studies, this paper applies the dual process theory to investigate what social media messages yield audience engagement during a political event. It tests how affective cues (emotional valence, intensity and collective self-representation) and cognitive cues (insight, causation, certainty and discrepancy) contribute to public engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors created a dataset of more than three million tweets during the 2020 United States (US) presidential elections. Affective and cognitive cues were assessed via sentiment analysis. The hypotheses were tested in negative binomial regressions. The authors also scrutinized a subsample of far-famed Twitter users. The final dataset, scraping code, preprocessing and analysis are available in an open repository.
Findings
The authors found the prominence of both affective and cognitive cues. For the overall sample, negativity bias was registered, and the tweet’s emotionality was negatively related to engagement. In contrast, in the sub-sample of tweets from famous users, emotionally charged content produced higher engagement. The role of sentiment decreases when the number of followers grows and ultimately becomes insignificant for Twitter participants with many followers. Collective self-representation (“we-talk”) is consistently associated with more likes, comments and retweets in the overall sample and subsamples.
Originality/value
The authors expand the dominating one-sided perspective to social media message processing focused on the peripheral route and hence affective cues. Leaning on the dual process theory, the authors shed light on the effectiveness of both affective (peripheral route) and cognitive (central route) cues on information appeal and dissemination on Twitter during a political event. The popularity of the tweet’s author moderates these relationships.
This paper is founded on two philosophical assumptions. The first is that there is a difference between two patterns of recognition: the dialectical and the dialogical. The second assumption is that the origins of the dialogical pattern may be found in the relationship between human beings and God, a relationship in which prayer has a major role. The second assumption leads to the supposition that the emphasis of the dialogic approach on moral responsibility is theologically grounded. In other words, the relationship between humanity and God serves as a paradigm for human relationships. By focusing on Hermann Cohen and Franz Rosenzweig, in the context of prayer and dialectic, this paper highlights the complexity of these themes in modern Jewish thought. These two important philosophers utilize dialectical reasoning while also criticizing it and offering an alternative. The conclusions of their thought, in general, and their position on prayer, in particular, demonstrate a preference for a relational way of thinking over a dialectical one, but without renouncing the latter.
This paper discusses Franz Rosenzweig’s use of the term “the unconscious” (das Unbewußte) and possible influences on his understanding of it. I claim that for Rosenzweig, it is through the unconscious that the individual becomes aware of himself and becomes capable of fulfilling his longing to achieve self-fulfillment and eventually to take part in a collective redemption. The unconscious is often perceived as the mental sphere related to trauma and repression in which defense mechanisms and fantasies are evolved. Fantasies are psychological tools that allow the individual to cope with trauma, but they are also “layers of enclosedness,” illusions that should be dissolved. Hence, in the unconscious, we find a possibility of liberation.
This paper studies the impact of a ban on late-night off-premise alcohol sales between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. in Germany. We use three large administrative data sets: (i) German diagnosis related groups-Statistik, (ii) data from a large social health insurance, and (iii) Road Traffic Accident Statistics. Applying difference-in-differences and synthetic-control-group methods, we find that the ban had no effects on alcohol-related road casualties, but significantly reduced alcohol-related hospitalizations (doctor visits) among young people by around 9 (18) percent. The decrease is driven by fewer hospitalizations due to acute alcohol intoxication during the night—when the ban is in place—but not during the day.
Recent debates in international relations increasingly focus on bureaucratic apparatuses of international organizations and highlight their role, influence, and autonomy in global public policy. In this contribution we follow the recent call made by Moloney and Rosenbloom in this journal to make use of “public administrative theory and empirically based knowledge in analyzing the behavior of international and regional organizations” and offer a systematic analysis of the inner structures of these administrative bodies. Changes in these structures can reflect both the (re-)assignment of responsibilities, competencies, and expertise, but also the (re)allocation of resources, staff, and corresponding signalling of priorities. Based on organizational charts, we study structural changes within 46 international bureaucracies in the UN system. Tracing formal changes to all internal units over two decades, this contribution provides the first longitudinal assessment of structural change at the international level. We demonstrate that the inner structures of international bureaucracies in the UN system became more fragmented over time but also experienced considerable volatility with periods of structural growth and retrenchment. The analysis also suggests that IO's political features yield stronger explanatory power for explaining these structural changes than bureaucratic determinants. We conclude that the politics of structural change in international bureaucracies is a missing piece in the current debate on international public administrations that complements existing research perspectives by reiterating the importance of the political context of international bureaucracies as actors in global governance.
In recent years, governments have increased their efforts to strengthen the citizen-orientation in policy design. They have established temporary arenas as well as permanent units inside the machinery of government to integrate citizens into policy formulation, leading to a “laboratorization” of central government organizations. We argue that the evolution and role of these units herald new dynamics in the importance of organizational reputation for executive politics. These actors deviate from the classic palette of organizational units inside the machinery of government and thus require their own reputation vis-à-vis various audiences within and outside their parent organization. Based on a comparative case study of two of these units inside the German federal bureaucracy, we show how ambiguous expectations of their audiences challenge their organizational reputation. Both units resolve these tensions by balancing their weaker professional and procedural reputation with a stronger performative and moral reputation. We conclude that government units aiming to improve citizen orientation in policy design may benefit from engaging with citizens as their external audience to compensate for a weaker reputation in the eyes of their audiences inside the government organization. Points for practitioners: many governments have introduced novel means to strengthen citizen-centered policy design, which has led to an emergence of novel units inside central government that differ from traditional bureaucratic structures and procedures ; this study analyzes how these new units may build their organizational reputation vis-à-vis internal and external actors in government policymaking. ; we show that such units assert themselves primarily based on their performative and moral reputation.
Worldwide, governments have introduced novel information and communication technologies (ICTs) for policy formulation and service delivery, radically changing the working environment of government employees. Following the debate on work stress and particularly on technostress, we argue that the use of ICTs triggers “digital overload” that decreases government employees’ job satisfaction via inhibiting their job autonomy. Contrary to prior research, we consider job autonomy as a consequence rather than a determinant of digital overload, because ICT-use accelerates work routines and interruptions and eventually diminishes employees’ freedom to decide how to work. Based on novel survey data from government employees in Germany, Italy, and Norway, our structural equation modeling (SEM) confirms a significant negative effect of digital overload on job autonomy. More importantly, job autonomy partially mediates the negative relationship between digital overload and job satisfaction, pointing to the importance of studying the micro-foundations of ICT-use in the public sector.
Creativity is a crucial part of policy capacity in governments. Existing studies on creative behavior in the public sector assess employees' openness to new ideas and creative solutions, and they confirm the relevance of organizational and individual determinants for pro-creativity attitudes. Yet we lack systemic evidence on the explicit level of work-related creativity among policy officials in government organizations. At the same time, novel technologies and particularly social networking services change the working environment of policy officials radically, alter organizational features, and may also yield crucial individual effects. Our study analyses “policy creativity” of policy officials in three European governments. We demonstrate the importance of organizational and individual features, including the stress triggered by using social networking services. Our study captures officials' creativity explicitly and adds to debates on creativity and innovation in the public sector as well as the micro-level foundations of the digital transformation in the public sector.
Structural duration conveys stability but also resilience in central government and is therefore a key issue in the debate on the structure and organization of government. This paper discusses three core variants of structural duration to study the explanatory relevance of politics. We compare these durations across ministerialunits in four European democracies (Germany, France, The Netherlands, and Norway) from 1980 to 2013, totaling over 17,000 units. Our empirical analyses show that cabinets’ ideological turnover and extremism are the most significant predictors of all variants of duration, whereas polarization in parliament as well as new prime ministers without office experience yield the predicted significant negative effects for most models. We discuss these findings and avenues for futureresearch that acknowledge the definition and measures for structural change as well as temporal aspects of the empirical phenomenon more explicitly.
There is a growing recognition that international organizations (IOs) formulate and adopt policy in a wide range of areas. IOs have emerged as key venues for states seeking joint solutions to contemporary challenges such as climate change or COVID-19, and to establish frameworks to bolster trade, development, security, and more. In this capacity, IOs produce both extraordinary and routine policy output with a multitude of purposes, ranging from policies of historic significance like admitting new members to the more mundane tasks of administering IO staff. This article introduces the Intergovernmental Policy Output Dataset (IPOD), which covers close to 37,000 individual policy acts of 13 multi-issue IOs in the 1980–2015 period. The dataset fills a gap in the growing body of literature on the comparative study of IOs, providing researchers with a fine-grained perspective on the structure of IO policy output and data for comparisons across time, policy areas, and organizations. This article describes the construction and coverage of the dataset and identifies key temporal and cross-sectional patterns revealed by the data. In a concise illustration of the dataset’s utility, we apply models of punctuated equilibria in a comparative study of the relationship between institutional features and broad policy agenda dynamics. Overall, the Intergovernmental Policy Output Dataset offers a unique resource for researchers to analyze IO policy output in a granular manner and to explore questions of responsiveness, performance, and legitimacy of IOs.
When are international organizations (IOs) responsive to the policy problems that motivated their establishment? While it is a conventional assumption that IOs exist to address transnational challenges, the question of whether and when IO policy-making is responsive to shifts in underlying problems has not been systematically explored. This study investigates the responsiveness of IOs from a large-n, comparative approach. Theoretically, we develop three alternative models of IO responsiveness, emphasizing severeness, dependence, and power differentials. Empirically, we focus on the domain of security, examining the responsiveness of eight multi-issue IOs to armed conflict between 1980 and 2015, using a novel and expansive dataset on IO policy decisions. Our findings suggest, first, that IOs are responsive to security problems and, second, that responsiveness is not primarily driven by dependence or power differentials but by problem severity. An in-depth study of the responsiveness of the UN Security Council using more granular data confirms these findings. As the first comparative study of whether and when IO policy adapts to problem severity, the article has implications for debates about IO responsiveness, performance, and legitimacy.
The limitations and possibilities of the state in solving societal problems are perennial issues in the political and policy sciences and increasingly so in studies of environmental politics. With the aim of better understanding the role of the state in addressing environmental degradation through policy making, this article investigates the nexus between the environmental policy outputs and the environmental performance. Drawing on three theoretical perspectives on the state and market nexus in the environmental dilemma, we identify five distinct pathways. We then examine the extent to which these pathways are manifested in the real world. Our empirical investigation covers up to 37 countries for the period 1970–2010. While we see no global pattern of linkages between policy outputs and performance, our exploratory analysis finds evidence of policy effects, which suggest that the state can, under certain circumstances, improve the environment through policy making.
Consume-less appeals in social marketing can help reduce the lavish consumption in wealthy countries, which poses a major threat to the climate. This study experimentally examines the effectiveness of three different types of consume-less appeals (informative, social normative, and emotional appeals) on participants’ actual spending levels during a real shopping trip compared to a control group (no appeal). In addition, the study tests whether these appeals evoke negative rebounds (in terms of post-purchase climate donation) or positive rebounds (in terms of accepting post-purchase material giveaways). A field experiment in a grocery store in Germany with 170 participants shows that social normative and the emotional appeals reduce actual shopping spending. Informative and social normative appeals increase donations, and emotional appeals reduce the items of taken giveaways. The findings further support certain indirect impacts of the consume-less appeals on rebounds in terms of spending levels.
Risk perceptions of individuals living in single-parent households during the COVID-19 crisis
(2023)
The COVID-19 crisis had severe social and economic impact on the life of most citizens around the globe. Individuals living in single-parent households were particularly at risk, revealing detrimental labour market outcomes and assessments of future perspectives marked by worries. As it has not been investigated yet, in this paper we study, how their perception about the future and their outlook on how the pandemic will affect them is related to their objective economic resources. Against this background, we examine the subjective risk perception of worsening living standards of individuals living in single-parent households compared to other household types, their objective economic situation based on the logarithmised equivalised disposable household incomes and analyse the relationship between those indicators. Using the German SOEP, including the SOEP-CoV survey from 2020, our findings based on regression modelling reveal that individuals living in single-parent households have been worse off during the pandemic, facing high economic insecurity. Path and interaction models support our assumption that the association between those indicators may not be that straightforward, as there are underlying mechanisms–such as mediation and moderation–of income affecting its direction and strength. With respect to our central hypotheses, our empirical findings point toward (1) a mediation effect, by demonstrating that the subjective risk perception of single-parent households can be partly explained by economic conditions. (2) The moderating effect suggests that the concrete position at the income distribution of households matters as well. While at the lower end of the income distribution, single-parent households reveal particularly worse risk perceptions during the pandemic, at the high end of the income spectrum, risk perceptions are similar for all household types. Thus, individuals living in single-parent households do not perceive higher risks of worsening living standards due to their household situation per se, but rather because they are worse off in terms of their economic situation compared to individuals living in other household types.
Charitable giving
(2023)
We investigate how different levels of information influence the allocation decisions of donors who are entitled to freely distribute a fixed monetary endowment between themselves and a charitable organization in both giving and taking frames. Participants donate significantly higher amounts, when the decision is described as taking rather than giving. This framing effect becomes smaller if more information about the charity is provided.
Many phenomena of high relevance for economic development such as human capital, geography and climate vary considerably within countries as well as between them. Yet, global data sets of economic output are typically available at the national level only, thereby limiting the accuracy and precision of insights gained through empirical analyses. Recent work has used interpolation and downscaling to yield estimates of sub-national economic output at a global scale, but respective data sets based on official, reported values only are lacking. We here present DOSE — the MCC-PIK Database Of Sub-national Economic Output. DOSE contains harmonised data on reported economic output from 1,661 sub-national regions across 83 countries from 1960 to 2020. To avoid interpolation, values are assembled from numerous statistical agencies, yearbooks and the literature and harmonised for both aggregate and sectoral output. Moreover, we provide temporally- and spatially-consistent data for regional boundaries, enabling matching with geo-spatial data such as climate observations. DOSE provides the opportunity for detailed analyses of economic development at the subnational level, consistent with reported values.
Controlling bioenergy-induced land-use-change emissions is key to exploiting bioenergy for climate change mitigation. However, the effect of different land-use and energy sector policies on specific bioenergy emissions has not been studied so far. Using the global integrated assessment model REMIND-MAgPIE, we derive a biofuel emission factor (EF) for different policy frameworks. We find that a uniform price on emissions from both sectors keeps biofuel emissions at 12 kg CO2 GJ−1. However, without land-use regulation, the EF increases substantially (64 kg CO2 GJ−1 over 80 years, 92 kg CO2 GJ−1 over 30 years). We also find that comprehensive coverage (>90%) of carbon-rich land areas worldwide is key to containing land-use emissions. Pricing emissions indirectly on the level of bioenergy consumption reduces total emissions by cutting bioenergy demand but fails to reduce the average EF. In the absence of comprehensive and timely land-use regulation, bioenergy thus may contribute less to climate change mitigation than assumed previously.
Under current land-use regulation, carbon dioxide emissions from biofuel production exceed those from fossil diesel combustion. Therefore, international agreements need to ensure the effective and globally comprehensive protection of natural land before modern bioenergy can effectively contribute to achieving carbon neutrality.
Despite the merits of public and social media in private and professional spaces, citizens and professionals are increasingly exposed to cyberabuse, such as cyberbullying and hate speech. Thus, Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) are deployed in many countries and organisations to enhance the preventive and reactive capabilities against cyberabuse. However, their tasks are getting more complex by the increasing amount and varying quality of information disseminated into public channels. Adopting the perspectives of Crisis Informatics and safety-critical Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and based on both a narrative literature review and group discussions, this paper first outlines the research agenda of the CYLENCE project, which seeks to design strategies and tools for cross-media reporting, detection, and treatment of cyberbullying and hatespeech in investigative and law enforcement agencies. Second, it identifies and elaborates seven research challenges with regard to the monitoring, analysis and communication of cyberabuse in LEAs, which serve as a starting point for in-depth research within the project.
Despite energy efficiency measures, global energy demand has gradually increased due to global economic growth and changes in consumer behavior. Even if people are aware of the problem and want to change their energy consumption, they have difficulty acting on their attitudes. This is called the attitude-behavior gap. To narrow this gap and reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions, behavioral interventions beyond technological advances must be considered. A promising intervention is nudging, which uses insights from behavioral economics to gently nudge individuals toward more sustainable choices. In this study, we investigate how modifying digital choice architectures with nudges can be used to influence consumer energy conservation behavior in smart home applications (SHAs). We conducted an online experiment with 391 participants to test the effectiveness of the following three digital nudges in an SHA: self-commitment, reminder, and social norm nudge. While the results of a structural equation model indicated no effect on bridging the gap between attitude and behavior, we found the potential to promote energy conservation with two nudge types. Thus, this paper makes substantial contribution to persuasive and information systems-enabled sustainability for a better world in the form of digital nudges for emerging technologies.
Working conditions of knowledge workers have been subject to rapid change recently. Digital nomadism is no longer a phenomenon that relates only to entrepreneurs, freelancers, and gig workers. Corporate employees, too, have begun to uncouple their work from stationary (home) offices and 9-to-5 schedules. However, pursuing a permanent job in a corporate environment is still subject to fundamentally different values than postulated by the original notion of digital nomadism. Therefore, this paper explores the work identity of what is referred to as ‘corporate nomads’. By drawing on identity theory and the results of semi-structured interviews, the paper proposes a conceptualization of the corporate nomad archetype and presents nine salient identity issues of corporate nomads (e.g., holding multiple contradictory identities, the flexibility paradox, or collaboration constraints). By introducing the ‘corporate nomad’ archetype to the Information Systems literature, this article helps to rethink established conceptions of “home office” and socio-spatial configurations of knowledge work.
The study explores differences between three user types in the top tweets about the 2015 “refugee crisis” in Germany and presents the results of a quantitative content analysis. All tweets with the keyword “Flüchtlinge” posted for a monthlong period following September 13, 2015, the day Germany decided to implement border controls, were collected (N = 763,752). The top 2,495 tweets according to number of retweets were selected for analysis. Differences between news media, public and private actor tweets in topics, tweet characteristics such as tone and opinion expression, links, and specific sentiments toward refugees were analyzed. We found strong differences between the tweets. Public actor tweets were the main source of positive sentiment toward refugees and the main information source on refugee support. News media tweets mostly reflected traditional journalistic norms of impartiality and objectivity, whereas private actor tweets were more diverse in sentiments toward refugees.
In virtual collaboration at the workplace, a growing number of teams apply supportive conversational agents (CAs). They take on different work-related tasks for teams and single users such as scheduling meetings or stimulating creativity. Previous research merely focused on these positive aspects of introducing CAs at the workplace, omitting ethical challenges faced by teams using these often artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled technologies. Thus, on the one hand, CAs can present themselves as benevolent teammates, but on the other hand, they can collect user data, reduce worker autonomy, or foster social isolation by their service. In this work, we conducted 15 expert interviews with senior researchers from the fields of ethics, collaboration, and computer science in order to derive ethical guidelines for introducing CAs in virtual team collaboration. We derived 14 guidelines and seven research questions to pave the way for future research on the dark sides of human–agent interaction in organizations.
Digital transformation fundamentally changes the way individuals conduct work in organisations. In accordance with this statement, prevalent literature understands digital workplace transformation as a second-order effect of implementing new information technology to increase organisational effectiveness or reach other strategic goals. This paper, in contrast, provides empirical evidence from two remote-first organisations that undergo a proactive rather than reactive digital workplace transformation. The analysis of these cases suggests that new ways of working can be the consequence of an identity change that is a precondition for introducing new information technology rather than its outcome. The resulting process model contributes a competing argument to the existing debate in digital transformation literature. Instead of issuing digital workplace transformation as a deliverable of technological progress and strategic goals, this paper supports a notion of digital workplace transformation that serves a desired identity based on work preferences.
Intrinsic motivation is widely considered essential to creativity because it facilitates more divergent thinking during problem solving. However, we argue that intrinsic motivation has been theorized too heavily as a unitary construct, overlooking various internal factors of a task that can shape the baseline level of intrinsic motivation people have for working on the task. Drawing on theories of cognitive styles, we develop a new scale that measures individual preferences for three different creative thinking styles that we call divergent thinking, bricoleurgent thinking, and emergent thinking. Through a multi-study approach consisting of exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and convergent validity, we provide psychometric evidence showing that people can have distinct preferences for each cognitive process when generating ideas. Furthermore, when validating this scale through an experiment, we find that each style becomes more dominant in predicting overall enjoyment, engagement, and creativity based on different underlying structures of a task. Therefore, this paper makes both theoretical and empirical contributions to literature by unpacking intrinsic motivation, showing how the alignment between different creative thinking styles and task can be essential to predicting intrinsic motivation, thus reversing the direction of causality between the motivational and cognitive components of creativity typically assumed in literature.
Developing a new product generation requires the transfer of knowledge among various knowledge carriers. Several factors influence knowledge transfer, e.g., the complexity of engineering tasks or the competence of employees, which can decrease the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge transfers in product engineering. Hence, improving those knowledge transfers obtains great potential, especially against the backdrop of experienced employees leaving the company due to retirement, so far, research results show, that the knowledge transfer velocity can be raised by following the Knowledge Transfer Velocity Model and implementing so-called interventions in a product engineering context. In most cases, the implemented interventions have a positive effect on knowledge transfer speed improvement. In addition to that, initial theoretical findings describe factors influencing the quality of knowledge transfers and outline a setting to empirically investigate how the quality can be improved by introducing a general description of knowledge transfer reference situations and principles to measure the quality of knowledge artifacts. To assess the quality of knowledge transfers in a product engineering context, the Knowledge Transfer Quality Model (KTQM) is created, which serves as a basis to develop and implement quality-dependent interventions for different knowledge transfer situations. As a result, this paper introduces the specifications of eight situation-adequate interventions to improve the quality of knowledge transfers in product engineering following an intervention template. Those interventions are intended to be implemented in an industrial setting to measure the quality of knowledge transfers and validate their effect.
As the climate targets tighten and countries are impacted by several crises, understanding how and under which conditions carbon dioxide emissions peak and start declining is gaining importance. We assess the timing of emissions peaks in all major emitters (1965–2019) and the extent to which past economic crises have impacted structural drivers of emissions contributing to emission peaks. We show that in 26 of 28 countries that have peaked emissions, the peak occurred just before or during a recession through the combined effect of lower economic growth (1.5 median percentage points per year) and decreasing energy and/or carbon intensity (0.7) during and after the crisis. In peak-and-decline countries, crises have typically magnified pre-existing improvements in structural change. In non-peaking countries, economic growth was less affected, and structural change effects were weaker or increased emissions. Crises do not automatically trigger peaks but may strengthen ongoing decarbonisation trends through several mechanisms.
Thermal energy from concentrating solar thermal technologies (CST) may contribute to decarbonizing applications from heating and cooling, desalination, and power generation to commodities such as aluminium, hydrogen, ammonia or sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). So far, successful commercial-scale CST projects are restricted to solar industrial process heat (SIPH) and concentrating solar power (CSP) generation and, at least for the latter, depend on support from public policies that have been stagnating for years. As they are technologically similar, spillovers between SIPH or CSP and other emerging CST could accelerate commercialization across use cases while maximizing the impact of scarce support. Here, we review the technical potential for cross-fertilization between different CST applications and the ability of the current policy regime to enable this potential. Using working temperature as the key variable, we identify different clusters of current and emerging CST technologies. Low-temperature CST (<400℃) applications for heating, cooling and desalination already profit from the significant progress made in line-focussing CSP over the last 15 years. A newly emerging cluster of high temperature CST (>600℃) for solar chemistry and high-grade process heat has significant leverage for spillovers with point-focussing solar tower third-generation CSP currently under development. For these spillovers to happen, however, CSP policy designs would need to prioritize innovation for high working temperature and encourage modular plant design, by adequately remunerating hybridized plants with heat and power in and outputs that include energy sources beyond CST solar fields. This would enable synergies across applications and scales by incentivizing compatibility of modular CST components in multiple sectors and use cases.