Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (442)
- Monograph/Edited Volume (191)
- Doctoral Thesis (86)
- Working Paper (50)
- Postprint (26)
- Review (15)
- Part of a Book (14)
- Other (8)
- Conference Proceeding (7)
- Report (7)
Language
- English (856) (remove)
Keywords
- Entrepreneurship (13)
- entrepreneurship (11)
- Delphi study (8)
- experiment (8)
- Evaluation (7)
- bibliometric analysis (6)
- COVID-19 (5)
- Cayley Graph (5)
- Free Group (5)
- Germany (5)
Institute
- Wirtschaftswissenschaften (856) (remove)
”Thanks in Advance”
(2019)
This paper studies the effect of the commonly used phrase “thanks in advance” on compliance with a small request. In a controlled laboratory experiment we ask participants to give a detailed answer to an open question. The treatment variable is whether or not they see the phrase “thanks in advance.” Our participants react to the treatment by exerting less effort in answering the request even though they perceive the phrase as polite.
This paper studies the effectiveness of building height limits as a policy to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It shows that building height limits lead to urban sprawl and higher emissions from commuting. On the other hand, aggregate housing consumption may decrease, which reduces emissions from residential energy use. A numerical model is used to evaluate whether total GHG emissions may be lower under building height restrictions. Welfare is not concave in the strictness of building height limits, so either no limit or a very strict one (depending on the strength of the externality) might maximize welfare. The paper discusses several extensions, such as congestion, endogenous transport mode choice, migration, and urban heat island effect. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
The dissertation examines the use of performance information by public managers. “Use” is conceptualized as purposeful utilization in order to steer, learn, and improve public services. The main research question is: Why do public managers use performance information? To answer this question, I systematically review the existing literature, identify research gaps and introduce the approach of my dissertation. The first part deals with manager-related variables that might affect performance information use but which have thus far been disregarded. The second part models performance data use by applying a theory from social psychology which is based on the assumption that this management behavior is conscious and reasoned. The third part examines the extent to which explanations of performance information use vary if we include others sources of “unsystematic” feedback in our analysis. The empirical results are based on survey data from 2011. I surveyed middle managers from eight selected divisions of all German cities with county status (n=954). To analyze the data, I used factor analysis, multiple regression analysis, and structural equation modeling. My research resulted in four major findings: 1) The use of performance information can be modeled as a reasoned behavior which is determined by the attitude of the managers and of their immediate peers. 2) Regular users of performance data surprisingly are not generally inclined to analyze abstract data but rather prefer gathering information through personal interaction. 3) Managers who take on ownership of performance information at an early stage in the measurement process are also more likely to use this data when it is reported to them. 4) Performance reports are only one source of information among many. Public managers prefer verbal feedback from insiders and feedback from external stakeholders over systematic performance reports. The dissertation explains these findings using a deductive approach and discusses their implications for theory and practice.
This article examines the effect of parental socialization and interest in politics on entering and staying in public service careers. We incorporate two related explanations, yet commonly used in different fields of literature, to explain public sector choice. First, following social learning theory, we hypothesize that parents serve as role models and thereby affect their children's sector choice. Additionally, we test the hypothesis that parental socialization leads to a longer stay in public sector jobs while assuming that it serves as a buffer against turnover. Second, following public service motivation process theory, we expect that 'interest in politics' is influenced by parental socialization and that this concept, in turn, leads to a public sector career. A representative set of longitudinal data from the Swiss household panel (1999-2014) was used to analyse these hypotheses (n = 2,933, N = 37,328). The results indicate that parental socialization serves as a stronger predictor of public sector choice than an interest in politics. Furthermore, people with parents working in the public sector tend to stay longer in their public sector jobs. Points for practitioners For practitioners, the results of this study are relevant as they highlight the limited usefulness of addressing job applicants' interest in politics in the recruitment process. Human resources managers who want to ensure a public-service-motivated workforce are therefore advised to focus on human resources activities that stimulate public service motivation after job entry. We also advise close interaction between universities and public organizations so that students develop a realistic picture of the government as a future employer and do not experience a 'reality shock' after job entry.
Organizations increasingly use social media and especially social networking sites (SNS) to support their marketing agenda, enhance collaboration, and develop new capabilities. However, the success of SNS initiatives is largely dependent on sustainable user participation. In this study, we argue that the continuance intentions of users may be gender sensitive. To theorize and investigate gender differences in the determinants of continuance intentions, this study draws on the expectation-confirmation model, the uses and gratification theory, as well as the self-construal theory and its extensions. Our survey of 488 users shows that while both men and women are motivated by the ability to self enhance, there are some gender differences. Specifically, while women are mainly driven by relational uses, such as maintaining close ties and getting access to social information on close and distant networks, men base their continuance intentions on their ability to gain information of a general nature. Our research makes several contributions to the discourse in strategic information systems literature concerning the use of social media by individuals and organizations. Theoretically, it expands the understanding of the phenomenon of continuance intentions and specifically the role of the gender differences in its determinants. On a practical level, it delivers insights for SNS providers and marketers into how satisfaction and continuance intentions of male and female SNS users can be differentially promoted. Furthermore, as organizations increasingly rely on corporate social networks to foster collaboration and innovation, our insights deliver initial recommendations on how organizational social media initiatives can be supported with regard to gender-based differences.
Germany experienced a unique rise in the level of self-employment in the first two decades following unification. Applying the nonlinear Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique, we find that the main factors driving these changes in the overall level of self-employment are demographic developments, the shift towards service sector employment and a larger share of population holding a tertiary degree. While these factors explain most of the development in self-employment with employees and the overall level of self-employment in West Germany, their explanatory power is much lower for the stronger increase in solo self-employment and in self-employment in former socialist East Germany.
In this paper, we move from the large strand of research that looks at evidence of climate migration to the questions: who are the climate migrants? and where do they go? These questions are crucial to design policies that mitigate welfare losses of migration choices due to climate change. We study the direct and heterogeneous associations between weather extremes and migration in rural India. We combine ERAS reanalysis data with the India Human Development Survey household panel and conduct regression analyses by applying linear probability and multinomial logit models. This enables us to establish a causal relationship between temperature and precipitation anomalies and overall migration as well as migration by destination. We show that adverse weather shocks decrease rural-rural and international migration and push people into cities in different, presumably more prosperous states. A series of positive weather shocks, however, facilitates international migration and migration to cities within the same state. Further, our results indicate that in contrast to other migrants, climate migrants are likely to be from the lower end of the skill distribution and from households strongly dependent on agricultural production. We estimate that approximately 8% of all rural-urban moves between 2005 and 2012 can be attributed to weather. This figure might increase as a consequence of climate change. Thus, a key policy recommendation is to take steps to facilitate integration of less educated migrants into the urban labor market.
The “output-orientation” is omnipresent in teacher education. In order to evaluate teachers' and students' performances, a wide range of different quantitative questionnaires exist worldwide. One important goal of teaching evaluation is to increase the quality of teaching and learning. The author argues, that standard evaluations which are typically made at the end of the semester are problematic due to two reasons. The first one is that some of the questions are too general and don`t offer concrete ideas as to what kind of actions can be taken to make the courses better. The second problem is that the evaluation is mostly made when the course is already over. Because of this criticism, Apelojg invented the Felix-App which offers the possibility to give feedback in real-time by asking for the emotions and needs that occur during different learning situations. The idea is very simple: positive emotions and satisfied needs are helpful for the learning process. Negative emotions and unsatisfied needs have negative effects on the learning process. First descriptive results show, that “managing emotions” during classes can have positive effects on both motivation and emotions.
What Makes an Employer?
(2019)
As the policy debate on entrepreneurship increasingly centers on firm growth in terms of job creation, it is important to better understand which variables influence the first hiring decision and which ones influence the subsequent survival as an employer. Using the German Socio-economic Panel (SOEP), we analyze what role individual characteristics of entrepreneurs play in sustainable job creation. While human and social capital variables positively influence the hiring decision and the survival as an employer in the same direction, we show that none of the personality traits affect the two outcomes in the same way. Some traits are only relevant for survival as an employer but do not influence the hiring decision, other traits even unfold a revolving door effect, in the sense that employers tend to fail due to the same characteristics that positively influenced their hiring decision.
On May 17, 2012, the social networking company Facebook Inc. fixes its initial public offering (IPO) price at $38.00 a share. Over the next couple of months, contrary to expectations raised by previous IPOs, the stock price crashes more than 50 per cent. Immediately, the question arises whether the issuer’s or the stock market’s pricing of the share are in line with the firm’s fundamentals. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to determine the company value in close proximity to the date of IPO.
Involvement of disadvantaged individuals into entrepreneurship facilitates their social integration into mainstream societies. The present study addresses the drivers of social entrepreneurial appraisal among hearing-impaired individuals within a unique social minority environment. In prior research, social appraisal was empirically shown to determine social entrepreneurial intention. Adopting the theory of planned behaviour, this study investigates the impact of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, general social support and perceived barriers on social entrepreneurial appraisal. Based on a survey with 221 respondents, our results demonstrate that social entrepreneurial appraisal of hearing-impaired individuals result from their entrepreneurial self-efficacy and general social support. In terms of taking advantage of social opportunities, importance should be given to the role of entrepreneurial education and heterogeneous networks across minorities.
The positive aspects of open innovation projects are widely discussed in innovation management research and practice by means of case studies and best practices. However, enterprises, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) also face miscellaneous challenges in open innovation practice, leading to uncertainty and even renunciation of open innovation project participation. Thus, it is essential for SMEs to find the right balance between possible positive effects and negative consequences - the latter being the less studied "dark sides" of open innovation. However, appropriate methods of finding this balance are still lacking. In this article, we discuss the assessment of open innovation project participation by presenting a weighing and decision process framework as a conceivable solution approach. The framework includes an internal, external, and integrated analysis as well as a recommendation and decision phase. Piece by piece, we investigate the current situation and the innovation goals of the enterprise as an initial point for a decision for or against engaging in open innovation. Furthermore, we discuss the development of a software tool that automatically applies this framework and allows self-assessment by SMEs.
We know exactly what you want the development of a completely individualised conjoint analysis
(2013)
Improving the predictive validity of conjoint analysis has been an important research objective for many years. Whereas the majority of attempts have been different approaches to preference modelling, data collection or product presentation, only a few scholars have tried to improve predictive validity by individualising conjoint designs. This comes as a surprise because many markets have observed an augmented demand for customised products and highly heterogeneous customers' preferences. Against this background, the authors develop a conjoint variant based on a completely individualised conjoint design. More concretely, the new approach not only individualises the attributes, but also the attribute levels. The results of a comprehensive empirical study yield a significantly higher validity than existing standardised-level conjoint approaches. Consequently, they help marketers to gain deeper insights into their customers' preferences.
The economic impact analysis contained in this book shows how irrigation farming is particularly susceptible when applying certain water management policies in the Australian Murray-Darling Basin, one of the world largest river basins and Australia’s most fertile region. By comparing different pricing and non-pricing water management policies with the help of the Water Integrated Market Model, it is found that the impact of water demand reducing policies is most severe on crops that need to be intensively irrigated and are at the same time less water productive. A combination of increasingly frequent and severe droughts and the application of policies that decrease agricultural water demand, in the same region, will create a situation in which the highly water dependent crops rice and cotton cannot be cultivated at all.
Background: Voice-controlled intelligent personal assistants (VIPAs), such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, involve artificial intelligence-powered algorithms designed to simulate humans. Their hands-free interface and growing capabilities have a wide range of applications in health care, covering off-clinic education, health monitoring, and communication. However, conflicting factors, such as patient safety and privacy concerns, make it difficult to foresee the further development of VIPAs in health care. <br /> Objective: This study aimed to develop a plausible scenario for the further development of VIPAs in health care to support decision making regarding the procurement of VIPAs in health care organizations. Methods: We conducted a two-stage Delphi study with an internationally recruited panel consisting of voice assistant experts, medical professionals, and representatives of academia, governmental health authorities, and nonprofit health associations having expertise with voice technology. Twenty projections were formulated and evaluated by the panelists. Descriptive statistics were used to derive the desired scenario. <br /> Results: The panelists expect VIPAs to be able to provide solid medical advice based on patients' personal health information and to have human-like conversations. However, in the short term, voice assistants might neither provide frustration-free user experience nor outperform or replace humans in health care. With a high level of consensus, the experts agreed with the potential of VIPAs to support elderly people and be widely used as anamnesis, informational, self-therapy, and communication tools by patients and health care professionals. Although users' and governments' privacy concerns are not expected to decrease in the near future, the panelists believe that strict regulations capable of preventing VIPAs from providing medical help services will not be imposed. <br /> Conclusions: According to the surveyed experts, VIPAs will show notable technological development and gain more user trust in the near future, resulting in widespread application in health care. However, voice assistants are expected to solely support health care professionals in their daily operations and will not be able to outperform or replace medical staff.
Current business organizations want to be more efficient and constantly evolving to find ways to retain talent. It is well established that visionary leadership plays a vital role in organizational success and contributes to a better working environment. This study aims to determine the effect of visionary leadership on employees' perceived job satisfaction. Specifically, it investigates whether the mediators meaningfulness at work and commitment to the leader impact the relationship. I take support from job demand resource theory to explain the overarching model used in this study and broaden-and-build theory to leverage the use of mediators.
To test the hypotheses, evidence was collected in a multi-source, time-lagged design field study of 95 leader-follower dyads. The data was collected in a three-wave study, each survey appearing after one month. Data on employee perception of visionary leadership was collected in T1, data for both mediators were collected in T2, and employee perception of job satisfaction was collected in T3. The findings display that meaningfulness at work and commitment to the leader play positive intervening roles (in the form of a chain) in the indirect influence of visionary leadership on employee perceptions regarding job satisfaction.
This research offers contributions to literature and theory by first broadening the existing knowledge on the effects of visionary leadership on employees. Second, it contributes to the literature on constructs meaningfulness at work, commitment to the leader, and job satisfaction. Third, it sheds light on the mediation mechanism dealing with study variables in line with the proposed model. Fourth, it integrates two theories, job demand resource theory and broaden-and-build theory providing further evidence. Additionally, the study provides practical implications for business leaders and HR practitioners.
Overall, my study discusses the potential of visionary leadership behavior to elevate employee outcomes. The study aligns with previous research and answers several calls for further research on visionary leadership, job satisfaction, and mediation mechanism with meaningfulness at work and commitment to the leader.
Background:
Research into the application of virtual reality technology in the health care sector has rapidly increased, resulting in a large body of research that is difficult to keep up with.
Objective:
We will provide an overview of the annual publication numbers in this field and the most productive and influential countries, journals, and authors, as well as the most used, most co-occurring, and most recent keywords.
Methods:
Based on a data set of 356 publications and 20,363 citations derived from Web of Science, we conducted a bibliometric analysis using BibExcel, HistCite, and VOSviewer.
Results:
The strongest growth in publications occurred in 2020, accounting for 29.49% of all publications so far. The most productive countries are the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain; the most influential countries are the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The most productive journals are the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), JMIR Serious Games, and the Games for Health Journal; the most influential journals are Patient Education and Counselling, Medical Education, and Quality of Life Research. The most productive authors are Riva, del Piccolo, and Schwebel; the most influential authors are Finset, del Piccolo, and Eide. The most frequently occurring keywords other than “virtual” and “reality” are “training,” “trial,” and “patients.” The most relevant research themes are communication, education, and novel treatments; the most recent research trends are fitness and exergames.
Conclusions:
The analysis shows that the field has left its infant state and its specialization is advancing, with a clear focus on patient usability.
Background:
Research into the application of virtual reality technology in the health care sector has rapidly increased, resulting in a large body of research that is difficult to keep up with.
Objective:
We will provide an overview of the annual publication numbers in this field and the most productive and influential countries, journals, and authors, as well as the most used, most co-occurring, and most recent keywords.
Methods:
Based on a data set of 356 publications and 20,363 citations derived from Web of Science, we conducted a bibliometric analysis using BibExcel, HistCite, and VOSviewer.
Results:
The strongest growth in publications occurred in 2020, accounting for 29.49% of all publications so far. The most productive countries are the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain; the most influential countries are the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The most productive journals are the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), JMIR Serious Games, and the Games for Health Journal; the most influential journals are Patient Education and Counselling, Medical Education, and Quality of Life Research. The most productive authors are Riva, del Piccolo, and Schwebel; the most influential authors are Finset, del Piccolo, and Eide. The most frequently occurring keywords other than “virtual” and “reality” are “training,” “trial,” and “patients.” The most relevant research themes are communication, education, and novel treatments; the most recent research trends are fitness and exergames.
Conclusions:
The analysis shows that the field has left its infant state and its specialization is advancing, with a clear focus on patient usability.
The paper describes the exchange program in between the University of Wisconsin/ Milwaukee and the University of Potsdam in the field of economics. It discusses in detail the development of the program, including the problems and challenges. Additionally a brief description of the curriculum is presented. Then the future possibilities of the Transatlantic Degree Program (TDP) are discussed and the influences and problems of the Bologna process analysed.
Objective We propose a data-driven method to detect temporal patterns of disease progression in high-dimensional claims data based on gradient boosting with stability selection. Materials and methods We identified patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in a German health insurance claims database with 6.5 million individuals and divided them into a group of patients with the highest disease severity and a group of control patients with lower severity. We then used gradient boosting with stability selection to determine variables correlating with a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease diagnosis of highest severity and subsequently model the temporal progression of the disease using the selected variables. Results We identified a network of 20 diagnoses (e.g. respiratory failure), medications (e.g. anticholinergic drugs) and procedures associated with a subsequent chronic obstructive pulmonary disease diagnosis of highest severity. Furthermore, the network successfully captured temporal patterns, such as disease progressions from lower to higher severity grades. Discussion The temporal trajectories identified by our data-driven approach are compatible with existing knowledge about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease showing that the method can reliably select relevant variables in a high-dimensional context. Conclusion We provide a generalizable approach for the automatic detection of disease trajectories in claims data. This could help to diagnose diseases early, identify unknown risk factors and optimize treatment plans.
IMPACT German municipalities have prepared performance budgets for over 10 years. The incorporation of performance information into the budget is, however, still work in progress. Local politicians perceive the usability of non-financial information in the budget as low and do not use such information intensively for budget composition or other purposes. German municipal budgets are usually voluminous because of their highly detailed structure and the large amount of displayed performance data which rarely informs about outcomes. Such information does not meet the needs of councillors, for example in their struggles with political opponents. Some options for improving the usability of budgetary information are presented.
1. Porter strategic competitive analysis 2. A Porter analysis of the competitive advantage of banks in business lending and proprietary trading 3. Summary, competitive advantage of banks in business lending and proprietary trading 4. JPMorgan’s “London Whale” speculation 5. A common misapprehension about hedged positions in corporate debt 6. Conclusion
Many European countries have experienced a significant increase of unemployment in recent years. This paper reviews several theoretical models that try to explain this phenomenon. Predominantly, these models claim a link between the poor performance of European labor markets and the high level of market regulation. Commonly referred to as the Eurosclerosis debate, prominent approaches consider insider-outsider relationships, search-models, and the influence of hiring and firing costs on equilibrium employment. The paper presents empirical evidence of each model and studies the relevance of the identified rigidities as a determinant of high unemployment in Europe. Furthermore, a case study analyzes the unemployment problem in Germany and critically discusses new reform efforts. In particular this section analyzes whether the recently enacted Hartz reforms can induce higher employment.
In industrialized economies such as the European countries unemployment rates are very responsive to the business cycle and significant shares stay unemployed for more than one year. To fight cyclical and long-term unemployment countries spend significant shares of their budget on Active Labor Market Policies (ALMP). To improve the allocation and design of ALMP it is essential for policy makers to have reliable evidence on the effectiveness of such programs available. Although the number of studies has been increased during the last decades, policy makers still lack evidence on innovative programs and for specific subgroups of the labor market. Using Germany as a case study, the dissertation aims at contributing in this way by providing new evidence on start-up subsidies, marginal employment and programs for youth unemployed. The idea behind start-up subsidies is to encourage unemployed individuals to exit unemployment by starting their own business. Those programs have compared to traditional programs of ALMP the advantage that not only the participant escapes unemployment but also might generate additional jobs for other individuals. Considering two distinct start-up subsidy programs, the dissertation adds three substantial aspects to the literature: First, the programs are effective in improving the employment and income situation of participants compared to non-participants in the long-run. Second, the analysis on effect heterogeneity reveals that the programs are particularly effective for disadvantaged groups in the labor market like low educated or low qualified individuals, and in regions with unfavorable economic conditions. Third, the analysis considers the effectiveness of start-up programs for women. Due to higher preferences for flexible working hours and limited part-time jobs, unemployed women often face more difficulties to integrate in dependent employment. It can be shown that start-up subsidy programs are very promising as unemployed women become self-employed which gives them more flexibility to reconcile work and family. Overall, the results suggest that the promotion of self-employment among the unemployed is a sensible strategy to fight unemployment by abolishing labor market barriers for disadvantaged groups and sustainably integrating those into the labor market. The next chapter of the dissertation considers the impact of marginal employment on labor market outcomes of the unemployed. Unemployed individuals in Germany are allowed to earn additional income during unemployment without suffering a reduction in their unemployment benefits. Those additional earnings are usually earned by taking up so-called marginal employment that is employment below a certain income level subject to reduced payroll taxes (also known as “mini-job”). The dissertation provides an empirical evaluation of the impact of marginal employment on unemployment duration and subsequent job quality. The results suggest that being marginal employed during unemployment has no significant effect on unemployment duration but extends employment duration. Moreover, it can be shown that taking up marginal employment is particularly effective for long-term unemployed, leading to higher job-finding probabilities and stronger job stability. It seems that mini-jobs can be an effective instrument to help long-term unemployed individuals to find (stable) jobs which is particularly interesting given the persistently high shares of long-term unemployed in European countries. Finally, the dissertation provides an empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of ALMP programs to improve labor market prospects of unemployed youth. Youth are generally considered a population at risk as they have lower search skills and little work experience compared to adults. This results in above-average turnover rates between jobs and unemployment for youth which is particularly sensitive to economic fluctuations. Therefore, countries spend significant resources on ALMP programs to fight youth unemployment. However, so far only little is known about the effectiveness of ALMP for unemployed youth and with respect to Germany no comprehensive quantitative analysis exists at all. Considering seven different ALMP programs, the results show an overall positive picture with respect to post-treatment employment probabilities for all measures under scrutiny except for job creation schemes. With respect to effect heterogeneity, it can be shown that almost all programs particularly improve the labor market prospects of youths with high levels of pretreatment schooling. Furthermore, youths who are assigned to the most successful employment measures have much better characteristics in terms of their pre-treatment employment chances compared to non-participants. Therefore, the program assignment process seems to favor individuals for whom the measures are most beneficial, indicating a lack of ALMP alternatives that could benefit low-educated youths.
The main thread of this review article is to identify the reasons of how to account for the trajectory of American power in the region. Leaving behind the vast amount of highly politicised and hastily compiled volumes of recent years (notwithstanding valuable exceptions), the monographs composed by Lawrence Freedman, Trita Parsi and Oliver Roy attempt to subtly disentangle the intricacies of US involvement in the region from highly distinct perspectives. One caveat for International Relations theorists is that none of the aforementioned authors intends to provide theoretical frameworks for his examination. However, since IR theory has damagingly neglected history in the last decades, the works under review here, at least in part, compensate for this disciplinary and intellectual failure.
In conclusion, Freedman's in-depth approach as a diplomatic historian, with its underlying reference to the various traditions in US foreign policy thinking, is most illuminating, while Parsi's contestable account focuses too narrowly on the Iran-Israel relationship. Roy's explications fail to show how and why the 'ideological' element in US foreign policy came to carry exceedingly more weight after 2001 than it did in the 1990s.
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.
Turning wind into power : effects of stakeholder networks on renewalbe energy governanace in India
(2011)
Experimental evidence reveals that there is a strong willingness to trust and to act in both positively and negatively reciprocal ways. So far it is rarely analyzed whether these variables of social cognition influence everyday decision making behavior. We focus on entrepreneurs who are permanently facing exchange processes in the interplay with investors, sellers, and buyers, as well as needing to trust others and reciprocate with their network. We base our analysis on the German Socio-Economic Panel with its recently introduced questions about trust, positive reciprocity, and negative reciprocity to examine the extent that these variables influence the entrepreneurial decision processes. More specifically, we analyze whether (i) the willingness to trust other people influences the probability of starting a business; (ii) trust, positive reciprocity, and negative reciprocity influence the exit probability of entrepreneurs; and (iii) willingness to trust and to act reciprocally influences the probability of being an entrepreneur versus an employee or a manager. Our findings reveal that, in particular, trust impacts entrepreneurial development. Interestingly, entrepreneurs are more trustful than employees, but much less trustful than managers.
Wie hängen Vertrauen, Konsumeinstellungen und Verhalten bezüglich Fairtrade zusammen?
Dies ist die grundlegende Frage, mit der sich diese Arbeit beschäftigt. Lea Dirkwinkel analysiert die Fragestellung am Beispiel des Fairtrade-Labels, das als Symbol für das Produktzertifizierungssystem von Fairtrade International steht und das bekannteste Beispiel der Fairtrade-Bewegung darstellt.
Die Forschungsfrage wird einerseits zurückgeführt auf die Tatsache, dass die Qualität von Fairtrade-Gütern durch Konsumenten nicht erfasst werden kann, und andererseits durch die sogenannte Einstellungs-Verhaltens-Lücke begründet. Die Einstellungs-Verhaltens-Lücke beschreibt die kognitive Dissonanz zwischen positiven ethischen Einstellungen und Kaufintentionen sowie dem tatsächlichen Kaufverhalten und widerspricht traditionellen Einstellungs-Verhaltens-Modellen, die besagen, dass die Einstellung das Verhalten von Menschen bestimmt. Beide zuvor genannten Aspekte begründen in der Marketingtheorie die Relevanz von Vertrauen für den Konsum von Fairtrade-Produkten, aber auch anderen nachhaltigen Gütern.
Die Analyse basiert auf einer Online-Datenerhebung und erfolgte anhand der Kombination aus Conjoint Analyse und Strukturgleichungsanalyse. Die innovative methodische Vorgehensweise lieferte sowohl für die Marketingforschung als auch für die Praxis relevante Ergebnisse. Zum einem wird die wichtige Rolle von Vertrauen für den Fairtrade-Konsum bestätigt; zum anderen erklärt die Arbeit, wie sich Fairtrade-Vertrauen auswirkt. Das Vertrauen in das Fairtrade-Label stellt den Ausgangspunkt für Vertrauensbeziehungen zwischen Fairtrade und den Konsumenten dar und wird auf die zertifizierten Produkte übertragen.
Empfehlungen, die sich daraus ergeben, konzentrieren sich auf Maßnahmen, die das Vertrauen in Fairtrade-Labels stärken, z.B. durch die Reduzierung der Anzahl verschiedener Labels oder die verstärkte Kommunikation der Unabhängigkeit von Zertifizierungsorganisationen.
Real costs of freight transportation have strong increased in Russia particularly during the period of price liberalization 1992–93. This paper investigates possible connections between rising transport costs and the evolution of the size structure of the system of cities in the Russian Federation and its federal subjects. Empirical findings suggest that under conditions of a closed system agglomeration processes according to the predictions of the model of Tabuchi et al. (2005) would have taken place especially in the periphere regions of the North and Far East.
Transformation process after five years on: behavioural adaption and institutional change in poland
(1998)
This study seeks to explain the major drivers of trading activity in commodity futures markets and gage the effect of trading activity on commodity prices. Rather than concentrating on a specific commodity subgroup or a particular type of commodity traders, we provide an extensive overview of the behavior across all market participants and their influence on commodity prices by using a broad set of commodity futures contracts. Although commodity futures returns show co-movement with financial fundamentals (U.S. dollar index, equity, and bond markets), based on the Disaggregated Commitment of Traders Report (DCOT), this relationship cannot be attributed to trading activity. Pricing in commodity markets can be predominantly attributed to hedgers and influential speculators (money managers), whereas small speculators (nonreportable traders) are crucial to some soft commodity futures similar to dealers in metals commodity futures. Furthermore, we find limited cases where inventory changes exert a sizable influence on position changes of DCOT traders.
Towards a reformulation of the role of the tax and social state in the polish transformation process
(1995)
Public administrations confront fundamental challenges, including globalization, digitalization, and an eroding level of trust from society. By developing joint public service delivery with other stakeholders, public administrations can respond to these challenges. This increases the importance of inter-organizational governance—a development often referred to as New Public Governance, which to date has not been realized because public administrations focus on intra-organizational practices and follow the traditional “governmental chain.”
E-government initiatives, which can lead to high levels of interconnected public services, are currently perceived as insufficient to meet this goal. They are not designed holistically and merely affect the interactions of public and non-public stakeholders. A fundamental shift toward a joint public service delivery would require scrutiny of established processes, roles, and interactions between stakeholders.
Various scientists and practitioners within the public sector assume that the use of blockchain institutional technology could fundamentally change the relationship between public and non-public stakeholders. At first glance, inter-organizational, joint public service delivery could benefit from the use of blockchain. This dissertation aims to shed light on this widespread assumption. Hence, the objective of this dissertation is to substantiate the effect of blockchain on the relationship between public administrations and non-public stakeholders.
This objective is pursued by defining three major areas of interest. First, this dissertation strives to answer the question of whether or not blockchain is suited to enable New Public Governance and to identify instances where blockchain may not be the proper solution. The second area aims to understand empirically the status quo of existing blockchain implementations in the public sector and whether they comply with the major theoretical conclusions. The third area investigates the changing role of public administrations, as the blockchain ecosystem can significantly increase the number of stakeholders.
Corresponding research is conducted to provide insights into these areas, for example, combining theoretical concepts with empirical actualities, conducting interviews with subject matter experts and key stakeholders of leading blockchain implementations, and performing a comprehensive stakeholder analysis, followed by visualization of its results.
The results of this dissertation demonstrate that blockchain can support New Public Governance in many ways while having a minor impact on certain aspects (e.g., decentralized control), which account for this public service paradigm. Furthermore, the existing projects indicate changes to relationships between public administrations and non-public stakeholders, although not necessarily the fundamental shift proposed by New Public Governance. Lastly, the results suggest that power relations are shifting, including the decreasing influence of public administrations within the blockchain ecosystem. The results raise questions about the governance models and regulations required to support mature solutions and the further diffusion of blockchain for public service delivery.
Towards a financial perspective on virtual communities : the case of the Berlin Stock Exchange
(2008)
Over the past decade, society has witnessed an increasing expansion of service economies as manufacturing (i.e., product-oriented) companies break free from their product-based business model and move toward more service-oriented value creation as a result of several economic, technological, and social changes. As they shift from products to (service) solutions, manufacturing companies pursue new strategic direction, inter alia, by extensively employing service business development activities.
The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the considerable (re-)emerging stream of service business development by providing vital insights for academia and management into important focus areas that have hardly, if at all, been (empirically) investigated in the existing literature before. Therefore, these findings can be vital to informing a differentiation in current and future marketing strategies in business practice.
First of all, this dissertation focuses on the extent to which service business development is transposed into business practice. Because scarce empirical-quantitative research has studied the current state of service business development across various industry and market sectors, this study analyzes a unique, manually collected dataset of 266 (product and service) business development activities. In so doing, this investigation contributes to literature by presenting a comprehensive, industry-wide status quo and trend report of service business development in practice.
Furthermore, given the surprisingly limited scientific attention paid to the question of how service business development is strategically configured and further applied to different environmental circumstances, this dissertation provides comprehensive theoretical and practical implications by analyzing in detail a sample of 137 service business developments of 66 product-oriented companies.
Lastly, manufacturers are recognizing that service-oriented value creation is moving toward a more collaborative process of co-creation as a promising measure to achieve competitive advantage, and even more as an appropriate response to complex business environments. Thus, an increasing number of companies around the world have recently introduced business models related to access-based services such as car-, scooter-, and bike-sharing systems. But despite the considerable advantages of access-based services as an alternative to ownership, these companies are now seeing that consumer adoption and (re-)usage rates remain insufficient. Owing to the lack of general and cross-national scientific knowledge, the purpose of this dissertation continues to explore which factors impede diffusion of related service business development activities from a consumer perspective and what kind of differences can be established between countries. Consequently, with a total of 1,443 participants, a cross-national survey was carried out in three countries, i.e., the United States, Germany, and China, to measure a vast number of different adoption barriers derived from a developed integrated framework that combines established theories within innovation and adoption behavior research.
Along with the rise of the now popular 'open' paradigm in innovation management, networks have become a common approach to practicing innovation. Foresight could potentially greatly benefit from resources that become available when the knowledge base increases through networks. This article seeks to investigate how innovation networks and foresight are related, to what extent networked foresight activities exist and how they are practiced. For the former the Cyclic Innovation Model (CIM) is utilized as analytical framework and applied to three cases. The foresight activities are analyzed in terms of type, scope and role.
The cases are a collaboration between government agencies and a research organization and two inter-organizational networks of different size. 'Networked foresight' is clearly observable in all three cases. Indeed, a networked approach to foresight seems to strengthen the various roles of foresight. However, the rooting and openness of foresight activities in the three networks varies significantly. The advantages that 'networked foresight' entails could be exploited to a much higher degree for the networks themselves, e.g., the broad resource base and the large pool of people with diverse backgrounds that are available. Furthermore, effective instruments for the reintegration of knowledge into the networks' partner organizations are needed. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
This paper studies the persistence of daily returns of 21 German stocks from 1960 to 2008. We apply a widely used test based upon the modified R/S-Method by Lo [1991]. As an extension to Lux [1996] and Carbone et al. [2004] and in analogy to moving average or moving volatility, the statistics is calculated for moving windows of length 4, 8, and 16 years for every time series. Periods of persistence or long memory in returns can be found in some but not all time series. Robustness of results is verified by investigating stationarity and short memory effects.
Time series analysis
(2004)
Time for change?
(2022)
Purpose:
This study aims to provide probable future developments in the form of holistic scenarios for business negotiations. In recent years, negotiation research did not put a lot of emphasis on external changes. Consequently, current challenges and trends are scarcely integrated, making it difficult to support negotiation practice perspectively.
Design/methodology/approach:
This paper applies the structured, multi-method approach of scenario analysis. To examine the future space of negotiations, this combines qualitative and quantitative measures to base our analysis on negotiation experts’ assessments, estimations and visions of the negotiation future.
Findings:
The results comprise an overview of five negotiation scenarios in the year 2030 and of their individual drivers. The five revealed scenarios are: digital intelligence, business as usual, powerful network – the route to collaboration, powerful network – the route to predominance and system crash.
Originality/value:
The scenario analysis is a suitable approach that enables to relate various factors of the negotiation environment to negotiations themselves and allows an examination of future changes in buyer–seller negotiations and the creation of possible future scenarios. The identified scenarios provide an orientation for business decisions in the field of negotiation.
Three Essays on EFRAG
(2018)
This cumulative doctoral thesis consists of three papers that deal with the role of one specific European accounting player in the international accounting standard-setting, namely the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG). The first paper examines whether and how EFRAG generally fulfills its role in articulating Europe’s interests toward the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). The qualitative data from the conducted interviews reveal that EFRAG influences the IASB’s decision making at a very early stage, long before other constituents are officially asked to comment on the IASB’s proposals. The second paper uses quantitative data and investigates the formal participation behavior of European constituents that seek to determine EFRAG’s voice. More precisely, this paper analyzes the nature of the constituents’ participation in EFRAG’s due process in terms of representation (constituent groups and geographical distribution) and the drivers of their participation behavior. EFRAG’s official decision making process is dominated by some specific constituent groups (such as preparers and the accounting profession) and by constituents from some specific countries (e.g. those with effective enforcement regimes). The third paper investigates in a first step who of the European constituents choose which lobbying channel (participation only at IASB, only at EFRAG, or at both institutions) and unveils in a second step possible reasons for their lobbying choices. The paper comprises quantitative and qualitative data. It reveals that English skills, time issues, the size of the constituent, and the country of origin are factors that can explain why the majority participates only in the IASB’s due process.
This paper investigates the views on competition theory and policy of the American institutional economists during the first half of the 20th century. These perspectives contrasted with those of contemporary neoclassical and later mainstream economic approaches. We identify three distinct dimensions to an institutionalist perspective on competition. First, institutionalist approaches focused on describing industry details, so as to bring theory into closer contact with reality. Second, institutionalists emphasized that while competition was sometimes beneficial, it could also be disruptive. Third, institutionalists had a broad view of the objectives of competition policy that extended beyond effects on consumer welfare. Consequently, institutionalists advocated for a wide range of policies to enhance competition, including industrial self-regulation, broad stakeholder representation within corporations, and direct governmental regulations. Their experimental attitude implied that policy would always be evolving, and antitrust enforcement might be only one stage in the development toward a regime of industrial regulation.
If war is an inevitable condition of human nature, as David Hume suggests, then what type of societies can best protect us from defeat and conquest? For David Hume, commerce decreases the relative cost of war and promotes technological military advances as well as martial spirit. Commerce therefore makes a country militarily stronger and better equipped to protect itself against attacks than any other kind of society. Hume does not assume commerce would yield a peaceful world nor that commercial societies would be militarily weak, as many contemporary scholars have argued. On the contrary, for him, military might is a beneficial consequence of commerce.
We examine the relationship between different types of power investments and regional economic dynamics. We construct a novel panel dataset combining data on regional GDP and power capacity additions for different technologies between 1960 and 2015, which covers 65% of the global power capacity that has been installed in this period. We use an event study design to identify the effect of power capacity addition on GDP per capita, exploiting the fact that the exact amount of power capacity coming online each year is determined by random construction delays. We find evidence that GDP per capita increases by 0.2% in the 6 years around the coming online of 100 MW coal-fired power capacity. We find similar effects for hydropower capacity, but not for any other type of power capacity. The positive effects are regionally bounded and stronger for projects on new sites (green-field). The magnitude of this effect might not be comparable to the total external costs of building new coal-fired power capacity, yet our results help to explain why policymakers favor coal investments for spurring regional growth.
The tax and social security contribution system in Bulgaria : formal structures and possible impacts
(2000)
Like in all countries in transition, the tax as well as the transfer system have been under serious reform pressures. The socialistic systems were not able to fulfill the necessary functions in providing a certain degree of redistribution and social security, which are inevitable for social oriented market economies. Increasing income and wage differentiation is one of the most important prerequisites for a market oriented ability to pay tax system. But in the transformation period, numerous quasi-legal or even illegal property transactions have taken place, thus leading to wealth concentrations on the one hand while as consequence of the bankruptcy of socialism, enormous poverty problems have arisen on the other. For the political acceptance of the transformation process it is of utmost importance that an efficient and fair tax system is implemented and social security is organised by the state on a level which secures at least the physical minimum of subsistence or – if economically possible – even a social-cultural minimum. Whether the state should go further in providing compulsory social insurance systems has been a hotly debated topic for decades even in the welfare and social states of the Western type. Whereas the basic security systems have to be financed by general tax revenue, for a compulsory social insurance system – due to the insurance character – special earmarked social security contribution are held necessary. Both public goods and services as well as at least basic security have to be financed by total tax revenue. For the acceptance and fairness of the whole system the total redistributive effect of both sides of the budget – the tax system as well as the expenditure system – are decisive. In this paper we will concentrate on the revenue side, e.g. on the taxes as well as on the social security contributions. Adam Smith had already formulated some very simple tax norms which have been transformed in modern tax theory. The equivalence as well as the ability-topay principle are basic yardsticks for every tax system in a democratic oriented market system, not to forget tax fairness. In the historical development process equity-oriented measures have often produced an enormous complexity of the single taxes as well as of the whole tax system. Therefore, reconsidering the Smithian principles of simplicity and of minimum compliance costs for the tax payer would even press many Western European tax systems to undergo serious reform processes which often are delayed because of intense interest group influence. Hence, a modern tax system is a simple one which consists only of a few single taxes which are easy to administer. Such a system consists of two main taxes, the income and the value added tax. Consequently in all countries of transition both taxes have been implemented, while the implementation was fostered by the fact that both also constitute the typical components of the EU member states systems. Therefore such a harmonising tax reform is the most important prerequisite to become a membership candidate. Bulgaria also tried to follow this general pattern in reforming the income tax system starting in 1992 and replacing the old socialistic turnover tax and excise duty system by the value added tax (VAT) in 1994. Especially with regard to the income tax system the demand for simplicity has not been met yet. Complex rules to define the tax base as well as a steeply progressive tax schedule have led to behavioral adaptations which are even strengthened by the effects of a high social contribution burden which is predominantly laid on the employers. In the following some concise descriptions of the tax and social contribution system are given; the paper closes with a summary, in which the impacts of the system are evaluated and some political recommendations for further reforms are presented.
This article introduces the concept of sustainability-rooted anticonsumption (SRAC), which refers to consumers' anticonsumption practices of voluntary simplicity in living and, on a smaller level, collaborative consumption and boycotting with the goal of supporting sustainable economic development. The SRAC measurement approach is validated based on three empirical studies. Results of a representative German sample (Study 2) reveal that SRAC is predominantly negatively linked to consumer overconsumption dispositions. Exemplary, voluntary simplification and boycott intention may result in declining levels of indebtedness. Study 3 shows that psychosocial well-being is positively related to SRAC and overconsumption. However, a simplified lifestyle and a greater willingness to boycott are not necessarily associated with psychosocial well-being. This article provides insights for practitioners and policymakers to leverage existing SRAC values via “new” business models (sharing offers) or to influence the existing level of consciousness to effectively pave the way for solid progress in the sustainability movement.
This article is a response to calls in prior research that we need more longitudinal analyses to better understand the foundations of PSM and related prosocial values. There is wide agreement that it is crucial for theory building but also for tailoring hiring practices and human resource development programs to sort out whether PSM-related values are stable or developable. The article summarizes existent theoretical expectations, which turn out to be partially conflicting, and tests them against multiple waves of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study which covers a time period of 16 years. It finds that PSM-related values of public employees are stable rather than dynamic but tend to increase with age and decrease with organizational membership. The article also examines cohort effects, which have been neglected in prior work, and finds moderate evidence that there are differences between those born during the Second World War and later generations.
This article is a response to calls in prior research that we need more longitudi-nal analyses to better understand the foundations of PSM and related prosocial values. There is wide agreement that it is crucial for theory-building but also for tailoring hiring practices and human resource development programs to sort out whether PSM-related values are stable or developable. The article summarizes existent theoretical expecta-tions, which turn out to be partially conflicting, and tests them against multiple waves of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study which covers a time period of sixteen years. It finds that PSM-related values of public employees are stable rather than dynamic but tend to increase with age and decrease with organizational member-ship. The article also examines cohort effects, which have been neglected in prior work, and finds moderate evidence that there are differences between those born during the Second World War and later generations.
The sharing economy
(2020)
Purpose Quantitative bibliometric approaches were used to statistically and objectively explore patterns in the sharing economy literature. Design/methodology/approach Journal (co-)citation analysis, author (co-)citation analysis, institution citation and co-operation analysis, keyword co-occurrence analysis, document (co-)citation analysis and burst detection analysis were conducted based on a bibliometric data set relating to sharing economy publications. Findings Sharing economy research is multi- and interdisciplinary. Journals focused upon products liability, organizing framework, profile characteristics, diverse economies, consumption system and everyday life themes. Authors focused upon profile characteristics, sharing economy organization, social connections, first principle and diverse economy themes. No institution dominated the research field. Keyword co-occurrence analysis identified organizing framework, tourism industry, consumer behavior, food waste, generous exchange and quality cue as research themes. Document co-citation analysis found research themes relating to the tourism industry, exploring public acceptability, agri-food system, commercial orientation, products liability and social connection. Most cited authors, institutions and documents are reported. Research limitations/implications The study did not exclusively focus on publications in top-tier journals. Future studies could run analyses relating to top-tier journals alone, and then run analyses relating to less renowned journals alone. To address the potential fuzzy results concern, reviews could focus on business and/or management research alone. Longitudinal reviews conducted over several points in time are warranted. Future reviews could combine qualitative and quantitative approaches. Originality/value We contribute by analyzing information relating to the population of all sharing economy articles. In addition, we contribute by employing several quantitative bibliometric approaches that enable the identification of trends relating to the themes and patterns in the growing literature.
China, as being the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) host country in the world and the leading developing country in terms of volume of FDI inflows, has been increasingly attracting international attention from companies and policy makers. As more and more German manufacturing companies move into China, the investment is becoming larger in size and of higher quality. In the meantime, issues of the motives and nature of German FDI in China and related technological activities are developed to a more important topic for both Chinese and overseas researchers. This paper aims at the analysis and explanation of FDI movement driven by German companies in China and the role of technology hereby. Our research includes a literature review, a database analysis and a mail survey on German firms investing in China. Different indicators suggest that the motives for German FDI are long-term based and are deeply market-oriented, which can be characterised through seeking new markets and enlarging market shares. Technology transfer is therefore mainly dedicated to production and managerial facilities.
Reaching the Sustainable Development Goals requires a fundamental socio-economic transformation accompanied by substantial investment in low-carbon infrastructure. Such a sustainability transition represents a non-marginal change, driven by behavioral factors and systemic interactions. However, typical economic models used to assess a sustainability transition focus on marginal changes around a local optimum, whichby constructionlead to negative effects. Thus, these models do not allow evaluating a sustainability transition that might have substantial positive effects. This paper examines which mechanisms need to be included in a standard computable general equilibrium model to overcome these limitations and to give a more comprehensive view of the effects of climate change mitigation. Simulation results show that, given an ambitious greenhouse gas emission constraint and a price of carbon, positive economic effects are possible if (1) technical progress results (partly) endogenously from the model and (2) a policy intervention triggering an increase of investment is introduced. Additionally, if (3) the investment behavior of firms is influenced by their sales expectations, the effects are amplified. The results provide suggestions for policy-makers, because the outcome indicates that investment-oriented climate policies can lead to more desirable outcomes in economic, social and environmental terms.
The Role of Bargaining Power
(2019)
Neoclassical theory omits the role of bargaining power in the determination of wages. As a result, the importance of changes in the bargaining position for the development of income shares in the last decades is underestimated. This paper presents a theoretical argument why collective bargaining power is a main determinant of workers’ share of income and how its decline contributed to the severe changes in the distribution of income since the 1980s. In order to confirm this hypothesis, a panel data regression analysis is performed that suggests that unions significantly influence the distribution of income in developed countries.
Buyer-seller negotiations have significant impact on a company’s profitability, which makes practitioners aim at maximizing their performance. One lever for increasing bargaining performance is to pursue a clearly defined aspiration, i.e. one’s most desired outcome. In this context, the author explores the role of such aspirations in the three negotiation phases: preparation, bargaining, and striking a deal. She investigates determinants of aspirations, unintended consequences such as unethical bargaining behavior, and the consequences of overly ambitious aspirations. As a result, she does not only close existing gaps in negotiation research, but also derives valuable implications for practitioners
In many European countries, labor markets are characterized by high regional disparities in terms of unemployment rates on the one hand and low geographical mobility among the unemployed on the other hand. In order to counteract the geographical mismatch of workers, the German active labor market policy offers a subsidy covering moving costs to incentivize unemployed job seekers to search/accept jobs in distant regions. Based on administrative data, this study provides the first empirical evidence on the impact of this subsidy on participants' prospective labor market outcomes. We use an instrumental variable approach to take endogenous selection based on observed and unobserved characteristics into account when estimating causal treatment effects. We find that unemployed job seekers who participate in the subsidy program and move to a distant region receive higher wages and find more stable jobs compared to non-participants. We show that the positive effects are (to a large extent) the consequence of a better job match due to the increased search radius of participants.
Of Rawls's two principles of justice only the second has received attention from economists. The second principle is concerned with the social and economic conditions in a just society. The first principle, however, has largely been neglected. It claims, that all people in society should have equal basic liberties. In this paper Rawls's first principle is characterised in a freedom of choice framework. The analysis reveals conceptual problems of the Rawlsian approach to justice.
This thesis puts the citizen-state interaction at its center. Building on a comprehensive model incorporating various perspectives on this interaction, I derive selected research gaps. The three articles, comprising this thesis, tackle these gaps. A focal role plays the citizens’ administrative literacy, the relevant competences and knowledge necessary to successfully interact with public organizations. The first article elaborates on the different dimensions of administrative literacy and develops a survey instrument to assess these. The second study shows that public employees change their behavior according to the competences that citizens display during public encounters. They treat citizens preferentially that are well prepared and able to persuade them of their application’s potential. Thereby, they signal a higher success potential for bureaucratic success criteria which leads to the employees’ cream-skimming behavior. The third article examines the dynamics of employees’ communication strategies when recovering from a service failure. The study finds that different explanation strategies yield different effects on the client’s frustration. While accepting the responsibility and explaining the reasons for a failure alleviates the frustration and anger, refusing the responsibility leads to no or even reinforcing effects on the client’s frustration. The results emphasize the different dynamics that characterize the nature of citizen-state interactions and how they establish their short- and long-term outcomes.
The public encounter
(2019)
This thesis puts the citizen-state interaction at its center. Building on a comprehensive model incorporating various perspectives on this interaction, I derive selected research gaps. The three articles, comprising this thesis, tackle these gaps. A focal role plays the citizens’ administrative literacy, the relevant competences and knowledge necessary to successfully interact with public organizations. The first article elaborates on the different dimensions of administrative literacy and develops a survey instrument to assess these. The second study shows that public employees change their behavior according to the competences that citizens display during public encounters. They treat citizens preferentially that are well prepared and able to persuade them of their application’s potential. Thereby, they signal a higher success potential for bureaucratic success criteria which leads to the employees’ cream-skimming behavior. The third article examines the dynamics of employees’ communication strategies when recovering from a service failure. The study finds that different explanation strategies yield different effects on the client’s frustration. While accepting the responsibility and explaining the reasons for a failure alleviates the frustration and anger, refusing the responsibility leads to no or even reinforcing effects on the client’s frustration. The results emphasize the different dynamics that characterize the nature of citizen-state interactions and how they establish their short- and long-term outcomes.
This article examines the use of performance information by public managers. It conceptualizes purposeful data use as a type of extra-role behaviour which requires additional effort on the part of the managers and which is not extrinsically rewarded. The article sheds light on one potential antecedent of performance information use - the motivation of the users. It argues that we can observe high levels of data use if managers driven by public service motivation (PSM) work under transformational leaders. Using a needs-supply perspective on supervisors and followers, we suggest that there is a PSM-leadership fit which fosters the performance of this extra-role behaviour. The article is based on data from German local government and its findings contribute to the literatures on PSM as well as on performance management.
The PSM-leadership fit
(2013)
This article examines the use of performance information by public managers. It conceptualizes purposeful data use as a type of extra-role behaviour which requires additional effort on the part of the managers and which is not extrinsically rewarded. The article sheds light on one potential antecedent of performance information use – the motivation of the users. It argues that we can observe high levels of data use if managers driven by public service motivation (PSM) work under transformational leaders. Using a needs-supply perspective on supervisors and followers we suggest that there is a PSM-leadership fit which fosters the performance of this extra-role behaviour. The article is based on data from German local government and its findings contribute to the literatures on PSM as well as on performance management.
The power of apology
(2010)