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Web Tracking
(2018)
Web tracking seems to become ubiquitous in online business and leads to increased privacy concerns of users. This paper provides an overview over the current state of the art of web-tracking research, aiming to reveal the relevance and methodologies of this research area and creates a foundation for future work. In particular, this study addresses the following research questions: What methods are followed? What results have been achieved so far? What are potential future research areas? For these goals, a structured literature review based upon an established methodological framework is conducted. The identified articles are investigated with respect to the applied research methodologies and the aspects of web tracking they emphasize.
We and AI
(2021)
Für die Transformation der industriellen Fertigung stellt die Integration der Realwelt und die parallele Abbildung in der Digitalwelt eine wichtige Anforderung dar. Hier greift das Konzept des digitalen Zwillings zur digitalen Repräsentation physischer Objekte. Zur Verbesserung der Mensch-Maschinen-Interaktion zwischen Fabrikpersonal, Anlagen sowie Werkstücken und Steigerung der Transparenz am Shopfloor, kann ein solcher digitaler Zwilling relevante Daten liefern. In diesem Beitrag wird ein Konzept zur Visualisierung des digitalen Zwillings mittels Augmented Reality vorgestellt und evaluiert.
Visual Social Networking Sites (SNSs) enable users to present themselves favorably to gain likes and the attention of others. Especially, Instagram is known for its focus on beauty, fitness, fashion, and dietary topics. Although a large body of research reports negative weight-related outcomes of SNS usage (e.g., body dissatisfaction, body image concerns), studies examining how SNS usage relates to these outcomes are scarce. Based on the visual normalization theory, we argue that SNS content facilitates normalization of so-called thin- and fit-ideals, thereby leading to biased perceptions of the average body weight in society. Therefore, this study tests whether Instagram use is associated with perceiving that the average person weighs less. Responses of 181 survey participants confirm that Instagram use is negatively related to average weight perception of both women and men. These findings contribute to the growing body of research on how SNS use relates to negative weight-related outcomes.
The management of knowledge in organizations considers both established long-term
processes and cooperation in agile project teams. Since knowledge can be both tacit and explicit, its transfer from the individual to the organizational knowledge base poses a challenge in organizations. This challenge increases when the fluctuation of knowledge carriers is exceptionally high. Especially in large projects in which external consultants are involved, there is a risk that critical, company-relevant knowledge generated in the project will leave the company with the external knowledge carrier and thus be lost. In this paper, we show the advantages of an early warning system for knowledge management to avoid this loss. In particular, the potential of visual analytics in the context of knowledge management systems is presented and discussed. We present a project for the development of a business-critical software system and discuss the first implementations and results.
Das Arbeiten im Homeoffice war in der deutschen öffentlichen Verwaltung vor der Covid-19 Pandemie kein verbreitetes Arbeitsmodell. Mit der Pandemie änderte sich die Situation unerwartet und womöglich auch nachhaltig. Vor dem Hintergrund unterschiedlicher Erfahrungen ist die Frage nicht mehr ob, sondern wie zukünftig in der Verwaltung mobil, flexibel und dezentral sowie in virtuellen Teams gearbeitet werden kann und soll. Dieser Beitrag untersucht diese Konzepte genauer, veranschaulicht deren praktische Anwendung und erörtert entsprechende Perspektiven für das zukünftige Arbeiten im öffentlichen Dienst.
Verwaltung im Lockdown
(2020)
Die Corona-Pandemie hat im Frühjahr 2020 auch die öffentliche Verwaltung gezwungen, die Arbeit zu einem großen Teil ins Homeoffice zu verlagern. Dieser Beitrag stellt die Ergebnisse einer Studie vor, die mittels qualitativer Interviews und einer Online-Befragung (N=1.189) Beschäftigte öffentlicher Organisationen zum Umgang mit der Krise und den Erfahrungen mit dem Homeoffice befragt hat.
Verwaltung im Lockdown
(2020)
Die Corona-Pandemie hat im Frühjahr 2020 auch die öffentliche Verwaltung gezwungen, die Arbeit zu einem großen Teil ins Homeoffice zu verlagern. Dieser Beitrag stellt die Ergebnisse einer Studie vor, die mittels qualitativer Interviews und einer Online-Befragung (N=1.189) Beschäftigte öffentlicher Organisationen zum Umgang mit der Krise und den Erfahrungen mit dem Homeoffice befragt hat.
The sharing economy gains momentum and develops a major economic impact on traditional markets and firms. However, only rudimentary theoretical and empirical insights exist on how sharing networks, i.e., focal firms, shared goods providers and customers, create and capture value in their sharing-based business models. We conduct a qualitative study to find key differences in sharing-based business models that are decisive for their value configurations. Our results show that (1) customization versus standardization of shared goods and (2) the centralization versus particularization of property rights over the shared goods are two important dimensions to distinguish value configurations. A second, quantitative study confirms the visibility and relevance of these dimensions to customers. We discuss strategic options for focal firms to design value configurations regarding the two dimensions to optimize value creation and value capture in sharing networks. Firms can use this two-dimensional search grid to explore untapped opportunities in the sharing economy.
The sharing economy gains momentum and develops a major economic impact on traditional markets and firms. However, only rudimentary theoretical and empirical insights exist on how sharing networks, i.e., focal firms, shared goods providers and customers, create and capture value in their sharing-based business models. We conduct a qualitative study to find key differences in sharing-based business models that are decisive for their value configurations. Our results show that (1) customization versus standardization of shared goods and (2) the centralization versus particularization of property rights over the shared goods are two important dimensions to distinguish value configurations. A second, quantitative study confirms the visibility and relevance of these dimensions to customers. We discuss strategic options for focal firms to design value configurations regarding the two dimensions to optimize value creation and value capture in sharing networks. Firms can use this two-dimensional search grid to explore untapped opportunities in the sharing economy.
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.
User Experience (UX) describes the holistic experience of a user before, during, and after interaction with a platform, product, or service. UX adds value and attraction to their sole functionality and is therefore highly relevant for firms. The increased interest in UX has produced a vast amount of scholarly research since 1983. The research field is, therefore, complex and scattered. Conducting a bibliometric analysis, we aim at structuring the field quantitatively and rather abstractly. We employed citation analyses, co-citation analyses, and content analyses to evaluate productivity and impact of extant research. We suggest that future research should focus more on business and management related topics.
Urban air mobility
(2021)
The growing global demand for efficient and sustainable urban mobility in metropolitan areas has created innovative approaches to new modes of transportation and vehicles. Using the Delphi method, this study explored the prospective development of urban air mobility (UAM), specifically the emergence of air taxis or vertical take-off and landing (VTOLs). The two-staged study examined 25 projections regarding technological and infrastructural aspects to propose a future scenario for UAM and air taxis for the next 5-10 years. The questioned experts confirmed most of the proposed statements from both areas but were undetermined regarding certain technological aspects. Considering the crucial impacts of regulation and certification as well as consumer perception and acceptance for UAM and air taxis, further research on these topics and their correlation is suggested.
Der Einsatz Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) wird zunehmend relevant – sowohl in Berufen mit formalisierbaren Aufgaben als auch in Berufsfeldern, für deren Aufgaben Erfahrungswissen notwendig ist und situationsabhängig Entscheidungen getroffen werden, die mit folgenschweren Konsequenzen verbunden sein können. Um das Potenzial der Zusammenarbeit zwischen Mensch und KI auszuschöpfen, muss sich der Mensch entsprechend wappnen. Somit verändern sich die Kompetenzanforderungen an Mitarbeiter:innen auf allen Ebenen und an ihre Führungskräfte. Relevante Konzepte des lebenslangen Lernens und der betrieblichen Weiterbildung gewinnen durch den Einfluss der Technologie auch unter teilweise veränderten Lernbedingungen vermehrt an Bedeutung. Neben neuen technischen und Fachkompetenzen, sind für die Nutzung von und die Zusammenarbeit mit der neuen Technologie weitere Kompetenzen notwendig, um z. B. einschätzen zu können, wann die Arbeit der Maschine ethisch vertretbar, effektiv, verantwortungsvoll, fair, transparent und nachvollziehbar ist. Auch neue Tätigkeitsprofile entstehen und die beruflichen Rollen verändern sich entsprechend. Neben den Anforderungen, die die KI an Bildung und Kompetenzentwicklung stellt, wird sie weiterhin zunehmend zur Gestaltung von Lernumgebungen und für den Kompetenzaufbau im Beruf eingesetzt. Sie ist somit nicht nur der Auslöser von Veränderungen, sondern auch das Instrument, welches genutzt wird, um die Lehre zu unterstützen und individueller, abwechslungsreicher sowie zeit- und ortunabhängiger zu gestalten. Im Beitrag werden Chancen und Herausforderungen durch den Einsatz von KI für zwei Dimensionen diskutiert: die Transformationsprozesse in der Berufswelt und die Gestaltung von Lernprozessen.
Corporate venture capital (CVC) units help their ventures flourish by offering value-adding services. Effective CVC initiatives offer services that help ventures design, implement, and manage activities to create and capture value. Our qualitative multiple case study across 26 CVC units reveals a comprehensive set of value creation and value capture services that these units offer, configured in any of four different ways to provide tailor-made support for specific venture needs and sponsor strategic goals.
In a multisource, lagged design field study of 66 consulting teams, we investigated the role of leader mood in unlocking the performance potential of functionally diverse teams. In line with our hypotheses, we found that, given high levels of leader positive mood, functional diversity was positively related to collective team identification. In contrast, given high levels of leader negative mood, functional diversity was positively associated with information elaboration in teams. Furthermore, results showed that functional diversity was most strongly related to team performance when both leader positive mood and leader negative mood were high. This study highlights the value of examining seemingly contradictory leadership aspects in the effort to gain a fuller understanding of how to foster performance in diverse teams.
Practitioner points
To effectively lead diverse teams, leaders need to navigate between the need to promote unique ideas (i.e., information elaboration) and the simultaneous need to pull together diverse members towards a common identity.
Leader mood addresses both of these needs. When the team leader exhibited a positive mood, team functional diversity was positively related to members' identification with the team. By contrast, when the team leader displayed a negative mood, team functional diversity was positively related to information elaboration.
Over a 12-day period, diverse teams performed best when the leader showed both positive and negative mood.
Leaders of diverse teams are required to be sensitive to the affective tone of their team and aware of how their emotional displays influence team members' moods and behaviours as well as team processes.
Despite the phenomenal growth of Big Data Analytics in the last few years, little research is done to explicate the relationship between Big Data Analytics Capability (BDAC) and indirect strategic value derived from such digital capabilities. We attempt to address this gap by proposing a conceptual model of the BDAC - Innovation relationship using dynamic capability theory. The work expands on BDAC business value research and extends the nominal research done on BDAC – innovation. We focus on BDAC's relationship with different innovation objects, namely product, business process, and business model innovation, impacting all value chain activities. The insights gained will stimulate academic and practitioner interest in explicating strategic value generated from BDAC and serve as a framework for future research on the subject
There are two fundamental ways in which consumers can express their concerns and obligations for society through their consumption decisions: They can boycott companies that they deem to be irresponsible or they may deliberately buy from companies that they perceive to act responsibly (‘buycott’). It has been largely ignored that individuals are driven by different motivational mechanisms to join boycotts and buycotts (punishment vs. reward of corporate behaviors), and thus, these mechanisms have disparate implications for the participating individual (e.g., high vs. low subjective costs because of a restriction in consumption habits). This paper fills this void and develops a framework suggesting that the extent to which consumers translate their concerns and obligations for society into a willingness to boycott and/or buycott is bounded by self-interest. Using a unique, representative sample of 1833 German consumers, this study reveals that the effects of environmental concerns and universalism on buycotting are amplified by hedonism, while the effects of social concern on buycotting and boycotting are attenuated by hedonism and simplicity, respectively. These results have far-reaching implications for organizations and policy planners who aim to change corporate behavior.
Umstieg auf S/4HANA
(2023)
Sehr viele langjährige R/3-Nutzer stehen derzeit vor der Frage, wie sie sich hinsichtlich des Upgrades auf S/4HANA entscheiden sollen. Die Wartung für R/3 endet absehbar in den nächsten Jahren, und mit S/4 kommen neue Möglichkeiten, aber auch neue Herausforderungen. Dieser Beitrag beschreibt die Entscheidungen, die bei der Prüfung eines Umstiegs auf S/4HANA getroffen werden müssen und zeigt diese am Beispiel eines Multi-Channel-Handelsunternehmens.
Wesenskern der Verwaltungswissenschaft ist nach wie vor die Frage nach Dysfunktionalitäten bürokratischer Organisationen. Schwerfälligkeit durch überbordende Bürokratie wird in der Forschung hierbei als Red Tape bezeichnet. Aufgrund der relationalen Beschaffenheit ist die Frage weniger, was alles Red Tape ist, sondern vielmehr wie Verwaltungsmitarbeitende mit Red Tape umgehen. Diese Arbeit soll dazu beitragen, Bewältigungsstrategien, auch Coping genannt, bezogen auf Red Tape zu verstehen. Mittels Survey-Experiment wird untersucht, inwieweit die individuelle Bewältigungsstrategie durch die Form (analog/digital), über die Red Tape transportiert wird, und den Ursprung (intern/extern), von dem Red Tape ausgeht, beeinflusst wird. Die Ergebnisse zeigen unter Berücksichtigung des transaktionalen Stressmodells von Lazarus und Folkman, dass Mitarbeitende der Verwaltung insbesondere dann aktive Bewältigungsstrategien auswählen, wenn diese durch externe Quellen hervorgerufen wird und zudem analog vorliegt.
Track and Treat
(2018)
E-Mail tracking mechanisms gather information on individual recipients’ reading behavior. Previous studies show that e-mail newsletters commonly include tracking elements. However, prior work does not examine the degree to which e-mail senders actually employ gathered user information. The paper closes this research gap by means of an experimental study to clarify the use of tracking-based infor- mation. To that end, twelve mail accounts are created, each of which subscribes to a pre-defined set of newsletters from companies based in Germany, the UK, and the USA. Systematically varying e-mail reading patterns across accounts, each account simulates a different type of user with individual read- ing behavior. Assuming senders to track e-mail reading habits, we expect changes in mailer behavior. The analysis confirms the prominence of tracking in that over 92% of the newsletter e-mails contain tracking images. For 13 out of 44 senders an adjustment of communication policy in response to user reading behavior is observed. Observed effects include sending newsletters at different times, adapting advertised products to match the users’ IT environment, increased or decreased mailing frequency, and mobile-specific adjustments. Regarding legal issues, not all companies that adapt the mail-sending behavior state the usage of such mechanisms in their privacy policy.
Business and management research on scenarios has been highly productive over the decades but led to a complex literature that is hard to oversee. To organize the field and identify distinguishable research clusters, we conducted a co-citation analysis focusing on the long-term history of research. We compare our findings with a previously published bibliographic coupling, focusing on the more recent research to trace its development over time. Our study revealed six research clusters: (1) Planning the Future with Scenarios, (2) Scenario Planning in Strategic Management, (3) Reinforcing the Scenario Technique, (4) Integration of Scenario Planning and MCDA, (5) Combination of Different Methods, and (6) Decision-making through Stochastic Programming, whereas the bibliographic coupling generated 11 clusters. Some former research clusters were divided into separate new clusters, while others were united. Additionally, completely new clusters emerged. Future research on scenarios is expected (1) to further differentiate into strategy and operations, (2) to be based on “behavioral futures” or “behavioral foresight” as a new research stream, (3) to advance the scenario technique methodically and include new specific scenario generation methods, and (4) to put forth new application areas.
Artificial intelligence (AI)-based technologies can increasingly perform knowledge work tasks, such as medical diagnosis. Thereby, it is expected that humans will not be replaced by AI but work closely with AI-based technology (“augmentation”). Augmentation has ethical implications for humans (e.g., impact on autonomy, opportunities to flourish through work), thus, developers and managers of AI-based technology have a responsibility to anticipate and mitigate risks to human workers. However, doing so can be difficult as AI encompasses a wide range of technologies, some of which enable fundamentally new forms of interaction. In this research-in-progress paper, we propose the development of a taxonomy to categorize unique characteristics of AI-based technology that influence the interaction and have ethical implications for human workers. The completed taxonomy will support researchers in forming cumulative knowledge on the ethical implications of augmentation and assist practitioners in the ethical design and management of AI-based technology in knowledge work.
The rise of open source models for software and hardware development has catalyzed the debate regarding sustainable business models. Open Source Software has already become a dominant part in the software industry, whereas Open Source Hardware is still a little-researched phenomenon but has the potential to do the same to manufacturing in a wide range of products. This article addresses this potential by introducing a research design to analyze the prototyping phase of six different Open Source Hardware projects tackling ecological, social, and economical challenges. Using a design science research methodology, a process model is developed to concretise the prototype development steps. The prototype phase is important because it is where fundamental decisions are made that affect the openness of the final product. This paper aims to advance the discourse on open production as a concept that enables companies to apply the aspect of openness towards collaboration-oriented and sustainable business models.
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.
The paper argues that non-circulating tokens should be used as an alternative to money in a socialist economy. These tokens would be used to distribute consumer products out of socialised production to individual consumers. Like modern fiat money, these tokens are a kind of IOU. But unlike money, these tokens are not intended to facilitate the private exchange of commodities. Marx’s proposal to eventually abolish a token-based lower phase of communism in favour of a distinct higher phase is rejected because the ‘needs principle’ of the higher phase can be sufficiently realised within the token system. It is further shown that the prices of items should not be tied to the socially necessary labour time needed to produce them. Instead, prices should be regulated towards market clearing rates.
With the latest technological developments and associated new possibilities in teaching, the personalisation of learning is gaining more and more importance. It assumes that individual learning experiences and results could generally be improved when personal learning preferences are considered. To do justice to the complexity of the personalisation possibilities of teaching and learning processes, we illustrate the components of learning and teaching in the digital environment and their interdependencies in an initial model. Furthermore, in a pre-study, we investigate the relationships between the learner's ability to (digital) self-organise, the learner’s prior- knowledge learning in different variants of mode and learning outcomes as one part of this model. With this pre-study, we are taking the first step towards a holistic model of teaching and learning in digital environments.
To purchase or not?
(2017)
Although ecologically and socially responsible consumption helps to reduce the harmful effects of resource use for both nature and society, all types of consumption (whether green or fair) deplete valuable resources. At the same time, to maintain household financial sustainability, spending should not exceed a household's financial resources. Thus, economically sustainable consumption is related to the consumer's decision to not buy products and the disposition to forgo specific purchases. Based on a means-end chain approach, this study investigates consumer cognitive decision-making structures related to six distinct options for economically (non-)sustainable consumption. Whereas saving motives, waste concerns, and avoidance motivations support economically sustainable decisions, economically non-sustainable decision-making is directly linked to attaining overall life goals. By clustering respondents based on the elicited means-end chains, the study discloses four consumer groups with distinctive motivational structures. The study also reveals several obstacles to promoting economic sustainability, indicates methods to overcome such obstacles, and suggests avenues for future research.
Time to change
(2020)
Industry 4.0 leads to a radical change that is progressing incrementally. The new information and communication technologies provide many conceivable opportunities for their application in the context of sustainable corporate management. The combination of new digital technologies with the ecological and social goals of companies offers a multitude of unimagined potentials and challenges. Although companies already see the need for action, there was in the past and currently still is a lack of concrete measures that lever the potential of Industry 4.0 for sustainability management. During the course of this position paper we develop six theses (two from each sustainability perspective) against the background of the current situation in research and practice, and policy.
This cumulative doctoral thesis consists of three empirical studies that examine the role of top-level executives in shaping adverse financial reporting outcomes and other forms of corporate misconduct. The first study examines CEO effects on a wide range of offenses. Using data from enforcement actions by more than 50 U.S. federal agencies, regression re-sults show CEO effects on the likelihood, frequency, and severity of corporate misconduct. The findings hold for financial, labor-related, and environmental offenses; however, CEO effects are more pronounced for non-financial misconduct. Further results show a positive relation between CEO ability and non-financial misconduct, but no relation with financial misconduct, suggesting that higher CEO ability can have adverse consequences for employee welfare and society and public health. The second study focuses on CEO and CFO effects on financial misreporting. Using data on restatements and public enforcement actions, regression results show that the incremental effect of CFOs is economically larger than that of CEOs. This greater economic impact of CFOs is particularly pronounced for fraudulent misreporting. The findings remain consistent across different samples, methods, misreporting measures, and specification choices for the underlying conceptual mechanism, highlighting the important role of the CFO as a key player in the beyond-GAAP setting. The third study reexamines the relation between equity incentives and different reporting outcomes. The literature review reveals large variation in the empirical measures for firm size as standard control variable, equity incentives as key explanatory variables, and the reporting outcome of interest. Regres-sion results show that these design choices have a direct bearing on empirical results, with changes in t-statistics that often exceed typical thresholds for statistical significance. The find-ings hold for aggressive accrual management, earnings management through discretionary accruals, and material misstatements, suggesting that common design choices can have a large impact on whether equity incentives effects are considered significant or not.
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.
We assess the short-term employment effects of the introduction of a national statutory minimum wage in Germany in 2015. For this purpose, we exploit variation in the regional treatment intensity, assuming that the stronger a minimum wage ‘bites’ into the regional wage distribution, the stronger the regional labour market will be affected. In contrast to previous studies, we construct two regional bite indicators based upon detailed individual wage data from the Structure of Earnings Survey (SES) 2014 and combine it with administrative information on regional employment. Moreover, using the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we are able to affirm the absence of anticipation effects and verify the assumption of a common trend in wages before the reform. In sum, we find only moderate negative effects on overall employment of about 140,000 (0.4%) jobs, which are mainly driven by a sharp decline of marginal employment (‘mini-jobs’), while we do not find pronounced significant effects for regular employment in most specifications. Our results are robust to a variety of sensitivity tests.
The hospitality industry worldwide is among the hardest-hit industries from the COVID-19 lockdowns. Initial theoretical and practical observations in the hospitality industry indicate that business model innovation (BMI) might be a solution to recover from and successfully cope with the COVID-19 crisis. Interestingly, some firms in the hospitality industry already started to successfully adapt their business models. This study explores the why and how of these successful recovery attempts through BMI by conducting a multiple case study of six hospitality firms in Austria. We rely on interview data from managers together with one of their main stammgasts for each case, which we triangulate with secondary data for the analysis. Findings show that BMI is applied during and after the crisis to create new revenue streams and secure a higher level of liquidity, with an important role of stammgasts.
Widespread on social networking sites (SNSs), envy has been linked to an array of detrimental outcomes for users’ well-being. While envy has been considered a status-related emotion and is likely to be experienced in response to perceiving another’s higher status, there is a lack of research exploring how status perceptions influence the emergence of envy on SNSs. This is important because SNSs typically quantify social interactions and reach with metrics that indicate users’ relative rank and status in the network. To understand how status perceptions impact SNS users, we introduce a new form of metric-based digital status rooted in SNS metrics that are available and visible on a platform. Drawing on social comparison theory and status literature, we conducted an online experiment to investigate how different forms of status contribute to the proliferation of envy on SNSs. Our findings shed light on how metric-based digital status influences feelings of envy on SNSs. Specifically, we could show that metric-based digital status impacts envy through increasing perceptions of others’ socioeconomic and sociometric statuses. Our study contributes to the growing discourse on the negative outcomes associated with SNS use and its consequences for users and society.
This master’s thesis examined the internet content regulation in Germany from a perspective of Public-Private Partnerships. In the European Union, there has been a latest trend of initiatives aiming for combating illegal content online under the self-regulatory regime. Yet, concerns of this trend were that transparency cannot be ensured properly to safeguard the freedom of expression, and that the private intermediaries are not able to carry out effective regulation under the non-binding regulatory process. Due to these issues, Germany has legislated the Network Enforcement Act in 2017. This thesis used Mixed Methods within a Case Study Research, in order to identify the PPP type of the NetzDG, and to understand its link on transparency and effectiveness, as well as the relationship of these two dimensions. By taking an Exploratory Sequential Design, the German internet content regulation under the NetzDG was explored to understand its co-regulatory regime and to develop an instrument to measure the aspects of transparency and effectiveness. Then, the three big social media platforms, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, were examined according to the developed indicators. This thesis concluded as follow: First, the enactment of the NetzDG brought the shift of the regulatory paradigm from the self-regulatory to the co-regulatory. Yet, the actor-inclusive institutional arrangement of the NetzDG did not successfully result in the actual inclusion of actors in decision-making, but only improved the result transparency in the disclosure of take-down actions. Second, the level of effective regulation was not consistent across the three social media platforms under this regime. Despite these limitations, this study showed that the transparency and the effectiveness of the social media platforms’ implementation gradually improved together, instead of having a negative correlation to one another.
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.
The current German start-up subsidy for unemployed individuals underwent a major reform in 2011 that altered key parameters of the program, leading to ambiguous ex ante predictions on the post-reform effectiveness of the program, making a new evaluation necessary. In our descriptive analysis, we find that participants after the reform differ significantly from pre-reform participants in terms of important characteristics and subsequent labor market performance. Our causal analysis reveals positive and sizable treatment effects on the treated regarding employment and income that are larger effects than what was estimated for the pre-reform program. Potential reasons for this are discussed.
The persistence of food preferences, which are crucial for diet-related decisions, is a significant obstacle to changing unhealthy eating behavior. To overcome this obstacle, the current study investigates whether posthypnotic suggestions (PHSs) can enhance food-related decisions by measuring food choices and subjective ratings. After assessing hypnotic susceptibility in Session 1, at the beginning of Session 2, a PHS was delivered aiming to increase the desirability of healthy food items (e.g., vegetables and fruit). After the termination of hypnosis, a set of two tasks was administrated twice, once when the PHS was activated and once deactivated in counterbalanced order. The task set consisted of rating 170 pictures of food items, followed by an online supermarket where participants were instructed to select enough food from the same item pool for a fictitious week of quarantine. After 1 week, Session 3 mimicked Session 2 without renewed hypnosis induction to assess the persistence of the PHS effects. The Bayesian hierarchical modeling results indicate that the PHS increased preferences and choices of healthy food items without altering the influence of preferences in choices. In contrast, for unhealthy food items, not only both preferences and choices were decreased due to the PHS, but also their relationship was modified. That is, although choices became negatively biased against unhealthy items, preferences played a more dominant role in unhealthy choices when the PHS was activated. Importantly, all effects persisted over 1 week, qualitatively and quantitatively. Our results indicate that although the PHS affected healthy choices through resolve, i.e., preferred more and chosen more, unhealthy items were probably chosen less impulsively through effortful suppression. Together, besides the translational importance of the current results for helping the obesity epidemic in modern societies, our results contribute theoretically to the understanding of hypnosis and food choices.
Despite digital learning disrupting traditional learning concepts and activities in higher education, for the successful integration of digital learning, the use and acceptance of the students are essential. This acceptance depends in turn on students’ characteristics and dispositions, among other factors. In our study, we investigated the influence of digital competences, self-organization, and independent learning abilities on students’ acceptance of digital learning and the influence of their acceptance on the resistance to the change from face-to-face to digital learning. To do so, we surveyed 350 students and analyzed the impact of the different dispositions using ordinary least squares regression analysis. We could confirm a significant positive influence of all the tested dispositions on the acceptance of digital learning. With the results, we can contribute to further investigating the underlying factors that can lead to more positive student perceptions of digital learning and build a foundation for future strategies of implementing digital learning into higher education successfully.
Over the last decades, Better Regulation has become a major reform topic at the federal and—in some cases—also at the Länder level. Although the debate about improving regulatory quality and reducing unnecessary burdens created by bureaucracy and red tape date back to the 1960s and 1970s, the introduction by law in 2006 of a new independent institutionalised body for regulatory control at the federal level of government has brought a new quality to the discourse and practice of Better Regulation in Germany. This chapter introduces the basic features of the legislative process at the federal level in Germany, addresses the issue of Better Regulation and outlines the role of the National Regulatory Control Council (Nationaler Normenkontrollrat—NKR) as a ‘watchdog’ for compliance costs, red tape and regulatory impacts.
The envy spiral
(2020)
On Social Networking Sites (SNS) users disclose mostly positive and often self-enhancing information. Scholars refer to this phenomenon as the positivity bias in SNS communication (PBSC). However, while theoretical explanations for this phenomenon have been proposed, an empirical proof of these theorized mechanisms is still missing. The project presented in this Research-in-Progress paper aims at explaining the PBSC with the mechanism specified in the self-enhancement envy spiral. Specifically, we hypothesize that feelings of envy drive people to post positive and self-enhancing content on SNS. To test this hypothesis, we developed an experimental design allowing to examine the causal effect of envy on the positivity of users’ subsequently posted content. In a preliminary study, we tested our manipulation of envy and could show its effectiveness in inducing different levels of envy between our groups. Our project will help to broaden the understanding of the complex dynamics of SNS and the potentially adverse driving forces underlying them.
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.
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.
The economics of COVID-19
(2020)
Purpose
Within a very short period of time, the worldwide pandemic triggered by the novel coronavirus has not only claimed numerous lives but also caused severe limitations to daily private as well as business life. Just about every company has been affected in one way or another. This first empirical study on the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on family firms allows initial conclusions to be drawn about family firm crisis management.
Design/methodology/approach
Exploratory qualitative research design based on 27 semi-structured interviews with key informants of family firms of all sizes in five Western European countries that are in different stages of the crisis.
Findings
The COVID-19 crisis represents a new type and quality of challenge for companies. These companies are applying measures that can be assigned to three different strategies to adapt to the crisis in the short term and emerge from it stronger in the long run. Our findings show how companies in all industries and of all sizes adapt their business models to changing environmental conditions within a short period of time. Finally, the findings also show that the crisis is bringing about a significant yet unintended cultural change. On the one hand, a stronger solidarity and cohesion within the company was observed, while on the other hand, the crisis has led to a tentative digitalization.
Originality/value
To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first empirical study in the management realm on the impacts of COVID-19 on (family) firms. It provides cross-national evidence of family firms' current reactions to the crisis.
Technological change and development have been ongoing in the motion picture industry since its beginnings some 125 years ago. What further advancements of digitalization can be expected over the next decade and what are its implications for the industry’s value chain? To answer this question, we conducted an international two-stage Delphi study. The results suggested a more frequent use of smartphones as cameras, the emergence of full digital film sets and digital star avatars, as well as advancements in VR-based and interactive movies. The findings imply challenges for traditional players in the motion picture value chain. Production technology becomes both simpler and more complex, leading to the threat of new entrants.
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.
The devil in disguise
(2021)
Envy constitutes a serious issue on Social Networking Sites (SNSs), as this painful emotion can severely diminish individuals' well-being. With prior research mainly focusing on the affective consequences of envy in the SNS context, its behavioral consequences remain puzzling. While negative interactions among SNS users are an alarming issue, it remains unclear to which extent the harmful emotion of malicious envy contributes to these toxic dynamics. This study constitutes a first step in understanding malicious envy’s causal impact on negative interactions within the SNS sphere. Within an online experiment, we experimentally induce malicious envy and measure its immediate impact on users’ negative behavior towards other users. Our findings show that malicious envy seems to be an essential factor fueling negativity among SNS users and further illustrate that this effect is especially pronounced when users are provided an objective factor to mask their envy and justify their norm-violating negative behavior.