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The Energy Transition requires social innovation to mobilise the necessary financing, increase acceptance towards technologies and trigger behavioural change. This thesis investigates consumer (co-)ownership in renewable energy as one possible solution to these challenges. It is argued that as such this instrument can contribute to expand renewable energy and bring the Energy Transition forward, both in countries that have been pioneering renewables, such as Germany, as well as in countries like Poland that have lagged behind.
With the Clean Energy for All Europeans Package the EU for the first time lay the ground for “citizen energy” embracing both the role of citizens as active consumers on the energy markets and as co-investors. The transposition of new EU rules into national laws is pending and expected to take years.
Therefore, it is crucial to determine the indispensable elements (1) of the most competitive consumer model and (2) of the facilitating framework that allows for the participation of heterogeneous actors without discriminating individual households. For that, this study examines conventional models for consumer (co-)ownership and investigates an innovative financing technique – the Consumer Stock Ownership Plan (CSOP) – to modernise established schemes while meeting prerequisites for the governance of energy communities introduced by the relevant European directives.
Based on a detailed analysis of the energy policies, support systems, existing models for collective projects and the feasibility of the CSOP in Germany and Poland, this study presents a range of recommendations for national frameworks.
We analyse the effect of COVID-19 on the Okun's law relationship for several EU countries and the US. Results are based on regressions and a systematic DF-Beta analysis. Our results indicate that the year 2020 is an outlier in the Okun relationship. However, the direction of change is different in the European countries compared to the US.
A game-theoretic setting is used to illuminate the conflict between vaccination proponents and vaccination opponents. A central result is that vaccination proponents could in principle persuade vaccination opponents to vaccinate by means of subsidization. Such a subsidy could increase benefits for both groups. Deeper analysis provides numerous further insights regarding the stability of these results.
This paper examines the attitude of consumers living in Germany towards higher prices charged to female consumers by surveying them randomly in two scenarios, one showing the same price and the other showing a higher price for the female version of the product. The interaction of Pink-tax and price fairness, and how gender mediates this perception was tested through a within-subject factorial design experiment, with two variables, price as the independent variable and gender as the mediator Afterwards, respondents were asked several questions about their perception of Price-Fairness. The results show that women have a marginally stronger negative perception when shown the higher price.
Relying on Maslow's needs-based theory of motivation, we analyze the role of the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH) in satisfying needs. We use an interdisciplinary framework involving both psychology and gaming. While ACNH creates a virtual world, we highlight its role in satisfying the needs of the real person. In doing so, we reflect on the interdependence between the real world and the virtual one.
Fortnite is the most successful video game in terms of revenues generated. Since it belongs to the 'free-to-play games', the company has to optimize the in-game-shop to generate revenues. Product differentiation is one possibility to optimize the profitability of the game. In this paper, we use a microeconomic approach in order to highlight the implications of product differentiation for the profit maximization problem.
Regularly, free-to-play games use their own virtual currency for in-game store purchases. We analyze the money illusion phenomenon by examining free-to-play games and their virtual currency exchange rate policies. We find that above pari exchange rates and advertising bonus packs instead of price discounts lead to money illusion on the side of the customer. Based on our findings, we derive managerial and policy implications.
In 2020, the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons was listed among the top ten in terms of revenue. We analyze the game by relying on an interdisciplinary framework of border studies. Borders can be interpreted not only in a geographical sense but also in terms of a temporal dimension as well as a cultural dimension. We highlight how the game blurs the borders between the real and virtual world.
Despite a vast body of work published on the business model—a concept used to generally refer to how a firm conducts business and how it creates and captures value —remarkably, the literature to date has not yet explored the business model from a national culture perspective. Therefore, this PhD dissertation seeks to explore the business model concept through the lens of national culture, posing the following research questions: Do actors in different cultural settings experience their concepts of business (“their business models") differently? If they do, what are the differences, and how and why do these differences occur? To address these research questions, I adopt a qualitative multiple case study of three restaurants: a German restaurant in Germany, an Arab Yemeni restaurant in Jordan, and an Arab Syrian restaurant in Germany. My analysis is based on data collected from a range of sources, including 34 semi-structured interviews, informal follow-up interviews, direct observations, restaurants’ documents, and archival materials, such as press coverage, restaurants’ websites, restaurants’ social media postings, and video excerpts. The emergent findings reveal eight dimensions and their constitutive themes, which shed light on how German and Arab actors experience the business models. While German and Arab actors show a common understanding of some themes relevant to the business model concept, they differ significantly in many themes, suggesting considerable differences in pursuing value creation and capture. Overall, this PhD dissertation makes several contributions to the business model and national culture literatures. More specifically, I contribute to the business model literature by delineating the nature of activities and classifying them into structured and semi-structured activities performed by German and Arab actors, respectively, refining the revenue concept, introducing the concepts of Al-Niyyah (good intention) and fated revenues, and providing insights into the different relationships between the business model participants. In addition, this PhD dissertation adds to the limited antecedent literature of business model innovation by indicating that a firm operating in a new national culture is more likely to innovate its business model. Further, this
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PhD dissertation provides insights into the national culture literature by suggesting that Arab culture seems to be a culture of intention, fatalism, and particularism. Finally, this PhD dissertation offers insights for practitioners and concludes with limitations and suggestions for future research.
This dissertation introduces the construct of dynamic stakeholder management capability (DSMC) by joining the stakeholder management capability defined by Freeman (1984) and the dynamic capabilities approach by Teece et al. (1997). The DSMC enables firms to adapt their stakeholder relationships to external changes over time and to specific local contexts of different countries. Through these adaptations firms are better able to link stakeholder demands to business opportunities and create shared value – value for stakeholders and the firm. The study applies factor analysis for generating and confirming latent constructs and it applies hierarchical regression analysis, floodlight analysis (Spiller et al., 2013), and mediation analysis (Baron & Kenny, 1986; Hayes, 2013) for testing the hypotheses. Analyzing more than 400 German firms with stakeholder relationships in multi-national supply chains the study confirms the positive effect of the DSMC on stakeholder value and firm value. As the first study of its kind, it supports the fundamental, yet not sufficiently verified assumption in stakeholder theory that positive stakeholder relationships relate to stakeholder value creation and, in turn, to firm value creation.
This study examines how cross-border barriers to the implementation of Employee Financial Participation (EFP) schemes in the EU may be alleviated. It is argued that an optional regime would represent the most appropriate policy-option to this challenge. Finally, a blue-print for such a Common European Regime on EFP is developed drawing upon the results of a comprehensive comparison of the legal regulations on EFP in all EU Member States.
(1) The study sheds light on the potential of optional regimes in the context of European civil law. (2) It provides a systematic overview of the incidence and political implications of EFP in the EU. Following this, (3) it discusses the barriers to cross-border EFP schemes in the EU as an infringement to the Right of Establishment of European companies. The study then (4) makes a point for an optional regime as the most appropriate instrument to overcome these barriers in comparison to traditional legal instruments in the EU. After that (5) a blue-print for a Common European Regime on EFP is developed. Finally, (6) the study takes a look beyond and discusses additional policy-meassures to promote EFP on the EU level.
Much significant research has been done to shed light on discrimination of females in, for example, labor markets. Less is known, in contrast, about the amount of discrimination in the virtual world of online gaming. In an early study, Castronova (2004) finds that female avatars receive about 10\% lower prices in online auctions. In this research note, we re-examine the pricing of avatars sold in the Fortnite game. We cannot reject the null hypothesis that female and male avatars are sold at the same prices. We also account for the impact of a Fortnite sex scandal on the price differential between female and male avatars.
This thesis explores analytically and empirically the impact of taxes on the choice of organizational form of business owners using evidence from Poland. It focuses in general on the influence of tax legislation on the choice of legal forms that offer considerable tax benefits compared to other legal organizations. Furthermore, it tackles the question of how tax law ambiguity and resulting court decisions as well as changes in tax legislation affect the choice with regard to a tax-preferred organizational form. Tax law ambiguity presents a dimension of empirical tax research that has not received much attention yet. Two essays in this thesis deal in particular with the Polish partnership limited by shares as a tax optimal business organization and with the aspect of the tax law ambiguity during the period from 2003 to 2014, whereas the other two studies analyze the organizational shifts to the Polish special form of limited partnership in the context of the changes in tax legislation during the period from 2001 to 2015.
In recent decades, workspace design, as an enabling factor for creativity and innovation, has become the focus of organizational efforts in many firms and among practitioners who are showing a growing interest in the design of creative work environments. This research developed from the observation that firms can design creative workspaces to foster everyday creativity in work-related settings (action – substantive role) and/or to strengthen the company´s corporate image in order to appear as creative to the eyes of a targeted audience (talk- symbolic role).
This study explored and assessed the relations existing between creative workspaces and everyday creativity and corporate image respectively. The substantive and symbolic roles and effects of creative workspaces were addressed through qualitative interviews with nineteen informants working for sixteen selected organizations. Data collected was triangulated with additional material gathered through field notes, on-site observations in 32 German companies, written as well as photographic documentation.
The results led to a comprehensive, scientific definition of the creative workspace. Empirical findings informed the process of creation and the spatial characteristics of creative workspaces fostering or hindering everyday creativity in work-related settings. Not only, companies were categorized according to the roles, aimed effects and spatial configurations of their creative workspaces and four aspects were identified as been conducive to everyday creativity together with workspace design. As for the symbolic side, six different plausible roles of creative workspaces were proven to have an impact on corporate image. This study confirmed that creative workspaces designed for symbolic purposes can affect and provoke the reactions of external, targeted groups of stakeholders. A three-layer model of engagement informing and guiding companies´ communication strategy in relation to creative workspaces was also suggested.
Understanding the substantive and symbolic roles and effects of creative workspaces in relation to creative performances (action) and perceptions (talk) is meant to provide academic knowledge and clearance on the strategic intents and objectives guiding organizations in relation to the design of their physical environments. The increased knowledge and awareness gained in relation to creative workspaces will also allow practitioners and organizations to make more conscious and informed decisions by taking into account a broader spectrum of stakeholders, spanning from the internal focus on individuals at work to external stakeholders such as investors and young talents.
Several contributions from organizational, strategy and entrepreneurship research emphasize the cofounder relationship as a promising concept to explain the success of growing companies and acknowledge its peculiarities in contrast to conventional group or team behavior. Despite the recognized relevance of the cofounder relationship for organizational success, there has not been any systematic attempt to examine how a cofounder relationship develops in the course of venture creation and growth, even though most start-up teams split up in their first years of founding. As a result, key questions about the origins, evolution and stabilization of the cofounder relationship remain unresolved and a profound understanding of what dynamics of a relationship affect relationship maintenance and business innovation is missing.
Drawing on insights from two different research disciplines, couple research and management research, I place the cofounder relationship as a central theoretical concept in the foreground of my research, especially the development of the quality of interaction among the members of a team from the perspective of the founders' subjective expectations of the relationship itself as well as the joint start-up project in order to find out how the founder's relationship and capabilities develop and stabilize over time. To examine these questions, I focus on the most prominent form of cofounder teams, i.e. dyadic team constellations, and draw on the findings of six case studies from a qualitative-exploratory and procedural analysis design to shed light on the phenomenon under study. Based on the theoretical and empirical investigations, this work shows that (1) the cofounder relationship may be better understood by examining the founders’ individual expectations of autonomy and connection in their relationship (relationship expectation) as well as their expectations on the development and growth of their organizations (business expectation) over time, (2) relationship expectations in early stages of business creation are proximity-oriented, whereas cofounders place greater emphasis on autonomy in later stages of development and, ultimately, on achieving a balance of closeness and distance, (3) business expectations in early start-up phases are generally illusory and cofounders focus on converging and overly optimistic goals, whereas over time, individual business expectations are weighted more and the tolerance to accept expectations discrepancies decreases, (4) adapting and synchronizing diverging goal expectations and entrepreneurial actions becomes a critical skill for stable teams, (5) relationship expectations and growth expectations co-evolve in a dynamic way and cofounder relationships embrace contradictory needs that are constantly present and striving for balance, (6) relationship stability can only be achieved by maintaining relationships through an ongoing dialectical flux and by reaching a dynamic equilibrium in relationship definition and satisfaction levels of individuals. Overall, the findings of this dissertation offer contributions to better understanding the complex and multi-dimensional nature of the cofounder relationship as well as the development of internal relationship structures and provide a number of implications for further empirical research.
Despite increasing globalization and decreasing transportation costs, distance remains an essential element of international management. This work discusses different concepts of distance with a focus on individual level psychic distance. The inconsistency of previous psychic distance concepts, and therefore their operationalization, leads to a new framework to differentiate between levels of analysis of distance origins and objects. Possible individual level antecedents of psychic distance can be inert, trained, or experiential, while country level distance antecedents tend to be more stable. This work employs a quantitative study with a quasi-experiment, where respondents gave answers to distance perceptions and different possible antecedents at the beginning and end of a stay abroad. Results derived from different regression models show almost no effects of individual level variables on psychic distance, while country level distances have a strong influence on individual level psychic distance. Implications for research are a more concise concept of distance in international management and a thorough discussion of different kinds of distance antecedents. Empirical findings show counterintuitive effects for cultural backgrounds of respondents, which point to an affective and cognitive element of psychic distance. For management practice, distance should be considered as not only concerning the different levels of analysis and the possible different meanings of distance, but also in regards to how an organization can influence distance perceptions. Since experience and training have hardly any effect, the inert antecedents show that employment policies need to take a more active role.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT
This PhD dissertation examines the relationship between resource mobilization and new venture performance by presenting a thematic analysis and literature review of resource mobilization in entrepreneurial ventures and an empirical study in the context of Nigerian entrepreneurial ventures.
The thematic analysis and literature review provide an inventory of the domain, and the integrative literature review identifies four main themes in the conceptual and empirical literature on resource mobilization in entrepreneurial ventures. The four themes reveal a) the embeddedness of resource mobilization in the organizing process of entrepreneurial ventures, b) the role of founders/managers in the resource mobilization process, c) the role of social networks in enhancing resource mobilization processes, and d) the focus on firm-level analysis with special emphasis on firm behavior regarding the processes, conditions, strategies, and activities associated with resource mobilization in entrepreneurial ventures. The thematic analysis and literature review contribute to advancing strategic entrepreneurship theories on resource mobilization by identifying the gaps in the literature and suggesting how they can be addressed in future research. They also contribute to the practice of strategic entrepreneurship research by showing that an increased understanding of resource mobilization in entrepreneurial ventures can be achieved by developing new theoretical foundations for research in entrepreneurship.
The empirical study addresses the following research questions: What is the relationship between resource mobilization (approaches) and new venture performance? Under what conditions do resource mobilization approaches provide performance benefits to new ventures? To determine the relationship between resource mobilization and new venture performance, two resource mobilization approaches were examined—namely, optimization and bricolage. These are defined as the use of new and high-quality resources for a specific purpose and the use of existing resources for a new purpose, respectively. The effect of resource mobilization approaches on new venture performance is argued to be contingent upon network complementarity and network diversity. Using data from Nigerian ventures, the findings show that resource mobilization approaches have significant positive and negative impacts on new venture performance, while network complementarity and network diversity, as context variables, positively moderate these relationships.
Overall, this dissertation offers several contributions to the strategic entrepreneurship literature and entrepreneurial network research by providing new directions for researchers to study optimization and bricolage from different viewpoints and offer suggestions for how optimization and bricolage can contribute to new venture performance. The dissertation also takes a step toward addressing the critique that conceptualizes entrepreneurs as nonstrategic actors and lends empirical support to the call to explore the moderating role of social networks in the organizing process of new ventures.
Keywords: Resource mobilization, Bricolage, Optimization, Entrepreneurial ventures, Social networks, Nigeria, Quantitative data.
In dieser Arbeit wird die Entstehung und Entwicklung strategischer Praktiken im Alltag eines Technologieunternehmens empirisch untersucht. Dazu werden sechs Alltagssequenzen, in denen sich das Unternehmen mit Problemsituationen aus der Produktgestaltung, der Zuliefererbeziehung sowie dem Geschäftsfeld konfrontiert sieht, mithilfe einer qualitativen Einzelfallstudie, exploriert. Die Untersuchung macht drei theoretische Beiträge: Erstens wird mit dem in dieser Arbeit entwickelten Praxisfilter-Modell gezeigt, wie strategische Praktiken entstehen ohne das es dafür eines ex ante festgelegten Bündels von Aktivitäten oder Praktiken bedarf. Zweitens wird durch die Rekonstruktion von Entwicklungsverläufen ein Beitrag zur Stabilität und zum Wandel strategischer Praktiken geliefert. Die Arbeit zeigt drittens auf, dass der Strategiebegriff nicht nur als ein Muster von Entscheidungen und Handlungen, sondern als ein Muster von Praktiken zu konzipieren ist.
Für die Managementpraxis sind Strategien vor allem in problematischen und dynamischen Umwelten erforderlich. Entsprechend lassen sich aus dieser Arbeit drei Handlungsimplikationen ableiten: Zunächst wird empfohlen in Problemsituationen nicht auf die handelnden Akteure, sondern auf die von ihnen vollzogenen Praktiken abzustellen. Ferner kann der entwickelte Praxisfilter in konfliktären Situationen als ein rhetorisches Tool eingesetzt werden, um Interdependenzen zwischen der Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft zur Reflexion zu bringen. Zuletzt zeichnet sich der Praxisfilter durch seine Kontextgebundenheit aus, sodass unintendierte Nebeneffekte bei der Entwicklung zukünftiger Handlungsoptionen nicht außer Acht gelassen werden.
Driven by globalization and e-commerce, the demand for logistics space is rising. However, logistics space is limited and costly, which is especially true for urban areas. Therefore, available storage space must be used with the utmost efficiency. Grid-based storage systems consist of densely stored unit loads on a square grid. Each grid location may be either empty or occupied by a single item. Items are simultaneously and independently movable in the four cardinal directions. This makes high-density storage possible without using fixed aisles. To move an item to an occupied location, other items must move. Thus, one or more empty locations must be available. In this work, we present an approach for the planning of simultaneous storage and retrieval processes of multiple items in a grid-based storage. For this purpose, a decoupled multi-agent route planning approach is proposed in which planning is done at two essentially decoupled levels. At the first level, the order of items and their movement paths are computed, which is collision-free with respect to the stored items in the grid, excluding the moved items. Special attention is paid to the puzzle-based retrieval planning. Similar to the classical 15-puzzle children's game with one empty location, items can be maneuvered from one location to another in the grid using the minimum number of item moves. While previous research showed optimal solutions for one or two empty locations, this thesis provides an optimal solution approach for configurations where multiple empty locations are arbitrarily positioned in the grid. To this end, the problem is formulated as a state space problem and solved using a graph search. At the second level, collisions between the moved items are resolved by scheduling (i.e., the occupancy time of each item along their paths, computed at the first level, are selected in such a way that they avoid collision with each other along their respective movement paths). Finally, we evaluate the approaches that were developed in this thesis in a simulation study by designing and analyzing a grid-based early baggage storage system at a major international airport.
Die Besteuerung von Einkünften aus virtuellen Welten ist bisher in Deutschland weder rechtsgültig geregelt, noch wissenschaftlich hinreichend analysiert worden. Spätestens seit 2006 bekannt wurde, dass eine Lehrerin aus Deutschland in der virtuellen Welt Second Life durch den Verkauf virtueller Grundstücke Einkünfte in einem Gegenwert von über 1 Mio. US-Dollar erzielte, ist jedoch klar, dass diese Einkünfte auch steuerlich gewürdigt werden müssen. Der intuitive Gedanke, dass Einkünfte erst dann steuerlich als realisiert betrachtet werden können, wenn sie den Übertritt in die reale Welt vollzogen haben, erweist sich als unzureichend. Die steuerliche Relevanz der Einkünfte in Form von virtuellen Wirtschaftsgütern liegt darin begründet, dass diese direkt oder indirekt in reale Währungen, Wirtschaftsgüter oder Dienstleistungen getauscht werden können und vom Nutzerkonto trennbar sind. Werden Einkünfte in dieser Form generiert, so sind sie von reinen (steuerlich irrelevanten) Spielgütern abzugrenzen.
Das Ziel der Arbeit besteht darin, zu untersuchen, ob das deutsche Einkommensteuerrecht de lege lata darauf vorbereitet ist, Einkünfte, die innerhalb virtueller Welten generiert werden, zu erfassen.
Die vorliegende Arbeit betrachtet drei idealtypische Fälle virtueller Welten:
Bitcoin als virtuelles Netzwerk der realen Welt, Second Life als virtuelle Parallelwelt und World of Warcraft als virtuelle Spielewelt.
Ein wissenschaftlicher Beitrag ist neben der Klärung der Forschungsfrage durch die Entwicklung eines allgemeingültigen Prüfschemas geleistet worden, welches sich auch zur Beurteilung vergleichbarer Fragestellungen heranziehen lässt.
Im Zuge der zunehmenden Bedeutung, die virtuelle Welten im Besonderen und Digitalisierungsfragen im Allgemeinen für die Gesellschaft erhalten, ist die Klärung der Anwendbarkeit des Einkommensteuerrechts auf derartige Fragestellungen auch im Hinblick auf die Finanzierung des Staatshaushaltes relevant und verdient somit eine intensive wissenschaftliche Auseinandersetzung.
Eine aktuelle Untersuchung des Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung (ISI) zeigt, dass auf jede vierte bis sechste Standortverlagerung eines Unternehmens eine Rückverlagerung innerhalb der ersten Jahre folgt. Ehemalige Mitarbeiter können bei solch kurzfristigen Korrekturen von Standortentscheidungen eine wertvolle Ressource für Unternehmen im zunehmenden Wettbewerb um Fach- und Führungskräfte darstellen. Die vorliegende Dissertation widmet sich daher dem organisationalen Commitment ehemaliger Mitarbeiter gegenüber ihrem früheren Arbeitgeber. Es wird untersucht, inwieweit Opfer von Standortverlagerungen im Falle einer Rückverlagerungen ihres ehemaligen Arbeitgebers bereit wären, ein erneutes Beschäftigungsverhältnis bei diesem Unternehmen einzugehen (Bommerang Hiring). Zusätzlich wird der Frage nachgegangen, ob sie alternativ dazu bereit wären Stellenausschreibungen ihres ehemaligen Arbeitgebers z.B. im Freundes- oder Bekanntenkreis weiterzuempfehlen. Es wird angenommen, dass mit anhaltendem Commitment nach Vertragsende sowohl die Bereitschaft zur Wiedereinstellung (Willingness of Re-Engagement) als auch die Bereitschaft zur organisationalen Unterstützung (Organizational Endorsement) zunimmt. Basis für die Herleitung des Pfadmodells und dessen empirische Überprüfung bildet ein aus der Literatur abgeleitetes integratives Fairnessmodell. Als Form der Datenerhebung wurde ein sich anpassendes, onlinebasiertes Netzwerk-Stichprobe-Design (Link-tracing or adaptive sampling design) gewählt, welches mithilfe des varianzbasierten Partial-Least-Square Verfahren (PLS) ausgewertet werden. Die Ergebnisse der Arbeit zeigen, dass Unternehmen allein mit der Sicherstellung einer hohen Kündigungsgerechtigkeit, der Zahlung einer angemessenen Abfindung sowie der Bereitstellung von Unterstützungsmaßnahmen zur Weiterqualifizierung und Weitervermittlung nicht davon ausgehen können, dass Arbeitnehmer ihrem ehemaligen Arbeitgeber verbunden bleiben. Das Commitment zum ehemaligen Arbeitgeber sollte vielmehr aktiv gesteuert werden. Die vorliegende Dissertation ergänzt damit die wachsende Literatur zum Umgang mit Mitarbeitern in Wandelprozessen im Allgemeinen und legt dabei einen Schwerpunkt auf Unternehmensverlagerungen und Rückverlagerungen im Speziellen.
Organisationale Anspruchsniveaus: Eine empirische Exploration im Rahmen der Spitzengastronomie
(2016)
Meine Dissertationsschrift widmet sich dem Phänomen der organisationalen Anspruchsniveaus und untersucht empirisch, wie sich diese entwickeln und welchen Einfluss ihre Entwicklung auf das strategische Verhalten von Unternehmen nimmt. Ausgangspunkt der Arbeit ist die Feststellung, dass Anspruchsniveaus ein vielversprechendes Konzept darstellen, um strategisches Verhalten zu erklären, ihre bisherige Erforschung aber unter konzeptionellen und methodischen Problemen leidet. Mit der Folge, dass die zentralen Fragen, nämlich wie Anspruchsniveaus gebildet werden und wie sie das strategische Verhalten von Unternehmen genau beeinflussen, nach wie vor offen sind.
Relevanz für die Organisations- und Strategieforschung erlangen organisationale Anspruchsniveaus vor allem durch die mit ihnen assoziierten Funktionen im Rahmen des strategischen Entscheidungsprozesses. Hier werden sie als Maßstäbe für Erfolg und Misserfolg erachtet, die als Referenzpunkte zur Ergebnisbeurteilung dienen (Referenzpunktfunktion) und in Abhängigkeit vom festgestellten Ergebnis Einfluss auf die Auswahl von Handlungsalternativen nehmen (Entscheidungsfunktion). Dem zugrunde liegt die essentielle Annahme, dass Erfolg prinzipiell ein subjektives Empfinden ist, das sich in Abhängigkeit von den relevanten Maßstäben ändert – mit Auswirkungen auf das Risikoverhalten, das Lernen, das Suchverhalten und die Wandelbereitschaft von Unternehmen. Folglich ist es von großer Bedeutung, diese Maßstäbe in ihrem Entstehen und in ihren Konsequenzen näher zu verstehen.
Hierfür gehe ich der Entwicklung (im Sinne der Entstehung und Veränderung) von Anspruchsniveaus und ihren Folgen unter zwei Gesichtspunkten nach: Einerseits im Sinne einer theoretisch-konzeptionellen Aufarbeitung der Diskussion zu Anspruchsniveaus, die die bisherige Auseinandersetzung mit Anspruchsniveaus in der Literatur rekapituliert und die impliziten Annahmen sowie das problematische immanente Prozessverständnis herausstellt; andererseits im Sinne einer empirischen Exploration der Entwicklung von Anspruchsniveaus im empirischen Kontext der Spitzengastronomie. Im Rahmen einer qualitativen Fallstudie wird hier die strategische Entwicklung von vier Spitzenrestaurants nachvollzogen und verglichen, woraus sich Einsichten in die Konzeption, Entwicklung und Wirkung von organisationalen Anspruchsniveaus im empirischen Feld ergeben.
Bezogen auf die Konzeption zeige ich auf, dass organisationale Anspruchsniveaus komplexe, multidimensionale und interdependente Phänomene sind, die in einem idiosynkratrischen Anspruchsprofil münden. Ihre Entwicklung ist entsprechend auch kein rein intentionaler und deliberater Vorgang, sondern zudem durch emergente Prozesse geprägt und von internen und externen Faktoren beeinflusst. In Hinblick auf die Wirkung von organisationalen Anspruchsniveaus stelle ich heraus, dass nicht von einer direkten und klaren Kopplung zwischen Anspruchsniveaus, Feedback und Handeln ausgegangen werden kann. Vielmehr müssen die Akteure das in sich mehrdeutige und komplexe Feedback zunächst mittels eines selektiven Interpretationsprozesses auf ein bearbeitbares Maß reduzieren. Welche Handlungsimplikationen sich daraus ergeben hängt darüber hinaus jedoch noch von der jeweiligen Diskrepanztoleranz und der Veränderungsneigung ab. Schließlich mache ich mittels einer Langzeitbetrachtung die problematischen Folgen dauerhaft steigender Ansprüche deutlich und leite Reflexionspraktiken zum Umgang damit ab. Insgesamt plädiere ich dafür, vom noch vorherrschenden linearen Prozessverständnis Abstand zu nehmen, und stattdessen von einer wechselseitigen Beeinflussung zwischen dem Anspruchsprofil, Feedback und Handeln auszugehen.
This dissertation seeks to provide an understanding of consumer response to product scarcity. Despite the vast amount of research about whether and how product scarcity affects consumer behavior, an integrative analysis of research findings remains unexplored. To fill this void, this dissertation includes a thorough literature review about consumer response to scarcity and a detailed meta-analysis that examines the efficacy of product scarcity. The analysis consolidates to the extent that is possible the product scarcity research – published and unpublished – and addresses two questions that are central to understand the effectiveness of product scarcity: (1) How does product scarcity affect consumer behavior? and (2) Are there moderators of this effect? The meta-analytic review synthetizes 46 years (1968−2014) of empirical research for 17 outcome variables and reveals that product scarcity has a significant and positive effect on the following variables: attitude towards the deal, attitude towards the product, consumer competitive arousal, impulse buying, perceived exclusiveness, perceived popularity, perceived scarcity, purchase behavior, purchase intention, and willingness-to-pay. For simultaneously significant and heterogeneous relationships with sufficient number of effect sizes, several moderators been investigated through a series of sample size weighted analyses of variance and meta-regressions. Manipulations of scarcity generate higher perceived scarcity scores when a quantity limit instead of a time limit is used, when the scarcity appeal is communicated by salespeople, but not experimenters, when studies are conducted with samples other than North American/European samples, when scarcity is caused by excess demand compared to when it is caused by limited supply, when the scarce product is not promised to study participants, and when relative price information is present. For attitude towards the product, effect sizes of scarcity are more positive for conspicuous products subjected to supply-related scarcity, for durables compared to FMCG, and when an experimenter communicates the scarcity appeal. Scarcity`s impact on purchase intention is higher when inconspicuous products are combined with demand-related scarcity. Finally, effect sizes of scarcity on purchase behavior are more positive when possession of the scarce product is dependent on participants' response. These findings provide meaningful advancement of current knowledge for understanding the effects of product scarcity on consumer behavior.
Demographic Diversity in Sales Teams, Team Performance and the Moderating Role of Service Climate
(2015)
This dissertation reports on the impact of age, gender, and national diverse teams on team performance. In keeping with the categorization elaboration model (CEM), I propose service climate as a moderating mechanism between diversity and the quality of relations within team (TMX), which in turn functions as a mediating mechanism between age, gender and national diversity and team performance. I thereby draw on recent work on dynamic capabilities (DC) to explain the value of the human resource pool and their diversity to sustain a competitive advantage. Specifically, I argue that the aggregated knowledge, skills and abilities of individual employees, here the service climate, are important to a team and to the whole organization.
Using a sample of service providers, an analysis reveals that service climate moderates the relations between age diversity and the quality of the relations within teams; at high levels of service climate age diversity influences the relations within a team positively, while with low service climate age diversity diminishes the relations within a team. Further, I find support for the moderated mediation model, showing that the underlying mechanism for this shift also effects team performance. When service climate is high, age diversity increases the positive relations within a team, which in turn increases team performance. In contrast, when service climate is low, the decrease of positive relations within a team due to age diversity also influences team performance negatively. Gender and national diversity do not render significant results. The results are discussed and theoretical and managerial implications for human resource management are considered.
In my work I investigate the influence of affective states on dynamic managerial capabilities or on manager’s capabilities to reconfigure the asset base of a firm to adapt to rapidly changing environments. To achieve this goal I developed a measurement for the construct of dynamic managerial capabilities. I developed a simulation game where participants take the role of a manager and work with firm resources under conditions of changing environments. I conducted a series of studies which proved the reliability and validity of my measurement and of my manipulation method which I also developed for my dissertation project. Based on the rules of formal logic I investigated the concept of a capability and solved the problem of definition tautology stressed by many scholars. In my work I distinguish between a potential and an activated capability, and my developed tool allowed me to measure the difference and relationships between these two sub-concepts. Firstly, I measured the influence of potential dynamic managerial capabilities on activated dynamic managerial capabilities. Secondly, I investigated the moderating role of the affective states in the process of activation of a dynamic managerial capability. Finally, I measured the role of affective states as direct triggers for development of dynamic managerial capabilities.
The results of my study proved to be interesting and significant. First of all, I showed that the potential and activated sensing and seizing capacities are positively related to the activated sensing and seizing capacities of managers. I proved a lack of impact of the potential reconfiguration capacity on the activated reconfiguration capacity. Secondly, I showed that the level of valence (pleasantness) and the level of arousal are negatively related to the activation of the seizing capacity. In the event the moderation of the activation of the reconfiguration capacity the level of pleasantness and arousal play a positive role. My hypotheses concerning the role of affective states in the activation of the sensing capacity were not significant, so I could not confirm any relationship. Thirdly, I found that the level of pleasantness is negatively related to the development of the sensing capacity. Both valence and arousal played no significant role for the development of the seizing and reconfiguration capacities.
This dissertation investigates security of European gas supply (gas-SoS) giving particular consideration to gas infrastructure, notably gas transport and transit. Gas-SoS is endangered mainly by a disruption to existing supplies. For Europe, gas supply infrastructure acts as a tool to gain, maintain and expand access to new gas sources and consolidate access to existing ones. So the SoS-related (infrastructure) strategy has been assessed in the dissertation theoretically and practically, qualitatively and quantitatively.
The research objective pursued is: To describe and evaluate gas-SoS for Europe, as well as to specify prospective ways for the SoS enhancement, with a focus on European infrastructure […]. From this, two research questions have been derived:
(1) How secure are the European countries in terms of their natural gas supplies?
(2) How can the gas-SoS in Europe be improved (with emphasis on infrastructure)?
The central discussion of the study is in assessing the level of security risks which single European countries face. Thereupon, the family of SoS-indices HHI’14 has been developed. The ultimate aim is to apply and test indices. With their application the author hopes to gain insights into the indices adequacy as a policy tool for energy security developments. While the existing literature offers a number of SoS indicators to date, their usefulness has never been tested. For the first time, this dissertation has been testing the predictive success of SoS-indices. It confronted them with the economic losses in the 2009 interruption of Russian gas flows to Europe, and with the EU subsidies under the EEPR programme.
This investigation sets out that SoS-indices are rather important for a quick and coherent overview over the state of energy security for a large and diversified region like Europe. They cannot completely substitute, however, a detailed discussion of the situation in each member state.
This dissertation examines possible actor-related and process-related microfoundations of dynamic capabilities. In particular, I examine the actor-related microfoundations: employee involvement in strategic renewal, managerial trust in employees, and control of employees. I hypothesize that employee involvement in strategic renewal and social control mediate the positive relationship of trust and dynamic capabilities. Regarding process-related microfoundations, I focus on routinization at the operational level as well as at the strategic level. Drawing on controversies in the literature, I derive rival hypotheses for their effects on dynamic capabilities. Furthermore, the interrelation of processes and actors is discussed and mediations of the relationship between routinization and dynamic capabilities through control and employee involvement are proposed. I test the hypotheses using survey-data of small German manufacturing firms. Support for the mediation of the positive relationship between trust and dynamic capabilities through employee involvement and social control is found. Moreover, I find support for the positive effect of outcome control on dynamic capabilities. The proposed negative effect of behavior control is not supported. Furthermore, I find support for a positive direct and total effect of routinization at the strategic level on dynamic capabilities. Regarding routinization at the operational level, I cannot support a direct effect, but I can support a negative total effect. Some of the rival conceptualizations in the literature can be confirmed partially. However, none of the concurring conceptualizations is supported fully. The relation of routinization and dynamic capabilities appears to be mediated by employee involvement, social control, and outcome control. I contribute to the literature on dynamic capabilities by exposing controversies in the conceptualizations. Moreover, I examine the effects of various microfoundations. My results provide directions to a further combination of routines within dynamic capability possessing organizations. I also outline the impact of actor-related mediators. Moreover, I add to the trust and control literature by supporting their complementarity, which has been the subject of debate for a long time.
The market for information technology (IT) offshoring is growing globally at a tremendously high rate. Companies all over the world are showing significant interest in subcontracting their IT services to low-cost offshore destinations in Eastern Europe and Asia. However, in Germany despite several decades of experiments with IT offshoring, many decision makers are still not fully aware of this practice, or, because of numerous technical and economic reasons, are cautious about adopting it. Researchers have shown that the motivation for German companies to move part or all of their IT services offshore is still significantly lower than that in the U.S. or Great Britain. The major goal of this research is to measure the readiness of German companies to adopt ITO, and to develop a model describing which factors determine a client's readiness to implement this business model and what impact these factors have on the success of offshore projects.
Die erste Ausgabe der Schriftenreihe MES-Perspektiven widmet sich den europäischen Reaktionen auf die Finanz-, Wirtschafts- und Schuldenkrise. Dabei wird im Lichte dieser dreifachen Krise der übergreifenden Fragestellung nach dem zukünftigen Weg der Europäischen Union nachgegangen und eine umfassende Analyse der jüngsten kulturellen, wirtschaftlichen, politischen und juristischen Entwicklungen im Zuge der aktuellen Krise(n) unternommen. Beginnend mit einem kurzen Abriss von Cathleen Berger und Christina Ücker über den Verlauf der Finanz-, Wirtschafts- und Schuldenkrise und das bisherige Krisenmanagement in der EU werden die Auswirkungen der entsprechenden Reform- und Rettungspakete auf die europäische Integration zunächst aus politikwissenschaftlicher Perspektive analysiert. Timm Beichelt und Nicolai von Ondarza zeigen, wie die bisherigen Beschlüsse, anders als frühere Änderungen an der Struktur der EU Wirtschafts- und Währungspolitik, über eine Reihe von Einzelbeschlüssen in der europäischen Tagespolitik in Reaktion auf externen Druck der Finanzmärkte zu Stande gekommen sind. Im Anschluss widmet sich Ulrich Häde aus rechtswissenschaftlicher Perspektive der Frage nach der Kompatibilität der Beschlüsse mit europäischem und deutschem Recht, insbesondere mit Blick auf das Urteil des Bundesverfassungsgerichts zum Eurorettungsschirm EFSF vom September 2011. Die Auswirkungen der Krise auf die soziale Integration stehen im Mittelpunkt des Beitrags von Petra Erler. Aus Ihrer Sicht ist es der EU trotz des bisher beschlossenen Bündels an Rettungspaketen und Reformprogrammen nicht gelungen, den Druck der Finanzmärkte von den Schuldenstaaten zu nehmen, so dass die europäische Politik auch weiterhin von den Marktteilnehmern getrieben wird. Im Anschluss folgen vier Beiträge, die sich mit der ökonomischen Dimension der Krise befassen: Philipp Decker analysiert die Gründe für die prohibitiv ansteigenden Refinanzierungskosten für die Schuldenstaaten. Im Anschluss setzt Jens Lowitzsch sich in seinem Beitrag mit der Problematik auseinander, ob es im Rahmen der Krisenbewältigung möglich sei, Lehren aus dem Insolvenzrecht des Privatsektors zu ziehen. Arnaud Lechevalier vergleicht vor dem Hintergrund der Auseinandersetzung um die Unterschiede in der Krisenreaktion Frankreichs und Deutschlands die damit verbundenen Folgen für das Wirtschaftswachstum, das nationale Haushaltsdefizit und die Beschäftigung. Und da sich unter dem Eindruck der Unsicherheiten und Schwierigkeiten im Umgang mit der Finanz-, Wirtschafts- und Schuldenkrise innerhalb des europäischen Wirtschaftsraumes auch die Frage nach Referenzmodellen außerhalb der EU stellt, zieht Daniel Becker anschließend das Beispiel des Fiskalischen Föderalismus der USA als Vergleichsfolie heran. Hintergrund ist, dass die Vereinigten Staaten zwar einen ähnlichen Verschuldungsgrad wie die Eurozone insgesamt aufweisen, aber von den Finanzmärkten weiterhin als solide und liquide bewertet werden. In seinem abschließenden Beitrag zieht Günter Verheugen schließlich Schlussfolgerungen aus der Krise und ihrer Bewältigung für die institutionelle Weiterentwicklung der EU. Die Schriftenreihe MES-Perspektiven wird vom Masterstudiengang European Studies der Europa-Universität Viadrina herausgegeben. In dieser ersten Ausgabe haben sich externe Experten mit Lehrenden, Mitarbeitern und Studierenden des Studiengangs in dem vorliegenden Sammelband zusammengetan, um die europäische Krise umfassend zu beleuchten.
This study analyzes whether the introduction of a European smart grid, comprising of a compound of national smart grids, is economically worthwhile. Therefore, ten national cost-benefit-analyses are analyzed, which either address solely the implementation of smart meters or the implementation of national smart grids. Smart meters are regarded as a necessary precondition for the implementation of national smart grids involving private households. Thus, also an analysis of those studies, whose scope is limited, is beneficial. The studies are evaluated in regards to type, height, and distribution of the respective cost- and benefit-parameters. Although distributional effects are not subject to classical cost-benefit-analyses, considering them is significant for this study. Only thereby policy recommendations can be framed that offer state incentive regulations to those actors bearing the highest financial burden. In addition, own calculations are made in order to corroborate the cost- and benefit-analysis of smart grids. These analyze on the one hand the energy saving effect in private households fostered by smart grids, and on the other hand the capacity effect, which quantifies monetarily the reduction of peak load capacities through load shift during off-peak times. Finally, the costs for the necessary infrastructure update for grids are quantified. This study is based on the hypothesis that the future energy system needs to be able to integrate a higher share of renewable energy sources. This allows the following thesis: the costs of a so called dumb grid with a high share of renewable energy sources are higher then those of a smart grid as in the second case synergies can be exploited, load shift can take place, and, therefore, less infrastructure update is necessary. Under the premises that the future energy mix has to include a significant share of renewable energy sources smart grids, hence, create opportunity benefits.
Die anhaltende Finanzkrise der Kommunen und die begrenzten öffentlichen Etats angesichts einer hohen Anzahl kultureller Einrichtungen führten in den letzten Jahren zu einer strukturellen Finanzkrise im Kulturbereich, deren Ende nicht abzusehen ist. Die Museen müssen daher ihre finanziellen und strukturellen Probleme verstärkt angehen. Mit dem Einsatz von betriebswirtschaftlichen Instrumenten und Methoden bei der Wahrnehmung ihrer Aufgaben und ihres Auftrags verfolgen sie das Ziel, wirtschaftlicher zu arbeiten. Benötigt werden hierfür Informations-, Planungs- und Kontrollinstrumente, die Elemente eines museumsspezifischen Controllingsystems sind. Folglich ist die Einführung und Anwendung von Controlling im Museum das geeignete Mittel zum Zweck. Zielsetzung der vorliegenden Arbeit ist damit die Entwicklung eines für Museen geeigneten Controllingsystems. Der Kontext von Museen ist prägend für die Gestaltung des Controllingsystems. Daher erfolgt eine detaillierte Analyse der internen und externen Kontextfaktoren eines Museums, wie z. B. die externe Abhängigkeit und die Museumsgröße. Damit das Controllingsystem für Museen geeignet ist, muss es die in der Kontextanalyse erarbeiteten Anforderungen hinsichtlich der Ausgestaltung seiner Aufgaben, Instrumente und Organisation berücksichtigen. Mit Kenntnis der Anforderungen aus der Kontextanalyse wird ein Blick in die Praxis geworfen und zwei Controllingsysteme betrachtet, die in Museen Anwendung finden. Dies ist zum einen das Controllingsystem des Neuen Steuerungmodells. Es wurde im Rahmen einer umfassenden Reform der öffentlichen Verwaltung in Deutschland entwickelt und vermehrt in Museen eingeführt. Zum anderen wird ein Controllingsystem betrachtet, das von Oliver Rump speziell für den Museumsbereich entwickelt worden ist. Dieses System wurde vereinzelt in Museen eingeführt. Bei beiden Modellen bestehen bezogen auf die gestellten Anforderungen Defizite. Damit sind sie nicht als Controllingsystem für Museen geeignet. Dies macht die Konzeptionierung eines museumsspezifischen Controllingsystems entsprechend den Anforderungen aus der Kontextanalyse, differenziert nach seinen Aufgaben, seinen Instrumenten und seiner Organisation notwendig. Einer empirischen Untersuchung des konzeptionierten museumsspezifischen Controllingsystems erfolgt mit Hilfe von qualitativen Interviews mit Experten für Controlling in Museen aus ganz Deutschland. Ziel hierbei ist die Einschätzung der aufgezeigten Kontextfaktoren und die Bewertung des museumsspezifischen Controllingsystems für Museen hinsichtlich seiner Praxiseignung. Auf Basis dieser Erkenntnisse ist ein modifiziertes museumsspezifisches Controllingsystem entwickelt worden, das für die Praxis geeignet ist. Die von Controlling wahrzunehmenden Aufgaben in Museen werden aufgezeigt. Ebenso werden die möglichen Organisationsformen von Controlling in Museen aufgezeigt und Empfehlungen gegeben. Die für Museen im Controllingsystem enthaltenen strategischen und operativen Instrumente für die Analyse, die Planung und Kontrolle sowie die Information werden vorgestellt. Die Instrumente sind hierbei auf die Besonderheiten und speziellen Anforderungen von Museen abgestimmt. Im museumsspezifischen Controllingsystem enthaltene Instrumente sind z. B. eine Museums-Balanced-Scorecard und eine Museumsstrategie, die in ihren Teilelementen entlang der Aufgaben von Museen aufgebaut ist. Das dargestellte Controllingsystem für Museen dient als Grundlage für weitere Entwicklung von Controlling in der Museenlandschaft.
Adler and Dumas (1983) laid the foundation for pricing international assets under deviation from Relative Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). Only Lally (1996) regards the spectrum of international taxation but in his model - he disregards the tremendous impact of exchange gains taxation in International Capital Asset Pricing Theory (IntCAPT). Furthermore, the consensus in economic literature that exchange rates show evidence of a non-linear behavior as elaborated by Dumas (1992), Grauwe (1993) and Serçu and Uppal (1995) and that monetary policy ultimately determines inflation as determined by McCallum (1990) is ignored. In addition to this, a realistic version of the Tax International Capital Asset Pricing Model (Tax - IntCAPM) should incorporate the fact that dividends are stochastic, as developed in the Tax Capital Asset Pricing Model (Tax - CAPM) of Lally (1998), Wiese (2006b) and Mai (2006a). This dissertation develops a theory of taxation in pricing international assets. To understand this theory, in the first part we introduce and discuss the research question and the conceptual procedure of the dissertation. The review of the status of research provides an extensive overview on research pertaining to taxation in IntCAPT. In the second part, the framework of international taxation is introduced, and by introducing the features of exchange gains taxation a new income type in IntCAPT is presented. The analysis of the international tax system with the features of exchange gains taxation leads to the new result that under the hypothesis of Relative PPP certain constellations of international taxation lead to a Tax-IntCAPM that would be equal to the Tax - CAPM. With the features of exchange gains taxation and the modeling of deviation from Relative PPP by non-linear behavior of exchange rate and inflation determined by monetary policy, an extended model of taxation in IntCAPT - the Tax - IntCAPM - is developed and interpreted. The new result is that the integration of exchange gains taxation into the Tax - IntCAPM leads to an international pricing relationship composed of the risky asset's excess return and its world risk premium, which is adapted by exchange gains tax factors. The non-linear deterministic behavior of exchange rates and the determination of inflation by monetary policy lead to the integration of the market equilibrium exchange and inflation rate into the Tax - IntCAPM. International tax arbitrage opportunities lead to the derivation of the Tax - IntCAPM under short sale and borrowing restrictions. To implement this new international capital market model, the Tax - IntCAPM with homogeneous expectations is derived and interpreted. The third part concludes the dissertation with an extensive critique elaborating the boundaries of the models and a conclusion summarizing the main results and analyzing the implications of the findings.
Purpose/topicality: Demand and lead time uncertainty in business logistics increase, but can be mitigated by risk pooling. Risk pooling can reduce costs for a given service level, which is especially valuable in the current economic downturn. The extensive, but fragmented and inconsistent risk pooling literature has grown particularly in the last years. It mostly deals with specific mathematical models and does not compare the various risk pooling methods in terms of their suitability for specific conditions. Approach: Therefore this treatise provides an integrated review of research on risk pooling, notably on inventory pooling and the square root law, according to a value-chain structure. It identifies ten major risk pooling methods and develops tools to compare and choose between them for different economic conditions following a contingency approach. These tools are applied to a German paper merchant wholesaler, which suffers from customer demand and supplier lead time uncertainty. Finally, a survey explores the knowledge and usage of the various risk pooling concepts and their associations in 102 German manufacturing and trading companies. Triangulation (combining literature, example, modeling, and survey research) enhances our investigation. Originality/value: For the first time this research presents (1) a comprehensive and concise definition of risk pooling distinguishing between variability, uncertainty, and risk, (2) a classification, characterization, and juxtaposition of risk pooling methods in business logistics on the basis of value activities and their uncertainty reduction abilities, (3) a decision support tool to choose between risk pooling methods based on a contingency approach, (4) an application of risk pooling methods at a German paper wholesaler, and (5) a survey on the knowledge and utilization of risk pooling concepts and their associations in 102 German manufacturing and trading companies.
Das vorliegende Dissertationsprojekt hatte zwei zentrale Schwerpunkte. Den ersten Schwerpunkt bildete die innovative Insolvenzprognosemodellierung für ukrainische Unternehmen. Dafür wurde im Wesentlichen die moderne internationale Standardmethodik zur Insolvenzprognose auf Basis der logistischen Regression übernommen. Es mussten dennoch auch einige ukrainische Spezifika berücksichtigt werden. Es konnten ausschließlich bilanzielle offenlegungspflichtige Informationen verwendet werden. Die Jahresabschlüsse sind dabei nach den ukrainischen Rechnungslegungsstandards (UAS) verfasst, die auf internationalen Rechnungslegungsstandards (IAS) basieren. Die Kennzahlenbildung erfolgte deswegen nach den Mustern, die für IAS/US-GAAP üblich sind. Abgesehen von den traditionellen Kennzahlen wurden auch zusätzliche, technisch generierte Kennzahlen untersucht. Diese wurden durch geeignete Normierung der sämtlichen vorhandenen Bilanz- und GuV-Posten gebildet. Diese technischen Kennzahlen hatten den Zweck, die für große Industrienationen untypischen Zusammenhänge zu erfassen. Es konnten tatsächlich einige solche Kennzahlen identifiziert werden, die die Insolvenzprognose für ukrainische Unternehmen deutlich verbessern. Dies war auch für einige kategoriale Größen der Fall. So erwies sich bspw. die Region innerhalb der Ukraine ebenfalls als aussagekräftig. Den zweiten Schwerpunkt der Dissertation bildeten die Verfahren zur Kennzahlenauswahl für Insolvenzprognose in den Industrienationen (am Bespiel von Deutschland und USA). Die Auswahl von geeigneten bilanziellen Kennzahlen ist für diese Länder immer noch ein großes Problem, für die es noch keine Standardlösung gibt. Dies ist vor allem auf die betriebswirtschaftliche Theoriedefizite der bilanzbasierten Insolvenzprognose zurückzuführen. Auch die statistische Auswahl der Kennzahlen als erklärenden Variablen ist problematisch. Es wurden deswegen zwei alternative Methoden zur Kennzahlenauswahl vorgeschlagen. Die erste Methode ist betriebswirtschaftlich orientiert, die zweite – statistisch geprägt. Die erste Methode verdichtet die über 40 berücksichtigten traditionellen Liquiditäts- und Solvenzkennzahlen zu einer einziger aggregierten Kennzahl und macht auf diese Weise eine diesbezügliche Kennzahlenauswahl überflüssig. Dies wird durch geeignete Gewichtung und Division der üblichen, auch in den traditionellen Kennzahlen vorkommenden Bilanz- und GuV-Posten erreicht. Es wird gezeigt, wie die Gewichte anhand von empirischen Insolvenzdaten (in diesem Fall für deutsche GmbHs) angepasst werden können. Die Methode wird mit der populären statistischen Methode der schrittweisen Selektion verglichen. Es stellt sich heraus, dass die aggregierten Kennzahlen zur besseren Prognosegüte durch schwächeres Overfitting führen können. Zu den weiteren Vorteilen der aggregierten Kennzahl zählt die Erkenntnis, dass ihre Gewichte in vielen Fällen leichter zu interpretieren sind als Regressionskoeffizienten der traditionellen Kennzahlen. Die zweite Methode verwendet das innovative statistische Lasso-Verfahren zur Kennzahlenauswahl im Rahmen eines Insolvenzprognosemodells für US-amerikanische Grossunternehmen. Lasso ist ein neues vielversprechendes Verfahren zur Auswahl erklärender Variablen in multivariater Regression und bietet viele theoretische Vorteile im Vergleich zu traditionellen statistischen Verfahren. Da das Verfahren neu ist, existieren bis heute nur wenige empirische Untersuchungen, die auf dieses Verfahren zurückgreifen. In diesem Teilbeitrag wird auf die sehr umfassende Compustat-Datenbank zurückgegriffen. Dies ermöglicht die Erfassung praktisch aller relevanten öffentlich verfügbaren Bilanz- und Marktinformationen. Daraus werden insbesondere 100 traditionelle bilanzielle und markbasierte Kennzahlen gebildet. Es werden auch ca. 600 weitere, nicht traditionelle Kennzahlen in die Variablenauswahl einbezogen. Diese erfassen beispielsweise Trends und Branchendurchschnitte in den traditionellen Kennzahlen, berücksichtigen die detaillierten Bilanz- und GuV-Posten usw.. Die sehr präzise Datenerfassung in der Compustat-Datenbank hat es des Weiteren ermöglicht, die fehlenden bilanziellen Informationen als solche zu erkennen und die Qualität des Jahresabschlusses als weitere erklärende Variablen für Insolvenzprognose zu verwenden. Das Lasso-Verfahren wurde auch bei diesen Untersuchungen mit der traditionellen statistischen schrittweisen Auswahl verglichen. Die Prognoseperformance wurde dabei zuverlässig mittels Kreuzvalidierung abgeschätzt. Durch geeignete statistische Signifikanztests wurde gezeigt, dass Lasso in der Tat genauere Prognose liefert. Viele der oben erwähnten nicht traditionellen Informationen erwiesen sich dabei als nützlich. Das Lasso-Verfahren ermöglicht dabei diese Informationen so zu berücksichtigen, dass die traditionellen Kennzahlen nicht ersetzt, sondern lediglich vervollständigt werden.
In an increasingly competitive environment, firms have to optimally adjust both their allocation of input factors and their technology portfolio. The latter determines economies of scope and scale in future research and production. The aim of this dissertation is to achieve better insight into the strategies that firms employ and the impact of these strategies on performance. Hence, this thesis can be seen as having two parts. Chapters 2 and 3 center on the question of outsourcing, market structure and productivity, while Chapters 4 and 5 focus on the strategic alignment of firms and the efficient use of inputs in the knowledge production process, given product market entry restrictions. In Chapter 2 I evaluate whether firms experience significant productivity gains which decide to rearrange their production process by subcontracting in-house activities to outside suppliers. Here, I focus on the influence of service outsourcing, measured by the costs of external contract work. The chapter is based on a unique micro dataset for the German manufacturing sector. My findings suggest that service outsourcing can contribute significantly to a better performance of firms. Firms starting to outsource exhibit a seven percentage points higher growth rate than firms that decide to continue all production activities in-house. Chapter 3 looks at specific market characteristics that favor the outsourcing decision of firms. I test two main hypotheses which I derive from both transaction costs and production costs considerations. My empirical analysis focuses on the German automobile industry, which offers a particularly interesting example in this context since German-car makers have played an active role in restructuring the industry by means of outsourcing. Chapter 4 aims to examine the supply side in greater detail. More specifically, I discuss the impact of a firm’s technology portfolio on its performance, measured in terms of its market value. Based on an expanded Tobin’s q approach, I present evidence for a negative relationship between the number of fields and the market value, combined with a counterbalancing effect of relatedness. Enlarging the technology portfolio in unrelated fields negatively influences the market value of a firm due to the fact that it reduces the ability to exploit future economies of scale and scope. In contrast, diversifying into related areas increases the possibility to benefit from economies of scope, which reduces future costs and thereby increase future profits. The last chapter – at least to some extent – turns back to the question of optimal input allocation and puts the knowledge production process at the center of the analysis. In contrast to Chapter 4, where the focus lies on the alignment of the technology portfolio and the market value of firms, Chapter 5 takes a macroeconomic perspective and assesses the relative efficiency of knowledge production on the country level. Countries are exposed to an increasingly competitive environment, both in domestic and foreign markets for innovative products and future technologies. This process forces nations to continuously update their technological capabilities. Thus, in a globalized world, the efficient usage of the scarce resources devoted to R&D becomes more and more important. While most of the empirical literature affirms a positive link between R&D expenditure, the number of researchers and innovative output, far less attention has been paid to the question of whether the input factors in the knowledge creation process are allocated to their most efficient use. In Chapter 5 I fill the gap in two ways: First, I calculate the relative efficiency of public and private R&D expenditures in the OECD using a nonparametric efficiency analysis approach, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique. Using country level R&D and patent information, I present efficiency scores based on intertemporal frontier estimation for the period 1995 to 2004. Secondly, I take a closer look at the different market structures of these countries. In particular, I test the hypothesis that regulation reduces competition by raising barriers to entry, thereby lowering competitive pressure and the incentives to innovate efficiently. I examine the impact of countries’ product market regulation on their relative R&D efficiency by applying a consistent two stage truncated regression approach proposed by Simar and Wilson (2007).
This dissertation investigates the forces driving firm innovativeness, performance, and internationalization, focusing on the effects of firm location by employing survey data from approximately 6,200 East German firms. The impact of firm environment is captured through three aspects: locational conditions, collaboration activities, and competition situation. What makes this thesis unique is that it uses firms’ perceptions of the importance and quality of 15 different locational factors to assess the influence of locational characteristics. This approach takes into consideration that not all locational factors affect the performance and operations of all firms equally. The analysis also includes firm-related factors that allow consideration of firm heterogeneity in terms of size, age, and industry affiliation.
Financing Small Businesses in Western Europe – A Micro-Level and an Institutional Perspective
(2007)
Improving the access to finance for entrepreneurial endeavours is crucial in fostering competition, innovation and growth in Europe. A series of studies has shown that small companies and start-up firms play an important role for an economy’s growth and development perspectives. However, access to sufficient capital to either start operations or grow and further develop their activities is a difficulty faced by many small businesses in Europe. Most financial providers consider small business finance a high-risk activity that generates high transaction costs and/or low returns on investment, and therefore refrain from extending loans to this potential client group. Solving this dilemma has become a major concern to entrepreneurs, financial institutions, and public policymakers. Based on three different data sets, this thesis provides new insights into the issue of small business finance from a micro-level as well as an institutional perspective. The results contribute to further the understanding of the financial needs and behaviours of small businesses and offer some practical recommendations for those involved in improving the access to finance for these enterprises. These findings can be summarised as follows. (1) There is a demand for microlending products in Germany. The target group is typically made up of retail business owners, foreign business owners, and persons with a loan history on the private market rather than the bank market. Key product features include fast access to these loans and flexibility in the repayment schemes. Demand for these products also arises in the periods after the foundation of the business. Therefore, adequate products should particularly focus on those businesses that are already operating. (2) Self-employed households tend to intermingle their household and business finance by transferring funds obtained through consumer loans to their businesses. This behaviour is particularly pronounced for those households that are credit constrained, which indicates an evasion strategy: business loans that cannot be obtained regularly are substituted through consumer loans. (3) Organisations that provide access to finance for small businesses are diverse. Any performance measurement of these entities must therefore be based on a theoretical rationale that takes into account the heterogeneous nature of this sector. A useful typology differentiates these institutions along three dimensions: organisational structure, type of lending, and orientation towards the client or the funder market. Social and financial aspects of performance are closely related to these dimensions and should be evaluated accordingly. Therefore, a policy aimed at improving the finance of small businesses should take the following into consideration. (1) Federal and local government activities on supporting Microfinance institutions (MFIs) should be refocused. Instead of developing own products (which are then distributed through local MFIs) or the provision of loan capital with heavy restrictions on the access to their special loan funds, policy should concentrate on the provision of risk capital available without any restrictions except for a maximum loan size and outreach-oriented targets. Banks and MFIs which aim to use these special funds should then be incentivised to do so. (2) MFIs are important in improving the access to finance for small businesses in Western Europe. Policy has to acknowledge, though, that an MFI sector cannot do the whole job. Consumer lending products of banks are an important source of business finance, which prevents these entities from establishing a credit history and thereby entering the formal banking market. Banks should therefore be incentivised to identify “hidden” business customers and promote them into their business department. (3) Policy makers are interested in identifying MFIs that use public funds in the most efficient way. Peer groups of these institutions could be created using the three dimensions mentioned above to enable more appropriate comparison. After identifying MFIs that perform within each peer group, their lending activities should not be restricted to overwhelming rules and regulations. Rather, they should be supported with sufficient capital to achieve scale and be given the opportunity to operate for some years with a minimum of restrictions on their lending activities.
The Web and enterprise information systems are gradually increasing their reach to a wide range of mobile devices. Although analysts hope for a breakthrough in the popularity of mobile solutions, field studies show that, except for Japan and South Korea, there is still a large gap between the technical capabilities of wireless devices/networks and the adoption of mobile services for business and private use. This paradox can be attributed to a high extent to low quality of existing mobile solutions and to their insufficient usability, represented particularly by two attributes: simplicity of use and content relevance. Additionally, network providers are afraid that mobile Internet could cannibalize their revenues from SMS and entertainment services and do not want to cooperate with service providers to improve the quality of services offered. Wireless applications depend on device-specific features such as input/output mechanisms, screen sizes, computing resources, and support for various multimedia formats and languages. This leads to the need for multi-source authoring - the creation of separate presentations for each device type or, at least, for each class of devices. Multi-source authoring is not a cost-efficient and feasible solution, especially for mobile services consisting of numerous pages. Therefore, various single-source or device-independent techniques that try to tackle the dream of software developers for automatic content generation emerged. These techniques perform the adaptation to the characteristics of mobile devices on the client- or server-side or with the help of some intermediary, the so-called proxy. The high complexity of most adaptation frameworks, missing support for the design and development of mobile content, or the lack of non-proprietary solutions often lead to the rejection of offered adaptation methods. This thesis describes the current state of the art in the area of adaptation techniques and proposes two new approaches for device-independent content delivery that are based on open-source technologies: the Mobile Interfaces Tag Library (MITL) framework and the Mobile Web Services Adaptation (MoWeSA) framework. The first framework is based on Mobile Interfaces Tag Library (MITL), in the second one Web Services Tag Library (WSTL) was introduced. MITL enables dynamic generation of content from existing Web pages, databases, or any other information sources. WSTL aims at the communication with Web Services. In both frameworks the development process is supported by an advanced Integrated Development Environment. Mobile services can be accessed from PCs, mobile phones or PDAs, and can be developed as browser-based or stand-alone applications. The MITL and MoWeSA frameworks currently support content delivery in the most popular formats (HTML, XHTML, WML, and Java ME) but are easily extensible to additional markup languages or standards. Tests conducted among end-user programmers confirmed that the proposed solutions are easy to learn and apply. The frameworks support the separation of tasks between page designers responsible for content presentation and programmers who modify business logic encapsulated in reusable components.
The first chapter investigates the factors that explain the level of technical efficiency of a firm. In an empirical analysis, a unique sample of about 35,000 firms in 256 industries from the German Cost Structure Census over the years 1992-2004 is used. The technical efficiency of the firms is estimated using distribution free assumption and then it is relates to firm- and industry-specific characteristics. One third of the explanatory power is due to industry effects. Size accounts for another 25 percent and the headquarter's location explains ten percent of the variation in efficiency. Most other firm characteristics such as ownership structure, legal form, age of the firm and outsourcing activities have an extremely small explanatory power. R&D activity does not exert any positive influence on technical efficiency. In the second chapter a special attention is given to allocative efficiency. The traditional approach to measuring allocative efficiency exploits input prices, which are rarely known at the firm level. In this paper we propose a new approach to measure allocative efficiency as a profit-oriented distance to the frontier in a profit--technical efficiency space, which does not require information on input prices. To validate the new approach, we perform a Monte-Carlo experiment providing evidence that the estimates of allocative efficiency employing the new and the traditional approach are highly correlated. Finally, as an illustration, we apply the new approach to a sample of about 900 enterprises from the chemical manufacturing industry in Germany. The third chapter notices that the German chemical manufacturing industry experienced a major downsizing during 1992--2004. On the average, size of the firm almost halved. Using modern frontier efficiency analysis, this paper investigates technical and scale efficiency of firms. Based on reliable census data, analysis suggests that firms were not primarily concerned with improving technical efficiency, but rather establishing of an optimal scale of production. The share of scale efficiency firms has been persistently increasing, and downsizing was found to be a rational behavior because all scale inefficient firms have continually operated on decreasing returns to scale portion of technology.
In this thesis different definitions of financial contagion are explored. These definitions are applied to test for evidence of contagion on a number of stock markets and during several turbulent periods. First, we investigate the question whether emerging stock markets are more or less vulnerable to large financial shocks than developed capital markets. Second, this study analyzes how significant financial turmoil can change the direction and strength of spillovers between a mature calm market and emerging crisis markets. Additionally, we explore the direction of spillovers and contagion effects between two crisis markets during the same turbulent period. Third, dynamic dependencies between mature stock markets are explored to learn how the strength of spillovers changes in tranquil and turbulent times and how crisis markets are influenced by the leading stock market.
Die EU-Osterweiterung war und ist das bestimmende Thema in Europa seit dem Kollaps der ehemaligen sozialistischen politischen Systeme Mittelosteuropas und ihrer planwirtschaftlichen Ökonomien. Das letzte Jahrzehnt des vergangenen Jahrtausends war vor allem durch die wirtschaftliche Annäherung der europäischen Nationalstaaten bestimmt und politisch vom Bekenntnis zu einer Union gekennzeichnet. Am 1. Mai 2004 trat nach einem ca. eine Dekade währenden Beitrittsprozess die Osterweiterung in Kraft. Für die Gesundheitsversorgung, die bislang weitgehend auf nationaler Ebene erfolgte, eröffnet sich erstmals eine grenzüberschreitende Perspektive. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird der Effekt der Osterweiterung auf den Gesundheitssektor exemplarisch anhand der Region Ostbrandenburg-Lubuskie analysiert. Die Region hat 2 Millionen Einwohner und erstreckt sich auf einer Fläche von 25.000 qkm dies- und jenseits der deutsch-polnischen Grenze. Die Bedeutung des Gesundheitssektors für diese Region steht außer Frage. Aus deutscher Sicht ist die Versorgungssicherheit mit medizinischen Leistungen ein wichtiger Standortfaktor für die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung im Allgemeinen, will Ostbrandenburg die Abwanderung aus anderen Sektoren vermeiden bzw. die Attraktivität für Zuwanderer in diesen Sektoren stärken. Andererseits gibt es wohldokumentierte Schwierigkeiten, in ausreichender Menge medizinisches Fachpersonal zu gewinnen. Dies lässt die Frage nach Chancen, die sich aus dem Beitritt Polens zur EU ergeben, ins Blickfeld geraten. Die enormen Einkommensunterschiede für medizinisches Fachpersonal zwischen beiden Ländern lassen die Wanderung von Lubuskie nach Ostbrandenburg, nicht jedoch in der Gegenrichtung, attraktiv erscheinen. Eine im Rahmen dieser Arbeit vorgenommene Befragung von Anbietern von Gesundheitsdienstleistungen im deutschen und polnischen Teil der Grenzregion hat ergeben, dass die Bereitschaft, im Nachbarland tätig zu werden, unter den polnischen Ärzten (anders als bei ihren deutschen Kollegen) in der Tat hoch ist. Allerdings sind der Informations- und Beratungsbedarf sowie die Bedenken in Bezug auf die finanziellen Risiken einer Wanderung nach Ostbrandenburg hoch. Hier bietet sich, wie in der Arbeit gezeigt wird, eine Fülle von Möglichkeiten für die im Gesundheitssektor politisch Agierenden, die abwanderungsbereiten Ärzte für die Tätigkeit in Ostbrandenburg zu gewinnen.
Corporate governance aims to reduce expropriation of investors by managers. This thesis identifies and empirically examines three corporate governance mechanisms: cross-listing in the United States, close bank-firm relationships in Germany and corporate ownership structure in an emerging market. To test the implications of these mechanisms the following questions are addressed: (i) is cross-listing in the United States an effective corporate governance mechanism reducing the profitability of insider trading? (ii) what is the influence of close bank-firm relationship on corporate investments? (iii) how does the corporate ownership structure affect the information content of accounting earnings? First, the thesis addresses the influence of cross-listing in the United States as a corporate governance mechanism. It examines information content of insider trading in British companies that list only domestically and in those that also cross-list in the United States. It argues that because of legal bonding, insiders in companies cross-listed in the United States may gain significantly lower abnormal returns, as they may be less likely to trade on price sensitive information. Generally, the empirical results show that insider trading in cross-listed companies is significantly less profitable than in companies listed domestically. The main findings corroborate the notion that a company can voluntarily strengthen protection of outside investors by cross-listing in the United States and thus renting more effective legal protection of outside investors. To address the second research question, the focus is placed on the unique close bank-firm relationships specific for the German corporate governance system. Close bank ties may reduce information asymmetry and enable banks to supply more external finance to the firm and consequently foster investment. This study empirically examines the influence of close bank-firm relationships as a corporate governance mechanism on liquidity sensitivity of investment of German manufacturing firms. The empirical evidence shows that close bank-firm relationships reduce the firm’s liquidity sensitivity of investment. Investments in firms with close bank ties are much less sensitive to internally generated cash flow than for firms without close bank ties. The results support the common belief that universal banks are an important element of the German corporate governance system and close bank-firm relationships have a positive effect on the firm’s investments. The ownership structure as a corporate governance mechanism in an emerging market is studied on the Polish stock market. In particular, the thesis investigates the implication of managerial ownership and block holders on the information content of accounting earnings. The results demonstrate a negative impact of managerial ownership on the information content of earnings when the company has low unrelated block ownership, and the relationship reverses for companies with high proportion of unrelated block ownership. The evidence suggests that unrelated block ownership may act as a partial substitute for missing corporate governance institutions to increase the information content of earnings. Overall, each of the markets investigated in this thesis has a different set of corporate governance mechanisms that are proved to work efficiently in given environment. The US system is recognised as the most effective in the world and can be borrowed by foreign companies through cross-listing in the United States. In Germany, close bank-firm relationships are identified as effective corporate governance mechanism that protects investors and helps maintain long-term development and stability of the company. The concentration of corporate ownership structure is characteristic for emerging markets, including Poland, where large shareholders have the power to monitor managers and can act as a corporate governance mechanism that substitutes lacking law enforcement.
Banking Efficiency, Consolidation and Foreign Ownerhip: Evidence from the Polish Banking Market
(2005)
The thesis consists of four separate papers that can be read individually. In the first paper “Efficiency of the Polish Banking Industry: Foreign versus Domestic Banks” we analyze the efficiency of foreign and domestic banks. The second paper entitled “Foreign Acquisitions and Industry Wealth Effects of Privatisation: Evidence from the Polish Banking Industry” investigates the reaction of Polish bank stocks to acquisition by foreign investors. The third paper “Consolidation of the Polish Banking Sector: Consequences for the Banking Institutions and the Public” was motivated by the consolidation process in Poland and is the first attempt of its analysis. In the fourth paper “Does the Bank Lending Channel Work in a Transition Economy? A Case of Poland” we study the role of Polish banks in the transmission of the monetary policy. Our findings indicate that foreign ownership brings a number of positive developments to banks in transition countries, such as much needed capital and know-how. Moreover, the results show that all banks, not only those acquired by foreign investors, benefit from increased presence of foreign investors. However, we also discover that the results are mainly due to higher efficiency of greenfield banks and the fact that foreign investors target slightly more efficient institutions. Finally, we also document that foreign bank ownership has an impact on the transmission of the monetary policy.
Asset Pricing in Emerging Capital Markets: Stock Returns, Trading Volume, and Returns Volatility
(2005)
In this thesis, I investigate diverse aspects of capital market efficiency in selected emerging markets. In chapter 2, the focus of analysis is on the role of trading volume and capitalisation in the process of information absorption by the stock prices. Empirical analysis is conducted for stocks listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) and it can be shown that stocks with higher trading volume and larger capitalisation adjust to common information quicker than their low volume, small capitalisation counterparts. In chapter 3, a dynamic relationship between trading volume and subsequent stock returns is investigated. The results are interpreted in light of existing theoretical models. It is argued that empirical evidence indicates that most of the trades on the WSE are conducted due to liquidity needs or changing preferences of investors, and are not driven by arrivals of private information. The impact of institutional investors on market efficiency is investigated in chapter 4. This analysis is based on diverse theoretical models, most of which arguing that institutional trading deteriorates market efficiency by increasing autocorrelation in stock returns. However, an empirical investigation conducted for WSE stocks traded most intensively by pension funds reveals that the impact of institutional trading on market efficiency is beneficial. Namely, stocks traded by institutions are characterised by lower autocorrelation than the remaining ones, which indicates their quicker adjustment to news and, hence, higher efficiency. Last, we analyse international financial spillovers in chapter 4. For the US and eight Asian markets, it is investigated whether, and to what extent, news originating in one country are incorporated into security prices abroad. The main result of this empirical work is that the US market leads the Asian ones. However, under certain conditions such as exceptionally high volatility or low returns, Asian markets might exert significant influence on the behaviour of the US market. This phenomenon can also be interpreted as evidence of financial contagion.
stock markets linkages and analysis of the arbitrage between spot and futures markets. The first part is devoted to examination of long and short term dependencies between markets. As an example of long term relationship between stock markets, the influence of US market on the most important markets during twenty years period was subject of examination. In turn, to examine short term relationship the dependencies between Japanese and Hong Kong markets during Asian crisis 1997 were scrutinized. The examination of stock of linkages was carried out by application of Markov Switching models. This approach has an advantage to the previous methods because it does not assume a priori a form of relationship between financial markets. Moreover, the Markov Switching framework allows calculating the probability that one market is in crisis or calm regime conditional on different sets of information about other markets. According to the obtained results the contagion between financial markets was rejected, however, sufficient facts supporting the presence of feedback spillovers were found. The second part of thesis presents results of detailed analysis of arbitrage opportunity between spot and futures markets on Polish blue chips index WIG 20. The Polish stock market is one of the emerging futures markets in Europe, it is characterised by proprieties which were absent in case of previous studies of arbitrage. The analysis shows that the lack of efficiency in arbitrage sense is due to the fact that investors have limited access to short sale, there is uncertainty about the size of interest rates, and dividends are paid in an irregular way. Finally, the thesis provide detailed mathematical derivation of the price of future contract and the value of forward contract on zero coupon bond when the short term interest rate is modelled by Cox-Ingersoll-Ross model. In addition, the thesis contains some comments on the methods of deriving price of contigent claims.
This thesis contributes to the literature by providing new insights into the patterns and market implications of insider trading. The inferences presented here are based on the insider trading reports filed with the Polish Securities and Exchange Commission and the New Zealand Exchange. First, the empirical inquiry examines the undue transaction profits accruing to supervisory and executive boards members, and their next of kin. Second, a hypothesis that an aggregate insider trading index can be used to formulate forecasts about future stock market development and macroeconomic fluctuations is tested. Third, the assertion that insider trading promotes more accurate pricing of assets is verified against the actual data. Last, it is argued that the presence of informed trading in the market increases the volume-induced return autocorrelation.
The launch of financial reforms in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) at the beginning of the 1990s stimulated increased interest of investors and academics in the newly-born stock markets of this region. Most of the existing studies, however, consider a group of the CEE markets, stressing their commonalities and discarding the fact that though these markets started at approximately the same time, due to the different starting conditions and reform paths, nowadays they differ considerably in terms of size and significance for domestic economies. In the present thesis, we focus on the Polish stock market, as it is considered to be an example of consistent and successful financial market reforms. There are, however, several important features pertaining to the institutional and regulation aspects of the Polish stock market that may impact formation of equity prices, which nevertheless failed to attract the interest of the researchers so far. Some of these features are common with other emerging markets, which makes the results of our study interesting to a broader international audience. This thesis consists of four separate self-contained essays. They extend four streams of the empirical literature on the developing European stock markets: investment behavior of institutional investors; impact of institutional demand on individual and aggregate stock prices; effects of trading mechanism regulation on stock return autocorrelation and volatility; predictability of stock returns due to long-run relationships between developing European and mature markets. Some of the results of the present research appear to challenge findings documented in the previous literature and question the extant policies, thus suggesting areas for future research.