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Evaluating the impact of deviating technical standards on business processes, trade and innovation
(2023)
Surrounding the increasingly intense discussions about the emergence of new global standardization regimes in context of China’s rise as a dominant standardization power, there has been much talk about countries purposefully using deviating national standards to impose trade barriers. The discussion of whether and to what degree technical standards deviate from international standards and how this affects business, trade, innovation and the standard system is of global relevance. As research about the impact of deviating technical standards is still strongly underrepresented in the academic community, this research analyses the different “degrees” of deviation and the respective impact of minor or negligible deviation and strong deviation on businesses trading in a global context. By using a mixed research method based on literature review, analysis of standard documents and semi-structured interviews, this study discusses peculiarities and challenges associated with deviating technical standards. This is of relevance with regards to international trade and especially trade with countries that became increasingly important players in the international standardization regime. Our research will therefore add further insights to a better understanding of the close linkage between economic growth and standardization. This paper further highlights how deviating technical standards impact companies around the globe and how these companies could use a newly developed risk indicator to not only engage in the standard game but also to better assess consequences.
Chaoticity Versus Stochasticity in Financial Markets: Are Daily S&P 500 Return Dynamics Chaotic?
(2022)
In this study, we empirically show the dynamics of daily wavelet-filtered (denoised) S&P 500 returns (2000–2020) to consist of an almost equally divided combination of stochastic and deterministic chaos, rendering the series unpredictable after expiration of the Lyapunov time, resulting in futile forecasting attempts. We achieve a clear distinction of the true nature of the underlying time series dynamics by applying a novel and combinatory chaos analysis framework comparing the wavelet-filtered S&P 500 returns with respective surrogate datasets, Brownian motion returns and a Lorenz system realisation. Furthermore, we are the first to show the strange attractor of especially the daily-frequented S&P 500 return system graphically via Takens´ embedding and by spectral embedding in combination with Laplacian Eigenmaps. Finally, we critically discuss implications and future prospects in terms of financial forecasting.
Enterprise social media has been found to be a curse and a blessing at the same time. ESM has been reported to lead to unproductive ‘games of visibility’ and ‘exhibitionism’, while it has been also found to enable productive outcomes related to knowledge work and product innovation, the latter being the main reason for its wide-spread adoption. We argue that decisions to use ESM as a control instrument are not made in isolation, but as part of a set of complementary choices. We provide arguments and empirical evidence that the use of ESM as a control instrument in organizations complements the use of subjective evaluations of non-task related performance (SPE). We also show that firms that face high ESM employee concerns, have a stronger complementarity between ESM use and SPE. Additional analyses show that ESM use and performance-based pay (PBP) are also complements. Together the results imply that management control system configuration changes with the employment of ESM.
This paper conducts a thorough data analysis using cross-sectional data from a study carried out in Mexico including over 16,500 observations. In the study, clusters were selected in areas Compartamos Banco, a Microfinance institution (MFI), has not lent in before. The clusters were randomly assigned to either the treatment or the control group. The analysis suggests that Microfinance has a significant positive effect on school and food expenditure but no apparent effect on entrepreneurship. Using regression analysis, a significant positive effect on women’s empowerment and its positive effect on total consumption is found.
This article examines sentiment of 12,821 reports on cyber-attacks on firms around the world from 2011 to mid-year 2019. With theworld wide web (www) and associated technologies connecting opinions worldwide, sentiment in the world wide web is an importantperspective to understanding developments in cyber-attacks and the public opinion thereof, because much of the public debate isshared online. Such sentiment can potentially explain developments in regulation and may be indirectly associated with the buildingof defense mechanisms of cyber-victims. Results show that the quantity of reports on cyber-attacks on firms has been increasing,but the sentiment of reports on cyber-attacks has been decreasing. Both trends reflect the increasing severity of the issue and arelikely contributing to regulatory responses. Results also show that the sentiment is conditional to the source that reports the cyber-attack.
Electric vehicle (EV) development in China emerged with the 863 program (1986) for high technologies and has received support since the 10th Five Year Plan. While standards were of no particular importance in the early years of EV development, standards have increasingly become subject to policies and programs. For instance, the promotion of ‘indigenous' or ‘home-grown' innovation is perceived as means to develop domestic standards and contribute to international standards. Alongside this target, the Chinese government mandated the development of an EV standardization roadmap to serve as a guideline for optimizing standardization work, promoting technical innovation and large-scale industrialization. It was even considered that EV standardization was a novel standard field that has the potential to secure China a forerunner position in technological development as well as international standardization, regardless of standard-setting practices in the conventional automotive sector. Against this background, this paper examines the differences in system set-up and processes of standardization for the traditional automotive and the electric vehicles sector. While conventional automotive standardization is limited to a single sector with the Ministry of Industry of Information Technology and the China Automotive Technology and Research Centre in charge, electric vehicles require the participation of stakeholders from other sectors. Therefore, the negative influence from the conventional decentralized automotive sector on the development of common nationwide standards like the dynamics between national, regional and local actors cannot be deprived. Additionally, this paper also highlights learnings from EV standardization that might set positive impulses for conventional EV standardizations.
China is taking on a new role in international trade. One of the most prominent events highlighting this new role has been the speech of Xi Jinping, the president of the Peoples Republic in China (PRC), at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2017. His speech has become famous as pro-globalization speech. It contrasted with the anti-globalization tendency proclaimed throughout the US president’s election campaign, who had assumed office shortly after the speech at the 2017 WEF.
This book analyses why Chinese technology standards deviate from international standards. The research it contains is based on four periods of field research in Beijing that involved 70 expert interviews. The data gathered throughout these interviews resulted in a detailed case study on the Chinese standardisation system and particularly the electric vehicle sector. The book’s application of complexity theory shows that the evolvement of deviating standards is a substantial component in the development of the Chinese standardisation system. This is further explained by its use of a ‘Three Phase Standardisation Development Concept’. This book fills a gap in existing research, especially because it focuses on a developing country with a standardisation system that is in transition.
One domain of application of artificial intelligence (AI) is decision support, particularly in management. Although there are already research streams examining the interaction of AI and humans (e.g. the stream on "hybrid intelligence"), there are still numerous open research gaps – for example, a comprehensive overview of which factors favor the intention to use AI is missing. By conducting a systematic literature review, we identify the factors that potentially positively influence AI usage intentions for decision-making processes in organizations. From this, we create a framework that both provides practical implications for the successful use of AI in organizational decision-making processes and delivers further research approaches, for example, on the validity/ usability of proven IS adoption models in the present context.
Sustainability accounting as a distinct discipline has evolved over the last decades and is still expanding. As a multidimensional concept, sustainability accounting, however, relates to various other disciplines and thus provides a suitable setting to examine the extent of interdisciplinarity in accounting research. This paper investigates sustainability accounting in in twofold way. First, it provides a comprehensive and systematic review of academic literature addressing sustainability accounting topics. Based on a systematic search strategy capturing articles in the fields of finance and accounting, management, economics, organization and behavioral research, and international business, we determine a sample of 5,245 articles. Descriptive findings show that equally large proportions of the sample articles are published in accounting, management, and organization journals. Using citation network analysis, we identify existing research clusters within this sample and analyse them with respect to their delineations and interactions. Our results reveal that cluster formation relates to specific subject areas with some clusters showing limited interactions to other subject areas, while other clusters are more “interdisciplinary”. Interviews with influential researchers from the most prominent clusters in the network complement the network analysis results, providing insights into the establishment of paradigms and patterns in academic research that lead to the failure of knowledge integration and impede the transfer of research insights into business and politics.
This study provides an overview of the model evolution and research trends in the field of financial and risk modelling by applying a bibliometric approach from 2008–2019 and an overall citation network analysis. We present a content analysis of contributing authors, countries, journals, main topics, agreements, disagreements and frontiers within the research community and highlight quantitative features such as implemented models, aggregated model-family combinations and algorithms. Moreover, we describe the data sets employed by researchers. Finally, we discuss insights, such as the main statement, namely the non-existence of a “single-best”-approach as well as the future prospects of our findings.
Organizations have repeatedly faced challenges due to (natural) disasters such as pandemics, economic or financial crises, and unexpected events. One reason why some firms cope more efficiently with such unexpected events than others has long been the subject of research, might be found in their resilience design. However, there is still no consensus in the literature and there is no common understanding of the definitions, the conceptualizations of resilience at the organizational level, and the interaction with management control systems (MCS). This study bridges MCS and resilience literature and provides a broader understanding of the relationship between the organization and adversity. Due to its ability to successfully control an organization and provide an effective control environment, we use Simons’ levers of control framework (LOC) as framework for integrating organizational resilience into MCS.
We perform a systematic reviewing of analytical conceptualizations and definitions of management control systems (levers of control) and organizational resilience, supplemented by current empirical findings. Based on literature, we provide a framework which integrates organizational resilience into management control systems. Our findings show that the integration of resilience aspects into MCS enables firms to manage resilience at the organizational level.
Like many service industries, the financial industry is largely characterized by administrative and back-office processes and distinguished by a broad systems landscape with a high proportion of legacy systems. Missing interfaces between Information Systems, User Interfaces or Web Applica-tions often require many manual activities. As banks are often functionally organized into traditional departments, a process-oriented organizational structure is rarely in place. The financial industry therefore offers enormous potential for the use of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and the rais-ing of potential benefits such as process-related cost savings, time reductions and quality im-provements.
The aim of this chapter is to describe the tremendous opportunities that the use of RPA technology offers to the financial industry and to explain how these opportunities can be realized. Therefore, we start by explaining the challenges that progressive digitalization poses to the industry and how RPA, but also more advanced technologies (that work not only rule-based but also define own rules), such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help to overcome them. As well as providing an over-view of the various applications of RPA in the financial industry, we also provide a comprehensive case study of a relevant practical application.
We report on the joining of two different transparent thermoplastic polymers using infrared femtosecond laser pulses. Solely being based on nonlinear absorption, the developed micro-welding process for cyclo-olefin copolymers and polycarbonate does not require any intermediate absorbing layers or any surface pre-processing of the welding partners. In addition, it circumvents any heat damages at the outer surfaces of the welding partners. Femtosecond laser welding of cyclo-olefin copolymers is improved by increasing the numerical aperture of the focusing setup resulting in a wider and more homogenous welding cross-section. Welding results are classified by shear strength and fracture modes are analyzed using scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, we demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge, first results of ultrashort pulse laser welding of transparent polycarbonate, one of the most used transparent polymers. In view of an optimized and stable micro-welding process, we study the influence of laser power and focal position on welding results. The application of ultrashort pulse laser welding for Lab-on-chip fabrication technologies is demonstrated by sealing an ultrashort pulse laser ablated microfluidic device based on a transparent polymer substrate.
Over the last years, IT Security has slowly found its way into teaching in higher education. It is becoming increasingly important to integrate knowledge about the development of secure systems (secure software engineering) into academic teaching. However, teaching security and secure software engineering to non-computer-scientists is rare. Therefore, we focus our research on the integration of IT Security into software engineering education of non-computer scientists, particularly electrical engineers, by means of inductive teaching- and learning-arrangements. As a prerequisite for inductive teaching, our paper deals with engineering and computer science students’ preconceptions of the topics IT Security and secure software engineering to identify learning contents and corresponding teaching methods to improve academic learning and teaching in both areas in the future. To identify those preconceptions, we conducted guided interviews with freshmen of engineering and computer science studies from different German Universities of Applied Sciences, containing questions about what they have heard about the topic of IT Security. The interviews were coded according to the coding process of the Grounded Theory Method of Corbin and Strauss [1], with focus on open and axial coding. The goal was to derive a first catalogue of students’ preconceptions according to IT Security and secure software engineering. We present the first version of the catalogue in the paper.
This study analyzes survey data on public-private partnerships (PPPs) of the German Armed Forces. The analyzed PPPs are unique in that the German Federal Ministry of Defence, a government institution, has a dual role as a main shareholder and a major customer. Drawing on these data, the present article analyzes how a government institution influences a PPP's set of objectives and shows that the conflict of interest with respect to monetary objectives between the government institution and the PPP as a whole is low in such partnerships. Furthermore, the article examines the opportunistic behavior of PPPs in contractual renegotiations where the government institution acts as a customer. The results show that, although such behavior indeed occurs, it does not concern monetary issues, since the government institution can control the monetary objectives of PPPs in which it is a main shareholder. Third, this study also analyzes and identifies certain exogenous factors that may influence the level of opportunistic behavior exhibited by the examined PPPs, providing evidence on the causes and effects of such behavior and indicating how it can be limited by the government institution.
This article explores the relationships between innovation idea value, innovators’ perceptions of fairness, and their participation behavior and knowledge sharing behavior in the intrafirm social network. The study uses survey data and a database from a large company that is one of Europe’s top performers in idea management. In addition to the idea database, this study surveys participating employees about their perceptions of fairness and their participation behavior and knowledge sharing behavior. The results show that there is a clear relationship between innovation idea value, employees’ perceptions of fairness, and employees’ participation behavior and knowledge sharing behavior. Furthermore, there is clear evidence that tenure increases the value of innovation ideas. The findings suggest a number of implications for ideation management and for the design of social networks for innovation ideas. To increase the value of innovation ideas, social networks for innovation ideas can be used if the allocation of rewards for idea providers is positively associated with the fairness perceptions of network members.
This experimental study analyzes how two key factors, information load and creativity, influence decision making in escalation situations in which decision makers reinvest further resources in a losing course of action even when information indicates that the IT project is performing poorly and should be discontinued. Whereas previous studies focus on the complexity of information, this study investigates how different quantities of information influence escalation of commitment and how information load interacts with a decision maker’s interpretation of negative feedback regarding earlier decisions. In situations in which escalation of commitment can occur, infor-mation load is relevant for decision making for two reasons. First, in escalation situations in which decision makers face negative feedback, information load exacerbates the tendency to escalate commitment. Second, when an escalation tendency is absent, information load can lead to a decision to continue a losing course of action, which can be mistaken for escalation of commitment. Furthermore, decision makers with a higher level of creativity tend to invest more than decision makers with a lower level of creativity. Surprisingly, creative decision makers do not change their behavior when facing negative consequences while less creative decision mak-ers show an escalation of commitment tendency.
This study analyzes how information influences decision making in escalation of situations. In those situations decision makers follow a losing course of action and invest further resources even when accounting information indicates that the project is performing poorly and should be discontinued. We conducted two experiments with Chinese participants and used a replication of Staw's (1976) often cited case. Our study investigates how different levels of information load influence escalation of commitment of Chinese participants. Contrary to the prior findings in Germany, we find that Chinese decision makers do not escalate when facing different levels of information load. These results, in light of prior studies that find a comparatively strong escalation tendency of Chinese decision makers, are explained along with the limitations and further research. Abstract This study analyzes how information influences decision making in escalation of situations. In those situations decision makers follow a losing course of action and invest further resources even when accounting information indicates that the project is performing poorly and should be discontinued. We conducted two experiments with Chinese participants and used a replication of Staw's (1976) often cited case. Our study investigates how different levels of information load influence escalation of commitment of Chinese participants. Contrary to the prior findings in Germany, we find that Chinese decision makers do not escalate when facing different levels of information load. These results, in light of prior studies that find a comparatively strong escalation tendency of Chinese decision makers, are explained along with limitations and further research.
This study analyzes the renegotiations that take place between institutionalized public–private partnerships (PPPs) and their public clients drawing on survey data on the PPPs of the German Federal Armed Forces. Generally, both the party that initiates such renegotiations and the time at which renegotiations are launched determine the outcome of the PPP’s renegotiated remuneration. This effect is moderated by the degree of contract specificity and by a decrease in demand. Specifically, when the public client initiates the renegotiation of an incomplete contractual agreement due to a decrease in demand, it can successfully reduce the remuneration of the PPP.
The Influence of Culture and Framing on Investment Decision-Making: The Case of Vietnam and Germany
(2018)
Abstract
Purpose
Cultural studies in business and economics research are still limited to particular cultures. Knowledge on cultural differences may help international corporations to adapt management practices according to the markets they are operating in. The purpose of this paper is to study the issue of escalation of commitment and framing in a new cultural setting involving Germany and Vietnam. This setting is unique and particularly interesting, for Germany being the biggest European market and Vietnam being one of the fastest growing emerging markets in Asia.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use a lab experiment with student participants from Germany and Vietnam.
Findings
In a 2×2 in between-experiment, the authors find strong support that Vietnamese participants have a stronger tendency to invest additional resources and evidence that negatively framed information leads to the higher escalation of commitment. Implications are discussed.
Originality/value
The unique empirical comparison is important because differences between other western and eastern countries do not necessarily generalize to the setting.
It has been suggested that information overload decreases decision-making performance. This study empirically examines the mediating role of information (over-)load on the relationships between two system features (deep structure usage and system quality) and managerial performance using a mixed-method-approach (survey and interviews). It analyzes the relationships with respect to a state-of-the-art decision support system (DSS). Our results indicate that information overload adversely affects managerial performance and mediates the influence of system quality and deep structure usage on managerial performance. We find that system quality is positively related to information overload. Drawing on cognitive load theory, we hypothesize and confirm that deep structure usage reduces perceived information overload. Additional evidence from interviews further illustrate these results and show that information overload can be influenced in counter-intuitive ways by system aspects. Our results have important implications for the design of modern information system (IS) landscapes to support managerial performance. They draw attention to the importance of information overload as a mediating factor in the interrelationship among deep structure usage, system quality and managerial performance.
This study investigates the sustainability disclosure effects of the introduction of the Companies Act 2006 Regulations 2013 in the United Kingdom. The regulation mandates the disclosure of information on greenhouse gas emissions, gender distribution and human rights issues. We examine two research questions: first, whether firms increased disclosure on the mandated topics after the regulation became effective relative to a control group, and second, whether a potential increase in disclosure is moderated by firms’ reporting incentives, namely, firms’ capital market visibility, growth orientation, governance structure, prior voluntary sustainability disclosure levels and critical media coverage. Our sample consists of the FTSE-350 firms and a matched control group of US firms. We use textual analysis to assess the disclosure of the mandated sustainability topics in firms’ annual reports. Specifically, we examine two types of disclosure, namely, the disclosure of the mandated key performance indicators and the narrative disclosure. Our results reveal a significant increase for both types of disclosure relative to the control group. Overall, this treatment effect tends to be smaller for firms with higher reporting incentives, i. e., reporting incentives mitigate the regulatory effect. Taken together, our results suggest that both standards and reporting incentives shape firms’ sustainability disclosure level.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the role of environmental management control systems as mechanisms to translate environmental strategy into environmental managerial performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on survey data from 218 firms, the authors test a structural equation model.
Findings
The results show that environmental management control systems mediate the relationship between environmental strategy and environmental managerial performance. Moreover, the level of integration between regular and environmental management control systems significantly impacts the relationship between environmental management control systems and environmental managerial performance. Therefore, environmental management control systems are important mechanisms to translate environmental strategy into managerial performance, and a high level of integration can reinforce this role.
Research limitations/implications
The typical shortcomings of survey-based research apply to this study.
Originality/value
While previous research focuses primarily on environmental performance at the organizational level, this study addresses individual managerial performance with regard to environmental outcomes. In addition, the authors investigate how the level of integration between regular and environmental management control systems influences the relationship between environmental strategy and environmental managerial performance as well as the mediating role of environmental management control systems.
Sales engineers (SE) sell technical products and services to companies,
and their results are crucial for their employers. They need technical
knowledge and commercial competencies, but also management and soft skills,
all fundamental for SE to be highly performant in their job. Students cannot
learn this variety neither at university nor in industry alone. Instead, cooperation
is required. Whereas academic-industrial cooperation for research or specific
study programs is discussed in literature, this is not yet the case for enhanced
industrial involvement in students’ education. The authors present two case
studies of industrial implication in students’ education in Germany and France
as benchmark and basis for a new approach of academic-industrial cooperation
in education in Finland. This cooperation is developed in the frame of the
project ‘RADICAL - Filling Skills Gaps in Blue Industry by Radical Competence
Boost in Engineering VET’, co-funded by the Erasmus+ program of the
European Union.
The rapidly growing maritime industry of Southwestern Finland is suffering from lack of engineers.
Industrial Management Engineers including Sales Engineers have technical knowledge and commercial
competencies as well as management and soft skills, which are all fundamental for the maritime sector.
However, it takes rather long time before a graduated engineer will be a productive worker for the
company. A solution to getting the students faster operational into the companies is to deepen cooperation
between higher education and industry during the studies and increase workplace based learning following
the examples available in e.g. Germany and France. The authors present a new approach of academicindustrial
cooperation in education in Finland which is developed in the frame of the project ‘RADICAL -
Filling Skills Gaps in Blue Industry by Radical Competence Boost in Engineering VET (VET: Vocational
Education and Training)’, co-funded by the Erasmus + program of the European Union.
Today, buying and selling in B2B needs improved methods. A classical approach is to analyse the so called “Buying Centre”. This article shows an improved, more comprehensive approach to be better prepared ahead of a negotiation. This is seen from the sales engineer’s viewpoint and should be a helpful tool for anyone involved in sales. In the first paragraph, this article briefly describes the sales/buying process, showing what is happening in the supplying company. Part of
the preparation of a sales person is to identify the player in the buying centre. The meaning of these players is described in Section 2. Section 3 of this article focuses on the lack of information if only the buying centre is analysed and gives examples. The 4th section shows the method of improved analysis of negotiation preparation.