@phdthesis{Maerz2016, author = {M{\"a}rz, Armin}, title = {Three Essays on Understanding Mobile Consumer Behavior: Business Models, Perceptions, and Features}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-3948}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {145 S.}, year = {2016}, abstract = {For about a decade, consumers have been carrying the Internet in their pockets. The rapid penetration of modern smartphones has meant that more than two-thirds of the people in the West can access and use online resources, anytime and anywhere. Consumers also can communicate and share their consumption experiences instantaneously. Platforms reach users for time-critical events through highly personal communication channels, in the sense that smartphones serve as constant companions. Many mobile applications and their basic services and contents also are available for free. The digital and mobile worlds thus are changing the very means of communication, suggesting the powerful need for marketing research and practice to find the opportunities and meet the challenges of the mobile Internet. In particular, scientific investigations are required to describe new business models in the free e-service industry and the consumer behavior affected by mobile features. This thesis examines these topics in three essays. Study 1 considers business models that offer their services without charge. Offering services for free is symptomatic of not only mobile apps (90\% of all apps are available for free) but the digital economy in general. For companies offering free e-services, this situation raises several important questions, in that, without any access device restrictions, how do customers of free e-services contribute value without paying? What are the nature and dynamics of nonmonetary value contributions by nonpaying customers? With a literature review and interviews with senior executives of free e-service providers, Study 1 presents a comprehensive overview of nonmonetary value contributions in the free e-service sector, including word of mouth, co-production, and network effects. Moreover, adding attention and data into this framework reveals two further aspects that have not been addressed in prior customer value research. By putting the findings in the context of the existing literature on customer value and customer engagement, this study sheds light on the complex processes of value creation in the emerging e-service sector, while advancing marketing and service research in general. Study 2 deepens the findings from the first study; specifically, the focus is on the way that mobile users co-produce content and how this contribution is perceived by recipients in the network. With field data and a scenario experiment, this study demonstrates that recipients appreciate mobile-generated customer reviews fundamentally differently from other reviews. In particular, they discount the helpfulness of mobile reviews, due to their text-specific content and style particularities. The very fact that a review has been identified as written on a mobile device also lowers recipients' perceptions of its value. Recipients use information about the device as a source cue to assess their compatibility with the review contribution channel. If they perceive themselves as compatible with the method used to generate the review (mobile or non-mobile), recipients regard the review as more helpful, because they attribute the review to the quality of the reviewed subject. If they perceive it as incompatible though, recipients assume that the review reflects the personal dispositions of the reviewer and discount its helpfulness. Finally, Study 3 takes up the attention and cross-market network effects in a mobile setting; these were two nonmonetary dimensions identified by Study 1. Platform providers should develop measures to draw the attention of nonpaying customers to the offers of their paying customers. One attention-grabbing mobile-specific feature is push notifications to the device, which provide information about temporally or spatially relevant events. More concretely, Study 3 investigates how mobile push notifications remind users of upcoming deadlines in online auctions and therefore improve late bidding success. Late bidding is a prevalent strategy, in which bidders submit their bids at the very end of an online auction. This research uses field data about an online auction platform to demonstrate that late bidders use these mobile push notifications more frequently than do bidders with different bidding patterns. Within the group of late bidders, the chance to win an auction increases with their use of push notifications. After a mobile push notification, late bidders submit bids through mobile devices but also through non-mobile channels. Less experienced late bidders also benefit from push notifications, which increase their chances of success. In summary, this dissertation contributes to an enhanced understanding of mobile consumer behavior by using various methods, including qualitative interviews, field observations, and online experiments. From a theoretical perspective, it contributes to current knowledge about nonmonetary costumer value contributions in general and their role in mobile settings in particular. This thesis highlights the role of mobile devices in co-production and perceptions of co-produced content. It also reveals how mobile-specific interactive features, like push notifications, affect late bidding efficiency. Therefore, it specifies the role of mobile devices in cross-market effects, in that they enable the platform to direct the relationship between buyers and sellers. The insights presented herein encourage managers to reevaluate their current practices, think about whether they should label co-produced content as generated through a mobile channel or not, and contemplate whether to develop mobile push notifications as helpful features for users (not as intrusive marketing messages).}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schoetz2016, author = {Sch{\"o}tz, Lukas}, title = {Vier Artikel zur Lokalen Politischen {\"O}konomie}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-3457}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {119}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Die vorgelegte Dissertationsschrift setzt sich empirisch mit Themen der Lokalen Politischen {\"O}konomie auseinander. Durch die Analyse bayerischer Kommunaldaten werden kausale Effekte parteipolitischer Machtverh{\"a}ltnisse, kausale Effekte von Parteibanden auf das Zuteilen legaler Renten sowie kausale Effekte steigender Bezahlung auf die Eigenschaften von Lokalpolitikern untersucht.}, subject = {Kommunalpolitik}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Schneider2018, author = {Schneider, Felix Ernst}, title = {Der deutsche Markt f{\"u}r Abschlusspr{\"u}fungen: Marktstruktur, Regulierungsmaßnahmen und Pr{\"u}ferwechsel}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-5576}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {XVIII, 291 Seiten}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Diese Dissertation ist eine empirische Untersuchung {\"u}ber die Entwicklung des deutschen Markts f{\"u}r Abschlusspr{\"u}fungen in den Jahren 2005 bis 2014. Das Ziel ist es, eine Beurteilung {\"u}ber die Notwendigkeit, die Auswirkungen sowie die Zielerreichung regulatorischer Eingriffe in diesem Zeitraum abzugeben. Dabei folgt die Arbeit einer Dreiteilung. Die Analyse der Marktstruktur soll u. a. {\"u}ber die Notwendigkeit der Einf{\"u}hrung rechtlicher Normen Aufschluss geben. Auf Basis der Untersuchung von Regulierungsmaßnahmen werden Auswirkungen sowie die Zielerreichung dieser Normen untersucht. Eine Ereignisstudie zur Kapitalmarktreaktion auf Pr{\"u}ferwechsel soll schließlich die Einsch{\"a}tzung des Kapitalmarkts gegen{\"u}ber der kontrovers diskutierten Regulierungsmaßnahme einer externen Rotationspflicht aufzeigen. Die methodische Vorgehensweise basiert auf Mehrebenenmodellen. Mit einem Paneldatensatz von 2.636 Beobachtungen (353 Unternehmen) weist die Arbeit eine der umfangreichsten Basisstichproben der deutschen Pr{\"u}fungsmarktforschung auf. Die Resultate zeigen, dass die Notwendigkeit f{\"u}r regulatorische Eingriffe durch die analysierte Erh{\"o}hung der Pr{\"u}ferunabh{\"a}ngigkeit im Untersuchungszeitraum gerechtfertigt werden kann. Hinsichtlich der Auswirkungen ergeben sich ein Anstieg der Pr{\"u}ferhonorare sowie eine Verringerung der Bilanzpolitik. Die Zielerreichung einer St{\"a}rkung der Pr{\"u}ferunabh{\"a}ngigkeit sowie einer Erh{\"o}hung der Qualit{\"a}t der Abschlusspr{\"u}fung kann zudem nachgewiesen werden. Zuletzt wird aufgezeigt, dass der Kapitalmarkt negativ auf Pr{\"u}ferwechsel reagiert.}, subject = {Abschlusspr{\"u}fung}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Seidler2018, author = {Seidler, Anna-Raissa}, title = {Changing for the Better? Essays on the Role of Institutional Logics and Information System in Organizational Sustainability Transformations}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-6330}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {XXXV, 207 Seiten}, year = {2018}, abstract = {An increasing number of companies report that eco-sustainable initiatives have a positive impact on firms' economic performance and concurrently allow the combination of social and commercial goals by optimizing environmental and economic decisions simultaneously. These initiatives are considered an integral part of organizational sustainability transformations, which are a special case of multilayered, complex organizational change efforts that relate to environmental, organizational, and individual factors. Institutional logics and information systems (IS) have shown to be two important perspectives from which to explore mechanisms and processes central to organizational sustainability transformations. Institutional logics offer a unique perspective to investigate organizational change for sustainability because they provide a new approach to organizational change that incorporates macro structures, culture, and agency to explain how actions are enabled or constrained. It thus allows for insights into the complex and miscellaneous interplay of external and internal determinants that govern organizational transformation processes towards sustainability. By providing insights into institutional changes of practice and behaviors, an institutional logic perspective allows for a detailed analysis of organizational transformations. Within these change processes, IS have shown to be an efficient and pervasive tool to leverage sustainability by integrating human and technological factors. Since IS have become a key resource for the encouragement of organizational sustainability transformations, adopting an IS perspective allows for an understanding of mechanisms and processes that enable IS to foster sustainability in organizations. Thus, this dissertation draws on four studies by investigateing an institutional logic perspective as well as an IS perspective to explore organizational sustainability transformations and facilitate an in-depth understanding of organizational, human, and technological factors that encourage sustainability in organizational transformations.}, subject = {Informationssystem}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Mosch2022, author = {Mosch, Philipp}, title = {Four Essays on Digital Transformation Strategies from the Perspectives of Capital Markets, Incumbents and Start-ups}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-11337}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {XVII, 229 Seiten}, year = {2022}, abstract = {This dissertation uses four studies to examine the context-contingent strategic factors that are critical to the success of digital transformation strategies from the perspectives of capital markets, incumbents, and start-ups. It focuses on a better understanding of (1) digital innovations and their quantitative evaluation, (2) power disruptions in digitally servitized supply chains, (3) strategic measures and dynamics in digital B2B platform markets, and (4) strategizing by data-driven start-ups in digitalized business networks.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Groesbrink2022, author = {Gr{\"o}sbrink, Carl-Friederich}, title = {Three Essays on Firm Value and Firm Risk and their Relation to IT-Exposure, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Religiosity}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-11558}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {IV, 236 Seiten}, year = {2022}, abstract = {1. IT-Exposure and Firm Value: We analyze the joint influence of a firm's information technology (IT)-Exposure and investment behavior on firm value. Estimating a firm's (partial) IT-Exposure allows for distinguishing between firms with a business model that is challenged by IT above and below market average. Hence, we estimate the annual IT-Exposure of a firm using a 3-factor Fama-French model extended by an IT-proxy. Subsequently, we analyze the relationship with Tobin's Q in a panel data context, accounting for the relationship between IT-Exposure and investments proxied by R\&D as well as CapEx. We use more than 48,000 firm-year observations for firms in the Russell 3000 Index covering the period 1990 to 2018. Although IT-Exposure has a negative impact on firm value, this discount can be overcompensated by up to 2.1 times by sufficient investments through R\&D and CapEx, giving a firm with an average Tobin's Q a premium of 14.8\% to 19.2\%, while controlling for endogeneity. 2. Corporate Social Responsibility, Risk, and Firm Value: An Unconditional Quantile Regression Approach: This paper examines the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firm risk, comprising total risk, idiosyncratic risk, and systematic risk, as well as firm value. We focus on analyzing the interrelationships along the entire distribution of the dependent variables, thus estimating an unconditional quantile regression (UQR). The analysis is based on CSR scores from Refinitiv and MSCI, using up to 12,013 firm-year observations over the period 2002 to 2019 for all U.S. companies listed on NYSE, NASDAQ, and AMEX. UQR reveals strongly heterogeneous effects along the unconditional quantiles of the dependent variables, which are reflected in sign changes, magnitude and significance variations. For CSR we find a risk-reducing as well as value-enhancing effect. When applying fixed effects OLS, we can just partly confirm the risk-reducing and value-enhancing effect of CSR shown in the literature. 3. Heterogenous Effects of Religiosity on Firm Risk and Firm Value: An Unconditional Quantile Regression Approach: This paper examines the impact of religiosity on firm risk, comprising total risk, idiosyncratic risk, and systematic risk, as well as firm value. We focus on analyzing the interrelationships along the entire distribution of the dependent variables, thus estimating an unconditional quantile regression (UQR). The analysis is based on all U.S. companies listed on NYSE, NASDAQ, and AMEX for the period from 1980 through 2020. UQR reveals strongly heterogeneous effects along the unconditional quantiles of the dependent variables, which are reflected in sign changes, magnitude and significance variations. Overall, the risk-reducing effect of religiosity is more pronounced in the higher quantiles of the distribution. We further observe a value-reducing as well as value-enhancing religiosity effect. When applying fixed effects OLS, we can confirm the risk-reducing and non-existing value effect of religiosity shown in the literature. The robustness of our results is underpinned by a battery of additional tests.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Seruset2023, author = {Seruset, Marco}, title = {Three Essays on Price Discovery, Stock Liquidity, and Crash Risk}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-11563}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {IV, 227 Seiten}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Abstract 1: This paper investigates whether market quality, uncertainty, investor sentiment and attention, and macroeconomic news affect bitcoin price discovery in spot and futures markets. Over the period December 2017 - March 2019, we find significant time variation in the contribution to price discovery of the two markets. Increases in price discovery are mainly driven by relative trading costs and volume, and by uncertainty to a lesser extent. Additionally, medium-sized trades contain most information in terms of price discovery. Finally, higher news-based bitcoin sentiment increases the informational role of the futures market, while attention and macroeconomic news have no impact on price discovery. Abstract 2: We investigate whether local religious norms affect stock liquidity for U.S. listed companies. Over the period 1997-2020, we find that firms located in more religious areas have higher liquidity, as reflected by lower bid-ask spreads. This result persists after the inclusion of additional controls, such as governance metrics, and further sensitivity and endogeneity analyses. Subsample tests indicate that the impact of religiosity on stock liquidity is particularly evident for firms operating in a poor information environment. We further show that firms located in more religious areas have lower price impact of trades and smaller probability of information-based trading. Overall, our findings are consistent with the notion that religiosity, with its antimanipulative ethos, probably fosters trust in corporate actions and information flows, especially when little is known about the firm. Finally, we conjecture an indirect firm value implication of religiosity through the channel of stock liquidity. Abstract 3: This study shows that higher physical distance to institutional shareholders is associated with higher stock price crash risk. Since monitoring costs increase with distance, the results are consistent with the monitoring theory of local institutional investors. Cross-sectional analyses show that the effect of proximity on crash risk is more pronounced for firms with weak internal governance structures. The significant relation between distance and crash risk still holds under the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, however, to a lower extent. Also, the existence of the channel of bad news hoarding is confirmed. Finally, I show that there is heterogeneity in distance-induced monitoring activities of different types of institutions.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Boehm2017, author = {B{\"o}hm, Andreas}, title = {Gated Expert Pattern Recognition}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-4664}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {120 S.}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Energieprognosen im Bereich Demand Response f{\"u}hren zu besonderen Herausforderungen. Der Gated Expert Pattern Recognition Algorithmus wurde dazu entwickelt, um besonders genaue Kurzzeitprognosen f{\"u}r diesen Bereich erstellen zu k{\"o}nnen.}, subject = {Algorithmus}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Nagel2014, author = {Nagel, Volker}, title = {Three Essays on Moral Self-Regulation of Honesty and Impression Management}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-2896}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {69}, year = {2014}, abstract = {In study 1 an introduction to the research on moral self-regulation is provided alongside with an explanation of the two manifestations of moral self-regulation: moral licensing and moral cleansing. At the core of the first study is an experiment which was designed to identify moral licensing and cleansing in the domain of honesty. The experiment merges relevant studies from social psychology and experimental economics. It assesses the question if moral self-regulation exists within the domain of honesty or more precisely, if the truth and lies are told in such a way as to balance each other out. After manipulating participants' moral balances (either positively or negatively), rates of truth-telling are compared to a neutral baseline scenario. Since neither moral licensing nor moral cleansing is observed, the results provide no support to the initial hypothesis that moral self-regulation exists within the domain of honesty. Study 2 builds on these results and discusses possible reasons for the absence of moral self-regulation. The research on moral hypocrisy and self-concept maintenance are presented and discussed as possible explanations. In order to shed more light on participants' behavior, a coding procedure is presented that was used on the dataset from study 1. This approach makes it possible to quantify participants' handwritten stories that resulted from the moral manipulation in study 1 and gain more insights on how truth-telling and lying affect the moral balance. By analyzing (dis)honesty on a more detailed level, results show that participants tend to act consistent to what they revealed about themselves in their stories. Study 3 links together aspects of moral self-regulation, moral hypocrisy and impression management. The "looting game" is presented which lets participants loot money from a charity box being subject to altruistic punishment from observers. For their punishment decision observers are provided with a history of participants' past actions. This design allows to assess how misconduct, punishment and the creation of a favorable impression interact and ultimately impact profits. The results indicate that moral cleansing, and not the desire to trick observers, is the reason for manipulation. Participants who loot money from the charity box do not expect to receive less punishment, rather they simply want to present a more favorable picture of themselves. On the other hand, observers fully account for the possibility of manipulation and tend to disregard a manipulated history. The looting game therefore brings the hypothesis into question that impressions are managed and manipulated to increase profits.}, subject = {Selbstevaluation}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Wimbauer2020, author = {Wimbauer, Lisa Kristina}, title = {Innovate with Crowds. Co-Creation and Idea Evaluation in Internal and External Crowdsourcing.}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-8359}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {VIII, 208 Seiten}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Crowdsourcing seems to be a promising approach for organizations to overcome challenges widely discussed in innovation and organizational research. However, the extent to which an organization can leverage the benefits from crowdsourcing is contingent on which type of crowd is addressed and how crowds are used. Based on unique data from crowdsourcing contests, the dissertation provides insights how to innovate with internal and external crowds in order to utilize their potential for co-creation and idea evaluation.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Golovko2019, author = {Golovko, Dimitri}, title = {Three Essays on the influence of company Facebook and traditional channel activities on recruitment success}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-7645}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {XII, 134 Seiten}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The appearance of web and online media has created a substantial change in the manner by which employers and applicants interact. The development of web 1.0 applications with one-way communication and the advancement of web 2.0 technologies with interactive components have extended the spectrum of recruitment channels. The new recruitment media channels have led the selection and analysis of their impact out of interaction on each other to a new challenge within academical literature. This dissertation addresses these issues in three separate essays. Study 1 focuses on the impact of Facebook as a social media recruitment channel on recruitment success. Many companies embed Facebook into their recruitment strategy as an additional recruitment channel for reaching potential applicants and motivating them to apply for available positions. Study 1 analyzes these activities and addresses the question of whether different Facebook activities influence recruitment success above and beyond other undertakings on traditional and online media channels. Study 1 concludes that on Facebook, company posts with a general focus and posts containing work or recruitment information both have a positive impact on recruitment success. The results of Study 1 are validated by company interviews with human resources (HR) managers who are responsible for the overall HR strategy of the company. Study 1 is the first academic work within HR and marketing research, which analyzes the impact of a company's Facebook activities. Study 2 examines the impact of traditional media recruitment channels on recruitment success. Many companies employ traditional media channels for their recruitment marketing actions with the aim of achieving recruitment success. Study 2 uses media richness theory as a basis for analyzing the impact of a company's activities within traditional media channels on recruitment success. Study 2 concludes that exhibition fair and online marketing activities influence recruitment success. In connection with brand equity theory, Study 2 also verifies whether the addition of Facebook activities reinforces the impact of traditional media channels on recruitment success. The results indicate that general Facebook activities have a reinforcing impact on exhibition fair and print media recruitment practices. Finally, Study 3 focuses on both the literature overview of traditional and social media recruitment practices and social media influence from the marketing literature. It also summarizes and categorizes previous research on the influence of traditional, online, and social media recruitment practices; the effect of a multichannel mix; and the influence of social media and social networking sites on different business outcomes from the marketing literature. Additionally, Study 3 identifies the research gaps and provides recommendations for future studies. This dissertation uses vector autoregression modelling, including a validation with the help of company interviews and the employment of media richness, signaling, and brand equity theories, combined with a thorough analysis of the research need. The dissertation closes the research gap regarding the analysis of the impact of Facebook, online, and traditional media on recruitment success. It also adds new perspectives to the HR and marketing literature.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Ihl2020, author = {Ihl, Andreas}, title = {Four investigations of arising phenomena in contemporary work settings: the cases of mindfulness practices and crowdworking online platforms}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-8696}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {148 Seiten}, year = {2020}, abstract = {New arising phenomena in the occupational realm strongly shape contemporary work settings. These developments heavily affect how individuals work within and beyond organizational boundaries. Two phenomena associated with the changing nature of work have been especially prevalent in work settings and intensively discussed in public debates. First, organizations started to introduce mindfulness practices to their workforce. Rooted in spirituality and formerly used in clinical therapy, mindfulness is applied as a human resource development practice to train employees and managers to cope with the increased work intensification. Second, digitization and the importance of individualization opened up the path for work settings beyond organizational boundaries on crowdworking online platforms. On these online platforms, workers process tasks independently and remotely. Research just started to address the implications and meaning of mindfulness practices in organizations and the rise of crowdworking platforms. Several questions remain unanswered. This dissertation addresses unanswered but pressing questions related to these two phenomena shaping contemporary work settings. Structured in four essays the first two essays address the application and meaning of mindfulness practices. The first essay analyzes the meaning and interpretations of these new practices within organizations. The second essay takes contextual factors of the organizational environment into account and investigates their relevance for the successful implementation of mindfulness practices. The second two essays are dedicated to work attitudes and behavior on crowdworking online platform. Essay three captures individuals' motivation for working on such platforms and their effects for workers' work performance. The last essay deals with the role of professional crowdworking online communities in the work experience and asses the effects of social support in these communities on occupational identification, work meaningfulness and finally on work engagement. Each essay in this dissertation generates new insights on arising phenomena in contemporary work settings. They address several timely yet unanswered research questions for these rising phenomena and thereby offer a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the role mindfulness practices and crowdworking online platforms play in the context of the future of work.}, subject = {Organisation}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Kopp2020, author = {Kopp, Katrina}, title = {Essays on Fraud and Forensic Accounting - Research from a German Accounting Perspective}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-8264}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {190 Seiten}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Investment fraud, cybercrime, inconsistencies in health care or the emission scams at the car manufacturers, economic crime (fraud) manifests itself in many facets. For Germany, the cases of FlowTex, Comroad, HRE-Bad-Bank, Holzmann, Volkswagen and the current fraud suspicions at Porsche AG are prominent examples with mostly appalling consequences (Ballwieser and Dobler 2003; K{\"o}gler 2015; Meck, Nienhaus, and von Petersdorff 2011; Peem{\"o}ller and Hofmann 2005). Nevertheless, newspapers without reports on fraud have become scarce. Headlines such as: "Corruption - the daily business" impress hardly anyone, not least because of their certain regularity. The cases revealed publicly are, however, only the tip of the iceberg, as reported by renowned experts (Bundeskriminalamt 2018; LKA 2018). Currently, the State Criminal Police Office (Landeskriminalamt (LKA)) of Baden-W{\"u}rttemberg and its department for economic and environmental crime and corruption is concerned with 72 major proceedings (LKA 2018). However, fraud could be avoided or at least contained by appropriate preventive measures (Bundeskriminalamt 2018; Bussmann 2004; Hlavica, Klapproth, and H{\"u}lsberg 2011). Consequently, the pressure on companies and employees to demonstrate compliant and ethical behavior and to meet the demands of stakeholders at all times within their business activities has grown (Buff 2000). This raises the question about which precautionary measures a company can and must implement (Weick and Sutcliffe 2015). Although corporate awareness of this issue has increased, most in-house detection of fraud is accidental, suggesting that companies are still lacking appropriately functioning and systematic (early) detection mechanism (Hlavica et al. 2011). If a company is accused of fraud, this usually has serious repercussions on its corporate reputation. Prior research found that capital market reputation-based penalties for affected companies are on average 7.5 times higher than penalties imposed by the legal system (Karpoff, Lee, and Martin 2008). Furthermore, the accusation of fraud also affects the external auditor's reputation, since lacking the detection of manipulations in clients' (financial) reports not only damages public confidence in the accuracy of firms' financial statements but also in the reliability of the auditor's report. Therefore, it is not surprising that the demand for greater supervision and control of firms' (financial) reporting as well as for reliable work of statutory auditors continually increases (Herkendell 2007). Although to a lesser extent, this is also the case for the determination of material (accounting) errors within a firm's financial statements, which are often difficult to distinguish from accounting fraud. According to the International Accounting Standard (IAS) 8.5, published by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), errors are omissions and/or misstatements of items that result from the nonapplication or misapplication of trusted information (IASB 2003). Thus, accounting errors and accounting fraud both result in incorrect information of a firm's financial reports and consequently affect stakeholders' decision-making. One resulting attempt in counteracting the broad demand for appropriate protective measures was the implementation of a two-stage enforcement system involving the German Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel (Deutsche Pr{\"u}fstelle f{\"u}r Rechnungslegung (DPR)) as part of the adopted Financial Reporting Enforcement Act (Bilanzkontrollgesetz (BilKoG)) in 2004. The primary objective of the Federal Government's implementation of this mechanism was to strengthen investors' lost confidence in the German capital market, the information content of financial reporting, and Germany as a financial center in the international competition. In addition, the enforcement system serves as a sanctioning instrument for firms in the event of an error detection and subsequent adverse error disclosure via the German federal registry (elektronischer Bundesanzeiger). This adverse error disclosure not only sanctions denounced firms but also questions the quality of the annual financial statement audit and thus the quality of the responsible audit firm. Hence, the often thin line between firms' unintentional accounting errors, purposive engagement in earnings management, and intentional fraud in particular presents an increasing challenge for the audit profession. The objective of my cumulative dissertation is to provide a comprehensive overview of fraud and forensic accounting as well as insights into the distinct dimensions among the concepts of errors, earnings management and fraud from a German accounting perspective. I aim at achieving this objective in three steps: First (1), by providing an overview of discipline-specific education possibilities, existing forensic accounting practices, institutions, and current developments in research. Second (2), by assessing auditors' obligations and responsibilities for the detection of irregularities within the scope of the annual financial statement audit and whether including forensic services into the service portfolio of audit firms can help increase their audit quality due to spillover effects. Third (3), by examining firms' reputation (re-)building management in response to financial violations and how this process is associated with managing multiple (stakeholder) reputations. This dissertation is composed of three individual papers whereby each considers one of the above outlined focus areas}, subject = {Wirtschaftskriminalit{\"a}t}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Fritz2023, author = {Fritz, Manuela}, title = {Health challenges of the 21st century - Empirical essays on the health and economic burden of non-communicable diseases and climate change in Southeast Asia}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-12649}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {x, 224 Seiten}, year = {2023}, abstract = {In the ongoing 21st century, low- and middle-income countries will face two health challenges that are thoroughly different from what these countries have been dealing with in preceding centuries. First, they are confronted with surging rates of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and second, climate change will take its toll and is predicted to cause catastrophic health impairments and exacerbate chronic health conditions further. Both will pose a disproportionate health and economic burden on low- and middle-income countries, which are also the countries least able to cope with them. By threatening individual health and socioeconomic improvements, and by putting an immense burden on already constrained health care systems, they impede the progress in poverty reduction and widen health inequities between the rich and the poor. Against this background, this thesis investigates the potential of NCD prevention and treatment measures in the context of Southeast Asia, with case studies in Indonesia. Specifically, it seeks to understand what kind of health interventions have the potential to be (cost-)effective considering the cultural background, lifestyle, health literacy and health system capacities in the region. Further, this thesis analyzes the interplay between NCDs and climate change and assesses the financial burden that both might pose in the decades to come. Hence, this thesis contributes to a better understanding of how the two health challenges of the 21st century, NCDs and climate change, can be addressed in the context of Southeast Asia and offers insights into what type of health policies and interventions can play a supportive role.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Gehrke2016, author = {Gehrke, Esther}, title = {Three essays on the production and investment decisions of households living in rural India}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-4234}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, year = {2016}, abstract = {In order to end poverty by 2030, the declared goal of the United Nations, a better understanding is needed which policies help poor households to escape poverty and how to end its inter-generational transmission. Since the Millennium Declaration in September 2000, and the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the delivery of basic social services, such as education, health, water supply and sanitation, has become the central focus of international development assistance. However, the provision of basic social services is not necessarily sufficient to lead to an accumulation of human and productive capital, which would allow households to escape poverty and interrupt its inter-generational transmission. To understand why people are poor, we need to understand what productive decisions poor households take, and to identify what constraints households face in their attempt to accumulate human, as well as, productive capital. A better understanding of such constraints could guide policies that have a long-term impact on poverty reduction and on development. A number of factor could explain why poor households operate at unprofitable levels and why they are constrained in their investment decisions. Empirical evidence points to different explanations: cost of learning and access to information, insufficient education, risk, credit constraints, non-convex production technologies, and behavioral patterns that are inconsistent with standard neoclassical models. Currently, one of the major challenges in formulating policies that foster productive investments among the poor, seems to be to disentangle the effects of scale, credit constraints, and the lack of insurance mechanisms. This thesis seeks to shed further light on the relative role of these three constraints. In the context of rural India, it analyzes what production and investment decisions households take and how important risk and credit constraints as well as scale effects are in these decisions. Finally, it evaluates potential policy tools that could support households in overcoming these constraints. Today, 33\% of the world's poor live in India, the vast majority of them (80.5\%) in rural areas. The economic structure of rural India is still dominated by agricultural production, and consequently, this thesis concentrates on agricultural production decisions and employment in agriculture. In particular, this thesis addresses three questions in three individual papers: First, are farm households constrained in their crop choices by agricultural production risk and to which extent can India's public works program support households in overcoming this constraint? Second, how profitable is cattle farming in rural India at different levels of investment and which barriers do households face in reaching optimal investment levels? And third, can risk in agricultural wages explain limited investment in girls' education in the presence of intra-household substitution in household chores? The first paper focuses on crop choice of farm households. It reassesses the stylized fact that households have to trade-off between returns and risk in their crop choice in the context of Andhra Pradesh, a state in the south of India. It then explores the effect of India's flagship anti-poverty program, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) on households' crop choice using a representative panel data set. The NREGS guarantees each household living in rural India up to a hundred days of employment per year, at state minimum wages. The paper shows theoretically, and empirically, that the introduction of the NREGS reduces households' uncertainty about future income streams because it provides reliable employment opportunities in rural areas independently of weather shocks and crop failure. With access to the NREGS, households can compensate income losses emanating from shocks to agricultural production. Households with access to the NREGS can therefore shift their production towards riskier but also more profitable crops. These shifts in agricultural production have the potential to considerably raise the incomes of smallholder farmers. The paper concludes that employment guarantees can, similarly to crop insurance, help households in managing agricultural productions risks. It also argues that accounting for the effects of the NREGS on crop choice and profits from agricultural production affects the cost-benefit analysis of such a program considerably. The second paper concentrates on the profitability of farming cattle in Andhra Pradesh. The paper also uses a representative panel dataset, and examines average and marginal returns to cattle at different levels of cattle investment. It finds average returns in the order of -8\% at the mean of cattle value. These returns vary across the cattle value distribution between negative 53\% (in the lowest quintile) and positive 2\% (in the highest). While marginal returns are positive on average, they also vary considerably with cattle value and breed. The paper shows that average and marginal returns are considerably higher for modern variety cows, i.e. European breeds and their crossbreeds, than for traditional varieties of cows or for buffaloes. It also shows that cattle farming becomes most profitable at minimum herd sizes of five animals, due to decreasing average labor costs with increasing herd sizes. The results of this paper suggest that cattle farming is associated with sizable non-convexities in the production technology and that substantial economies of scale, as well as high upfront expenses of acquiring and feeding high-productivity animals, might trap poorer households in low-productivity asset levels. The fact that wealthier households and households with lower costs to access veterinary services are more likely to overcome these barriers, supports this idea. The second paper concludes that cattle farming might well generate positive returns for households in rural India, but that most households seem to operate at unprofitable levels. This could also explain the apparent paradox between widespread support of cattle farming through agricultural policy interventions and negative returns to cattle, as stressed in recent works. It argues that policy interventions that target productive assets will only be beneficial if transfers are high enough to allow households to overcome these entry barriers. The third paper concentrates on the effect of risk on the productive decisions of households, and analyzes the effect of wage risk in agricultural employment on women's labor supply and time allocated to home production. It seeks to understand the extent to which risk raises labor supply of women to levels that can become harmful for other members of the household. The hypothesis is that in the presence of intra-household substitution effects -- for instance in the performance of household chores -- increased female labor supply might have negative effects on the time allocation of girls. If women have less time available for home production and childcare, and such activities can only be foregone at high cost, they might be forced to take older girls out of school or to cut down on the time these girls study at home in order for them to fill in for these tasks. The paper uses cross-sectional data on the time allocation of different household members and predicts wage risk at the village level as a function of the historical rainfall distribution and a village's share of land that is under irrigation. The results show that wage risk affects the time allocation of women, increasing their labor supply and reducing the time they allocate to home production. Wage risk also increases the time girls spend on household chores and reduces their time in school. Because the observed effect of wage risk on girls' time allocated to household chores corresponds very closely to the effect observed for women, it seems plausible to attribute it to intra-household substitution effects. The observed effect of risk on girls' school time, however, is greater than the observed effect of risk on the home-production time of girls. This can be due to two reasons: First, in the presence of intra-household substitution effects, shocks in wages will not only increase female labor supply but also girls' time on household chores. And the model predicts that risk-averse households invest less in education when future school time becomes uncertain, because future school time affects the returns to current schooling. Second, if school attendance is indivisible, then girls might be forced to drop out of school temporarily or even permanently. The paper then simulates the effect of the NREGS on the time-allocation decisions of working women and school-age girls. The results suggest that the NREGS could increase the time working women spend on household duties, because it reduces uncertainty regarding future earnings, and alleviates the need to accumulate savings. Thereby, the NREGS would reduce the pressure on girls to perform household tasks and allow them to increase the time they spend in school or studying by 6 minutes daily. Wit these findings, this thesis contributes to a better understanding of the choices poor households in rural India face in their day-to-day decision making, and offers insights into what policies could support households in escaping poverty, and interrupt its inter-generational transmission.}, subject = {Indien}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Soubeiga2021, author = {Soubeiga, Sidiki}, title = {Four empirical essays on the role of institutional quality, political instability and entrepreneurship for economic growth and jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-10326}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {6 ungez{\"a}hlte Seiten, x, 279 Seiten}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Most Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries experienced sound economic growth and a declining rate of poverty over the last two decades. Though, by far, the SSA region remains the poorest in the world and faces tremendous political, social, and economic challenges. Moreover, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SSA entered into a recession with a GDP growth rate of minus 5\% in 2020 as ever recorded over 25 years. This has also induced an increase in poverty in the region, which adds up to the structural challenges and further highlight the need of sound policies to address economic growth, governance, jobs, and poverty for the region to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2030 and beyond. This thesis examines the effects of institutional quality, political instability, and a government targeted entrepreneurship program on the accumulation of human, physical, and financial capital by households and firms. In the literature, these factors are identified as the key determinants of economic growth and job creation, yet this thesis contributes to a knowledge gap, especially at the microeconomic level, on how households and firms accumulate these factors in the presence of weak institutional quality, political instability, and government targeted entrepreneurship programs. In particular, this thesis investigates heterogeneity as well as a single country study of the effects of institutional quality and political instability; it also employs a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to assess the impacts of two different targeted entrepreneurship support programs; and finally, it taps on data from this field experiment to assess the performance of two different targeting mechanisms for selecting growth-oriented entrepreneurs. Each paper is self-contained and three among the four papers were written with co-authors. The first paper assesses the effects of institutional quality and political instability on household assets and human capital accumulation in 19 Sub-Saharan African countries for the period 2003-16. In this paper, the concept of instability is enlarged to include factual instability as measured by the number of political violence and civil unrest events, perceived instability as measured by the perceptions of the quality of institutions by households, and the interplay between factual and perceived instability. Contrary to most previous analyses, this paper takes into account household wealth distribution to show how the effects of political instability differ for poor vs. rich households. For identification, I exploit the variation of factual and perceived instability across 185 administrative regions in the 19 countries. My regressions control for a large range of confounding factors measured at the levels of households, regions, and countries. Overall, factual and perceived instability are associated with higher investments in assets, and factual instability is also associated with more investment in house improvements, yet it is negatively associated with the ownership of financial accounts. With regard to the heterogeneous effects, increased factual or perceived instability is associated with more investments in physical capital but less investments in financial and human capital among rich households, and with less investments in physical, financial and human capital among poor households. These findings suggest that political instability might enhance the accumulation of wealth by rich households and reduce that of poor households, implying that the detrimental effects of political instability have lasting consequences for poor households, especially when poor households are exposed to an actual or even just perceived deteriorating quality of the country's institutions. The second paper, written with Nicolas B{\"u}ttner and Michael Grimm, analyzes households' investments in assets and their consumption, and education and health expenditures when exposed to actual instability as measured by the number of political violence and protest events in Burkina Faso. There is a large, rather macroeconomic, literature that shows that political instability and social conflict are associated with poor economic outcomes including lower investment and reduced economic growth. However, there is only very little research on the impact of instability on households' behavior, in particular their saving and investment decisions. This paper merges six rounds of household survey data and a geo-referenced time series of politically motivated events and fatalities from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED) to analyze households' decisions when exposed to instability in Burkina Faso. For identification, the paper exploits variation in the intensity of political instability across time and space while controlling for time-effects and municipality fixed effects as well as rainfall and nighttime light intensity, and many other potential confounders. The results show a negative effect of political instability on financial savings, the accumulation of durables, investment in house improvements, as well as on investment in education and health. Instability seems, in particular, to lead to a reshuffling from investment expenditures to increased food consumption, implying lower growth prospects in the future. With respect to economic growth, the sizable education and health effects seem to be particularly worrisome. The third paper, written with Michael Grimm and Michael Weber, employs a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to assess the short-term effects of a government support program targeted at already existing and new firms located in a semi-urban area in Burkina Faso. Most support programs targeted at small firms in low- and middle-income countries fail to generate transformative effects and employment at a larger scale. Bad targeting, too little flexibility and the limited size of the support are some of the factors that are often seen as important constraints. This paper assesses the short-term effects of a randomized targeted government support program to a pool of small and medium-sized firms that have been selected based on a rigorous business plan competition (BPC). One group received large cash grants of up to US\$8,000, flexible in use. A second group received cash grants of an equally important size, but earmarked to business development services (BDSs) and thus less flexible and with a required own contribution of 20\%. A third group serves as a control group. All firms operate in agri-business or related activities in a semi-urban area in the Centre-Est and Centre-Sud regions of Burkina Faso. An assessment of the short-term impacts shows that beneficiaries of cash grants engage in better business practices, such as formalization and bookkeeping. They also invest more, though, this does not translate into higher profits and employment yet. Beneficiaries of cash grants and BDSs show a higher ability to innovate. The results also show that cash grants cushioned the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for the beneficiaries. More generally, this study adds to the thin literature on support programs implemented in a fragile-state context. The fourth paper, written with Michael Weber, examines the selection of entrepreneurs based on expert judgments for a BPC in Burkina Faso. To support job creation in developing countries, governments allocate significant funds to a typically small number of new or already existing micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that are growth oriented. Increasingly, these enterprises are picked through BPCs where thematic experts are asked to make the selection. So far, there exists contrasting and limited evidence on the effectiveness and efficiency of these expert judgments for screening growth-oriented entrepreneurs among contestants in BPCs. Alternative or complementary approaches such as evaluation and selection algorithms are discussed in the literature but evidence on their performance is thin. This paper uses a principal component analysis (PCA) to build a metric for comparing the performance of these alternative mechanisms for targeting entrepreneurs with high potential to grow. The results show expert subjectivity bias in judging contestant entrepreneurs. The paper finds that the scores from the expert judgment and those from the algorithm perform similarly well for picking the top-ranked or talented entrepreneurs. It also finds that both types of scores have predictive power, i.e. have statistically significantly associated with 17 firm performance outcomes measured 10 or 34 months after the BPC started. Yet, the predictive power, as measured by the magnitude of the regression coefficients, is higher for the algorithm metric, even when it is considered jointly with expert judgment scores. Despite the statistical superiority of the algorithm, expert assessments at least through pitches of entrepreneurs have proved useful in many settings where free-riding or misuse of public funds may occur. Hence, efficiency and precision could be achieved by relying on a reasoned combination of expert judgments and an algorithm for targeting growth-oriented entrepreneurs. These four papers bring new insights on the relationship between weak institutions, political instability, and targeted government support to entrepreneurship for increasing the accumulation of financial, physical, and human capital, and productivity. And these are the key factors for spurring economic growth and creating jobs in SSA. These findings suggest that efficient institutions building in SSA countries would enhance citizen perceptions of good governance which would reduce political instability and enable households including the poor to accumulate productive assets, increase their productivity and reduce poverty. The findings also suggest that targeted government entrepreneurship support programs, e.g. in the forms of cash grants with monitored disbursements yet flexible in use, can enhance firms' human capital, productive assets, and innovations, even in the short term. Moreover, the targeting mechanism of such programs could be made more effective and efficient by relying on a combinaison of expert judgments and an algorithm for picking growth-oriented entrepreneurs.}, subject = {Subsaharisches Afrika}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Wendt2001, author = {Wendt, Volker}, title = {Die Schaffung der Europ{\"a}ischen Wirtschafts- und W{\"a}hrungsunion: Spill-over und intentionale Entscheidung? Eine Analyse f{\"u}r Deutschland und Frankreich}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus-257}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, year = {2001}, abstract = {Ziel der vorliegenden Dissertation ist es, anhand einer theoretisch fundierten, empirischen Analyse nachzuvollziehen, welche Gr{\"u}nde zur Schaffung der Europ{\"a}ischen Wirtschafts- und W{\"a}hrungsunion gef{\"u}hrt haben. Dabei fokussiert sich die Analyse auf die Bundesrepublik Deutschland und die franz{\"o}sische Republik. Wie schon in der Einleitung deutlich wurde, bilden diese die Kernstaaten der europ{\"a}ischen Staatengemeinschaft: Sowohl die grunds{\"a}tzliche Initiierung des europ{\"a}ischen Integrationsprojektes als auch das bisherige Voranschreiten des Integrationsprozesses ist im Wesentlichen auf den deutsch-franz{\"o}sischen "Motor" zur{\"u}ckzuf{\"u}hren. Da somit die deutsch-franz{\"o}sischen Beziehungen die "bilateralen Schl{\"u}sselbeziehungen innerhalb des politischen Prozesses der westeurop{\"a}ischen Integration" sind, und diesen beiden Staaten auch mit Blick auf das untersuchte Politikfeld die zentrale Rolle bei der Policy-Gestaltung zukommt, rechtfertigt sich der Fokus der vorliegenden Arbeit.}, subject = {Europ{\"a}ische Union / Wirtschafts- und W{\"a}hrungsunion}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Beck2003, author = {Beck, Alexandra}, title = {Die Einkaufsst{\"a}ttenwahl von Konsumenten unter transaktionskostentheoretischen Gesichtspunkten. Theoretische Grundlegung und empirische {\"U}berpr{\"u}fung mittels der Adaptiven Conjoint-Analyse}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus-318}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, year = {2003}, abstract = {Ziel der Arbeit war die Entwicklung eines theoretischen Bezugsrahmens auf Basis der Transaktionskostentheorie, um die Einkaufsst{\"a}ttenwahl von Konsumenten unter transaktionskostentheoretischen Gesichtspunkten analysieren zu k{\"o}nnen und die anschließende empirische {\"U}berpr{\"u}fung der theoretischen Erkenntnisse. Nach der Darstellung bisheriger Ans{\"a}tze zur Erkl{\"a}rung der Einkaufsst{\"a}ttenwahl von Konsumenten wurde der Transaktionskostenansatz ausf{\"u}hrlich beschrieben und gepr{\"u}ft, ob die Transaktionskostentheorie auf die Einkaufsst{\"a}ttenwahl anwendbar ist. Nachdem die grundlegende Frage des Einsatzes der Transaktionskostentheorie gekl{\"a}rt war, wurden die einzelnen Arten an Transaktionskosten, die bei der Einkaufsst{\"a}ttenwahl anfallen k{\"o}nnen, herausgearbeitet. Ein Konsument sucht die Einkaufsst{\"a}tte auf und kauft dort seine Ware, wo seine subjektiven Gesamtkosten, die sich aus dem Preis sowie Transaktionskosten und -nutzen zusammensetzen, am geringsten sind. Ausgehend von den theoretischen Erkenntnissen erfolgte eine ausf{\"u}hrliche Analyse der Betriebstypenevolution unter transaktionskostentheoretischen Gesichtspunkten. Anschließend wurden Untersuchungshypothesen aufgestellt, um die unter transaktionskostentheoretischen Gesichtspunkten f{\"u}r die einzelnen Betriebstypen entscheidungsrelevanten Kriterien herauszufiltern und m{\"o}gliche Einflussfaktoren festzustellen. Nach Auswahl des Untersuchungsobjektes, Operationalisierung der Modellvariablen und der Messmodelle sowie Bestimmung des Erhebungsdesign wurden die Hypothesen in einer empirischen Untersuchung getestet. Ein Teil der Befragung erfolgte dabei computergest{\"u}tzt mittels der Adaptiven Conjoint-Analyse. Als Ergebnis l{\"a}sst sich festhalten, dass die Einkaufsst{\"a}ttenwahl von Konsumenten neben dem Preis von Transaktionskosten und Transaktionsnutzen abh{\"a}ngig ist. Die Transaktionskostentheorie liefert einen leistungsf{\"a}higen Bezugsrahmen, um die oft schwer nachzuvollziehende Einkaufsst{\"a}ttenwahl von Konsumenten wissenschaftlich zu erhellen.}, subject = {Kaufverhalten}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Kluever2002, author = {Kl{\"u}ver, Silke}, title = {Konzentrationsursachen der europ{\"a}ischen Versicherungsm{\"a}rkte - eine theoretische und empirische Untersuchung}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus-265}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, year = {2002}, abstract = {Untersuchungsziel dieser Arbeit ist es, die Ursachen von Konzentrationsver{\"a}nderungen - hierunter fallen sowohl Konzentration als auch Dekonzentration - in der europ{\"a}ischen Versicherungsbranche zu analysieren. Anhand industrie{\"o}konomischer Konzepte wird theoretisch und empirisch erforscht, auf welche der vorgestellten Ursachen die Konzentrationsver{\"a}nderung in der europ{\"a}ischen Versicherungsbranche zur{\"u}ckzuf{\"u}hren ist. Die Systematisierung der Konzentrationsursachen wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit an den verschiedenen Gliedern der Kausalkette vorgenommen. Konzentrationsursachen k{\"o}nnen hiernach in direkte und indirekte Ursachen differenziert werden. Direkte Konzentrationsursachen wirken sich unmittelbar auf das Konzentrationsniveau aus. Unter die direkten Konzentrationsursachen werden vier Ereignisse subsumiert: Marktzutritt, Marktaustritt, internes Wachstum und Zusammenschluß von Unternehmen. Indirekte Konzentrationsursachen beeinflussen hingegen die direkten Konzentrationsursachen. Dadurch {\"u}ben sie indirekt einen Einfluß auf das Konzentrationsniveau aus. Indirekte Konzentrationsursachen sind Ver{\"a}nderungen wirtschaftlicher und rechtlicher Gegebenheiten. Diese Arbeit fokussiert dabei auf Entwicklungen des Nachfragepotentials und des Nachfrageverhaltens, der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien sowie der gesetzlichen Rahmenbedingungen.}, subject = {Europ{\"a}ische Union}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Lange2011, author = {Lange, Christoph}, title = {Disclosure Limitation in OLAP}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus-26761}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, year = {2011}, abstract = {„OLAP" (On-Line Analytical Processing) stellt f{\"u}r Business Intelligence (BI) das Basis-konzept zur Strukturierung von Datenbest{\"a}nden dar und bietet dem Anwender gleichzeitig Methoden zu deren explorativen Analyse. Business Intelligence - und damit auch OLAP - dient der IT-getriebenen Analyse von Gesch{\"a}ftsdaten im Rahmen der betrieblichen Entscheidungsunterst{\"u}tzung. Aufgrund des Umfangs und der komplexen Zusammenh{\"a}nge der mit OLAP verf{\"u}gbar gemachten Datenbest{\"a}nde k{\"o}nnen diese ungewollt Informationen enthalten, die einigen Personen aus dem Anwenderkreis nicht offen gelegt werden sollen (sog. „sensible Informationen"). Daraus ergibt sich ein Spannungsverh{\"a}ltnis zwischen dem eigentlichen Zweck von OLAP und BI (Gew{\"a}hrleistung m{\"o}glichst freier Analysen zur Unterst{\"u}tzung betrieblicher Entscheidungen) und der Gefahr, dabei sensible Informationen offen zu legen („Disclosure"). Diese Arbeit besch{\"a}ftigt sich mit der aus diesem Spannungsfeld hervorgehenden Prob-lemstellung, n{\"a}mlich m{\"o}glichst umfassende Information zu relevanten Sachverhalten bei m{\"o}glichst geringer Gefahr der ungewollten Informationsoffenlegung („Disclosure Limitation") in OLAP-basierten Anwendungen zu gew{\"a}hrleisten. Die Forschung thematisierte lange Zeit {\"a}hnliche Fragestellungen vornehmlich im Kontext von sogenannten Statistischen Datenbanken, die sich jedoch erheblich von OLAP unterscheiden, so dass Ergebnisse kaum {\"u}bertragbar sind. In j{\"u}ngerer Zeit finden sich in der Literatur vereinzelte Vorschl{\"a}ge zur L{\"o}sung von Teilaspekten im Hinblick auf OLAP. Diese haben allerdings bis dato keine nennenswerte Verbreitung im Unternehmensumfeld gefunden, obwohl die Problematik durch die seit einiger Zeit zunehmende Diffusion von OLAP-Funktionalit{\"a}t in betriebliche Anwendungs- und Informationssysteme brisanter und im Unternehmensumfeld als entsprechend heikel betrachtet wird. Diese Arbeit verfolgt das Ziel, Disclosure Limitation in OLAP der praktischen Anwendbarkeit n{\"a}her zu bringen. Dazu werden zwei Beitr{\"a}ge zur Forschung auf diesem Gebiet geleistet. Es wird erstens ein Rahmen zur empirischen Evaluation von Sicherheitsmechanismen in OLAP im Hinblick auf ihre praktische Einsatzf{\"a}higkeit entwickelt. Auf Basis der Arbeiten von DeLone \& McLean (2003) sowie Wixom \& Watson (2001) werden erst-mals Kriterien zur Evaluation der Qualit{\"a}t von OLAP vorgeschlagen. Zwei (kompatible) Adaptionen des DeLone-McLean-Modells erlauben die Bewertung von OLAP einerseits und von Disclosure Limitation-Verfahren in OLAP andererseits. Im Fokus der Bewertung stehen der Nutzen, welcher einem Anwender bzw. einem Unternehmen durch den Einsatz von OLAP bzw. von Schutzmechanismen entsteht, sowie die zu erwartende Schm{\"a}lerung des Nutzens durch eben diese Schutzmechanismen. Die auf dieser Basis durchgef{\"u}hrte Evaluation der bisher in der Literatur diskutierten L{\"o}sungsans{\"a}tze deckt Probleme bzgl. ihrer praktischen Anwendbarkeit auf, insbe-sondere im Hinblick auf den Administrationsaufwand (sowohl bei Ersteinrichtung wie im laufenden Betrieb) und die Einschr{\"a}nkung der Analysefreiheit der Nutzer. Zweitens wird, auf den Ergebnissen dieser Evaluation aufbauend, ein kontextbasiertes, mit geringem Aufwand administrierbares Verfahren zur Spezifizierung und Aktualisierung von Zugriffsrechten in OLAP-Anwendungen entwickelt und beispielhaft in einer SAP Netweaver BI 7.0-Umgebung implementiert. Das Verfahren ber{\"u}cksichtigt sowohl die inhaltliche N{\"a}he von Autorisierungsobjekten zueinander als auch zu den Aufgabenbereiche des Anwenders. Ziel des Verfahrens ist es, explorative Datenanalysen im berechtigten Interessengebiet des Anwenders zu erm{\"o}glichen und gleichzeitig durch die Begrenzung dieses Interessensgebiets im Datenraum die Gefahr unerw{\"u}nschter Offenlegung sensibler Informationen zu verringern. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus erfolgt die Spezifizierung der Zugriffsrechte nach {\"U}bergabe einiger Initialparameter automatisch, so dass der administrative Aufwand bei der ersten Einrichtung sowie im laufenden Betrieb (bspw. {\"A}nderungen an der Informationsstruktur) als {\"a}ußerst gering einzusch{\"a}tzen ist. Mit der weiter steigenden Verbreitung von OLAP und der Erweiterung des Nutzerkrei-ses {\"u}ber das Management hinaus w{\"a}chst in immer mehr Unternehmen die Notwen-digkeit, Maßnahmen zur Disclosure Limitation umzusetzen. Trotzdem finden sich in OLAP-Anwendungen bisher nur selten umfassende Sicherheitsmechanismen implemen-tiert. Das im Rahmen dieser Arbeit entwickelte Verfahren besitzt insofern hohe praktische Relevanz, als es im Unterschied zu anderen Verfahren eine Abw{\"a}gung zwischen Administrierbarkeit und Sicherheit (aus Unternehmenssicht) sowie Flexibilit{\"a}t (aus Anwendersicht) beinhaltet.}, subject = {Business Intelligence}, language = {de} }