Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
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Institute
In the age of globalization, exponential growth and digitalization, organizations need to make faster decisions, as well as continually innovate and adapt to changing customer needs to ensure their long-term competitiveness (Kammerlander et al. 2018; Magnusson and Martini 2008). Notably, large and established companies find it difficult to keep up with start-ups and smaller companies as well as with digital transformation (Christensen et al. 2015).
Thus, organizations are increasingly providing their workforce with Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs) as intra-organizational social software platforms.
Although ESNs hold great promises for organizations and their employees (Mäntymäki and Riemer 2016), most ESN initiatives fail to leverage the intended benefits (Chin et al. 2015). This dissertation seeks to open up the black box behind this seemingly paradoxical relationship.
It comprises four studies that are guided by the following research questions:
R 1: How do different types of users (posters and lurkers) differ in their motivations for participating in ESNs? (= Paper 1)
R 2: Why do employees deliberately not use the ESN? (= Paper 2)
R 3: How can ESNs be successfully implemented and improved to overcome the challenges perceived by employees? (= Paper 3)
R 4: Does ESN usage impact on individual task performance? And how can ESNs be used effectively to increase performance outcomes? (= Paper 4)
Overall, the four studies contribute to a better understanding of the non-adoption phenomenon of ESNs, provide rich insights on employees’ underlying reasons and challenges regarding ESN usage, while underscoring the potential value of ESNs.
In this thesis I empirically assess a wide range of constraints faced by different types of entrepreneurs in developing countries and the effectiveness of different policy interventions aimed at removing them. Thereby, the thesis contributes to the growing literature on enterprises and entrepreneurial activities in developing countries, by producing valuable evidence on which are the constraints faced by which types of entrepreneurs in starting, surviving, and growing, as well as on which interventions work, and for whom. The thesis hence provides important insights for policy formulation aimed at inclusive growth.
It consists of three self-contained papers, which put different emphasis on three different areas in which important research gaps remain. The first paper, which is presented in chapter 2, focuses on interventions aimed at removing firm-level shocks. It consists of a systematic review of evaluations of targeted programs and broader policies that intend to promote micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in developing countries, and assesses which of these interventions are effective in creating jobs. The paper presented in chapter 3 considers death of small, mainly one-person and household businesses. Together with my co-author, I collated panel data on more than 14,000 small firms from 16 firm panel surveys conducted in 12 developing countries. We use this unique panel dataset to provide answers to the following questions: What is the rate of firm death over different horizons? Which firms are more likely to die? Why do they die and what happens afterwards? In chapter 4, I take a closer look at household-level shocks and non-separability between the household and the firm, and assess whether extending health insurance to previously uninsured households leads to increased investment in productive activities, by assessing the impact of a large national health insurance scheme, the Mexican Seguro Popular, on investment in productive agricultural and non-agricultural assets and activities in rural areas. Using panel data from the Mexican rural evaluation surveys of the Oportunidades cash transfer program, I estimate the effect of the program on out-of-pocket health care expenditures and productive assets and account for possible self-selection of households into the program, using difference-in-differences estimation, as well as a propensity score matched difference-in-differences specification.
Previous laboratory studies on the centipede game have found that subjects exhibit surprisingly high levels of cooperation. Across disciplines, it has recently been highlighted that these high levels of cooperation might be explained by “team reasoning”, the willingness to think as a team rather than as an individual. We run an experiment with a standard centipede game as a baseline. In two treatments, we seek to induce team reasoning by making a joint goal salient. First, we implement a probabilistic variant of the centipede game that makes it easy to identify a joint goal. Second, we frame the game as a situation where a team of two soccer players attempts to score a goal. This frame increases the salience even more. Compared to the baseline, our treatments induce higher levels of cooperation. In a second experiment, we obtain similar evidence in a more natural environment–a beer garden during the 2014 FIFA Soccer World Cup. Our study contributes to understanding how a salient goal can support cooperation.
Der deutsche Markt für Abschlussprüfungen: Marktstruktur, Regulierungsmaßnahmen und Prüferwechsel
(2018)
Diese Dissertation ist eine empirische Untersuchung über die Entwicklung des deutschen Markts für Abschlussprüfungen in den Jahren 2005 bis 2014. Das Ziel ist es, eine Beurteilung über 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. über die Notwendigkeit der Einführung rechtlicher Normen Aufschluss geben. Auf Basis der Untersuchung von Regulierungsmaßnahmen werden Auswirkungen sowie die Zielerreichung dieser Normen untersucht. Eine Ereignisstudie zur Kapitalmarktreaktion auf Prüferwechsel soll schließlich die Einschätzung des Kapitalmarkts gegenüber 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 Prüfungsmarktforschung auf. Die Resultate zeigen, dass die Notwendigkeit für regulatorische Eingriffe durch die analysierte Erhöhung der Prüferunabhängigkeit im Untersuchungszeitraum gerechtfertigt werden kann. Hinsichtlich der Auswirkungen ergeben sich ein Anstieg der Prüferhonorare sowie eine Verringerung der Bilanzpolitik. Die Zielerreichung einer Stärkung der Prüferunabhängigkeit sowie einer Erhöhung der Qualität der Abschlussprüfung kann zudem nachgewiesen werden. Zuletzt wird aufgezeigt, dass der Kapitalmarkt negativ auf Prüferwechsel reagiert.
German state elections are in focus of this work due to the decreasing importance of the "catch all parties" and rise of the AfD in 2013. As small parties like the AfD first reached the 5% threshold in state parliaments (e.g. in the Saxony state election 2014), state elections can be used as barometer elections for the national ones. Further, state elections fill the gap between the 4-year national election cycle and provide additional information for the national election.
The aim of this thesis is to forecast state elections based on polling data from different institutes. Despite occurring errors in polls like measurement or sampling errors - which are also discussed in this work - forecasting is made with aggregate models depending on short term polling data. Irregular polling data have to be customized to generate daily data to apply parametric regression based models. To forecast single vote shares in multi-party elections, the range of methods varies from basic methods like averaging over nonparametric regression based methods to dynamic linear models.
Three essays on the welfare and social impacts of external shocks and public policies in Mexico
(2018)
In this thesis I examine the welfare and social consequences associated with one economic shock and two policy interventions in Mexico. I use non-experimental approaches that exploit increased data availability as well as in-depth knowledge of the institutional background and show how germane extensions in the methodology shed light on previously unaccounted consequences and help better identify affected households. In particular, I quantify the role of quantity substitution effects in the alleviation of welfare, I estimate the effect of quality substitution on the efficiency of a taxation policy, and I document the possible consequences of an aggressive policy intervention on organized and property crime.
Data is an important competitive resource in digital online markets. As a result, the access and availability of data can be the basis for a competitive advantage. This thesis analyzes the role and competitive effects of data in digital markets and contributes to an improved understanding of data as a (potential) basis for market power. Thereby, the thesis also contributes to the ongoing policy debate on how to safeguard a fair and open competitive environment for internet-based digital (i.e., online) services as well as traditional services.
In doing so, Study 1 surveys the literature and discusses (i) the challenges that are associated with assessing market power in digital markets, (ii) the challenges in creating a level playing field in digital markets, e.g., by harmonizing regulatory obligations for online and offline services, and (iii) the vital role of data and data protection in the context of data-driven business models. Study 2 and Study 3 focus on the competitive effects of transferring data between online competitors. The study on social logins (Study 2) highlights the strategic effects as well as welfare implications if competing online services deliberately and voluntarily decide to share user and usage data. Whereas Study 2 abstracts from the user’s decision how much data to provide to an online service, Study 3 focuses on the amount of data that firms require for their services and that is provided by users. In particular, Study 3 investigates the competitive and welfare effects of a new fundamental consumer right: The right to data portability. This right is part of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which becomes effective in May 2018 for all online services available to users in the European Union and allows users to transfer their personal data from one online service to another (competing) online service (c.f., GDPR Article 20). In this context, the study examines the firms’ strategic reactions to the introduction of such a right and identifies the ensuing market outcomes as well as policy and managerial implications.
In conclusion, this doctoral thesis contributes to an improved understanding of (i) the competitive effects that arise from data as an economic good or valuable asset for digital services, and (ii) the aspects that may constitute market power in digital markets. Moreover, from a policy perspective, the thesis can be understood as a theoretically founded research project that (i) informs which market failures may arise in the context of digital (data-driven) markets and that (ii) highlights the peculiarities that need to be considered to define appropriate legal requirements in order to establish a level playing field between online services and traditional (established) services, but also between competing online services. Therefore, the thesis also contributes to the discussion on whether and how dominant online platforms should and can be regulated.
Ongoing advancements in technology have significantly shaped the marketing landscape over the course of the last decades. Consequently, new technology-driven opportunities and challenges for marketing research and practice emerge. Those urge the need to redefine firm-based value propositions, to adapt business models, to place significant emphasis on topics such as innovation, design and strategy, but also to develop new knowledge and skill sets. In response to those changes, this dissertation addresses two major developments and related opportunities and challenges – namely, digitized retail environments and innovative, complex business models – in three different essays. Thereby, this dissertation contributes to a better understanding of the evolving relationship between marketing and technology.
Essay 1 and Essay 2 address the increasing digitization of physical retail environments. Retailers embrace a plethora of retail technologies to facilitate activities and processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to consumers and to consequently improving physical retail stores.
Essay 1 provides an integrated literature review on digital retail technologies’ impact on consumer behavior at physical retail stores. Thereby, Essay 1 adopts a shopping cycle based framework structured around distinct phases of consumer behavior to delineate and summarize findings from existing literature on the behavioral effects of retail technologies embraced by retailers. With the applied shopping cycle based framework, Essay 1 identifies specific gaps in extant literature relative to currently embraced practices of retail technology, but furthermore on emerging trends, which have the potential to reshape the retailing environment. Subsequently, an extensive research agenda is proposed to advance the next generation of knowledge development. With its integrated literature review and research agenda, Essay 1 contributes to research in the retail area, such as research on customer experience, shopper marketing and specifically on the role of technology in retailing.
Essay 2 analyzes consumers’ response to one particular innovative retail technology and thus replies to future questions of the research agenda developed in Essay 1. Essay 2 analyzes the perceptions and consequences of attribute-based personalized advertising in physical retail stores, where other people are present and can see the personalized content. Essay 2 shows when and how social presence of others impacts consumers’ attitudes and behavioral intentions, as well as emotions, when exposed to personalized advertising. The findings of two experimental studies provide evidence, that the presence of others does not influence consumer response per se, but it interacts with personalization. Further, the results show that consumers’ negative response to personalized ads in the social presence of others is mediated by embarrassment and moderated by consumers’ congruity state (the extent to which the ad is consistent with the consumer’s self-concept). These findings offer new theoretical insights into how consumers respond to personalized advertising in the social presence of others, and thus advance marketing research on personalized advertising, digital displays, shopper marketing as well as research on customer experience. Further, the results disclose meaningful managerial implications for the application of new consumer tracking technology.
Essay 3 addresses opportunities and challenges related to innovative, complex business models resulting from technological advancements. With customer orientation in free e-services, Essay 3 analyzes a strategically highly relevant phenomenon, which thus far has been neglected by prior research. Free e-services are characterized by the superiority of free costumers and interdependencies between free and paying customers. Essay 3 investigates how free e-service providers respond to those particularities in their customer orientation activities. Results from one qualitative and one quantitative study uncover, that only free-born providers, that from the outset strategically committed themselves to the free business model, possess customer orientation capabilities that match the particularities of free e-services. They use customer orientation toward one customer group to increase the satisfaction of the other simultaneously and, thus, are reaching their financial goals. Contrastively, laggards, that started with a non-free business model before launching their free e-service, do not exploit the full potential of customer orientation, as they focus too much on the paying customer group. These findings offer new theoretical insights for research on customer orientation, research on two-sided markets as well as on stakeholder marketing. Moreover, Essay 3 provides valuable and actionable insights for managers of free e-services.
Taking a broader perspective, this dissertation advances marketing knowledge on technological innovation, new types of consumer data, strategy shifts, as well as new firm capabilities and managerial skill sets required in an age of disruption within the virtual, but also the physical world. By using a variety of methods including conceptual work, experiments, qualitative interviews as well as survey research, and furthermore by ensuring high practical relevance, this dissertation adds important perspectives to the evolving relationship between marketing and technology.
In three studies, this dissertation deals with success factors of digital and non-digital services. More specifically it reveals the role of non-monetary costs for the success of free digital services. Moreover, it deals with customer orientation of frontline employees. It reveals the crucial role of the customer for frontline employees' ability to act in a customer-oriented manner.
Even though the negative outcomes of boundary spanners’ role stress are well- known to service theory and practice, insights into how to manage frontline employees to lower experienced role stress are sparse. Moreover, extant research fails to include most up-to-date challenges of new service environments and their effects on frontline employees’ role stress perceptions. This dissertation’s studies focus on three different aspects of managing boundary spanners’ role stress in service occupations affected by the challenges of new service environments: managing (a) enhanced individual role complexity by feedback (Study 1), (b) person-role conflicts by transformational leadership (Study 2), and (c) role ambiguity by problem-focused coping strategies (Study 3).
Study 1 introduces the new concept of individual role complexity as mediator between environmental complexity (from customers and the own organization) and role stress of frontline employees in service settings. Moreover, Study 1 details different aspects of individual role complexity and considers feedback from various sources as potential moderators that mitigate the stressing effect of high individual role complexity. The results of this study provide a deeper understanding of current boundary spanner roles, their complexity and potential approaches to handle individual role complexity. The study offers directions for further empirical research on boundary spanners’ role complexity. Moreover, it helps managers to understand today’s service environments and frontline employees’ roles plus it suggests tools to manage imminent performance declines caused by individual role complexity.
The purpose of Study 2 is to identify effective leadership behavior that reduces frontline employees’ person-role conflicts, a hitherto rather neglected sub-dimension of role conflicts that strongly differs from externally originated role conflict dimensions which have been examined in existing research. Moreover, Study 2 aims at identifying individual cultural values as important contingency factors for the effects of transformational leadership respectively person-role conflicts on a frontline employee’s job performance. Results reveal that charisma-related transformational leadership styles promote the job performance of frontline employees, even in the face of person-role conflicts, while intellectual stimulation has a negative effect on job performance. In addition, the individual cultural values collectivism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance moderate the effects of transformational leadership on job performance. The findings imply that service firms should train managers in the use of charisma-related leadership styles and highlight the importance of employees’ individual culture when leading frontline employees with distinct leadership styles.
Study 3 addresses which frontline employees’ problem-focused coping strategies might effectively reduce perceived role ambiguity. The gathered evidence indicates that only action coping is effective, whereas instrumental support seeking does even enhance perceived role ambiguity. An examination of intrinsic and extrinsic coping resources as drivers of coping reveals that conscientiousness and supervisor support are helpful coping resources. Contrary, neuroticism drives insufficient coping and inhibits the use of effective coping resources. Managers of service firms should provide training to ensure effective supervisor support plus consider the personality traits of potential employees in recruitment procedures to reduce and prevent experienced role ambiguity among frontline employees. Altogether, the three studies contribute to existing service theory and practice by identifying management tools to counter role stress perceptions induced by the challenges of new service environments.