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This dissertation investigates the application of machine learning to improve decision making in airline operations. In an introductory overview, we1 discuss the airline industry and the challenges of decision making in airline operations: e. g., complex IT infrastructure, interconnected resources, delay management, fuel price volatility and future environmental regulation. Machine learning can efficiently integrate a large volume of data from a variety of data sources and formats to generate accurate predictions. To assess the viability of using machine learning models for decision making in airline operations, we develop a model based on linear regression and gradient boosting to predict aircraft arrival time. Furthermore, we integrate cost index optimization to model the impact of aircraft speed on arrival time. While we find that machine learning can improve prediction accuracy by more than 30 %, the optimal cost index varies according to fuel cost, flight distance and delay costs. We propose an overall reduction in cost index for short-haul flights to reduce fuel cost while maintaining punctual operations. Arrival time predictions serve as input for daily operations planning and control. For network carriers accurate arrival time predictions are key for efficient hub operations. In a next step, we focus on aircraft arrival time prediction for intercontinental flights. We analyze the accuracy of en-route weather data provided by the flight plan, generate features based on en-route weather data and integrate them in our prediction model. We evaluate three machine learning models: linear regression, random forest and gradient boosting. Through our approach, we can assess the impact of en-route weather data. Overall, an increase in prediction accuracy of 25 % is achieved. By including en-route weather data, prediction accuracy is improved by 5 %. Our model outlines the essential features for intercontinental arrival time predictions and assess the value of en-route weather data. Furthermore, we outline organizational challenges in implementing predictive analytics. Future environmental regulations are a challenge for the airline industry. From 2020 onwards net growth in CO2 emissions is prohibited. Thus, airlines need to focus on initiatives to limit fuel consumption. We develop a prediction model for fuel consumption considering ten different aircraft types. Our results show that fuel consumption can be improved by more than 30 % for short and long-haul flights resulting in an annual reduction of 10.5 million e in fuel costs and a reduction on green house gas emissions of 66.000 tons. Furthermore, we assess the pilots’ willingness to integrate our prediction model in their fuel decision. Our analysis shows that high prediction accuracy, model understanding and a long testing phase are essential for acceptance of the prediction model. The main implication is that decision making in airline operations can be substantially improved through machine learning. Therefore, more prediction.
1The term “we” refers to the authors of the respective chapters as denoted at the beginning of each chapter. For the abstract, this refers to the authors of Achenbach and Spinler (2018a,b), Achenbach et al. (2017).
Deal Logic Linde / Praxair
(2018)
Currently in news for the last moment approval from the Federal Trade Commission to make the Praxair and Linde merger a reality, the development of the deal has not been short of hurdles. Initially, Praxair-Linde faced resistance from the European Union under the accusation that the merger would hinder competition. Later, both companies had to undertake multiple selling transactions to meet the anti-trust requirements of the countries in which they operated. Praxair and Linde were finally able to meet the requirements in early November for a successful completion of the merger.
Linde and Praxair, the world’s no. 2 and no. 3 industrial gas suppliers respectively, were in the spotlight due to the size of the merger and the impact that it would have on the gas industry, almost making them a monopoly firm.
As a giant in the entertainment space, you have the power to influence not only the kind of content you roll out, but also the mediums on which the content can be offered. With the growing presence of online streaming platforms, the need to make yourself and your content relevant is ever increasing. Under looming concerns of a possible monopoly in the entertainment sector, Disney's purchase of 21st Century Fox has effects on the entertainment industry in the long run. With expectations of downsizing operations and possible large scale lay-offs, the real-world implications of the buyout aren't exactly lighthearted fun.
Disrupt yourself to avoid getting disrupted: Large firms struggling with further growth, acquiring smaller innovation drivers with complementary assets isn’t something new. But what is hard, in this context, is to justify the surging valuations and to identify the underlying synergies. When it comes to the High-Tech sector this can quickly become a philosophical question. The big question in the acquisition of Red Hat Inc. by IBM, analyzed in this Deal Logic, is the one concerning the future of cloud computing, especially when it comes to customer approval.
Deal Logic LVMH / Belmond
(2019)
In the recent past, the demand for luxury experiences has grown. An increase in the middle and upper class disposable income, changes in lifestyle patterns, and demand for unique and exotic holiday experiences have been the forefront drivers. The global luxury travel market is expected to garner USD 1.2tr by 2022. Epitomising desirable destinations, luxurious accommodations, convenient transport facilities, and authentic travel experience, the luxury travel market has great future potential to grow and diversify. Customization and personalization gain increasing importance in luxury tourism. Also, the concept of luxury travel changes from opulence to exclusive. Synonymous with luxury, LVMH bets on the future of this market that is increasingly going experiential. Belmond would help it increase its luxury image. It would benefit from a luxury perception with both tangible and experiential products in its portfolio.
In this competitive world, a company has to keep evolving – either by expansion and/or by diversification. Particularly looking at the sporting industry, the former nowadays is a necessity. With a market size of USD 60bn, the global sporting goods market is growing rapidly. Every company in the industry has to be agile to avoid being disrupted. The acquisition of Amer Sports by Anta Sports reflects this line of thought. Founded three decades ago as a low-cost manufacturer for global brands, Anta is now aiming to rival Adidas and Nike with its planned USD 6.3bn takeover.
Library security
(2015)
This paper examines the sensitivity of profit shifting to the corporate tax rate difference between a subsidiary and its parent company. We exploit tax rate variation stemming from European tax reforms over the period 2003-2013 while accounting for tax base adjustments that might affect firms’ profit shifting response to tax rate changes. We find that affiliates’ profits are sensitive to tax rate changes. However, tax base broadening reforms mitigate the tax rate incentives for profit shifting and significantly reduce the semi-elasticity of profits with respect to corporate tax rates. Finally, we provide evidence of a downward trend in the tax sensitivity of profit shifting, suggesting that the spread of anti-avoidance regulation may have successfully constrained profit-shifting strategies.
This study examines the relation between executives’ inside debt holdings and corporate tax risk. As executives’ inside debt holdings are unsecured and unfunded, they should align executives’ interests with those of outside debtholders and incentivize executives to act more conservatively toward risk. Hence, inside debt should also reduce the risk of tax avoidance activities. Consistent with this prediction, we find that executive inside debt holdings are negatively related to tax risk. Further, this relation becomes stronger at higher levels of tax risk. We also find that the relation between insider debt and tax risk is stronger for firms that are not facing liquidity constraints and among well-governed firms. The latter result implies that institutional ownership and inside debt compensation are substitutes in reducing tax risk. Overall, our results suggest that part of the observed cross-sectional difference in tax avoidance can be explained by a reduction in tax risk that is related to executive inside debt holdings.
This paper empirically examines why tax avoidance differs across individuals. We use rich Swedish administrative panel data on all taxpayers, with a link between corporate and individual tax returns. Surprisingly, few individuals utilize legal and observable tax avoidance opportunities. Our results show that there are several frictions in tax avoidance participation. In addition to monetary benets from tax avoidance (incentives), the opportunity to participate in tax avoidance (access), as well as information and knowledge about these opportunities (awareness), are important factors for the individual's tax avoidance decision. We further show that information about tax avoidance opportunities spreads within informal networks.
This paper analyzes whether a dividend tax cut for owner–managers of closely held corporations encourages income shifting, income generation, or both. We use rich Swedish administrative micro data from 2000 to 2011 comprising detailed firm- and individual-level information. We find robust evidence of extensive income shifting across tax bases in response to the 2006 Swedish dividend tax cut. Owner–managers of closely held corporations reclassify earned income as dividend income but do not increase total income. The response is more pronounced for owner–managers with tax incentives and with easier access to income shifting through a high ownership share.
We examine the role of tax incentives, tax awareness, and complexity in tax evasion. We observe a specific type of tax evasion among business owners in Swedish administrative panel data, after the tax authority has approved all tax returns. For the period 2006–2009, approximately 5% of tax returns overstate a claimed dividend allowance. Tax awareness decreases and complexity increases the likelihood of misreporting. Our results indicate that some observed misreporting could be accidental, while some misreporting is deliberate tax evasion. We identify a positive and significant effect of tax rates on tax evasion, by exploiting a large kink in the tax schedule. The majority of misreporting cases remains undetected by the tax authority. Self-correction of tax evasion by taxpayers is the dominant type of detection.
We test whether dividend taxes affect corporate investments. We exploit Sweden’s 2006 dividend tax cut of 10 percentage points for closely held corporations and five percentage points for widely held corporations. Using rich administrative panel data and tripledifference estimators, we find that this dividend tax cut does not affect aggregate investment but that it affects the allocation of corporate investment. Cash-constrained firms increase investment after the dividend tax cut relative to cash-rich firms. Reallocation is stronger among closely held firms that experience a larger tax cut. This result is explained by higher external equity in cashconstrained firms and by higher dividends in cash-rich firms after the tax cut. The heterogeneous investment responses imply that the dividend tax cut raises efficiency by improving allocation of investment.
This paper tests the effect of dividend taxation on employment. Since dividend taxation affects real investments, tax-induced changes in real investments should map into employment effects. Using a difference-in-difference approach around the Swedish 2006 dividend tax cut and unique corporate-level data with income tax information on every employee, we find robust evidence of dividend tax-induced employment effects. In response to the dividend cut, both employment and wage levels increase in cash-constrained firms relative to cash-rich closely held corporations.
The trucking industry is at the beginning of a radical change due to several megatrends which will reshape the industry significantly. Based on the targets of the Paris Climate Agreement, the German government adopted its own Climate Action Plan 2050 which includes sector- specific reduction targets to reach a greenhouse gas neutral society by the middle of the 21st century. By 2030, the German Climate Action Plan specifies a reduction target of 40% from transportation compared to the reference year 1990. While emissions from other sectors such as energy or industry have decreased significantly since then, emissions from transportation remained stable. Among the various modes of transportation, passenger cars and commercial vehicles are by far the largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions. As of January 2019, 99.7% of heavy-duty trucks registered in Germany run on diesel while the number of alternative fuel- powered passenger cars increases steadily. Apart from rising emissions, the industry faces a severe shortage of qualified truck drivers. According to the German Association of Freight Forwarders and Logistics Companies, the industry was facing a shortage of 45,000 drivers in Germany in 2017 with increasing tendency due to higher trade volumes and e-commerce.
This dissertation aims to discuss the transition of road transport in Germany toward innovative heavy-duty trucks. The main body of this dissertation consists of three research papers each of them focusing on autonomous and/or alternative fuel-powered heavy-duty trucks. The first research paper presents the results of a Delphi study with experts from industry and academia on factors affecting the purchasing decision and operation of alternative fuel-powered heavy-duty trucks in Germany. In the second study, a choice-based conjoint experiment with employees from freight companies was conducted to test how customers value the main attributes of innovative heavy-duty trucks. The Generalized Bass diffusion model was applied in the third study to investigate the future diffusion of battery electric heavy-duty trucks considering total-cost-of-ownership reduction effects.
Delegated monitoring
(2012)
To highlight the value of delegated monitoring through bond trustees, we examine the high-yield corporate bond market where default risk is high, covenants are numerous, and market values are particularly sensitive to wealth transfers. We show that bond trustees that also act as underwriters in the low-grade bond segment, but not the market’s largest trustees, reduce firms’ at-issue bond yields by 33 to 40 basis points. Accordingly, we report significantly lower bond default and downgrade risks associated with superior monitoring by these trustees. These pricing effects remain when we control for self-selection and do not hinge on whether we solely consider trustee identity or interaction terms of trustees with covenant variables that measure necessary monitoring effort. Our results can be interpreted as evidence for informational and reputational spillover effects of banks providing several services in the high-yield market segment.
Gone with the windfall
(2018)
Due to the debate about the generosity of LTC insurance benefits the German government decided to increase benefits and widen the circle of LTC beneficiaries with the Second LTC Strengthening Act. In this paper, we evaluate the long-term implications of this recent reform for the German LTC insurance scheme. Using the framework of generational accounting we show that the reform has led to a widening of the short-term gap between revenues and expenditure and that the LTC insurance is not sustainably financed, neither pre- nor post-reform. By the early 2020s there will be fiscal pressure for further reforms. From an intergenerational perspective, the reform can be seen as a windfall to current beneficiaries increasing the intergenerational redistribution through the pay-as-you-go system.
Workshop Copyright
(2018)
Web-based interaction between customers and producers offer new promising ways of bringing customers into the company right to where the value creation begins - in new product development (NPD). Despite the high potential of virtual customer integration (VCI), practical application is limited. The decision of initial utilization of VCI depends on the manager’s predisposition - favorable or unfavorable -towards VCI; usually, it is the responsibility of managers and executives belonging to the development, marketing or innovation departments to sanction such a decision. To get a deeper understanding of antecedents leading to the application of VCI, further information is needed. In this paper, the authors shed light on the various factors affecting managerial intention to apply virtual customer integration. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) provides a basis for developing a research model explaining the relation between managers’ cognition, attitude, social norms, perceived behavioral control and their intention to adopt VCI. The initial results of our empirical study, wherein we interviewed 94 managers within the consumer goods and services field, show that the TPB accounts for 66 percent of the variance in the managers’ intention to apply VCI. Furthermore, the study reveals that social norms and perceived behavioral control are the main factors which influence managerial decision to apply VCI. This contrasts with the widely-held theory that an individual's attitude is the most significant factor of influence.
Past research has identified that innovation portfolio management is about efficiently managing the right innovation portfolio projects. However, the relevant literature has fairly unobserved decision processes which help to maximize the value of the entire innovation portfolio. This work analyzed decision procedures within the context of innovation portfolio management; especially, the project go/stop-decision processes. Founded on a theoretical basis two decision making experiments were developed and a distinct set of hypotheses by two large-scale experimental studies were tested.
The present work is aimed at making a valuable contribution to conceptual research about decision making in the context of innovation portfolio management, and the experimental based research field. The results of these studies help to get a detailed understanding of the decision making processes and may lead to a better understanding of project management within an innovation portfolio by firms and by decision makers in general.
Ziel dieser Studie ist es, den Beitrag Offener Immobilienfonds zur Asset Allocation zu bestimmen. Die folgenden Punkte fassen die wichtigsten Erkenntnisse aus der vorliegenden Studie zusammen.
- Die Anlageklasse Offene Immobilienfonds leistet in Portfolios privater und institutioneller Investoren einen wertvollen Beitrag zur Erhöhung der erwarteten Rendite, zur Reduktion der Risiken und damit zur Verbesserung der Diversifikation.
- Dies gilt für verschiedene Optimierungsverfahren und auch dann, wenn die Renditezeitreihen entglättet werden und dadurch ein deutlich höheres Risiko aufweisen. Der Glättungseffekt resultiert maßgeblich
aus der jährlichen Bewertung der Immobilien.
- Offene Immobilienfonds entfalten bereits bei geringen Investitionsquoten positive Effekte auf das Rendite- und Risikoprofil von Anlageportfolios. Dies gilt unabhängig von der Länge der Halteperiode.
- Während die internationalen Aktienmärkte in Krisenzeiten oft Verluste von über 20 Prozent erleiden, konnten Offene Immobilienfonds in diesen Zeiten sogar einen positiven Ertrag erzielen.
- Offene Immobilienfonds können somit zu Recht als wesentlicher Baustein einer erfolgreichen Asset Allocation angesehen werden.
Die Erwartungen in eine gelungene Kooperation von Logistik und Vertrieb sind hoch. Besonders die Umsetzung von modernen Supply Chain Management Konzepten treibt diese Erwartungen. Ein erhöhter Kooperationsbedarf ergibt sich hier nicht nur aus der Anforderung, reibungslose Abläufe zwischen den Bereichen sicherzustellen. Eine gelungene Kooperation von Logistik und Vertrieb birgt vielmehr das Potenzial, eine hohe Leistung im Kundenservice vermarkten zu können und diese letztlich als Wettbewerbsvorteil auszubauen. In der Praxis gestaltet sich die Umsetzung von Kooperation jedoch häufi g als schwierig. Somit stellt sich die Frage, welche Faktoren die Kooperation an der
Schnittstelle beider Bereiche in positiver und negativer Weise beeinflussen.
Auf Basis einer empirischen Studie mit Antworten von 347 Managern aus Logistik und Vertrieb verschiedener Branchen untersucht die vorliegende Arbeit Einfl ussfaktoren der Kooperation. Dazu werden kooperationsfördernde Mechanismen auf ihre Wirksamkeit hin überprüft. Außerdem werden grundlegende Orientierungen und Kompetenzen von Logistik und Vertrieb an der Schnittstelle beider Abteilungen in ihren Wirkungen betrachtet. Diese sogenannten Thought Worlds sind die Konsequenz einer notwendigen Spezialisierung der Bereiche und prägen deren Arbeitsweisen und Prioritäten. Sie erweisen sich jedoch in der Zusammenarbeit vielfach als beeinträchtigend. Darüber hinaus werden Ansatzpunkte aufgezeigt, um die Kooperation und den gemeinsamen Erfolg von Logistik und Vertrieb zu erhöhen.
Diese Studie zeigt die Ergebnisse eines Forschungsprojektes der WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, das die erfolgreiche Ausgestaltung der Zusammenarbeit von Logistik und Vertrieb zum zentralen Thema hat. Die Studie stellt den Status quo der Zusammenarbeit von Logistik und Vertrieb dar. Sie betrachtet Kooperation, Kommunikation und Konflikte zwischen beiden Abteilungen und zeigt auf, wie die Schnittstelle der beiden Bereiche organisiert ist. Außerdem werden Maßnahmen zur Verbesserung der Zusammenarbeit und die Unterschiede zwischen den beiden Abteilungen, die die Zusammenarbeit beeinflussen, analysiert.
Diese Studie basiert auf den Antworten von 348 deutschen Industrie- und Handelsunternehmen durch Manager, die vorwiegend in Führungspositionen in Logistik/Supply Chain Management und Vertrieb/Customer Service Bereichen sowie im General Management tätig sind.
Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass...
... sich eine gute Zusammenarbeit von Logistik und Vertrieb lohnt. Sie geht mit höherem Erfolg im Markt und in der Leistung der Distributionslogistik einher. Gleichzeitig haben diese Unternehmen ein geringeres Konfliktniveau zwischen Logistik und Vertrieb.
... eine Vielfalt von organisatorischen Modellen der Aufgabenteilung zwischen beiden Bereichen vorherrscht. Die meisten Fälle sind Varianten eines klassischen Modells, in dem der Vertrieb als Kundenkontakt für Prozesse der Auftragsannahme und -bearbeitung zuständig ist, während die Logistik auf die typischen logistischen Aufgaben beschränkt ist, wie Lagerdisposition und Transportplanung.
... große Unterschiede bestehen im Einsatz von Maßnahmen, die auf eine Verbesserung der Zusammenarbeit der beiden Bereiche abzielen. Erfolgreiche Unternehmen tun einiges mehr, um die Zusammenarbeit zu unterstützen. Dies umfasst ein breites Maßnahmenspektrum mit vielfältigen Ansatzpunkten, um die Bereiche zusammenzubringen oder besser zu koordinieren. Besonders erfolgreiche Unternehmen verfügen über eine hohe Unterstützung durch das Top Management, einen weitreichenden Einsatz von Teams zur Planung und Durchführung von Aufgaben und Durchführung von Entscheidungen, und eine größere räumliche Nähe der Mitarbeiter von Logistik und Vertrieb. Zudem gelingt es ihnen besser, Ziele beider Bereiche aufeinander abzustimmen.
... Unterschiede zwischen Logistik und Vertrieb vorhanden sind, jedoch nicht kontraproduktiv sein müssen, sondern eine sinnvolle Ergänzung darstellen. Allerdings gibt es Anzeichen, dass in erfolgreichen Unternehmen Logistik und Vertrieb in verschiedenen Aspekten einander angenähert sind. In erfolgreichen Unternehmen ist die Logistik besonders kundenorientiert in Bezug auf externe Kunden und der Vertrieb kundenorientiert in Bezug auf interne Kunden. Beide Bereiche haben jeweils ein breites Wissen und Kenntnisse in der Domäne des anderen Bereiches, die Logistik im Marktwissen und der Vertrieb in der Kenntnis der internen Prozesse.
This study examines heterogeneity in tax rate elasticities of corporate capital using staggered variation in local business tax rates of German municipalities. The results suggest an average long-run capital decline of 0.97% after a 1% increase in the tax rate. In line with prior literature that suggests higher investment-cash flow sensitivities of firms with financing constraints tax rate elasticities are up to half times larger for financially constrained firms than for unconstrained firms. Moreover, capital responses are about half times larger for firms with fewer tax avoidance possibilities. Finally, this study contributes to the literature on tax incidence. I find a weaker relation between taxes and capital for firms that are less likely to bear the economic burden of the tax because they shift the tax incidence to their stakeholders.
Bank earnings management
(2010)
whether the moral evaluation of tax evasion is subject to a self-serving bias. We find that tax morale is egoistically biased: Subjects with the opportunity to evade taxes judge tax evasion as less unethical as opposed to those who cannot evade. The detection probability does not affect this result. Further, we do not find moral spillover effects, for example, on legal activities.
Does legality matter?
(2015)
Previous research argues that law expresses social values and could, therefore, influence individual behavior independently of enforcement and penalization. Using three laboratory experiments on tax avoidance and evasion, we study how legality affects individuals’ decisions. We find that, without any risk of negative financial consequences, the qualification of tax minimization as illegal versus legal reduces tax minimization considerably. Legislators can thus, in principle, affect subjects’ decisions by defining the borderline between legality and illegality. However, once we introduce potential negative financial consequences, legality does not affect tax minimization. Only if we use moral priming to increase subjects’ moral cost do we again find a legality effect on tax minimization. Overall, this demonstrates the limitations of the expressive function of law. Legality appears to be an important determinant of behavior only if we consider activities with no or low risk of negative financial consequences or if subjects are morally primed.
Hedging retail promotions
(2012)
Using comprehensive panel data on Chinese acquisitions in Germany in the time period from 2007 to 2016, this thesis investigates the effects of the acquisition on target firm performance and concentrates on some critical issues regarding target top management team turnover and target firm performance as well as acquirer technological capability and target innovation performance. More specifically, the thesis focuses on the following questions: (1) How do acquisitions by emerging-market firms in developed markets influence target post-acquisition firm performance? (2) Do target top management team turnover or target chief executive officer (CEO) turnover have an effect on target post-acquisition firm performance in case of emerging-market acquisitions in developed markets and what is the moderating role of appointing an acquiring firm´s manager as target CEO? (3) How does the acquirer’s technological capability relate to target post-acquisition innovation performance in case of emerging-market acquisitions in developed markets and does prior international acquisition experience of the acquiring firm play a moderating role in this relationship? The theory and findings contribute to the existing literature on emerging-market firms and their investments in developed-market firms and offer some managerial guidelines in managing target post-acquisition success.
Innovations have become essential drivers of success for companies in most industries. However, innovative efforts often fail due to a lack of internal support. Past research has shown that internal resistance arises when employees perceive innovations as threatening the core of the organization, its identity. How employees can be led to identify with much innovations has remained largely unsolved. Drawing on organizational psychology, this study proposes a new conceptual framework which includes an in-depth understanding of employee identification with innovations, its identity-related antecedents and its consequences. The framework is tested by means of large-scale empirical studies among more than 150 members of a leading healthcare organization. Results indicate that the proposed framework has high explanatory power for employee identification with innovations, employee behaviours and the innovations’ success in the market. Based on these results, an innovation-identity toolkit is derived which enables executives to systematically pursue identification management and integrate it into their innovation management practice. Accordingly, the present book is relevant for both academics and managers in the fields of organizational behaviour and innovation management.
Essays in cryptocurrency
(2021)
Google search secrets
(2014)
Die zeitnahe, transparente und nachhaltige Verbreitung nachprüfbarer wissenschaftlicher Ergebnisse ist eine der wesentlichen Anforderungen an die wissenschaftliche Kommunikation und Infrastruktur. Open Access, also die offene und kostenfreie Nutzung von wissenschaftlicher Literatur, ist hierfür die Grundvoraussetzung. Hochschulen und Universitäten sind in der Regel die Institutionen, an denen Wissenschaftler neue Forschungsergebnisse erzeugen und zur Veröffentlichung als Buch vorbereiten. Neben klassischen Wissenschaftsverlagen veröffentlichen daher immer mehr Hochschulverlage wissenschaftliche Publikationen. Das vorliegende Handbuch beschreibt einen nachhaltigen, allgemeingültigen State-of-the-Art-Workflow zur Herstellung und Distribution von akademischen Büchern, der es Hochschulen und Universitäten ermöglicht, bei weitest möglicher Verbreitung, Sichtbarkeit und Zugänglichkeit eigene Forschungsarbeiten und Graduierungsschriften in digitaler Form im Open Access und als gedrucktes Buch zu veröffentlichen. Dieses Workflow-Modell wird anhand ausgewählter Fallbeispiele als Proof of Concept demonstriert und spiegelt den aktuellen Stand der derzeit im Verlagsbereich technischen und wirtschaftlichen Möglichkeiten wider. Anhand der Fallbeispiele wurden zudem der Zeit-, Kosten- und Personalaufwand erfasst, sodass anderen Hochschulen und Universitäten Anhaltspunkte für nötige Investitionen bei der Gründung und dem Betrieb eigener OA-Hochschulverlage gegeben werden.
Neuerungen in Koha 19.11
(2020)
Maltfabrikken
(2021)
At the beginning of their career civil servants in Germany can choose between the social health insurance (SHI) system and a private plan combined with a direct reimbursement of the government of up to 70 percent. Most civil servants chose the latter, not only but also because they have to cover all contribution payments in the social system themselves, while normal employees get nearly 50 percent from their employers. The city state of Hamburg decided to change the system by paying a share of the contributions if civil servants choose the social plan. We use a stochastic microsimulation model to analyse which socio-economic types of civil servants could benefit from the Hamburg plan and if this changes the mix of insured persons in the SHI system. Our results show that low income and high morbidity types as well as families have a substantially higher incentive to choose SHI. This reform might thereby increase the adverse selection of high risk cases towards SHI.
In der deutschen Gesundheitspolitik wird seit langem unter dem Stichwort Bürgerversicherung über die Einbeziehung aller Bürger in das System der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung diskutiert. Dabei wird meistens die Perspektive der GKVVersicherten eingenommen, seltener diejenige der Versicherten der PKV. Es stellt sich jedoch insbesondere für die Gruppe der Beihilfeberechtigten die Frage, welche monetären Konsequenzen durch eine Bürgerversicherung für sie entstehen und in welcher Höhe daraus Kompensationszahlungen abgeleitet werden können. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen: Selbst, wenn diese Kompensationen weniger als die Hälfte der Differenz der Versicherungsleistungen zwischen PKV/Beihilfe und einer
Bürgerversicherung abdecken, hat der Business Case Bürgerversicherung für die Gebietskörperschaften zumindest kurzfristig negative fiskalischen Folgen.
Das Hamburger Beihilfemodell
(2017)
Zu Beginn ihrer Karriere verfügen Beamte über das Privileg zwischen einer Absicherung im System der gesetzlichen Krankenversicherungen (GKV) und den privaten Krankenversicherungen (PKV) wählen zu dürfen. Bislang entscheiden sich die meisten Beamten für letztere, auch weil sie in der GKV sowohl Arbeitnehmerals auch Arbeitgeberbeitrag zahlen müssten, in der PKV dagegen eine Kostenbeteiligung im Rahmen der Beihilfe vorgesehen ist. Die Stadt Hamburg hat nun jedoch beschlossen, zukünftig Arbeitgeberzuschüsse zur GKV zu leisten, um damit eine „echte Wahlfreiheit“ herzustellen. Wir zeigen anhand eines Vergleichs der internen Renditen in beiden Systemen, dass sich das Kalkül für den Durchschnittsbeamten trotz dieser gefeierten Reform kaum verändern wird. Vielmehr wird es wahrscheinlich zu einer verstärkten adversen Selektion von hohen Gesundheitsrisiken zu Lasten der GKV kommen.
Strong consistency of the least squares estimator in regression models with adaptive learning
(2017)
This paper looks at the strong consistency of the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimator in a stereotypical macroeconomic model with adaptive learning. It is a companion to Christopeit & Massmann (2017, Econometric Theory) which considers the estimator’s convergence in distribution and its weak consistency in the same setting. Under constant gain learning, the model is closely related to stationary, (alternating) unit root or explosive autoregressive processes. Under decreasing gain learning, the regressors in the model are asymptotically collinear. The paper examines, first, the issue of strong convergence of the learning recursion: It is argued that, under constant gain learning, the recursion does not converge in any probabilistic sense, while for decreasing gain learning rates are derived at which the recursion converges almost surely to the rational expectations equilibrium. Secondly, the paper establishes the strong consistency of the OLS estimators, under both constant and decreasing gain learning, as well as rates at which the estimators converge almost surely. In the constant gain model, separate estimators for the intercept and slope parameters are juxtaposed to the joint estimator, drawing on the recent literature on explosive autoregressive models. Thirdly, it is emphasised that strong consistency is obtained in all models although the near-optimal condition for the strong consistency of OLS in linear regression models with stochastic regressors, established by Lai & Wei (1982), is not always met.
This paper proposes a method for deriving the joint asymptotic distribution of sample proportions when the population and sample size increase jointly to infinity. The joint distribution of the sample proportions is derived by reducing the multi- variate to a univariate problem and applying the Cramer-Wold device. Knowing the asymptotic distribution we are in a position to conduct inference on linear or non-linear functions of the population proportions such as a ratio or the log-odds. We motivate and develop our method by means of a topical epidemiological application, namely the infection fatality rate of a virus such as SARS-CoV-2. We demonstrate that our method can be extended to more general settings of interest.
In this article we examine the influence of two goal compensation schemes on lying behavior. Based on the die rolling task of Fischbacher/Föllmi-Heusi (2013), we apply an individual goal incentive scheme and a team goal incentive scheme. In both settings individuals receive a fixed bonus when attaining the goal. We find that under team goal incentives subjects are less inclined to over-report production outputs beyond the amount which is on average necessary for goal attainment. Investigating subjects’ beliefs on their team mates’ behavior under team goal incentives reveals that subjects who either believe that lying is not profitable (i.e., the team goal cannot be reached with a lie) or not absolutely necessary (i.e., there is a good chance that the team goal can also be reached without lying) tend to be honest. We also find that subjects who believe that the team goal has already been reached by their team mates tend to over-report production outputs. Across treatments, women are found to be more honest than men. Subjects’ ersonality is not associated with reported production outputs. Our work contributes to previous research on how different compensation schemes affect unethical behavior in organizational settings.
Past research has identified innovation portfolio management as a key success factor for a firm’s new product development process. However, the relevant literature falls short in considering the strategic scope of innovation portfolio decision-making. To take a first step in this direction, Marcel Coulon defines the construct of ‘portfolio orientation’ as a strategic orientation. He develops a conceptual framework to identify performance effects of portfolio-oriented decision-making for new product development programs. Based on data of more than 200 German companies, he presents three papers. First, he addresses contingencies for portfolio orientation effectiveness to help understand interactions of formal innovation management with new product development issues inside and outside firm boundaries. Second, he identifies best performing portfolio types for specific levels of portfolio management formalization. Third, a variety of antecedents and their impact on a firm’s portfolio orientation are presented. Accordingly, the book is equally relevant for practitioners and academics in the fields of research and development management and innovation management, as well as strategic marketing management.
This paper analyzes a congested airport that provides aeronautical services to airlines and concessions to retailers and car rental companies. The sum of retail demands inside and outside the airport area is fixed, while an increase of the passenger quantity increases car rental demand. It is shown that an increase of the per passenger retail profit can reduce the private aeronautical charge and the private car rental charge. By contrast, the effect of car rentals on the private aeronautical charge is ambiguous. The welfare-optimal passenger number and aeronautical charge are both independent of retail profit.
Airlines frequently use code-share agreements allowing each other to market seats on flights operated by partner airlines. Regulation may allow code-share agreements with antitrust immunity (cooperative price setting), or without antitrust immunity, or not at all. I compare relative welfare effects of these regulation regimes for complementary airline networks. A crucial point is that such agreements are used to identify and price discriminate interline passengers. I find that interline passengers always benefit from code-share agreements while non-interline passengers are worse off. Furthermore, I show that the second effect questions the overall usefulness of code-share agreements from a welfare perspective.
This paper considers a congested airport that provides aeronautical services to airlines and concessions to retailers or, respectively, car rental companies. It is shown that airport retailers exert downward pressure on the private aeronautical charge. On the other hand, the effect of car rentals on the private aeronautical charge is ambiguous. By contrast, the first-best airfare and aeronautical charge are independent of retail profits, while they are positively related to car rentals. Finally, the comparison of private and welfare-oriented airport behavior shows that private behavior can lead to the welfare-optimal outcome when commercial services exist.
This paper considers a transport network with two firms that operate a parallel service on a hub-to-hub connection and monopoly services on spoke-to-hub connections under increasing returns to scale. We find the following: A symmetric equilibrium cannot occur under independent (non-cooperative) pricing when the number of spoke-to-spoke passengers becomes positive. The effect of cooperative pricing on mark-ups in spoke-to-hub, hub-to-hub and spoke-to-spoke markets (where double marginalization can occur) can be positive or negative. Cooperation can reduce total welfare though hub-to-hub markets are small.
The regulation of rail network access is a key component of the EU policy that aims to strengthen rail markets. Two specific regulations are proposed: (i) a priority for long-distance (freight) services and (ii) a scarcity premium. Based on a congested network with two rail links, numerical simulations demonstrate that total surplus can be greater under the priority rule, which depends on the network charge per train-kilometer. Consumer surplus, on the other hand, is always greater under the priority rule, while fixed network-cost recovery is easier to achieve if a scarcity premium exists.
This paper develops a tractable model of third-degree price discrimination in airline markets that features two types of passengers with different time valuations, carriers in Cournot competition and a congested infrastructure. We find that price discrimination always leads to a loss of social welfare when, in the first stage, the congestion charge is chosen to maximize welfare by incorporating carriers’ behavior in the second stage. We also show that the welfare loss can be small if, in the process of choosing the optimal airport charges, carriers were treated as atomistic.
We consider a public and congested airport served by airlines that may have market power, and two types of travelers with different relative values of time. We find that in the absence of passenger-type-based price discrimination by airlines, it can be useful to increase the airport charge so as to protect passengers with a great relative time value from excessive congestion caused by passengers with a low relative time value. As a result, the socially efficient airport charge can be substantially higher than what we learned from the recent literature on congestion pricing with non-atomistic airlines.
The Veblen effect revisited
(2018)
By building on foundations from psychology, we aim to enhance academic understanding of the advising process in family businesses. We find evidence, based on rich qualitative data, suggesting that trust serves as a key construct in the relationship between family businesses and their advisors. In particular, we empirically show and theorize that trusting relationships evolve via a nonlinear process characterized by a constant interplay between cognitive and—increasingly important—affective assessments of family business trustors. The following types of trust emerge from these internal assessments: an intention to trust, which develops into perceived trust and finally results in behavioral trust.
The present study investigates how family firms respond to disruptive industry changes. We aim to investigate which factors prevent or support family firms` adoption of disruptive innovations in their industry and which mechanisms lead to more or less successful coping with disruptive change. Our analysis is based on 24 qualitative interviews with top executives and on secondary data from an industry in which disruptive innovations dramatically changed the way business was generated. The industry in question is the mail order industry, which, in its early days, disrupted the retail business. When the Internet and, with it, ecommerce started to disrupt the industry in the late 1990s, the industry was characterized by a high proportion of family firms and a low level of innovativeness. While incumbent firms had been very successful for decades, most of them were confronted with serious turbulence when new entrants started changing the face of the industry. Our findings show that different factors impact reactions to disruptive industry change in two different phases, namely, opportunity recognition and opportunity implementation. While some of the influencing factors are determined by industry factors, family influence may function for better or worse for incumbent firms. Specifically, we find that in firms with a family disruptor, a family member in a powerful position who drives the adoption of the new technology, hindrances can be overcome and firms tend to show more successful strategies when reacting to the disruptive industry change.
Supply chain risk management
(2012)
This paper studies the effect of corporate taxes on investment. Since firms with a foreign parent have more cross-country profit shifting opportunities than domestically owned firms do, their effective tax rate and, consequently, their tax-induced costs to investment are lower. We therefore expect capital investment responses to a corporate tax cut to be heterogeneous across firms. Using firm-level data on German corporations, we exploit the 2008 tax reform, which substantially cut corporate taxes as an exogenous policy shock and expect domestically owned firms' investments to be more responsive to the reform. We show exactly this in a difference-in-differences setting. We find that the reduction in corporate tax payments led to a one-to-one increase in the real investments of domestic firms. The effect is stronger for domestic firms relying more on internal funds. Correspondingly, labor investment increased more for domestic firms, ensuring a constant mix of input factors. In addition, we show that domestic firms' sales grew faster after the tax cut than the sales of foreign-owned firms. Our results imply that corporate tax changes can increase corporate investment but that domestic firms benefit more than foreign-owned firms from a tax cut through higher investment responses resulting in greater sales growth.