Administrative procedures for the control of marketing practices - theoretical rationale and perspectives

The paper purports to analyze some features of administrative control of marketing practices with the help of concepts drawn from modern legal-theoretical debate. As a background a general overview of the traditional justifications for the creation of an administrative control system is presented. These justifications underline the insufficiency of other agencies of control, such as individual consumers, competitors, consumer organizations, public prosecutors, and self-regulatory bodies.The development of administrative control measures has obvious connections with modern legal-theoretical concepts like reflexive law and proceduralization. The theory of reflexive law highlights the fact that effective control presupposes a sufficient consideration of the autonomy of social systems. This leads to emphasizing a flexible negotiation approach of control authorities in order to increase efficiency by creating some degree of internal acceptance of the measures.Legal pluralism again sees the State disintegrating in a constellation of more or less autonomous governments with their own goals and interests. In such a disintegrated State an active consumer authority can, under certain preconditions, create new legal institutions in the consumer law field and thereby contribute to the development not only of consumer law but of general private law as well.

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Theoretische Begründung und Perspektiven für administrative Verfahren der Kontrolle von Marketingpraktiken

Zusammenfassung Der Autor analysiert einige Kennzeichen von administrativer Kontrolle von Marketingpraktiken und zieht dazu Konzepte der neueren rechstheoretischen Diskussion heran. Er prÄsentiert zunÄchst als Hintergrund einen überblick über die traditionellen Rechtfertigungen für ein administratives Kontroll-system. Diese Rechtfertigungen betonen die UnzulÄnglichkeit anderer Kontrollinstanzen, wie z. B. einzelne Konsumenten, Wettbewerber, Verbraucherorganisationen, öffentliche Anklage oder Instanzen der Selbstkontrolle.Die Entwicklung von Ma\nahmen der administrativen Kontrolle hat offenkundig Bezüge zu modernen rechtstheoretischen Konzepten wie reflexives Recht und Prozeduralisierung. Die Theorie des reflexiven Rechts betont als Voraussetzung für effektive Kontrolle, da\ die Autonomie sozialer Systeme ausreichend respektiert wird. Dies führt zur Notwendigkeit flexibler Verhandlungen zwischen Kontrollinstanzen, damit über ein hinreichendes Ma\ an interner Akzeptanz der Mittel, deren Effizienz gesteigert werden kann.Rechtlicher Pluralismus wiederum sieht den Staat zerfallen in eine Konstellation mehr oder weniger autonomer Teilregierungen mit jeweils eigenen Zielen und Interessen. In einem so aufgespaltenen Staat kann eine aktive Verbraucherbehörde unter bestimmten Bedingungen neue rechtliche Institutionen im Bereich des Verbraucherrechts schaffen und dadurch zur Entwicklung nicht nur des Verbraucherrechts, sondern des gesamten Privatrechtes beitragen.

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The paper was presented at the Third International Conference on Consumer Law in Canela, Brazil, March 1992.     

Consumer law and legal theory: Reflections of a common lawyer

The author analyses some new theories on consumer law from the viewpoint of a lawyer trained in common law and having been involved in Australian legal policy. He voices criticisms against consumer law theory which takes contract law as its starting point; without a precise definition of the consumer it cannot specify its scope of application. The author advocates a more interventionist approach which makes clear that the state has responsibility for the well-being of consumers in cases of power imbalance even if the approach is characterized as paternalistic.

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Verbraucherrecht und Rechtstheorie — Überlegungen eines Praktikers

Zusammenfassung Der Verfasser untersucht neue Theorien zum Verbraucherrecht vom Standpunkt eines im common law trainierten und in der Australischen Rechtspolitik tätigen Praktikers. Er plädiert für ein pragmatisches Vorgehen. Er kritisiert Verbraucherrechtstheorien, die vom Vertrags- und Wettbewerbsrecht ausgehen, weil sie den Begriff des Verbrauchers nicht erfassen, ohne den aber der Anwendungsbereich von Schutzvorschriften nicht festgeschrieben werden kann. Trotz aller Paternalismuskritik zieht er ein Bekenntnis zur staatlichen Verantwortlichkeit für die Verbraucherwohlfahrt vor, weil sonst das Problem ungleicher Machtverteilung nicht gelöst werden kann.

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John Goldring is Foundation Dean and Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Wollongong, N.S.W., Australia, and a part-time member of the Australian Law Reform Commission.     

Student Ethical Perceptions and Ethical Action Propensities: An Analysis of Situation Familiarity

Recently McCuddy and Peery (1996) have suggested that business students may not respond the same way to unfamiliar business ethical dilemmas as they would to more familiar academic ethical dilemmas. The purpose of this study was to present the same students with both unfamiliar business dilemmas as well as possibly more familiar academic dilemmas in order to examine this issue.Findings of the study revealed that students did not exhibit different perceptions of the unethical actions performed in the academic and accounting/business ethical vignettes. However, the students indicated that both they and their peers would be more likely to act unethically to resolve the dilemmas in the accounting/business cases than in the academic cases. This finding is troubling in that it suggests that students either feel less compelled to act ethically in business, or that they perceive that ethical standards in the business world are generally low when compared to their current educational environment. In addition, the students in the study maintained the same halo effect (i.e., the difference between an individual's perception of their likelihood of performing an unethical action compared to their perception of their peers' likelihood to perform the same unethical action) across the two types of ethical dilemma.     

Consumer protection in Switzerland by means of “soft law” — Practices and perspectives

Consumer protection by self-regulation has come into focus as a proposed alternative to consumer legislation. This paper tries to show the principal forms in which soft law rules have been established in Switzerland, and to outline some of the main problems to which they have been exposed in practice.To a great extent self-regulation has centered, up to now, in the hands of the trade itself, although consumer organisations participate in some commissions for extra-judicial settlement. The principal deficiencies of self-regulation concern its enforcement and its scope of applicability when the trade is organised only to a limited extent. It has also been prowed that the drawing up of soft law rules has hindered legislation and, in some instances, also court practice.The authors come to the conclusion that some of the conditions without which soft law cannot achieve an effective impact on the trade are missing in Switzerland. However, positive contributions of soft law to consumer protection can sometimes be discerned where legislation has not succeeded.

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Zusammenfassung Die Schwierigkeiten, denen die Verbrauchergesetzgebung auch in der Schweiz begegnet, haben dazu geführt, dass die von der Wirtschaft als Alternative vorgeschlagene Selbstkontrolle stärker in den Mittelpunkt des Interesses gerückt ist als bisher. Der Artikel versucht — soweit ersichtlich, erstmals —, die verschiedenen Erscheinungsformen von soft law in der Schweiz aufzuzeigen und die wesentlichen Schwierigkeiten herauszuarbeiten, denen es in der Praxis begegnet.Die Selbstkontrolle der Wirtschaft bei Verbrauchergeschäften liegt zum grossen Teil ausschliesslich in den Händen der Wirtschaftsverbände. Die Verbraucherorganisationen beteiligen sich an ihr, auch aus finanziellen und personellen Gründen, nur zurückhaltend, wobei der Schwerpunkt dieser Beteiligung in der aussergerichtlichen Streitbeilegung und nicht in der Erarbeitung von materiellrechtlichen Regeln zu finden ist. Der Staat ist bis heute nur in einem Einzelfall interveniert, um eine effektive Selbstkontrolle zu gewährleisten.Die Hauptschwächen von soft law betreffen seine Durchsetzung und die Weite seines Anwendungsbereichs, zumal die verschiedenen Branchen in der Schweiz nur teilweise in repräsentativen Wirtschaftsverbänden organisiert sind. Bedenklich ist insbesondere der negative Einfluss, den soft law-Regelungen auf die Fortentwicklung der Verbrauchergesetzgebung und teilweise auch der Rechtsprechung ausgeübt haben.Einige unabdingbare Voraussetzungen für einen effektiven Verbraucherschutz durch Selbstkontrolle sind in der Schweiz nicht gegeben. Gleichwohl trägt das soft law vornehmlich in den Bereichen zum Verbraucherschutz etwas bei, in denen eine Gesetzgebung bisher nicht möglich war.

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Bernd Stauder is Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Geneva, Place de l'Université, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland. Joachim Feldges is a Research Assistant. Peter Mülbert is a former Research Assistant at this Faculty.Michael Bühler, Geneva/Düsseldorf, furnished an important contribution when the paper was first prepared.This article is a shortened version of the German original text, published under the title Praxis und Perspektiven von Konsumentenschutz durch soft law in der Schweiz in Zeitschrift für Schweizerisches Recht 1984 I. The authors are grateful to John Perry for translating the original German text into English.     

Consumer protection in the EEC after ratification of the single act

The paper analyses those aspects of the Single European Act which have an impact on consumer policy in the EEC. Consumer protection is only indirectly referred to by the Act, whereas environmental policy, and thereby also health aspects, are expressly addressed.Consumers have little to gain but much to lose by a strict application of the integration concept of the Act which is an expression of the intention to create a single market before 1992. It is not clear how EEC and Member State measures are to be co-ordinated.Unfortunately, implementation of EEC consumer and environmental policies has not been improved through the Act. In the future, implementation policy should concern not only the creation of a Common Market forproducers, but should be extended to include common standards of protection for Europeanconsumers.

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Verbraucherpolitik in der EG nach der Ratifizierung der Einheitlichen Europäischen Akte

Zusammenfassung Die Stellungnahme der European Consumer Law Group, eines Zusammenschlusses europäischer juristischer Praktiker und Forscher auf dem Gebiet des Verbraucherrechts, beschäftigt sich mit den Auswirkungen der Einheitlichen Europäischen Akte auf die Verbraucherpolitik in der EG. Es überwiegt eine skeptische Einstellung, weil die Akte die Verbraucherpolitik nur indirekt erwähnt und vor allem bezweckt, einen einheitlichen Binnenmarkt bis 1992 zu schaffen. Positiv ist die ausdrückliche Verankerung der Umweltpolitik als neuer Politikbereich der EG zu vermerken, die über Gesundheitsaspekte auf den Verbraucherschutz zurückwirkt. Die Implementation des EG-Verbraucherrechts ist allerdings auch durch die Akte nicht verbessert worden. Gefordert wird insgesamt eine neue Einstellung zur EG-Integration: der Begriff des Gemeinsamen Markets muß um gemeinsame Schutzstandards für alle europäischen Verbraucher ergänzt werden.

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The European Law Group (ECLG) is a group of lawyers and law scholars in the EEC, concerned with legal aspects of consumer protection. Correspondence regarding the paper should be directed to: Professor Norbert Reich, Centre for European Legal Policy, Universitätsallee GW1, D-2800 Bremen 33, Federal Republic of Germany.     

Are German Banks Different?

In recent years there has been a vigorous revival of the long-standing debate about the uniqueness of German banks. To date little consensus has been reached; while some see few differences between the role of banks in Germany and in other countries, others claim that universal banks' equity shareholdings in and nomination of representatives to the boards of nonfinancial firms are the key institutional features driving the rest of the German model of long-term investment in high-quality, internationally competitive manufacturing. This article argues that the uniqueness of the German banking system lies (1) in its unusually high capacity to provide industrial finance in the form of long-term debt capital, and (2) in its avoidance of the speculative boom-credit crunch cycle experienced by almost every other advanced industrialized country in the 1980s and early 1990s. These two key characteristics are attributable to a regulatory framework which involves strict prudential regulation, access to long-term refinancing sources, and a federalist form of corporatism. Furthermore, the behavior of German banks must be analyzed within a broader institutional system of economic governance which includes corporatist labor market institutions and a relatively large and modern SME sector.     

On Creating and Claiming Value in Negotiations

This paper presents a negotiation model that includes value creation. It shows that creative negotiation efforts tend to intensify toward the deadline, and that the deadline is determined endogenously by the tension between two motives, creating more value and claiming from existing value. When the parties can present misleading offers in order to claim rather than create value, the outcome in early negotiation rounds may display an impasse where any proposal is rejected without inspection, while negotiation activities such as value creation through sincere offers and inspection of clauses intensify toward the deadline.     

Firm size,small business presence and sales of innovative products: A micro-econometric analysis

In our generalized TOBIT analysis we identify a number of variables which have an impact on a firm's innovation output. Among others we find that larger firms generally have a higher probability of selling some innovative products, although this probability increases less than proportionately with firm size. Given that a firm has some sales of innovative products, the share of such products in a firm's total sales tends to be higher in smaller firms. Moreover, a strong small business presence in a sector seems to enhance imitative innovation but has no influence on true innovations, whereas market concentration has no influence on innovation output in whatever definition. We also find evidence of regional knowledge spill-overs. Furthermore, our results are consistent with Schmookler's hypothesis that the growth of demand enhances innovation. The outcomes about the impact of R&D collaboration and technology transfer on innovation remain ambiguous.     

‘I am we’ consciousness and dialog as organizational ethics method

There is a practical five-step method of ethics dialog developed by John Woolman, an 18th c. businessman and ethical activist, that was used by Robert K. Greenleaf, a 20th c. A.T.&T. Corporate Vice-President, that includes: (a) friendly, emotive affect; (b) discussion of mutual commonalities; (c) discussion of issue entanglements; (d) discussion of potential experimental solutions; and, (e) trial and feedback discussion. This method of dialog appears to proceed with a type of consciousness considered by John Woolman and Bernard Lonergan as one where the I is conscious that I and Others are part of a more foundational, larger and prior We. This type of dialog is different than Socratic dialog. The corresponding type of consciousness is different than the more derivative, e.g., two allies being united in their response to a common goal. It is also different than Buber's I and Thou appreciative consciounsess of the interestingness, value, diversity, and uniqueness of others. Woolman dialog as seen in four cases appears to be a concrete method that has some value both as an end in itself and as instrumental means that can: be issue effective, help build ethical organization/community culture, and help facilitate peaceful, evolutionary change and development. Limitations of the method are also considered. The method may also be a several hundred year anticipation of experiment based pragmatist philosophy that is anthropologically sensitive to cultural entanglements.

John Donne (17th c.)

Richard P. Nielsen is a professor in the Department of Organizational Studies, School of Management, Boston College. Related articles of his include: Dialogic Leadership As Organizational Ethics Action (Praxis) Method, Journal of Business Ethics(October 1990); Negotiating As An Ethics Action (Praxis) Strategy, Journal of Business Ethics(May 1989); Changing Unethical Organizational Behavior, Academy of Management Executive(May 1989); Arendt's Action Philosophy and the Manager as Eichmann, Richard III, Faust, or Institution Citizen, California Management Review(Spring 1984); and Cooperative Strategy, Strategic Management Journal(September–October 1988).     

Tools-Я-us

Our methods of inquiry predetermine most of what we are able to know. While our modes of understanding ought to correspond to the complexities confronting us in our modern technological society, they do not. Soft systems methodology helps us focus on what is problematic and how it can be approached — and offers direction to exert moral control over our tools and technologies.

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Consumers and the internal market for services: Shortcomings of the “new approach” of the Community

The paper discusses the new approach of the Community in the area of services, namely the principle that every service — like every good — should be allowed to circulate freely in the entire Internal Market provided it meets the standards of EEC law and of the country of origin. There are some exceptions to this principle, especially in the insurance area (market segregation in the industry's interest). The paper points out that the new approach might endanger consumer protection of Member States unless adequate standards of the receiving country exist. ECLG makes a number of suggestions to overcome the lacunae left by the new approach, especially by opting for minimal harmonisation, by applying rules of private internal law under the Rome Convention, and by providing for safeguard clauses.

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Verbraucher und Binnenmarkt für Dienstleistungen: Mängel der sog. neuen Konzeption der Gemeinschaft

Zusammenfassung Die Gemeinschaft versucht in Vewirklichung der Grundfreiheiten des durch die Einheitliche Akte geänderten EWG-Vertrages die Vollendung des Binnenmarktes auch im Dienstleistungsbereich. Dabei sind unterschiedliche Herangehensweisen denkbar, nämlich das Prinzip der Minimalharmonisierung, die Marktsegmentierung oder die sog. neue Konzeption. Letztere findet sich vor allem im Banken- und Rundfunkbereich; dancah soll es für den Marktzutritt im gesamten Binnenmarkt ausreichen, daß die (angeglichenen) Standards des Ursprungslandes eingehalten werden. Die ECLG befürchtet einen Abbau des Verbraucherschutzes bei einer konsequenten Durchführung dieses Prinzips und macht Gegenvorschläge. Diese beziehen sich auf eine verstärkte Durchsetzung des Prinzips der Minimalharmonisierung, auf die Notwendigkeit der Anwendung der Regeln des Internationalen Privatrechts nach dem Römischen Schuldrechtsübereinkommen von 1980, und durch Verankerung von Schutzklauseln.

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The European Consumer Law Group (ECLG) is a group of lawyers and law scholars in the EEC and EFTA countries, concerned with legal aspects of consumer protection. Correspondence regarding the paper should be directed to: Professor Norbert Reich, Centre for European Legal Policy, Universitätsallee GW 1, D-2800 Bremen 33, Federal Republic of Germany.     

What Do We Conclude from the Success and Failure of Mergers?

Tichy's review of the evidence presents at best a very mixed picture of the success of mergers as a corporate strategy. However, care should be taken not to interpret this as a case for crudely prohibitive competition policy. A simple framework is developed to show that mergers anticipating market changes might not be inappropriate, even when ex post results will appear disappointing. We argue that the competition authorities should protect consumers, and not provide management consultancy on behalf of shareholders. We suggest a more limited reform of the EC Merger Regulation than that proposed by Tichy.     

Effects of price uncertainty on consumer purchase budget and price thresholds

This article examines how uncertainty about prices affects: (1) the budget consumers allocate for purchasing a product and (2) consumer price thresholds (i.e., the prices that are considered too high or a good deal). In an experimental setting, the purchase budget as well as the absolute values of both thresholds for uncertain subjects were higher than those for certain subjects. Moreover, a relatively large decline from the budget was needed before a price was considered a good deal, whereas a relatively small increase from the budget was sufficient for a price to be considered too high. Price uncertainty widened the difference between the upper (i.e., too high) price threshold and the budget, making uncertain subjects more tolerant to prices exceeding the budget than certain subjects. However, price uncertainty did not have a significant effect on the difference between the budget and the lower (i.e., good deal) price threshold.We wish to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier draft. We also thank Professors S. P. Raj and Amiya Basu for their comments and suggestions at various stages of the study.     

Comment on The Microsoft Antitrust Policy Case

This paper both responds to Economides analysis and attempts to address the Microsoft case from a broader than U.S. perspective. The importance of the roles played by disloyalty payments, compatibility requirements, information asymmetry and the rather static nature of market definition, particularly in the context of allegations of tying, in the Microsoft case are highlighted. In contrast to the position in the U.S., the European Commission acts for all EU member states and has its disposal the possibility of imposing large fines. However, structural remedies are not available to the European Commission. Comity procedures, by allowing for the inclusion of foreign surplus in domestic welfare functions, offer a model for international co-operation in the future application of competition laws.     

Entscheidungsbedingte Kaufkraftverluste: Formen,Umfang und verbraucherpolitische Relevanz

Zusammenfassung Entscheidungsbedingte Kaufkraftverluste treten dann auf, wenn Verbraucher wegen beschränkter Markttransparenz Kaufentscheidungen treffen, die zu finanziellen Einbußen fürhren. Am Beispiel von drei verbraucherinformationspolitischen Maßnahmen werden Formen und Umfang entscheidungsbedingter Kaufkraftverluste herausgearbeitet. Vielleicht gelingt es, mit Hilfe dieser Kaufkraftverluste erste Auswahlkriterien und erste Ansätze einer Erfolgskontrolle im Rahmen der Verbraucherpolitik aufzuzeigen. Vielleicht gelingt es aber auch, dem Verbraucher den potentiellen finanziellen Schaden uninformierten Kaufentscheidungsverhaltens vor Augen zu führen, in der Hoffnung, daß er nun eher dazu motiviert ist, sich nicht nur bei extensiven Kaufentscheidungsprozessen informationsaktiver zu verhalten.

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Monetary losses caused by uninformed purchase decisions: About their implications for consumer policy and various ways of calculating them

Frequently, the uninformed consumer makes buying decisions which differ from the decisions of the information seeker. Often, this takes the form of products with a higher price but not corresponding improvement of quality being chosen, or products with a lower quality but no corresponding reduction in price. In both cases, the uninformed consumer suffers a monetary loss (a loss in money income, Morris & Bronson, 1970).In this paper, three ways of calculating such a monetary loss are presented. Two of these are taken from the literature (Granger & Billson, 1972; Russo, 1977) and concern the calculation of real losses which result from the choice of unnecessarily expensive products, owing to difficulties in calculating and comparing unit prices, when stores do not make these extremely manifest. The third calculation concerns a more hypothetical entity, the potential loss that can be incurred by choosing the most expensive brand in a product class rather than the cheapest of those brands which have been rated as very good by the German product-testing agency Stiftung Warentest. In turns out that these potential losses are oftentimes very large. The author is of the opinion that the relative size of these losses can be used for selecting those classes of products where the need for consumer actions, above all for information about prices and qualities, is particulary urgent. Furthermore, the efficiency of such actions can be measured in terms of changes in the size of the losses. The consumers themselves might also be induced towards more extensive pre-purchase search, were they made aware of the size of these potential losses.

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Udo Beier ist Professor für Wirtschaftslehre des Haushalts und Verbraucherpolitik an der Universität Hamburg, Fachbereich Erziehungswissenschaft, Von-Melle-Park 8, D-2000 Hamburg 13.     

The Effect of Parent Brand Experience on Line Extension Trial and Repeat Purchase

This research analyzes how consumer experience with a parent brand affects trial and repurchase probabilities for a line extension. We develop and test the uncertainty hypothesis which is based on the premise that consumers use experience with the parent brand to infer the quality of the extension. Experience with the parent-brand increases consumers' expectation that the extension quality is high. Therefore, consumers with more parent-brand experience will be more likely to try the extension. However, they will be less likely to repurchase the extension because of the selection bias.We test the hypothesis with scanner panel data from three product categories. The results are consistent with our hypothesis. We also discuss the implications of our results on how to design market programs for new line extensions.     

Board-management relations in small firms: The paradox of simultaneous independence and interdependence

The author introduces constructs based on neo-classical and socio-economic assumptions, and argues that board-management relations should be characterized by both independence and interdependence. Interdependence is especially important in small firms. The article presents a model of directorates from research about directorates based on agency theory assumptions. This model is supplemented with constructs from the theory of contractual relations. Whilst traditional literature tends to focus upon independence from an agency theory perspective, this article argues that it is necessary to use more than one dimension of attributes regarding the board-management relations in order to understand the board's contribution to company performance, and that trust and solidarity is especially important in small firms. Board-management relations described by simultaneous independence and interdependence are proposed to give the highest contribution to company performance. The theoretical propositions are exemplified and supported by results of a field survey of directorates in small firms.     

Management development and business ethics: A view from the U.K.

This article is written in the context of current British interest in management training and development, in which an emphasis on competency is viewed critically, as technically oriented, with little attention paid to ethics and moral values. It is suggested that a concern for ethics in management development can be expressed in terms of four requisite management attributes or qualities: theoretical knowledge and understanding; affective qualities; personal and interpersonal skills; and self-knowledge. Following Kohlberg's work on moral development, the cultivation of these attributes is viewed as a life-span process involving three broadly defined forms of management development practice, each appropriate to different circumstances and stages in a learner's career. It is concluded that the conventional teaching of theory, learning from experience and counselling/mentoring, are equally important in the contribution which management development can make to the resolution of ethical dilemmas in business practice.Patrick Maclagan is a lecturer in organisational behaviour and managerial ethics at the School of Management, University of Hull, U.K., where he is also on the Steering Committee of the Social Values Research Centre, His current research concerns the relationship between management development and ethics in organisations.     

Verbraucherpolitische Konzeptionen und Programme in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Zusammenfassung Die Notwendigkeit einer expliziten Verbraucherpolitik ist in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in den letzten Jahren zunehmend anerkannt worden. Dies dokumentiert sich zum einen in einigen Ansätzen zur Institutionalisierung der Verbraucherpolitik, zum anderen in einer programmatischen Diskussion, an der inzwischen die wichtigsten gesellschaftlich relevanten Gruppen teilnehmen. Analysiert und vergleicht man die verbraucherpolitischen Vorhaben amtlicher Stellen sowie die von Arbeitgeberverbänden, Gewerkschaften und politischen Parteien entwickelten Konzeptionen, so zeigt sich ein uniformes Denkschema, das dem Paradigma Markt und Wettbewerb verhaftet ist. Unterschiede offenbaren sich lediglich in den jeweils präferierten Maßnahmen. Alle Konzeptionen folgen — wenn auch mit unterschiedlicher Gewichtung — den beiden handlungsanleitenden Argumentationsschemata »Ergänzung der Wettbewerbspolitik durch Verbraucherschutz und -information« sowie »Gegenmachtbildung und Interessenvertretung«. Der Gedanke an direktere Kommunikationsformen sowie an eine frühzeitige Einflußnahme der Konsumenten auf das Güterangebot findet sich in keinem der Programme.

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Conceptions of consumer policy in the Federal Republic of Germany

The necessity for an explicit public consumer policy has found increased acceptance during the last couple of years. This is reflected both in attempts to institutionalize consumer policy and in a programmatic discussion in which many relevant social groups are participating. The analysis of consumer oriented plans and models of governmental agencies, employers' associations, trade unions, and political parties reveals uniform thought, rooted in the paradigm of market and competition. Differences can be detected only in the recommended measures. Basically all concepts fall under one of the following categories of argumentation: Competition policy needs completion by consumer protection and consumer information or There is a need for consumer countervailing power and consumer lobbyism. The existing plans are characterized by mere auxiliary means to stimulate consumers' reactions. The considerations of a direct communication between producers and consumers and of an early influence by consumers on manufacturers' product decisions are, however, not included in any of the programmes.

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Christine Czerwonka und Günter Schöppe sind Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter am Institut für Markt und Plan der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, 6000 Frankfurt/Main, Senckenberganlage 31.     

Changing demand for opening hours in Norway. Consumer policy implications

In Norway, a lively mass media debate, together with legal deregulation, has caused shops to extend their opening hours. In addition, the same debate slightly influenced consumer demand for extended opening hours. Consumer demand also changed in response to the actual extension of opening hours, an effect which was stronger than the mass media effect. In some cases, the demand for extended opening hours appears to have been based upon objective needs, in other cases upon subjective desires. Underlying the debate and the deregulation there must be some basic phenomena connected to the general economic and cultural development in society, since the appearance of the opening hours issue on the political agenda has occurred more or less simultaneously in several European countries.

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Änderungen beim Bedarf nach Ladenöffnungszeiten in Norwegen — verbraucherpolitische Implikationen

Zusammenfassung Die Liberalisierung der Regelung der Ladenöffnungszeiten und eine lebhafte Debatte darüber in den Massenmedien hat in Norwegen viele Läden zu einer Ausweitung ihrer Öffnungszeiten veranlaßt. Auch der Wunsch der Konsumenten nach verlängerten Öffnungszeiten wurde durch diese Debatte leicht beeinflußt. Stärker allerdings wurde dieser Wunsch durch die tatsächliche Ausweitung der Öffnungszeiten beeinflußt. Man kann sogar sagen, daß das Angebot verlängerter Öffnungszeiten die entsprechende Nachfrage erst geschaffen hat und nicht umgekehrt. In manchen Fällen dürfte die Nachfrage nach längeren Öffnungszeiten auf objektive Bedürfnisse, in anderen Fällen auf subjektive Wünsche zurückgehen.Forschungsergebnisse zeigen, daß der Wunsch von Konsumenten nach längeren Öffnungszeiten umso stärker ist, je dichter besiedelt das Gebiet ist, in dem sie leben. Ferner zeigt sich, daß jüngere Konsumenten längere Öffnungszeiten (bei Geschäften und bei Banken) haben wollen als ältere. Ähnliches gilt für politisch konservativ eingestellte Konsumenten und für solche, die lange Arbeitszeiten haben. Andererseits gibt es aber auch Konsumenten, die eigentlich einen objektiven Bedarf nach längeren Öffnungszeiten haben müßten, diese subjektiv aber nicht wünschen (z. B. solche, deren Arbeitszeit die Ladenöffnungszeiten überstreicht). Diese Einstellung resultiert vermutlich aus traditionellen Denkformen und aus empfundenen Konflikten zwischen Verbraucher- und Arbeitsinteressen. Manche Konsumenten äußern ausdrücklich ihre Solidarität mit den Beschäftigten in den Geschäften, deren Arbeitszeit von den Änderungen der Öffnungszeiten berührt wird. Wenn andererseits ein Wunsch nach längeren Öffnungszeiten tatsächlich besteht, so steht dahinter häufig das stärker empfundene eigene Verbraucherinteresse, häufig werden aber längere Öffnungszeiten einfach nur als bequem und attraktiv empfunden.

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Randi Lavik is a Research Fellow at the Norwegian Fund for Market and Distribution Research (FMD). Her address: FMD, Fredensborgveien 24 G, N-0177 Oslo 1, Norway.