The Interdependence of R&D Activity and Debt Financing of Young Firms

We investigate the interdependence of debt financing and R&D activities of young firms. Applying a bivariate Tobit model, we find that there is a positive interdependent relationship between the share of loan financing and R&D intensity. A higher share of loan financing allows for more R&D in young firms and, at the same time, a higher R&D intensity allows for a higher loan share. This result is mainly driven by start‐ups exhibiting high values of R&D intensity or leverage. Another remarkable result of our study is that the positive relationship between R&D and loan financing can only be detected if we consider that, first, the decisions on R&D and on loan financing are made simultaneously and, second, the decision on R&D impacts the decision on loan financing and vice versa.     

Heterogeneous returns to personality: the role of occupational choice

We analyze the role of personality in occupational choice and wages using data from Germany for the years 1992 to 2009. Characterizing personality by use of seven complementary measures (Big Five personality traits, locus of control, and a measure of reciprocity), the empirical findings show that personal characteristics are important determinants of occupational choice. Associated with that, identical personality traits are differently rewarded across occupations. Hence, breaking down the analysis on the level of occupational groups provides more detailed results of returns to personality. By evaluating different personality profiles, we additionally estimate the influence of personality as a whole. The estimates establish occupation-specific patterns of significant returns to particular personality profiles. These findings underline the importance to consider the occupational distribution when analyzing returns to personality due to its heterogeneous valuation.     

Débridement mit topischer Therapie kombinieren

Bew?hrte und neue Therapieans?tze zur Behandlung chronischer Wunden – Unter chronischen, schlecht heilenden Wunden leiden in Deutschland etwa 800.000 Menschen. Weil die Erkrankung für den Patienten schwerwiegende Einschr?nkungen im Alltag mit sich bringt, steht eine effektive Wundbehandlung im Zentrum des Interesses.     

Fallstrick Hygienefehler

Wenn sich die Beweislast umkehrt - Schlampt das Pflegepersonal in punkto Hygiene muss das Krankenhaus dafür juristisch geradestehen. Unter Umst?nden kehrt sich bei Schadenersatz klagen die Beweislast jedoch um – zum Nachteil des Krankenhaustr?gers.     

Turn to the material: Remote diagnostics systems and new forms of boundary-spanning

To learn and adapt, organizations engage widely in Information Technology (IT)-mediated boundary-spanning. This involves making sense of a swath of peripheral information made available by digital means so as to expand local knowledge. Prior research on boundary-spanning has paid scant attention to material differences between IT systems in enabling or constraining such activity. In this article, we argue that material features do matter: features afforded by IT systems have a significant impact on the form and content of boundary-spanning. We analyze material features and related affordances provided by remote diagnostics systems – a family of ubiquitous IT systems. These features allow remote diagnostics systems to collect, store, and continuously analyze data about the state of machinery and related production processes across space, time and organizational boundaries. Organizations use these systems to determine when maintenance intervention is needed, or to improve their production processes. Often, these systems are run by external service providers at remote sites, which become the new ears and the eyes of a focal organization’s production processes. Building on a longitudinal multi-site case study of two organizations, we explore the impacts of remote diagnostics systems on boundary-spanning. We observe that material features afforded by the remote diagnostics led the organizations to change their boundary-spanning in contradictory ways. On one hand, they reinforced existing boundaries. On the other hand, they crossed or cut down others, or created new ones. This suggests that the material features of these systems, when combined with new knowledge creation and sharing practices, within and between the local and the remote sites generate richer, multi-faceted inter-organizational knowledge flows. We surmise that IT’s new material features will continue to significantly shape organizing logics that determine where and when organizational boundaries are drawn and crossed. Future boundary-spanning will increasingly be shaped by socio-technical assemblages brought together by increasingly pervasive IT capabilities.     

Customer relationship management and company performance—the mediating role of new product performance

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is widely accepted as an effective approach for collecting, analyzing, and translating valuable customer information into managerial action. However, the potential of CRM has been investigated only in the context of existing products. CRM’s potential to aid in future new product development (NPD) has been neglected. We develop a conceptual framework in which multiple facets of CRM are linked to new product and company performance. We test this model based on a cross-functional sample consisting of 115 R&D and 122 Marketing managers from firms spanning multiple industries. The results provide evidence that CRM has a positive effect on new product performance and further, that this effect is moderated by CRM reward systems but not CRM technology. We also show that new product performance mediates the relationship between CRM and company performance. These findings have important implications for research and practice in both the CRM and NPD areas.     

Improving retrospective life course data by combining modularized self-reports and event history calendars: experiences from a large scale survey

Event history calendars (EHC) have proven to be a powerful tool for collecting retrospective autobiographical life course data. One problem is that they are only standardized to a limited extent. This restricts their applicability in large-scale surveys. However, in such surveys, a modularized retrospective CATI design can be combined with an EHC. This data revision module is directly integrated into the interview and used as a data revision module, allowing insights from cognitive psychology to be applied. The data revision module stimulates the respondent’s memory retrieval by detecting both temporal inconsistencies, such as gaps, and overlapping or parallel events. This approach was implemented in the IAB-ALWA study (Working and Learning in a Changing World), a large-scale representative telephone survey involving 10,000 respondents. By comparing the uncorrected data with the final data after revision, we can investigate to what extent the application of this data revision module improves data quality or, more precisely, time consistency and dating accuracy of individual reports.