Vertrauen als Gegenstand der ökonomischen Theorie

Der Beitrag vermittelt einen grundlegenden überblick über die Bedeutung des Vertrauens im Rahmen der ?konomischen Theorie. Zun?chst werden ausgew?hlte Ans?tze im Rahmen der betriebswirtschaftlichen Vertrauensforschung diskutiert. Um eine strukturierte Analyse zu erm?glichen, erfolgt eine differenzierte Betrachtung hinsichtlich der neoklassisch und institutionen?konomisch fundierten Perspektive einerseits sowie der sozio?konomischen Perspektive andererseits. Die Diskussion um den Stand der Forschung wird abgerundet durch einen überblick über empirische Ergebnisse der ?konomischen Vertrauensliteratur. Um noch offene Fragen im Rahmen der Forschung zu adressieren, werden im Anschluss die unterschiedlichen Objekte des Vertrauens analysiert, differenziert nach personalen Vertrauen und Systemvertrauen. Zum Abschluss gilt es die Verhaltensrisiken herauszuarbeiten, die mit Vertrauensbeziehungen einhergehen und die Grenzen des Vertrauens in Organisationen zu beleuchten.     

Versicherungsvertragliche Anzeigepflicht und Garantiehaftung für culpa in contrahendo

To sanction the insurant’s obligation to disclose the risk-relevant circumstances by the insurer’s exemption from performance does not comply with the ordinary pattern of pre-contractual liability. Instead of making the insurant responsible for the consequences of his breach of duty, the German Insurance Act subjects him to a guarantee which is comparable to the one imposed by the German Civil Code in the case of initial impossibility. The insurant has to guarantee that the facts which he did not, or at least not entirely, disclose do not cause any obligation of the insurer. The structure of this sanction is equivalent to the insurer’s so-called liability of performance. But contrary to the latter it can be justified by the specific importance of the insurant’s pre-contractual obligation of disclosure.     

Information,market power,and price volatility

We consider demand function competition with a finite number of agents and private information. We show that any degree of market power can arise in the unique equilibrium under an information structure that is arbitrarily close to complete information. Regardless of the number of agents and the correlation of payoff shocks, market power may be arbitrarily close to zero (the competitive outcome) or arbitrarily large (so there is no trade). By contrast, price volatility is always lower than the variance of the aggregate shock across all information structures. Alternative trading mechanisms lead to very distinct bounds as a comparison with Cournot competition establishes.     

Benefits of Cross‐sector Partnerships in Markets at the Base of the Pyramid

In this paper we analyze whether cross‐sector partnerships enable companies to respond to the specific conditions at the base of the pyramid (BOP). We develop three hypotheses in which we argue how cross‐sector partnerships support companies to face unfamiliar conditions in these markets. We test the developed hypotheses against the data of 103 companies operating in BOP‐markets. The results show that companies rely on organizations from the civil society sector in order to meet customer needs. Partners from the business sector are supportive when responding to restrictive market conditions. Institutional partnerships should be considered when companies aim at responding to the regulatory environment. We outline theoretical and managerial implications and reflect some limitations of the study. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Business model innovation and decision making: uncovering mechanisms for coping with uncertainty

As a research subject, business model innovation spans the strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship fields. Yet, despite the importance of the concept, prior work has paid little attention to how decision-makers cope with uncertainty and gain understanding about interdependencies in new business model configurations. To address this gap, we combine top-down theorising and evidence-based exploration and seek to unpack some of the coping mechanisms that operate in the evolutionary view of business model innovation. Using in-depth interviewing to collect data, our study reveals five strategies – customer centricity, value co-creation, capability evolution, ecosystem growth, and adaptive pricing – that decision-makers apply to cope with uncertainty in business model innovation. We find that coping mechanisms support decision making during the development of new business models. Furthermore, we find that the five coping strategies delineate decision making for value proposition, value creation, and value capture configurations in more detail than existing literature has described. Our findings have important implications for decision making in business model innovation.     

Targeting in advertising markets: implications for offline versus online media

We develop a model with many advertisers (products) and many advertising markets (media). Each advertiser sells to a different segment of consumers, and each medium is targeting a different audience. We characterize the competitive equilibrium in the advertising markets and evaluate the implications of targeting. An increase in targeting leads to an increase in the total number of consumer‐product matches, and hence in the social value of advertising. Yet, targeting also increases the concentration of firms advertising in each market. Surprisingly, we then find that the equilibrium price of advertisements is first increasing, then decreasing, in the targeting capacity. We trace out the implications of targeting for competing media. We distinguish offline and online media by their targeting ability: low versus high. As consumers’ relative exposure to online media increases, the revenues of offline media decrease, even though the price of advertising might increase.     

Resource Dependency,Innovative Strategies,and Firm Performance in BOP Markets

Low‐income markets have attracted the interest of academics, politicians, and business leaders alike. In recent years, numerous companies such as Unilever, Cemex, Tetrapak, and Vodafone have provided evidence that low‐income markets offer commercial business opportunities and that private companies can realize profitable business activities while simultaneously contributing to the alleviation of poverty. However, companies are challenged by constraining conditions such as poor infrastructure, nonexistent distribution channels, illiteracy, corruption, lack of enforceable legal frameworks, and violent conflicts when entering those markets. In order to succeed, companies develop new strategies, introduce innovative business models, and develop novel capabilities. Three innovative practices are commonly named in the literature that should enable companies to operate successfully in low‐income markets: (1) integrating the local population and local entrepreneurs to cocreate products; (2) cooperating with nontraditional or fringe stakeholders; and (3) building local capacity, which means improving the market conditions of low‐income markets. This study applies a resource dependence perspective as it provides valuable explanations on the interaction between companies and their environment, how companies cope with environmental constraints, and how the environment and different strategies affect business outcomes. By integrating a resource dependence perspective, the study theoretically frames the strategic recommendations of the literature and answers the underlying research question of whether environmental conditions of low‐income markets cause the execution of innovative practices and whether such practices influence the outcome of companies operating in low‐income markets. The research hypotheses are tested in a structural equation model against data of 103 firms operating in low‐income markets. The study reveals that companies integrate local actors to cocreate products and cooperate with nontraditional and fringe stakeholders to reduce resource dependency. Local capacity building, which means improving the local environment, is only applied by companies when strong partnerships with nontraditional and fringe stakeholders are established. Finally, the study shows that partnerships with nontraditional and fringe stakeholders as well as local capacity building have a positive effect on organizational performance. Thus, when companies aim to enter low‐income markets, they should not follow the recommendation of the transaction cost theory and internalize resources, but rather cooperate with nontraditional partners and invest in the local environment. Moreover, the study shows that market entries into low‐income markets require long‐term commitments to engage in partnerships with regional authorities, local community groups, and nongovernmental organizations. Without these partnerships, it is not possible to reduce high resource dependencies and to establish successful businesses in low‐income markets. Thus, governments should create general conditions that facilitate the creation of partnerships between nontraditional actors and companies, and assist them to improve environmental conditions in these markets.     

Economy-wide implications of biofuel production in Zambia

ABSTRACT

Potential biofuel demand in South Africa is estimated to increase to 1550 million litres by 2025 due to mandatory blending rates. Land and water constraints, however, limit the ability for domestic production. Zambia, due to its abundance in land, suitable climate, supportive set of bioenergy incentives and close geographical location to South Africa, has the potential to meet this increase in demand. Using a dynamic recursive computable general equilibrium model, we estimate the macro- and socio-economic impacts of bioethanol production in Zambia from three potential crops: sugarcane, cassava and sweet sorghum. The results show that the development of a single product bioethanol industry has the potential to increase economic growth without negatively affecting overall food security. Further expansion of the industry to multiple products results in larger gains to growth and welfare.     

Opening the Black Box of Upper Echelons in China: TMT Attributes and Strategic Flexibility

Many scholars have suggested that strategic flexibility is a critical firm capability to survive in today's competitive arena. The decision to take strategic actions to make the firm more strategically flexible typically originates in the top management team (TMT). As the principal decision‐making unit of the firm, TMT members' information acquisition and processing capabilities and subsequent interpretation of environmental changes critically influence the decision to make the firm more strategically flexible to achieve a better fit with its market environment. Therefore, in order to understand how firms can adapt to environmental changes, scholars must study the sociopsychological processes of interaction among members of the TMT. This study examines the relationships between TMT's sociopsychological attributes (shared vision, social integration, and political ties) and strategic flexibility, which is decomposed into organizational flexibility and technological flexibility. The study further investigates how the level of competitive intensity can moderate the relationships. All the hypotheses are tested using structural equation models based on the survey data from 227 firms in China. The results show that organizational flexibility mediates the impact of TMT's social integration and political ties on technological flexibility. Surprisingly, a TMT's shared vision for the firm neither impedes nor facilitates the firm's effort in attaining the desired degree of organizational flexibility. However, TMT's shared vision does have a positive and direct impact on technological flexibility. Moreover, intense competition amplifies the positive impact of TMT social integration on the degree of organizational flexibility, but there is no significant moderating effect of competitive intensity on the relationship between a TMT's political ties and organizational flexibility. The results extend previous research by highlighting the importance of TMTs' sociopsychological attributes in driving technological flexibility, through the mediating impact of organizational flexibility.