Kapitalbildung und Kapitalerhaltung in der Verkehrswirtschaft

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

From less promising to green? Technological opportunities and their role in (green) ICT innovation

This article aims to shed light on the role of technological opportunities for green innovation by studying the case of Green ICT innovation. We test whether firms active in low-opportunity technological areas are less likely to be innovative and whether they are more likely to change their direction of technical change. To do so, we construct a firm-level panel data set for the years 1992–2009 combining patent data from the European Patent Office with firm-level data from the German Innovation Panel (Mannheim Innovation Panel). The results are based on dynamic count data estimation models applying General Methods of Moments estimators. Our results support our hypotheses: firms active in low-opportunity technological areas are less innovative but are more likely to switch from pure ICT innovation to Green ICT innovation.     

The impact of the corporate balanced scorecard on corporate control—A research note

The paper explores the adoption of the corporate balanced scorecard (CBSC) and its impact on corporate control of business units. Following interviews with senior corporate managers in 15 of Sweden's largest multinational companies, 8 were found to adopt CBSC. However, CBSC had little impact on control at the corporate level. Corporate control was financially focused in all the companies: mainly financial measures were important, standards were only set for financial measures and rewards were largely based on financial performance measures. Top management's need for simplicity and comparability internally, and capital market pressures motivated the financial focus.     

Decision-making in sequential projects: expected time-to-build and probability of failure

The main purpose of this paper is to account for the two most basic options in the context of a sequential investment project, the option to adjust investment speed and the exit option. Current models of sequential investment ignore the role of a minimal investment rate that must be sustained as long as the project is not abandoned. In most real projects, a positive minimal investment rate provides an incentive for (irreversible) exit from the project. On the other hand, the minimal investment rate still leaves room for adjustment of the investment speed. Therefore, models with realistic (non-extreme) assumptions about the minimal investment should account for both, the exit option and the option to adjust investment speed. In this paper we set up the equations for this dual-option scenario in a continuous (PDE) framework. The resulting model is characterized by the presence of two thresholds describing the optimal decision-making. We provide a robust numerical procedure for the determination of both thresholds. Our analysis reveals that the minimal investment rate creates an endogenous incentive for fast completion that complements the corresponding exogenous incentives. This ??incentive-enhancement effect?? of the minimal investment rate is reflected by the fundamental statistical characteristics of the sequential project. As a direct consequence of this effect, an increase of the minimal investment rate will always lead to a reduction of the expected time-to-build. Another, striking consequence is that the minimal investment rate can also have a positive effect on the probability of failure (default-risk). This effect occurs under the condition of a low exogenous incentive for fast completion, represented e.g. by poor market expectations for the product to be developed.     

The impact of brand authenticity on brand trust and SME growth: A CEO perspective

This article investigates the linkages between brand authenticity, brand trust, and SME growth from a CEO perspective. Brand authenticity is operationalized as consisting of three factors: brand consistency, brand customer orientation, and brand congruency. The hypotheses derived in this paper will be tested with new measures and data from 285 German SMEs using structural equation modeling. The results confirm that brand consistency and congruency foster brand trust, which in turn drives SME growth.     

Internationalization strategies of EU and Asia–Pacific low fare airlines

We employ Dunning’s eclectic paradigm (OLI) to shed light onto low fare airlines’ internationalization strategies. In addition to 31 European low fare airlines, we also analyze the internationalization strategies of 41 low cost carriers in the Asia–Pacific region. The results indicate that homogenous groups of such airlines emerge with regard to their internationalization strategies and that capital and ownership structure as well as relative timing is especially closely related to low fare airline’s entry modal choice. We discuss inferences for the use of the OLI paradigm in further studies of airline internationalization.     

Do Information Rents in Loan Spreads Persist over the Business Cycles?

In this paper, we seek empirical evidence for information rents in loan spreads by analyzing a sample of UK syndicated loan contracts for the period from 1996 to 2005. We use various measures for borrower opaqueness and control for bank, borrower and loan characteristics and we find that undercapitalized banks charge approximately 34 bps higher loan spreads for loans to opaque borrowers. We further analyze whether this effect persists throughout the business cycle and find that this effect prevails only during recessions. However, we do not find evidence that banks exploit their information monopolies during expansion phases.     

Interne Märkte im Versicherungsvertrieb – Konzeptionelle Überlegungen zu einem aktuellen Themenfeld

Societal and technological developments (i.e. expansion of the use of the Internet) continue to challenge insurance product distribution. These trends have lately given rise to a stronger market orientation in sales controlling and management. This paper discusses these trends and develops a conceptual framework for evaluating the advantages and disadvantages that follow from the implementation of so-called internal markets. The analysis concludes that a stronger market orientation is not only relevant for business units close to the sales force, but may also increase pressure on the insurance company as a whole to improve its customer orientation. The same holds with respect to innovative products and the efficient use of available resources.