The Eurobarometer and the process of European integration

For nearly 40 years, the European Commission has observed the development of the European Union as it is reflected in public opinion. The Eurobarometer measures the European population’s attitudes about various issues related to Europe. The informational value of the Eurobarometer is viewed as quite high, since the surveys, which are conducted twice a year, generate a large quantity of data. This article investigates the role of the Eurobarometer in the process of European integration by analysing the methodological foundations of the Eurobarometer and discussing its weaknesses. The final section addresses the issue of whether the European Commission, as the contracting entity, utilizes the Eurobarometer as a political instrument to promote support for the process of European integration. It is argued here that the Commission’s instrumentalisation of the Eurobarometer jeopardizes its informational value, whereas at the same time the political benefits of this shift remain debatable.     

Realizing public values: enhancement or obstruction? Exploring value tensions and coping strategies in the co-production of social care

ABSTRACT

We examine the potential of co-production to enhance or obstruct the realization of public values by analysing what value tensions co-producers experience and what coping strategies they follow. In-depth study of a social care initiative in Flanders shows that co-production enhances the realization of values relating to services delivered, relationships between public servants and citizens, and the democratic quality of the service delivery process. However, public servants and citizen co-producers experience tensions between values, such as efficiency, individual freedom of co-producers, reciprocity, and inclusion. In trying to deal with these value tensions, public servants are found to follow a variety of coping strategies, whereas citizen co-producers tend to escalate tensions or avoid coping with them. The type of coping strategy followed, however, influences if and what values are ultimately represented in the service delivery process and its results.     

Tumorpatienten – die Rolle der Angehörigen

Zusammenfasung  Belastungen, Bew?ltigungen, Ressourcen — Angeh?rige von Patienten werden im medizinischen Behandlungsprozess nicht selten als „St?rfaktoren“ wahrgenommen, die durch ihre Gegenwart, ihre Fragen und Anliegen den Arbeitsalltag „behindern“. Nur allzu schnell wird übersehen, welche gro?e Bedeutung sie bei der Betreuung der Patienten haben und wie hilfreich und unterstützend sie auch für das Pflegepersonal sein k?nnen – das gilt auch und besonders in der Onkologie.     

Should System Firms Develop Complementary Products? A Dynamic Model and an Empirical Test

While Nintendo develops many video games internally, Apple is only marginally involved in the development of iPhone applications. This paper addresses the question: to what extent and how should system firms be involved in the development of complementary products for their “core products”? These core products may include video consoles, electronic book readers, etc. This is a highly relevant question, because the success of core products depends strongly on their complementary products, e.g., video games and electronic books. This study proposes a dynamic model for the degree that system firms should be involved in complementary product development by considering, as contingency factors, the novelty of the core, and the novelty of the complementary products. Both novelties influence the degree to which system firms should be involved in the development of complementary products. In terms of a system firm's involvement, this study makes a distinction between the degree of integration and the degree of ownership. The degree of integration reflects the extent to which the system firm is actively involved in the coordination of the complementary product, e.g., to ensure that the complementary product is optimally aligned with its core product and that the full potential of the core product is achieved. The degree of ownership reflects the extent to which the system firm finances the development of the complementary product and therefore, the degree of formal control authority over the complementary product. This model was tested using data from a survey of 99 development projects for mobile telecommunications applications. The results reveal that integration by the system firm contributes to the performance of complementary products for new core products but has a negative effect if a new complement is developed for a mature core product. In addition, ownership contributes to performance if both the core and complementary products are new. In other circumstances, a clear effect of ownership by the system firm on performance is not found. The implications of our findings are that system firms should be strongly involved in complementary product development when they introduce a new core product, and even more so if the complementary products are new. However, they should decrease their degree of involvement over time as the core product matures and, again, even more so if the complementary product is new. The paper concludes by providing practical implications for system firms in the mobile telecommunications industry and beyond.     

The organizational form of vertical relationships: Dimensions of integration

In this paper we argue that the organizational form of a buying firm's vertical relationship with a supplier can be defined as a configuration of four distinct, but related dimensions of integration. These dimensions pertain to ownership integration (the extent that the firm owns the upstream component supplier), coordination integration (the intensity of information exchange to align the two stages of production), task integration (the extent that the buying firm performs upstream tasks), and knowledge integration (the extent that the buying firm possesses knowledge about the upstream component). Ranging from fully integrated to fully disintegrated, these dimensions can be combined to form various organizational configurations that better reflect the true nature of organizational forms than one-dimensional conceptualizations. Drawing on distinct fields of research (e.g. transaction costs economics, information-processing theory, and learning) the goal of this paper is to improve our understanding of the four dimensions of integration and their interrelationships. This is an important step for future processes of configurational theory building and normative testing.     

Successful bear-fighting strategies

This paper explores the factors involved in determining the differential performance of firms in bear markets. Bear markets are identified at the industry level by employing the criterion of a 20 percent drop of the industrial value added index over a period of at least 3 years. Twenty-one matched pairs of Dutch firms which have experienced such bear markets (one successful, the other unsuccessful), are analyzed. The dominant finding is that successful firms follow market-oriented strategies, whereas their unsuccessful counterparts are distinguished by their focus on costs. Success, however, is a multifaceted phenomenon. Differences in initial conditions, in other types of strategic measures, in energy levels and in timing are also involved. The findings are related to the literatures on decline, failure, turnaround and transformation.     

Dealing with dualities

This paper introduces the topic of dealing with dualities, which is the theme of this special issue. We first give a short review of the notion of paradox and duality in management research. After this, we discuss the relevance of dualities for the IMP approach of analyzing industrial networks. Then, we briefly introduce the papers of and their relationship with the theme of this special issue. We conclude with some suggestions for future research.     

Entry and Innovation in Maturing Markets: Virtual Operators in Mobile Telecommunications

In the last few years the mobile telecommunications industry has witnessed the entry of a large number of new service providers. Traditionally, mobile users get their mobile services from the service providers owned by vertically integrated mobile network operators (MNOs). The new entrants do not own a network of their own however, because they use the existing mobile infrastructure, i.e. they are 'mobile virtual network operators' (MVNOs). By granting these virtual operators access to their networks, MNOs actually facilitate the entry of potential competitors for their own downstream service providers. These new entrants might attract additional users by offering competitive services and create extra value with their well-known brand names and other complementary assets. This study focuses on the mobile market of the Netherlands, where competition is intense and MVNOs proliferate. The aim of this research is to improve our understanding of the entry of virtual operators in general, and specifically by explaining why and how virtual operators enter the mobile market and the impact they have on competition in the mobile market.     

Optimal designs for models with block-block resp. treatment-treatment correlations

Summary In this paper we study optimal designs assuming two special covariance structures of the observations, namely that the covariance between the observations depends only on the blocks resp. the treatments. We show that the weighted least squares estimator equals the ordinary least squares estimator. Then we prove that block-block correlations resp. treatment-treatment correlations do not have any influence on the A- and MV-optimality resp. A-optimality. For the study of the MV-optimality in the case of treatment-treatment correlations we use the idea of invariance to find optimal C-matrices.