Qualitätserwartungen und ethischer Anspruch bei der Lektüre von Blogs und von Tageszeitungen

Besides classical journalistic products, media users increasingly tend to read texts on the internet published by other users, as in weblogs. How do users navigate among these offers, how do they evaluate the quality, and which standards in terms of media ethics do they apply when reading weblogs compared to newspaper articles? Two empirical studies address these questions. In a survey, 702 internet users rated their theoretical expectations in terms of journalistic quality and compliance with ethical standards, comparing weblogs and daily newspapers. In a consecutive 2 × 2 experimental design, 120 participants read a journalistic text with varying source information (weblog/daily newspaper) and varying degree of adherence to ethical standards (ethically questionable/neutral). Participants then rated the quality of the text and its ethical standards. Results indicate that daily newspapers more than blogs are expected to deliver journalistic quality. But when read, texts are evaluated according to their content rather than their source. Ethically questionable texts in newspapers are disapproved as much as ethically questionable blog postings.     

Minimum consumption and transitional dynamics in wealth distribution

This paper investigates quantitatively how initial wealth holding differences across households are propagated through time in a one sector growth model economy. A key feature of the model is that household consumption cannot fall below a positive level each period. The existence of a minimum consumption requirement implies that the Intertemporal Elasticity of Substitution not only differs across households but also changes differently over time. This model is calibrated to match some key aggregate statistics of the U.S. economy. We find that, as in the data, the wealth distribution in our benchmark model economy exhibits a (brief) period of increasing inequality, a short period in which inequality diminishes and a steady level of inequality along the balanced growth path. However, our model illustrates that the evolution of inequality is very sensitive to the length of the transition path. Additionally, our model predicts an upsurge in wealth inequality following the productivity slowdown in the 1970s.     

The logo matters: the effect of the logo type on the attitude towards co-products

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the effect of the type of logo used to promote co-products. In the case of an added logo, the logos of the constituent brands are lined up next to each other. An integrative logo is composed of the elements of both original brand logos. A novel logo does not contain any elements of the original brand logos. We found that the use of an integrative logo results in more favourable perceptions of brand cooperation, higher perceptions of co-product quality, more positive feelings and a more favourable attitude towards the co-product compared to the use of an added or novel logo. For a novel logo of co-products, consumers reported feelings of irritation and frustration and a less favourable attitude compared to an added logo.     

The development of delinquency during adolescence: a comparison of missing data techniques

Conclusions on the development of delinquent behaviour during the life-course can only be made with longitudinal data, which is regularly gained by repeated interviews of the same respondents. Missing data are a problem for the analysis of delinquent behaviour during the life-course shown with data from an adolescents’ four-wave panel. In this article two alternative techniques to cope with missing data are used: full information maximum likelihood estimation and multiple imputation. Both methods allow one to consider all available data (including adolescents with missing information on some variables) in order to estimate the development of delinquency. We demonstrate that self-reported delinquency is systematically underestimated with listwise deletion (LD) of missing data. Further, LD results in false conclusions on gender and school specific differences of the age–crime relationship. In the final discussion some hints are given for further methods to deal with bias in panel data affected by the missing process.     

The Impact of Outsourcing Strategies on Information Systems Capabilities in the Hotel Industry

This work analyses the strategy of outsourcing information systems and information technology (IS/IT), considering the different activities comprising the IS/IT area. The literature on IS contains numerous works that analyse outsourcing, very few of which examine the relationship with the different types of capabilities in the IS/IT area and their strategic value. Most works centre on the motives for, and advantages of, the strategy of outsourcing the IS/IT area, while scant attention has been paid to the study of the long-term consequences of outsourcing. This work develops a theoretical model which is applied to the hotel sector and which shows that hotels following a more intensive outsourcing strategy develop fewer managerial capabilities related to knowledge in the management of IS/IT resources. This negative relationship extends to other types of capabilities typical of the area and to certain organisational capabilities. A negative relationship is also observed between the level of outsourcing and the strategic value given to the IS/IT area, which may lead to a lower potential for the development of competitive advantage.     

Going Public — Effekte der Börsen-notierung auf das Marketing

Zusammenfassung  Wenn sich Marketingexperten in der Vergangenheit an der Schnittstelle zwischen Marketing und Finance bewegten, standen h?ufig die Effekte bestimmter Marketingmassnahmen auf den B?rsenkurs im Mittelpunkt. Wie sich jedoch die B?rsennotierung und damit eine stringente Orientierung am Shareholder Value auf das Marketingmanagement auswirkt, wurde bislang kaum untersucht. Eine explorative Studie erforscht die wesentlichen Auswirkungen der zunehmenden Shareholder Value-Orientierung auf die spezifischen Bedingungen des Marketings. M.A. Lydia Ebersbach Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin im Kompetenzzentrum „Marketing Performance Management“ am Institut für Marketing und Handel an der Universit?t St. Gallen Prof. Dr. Sven Reinecke Dozent für Betriebswirtschaftslehre an der Universit?t St. Gallen und Leiter des Kompetenzzentrums „Marketing Performance Management“ am dortigen Institut für Marketing und Handel.     

The Influence of Improvements in Accounting Standards on Earnings Management: The Case of IFRS

This article examines the effect of improvements in the quality of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on the level of earnings management. In order to achieve this aim, we study the accounting quality of German listed companies through discretionary accruals yielded from 1998 to 2006. We assess the effectiveness of efforts by the International Accounting Standards Board to improve IFRS by using two indices that consider the revision process of the standards, and their mandatory application. Our results indicate that the improvement of accounting standards quality significantly reduces the level of reported negative discretionary accruals of the German listed firms during the period of analysis, once incentive variables are controlled. Further, companies gradually assume the quality of the new standards from the moment they can be voluntarily applied.     

Le partenariat public-OSBL dans les services sociaux. Le cas espagnol

The article considers the social services supply in the Spanish area of Valencia. The objective is double. First the authors analyse what describes the partnership between public sector and NPO in this area, by using a systemic conception of the social services sector where three main functions can be identified (financing, production and distribution, and regulation). Secondly they search for theoretical arguments explaining this partnership principle. This second section is mainly based on the NPO approach.