THE DISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTS OF THE 1969–75 INFLATION ON HOLDINGS OF HOUSEHOLD WEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES*

Using a simple simulation model, this paper assesses the impact of relative movements in asset prices on the distribution of wealth during the 1969–75 period. Because of the strong negative correlation between wealth level and the ratio of debt to wealth, this particular inflation induced a substantial drop in the overall level of wealth inequality. Moreover, comparing the portfolios of different demographic groups, we found that middle-aged households gained relatively to younger and older ones, married couples gained relatively to singles, whites gained relatively to non-whites, and home-owners gained relatively to renters. The biggest gainers from this inflation were home-owners with large mortgages and the biggest losers the large stock holders.     

The relation between income,intelligence, education and social background

In this article the authors have tried to estimate the relative importance of education, intelligence and social background for the explanation of the variations in personal income. The investigation has been carried out on Swedish data which were generously made available to them by Professor Husén of Stockholm University.The results pointed to education as the most important factor in explaining the income variations, followed by the social class of the fathers and the level of intelligence in this order. The relations turned out to be strongly curvilinear.Moreover, the interactions between the explanatory variables have been studied. It was found that their combined contribution is much larger than would correspond to additivity, in particular for the higher classes of the variables. They clearly reinforce each other.     

A logit model of retail investors' individual trading decisions and their relations to insider trades

Among the various external information sources that influence individual investors' trading decisions, no research has considered the important influence of insiders' transactions. Retail investors might copy the behavior demonstrated by insiders' trading; therefore, this study establishes an approach to estimate the buying probability for a certain stock by a certain investor at a certain point in time and analyzes whether insider trade reports influence this probability. Using a sample of more than 270,000 retail trades in Germany between 2008 and 2009, along with more than 3000 insider trades in the same period, we find evidence of copying of insiders' trades by retail investors. The basic mimicry hypothesis holds, even when we consider an information event hypothesis and an insider attention effect hypothesis as alternative explanations. A robustness test also supports the findings.     

International heterogeneity in the associations of new business models and broadband Internet with music revenue and piracy

Broadband Internet has fundamentally changed business models in many industries. In the music industry, for instance, old business models were challenged by illegal competitors, and broadband Internet has enabled value creation through new business models. The changes that established business models experienced in the wake of broadband Internet, however, differed vastly across national markets, and these differences are not well understood. We build a conceptual framework and study the extent to which differences in economic and cultural factors are associated with different market outcomes in the wake of the proliferation of broadband Internet. Thus, we compile two unique data sets from the music industry, comprising (1) revenue data for 36 countries and 22 years and (2) piracy data for 47 countries and >2 years. We use a Bayesian multilevel model to explore between-country heterogeneity in the associations between these variables and broadband Internet adoption and business model innovations. Our results show that the negative association between broadband Internet penetration and music revenue is weaker in high-income countries, where income restrictions are less likely to drive demand towards illegitimate piracy services. In terms of cultural factors, we find that a market's response to the introduction of broadband Internet is less negative in countries scoring high on Hofstede's individualism and uncertainty avoidance dimensions. Furthermore, we find that overall revenues only recover after the latest generation of streaming services (e.g., Spotify) has been introduced, and the adoption of these services is associated with lower levels of online music piracy.     

Beyond environmental management—Perspectives on environmental and management research

In a recent article Richard Welford encouraged discussions about the status and future of environmentally related organization and management-research. The following contribution is an attempt to take up some of the challenges that our field faces. The purpose is to analyse the relationship between, on the one hand, a growing flora of environmental efforts and environmental solutions and, on the other hand, a management research that is developing on its own terms. The author's basic premise is that these two need to move closer to each other. A number of theses are also presented. The author's basic thesis is that organization and management theory does not need yet another new special subject; rather, it is environmental research that needs to more seriously include relevant management research. The second thesis is that there are no objective environmental problems (as most environmental researchers maintain), but that environmental problems are social constructions. The paper finishes with a number of conclusions in favour of a management focused environmental research, that is guided by an intention of ‘soft interventions’. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

More Productive,Less Sustainable? On the Need to Consider Material Resource Flows

In environmental policymaking, the figurative cake that is wanted both to have and eat lies in achieving dematerialisation, i.e. reducing material resource use, and simultaneously pursuing a pathway lined with economic growth. Under such a scenario, we could have it all: increasing production and international convergence at the highest levels of consumption with a reduced impact on the environment in a lifestyle which could also be enjoyed by generations to come. In the following, we make a case for considering the evidence in contemplating the feasibility of such a utopia by taking social metabolism i.e. the material and energy input of society, into account.     

Determinants of spectator no-show behaviour: first empirical evidence from the German Bundesliga

The analysis of stadium attendance demand has a long tradition in the economic literature. However, despite its evident merits, this previous research has been critiqued at several levels, in particular for relying on a suboptimal demand proxy, i.e. published attendance data. In this short note, we address these shortcomings by exploring a highly unique data set containing official information on spectators’ decisions of whether or not to physically attend 704 German football Bundesliga games played between August 2014 and January 2017.     

Organizational and Technological Options for Business Process Management from the Perspective of Web 2.0

Corporate operative systems are often highly dynamic, a fact which is only insufficiently taken into account by recent process management approaches. In contrast, the perspective of Web 2.0 opens up new options for action in process management. In this contribution, we figure out new organizational and technological options of process management using a design-oriented research approach. The analysis especially considers the aspects of self-organization and collective intelligence in process management. We conceptually develop options for action and illustrate them based on a prototype platform for process management. The paper is complemented by a presentation of real-world application scenarios in the construction industry and results of an evaluation of the design-oriented research approach.