Knowledge spill-over from new to old industries: The case of German synthetic dyes and textiles (1878-1913)

We construct a data set of long-lived German patents of patent classes dyes (22) and dyeing (8) to measure the accumulation path of technological knowledge with respect to dyeing textiles. Using these data we show with a vector error correction model that in the German Empire inter-industry knowledge spill-over between the new chemical industry and the old textile industry created an upward circle of “endogenous growth.” The increasing demand for synthetic dyes of the prospering textile firms initiated further research and development projects of the chemical firms that led to new patents and via customer consulting and customer training to additional economic benefits of the textile industry.     

Spieltheoretische Verfahren der Kapitalallokation im Versicherungsunternehmen

The present contribution displays a transfer of selected examples of game theory cost allocation techniques for the case of capital allocation in insurance companies. The starting point is the determination of a particular class of game theoretic solution concepts. The respective allocation methods and their critical examination are preceded by an introduction of an at first solely game theoretic motivated axiom system, in which the relations to the coherent allocation principles used by Albrecht / Koryciorz are elaborated. In the end with the nucleolus as a game theoretic solution and the conditional value-at-risk principle, two coherent allocation principles are exemplary contrasted.     

Career commitment in collectivist and individualist cultures: a comparative study

A comparative study of Malaysian and Australian managers used the Carson and Bedeian multidimensional career commitment measure and the individualism-collectivism scale developed by Singelis et al . (1995) in a survey to test the hypothesis that career commitment is likely to be higher in individualistic than in collectivistic cultures. Malaysian managers were more collectivistic but also more vertically individualistic than Australian managers, and the two groups differed only in their levels of career resilience commitment and were not significantly different in career identity and career planning commitment. These results may reflect a shift from collectivism towards individualism with Malaysia's economic development, but collectivism may also be adapting to economic development and social change and the findings add weight to recent criticism of accepted conceptualizations of cultures.     

The structure of profit sharing schemes in accounting partnerships

This paper explains aspects of profit sharing arrangements in accounting partnerships, including the geographical dispersion of partnerships. It is posited that accounting partnerships sharing profits on a national or international basis are likely to use performance-based profit sharing rules; whereas local partnerships are likely to share profits equally. This is caused by factors influencing performance monitoring of partners. We propose that the geographical dispersion of profit sharing is determined by the ability to utilise teamwork efficiently across locations. Results show that more geographically disperse partnerships have a greater proportion of their clients that are firm specific, rather than intrinsically linked to any one individual within the partnership. Finally, guidelines for the efficient design of partnership profit-sharing arrangements are outlined.     

Assessing causal economic explanations

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in causal realismin the methodology of economics. Some of this literature reflectsa strong scepticism about the existence of sharp event-regularitiesor ‘laws’ in the economic realm and, accordingly,about the prospects for the covering-law approach to explanationthat dominates modern economic theory. This paper outlines analternative, causal, approach to economic explanation and attemptsto answer an important question often asked about it: how shouldcausal economic explanations be assessed?