THE IRRATIONALITY OF ACTION AND ACTION RATIONALITY: DECISIONS, IDEOLOGIES AND ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIONS

Irrationality is a basic feature of organizational behaviour. Organizational decision making tends to be irrational, and organizational ideologies bias organizations’perceptions. Much effort has been spent on prescribing how organizations should achieve more rationality. However, rational decision making affords a bad basis for action. Some irrationalities are necessary requirements for organizational actions. Choices are facilitated by narrow and clear organizational ideologies, and actions are facilitated by irrational decision-making procedures which maximize motivation and commitment.     

Forecasting the past: the case of US interest rate forecasts

This study evaluates 10-year US government bond yield forecasts and three-month US Treasury bill rate forecasts for the period between October 1989 and December 2004. In total, 136 forecast time series with approximately 13,800 forecast data were scrutinized, making this the most extensive analysis of interest rate forecasts to date. Not one of the forecast time series proved to be unbiased. In the majority of cases, information from the past was not efficiently integrated into the forecasts. The sign accuracy is significantly better than random walk forecasts in only a very few of the forecast time series. The modified Diebold–Mariano test for forecast encompassing reveals that the information content of most of the forecast time series is lower than that of the naïve forecasts, the simple ARIMA models, the implicit forward rates, or average interest rate expectations. The forecasting process is dominated by the present and past market situation.     

Determinants of idea sharing in crowdsourcing: evidence from the automotive industry

Drawing on external ideas through crowdsourcing has become common practice for firms that seek to improve and extend their product portfolios. As these initiatives often address the users of products, it is essential for firms to recognize those attributes that determine these individuals' willingness to share their ideas. This study takes the example of the automotive industry to examine how three attributes of car drivers determine their sharing behavior – that is, altruism, psychological ownership of ideas, and trust in car manufacturers. Our findings suggest that trust and altruism strengthen idea sharing, while psychological ownership weakens it. Furthermore, we find that car drivers' perception of sharing‐related risk acts as an important boundary condition for these relationships.     

über die Wirkung der Optionsbündelung auf die Ablaufplanung einer Variantenflie?fertigung Option bundling and its impact on operating mixed-model assembly lines

Bei der Optionsbündelung werden einzelne Ausstattungsmerkmale (Optionen) zu Paketen (Bündeln) zusammengefasst, so dass der Kunde, von einem Grundmodell ausgehend, durch die Auswahl unterschiedlicher Optionsbündel eine bestimmte Produktvariante konfigurieren kann. Im Mittelpunkt dieses Beitrags steht die Beantwortung der Frage, ob eine solche Optionsbündelung den Produktionsablauf positiv beeinflusst. Dabei richtet sich das Augenmerk auf die Produktionsform der Variantenflie?fertigung, die in der Endmontage variantenreicher Endprodukte (etwa in der Automobilindustrie) eine dominierende Stellung einnimmt. Eine umfangreiche computergestützte Evaluierung verdeutlicht einerseits den generell positiven Einfluss der Optionsbündelung und identifiziert andererseits im Rahmen der Betrachtung unterschiedlicher Bündelungsarten die kumulative Bündelung als besonders geeignet.     

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.