Optimal Taxation of Bequests in a Model with Initial Wealth*

We formulate an optimal‐taxation model where parents leave bequests to their descendants for altruistic reasons. In contrast to the standard model, individuals differ not only in earning abilities, but also in initial (inherited) wealth. In this model, a redistributive motive for an inheritance tax – which is equivalent to a uniform tax on all expenditures – arises, given that initial wealth increases with earning abilities. The introduction of the inheritance tax either increases intertemporal social welfare or has an ambiguous effect, depending on whether the external effect related to altruism is accounted for in the social objective.     

Between advocacy,compliance and commitment: A multilevel analysis of institutional logics in work environment management

In this study we explore the development and enactment of institutional logics in the field of work environment management. We show how three historically developed logics constitute different values and practices that guide professionals’ organizational action. Using both historical and contemporary qualitative data, we show how the three institutional logics are present in the field of work environment, and how the logics are enacted simultaneously by actors within four large organizations in Denmark. The study contributes to the literature on institutional logics. The logics perspective is combined with critical realism to describe the inter-relatedness between the levels of society, institutional fields, and organizations, and by elaborating the near-decomposable relations between institutional logics and orders. The study contributes to the literature on work environment management by investigating the ideational lenses through which regulations and interventions are perceived by organizational actors, and how these perceptions may lead to different organizational outcomes and outlooks in work environment management.     

Accommodating Employees With and Without Disabilities

Efforts to recruit and retain employees with disabilities are often tempered by employers’ concerns over potential workplace accommodation costs. This study reports on accommodations requested and granted in intensive case studies of eight companies, based on more than 5,000 employee and manager surveys, and interviews and focus groups with 128 managers and employees with disabilities. Two unique contributions are that we analyze accommodations for employees without disabilities as well as for those with disabilities, and compare perspectives on accommodation costs and benefits among employees, their coworkers, and their managers. We find people with disabilities are more likely than those without disabilities to request accommodations, but the types of accommodations requested and the reported costs and benefits are similar for disability and non‐disability accommodations. In particular, fears of high accommodation costs and negative reactions of coworkers are not realized; all groups tend to report generally positive coworker reactions. Multilevel models indicate granting accommodations has positive spillover effects on attitudes of coworkers, as well as a positive effect on attitudes of requesting employees, but only when coworkers are supportive. Consistent with recent theorizing and other studies, our results suggest the benefits from a corporate culture of flexibility and attention to the individualized needs of employees. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Magic of the Personal Touch: Field Experimental Evidence on Money and Appreciation as Gifts*

In this paper, we use two field experiments in professional settings to explore the effort levels of individuals in response to gifts. We extend the literature by looking at non‐financial gifts that signal worker appreciation and gifts that combine financial and non‐financial elements with or without a personal touch. We find that while money and appreciation are individually effective, these only work well together when they are combined with a personal touch. This suggests that responses to gifts are sensitive to the presentation of the gift as well as to interpersonal elements; these are factors that have so far been largely ignored in the literature but are easy to incorporate into existing principal–agent models.     

Können Unternehmen durch Cluster Wettbewerbsvorteile realisieren? Eine ressourcenbasierte Analyse des Uhrenclusters Glashütte

Single firms as parts of clusters are in the focus of this paper. They are analysed with regard to their contribution to the generation of firm- and cluster-specific competitive advantages. The resource-based view is extended to ensure applicability in cluster research. This approach serves as the basis for the analysis of a case study undertaken in 2008 in the watch cluster in Glashütte, Germany.     

Can’t the university be more like business?

Businesspeople sigh, Cant the university be more like business. The faculty complain about business values crowding out academic values. The truth, I contend, lies in the muddy middle. In some respects the university is becoming more like business, and in other respects business is becoming more like the university. The university would do well to emulate business on some dimensions, and business would do well to emulate the university on other dimensions. The worst-case scenario is for the university to move away from those of its non-businesslike qualities that are worth preserving even while it apes business precisely on those qualities business is giving up.JEL Classification: I2, I21Susanne Lohmann: I would like to thank two referees for their insightful comments and Amihai Glazer for handling editorial matters.     

Supplier perspective on business relationships: experiences from six small suppliers

In this paper, the suppliers’ contributions to their customers’ processes are analysed from the perspective of the supplier, and the conditions for mutual learning are discussed. The study is based on case studies of six suppliers connected to three lift truck companies. The case studies reveal that collaboration is not fully developed, and the reasons for this are analysed. The barriers to mutual learning seem to relate to the customers’ demands for price reductions, the customers’ lack of interest in co-operating, unequal relations between customer and supplier, and constraints regarding co-operation with the customers’ competitors.     

Coercive western energy security strategies: ‘resource wars’ as a new threat to global security

Against the background of the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 western coalition's war against Iraq, this article will argue that interstate resource wars and armed conflicts will constitute a new threat to global security. Two different phenomena are framing the conditions for future resource wars: first, an anticipated oil supply crisis as a first consequence of the decline of global oil reserves and second, the uneven distribution of these declining resources along the North-South axis. It is argued that in response to these developments the coercive character of traditional US strategies for securing energy will intensify, and thus bears the potential to escalate into further armed conflicts. It follows from this discussion that there are only two sustainable strategies for conflict prevention: first, the reduction of the dependency on fossil fuels by developing alternative and renewable energy, and second, the pursuit of a global policy based on more equitable and controlled energy distribution.     

The ‘West’ against the ‘Rest’: Geopolitics after the end of the cold war

With the end of the Cold War, it seemed that we had reached the ‘end of geopolitics’. Since the mid‐1990s, however, the term ‘geopolitics’ has experienced a revival, and even regional groupings which have so far abstained from any kind of power politics, such as the European Union, have started to claim geopolitical interests for themselves. But it is not clear what constitutes this kind of power politics in the 1990s and what drives ‘the West’ to pursue geopolitics, directed against what Huntington has labelled so plainly and provocatively the ‘Rest’. The article addresses this question by analysing Western capital's need for access to markets in the South and the EU's and US’ growing dependence on oil imports. The article will argue that a Western geostrategy based on Huntington's civilisational model would be counterproductive in the long run, manoeuvring the Western states into a situation where these geopolitical goals would have to be enforced by military means instead of being pursued through a strategy of political and economic support.