Open Innovation und Beziehungsmanagement bei Henkel

Eine Open-Innovation-Strategie greift auf externes Wissen zurück und steigert dadurch die unternehmensinterne Innovationskraft. Um auf externe Wissensquellen zurückzugreifen, stehen zahlreiche unterschiedliche Methoden zur Verfügung. Dieser Beitrag zeigt, zu welchem Zeitpunkt im Innovationsprozess bei Henkel welche Methoden eingesetzt werden und welche überlegungen dahinter stehen.     

The effects of quantification on persuasion in unfamiliar contexts: The case of information systems controls

The purpose of this study is to more fully understand when quantitative analyses are more persuasive than qualitative analyses. Forty-seven executives responded to an experiment where they evaluated a business proposal recommending an increase in the information systems controls budget, where potential benefits were presented via either a quantitative or qualitative analysis. When the executives were familiar with the context, the quantitative analyses were more persuasive. However, when the executives were less familiar with the context, qualitative analyses that were framed negatively were more persuasive than quantitative analyses. These findings are important theoretically and pragmatically. From a theoretical standpoint, I demonstrate that familiarity with the context predicates how quantification affects decision-makers. In addition, I offer evidence that qualitative analyses that emphasize what has been, or could be, avoided may be a viable persuasive tactic when the decision-maker is unfamiliar with the context.     

Alpaca Lies? Speculative Bubbles in Agriculture: Why They Happen and How to Recognize Them

The speculative bubble phenomenon has been studied extensively by economists and psychologists in recent years. The recent literature is surveyed and extended to enhance the understanding of speculative bubbles in agricultural industries. The analysis is applied to the U.S. alpaca industry, where prices for breeding stock are many times higher than in Peru, home of the world's largest alpaca herd. We present a framework to assess whether current prices for U.S. alpaca stock are supported by market fundamentals or are likely to represent a speculative bubble. Finally, we identify "warning signs" common to agricultural bubbles.     

The stages of financial services product elimination

This paper examines product elimination in the UK's financial services industry. The literature review establishes that physical goods elimination theory has only limited application to the financial services sector. Specifically, it fails to take account of constraints that prevent the removal of a product to a state of nonexistence. To overcome this, the sector uses two forms of removal — full and partial elimination. A three-stage methodology is used to find out how products are eliminated in retail banks, building societies and insurance organisations. A model is developed which explains that companies within the sector proceed through four stages during the elimination process — identification, decision, implementation and post elimination evaluation. At the end of this process, a product will have been either partially or fully eliminated. The preference of the industry is to use partial elimination. It can be concluded that the customer relationship is a key determinate factor in the choice of elimination process.     

Determinanten der Strom-und Gaspreisentwicklung in Deutschland — Eine empirische Bestandsaufnahme für die Jahre 1998 bis 2007

The price worthy supply of energy is an indispensable requirement for growth and employment in highly industrialized countries as Germany. For energy intensive production processes — with limited opportunities to accomplish efficiency gains or substitute fuel — energy prices and costs are important determinants for competitiveness. But the other manufacturing sectors and households too, are affected by these high energy costs respectively expenditures, which result in real production losses or correspondingly in cutting back expenditures for non-energetic consumer goods. In view of the strongly increased level of energy prices — the price for crude oil hit the historic peak of $121 per barrel in May 2008 — especially grid bound energy sources as electricity and gas are in focus of the public. A recent study of the EEFA research institute illustrates the determinants of the development of electricity and gas prices in Germany from 1998 to 2007.     

Online banking adoption: We should know better 20 years on

During the 20 year lifetime of the Journal of Financial Services Marketing the study of online banking adoption has emerged and matured as a field. Now 20 years on, we reflect on the accumulated online banking adoption knowledge and consider what this tells us. On the basis of an audit of published research over a 10-year period, 1998–2008, we identify the core theories and approaches utilised to study online banking. The findings reveal the widespread application of the Technology Adoption Model (TAM). Drawing on the current debate regarding TAM within the Information Systems domain, we critically evaluate the ongoing appropriateness of TAM for online banking adoption research, and call for a refreshed approach to the study of bank technology adoption. The paper concludes by highlighting other theories that offer potential to extend knowledge in this area.     

Quantitative analyses of depth interviews

Prior research has relied on qualitative analyses of customers' responses during depth interviews. This article discusses how observational monitoring, subjective encoding, and automatic encoding can be used to quantitatively analyze depth interview data. It compares the benefits and costs of each method, and discusses computer software packages that assist in automatically encoding verbal data. In an innovative experiment, we compared observational monitoring and automatic encoding of customers' responses to open-ended questions about telecommunication services. We conclude that automatic encoding is a feasible method of analyzing depth interviews that provides detailed quantitative information about customers' responses.