Offshoring and Outsourcing Potentials: Evidence from German Micro‐Level Data

This paper provides two indicators that measure: (i) offshoring potentials (cross‐country geographical relocation) and (ii) outsourcing potentials (organisational relocation) separately at the level of jobs, occupations, tasks and industries. We use four waves of the BIBB/BAuA Labour Force Survey in Germany and apply principal component analysis based on a large set of potential determinants of offshoring and outsourcing derived from the literature. Our results show significant variation across these levels in the determinants of both dimensions. We provide a comprehensive empirical classification of the determinants of how easily jobs can be offshored and outsourced. This can serve as a basis for further research to investigate the economic effects of job offshoreability.     

Exploring the link between internationalization of top management and accounting quality: The CFO’s international experience matters

This study examines whether and how top management internationalization is associated with accounting quality. We combine upper echelons perspectives, agency theory, human capital theory and accounting research, and demonstrate that top management internationalization mitigates the level of managerial discretion in financial reporting. By decomposing the top management team, our analysis reveals that higher levels of accounting quality are associated with the internationalization of the CFO, not the internationalization of the CEO. In particular, we find that CFO’s international education and international work experience are important factors in higher accounting quality.     

Persuasion in Corporate Idea Contests: The Moderating Role of Content Scarcity on Decision‐Making

Organizations increasingly use corporate online ideation platforms to foster individual innovativeness. Recent research, however, has shown the downside of such contests—the selection of ideas is not entirely rational. Analyzing the impact of content scarcity, which occurs when ideators provide very little issue‐relevant information when submitting ideas, contributes to this new literature stream. The main argument is that evaluators increasingly rely on heuristics based on issue‐irrelevant information when content scarcity obstructs reflective decision‐making. The default‐interventionist model of decision‐making in combination with the Yale attitude change approach allows us to examine the mechanisms evaluators apply when content scarcity occurs. The hypotheses are tested on an extensive data set of 3025 ideas. The results show that content scarcity affects the evaluators' decision‐making process by preventing them from intervening their first intuitive decision. The scarcer the content of the submitted idea, the stronger the persuasiveness of issue‐irrelevant aspects that affect idea selection: aspects of the ideator, message, and community.     

A rolling stone gathers no moss: the effect of customers' perceived business model innovativeness on customer value co‐creation behavior and customer satisfaction in the service sector

Both researchers and practitioners have been focusing extensively on business model innovation, as it has shown to positively influence business performance. Although the effect of business model innovativeness on customer behavior might be an important mediator between business model innovation and business performance, it has not yet been analyzed. In line with recent calls to consider the customer side in business model innovation research, our paper addresses this problem by studying the influence of customers' perceived business model innovativeness (CPBMI) on customer satisfaction and customer value co‐creation behavior in the service sector. We, therefore, emphasize customers' perceptions and reactions to business model changes. Relying on data from a large‐scale survey of restaurant customers, we find that perceived value creation innovativeness and value proposition innovativeness positively affect customer satisfaction and customer value co‐creation behavior. In addition, we identify a significant indirect effect of CPBMI on customer satisfaction via customer value co‐creation behavior. Our findings allow deriving concrete implications for both researchers and practitioners.     

Financial effects of an uncertain change in VAT rates in the EU

The paper analyses how close relationships to banks influence a firm’s choice of financing its debt through publicly marketed bonds or bank loans. It is shown that large Japanese firms use less bank debt, if banks own shares in the firm or bank employees are members of the firm’s board. This result supports a theoretical framework, where banks are able to control agency problems associated with debt. Firms use bank loans in order to be monitored, which enables them to access cheaper bond finance. Closer bank–firm relationships facilitate monitoring for the bank and reduce therefore the need for bank finance.     

Preferences for skewness: evidence from a binary choice experiment

In this paper, we experimentally test skewness preferences at the individual level. Several prospects that can be ordered with respect to the third-degree stochastic dominance criterion are ranked by the participants of the experiment. We find that the skewness of a distribution has a significant impact on the decisions. Yet, while skewness has an impact, its direction differs substantially across subjects: 39% of our subjects demonstrate a statistically significant preference for skewness and 10% seem to avoid skewness (at 5% level). On the level of individual decisions we find that the variances of the prospects and subjects’ experience increase the probability of choosing the lottery with greater skewness.     

Sustainability reporting: The role of “Search”, “Experience” and “Credence” information

Corporate sustainability reporting quality has been frequently criticised as being unbalanced, presenting an overly positive view or failing to address material issues. The purpose of this article is to provide a fresh explanation for poor quality sustainability reporting and to propose how quality issues may be addressed. The theoretical framework combines the legitimacy and accountability perspectives using Akerlof's (1970) Market for Lemons theory. Akerlof's approach is extended by differentiating between three types of information in sustainability reports namely search, experience and credence. The article concludes that the type of information must be considered when determining measures to improve report quality.     

Flow-Erleben bei persönlich erbrachten Dienstleistungen

Zusammenfassung  Dienstleistungskonsum bedeutet für den Dienstleistungskunden immer auch Zeitkonsum. Vor dem Hintergrund der allgemeinen überlegungen zur Flow-Theorie wird in den nachfolgenden Ausführungen diskutiert, ob und wie sich das optimale Zeiterleben im „Flow“ auf die Zeitwahrnehmung im Dienstleistungsprozess übertragen l?sst. Die in der vorwiegend psychologischen Literatur sehr allgemein gehaltenen Bedingungen und Merkmale für Flow-Erleben werden hierbei für eine spezifische Anwendung im Dienstleistungsprozess erweitert und somit einer modelltheoretischen Betrachtung von Flow-Erleben in ?konomischen Austauschprozessen zug?nglich gemacht. Im Rahmen einer explikativen Modellierung werden die spezifischen Bedingungen und Merkmale von Flow-Erleben als (Teil-)Komponenten der Dienstleistungsqualit?t aufgezeigt. Prof. Dr. Ralph Tunder vertritt den Lehrstuhl für Produktmanagement am Department für Marketing der European Business School (EBS), International University Schloss Reichartshausen in Oestrich Winkel. Dr. Tobias Irion war bis April 2007 Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Lehrstuhl für Strategisches Marketing am Department für Marketing der European Business School (EBS) International University Schloss Reichartshausen in Oestrich-Winkel und ist heute Mitgesellschafter und Leiter des Bereichs Unternehmensstrategie der EPS Personalservice GmbH mit Sitz in Tuttlingen.