Mirko Marr (Hrsg.): Kommunikationsallrounder für die Mediengesellschaft Schweiz . Die Absolventinnen und Absolventen des IPMZ — Institut für Publizistikwissenschaft und Medienforschung der Universit?t Zürich

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Private Finanzierung von Fernstraßen – Erfahrungen und Probleme

Seit 1994 hat der Gesetzgeber die Möglichkeit geschaffen, Fernstraßen privat zu errichten und gegen eine Mautgebühr zu betreiben. Die bisherigen Erfahrungen sind ernüchternd. Warum ist Betreibermodellen bislang der Durchbruch nicht gelungen? Welche Hemmnisse lassen sich für ein privatwirtschaftliches Engagement identifizieren? Wie tragfähig sind Mautgebühren für die private Finanzierung von Verkehrsinfrastruktur?Prof. Dr. habil. Erik Gawel, 41, lehrt Volkswirtschaftslehre an der Fachhochschule Frankfurt am Main und ist öffentlich bestellter und vereidigter Sachverständiger für Gebührenfragen.     

Does the Governed Corporation Perform Better? Governance Structures and Corporate Performance in Germany

Although there has been an intensive debate on the relative merits of different systems of corporate governance, empirical evidence on the link between corporate governance and firm performance almost exclusively refers to the market-oriented Anglo-Saxon system. This paper therefore investigates the more network- or bank-oriented German system. In panel regressions for 361 German corporations over the time period 1991 to1996, we find ownership concentration to affect profitability significantly negatively. However, this effect depends intricately on stock market exposure, the location of control rights, and the time horizon (short-run vs. long-run). We conclude from our results that (1) the presence of large shareholders does not necessarily enhance profitability, (2) ownership concentration seems to be sub-optimal for many German corporations, and, finally, (3) having financial institutions as largest shareholders oftraded corporations improves corporate performance.     

The appropriateness of statistical methods for testing contingency hypotheses in management accounting research

In recent years, the contingency-based management accounting literature has been criticized for being fragmentary and contradictory as a result of methodological limitations. This study adds to this picture by showing that the theoretical meaning of some commonly used statistical techniques is unclear, i.e. the functional forms are not precise enough to be able to discriminate between several sometimes even conflicting theories of contingency fit. The study also shows that the techniques differ significantly in terms of how interaction effects between context and management accounting are modeled. This implies that some methods are only appropriate when theory predicts interaction effects in general while others are only appropriate in cases where theory specifies a more precise functional form of interaction such as symmetrical or crossover interactions. Based on these observations, several recommendations for future research are proposed.     

Human Capital Externalities and Proximity: Evidence from Repeated Cross-Sectional Data

Summary  Does schooling generate social returns in excess of the private returns captured by the individual who makes the human capital investment? As a strategy to detect human capital externalities I use Dutch survey data to estimate the impact of the average human capital stock in a region on individual wages, considering regional human capital as a local public good. Indeed, the regional fraction of high-skilled workers or the region’s average educational attainment appears with a positive and statistically significant coefficient in an augmented Mincer specification. However, the impact on individual wages completely vanishes when the firm’s human capital stock is included as an additional control. This may suggest that human capital externalities predominate within firms, though alternative explanations, in particular selection of high-skilled workers in high-productive companies and imperfect substitutability across skill groups, cannot be ruled out. I would like to thank two referees, Nicole Bosch, Theo van de Klundert, Pierre Koning, Rob Luginbuhl, Mauro Mastrogiacomo, Gabriela Schütz, Wouter Vermeulen, Dinand Webbink and seminar participants at the Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General of the European Commission, the NAKE Research Day 2007, the 64th Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance, and the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis for helpful comments, and Joke Goes, Jelte Haagsma and Judith Hoeben for their help with the data. Views expressed are my own, and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the European Commission or the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.     

The impact of technological and organizational implementation of CRM on customer acquisition, maintenance, and retention

In recent years, customer relationship management (CRM) has been a topic of the utmost importance for scholars and managers. Despite the evidence provided by numerous empirical studies, many companies that have implemented CRM systems report unsatisfactory levels of improvement. This study analyzes what influence companies can expect CRM implementation to have on performance and how they can leverage its impact. The authors propose a conceptual model that investigates the link between technological and organizational implementations, as well as the implementations' interactions with management and employee support and CRM process-related performance. By measuring CRM performance in terms of the initiation, maintenance, and retention of customer relationships, the study provides a detailed picture of what CRM implementations are capable of achieving. The results of the empirical study, conducted across four industries and ten European countries, indicate that CRM implementation does not impact performance equally for different aspects of the CRM process, and that it has an impact only if adequately supported by the appropriate company stakeholders.     

Sustainability Balanced Scorecards and their Architectures: Irrelevant or Misunderstood?

In a recent systematic review of the Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC) literature in this journal, we developed a typology of architectures as a basis for the process of SBSC design, implementation, use, and evolution. This paper addresses a comment by Hahn and Figge (2016) designed to stimulate further research. We argue that the existing literature demonstrates that the SBSC management tool can play an important role in corporate sustainability. The SBSC architectures—as representations of goals and priorities—form an integral and iterative part of the corporate sustainability strategy-making process and therefore cannot be isolated from it. However, the concept as such should not be overloaded (e.g. as a tool for radical change). In this paper, we first reflect on the potentials and constraints of the SBSC in relation to (1) radical or transformational change and (2) measuring performance outcomes on the level of human–earth systems. Second, we discuss the importance of SBSC architecture concerning (1) how it enables the integration of sustainability into business organisations; (2) how both strictly hierarchical cause-and-effect chains and less hierarchical designs can allow companies to seek inclusive profits; and (3) the contingency-based use of generic architectures (i.e. using the sustainability strategy and value system to determine a fitting architecture) in contrast to its use as a diagnostic tool (i.e. the architecture revealing the sustainability strategy and value system).     

Stock prices and inflation hedged firms

As the Federal Reserve continues its near-zero rate policy, the threat of inflation remains a concern among both policymakers and businesses. This article uses over 30 years of accounting data and stock returns to examine how publicly traded firms respond to increasing inflation expectations. We first examine whether firms make balance sheet adjustments in response to expected inflation. We then examine whether these activities have a positive effect on stock prices. We find that firms increase inventory, increase capital expenditures and reduce long-term debt when there is an increased expectation of inflation. We then find that firms that increase inventory in this economic regime are rewarded in the market. Markets also reward firms that increase their cash positions and reduce long-term debt possibly suggesting investor flight to safety.