Environmental Regulations and Plant Exit

A qualitative response model is applied to study the relationship between environmental regulations and plant exit. The data set is Norwegian panel data for establishments in three manufacturing sectors that have high shares of units which have been under strict environmental regulations. In two of the sectors, the estimated exit probability of regulated establishments is, ceteris paribus, only one third of the exit probability of non-regulated establishments. We also find that the probability to change regulation status from being non-regulated to become regulated depends significantly on economic factors. In particular, establishments with weak profitability had the highest probability to come under environmental regulation.     

Sollten Marketing und Vertrieb prozessorientiert geführt werden?

In vielen Unternehmen stellt die Marketing- und Vertriebsorganisation eine permanente Baustelle dar. Problematisch ist v.a. die Ausrichtung der zahlreichen Teilfunktionen mit Marketing- und Vertriebsaufgaben auf die Bedürfnisse des Kunden. Zunehmend setzen Unternehmen Techniken des Prozessmanagements ein, um Kundenorientierung sicherzustellen. Dieser Beitrag geht auf die Hintergründe ein. Er liefert zudem empirische Ergebnisse zur derzeitigen Prozessorientierung deutscher Unternehmen in Marketing und Vertrieb, die auf positive Effektivit?ts- und Effizienzwirkungen eines prozessorientierten Marketing hindeuten.     

On Combining Partial and Incompatible Information in E-negotiation and E-arbitration

The complexity of the problems to be addressed in an e-democracy framework and the variety of involved stakeholders, with different backgrounds, views and access to information sources, lead us to consider the case in which an e-negotiation should be performed among subjects who have partial, sometimes incompatible, information and can hardly gather to discuss issues together, under the supervision of a facilitator. We propose a statistical method which addresses the issue of partial and incompatible information, merging it and then using it to get a final decision, possibly in an automatic way, through processes of e-negotiation and e-arbitration.      

Translating satisfaction determination from health care to the automotive industry

This study is based on the case of BMW, and aims to improve the determination of perceived consumer satisfaction in the automotive industry by transferring existing knowledge from the health care sector. A literature analysis of the health care sector and the automotive industry was conducted to identify the common concepts of determining satisfaction. These were the service encounter, situational factors, and sociodemographics. The practical application was tested by analyzing a contemporary survey from BMW. Based on the findings, managers responsible for customer satisfaction in after-sales services in the automotive industry could improve measurement of customer satisfaction.     

Group interaction, heterogeneity, rules, and co-operative behaviour: Evidence from a common-pool resource experiment in South Africa and Namibia

We present econometric evidence of how sociodemographic characteristics, economic background, group effects, and dynamic personal and group interactions influence the co-operative behaviour of individuals in a social dilemma situation. The data are from a framed common-pool resource experiment conducted in Namibian and South African farming communities. Our estimates suggest complex but stable social dynamics within groups over the course of the game. We conclude that group interactions may be significantly influenced by the degree of sociodemographic heterogeneity. Our study shows that the introduction of rules matters, as it improves co-operation, but that the concrete shape of such rules may be less important than the underlying social interaction.     

Die stochastische Modellierung von Großschäden für den Einsatz in internen Risikomodellen der Schadenversicherung

Along with individual corporate management and regulatory matters for instance within EU regime Solvency II, Internal Risk Models are very important for major general insurance companies. Of crucial importance in building these internal models, is the stochastic modelling of large claims and in particular, the selection and parameterization of suitable probability distributions for the amount and number of claims based on empirical data. To this end, in practice, a visually-based methodology is more appropriate and workable than strict mathematical approaches. Based on a practical case study, this paper provides some insight into a visually-based methodology for internal risk models.     

Island futures—Does a participatory scenario process capture the common view of local residents?

Scenarios are often developed by small groups of motivated individuals, but how representative are they of community views of desirable futures? A scenario process in the coastal community of Vega in central Norway was complemented by a survey among 200 community residents in which respondents rated a preferred development option from a series of future choices and dilemmas. While the scenario process produced novelty and diversity in thinking about the future, the common community view reflects a more traditionalistic view of the future. Tourism was identified as a key economic opportunity in the scenario process, but the larger island community has little faith in tourism as a future cornerstone of economic development and would rather rely on traditional sectors like agriculture and fisheries. The scenarios brought out richness in future development options, highlighted place identity and support for heritage conservation based on wise use of natural resources. The scenarios were less suited for making decisions about economic investments, but produced salient information about opportunities, uncertainties and complexities of the future. Findings show the need to compliment scenario processes where a small group explores “possible futures” with surveys to explore the wider populations’ views about “preferred futures”.     

Control Aversion and The Search for External Financing in Swedish SMEs

The discussion on growth (see Storey, 1997) and control aversion (Cressy, 1995; Chittenden et al., 1996; Cressy and Olofsson, 1996) in small and medium sized firms has been attracting an increasing amount of attention. Our purpose in this article is to identify under what circumstances small and medium sized firms are prepared to accept outside control in the business firm in order to grow. In the article it is argued that technology development, financial strength, size and perceived need to grow, change firms attitudes towards external financiers. The change in attitude towards more openness eventually leads to an actual behaviour where the principals choose to apply for external finance in the form of bank loans. A linear structural equation modelling program, LISREL, is used to analyse a sample of 281 Swedish firms. The firms all have less than 200 employees, and the sample includes both manufacturing and service firms. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.