The effects of railroad development on price convergence among the states of the USA from 1866 to 1906

This study examines the effects of the reduced transaction costs on the price behaviours in the second half of the nineteenth century, where declines in transaction costs were mainly caused by railroad development during this period. It employs a panel test introduced by Levin and Lin (1992 Levin A Lin C 1992 Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties Discussion Paper 92-93 University of California San Diego CA ) on the convergence of wheat and corn prices using a panel of 48 US states from 1866 to 1906. The results show that, by decreasing transportation costs, railroads played an important role in price convergence among states of the USA for wheat and corn during the postbellum period.     

Impact of Modeling Approaches on Dispatch Optimization of Combined Cycle Gas Turbines

Due to the age structure of the German generation system and the nuclear phase out, a significant amount of older power plants will be substituted during the coming years by newly built generation units. Such projects are frequently realized as combined gas and steam turbines, so-called Combined Cycle Power Plants or Combined Cycle Gas Turbines (CCGT). These power plants, mostly fired by natural gas, possess high efficiency factors combined with low specific CO₂-emissions compared to other conventional power plants, e.g. fired by coal and moreover provide a high operational flexibility. As they represent a combination of several thermal processes, their generation planning and optimized dispatch are more demanding than those of existing steam or gas turbines. Therefore, a new formulation of the unit commitment problem is required, including all relevant technical and economic restrictions for scheduling CCGT. In this paper, the relevant characteristics of the different types of CCGT are analyzed. This especially includes part load efficiency and the permitted modes of operation. For modeling of these characteristics and for optimizing the CCGT dispatch, a decomposition approach as well as a linearized closed-loop formulation is introduced. In the decomposition the optimization problem is split into sub problems, which can be solved with specialized algorithms. As the recombination of these sub problems may result in a limitation of the overall solution quality, the closed-loop approach considers the entire problem, but has to linearize the formulation to ensure solvability. By applying both methods on an exemplary case the advantages and shortcomings of both approaches can be analyzed in detail. This comprises model accuracy, overall solution quality and a detailed schedule analysis and comparison. The paper??s results will also show the deviations caused by the different modeling approaches. Finally, the results show the added value of the adequate modeling of combined cycle power plants towards gas or steam turbines.     

Strategic Orientation and Product Innovation: Exploring a Decompositional Approach

While a considerable body of research examines the strategic orientation–innovation relationship, findings in that literature have been mixed. This article calls attention to an underinvestigated problem: the composite, multidimensional conceptualization and measurement of most strategic orientations, which likely contribute to the mixed findings in the literature. To address this issue, the researchers explore a decompositional approach to the strategic orientation–product innovation relationship. The authors utilize the stimulus‐organism‐response framework to select, decompose, and recast a set of strategic orientation components previously identified to be essential to product innovation. To produce more nuanced insights, the authors also decompose product innovation outcomes into breakthrough versus incremental. Furthermore, the sample is decomposed by product type to assess the generalizability of the conceptual model across manufactured goods and services firms. The authors test the conceptual model with a sample of 222 executives of services and manufacturing firms in Germany and Switzerland using partial least squares. By decomposing the strategic orientation effects into direct, indirect, total, and specific components, the detailed empirical analysis yields several new insights. Overall, the results suggest that the relationship between strategic orientation and product innovation is more complex than previously identified in the literature. For example, the results demonstrate that technology orientation works to augment innovation differently in services versus manufacturing firms. More specifically, a focus on technology boosts only breakthrough innovation in manufacturing firms, and only indirectly by enhancing an organization's open‐mindedness. In contrast, services firms extract additional benefits from investing in technology directly (and for both incremental and breakthrough innovation), as well as indirectly by increasing open‐mindedness. The authors also identify complementary as well as suppressing effects on product innovation outcomes from different strategic orientation components. Based on the findings in this study, future research avenues are identified, and managers are advised to consider each component of alternative strategic orientations individually and evaluate the capabilities aligned with components to assess their interdependencies.     

Mitarbeiterbindung als Umkehrung von Fluktuation: Implikationen der Fluktuationsdeterminantenforschung

With changes in demographics and shortage of skilled labor, the importance of employee retention is increasing particularly in times of economic revival. Employee retention can be seen as the result of employee turnover avoidance. This article provides an overview on the state of current research on determinants of employee turnover to transfer these insights to employee retention. Determinants of employee turnover are grouped into company-internal and company-external. Most important employee turnover determinants are job satisfaction, working climate, material aspects as well as demographic and personal characteristics of the employee. Even though employee retention can benefit from research on determinants of employee turnover, insights are limited since employee turnover focuses on why employeesleave whereas employee retention tries to understand why employeesstay within a company.     

Transforming Human Resources in the New Economy: Developing the Next Generation of Global HR Managers at Deutsche Bank AG

This article illustrates how global player, Deutsche Bank, has managed to achieve a change of direction for its HR function: becoming a strategic partner to the business. Follow the authors step by step in this transformational process to see how this change management program developed from strategy to action, making every HR professional at DB a change agent. Find out how strategic competency definition, human resource development, and state‐of‐the‐art information technology acted as levers to engage Deutsche Bank's HR community on this journey. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Einfluss von HGÜ-Verbindungen auf Markt und Netz

Studies assume that the political subsidization of renewable energies throughout Europe will increase the amount of congestions in the European transmission grid. In current discussions HVDC reinforcement measures are seen as one means to provide further transmission capacities and to ensure a reliable operation of the system. In an effort to contribute to these discussions the publication evaluates the effect of various HVDC reinforcement measures on the grid and the market. The assessment of these reinforcement measures is based on a macroeconomic approach which considers three major cost terms. The first term represents the electricity generation costs. HVDC reinforcement measures influence this cost term as market zones with different generation costs can be coupled and overall generation costs thus might sink. The second cost term is orientated on the necessary redispatch effort to guarantee a secure and reliable operation of the grid. The third cost term represents the investment costs of the HVDC reinforcement measures. The sum of all these cost terms is regarded as a means to compare different reinforcement measures. The study shows that the effect of all examined reinforcement measures on the transmission grid is comparable. Structural congestions in the grid which exist already without any HVDC reinforcement are not influenced significantly by the examined HVDC links. Of all considered reinforcement measures a link from Germany to Norway exhibits the highest influence on the market. This link also offers the highest benefit regarding market and grid as a whole.