Co-Creating Value in a Retail Market Setting

It is usually assumed that the co-creation of value requires a close relationship between producers and customers. Typically, this is easier in a business-to-business context, where the numbers of customers and suppliers are relatively low and the capabilities and needs of each partner can readily be assessed. On the other hand, it could be assumed that the co-creation of value in a business-to-consumer context is likely to be more difficult, given the larger numbers of customers and more frequent, short-term, discrete transactions. This article investigates whether it is possible to co-create valuable consumer experiences in a mass market setting by examining the customer relationship strategies of eight Norwegian seafood retailers. The results show that considerable effort from both retailers and consumers are devoted to co-create valuable consumer experiences. We also reveal a repertoire of strategies to engage customers in the co-creation process. Findings are discussed and implications highlighted.     

Almost-sure hedging with permanent price impact

We consider a financial model with permanent price impact. Continuous-time trading dynamics are derived as the limit of discrete rebalancing policies. We then study the problem of superhedging a European option. Our main result is the derivation of a quasilinear pricing equation. It holds in the sense of viscosity solutions. When it admits a smooth solution, it provides a perfect hedging strategy.     

Am Puls des deutschen Wohnimmobilienmarktes

In its recent history, Germany has faced many serious economic crises. Remarkably, these crises all had a completely different impact on local housing markets. Some crises occurred at the national level, while others only took place at the regional level. Interestingly some crises were seemingly unnoticed by the German housing market. Hence, the question arises why the German housing market reacted differently to these crises and to what extent economic policy decisions were involved.     

International Franchising Research: Some Thoughts on the What,Where, When,and How

The purpose of this article is to examine the present state of international franchising research. We consider the origins and evolution of franchising as an enterprise form and summarize relevant research in this area. We advance and substantiate the premise that franchising research in the global arena has largely followed the geographic expansion trajectory of the franchise industry. And, based on these themes, we conclude by identifying a series of significant research topics in the international franchising domain.     

On the redistributive effects of Germany’s feed-in tariff

This article assesses the redistributive effects of a key element of German climate policy, the promotion of renewables in the electricity generation mix through the provision of a feed-in tariff. The tariff shapes the distribution of households’ disposable incomes by charging a levy that is proportional to household electricity consumption and by transferring financial resources to households who are feeding green electricity into the public grid. Our study builds on representative household survey data, providing information on various socio-demographics, household electricity consumption, and ownership of photovoltaic facilities. The redistributive effects of the feed-in tariff are evaluated by means of inequality indices. All the indices indicate that Germany’s feed-in tariff is regressive.     

EU-Osterweiterung: eine Bilanz nach zehn Jahren

Ten years after the biggest enlargement in the history of the EU, the integration of the new member states is assessed positively. It is considered an economic success when looking at the income levels. However, due to overly optimistic assumptions and the crisis, economic integration and the catching-up process will take much longer for the new EU member states than originally expected. Moreover, new challenges are looming, especially as the Central and Eastern European accession countries adopt the euro. Smaller countries introduced the euro as quickly as possible, whereas larger countries have been much more hesitant, thinking twice not only because of several unsolved problems in the euro area but also because they use the exchange rate tool much more intensively. All new member states have to make sure they continue to increase their productivity and competitiveness. Findings suggest that after having entered the EU, the new eastern member states appear to have been developing rather stringent competition cultures. Bulgaria and Romania’s transition performance significantly differs from the pattern in the 2004 accession countries, both in terms of quantitative growth and institutional quality. These countries show that EU funds can be highly counter-productive since they help to conserve old structures.     

Agent based model of a simple economy

This article proposes a model of a simple economy based on a set of agent-based modeling principles. The model is based on the ??trust game?? formulated by Berg et?al. (Games Econ Behav 10:122?C142, 1995), and anticipates a random matching of partners taking in to account adaptive agent behavior. Simulation in the NetLogo programming environment, using profile distributions obtained from empirical studies, has shown the most successful agents to posses low parameters of trust in the role of Sender and high parameters of trustworthiness in the role of Receiver.     

Exploring the market risk profiles of US and European stock insurers

Market risks account for an integral part of insurers' risk profiles. We explore market risk sensitivities of insurers in the United States and Europe. Based on panel regression models and daily market data from 2012 to 2018, we find that sensitivities are particularly driven by insurers' product portfolio. The influence of interest rate movements on stock returns is 60% larger for US than for European life insurers. For the former, interest rate risk is a dominant market risk with an effect that is five times larger than through corporate credit risk. For European life insurers, the sensitivity to interest rate changes is only 44% larger than toward credit default swap of government bonds, underlining the relevance of sovereign credit risk.     

Opening entrepreneurial ecosystem’s black box: the power of networks in African low-income countries

What makes one type of entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) more conducive to entrepreneurial dynamics than another? EE research is a hot topic, and considerable progress has been made as regards its elements, network, and actors’ components. However, some scholars regret the absence of an empirical analysis of EE as a whole to understand how EE configuration operates. To introduce this perspective, we propose an unexplored inter-organizational ties analysis among all EE actors, at a country-level scale. Based on the network theory perspective, we conduct an exploratory research in five low-income African countries, using innovative research methods (the quantitative graph theory, web scraping, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis) to understand the organizational patterns in these EEs, and their impact on entrepreneurial outcomes. At the core of this perspective lie inter-organizational ties measures of closeness, cohesiveness, and inter-connectedness, which are key causal conditions for high entrepreneurial dynamics levels and rates in low-income countries. This research underlines the importance of EE network attributes to facilitate the easy distribution of entrepreneurial nurturing components to entrepreneurs. It also highlights the importance of ease of information and knowledge flow, as well as a strong collaborative and coopetitive environment to make an EE more conducive to entrepreneurial dynamics.