Revisiting the trans-situationality of values in Schwartz’s Portrait Values Questionnaire

Quality & Quantity - Schwartz in his famous theory of basic values follows Parsons and Rokeach in arguing that human values are trans-situational or context free. For any individual, the same...     

Downsizing and the fragility of corporate reputation: An analysis of the impact of contextual factors

This study extends prior research on the impact of downsizing on corporate reputation by investigating how specific aspects of downsizing measures influence this relationship. Using panel data on the S&P 100 companies for the period 1990–2000, we find that downsizing affects corporate reputation negatively and that the size of the effect depends on the content and the context of the downsizing announcement. More specifically, we find that the motive for downsizing, the time period in which it is announced as well as the extent of previous layoffs significantly influence the reputational penalties that are associated with corporate downsizing. Our results thus elucidate how contextual factors of a downsizing decision can influence the extent of the reputational damage of this measure.     

Using simulation experiments to test historical explanations: the development of the German dye industry 1857-1913

In a simulation experiment, building on the abductive simulation approach of Brenner and Werker (2007), we test historical explanations for why German firms came to surpass British and France firms and to dominate the global synthetic dye industry for three decades before World War 1 while the U.S. never achieved large market share despite large home demand. Murmann and Homburg (J Evol Econ 11(2):177–205, 2001) and Murmann (2003) argued that German firms came to dominate the global industry because of (1) the high initial number of chemists in Germany at the start of the industry in 1857, (2) the high responsiveness of the German university system and (3) the late (1877) introduction of a patent regime in Germany as well as the more narrow construction of this regime compared to Britain, France and the U.S. We test the validity of these three potential explanations with the help of simulation experiments. The experiments show that the 2nd explanation—the high responsiveness of the German university system— is the most compelling one because unlike the other two it is true for virtually all plausible historical settings.     

Coordination and the provision of incentives to a common regulated firm

This paper considers the problem faced by two regulators in providing incentives to a common (privately informed) regulated firm under various degrees of coordination. In the model, the firm exerts effort toward cost reduction and self-dealing, and incentives can be input-based (monitoring) and output-based (demanded cost targets). Full coordination between the regulators leads to the second best allocation. A setting in which the regulators do not fully coordinate leads to (i) higher overall monitoring (more aggressive input-based incentives) and (ii) higher demanded cost targets (i.e., more lenience in terms of output-based incentives). As a consequence of (i), in all possible equilibria, the effort toward cost reduction will be smaller when the agent reports to two regulators who do not coordinate. (i) and (ii) imply that the impact on the effort toward self-dealing activities is ambiguous. In our leading example, self-dealing will be larger if the regulators coordinate on monitoring levels but smaller if they choose monitoring levels independently.     

Die Geldnachfrage in Österreich

Ohne ZusammenfassungDiese Arbeit wurde als Forschungsprojekt am Institut für höhere Studien, Wien, verfaßt. Die Verfasser danken Dr. H. Otruba, Assistent am Institut für Wirtschaftswissenschaften der Universität Wien, für eine kritische Durchsicht des Manuskripts und für wertvolle Kommentare.