Der Arbeitsplatzwechsel als Erneuerungsprozeß

Summary The notions of renewal theory, in the context of labour turnover, include the following random variables: Length of completed service in a firm (in other contexts called failure time or waiting time); uncompleted service in the employee's present employment (spent waiting time); and number of times an employee changed his job in a given year (number of renewals).The second and third of these distributions are known from interviews of a large sample of Austrian employees; it has been assumed that the first conforms to a law given by Silcock (equation 6). On this assumption the parameters have been obtained and tested by comparing the implied distribution of the number of renewals with the empirical data.The result is satisfactory for men, but not for women (who comprise two distinct groups, according to working life, which may not easily fit one distribution). The calculated length of service distribution is given in Table 2 and Figur 3.A second part of the paper deals with asymptotic solutions. Owing to limited working life the process of job renewals is a terminating process. In a sense, though, the process continues, if the worker is replaced by another one. If there were no limit at all to the process, Silcock's formula would imply an ultimate steady state with infinite renewal time. In practice this state is approached gradually, and this can be accounted for by introducing an exponential function which shows how the length of service in one job increases with the progress of working life.Finally, the renewal approach has two aspects: From the point of view of the firm, the workers are renewed from that of the workers, the jobs. The two renewal processes are in a sense dual to each other.

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Die Berechnungen für diese Arbeit wurden vonSonja Kröpfl durchgeführt     

Mit Benchmarking in Forschung und Entwicklung (F & E) den Entwicklungsprozess optimieren

Kostensenkungspotentiale im Entwicklungsprozess sind durch Kennzahlen in quantifizierter Form leicht erkennbar.     

Capital Structure, Information Acquisition and Investment Decisions in an Industry Framework

This paper analyzes the relationship between a firm's capital structure and its information acquisition prior to capital budgeting decisions. It is found that low-growth industries can sustain a large number of levered firms. In these industries, leverage is negatively related to a firm's incentive to acquire information during the capital budgeting process. In contrast, high-growth industries only sustain a small number of levered firms. In these industries, levered firms acquire more information than all-equity financed firms. The model yields empirical predictions regarding the effects of leverage on the expected amount and the volatility of corporate investment. While leverage does not affect firm value, highly levered firms generate a more volatile cash flow than firms with low debt levels.     

Der Konjunkturzyklus

Ohne ZusammenfassungR. F. Harrod: The Trade Cycle. 234 S., Oxford, at the Clarendon Press. 1936     

Corporate social responsibility and aging workforces: an explorative study of corporate social responsibility implementation in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises

Although critical differences exist between large companies and small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), limited empirical research has been done on human resource (HR)‐related corporate social responsibility (CSR). In this paper we study aging workforce management (AWM) as a component of CSR. Our study was conducted in the Netherlands through a randomly distributed online questionnaire. Managers and team leaders of 201 SMEs responded. The data were analyzed using multiple hierarchical regression analysis. Our results are twofold: first, findings suggest that CSR policies in micro organizations with fewer than five employees seem to be strongly associated with AWM; and second, that companies with a focus on integration of older workers in daily activities do not perceive their actions as HR‐related. Using AWM as part of CSR helps to give insight into the role of the owner, company size and the nature of implicit CSR practices. Our study demonstrates that the use of AWM in CSR research can lead to valuable insights and therefore, our overarching research question is answered that AWM can be used when studying CSR.     

Inferring Market Structure from Customer Response to Competing and Complementary Products

We consider customer influences on market structure, arguing that market structure should explain the extent to which any given set of market offerings are substitutes or complements. We describe recent additions to the market structure analysis literature and identify promising directions for new research in market structure analysis. Impressive advances in data collection, statistical methodology and information technology provide unique opportunities for researchers to build market structure tools that can assist real-time marketing decision-making.     

Revisiting the threshold effect of remittances on total factor productivity growth in South Asia: a study of Bangladesh and India

Both Bangladesh and India are among the top recipient of remittances in absolute terms. However, in relative terms – remittances as a per cent of GDP – the two countries stand at 6.1% and 2.8%, respectively, well below the levels of the top 10 recipients. In this article, we explore the effect of remittances on the total factor productivity (TFP) growth considering Bangladesh and India, as reference countries over the periods 1980–2012 and 1977–2012, respectively. We examine the presence of a long-run association between remittances and TFP using a number of tests. The results indicate that remittances have threshold effects on TFP growth in both countries. Despite the two countries receiving substantial amount of remittances, we note that Bangladesh has a U-shaped relationship whereas India has an inverted U-shaped relationship with TFP growth. For Bangladesh, a minimum threshold of remittances (% GDP) is 5.3% and for India, a tipping point of remittances (% GDP) is at 1.8%. The causality tests confirm a bidirectional effect, which implies that remittances and TFP growth are mutually reinforcing. Interestingly, while the two economies have similar remittances impact in regards to causality, the study highlights two different tipping points of remittances.     

Attention economies

A new theoretical model is developed which describes the structure of competition for attention and characterizes equilibria. The exogenous fundamentals of an attention economy are the space of receiving subjects with their attention capacity, and the potential set of competing firms (senders) with their radiation technology. The endogenous variables explained by the theory are equilibrium audiences (the clients belonging to a sender), their signal exposure and attention, and the diversity of senders surviving the contest for attention. Application of the equilibrium analysis suggests that international integration or progress in information technologies tend to decrease global diversity. Local diversity, perceived by the individual receivers, may increase nonetheless.     

Elements of a horizontal product safety policy for the European Community

The article discusses elements of a horizontal general product safety policy for the European Community and its relationship with the new approach to technical harmonization and standardization. The following particular elements are treated: (a) the adoption of a general obligation for manufacturers to produce and market products which are safe; (b) the European Home and Leisure Accident Surveillance System as an instrument for improving the construction of products and for instigating follow-up market controls; (c) follow-up market controls (improving the Community System for the Rapid Exchange of Informations on Dangers Arising from the Use of Consumer Products, harmonization of the means of control and intervention in the several Member States, interim measures at Community level in cases where products constitute grave and immediate dangers in more than one Member State); (d) setting up a Standing Committee for all questions on product safety policy; (e) consumer participation in the standard-setting process; (f) the complementary function of the Product Liability Directive. The case-law of the European Court of Justice relating to the free movement of goods and the remaining competences of Member States are taken into account. Finally, the example of the proposed Directive on machinery makes clear that the new approach to technical harmonization and standardization interferes strongly with the established structures of worker and consumer safety regulations in the several Member States as well as with traditional procedures of standardization and certification.