Fads and Trends in Business and Information Systems Engineering and Information Systems Research – A Comparative Literature Analysis

The business and information systems engineering (BISE) discipline, dominating in the German-speaking countries, where it is called“Wirtschaftsinformatik”, is currently undergoing a phase of increasing internationalization and the U.S.-based Information Systems (IS) discipline is often considered an ideal. Studies show that BISE has often dealt with fads in the past – for IS there are no findings reporting on the diffusion of fads. The objective of the paper is to close this research gap. The authors conducted a literature analysis to investigate the development of topics and terms in BISE and IS from 1994 to 2007. Titles, abstracts and keywords of 2,564 articles in three BISE journals and 5,647 articles in five IS journals were analyzed. The results show that BISE is topically more diverse and concrete than IS. In addition, the rate of fads is higher in BISE than IS. Being engaged in fads is not necessarily negative – rather, it may considerably contribute to the relevance of research. However, it has to be considered that an overly intense orientation on fads may negatively influence a cumulative research progress. Hence, the authors conclude that for BISE and IS, which both have a theoretical and pragmatic mission, a balanced ratio of short- and long-term topics seems appropriate.     

Sehbehinderungen und Blindheit im Alter

Mehr Lebensqualit?t und Sicherheit für Sehbehinderte - Blinde und Menschen mit Sehbehinderungen sind in Einrichtungen der Altenpflege keine Seltenheit. Doch nicht immer ist auch professionellen Pflegekr?ften bewusst, mit welchem Handicap die Betroffenen leben müssen. Dabei k?nnen sie viel zu deren Sicherheit und Selbstst?ndigkeit beitragen.     

Systematic approach to incorporate human factors into a process plant design

Despite the increasing number of accidents in process industry caused by human error, there are still too few efforts devoted to this area. This is mainly caused by people's tendency to overestimate human's capability in interacting with their working environment and moreover by the unavailability of reliable analysis methods. Because of the current lack of adequate methods, human factors (HF) analysis is not widely performed in process industry. Some HF techniques developed in the process industry were examined regarding their practical applicability and were unfortunately proved to be unsuitable for an elaborate HF analysis. Therefore, a new approach was developed, which provides a systematic way in performing a qualitative HF analysis to achieve a safer operation and decrease the number of human failure events. HF consideration during the design of a process plant is the key to minimize accidents caused by human error in process industry. Thus, an approach to incorporate HF into design phase is described in this article, which can help achieving a safer operation as early as possible with minimized costs. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 2009     

On the Role of Brand Stereotypes in Shaping Consumer Response toward Brands: An Empirical Examination of Direct and Mediating Effects of Warmth and Competence

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the branding literature by examining the critical role of brand stereotypes in shaping consumers’ brand‐related responses. Drawing on the Stereotype Content Model, this article examines how warmth and competence stereotypes impact consumers’ emotional reaction toward brands and in turn consumers’ brand attitudes and behavioral intention. In addition, this article examines how brand stereotypes mediate the relationships between brand personality and consumers’ brand emotions. The results from this study support the dual role of brand stereotypes as relevant predictors of brand emotions, and intervening variables mediating the effects from brand personality perceptions on brand emotions. The findings support the view that mechanisms of social perception apply to brand perception and provide new insights about the relationship between consumers’ brand perceptions and their responses toward brands.     

Exploring Different Types of Sharing: A Proposed Segmentation of the Market for “Sharing” Businesses

Sharing instead of buying is regaining traction among today's consumers. This study aims at identifying segments of sharing consumers to unearth potentially viable clusters of a consumer behavior that is a market of growing economic relevance. By means of a qualitative study and a survey with a roughly representative sample of 1121 Swiss‐German and German consumers, a set of trait‐related, motivational, and perceived socioeconomic variables is identified that can be used to group individuals into segments that differ with regard to their approach to sharing. A cluster analysis based on these variables suggests four potential clusters of sharing consumers—sharing idealists, sharing opponents, sharing pragmatists, and sharing normatives. Two sets of testable propositions are derived that can guide further research in this domain and pave the way to a more targeted approach to the growing market of “sharing” businesses.     

Product sophistication and spillovers from foreign direct investment

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries is often associated with higher economic growth due to knowledge and technology spillovers to local firms. One way that FDI speeds up growth is by facilitating the manufacturing of more sophisticated products by local firms. So far, there is a lack of firm‐level evidence how the presence of multinational firms affects the product sophistication of firms in a developing country. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap. We compile an extensive firm–product‐level data set of Indian manufacturing firms, which we complement with information on product sophistication and spillovers from FDI. We then explore different channels through which spillovers from multinationals to local Indian firms foster the manufacturing of sophisticated products. We find evidence that spillovers through supplier linkages strongly increase the manufacturing of sophisticated products in India.     

Quo vadis Kita-Beiträge?

The debate over abolishing day care fees in Germany is ongoing. Coming from an education and family economics perspective, this contribution summarises various arguments pro and contra different day care fee systems. The following questions are addressed: How much is paid in fees over the entire income distribution? How do fees differ by region and provider? And how would households react if there were no longer any day care fees? In addition to discussing the huge variety of fee systems, other issues which contribute to a very diverse day care system are also briefly described. Overall, more intense federal engagement is needed, which makes sense given the nation-wide benefits of a qualitatively high level of day care quality.     

Why Do Cohabiting Couples Marry? An Example of a Causal Event History Approach to Interdependent Systems

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a causal approach to interdependent systems based on two empirical investigations. These examples demonstrate (1) the study of two highly interdependent processes: entry into first marriage as the dependent process and the process of first birth/first pregnancy as the explaining one; (2) an interdependence occurring mainly in a very specific phase of individuals' lives (i.e. during the period of first family formation); (3) the involvement of time lags between cause and its effect (e.g. time until detection of conception); and (4) the highly dynamic character of an unfolding effect over time (i.e. the effect of first pregnancy/first birth on first marriage strongly depends on the progress of pregnancy and the time since the birth has taken place).