Verbesserte Institutionen für den Arbeitsmarkt in der Wirtschaftskrise

Bis in die 90er Jahre war der deutsche Arbeitsmarkt dadurch charakterisiert, dass ein Aufschwung den Bestand der Arbeitslosigkeit kaum beeinfl usste, eine Rezession hingegen schon. Seit fünf Jahren gilt das Umgekehrte: der Aufschwung schl?gt auf die Entwicklung der Arbeitslosigkeit durch, die Rezession hingegen kaum. Offenbar pr?gen l?nger dauernde Anpassungsprozesse über Konjunkturzyklen hinweg die Arbeitsmarktentwicklung.     

Social Embeddedness in Electronic Negotiations

This study contributes to electronic negotiation research by analyzing the role of social embeddedness of actors in a controlled laboratory experiment. In particular, we analyze the effect of prior negotiator relationship in different conflict levels in web-based negotiations. We hypothesize that with increasing intensity of conflicts, negotiators who have a personal relationship use more value creating strategies compared to anonymous negotiators. As a consequence, we also hypothesize to find fewer impasses in electronic negotiations involving subjects who are socially embedded. Our results confirm that, in fact, in severe conflicts socially embedded actors reach significantly more agreements than subjects of the control group while such an effect is not found in weak conflict situations. These findings are related to more yielding between embedded actors but not to more value creating behavior. From these results, we can conclude that socially embedded negotiators better manage to reach agreements in difficult situations. Furthermore, an institutionalized pre-negotiation phase which allows negotiators to establish a personal relationship can counteract the threat of impasses.     

Ursachen geschlechtsspezifischer Kostenunterschiede in der Privaten Krankenversicherung: Eine empirische Untersuchung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Anforderungen des AGG

The new “Allgemeine Gleichbehandlungsgesetz” (General Equal Treatment Act) also influences the premium calculation of the German Private Health Insurance to antagonize gender discrimination in premiums. The higher premiums in the Private Health Insurance women pay are caused by higher expectation of life, by the risk of fertility, and by higher individual health-care costs for health services. We study how strong the gender influence in health-care costs of men and women are and if they are influenced by the factors mentioned above. We analyse if there is any gender discrimination in premium calculation in the Private Health Insurance. The results show that after eliminating the factors only a small reduction of premiums is found. We still find a cost difference between women and men. This difference can be explained by the different usage of health services but this depends less on the gender rather on individual psychosocial factors.     

Bei „Gewitter im Kopf“ hilft EFA

Epilepsie-Fachkräfte machen den Alltag lebbar - Zugegeben: man stirbt nicht daran und mit der richtigen Medikation ist die Erkrankung meist in den Griff zu bekommen. Doch die Auswirkungen von Epilepsien auf den Alltag der Patienten sind erheblich. Spezialisierte Pflegekräfte helfen, Ängste und vermeidbare Einschränkungen abzubauen.     

Klinische Expertise trifft emotionale Unterstützung

Pflegeexpertin für Brusterkrankungen/Breast Care Nurse - Die Diagnose Brustkrebs ist für Frauen nach wie vor ein Schock. Die Krankheit zu bew?ltigen und Perspektiven für den Alltag zu entwickeln, dabei unterstützt die „Brustschwester“ Patientinnen und ihre Angeh?rigen. Was sie braucht, ist neben einer pflegerischen Spezialisierung in besonderem Ma?e psychosoziale Kompetenz und wirksame Strategien zur Selbstpflege.     

International trade,technological change and wage inequality in the UK economy

This paper examines the joint impact of international trade and technological change on UK wages across different skill groups. International trade is measured as changes in product prices and technological change as total factor productivity (TFP) growth. We take account of a multi-sector and multi-factor of production economy and use mandated wage methodology in order to create an well-balanced approach in terms of theoretical and empirical cohesion. We use data from the EU KLEMS database and analyse the impact of both product price changes and TFP changes of 11 UK manufacturing sectors on factor rewards of high-, medium- and low-skilled workers. Results show that real wages of skill groups are significantly driven by the sector bias of price change and TFP growth of several sectors of production. Furthermore, we estimate the share of the three different skill groups on added value for each year from 1970 to 2005. The shares indicate structural change in the UK economy. Results show a structural change owing to decreasing shares of low-skilled workers and increasing shares of medium-skilled and high-skilled workers over the years.     

Reforming local public services

Abstract

The following article is aimed at analysing reforms in public service delivery and management at the local level of government in Germany and France from a cross-countries comparative perspective. Particular attention is paid to the results and effects these reform initiatives have caused with regard to the administrative organization, steering capacities, and output performance. Two major approaches of reform will be addressed: privatization, contracting-out, and ‘corporatization’ of local services on the one hand and public management reforms on the other. Proceeding from the distinct ‘starting conditions’ of reforms in the two local government systems, the question will be pursued, as to whether there has been an increasingly convergent or divergent development in French and German local service provision, and how these evolutions can be explained.     

Externally Directed and Internally Directed Market Launch Management: The Role of Organizational Factors in Influencing New Product Success

Introducing new products remains a critical challenge for managers. Consumer acceptance of new products is key to new product success and requires the effective implementation of market launch activities. The present study describes the relationship between different types of market launch activities and market‐related, time‐related, and financial market launch success. The study's framework extends previous work on launch management by complementing the view that launch activities are predominantly outwardly directed with the notion that launch management can also be inwardly directed. More specifically, launch activities can both target customers as the external audience, for example, via communication and pricing, and address an internal audience, such as management and sales personnel, for example, using departmental coordination or employee incentives. The study also sets out to investigate how situational factors impact the relative effectiveness of both externally directed and internally directed launch activities in engendering successful new product launches. In particular, product newness, technology drivers, and firm size are considered as relevant variables. Structural equation analysis of data on 178 new products across industries provide empirical evidence that market launch success depends on the intensity of both externally directed and internally directed market launch activities. With regard to the overall impact of internally directed activities, the findings confirm that organizational factors and antecedents indeed play a critical role in new product launch and its respective performance with internally directed activities having an even stronger impact on time‐related and financial success than outwardly directed instruments. Specifically, these internal activities are often viewed as idiosyncratic resources that are hard for competitors to observe and are therefore more difficult—if not impossible—to replicate compared to externally directed activities in market launch. The paper clearly pinpoints that the successful launch of new products is a complex task that also necessitates the implementation of internally directed launch activities. Fast market penetration requires coordination among the different internal players as well as support from top management. Furthermore, the financial objectives of the market launch can only be met if employees and executives both receive the necessary incentives and support to effectively execute the new product introduction. The study also demonstrates that moderators impact the strength of the effectiveness of these two different types of market launch activities. This research provides important implications for launch management by advocating that the two foci on external and internal constituencies should not be pursued in isolation but that instead, the opposite is true.