Superstars as Drivers of Organizational Identification: Empirical Findings from Professional Soccer

This paper examines the effect of superstars on external stakeholders’ organizational identification through the lens of sport. Drawing on social identity theory and the concept of organizational identification, as well as on role model theories and superstar economics, several hypotheses are developed regarding the influence of soccer stars on their fans’ degree of team identification. Using a proprietary data set that combines archival data on professional German soccer players and clubs with survey data on more than 1,400 soccer fans, this study finds evidence for a positive effect of superstar characteristics and role model perception. Moreover, it is found that players who qualify for the definition of a superstar are more important to fans of established teams than to fans of unsuccessful teams. The player's club tenure, however, seems to have no influence on fans’ team identification. It is further argued that the effect of soccer stars on their fans is comparable to that of executives on external stakeholders, and hence, the results are applied to the business domain. The results of this study contribute to existing research by extending the list of personnel‐related determinants of organizational identification.     

Nebenjob Altenhilfe

Ist die Professionalisierung am Ende? - Die Rahmenbedingungen sowie die demografische Entwicklung k?nnen dazu führen, dass das derzeitige Kompetenz- und Qualifikationsniveau des in der station?ren Altenhilfe t?tigen Personals nicht gehalten werden kann. Denn um Pflege bezahlbar zu gestalten und Personalressourcen zu erschlie?en, werden fachliche Abstriche hingenommen. Gleichzeitig verlassen f?hige Pflegekr?fte die operative Ebene der Altenhilfe. L?sst sich diese Entwicklung aufhalten?     

The nucleolus of large majority games

Members of a shareholder meeting or legislative committee have greater or smaller voting power than meets the eye if the nucleolus of the induced majority game differs from the voting weight distribution. We establish a new sufficient condition for the weight and power distributions to be equal, and we characterize the limit behavior of the nucleolus in case all relative weights become small.     

Time-varying beta risk of Pan-European industry portfolios: A comparison of alternative modeling techniques

This paper investigates the time-varying behavior of systematic risk for 18 pan-European sectors. Using weekly data over the period 1987–2005, six different modeling techniques in addition to the standard constant coefficient model are employed: a bivariate t-GARCH(1,1) model, two Kalman filter (KF)-based approaches, a bivariate stochastic volatility model estimated via the efficient Monte Carlo likelihood technique as well as two Markov switching models. A comparison of ex-ante forecast performances of the different models indicate that the random walk process in connection with the KF is the preferred model to describe and forecast the time-varying behavior of sector betas in a European context.     

The role of entrepreneurial orientation in service firms: empirical evidence from Austria

Entrepreneurial behaviour is becoming increasingly important for all firms, regardless of size, age, or industry sector. It is increasingly seen as one of the most important drivers for economic growth and corporate success. Nevertheless, no empirical research has so far concentrated on the role of entrepreneurial behaviour in service firms, although the service sector has become the most important (and the only growing) industry sector. This article therefore investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and corporate performance on the basis of an empirical survey of 310 service firms in Austria. Here, a significant positive relationship between EO and corporate performance could be identified, with a clear emphasis on innovative behaviour as the most important sub-dimension.     

To change or not to change–antecedents and outcomes of strategic renewal in SMEs

Companies need to constantly renew themselves to remain competitive in rapidly changing market environments, regardless of their size or age. Even though strategic renewal is a crucial factor for sustainable success of organizations, it is only an emergent area in literature. This article examines potential antecedents of strategic renewal and impact on firm performance. Based on 104 companies’ responses to a structured questionnaire, the empirical findings demonstrate that strategic renewal positively impacts firm performance, and that entrepreneurial orientation and organizational learning are antecedents. From a practical managerial viewpoint, our results suggest that firms following a strategic renewal approach can increase the long-term success of their organizations: Firms that are entrepreneurially oriented and willing to learn can successfully manage strategic renewal.     

When the difference makes a difference – the regional embeddedness of entrepreneurship

Abstract

Regional determinants of new firm formation are of interest to researchers and policymakers. In the analysis of new firm formation, most studies use econometric approaches that mask intra-unit variations, not recognizing counterbalancing and dilution effects as a result. Recent advances in spatial statistics such as Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) take local variations into account. However, these approaches operate only on a bivariate level, making it impossible to detect the homogenous parts of the area under examination with regard to a number of relationships between new firm formation and its determinants. Based on a sample of 412 German regions, we apply GWR and subsequent graph-partitioning clustering to identify multi-relationally homogeneous sub-areas. Being that the results suggest a four-cluster solution, ‘one size fits all’ policies and premature unit zoning can be called into question.     

Generalized Pareto processes and fund liquidity risk

Motivated by the modelling of liquidity risk in fund management in a dynamic setting, we propose and investigate a class of time series models with generalized Pareto marginals: the autoregressive generalized Pareto process (ARGP), a modified ARGP and a thresholded ARGP. These models are able to capture key data features apparent in fund liquidity data and reflect the underlying phenomena via easily interpreted, low-dimensional model parameters. We establish stationarity and ergodicity, provide a link to the class of shot-noise processes, and determine the associated interarrival distributions for exceedances. Moreover, we provide estimators for all relevant model parameters and establish consistency and asymptotic normality for all estimators (except the threshold parameter, which is to be estimated in advance). Finally, we illustrate our approach using real-world fund redemption data, and we discuss the goodness-of-fit of the estimated models.     

Understanding spread in the electronic futures markets: financial crisis perspective

This article analyses bid–ask spreads in U.S. electronic futures markets around the recent financial crisis. We decompose the bid–ask spread into three components – order processing, inventory holding and adverse selection costs – and show that adverse selection costs increased the most during the crisis while order processing costs are the largest cost component. Volume significantly affects inventory holding and order processing costs, whereas volatility only influences inventory holding costs. The crisis period had a significant effect on these relations. This study extends the existing literature on liquidity in equity to futures markets.