Talking by numbers — Communicated uncertainty of the ECB

Using a novel approach, this paper analyses the deliberately communicated uncertainty of the ECB to the market. Specifi cally, it semantically analyses the uncertainty expressed in offi cial ECB press statements. The analysis shows how the ECB tries to alert or appease the market with different levels of communicated uncertainty. The appeasement through low uncertainty communication levels is particularly pronounced during times of fi nancial distress. Further, the analysis shows that the ECB tried to alert the market through an increasing level of communicated uncertainty prior to the outbreak of the global fi nancial crisis.     

The origins and evolution of democracy: an exercise in history from a constitutional economics approach

In this article the conditions for the rise and fall of representative regimes are explored. High citizen mobility and unexploited opportunities for investment create the need of reassuring factor owners against the tax hunger of the State. This may lead to the emergence of representative institutions of government, a process that reverts when those conditions disappear. Factors that facilitate or restrain the mobility of citizenry are identified, mainly in the domain of military technology. Thus, a number of interrelations between production and war technologies, political development and economic performance are revealed, giving rise to an interpretation of historical evolution.

The effect of international staffing practices on subsidiary staff retention in multinational corporations

This paper contributes to the scarce body of research on employee turnover in multinational corporations' foreign subsidiaries and addresses some key issues related to dealing with turnover of local staff. Based on a literature review, I conceptualize locals' perceived career prospects and their organizational identification as key variables mediating the relationship between international staffing practices and local staff turnover. In a second step, the paper develops instruments that help international firms to retain their subsidiary staff. Specifically, I focus on how international staffing practices need to be configured to ensure employee retention and I derive moderating factors. My arguments are integrated into a framework for the effect of international staffing practices on subsidiary staff retention in multinational corporations.     

On the relationship between supplier integration and time-to-market

Recent operations management and innovation management research emphasizes the importance of supplier integration. However, the empirical results as to the relationship between supplier integration and time-to-market are ambivalent. To understand this important relationship, we incorporate two major recent developments. First, the literature has started to redefine supplier integration into two dimensions, supplier product integration and supplier process integration. Second, recent research has begun to examine spillover effects that extend beyond the direct costs and benefits of the supplier contract. Using survey data of 116 firms in the industrials, health care, and information technology industries, the results confirm our hypotheses and show that supplier product integration decelerates time-to-market while supplier process integration accelerates time-to-market. The results also show a positive relationship between supplier integration and the adoption of external technologies, which either decelerates or accelerates time-to-market depending on the level of internal exploration activities. Our research, thus, helps to open the ‘black-box’ of the relationship between supplier integration and time-to-market, and provides a theoretically grounded explanation to the apparent contradictory results in prior research about the influence of supplier integration on time-to-market. In addition, we contribute to research on spillover effects by emphasizing that information technology adoption and assimilation is an important spillover effect of supplier integration.     

Marketingerfolg richtig messen: Optimale Kennzahlensysteme

Zusammenfassung  Wie kann man zuverl?ssige Methoden entwickeln, um die Erfolgswirkungen von Marketingma?nahmen auf den Unternehmenswert zu messen? Am Anfang steht dabei die Frage, was Marketingerfolg eigentlich ist. Eine reine Fokussierung auf die Stakeholdergruppe der Kunden reicht hier nicht aus. Andere, durch Marketing ebenfalls erreichte Interessensgruppen wie z.B. Investoren oder Mitarbeiter müssen auch betrachtet werden. Und das alles vor dem Hintergrund moderierender Kontextfaktoren wie etwa der Unternehmensstrategie oder der Branche. Dipl.-Kfm. Sascha Raithel Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Institut für Marktorientierte Unternehmensführung an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit?t München sowie Consultant bei der Pepper GmbH in München Dipl.-Kfm. Sebastian Scharf Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Institut für Marktorientierte Unternehmensführung an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit?t München Prof. Dr. Manfred SchwaigerVorstand am Institut für Marktorientierte Unternehmensführung an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit?t München     

Experimental investigation of stationary concepts in cyclic duopoly games

We experimentally test the predictive success of three stationary concepts in two cyclic duopoly games. The concepts are Nash equilibrium, impulse-balance equilibrium and payoff-sampling equilibrium. In the experiment 11 independent subject groups, consisting out of six participants interacting over 200 rounds, were gathered for each game. The comparison of the three concepts with mixed strategies shows that the order of performance from best to worst is as follows: payoff-sampling equilibrium, impulse-balance equilibrium, and Nash equilibrium. In addition the data exhibit a weak but significant tendency over time in the direction of coordination at a pure strategy equilibrium.     

Kurz Kommentiert

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Propuesta de indicadores SMARTER de trabajo decente para la agenda de desarrollo posterior a 2015

Los indicadores actuales de los ODM sobre empleo presentan deficiencias importantes, como problemas de medición, uso inadecuado de estadísticas agregadas, ambigüedad interpretativa y supuestos de base no aplicables a los países en desarrollo. Tratando de superar estos problemas, los autores proponen cuatro nuevos indicadores de empleo productivo y trabajo decente: el crecimiento de la contribución del trabajo al valor añadido por trabajador, la tasa de trabajadores pobres y los porcentajes de trabajadores que ganan menos de un ingreso laboral mínimo absoluto y relativo (el 60 por ciento de la mediana del ingreso laboral). Aplican empíricamente estos indicadores a los casos de Uganda y Perú.