Business models and market entry mode choice of small software firms

So far the critical choice of the entry mode for a target country has been examined ignoring the special features of firms. Particularly, the impact of the wide variation of business models of software firms has been ignored. This multi case study investigates the relation between the business model and the entry mode, of eight software firms. The results imply that the product strategy and the service and implementation model of a software firm are closely connected to the entry mode choice, while the distribution model of intangible software products does not seem to have an impact on the operation mode.     

MDP algorithms for portfolio optimization problems in pure jump markets

We consider the problem of maximizing the expected utility of the terminal wealth of a portfolio in a continuous-time pure jump market with general utility function. This leads to an optimal control problem for piecewise deterministic Markov processes. Using an embedding procedure we solve the problem by looking at a discrete-time contracting Markov decision process. Our aim is to show that this point of view has a number of advantages, in particular as far as computational aspects are concerned. We characterize the value function as the unique fixed point of the dynamic programming operator and prove the existence of optimal portfolios. Moreover, we show that value iteration as well as Howard’s policy improvement algorithm works. Finally, we give error bounds when the utility function is approximated and when we discretize the state space. A numerical example is presented and our approach is compared to the approximating Markov chain method.      

Noise and efficient variance in the Indonesia Stock Exchange

We separate noise from information related variance for stocks traded on the Indonesian Stock Exchange with a realized variance estimator. We find that the average optimal sampling frequency to estimate the realized variance is 9 min and that market quality has improved after 2004. The positive relation between the standard deviation of the noise variance and the square root of the efficient realized variance implies that as uncertainty about asset values increases the risk of transacting with traders with superior information increases as well. Furthermore, variance ratio comparisons reveal that private information is a significant trading component on the IDX.     

Stomaprobleme – die wichtigsten Tipps

Hygiene, Hautreizungen, Sexualit?t - Die Anlage eines Stomas bedeutet für den Patienten eine tiefgreifende Ver?nderung, die – neben der Last der Grunderkrankung – eine Reihe von Fragen aufwirft: Wie komme ich mit dem Beutel und der Geruchsbel?stigung zurecht? Was passiert mit dem Stoma beim Duschen oder Baden? Kann ich mit meinem Partner Sex haben? Was kann man tun, damit ich nicht wund werde? Mit unserer „kleinen Stomakunde“ k?nnen Sie Ihren Patienten Rede und Antwort stehen.     

Accounting for Ecosystems

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment documented the importance of ecosystem services. It is therefore important to include these services in the national system of economic accounts. This requires estimation of “accounting prices” for ecosystems, that is, the marginal value of a change in the size of the system. This raises a number of questions: What do we mean by the “size” of the system? What is the dynamics of the system? How do we quantify the impacts on services from a change in the size of the system and finally how do we value these impacts? We discuss these questions in a few examples of ecosystems, and valuation as such is not the major problem. The major problem is the lack of information of the appropriate dynamic model for most systems. We therefore suggest that economists and ecologists should set priorities on which ecosystems should be the first objects for study for these; we should test the possibilities of estimating the accounting prices.     

Effects of coordinated strategies on product and process R&;D

Using a game theoretical model on firms’ simultaneous investments in product and process R&D, we advance and empirically test hypotheses on the role of externalities on the optimal R&D portfolio of cooperating firms and independently competing firms. We use Community Innovation Survey data on 3,696 Italian manufacturing firms. In line with our model we find that members of a group of firms invest significantly more into product, process, and aggregate R&D than independent firms. Further, their R&D portfolios tend to show a higher product versus process ratio. However, with regard to R&D performance and efficiency we find that independent firms are superior.      

Loosening the belt: on the effects of goal‐conflict situations on regular savings

This paper examines the effect of implementation intentions on consumers' success in pursuing conflicting saving–spending goals. Surveys of participants in a community‐based savings programme were conducted to test whether the forming of implementation intentions in specific action plans facilitate the pursuit of the focal savings goal. The intervention had no effect in facilitating the savings goal, suggesting that goal conflict undermines goal commitment above and beyond the influence of commitment mechanisms. Inquiring into the reasons for not saving within the implementation intention group, we found that conflict with spending goals emerged as a partial mediator explaining subjects' failure to enact their savings intentions. Implications for community‐based savings programmes are also discussed.     

International business travelers’ psychological well-being: the role of supportive HR practices

This study examines the effects of the job demands and job resources typical of international business travel (IBT) on psychological well-being (job exhaustion, vigor and satisfaction with work-related travel) among 232 Finnish IBTs. The study is theoretically based on the job demands-resources model and both health impairment and motivational processes were examined alongside the interaction effects of job demands and job resources. Path analysis based on structural equation modeling showed that, of the job demands, workload and pressure experienced in work demanding IBT predicted job exhaustion, but risks related to travel destinations did not. Viewed as job resources, supportive HR practices for traveling (well-functioning and safe travel arrangements and an opportunity for post-travel recovery) predicted vigor and satisfaction with traveling work. They also provided a buffer against the negative effects of the risks of travel destinations on job exhaustion and boosted satisfaction with work travel under circumstances of high risk related to travel destinations. Our findings indicate that organizations should pay greater attention to the workload and the pressure under which IBTs work, and develop supportive HR practices, especially for IBTs who experience high safety and health risks, for example, at their destination.     

Sickness Absence and Works Councils: Evidence from German Individual and Linked Employer–Employee Data

Using both household and linked employer–employee data for Germany, we assess the effects of nonunion representation in the form of works councils on (1) individual sickness absence rates and (2) a subjective measure of personnel problems due to sickness absence as perceived by a firm's management. We find that the existence of a works council is positively correlated with the incidence and the annual duration of absence. Further, personnel problems due to absence are more likely to occur in plants with a works council.