The evolving role of organisational and personal networks in international market venturing

In a study of 1304 Australian manufacturing industry SMEs, we investigate the relationships among networking (i.e., inter-personal and inter-organisational networks), international market venturing (i.e., export intensity), and family ownership. We find evidence that (1) inter-personal networking and inter-organisational networking positively influence SME international market venturing, but this relationship is contingent on a time lag effect, and (2) family ownership negatively moderates the effect of inter-organisational networking on international market venturing. Implications for managerial practice and public policy are discussed.     

Economic problems of increasing urbanisation

The economic problems of increasing urbanisation are presently the subject of active discussion — in other industrialised and in developing countries no less than in the Federal Republic of Germany. The following article deals with the special features of the development in the Federal Republic.     

Water supply and sanitation in urban South Africa: Getting it right during the transition and beyond

Water and sanitation institutions face major challenges to extend services to those who do not yet receive them, while maintaining financial viability and sustainability, and safeguarding the environment. Meeting these challenges effectively will require that institutions are rationalised; that sensible minimum standards for levels of service and appropriate goals for levels of service are established; that sound investment programmes are set up; that rational tariff policies are implemented; that capital finance is raised effectively; that institutional capacity is developed and the customer interface transformed; that appropriate legislation and methods of monitoring performance are developed; and that compromises on environmental issues are based on well‐informed analysis. Policy proposals in these key areas are put forward in this article to stimulate debate and to guide institutional transformation during the transition and in the longer term.     

Auditor liability rules under imperfect information and costly litigation: the welfare-increasing effect of liability insurance

This paper examines auditor liability rules under imperfect information, costly litigation and risk-averse auditors. A negligence rule fails in such a setting, because in equilibrium auditors will deviate with positive probability from any given standard. It is shown that strict liability outperforms negligence with respect to risk allocation and the probability that a desired level of care is met by the auditor if competitive liability insurance markets exist. Furthermore, our model explains the existence of insurance contracts containing obligations a type of contract often observed in liability insurance markets.     

Reimbursement schemes for hospitals: the impact of case and firm characteristics

We contribute to the debate on high-powered versus low-powered incentives in regulation by studying their heterogeneous impacts on different subpopulations, using data from the introduction of a high-powered prospective payment system (PPS) for hospital reimbursement in Germany. While no overall effect on quality or cost saving is found, our results support hypotheses drawn from an incentive and selection perspective: PPS reduces the length of stay of older relative to younger patients, of more severe relative to less severe cases, and in smaller relative to larger hospitals. Hospitals which adopted PPS earlier provide higher quality under PPS as proxied by the case-specific readmission rate. Our study also contributes to the health economic literature on hospital reimbursement as our data permits us to identify the treatment effect via different timings of adoption of PPS and to use a more accurate quality measure by following patients even when readmitted to other hospitals.     

Energieeffizienznetzwerke – beschleunigte Emissionsminderungen in der mittelständischen Wirtschaft

The reduction of energy-related CO₂ emissions by more efficient enery use in medium sized companies is one of the most profitable options. However, these opportunities are scarcely realised because of many obstacles and market failures. High transaction cost and decision routines play an important role for decision making and procurement of the companies. A network concept being developed in Switzerland and covering an initial consulting of each participating company, targets for the network, regular and moderated meetings of the energy managers for mutual exchange of experiences and a yearly monitoring alleviates many of these obstacles. It doubles the energy efficiency progress relative to the average progress of industry. This network concept can be fully realised by industry itself. Average energy savings per site and year are 100,000 € and average CO₂ emission reduction about 500 t CO₂ per year and site. Assuming a maximum potential of 700 Networks, additional emission reductions of some 10 Mio. t CO₂ seem to be possible in Germany by 2020. A network management system for consulting engineers and moderators allows a minimum performance standard of how to start and operate those efficiency networks.     

Information-seeking behaviour in interactive videotex. Training effects in an experimental investigation

First, we present a conceptual framework designed to measure information-seeking behaviour of non-professional users of Bildschirmtext, the German version of interactive videotex. A training programme is conceived with the aim of improving high school students' information-seeking behaviour in videotex by means of three consumer education lessons. Second, a laboratory investigation is described which set out to measure the influence of user training and the impact of three antecedents (sex, age, and school mark) upon four constructs of information-seeking behaviour, viz., precision of the information goal, user efficiency, content and amount of retrieved information, and satisfaction with the system. We found (a) that the training increased the ability to formulate precise information goals, (b) that the more precise the information goal the less the user efficiency and the less the satisfaction with the system, and (c) that there exist substantial sex-specific differences in information-seeking behaviour.

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Zusammenfassung Um Bildschirmtext (Btx) wirkungsvoll nutzen zu können, muß der Teilnehmer sein Informationsverhalten den Speicherstrukturen dieses interaktiven Systems anpassen, die vom Suchbaum-Menue-Prinzip geprägt sind. Da das alltägliche Informationsverhalten des durchschnittlichen Verbrauchers nicht derart strengen Regeln folgt, ist fraglich, ob Btx eine erfolgreiche Karriere als Verbraucherinformationssystem beschieden sein wird. Für Zwecke der Untersuchung wird zunächst ein Konzept entwickelt, um das Informationsverhalten nicht-professioneller Nutzer an Btx messen zu können. Weiterhin wird ein Trainingsprogramm entwickelt, das geeignet scheint, Schüler/innen im Rahmen der Verbrauchererziehung in dem wirkungsvollen Gebrauch von Bildschirmtext zu unterweisen. Die Wirkung dieses Programms und der Einfluß dreier Antezedenzvariablen (Alter, Geschlecht und Schulnote) wird im Hinblick auf vier Größen des Informationsverhaltens (Präzision des Informationsziels, Effizienz des Nutzerverhaltens, Art und Inhalt der abgerufenen Informationen und Zufriedenheit mit der Btx-Nutzung) bei Jugendlichen zwischen 13 und 16 Jahren gemessen. Zur Analyse wurde das LISREL Programm eingesetzt, das die kausalen Strukturen zwischen beobachtbaren und latenten Variablen abbildet und überprüft. Es zeigt sich, daß (a) das Nutzertrainung die Präzision des Informationsziels erhöht, daß (b) präzisere Informationsziele die Nutzereffizienz und die Zufriedenheit mit dem System reduzieren, und daß (c) die Bildschirmtextnutzung starke geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede aufweist. Die Ergebnisse unterstreichen, daß rechnergestützte, interaktive Informationssysteme für den Verbraucher erst dann von Nutzen sein können, wenn das Informationsangebot konsequent seinen Informationsfähigkeiten und -bedürfnissen angepaßt wird.

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Eberhard Kuhlmann is Professor of Consumer Economics and Ingo Balderjahn Assistant Professor of Quantitative Methods in Economics at the Technical University of Berlin. Mailing address: Technische Universität Berlin, Franklinstr. 28/29; D-1000 Berlin 10, FRG.