Self-perceptions, government policies and tax compliance in Germany

The policy of choice to fight tax non-compliance is an increase in deterrence, i.e. fines and audits, which seems to be well-grounded theoretically as the economics of crime justifies such an increase of the expected costs of illegal activities. In this paper, the impact of subjectively perceived deterrence on undeclared work is analyzed for the German case. Germany is particularly interesting because it considerably increased deterrence to fight tax non-compliance recently. The data set used for this analysis contains several waves of survey data conducted between 2004 and 2008. According to our evidence, (subjectively perceived) deterrence has an impact on undeclared work, but the influence of social norms is similarly important.     

Gewerkschaften auf dem Rückzug? Mythen,Fakten und Herausforderungen

A comparison across 20 advanced countries shows that trade union density has fallen in most countries over the last 50 years, with substantial differences between countries. However, unions are not about to vanish everywhere, and some prominent explanations for union decline such as globalization do not hold on closer scrutiny. Current trends that pose serious problems for union membership are demographic change, the declining employment share of the public sector, the rise in atypical employment, and the decline in average firm size. Upholding union presence at the workplace is crucial for keeping and winning members, and union recruiting should focus more on young and atypically employed workers.     

Stochastic duration and fast coupon bond option pricing in multi-factor models

Generalizing Cox, Ingersoll, and Ross (1979), this paper defines the stochastic duration of a bond in a general multi-factor diffusion model as the time to maturity of the zero-coupon bond with the same relative volatility as the bond. Important general properties of the stochastic duration measure are derived analytically, and the stochastic duration is studied in detail in various well-known models. It is also demonstrated by analytical arguments and numerical examples that the price of a European option on a coupon bond (and, hence, of a European swaption) can be approximated very accurately by a multiple of the price of a European option on a zero-coupon bond with a time to maturity equal to the stochastic duration of the coupon bond. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Proportionality and the power of unequal parties

In this paper we introduce the concept of an overall power function that is meant to combine two sources of a party's power in a parliament. The first source is based on the possibilities for the party to be part of a majority coalition and it is typically modeled using a cooperative simple game. The second source takes into account parties' asymmetries outside the cooperative game and it is displayed by a vector of exogenously given weights. We adopt a normative point of view and provide an axiomatic characterization of a specific overall power function, in which the weights enter in a proportional fashion.     

‘Thinking Before Acting’ or ‘Acting Before Thinking’: Antecedents of Individual Action Propensity in Work Situations

We introduce the concept of ‘individual action propensity’ to examine the approach of individuals towards solving situations for which they lack knowledge and/or experience about what to do. We focus on a naturally contrasting pair of responses: ‘thinking before acting’ or ‘acting before thinking’, and associate low action propensity with thinking one's way into understanding how to act, and high action propensity with acting one's way into understanding such situations. We build on regulatory mode theory – with its dimensions of locomotion and assessment and the trade‐off between speed and accuracy – to examine individual characteristics as predictors of individual action propensity. We find that individual action propensity is associated with being a woman, having fewer years of formal education, not relying on help‐seeking behaviours, and having a positive attitude towards spontaneity. Our findings shed light on why individuals take action, or not, and provide implications for research on organizational action propensity.     

Organizational design of R&D after mergers and the role of budget responsibility

We consider an innovation contest between n firms in the presence of knowledge leakages from an innovating firm to its rivals. Our analysis focuses on the effects of these knowledge spillovers on merger activities between firms. In particular, we are interested in how different organizational designs of R&D after mergers affect profits of firms taking part in a merger and profits of their non-merging rivals. Three organizational arrangements are analyzed: first, a fusion of R&D departments in which the newly merged firm decides to close down one of the previously two R&D departments. Second, a profit center arrangement in which the newly merged firm keeps the old R&D departments as fully functional entities with a sovereign budget responsibility at each of the two departments. Third, a multisubsidiary organizational form in which the newly merged firm still keeps the old R&D departments but with restricted budget responsibility in the sense that they are forced to determine cooperatively their R&D budgets in order to maximize overall firm’s profits. It turns out that the different organizational designs of R&D after the merger and the budget responsibilities have major impacts on merger outcomes.     

Tumorpatienten – die Rolle der Angehörigen

Zusammenfasung  Belastungen, Bew?ltigungen, Ressourcen — Angeh?rige von Patienten werden im medizinischen Behandlungsprozess nicht selten als „St?rfaktoren“ wahrgenommen, die durch ihre Gegenwart, ihre Fragen und Anliegen den Arbeitsalltag „behindern“. Nur allzu schnell wird übersehen, welche gro?e Bedeutung sie bei der Betreuung der Patienten haben und wie hilfreich und unterstützend sie auch für das Pflegepersonal sein k?nnen – das gilt auch und besonders in der Onkologie.     

Enabling supply chain analytics for enterprise information systems: a topic modelling literature review and future research agenda

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a literature review of the research within the framework of 1) analytics,2) supply chain management, and 3) enterprise information systems, and relate the findings to competitive enablers. The findings are used to construct a future research agenda. The methodology is a systematic two-stage approach, based on a Smart Literature review framework using topic modelling. The research agenda proposes future research within the themes of 1) context, 2) cross-functional analytics, 3) cross-planning level analytics, 4) implementation and assimilation of analytics in EIS, 5) analytics and big data for SCM, 6) managerial aspects of analytics, and 7) data and system heterogeneity.     

Blockchain and business ethics

This paper provides, from a business ethics perspective, a basic clustering of the morally (a) favorable, (b) unfavorable, and (c) ambivalent dimensions of blockchain technology and its various emergent applications. Instead of proffering specific assessments on particular aspects of blockchain‐based business models, we aim to offer an initial overview that charters the territory so that future research can bring about such moral assessments in an informed and orderly fashion. The main contribution of this paper lies in identifying several morally ambivalent dimensions of blockchain technology, which we finally link to two strands of business ethics research: ethical and legal aspects of legislation as well as a link to Habermasian corporate social responsibility theory arguing for transparent data production and consumption on the blockchain. We conclude that future research is necessary for moral assessment of the ambivalent cases, since their ethical evaluation changes depending on whether one analyzes them through the lenses of utilitarianism, contractarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics, respectively.