US Labour Relations in Transition: Emerging Strategies and Company Performance

This report examines strategic labour relations and operational changes pursued by large, highly unionized, US manufacturing companies over the 1975–86 period. Four fairly distinguishable strategies are identified as implemented across a sample of 105 companies. These strategies are characterized by various combinations of activities associated with union avoidance, deunionization and co-operation. In addition to describing these strategies, we examine changes in company performance associated with these strategies for a subsample of 56 companies. It is found that, on the one hand, improvements in company performance are associated with extensive cooperative efforts across unionized facilities, but, on the other hand, they are also associated with the opening of non-union facilities and the simultaneous closing of unionized facilities. In contrast, the closing of unionized facilities (but not non-union facilities) and the decertification of unions are negatively associated with company performance.     

Dynamische Berechnung der Stromgestehungskosten von Energiespeichern für die Energiesystemmodellierung und -einsatzplanung

Due to the transition in energy supply from fossil to renewable energy sources, energy storage systems are getting more and more important for the security of power supply. Therefore also the modeling of those storage systems in energy system modeling needs to be further discussed. This paper focuses on the levelized costs of energy storage. In the beginning, the existing approaches of calculating those costs are analyzed in a literature review. It will be shown that all of the approaches calculate the levelized costs on the basis of the energy storages’ lifetime. For the usage in energy system modeling it is mandatory that the calculation can be done for variable and shorter time periods. Therefore this work’s approach calculates the costs based on the time of operation in any period chosen. Additionally, the model can be used for any type of storage system. After introducing the mathematical model, the levelized costs of energy storage will be calculated to illustrate the models properties and then verified with reference load profiles for five different energy storage types. Following this, particular input parameters are varied and sensitivities are pointed out. Most of the programs for power plant dispatch calculations use linear or mixed integer linear programing algorithms. As the calculation of levelized costs of electricity is non-linear, most programs use fixed values during the whole time of simulation. In this article the integration of the presented approach into a linear optimization program via recursive and shifted calculation is elaborated. Results are presented and discussed.     

The effect of personal portfolio reporting on private investors

Information search is costly for private households, especially in relation to their wealth. This paper investigates how retail customers react to free portfolio reporting—and thus reduced search costs—in a unique experimental setting. A large German direct bank sends portfolio reports to 10,000 customers while maintaining a control group of equal size and structure that receives no reports. Analyzing demographics as well as detailed portfolio and trade data, we find that gender, wealth, trade frequency, risk tolerance, and diversification drive the interest in portfolio information. Reading a portfolio report also triggers trading actions; thus, investors seem to appreciate the reduced information costs and act on the information. In addition to contributing to the financial literature on households’ information acquisition, this study derives valuable implications for financial institutions regarding communications and services for their customers.     

An Entrepreneurial System View of New Venture Creation

This paper reports the results of a two-phase study that explores new venture creation within the context of an entrepreneurial system. First, a genealogy of high-technology companies is presented depicting a high spin-off rate resulting from the presence of seven incubator organizations. Second, semantic structure analysis ( Spradley 1980 ) based on semi-structured interviews with founders is used to develop a taxonomy. This taxonomy depicts the relationship among components in one entrepreneurial system, Boulder County, Colorado, that encourages, supports, and enhances regional entrepreneurial activity. Findings indicate that incubator organizations, spin-offs, informal and formal networks, the physical infrastructure, and the culture of the region are related uniquely and interact to form a system conducive for dense high-technology entrepreneurial activity. Additionally, greater rates of new venture formation were found following critical moments in the life of incubator organizations.     

Producer Services, Manufacturing Linkages, and Trade

Working with a mix of panel data on goods and services trade for the OECD for 1994–2004, combined with social accounts data (i.e. data on intermediate linkages) for 78 countries benchmarked to the panel midpoint, we examine the role of services as inputs in manufacturing, with a particular focus on indirect exports of services through merchandise exports, and also on the related interaction between service sector openness and the overall pattern of manufacturing exports. From the cross-section, we also develop a set of stylized facts linking services to the level of development and the density of intermediate linkages. We find significant and strong positive effects from increased business service openness (i.e. greater levels of imports) on industries like machinery, motor vehicles, chemicals and electric equipment, supporting the notion that off-shoring of business services may promote the competitiveness of the most skill and technology intensive industries in the OECD. Conversely, we find evidence of negative general equilibrium effects for sectors that are less service intensive.     

Destabilisierende Spekulation als Rechtfertigung eines Europäischen Stabilisierungsmechanismus?

Im Zusammenhang mit der Zuspitzung der Staatsschuldenkrise für einzelne Euromitglieder wird immer wieder der Vorwurf einer destabilisierenden Spekulation laut. Der Beitrag gibt eine begriffliche Abgrenzung, stellt die verschiedenen Funktionen der Spekulation dar und zeigt die mikro?konomischen Zusammenh?nge stabilisierender und destabilisierender Aktivit?ten auf. Dabei wird die besondere Bedeutung von Kreditsicherungsderivaten (CDS) für die Anleihem?rkte gekl?rt und empirischen Hinweisen auf eine destabilisierende Spekulation nachgegangen.     

Does Social Software Support Service Innovation?

Recent Internet technologies and web‐based applications, such as social software, are being increasingly applied in firms. Social software can be employed for knowledge management and for external communication enabling access to internal and external knowledge. Knowledge, in turn, constitutes one of the main inputs to service innovation. Hence, social software has the potential to support service innovation. Using data from German IT and knowledge‐intensive service firms, this is the first paper that empirically analyses whether the use of social software applications triggers innovation. It refers to a knowledge production function in which social software use constitutes the knowledge sourcing activity. The results reveal a positive relationship between social software and service innovation. Since this result is robust when controlling for former innovative activities and the previous propensity to adopt new technologies and to change processes, the analysis suggests that the causality runs from social software to innovation.