Explanatory factors for participation in formal standardisation processes: Empirical evidence at firm level

In contrast to the long tradition of empirical research into the innovation activities and R&D collaboration of companies, the issue of standardisation has been analysed mostly in theoretical approaches. This paper presents an empirical analysis of the participation of German companies in formal standards development organisations. It becomes clear that company size has a significant positive effect on the probability of a participation in standardisation. We focus further on two aspects, on R&D as input and export intensity as performance indicator, in order to explain the likelihood to join formal standardisation processes. Both the R&D intensity and the export activities exhibit an inverse U relationship. Obviously, even participating in standardisation processes requires a certain absorptive capacity, but R&D and export intensive companies expect more disadvantages, like unintended knowledge spill-overs, from joining formal standardisation processes and, therefore, stay away. In addition, export activities increase the likelihood to join formal standardisation processes up to a certain level, although companies with very high export shares expect less benefit from joining formal standardisation processes. Finally, some policy conclusions are derived.     

Market Power and Market Failure The Decline of the European Fertilizer Industry and the Expansion of Norsk Hydro

During the 1980s, the fertilizer industry in Western Europeunderwent some radical changes. Reduced profitability and overcapacityforced a number of smaller producers to close down, and mostof the major firms in the business either withdrew from themarket or reduced their capacity. The exception was the Norwegianindustrial conglomerate Norsk Hydro, which expanded rapidlyand established itself as the largest producer in Europe andlater globally. The article discusses the strategy behind Hydro's expansionin relation to the changing structure of the fertilizer market,which historically was characterized by tacit and explicit agreementson prices and market shares between the major producers. Hydro'sstrategy and growth are analyzed in relation to some theoreticalcontributions from the study of transnationalisation of enterprises.A main argument is that Hydro's expansion was not driven byadvantages in cost structure or organizational capabilities,nor did the expansion create such advantages. The Norwegiancompany expanded in foreign markets partly because it had lessto lose from a counterattack than competitors in larger marketsand partly because of strategic disadvantages. Contrary to mostof its large European competitors, Hydro failed to identifythe long term threats to the stability and profitability ofthe Western European market.     

A Jump/Diffusion Consumption-Based Capital Asset Pricing Model and the Equity Premium Puzzle

This paper derives the equilibrium excess returns on risky assets in an exchange economy where the underlying exogenous uncertainty is a combination of a pure multidimensional jump process and a diffusion model. We derive closed-form solutions for the interest rate and the risk premiums on risky assets for a traditional class of separable utility indices. Our analysis demonstrates that when the underlying jumps of the aggregate consumption process are not negligible, then the traditional form of the consumption-based capital asset princing model need not hold and the asset risk premiums may be larger than predicted by the traditional CCAPM in continuous time, based on pure Itô diffusion processes. Our analysis suggests an explanation for the large estimates of the risk premiums reported in empirical tests of the single-beta CCAPM.     

Wage Formation,Regional Migration and Local Labour Market Tightness*

Empirical studies of regional wage formation and interregional migration routinely include the regional unemployment rate as indicator of local labour market tightness. However, these studies are usually motivated by economic theories that emphasize transition probabilities between unemployment and employment, and the unemployment rate is an imperfect proxy for these probabilities. We use a large micro data set to compute estimates of the rate of outflow from unemployment for 90 Norwegian travel‐to‐work areas. The outflow rates perform better than traditional measures of regional labour market tightness in panel data analyses of regional wages and interregional migration.     

Über die versicherten-sterblichkeit in Finnland. 1920–1930

Abstract

Ende des Jahres 1932 trafen die finnischen Lebensversicherungsgesellschaften Massnahmen für eine gemeinsame Untersuchung über die Sterblichkeit ihrer Versicherten während des J ahrzehntes 1920–1930. In dieser Absicht gab en die Aktuare der verschiedenen Gesellschaften den Herren Dr. Emil Wessel, Dr. E. A. Hintikka und Professor Dr. R. Nevanlinna in Auftrag einen Entwurf zur Ausführung einer solchen Untersuchung zu machen. Anfang Dezember war der Vorschlag des Dreier-Komitees fertig, der auch genehmigt wurde, sodass die Arbeit im Anfang des folgenden Jahres beginnen konnte.     

Wage settlements and wage setting: results from a multi-level model

Which dimensions of wage setting differ across establishments applying collective contracts and uncovered establishments? The empirical analysis reported here utilizes German linked employer–employee data for the years 1990, 1995 and 2001 and is restricted to workers without supervisory functions in larger manufacturing firms. Results show that the expected wage of an average worker is higher in firms applying collective contracts, while returns to human capital and the gender wage gap are reduced. Moreover, during the 1990s these effects became stronger.     

Contingent valuation and actual payment for voluntarily provided passive-use values: Assessing the effect of an induced truth-telling mechanism and elicitation formats

A fundamental question about the contingent valuation (CV) method is to what degree it predicts actual payments (AP). This has particularly been an intriguing matter related to voluntary provision of public goods representing primarily passive-use values. This paper reports the results from such a CV–AP comparison. Applying a voluntary payment mechanism there exists a theoretical expectation of upward bias in CV estimates and downward bias in AP. This study applied an induced truth-telling mechanism in one treatment group to assess the hypothetical bias effect in CV. The CV estimates in this treatment group were significantly lower than in the group that did not face this mechanism. But this effect was limited to those responding/acting to dichotomous choice, not affecting those responding to open-ended questions about willingness to pay.     

Contingent Work and Its Contradictions: Towards a Moral Economy Framework

This article proposes the lens of moral economy as a useful ethical framework through which to assess HRM practice, with a particular focus on the strategic use of contingent work (??non-standard?? employment practices including temporary, agency and outsourced work). While contingent work practices have a variety of impetuses we focus here on their strategic use in the pursuit of economic and flexibility goals. A review of the contingent work literature conveys mixed messages about its outcomes for individuals, and more opaquely, for organisations: on the one hand transferring risks yet on the other, creating opportunities. A moral economy lens views employment as a relationship rooted in a web of social dependencies, and considers that ??thick?? relations produce valuable ethical surpluses that represent mutuality and human flourishing. Applying such an approach to the analysis of contingent work enables a fresh interpretation of contradictory individual and collective outcomes observed in the research literature. We suggest that evaluations informed by moral economy offer a more holistic appraisal of HRM practices such as contingent work, where both economic and social opportunities and costs can be more fully seen. In this way we not only highlight the ethical inadequacies of neglecting the human in HRM but also the conceptual pitfalls of analytically separating the economic from the social.     

Applying Transactional NPS for Customer Journey Insight: Case Experiences and Lessons Learned

ABSTRACT

While the concept of “customer journeys” is widely taken up to support service design and management, practical frameworks for routine monitoring of customer experience in the context of customer journeys are lacking. This article proposes a framework for applying the widely used transactional Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a means for gathering insight into customers' experiences of a customer journey. We present lessons learnt from three case trials of the framework elements within a telecom service provider, involving the analysis of more than 1,700 quantitative and qualitative customer responses from transactional NPS surveys.     

Einige numerische Untersuchungen auf Grund der kollektiven Risikotheorie

Abstract

Wir gehen nun zu einem Bericht betreffs der Berechnungen über, die unter Annahme einer Maximierung des Versicherungsbetrages (Methode 2, Seite 93) und zur Bestimmung der Wahrscheinlichkeitszahl φ₁ gemacht worden sind.