Educational mismatch and promotions to managerial positions: a test of the career mobility theory

Career mobility theory suggests that given a certain occupation, schooling improves upward mobility in terms of promotion and wage growth. We are the first to test the implications of this theory for over- and undereducation by means of direct information about promotions to managerial positions. Using German administrative data entailing an employer-reported – and hence objective – measure of educational requirements, we show that overeducated workers are indeed more likely to be promoted and that this career mobility advantage is more pronounced in the early stages of their working lives. By contrast, undereducated workers are less likely to be promoted to managerial positions. Moreover, in terms of wage growth, while overeducated workers benefit more, undereducated workers benefit less from promotions than their well-matched educational peers. Altogether, these findings strongly support the career mobility theory. Furthermore, by differentiating between internal and external promotions, we provide evidence that promotions are more likely for overeducated workers within the establishment, whereas the opposite applies for undereducated workers. This finding indicates the relevance of both over- and undereducation as signals of true ability to other employers.     

Leisure in abandoned industrial areas: Between marketing concept and self-help project

Two themes form the starting point of this essay: the increasing amount of time available for leisure activities, and the increase in the number of abandoned industrial areas, both consequences of deindustrialization. One result of these processes is that leisure time is being spent in abandoned factories, including those which have become cultural centres. Leisure time is becoming increasingly important, and this creates a seemingly limitless market for answering the need to spend this newly won free time. On the other hand, we can note that there is a lack of spaces for such activities; some of the required space may be found in abandoned industrial areas. In this essay, five examples of converted factories in Switzerland are described in order to illustrate the variety of leisure uses these spaces can be put to.     

Moral licensing: a culture-moderated meta-analysis

Moral licensing is a cognitive bias, which enables individuals to behave immorally without threatening their self-image of being a moral person. We investigate this phenomenon in a cross-cultural marketing context. More specifically, this paper addresses the questions (i) how big moral licensing effects typically are and (ii) which factors systematically influence the size of this effect. We approach these questions by conducting a meta-analysis and a meta-regression. Based on a random effects model, the point estimate for the generalized effect size Cohen’s d is 0.319 (SE = 0.046; N = 106). Results of a meta-regression advance theory, by showing for the first time that both cultural background and type of comparison explain a substantial amount of the total variation of the effect size of moral licensing. Marketing practitioners wishing to capitalize on moral licensing effects should therefore consider cross-cultural difference, since marketing measures building on this effect may lead to different revenues in different countries.     

How to Turn an Industry Green: Taxes versus Subsidies

Environmental policies frequently target the ratio of dirty to green output within the same industry. To achieve such targets, the green sector may be subsidized or the dirty sector be taxed. We show that in a monopolistic competition setting, the two policy approaches have different welfare effects, depending on the design of the instrument (ad valorem versus unit instrument) and the initial situation (size of the dirty sector). For a strong green policy (a severe reduction of the dirty sector) a tax is the dominant instrument. If initially the dirty sector is important, then for moderate policy targets a subsidy may be the superior tool. These findings have implications for policies such as the Californian Zero Emission Bill.This paper benefited from the comments of Wilhelm Althammer, Michael Kohlhaas, Michael Pflüger, Thomas Ziesemer, participants at the EEA Annual Congress 2003, Stockholm, at the WEAI Annual Conference 2004, Vancouver, and two anonymous referees. The authors are responsible for any remaining errors.     

Legal Form and Earnings Properties

We investigate whether the financial accounting choices made by German private firms depend on legal form. Legal form determines dividend rights, liability status and the owners' obligations to run the business and, thus, influences agency problems of debt and equity. Consequently, we find that earnings properties depend on legal form. We expect, and find, that corporations exhibit higher levels of income smoothing and conservatism than partnerships and one-person businesses. Corporations are also more likely to disclose small profits. However, generally, there are no significant differences in earnings properties between one-person businesses and partnerships. The results are robust to different econometric specifications including endogeneity concerns (e.g. propensity score matching). Earnings properties of private firms seem to be driven to a considerable extent by agency problems of debt.     

Sustaining Complement Quality for Digital Product Platforms: A Case Study of the Philips Hue Ecosystem

Innovation in a digital world increasingly revolves around open platforms that consist of a core technology and a large variety of complementary products developed by an ecosystem of independent complementors. The platform ecosystem literature has mainly focused on indirect network effects arising from the quantity of complements, with little attention to the quality of complements, despite the importance of quality for the complementary value that drives platform ecosystems. Because digital products are malleable and dependent on the ever‐evolving ecosystem, we advance a relational and dynamic conceptualization of complement quality. Drawing on a systematic, in‐depth qualitative case study of the Philips Hue connected lighting platform and its complementary third‐party apps, we study how and why complement quality is sustained over time. By analyzing apps and their updates, we developed a process model that explains pathways through which complement quality is enhanced, maintained, or deteriorates. Changes in the platform core, changes in other ecosystem elements, and idiosyncratic connections by users result in expanding affordances, materializing glitches, and emerging obsolescence. Without further action, glitches and obsolescence lead to deteriorating quality. Joint action of complementors, platform owners, and users is needed to act upon affordances, glitches, and obsolescence, in order to maintain integrity and enhance functionality. This paper contributes to the literature on innovation in platform ecosystems by explaining the dynamic and relational nature of complement quality in a digital platform ecosystem and showing the interdependence of ecosystem members (the triad between platform owner, complementors, and users) in sustained development efforts.     

Auswirkungen des neuen Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetzes auf Offshore-Wind-Investitionen

The German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) has burdened private and industrial consumers with record electricity costs. Consequently, Energy and Economics Minister Gabriel pushed reform through cabinet on 8 April 2014 to curtail revenue guarantees to investors and to cut costs. The revenue guarantee reductions, most notably of one cent per kilowatt hour in the “Stauchungsmodell”, bring investor returns down to 9.8 per cent, i.e. into the region of the financing costs faced by investing energy companies. If investors stay away from offshore wind power due to marginal economics, the scale benefits in investment and ongoing production costs of an estimated 30 per cent may jeopardise the original intended cost reduction.     

Do it separately or simultaneously—An empirical analysis of a conjoint implementation of TQM and TPM on plant performance

Over the last decades, Total Quality Management (TQM) and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) have become key concepts for improving production. The majority of modern manufacturing companies has implemented at least one of these improvement programs or even both of them. The common ground of TQM and TPM is the focus on human resources. In this paper, the impact of TQM and TPM on plant performance and especially the supporting role of employee involvement practices is investigated empirically using multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling. The data used for conducting the analyses is taken from the international research project High Performance Manufacturing that contains the data of 238 plants. The results indicate that TQM and TPM, supported by HR practices, have a significant potential to improve plant performance. However, a simultaneous implementation of both concepts does not necessarily lead to superior performance. As potential reason for this, human resources are regarded as limiting factor both improvement programs draw on. Accordingly, this scarce resource is identified as crucial element with respect to performance when implementing TQM and TPM simultaneously.     

QUALITATIVE EASING IN SUPPORT OF A TUMBLING FINANCIAL SYSTEM: A LOOK AT THE EUROSYSTEM'S RECENT BALANCE SHEET POLICIES

Attention has recently been drawn to compositional changes in the Federal Reserve System's asset holdings and in particular the deterioration of the balance sheet of the Fed in the face of the current crisis. However, an analysis of the balance sheet policies of the Eurosystem is still missing. In this article we fill this gap by analysing the Eurosystem's balance sheet during the recent subprime crisis. The calculation of certain balance sheet ratios supports the assessment that a significant decrease in the quality of money has occurred.