Expected Development Time Reductions in the German Mechanical Engineering Industry

This article presents initial results of field studies on the product development practices in German mechanical engineering companies. The investigation concentrates on managers' estimates on how much and by what means they could reduce cycle time and resource usage if the projects had been managed differently. In his analysis of fourteen development projects, Philipp Murmann reports that managers expect a reduction of development time as well as of development resources by 30% if appropriate activities would be employed. Parallel tasking and efficiency improvements account for the potential savings. Paralleling effects are project related, while improvements external to the projects cause efficiency-effects. Ten identified internal and external activities were expected to be of major importance in the reduction of development times. Major improvements are found among activities concentrated at the front end of development process.
Further analyses show that primary and secondary activities can be separated; however, all of these activities need to be activated in order to achieve the anticipated results.     

Genome-wide association studies in economics and entrepreneurship research: promises and limitations

The recently developed genome-wide association study (GWAS) design enables the identification of genes specifically associated with economic outcomes such as occupational and other choices. This is a promising new approach for economics research which we aim to apply to the choice for entrepreneurship. However, due to multiple testing issues, very large sample sizes are needed to differentiate between true and false positives. For a GWAS on entrepreneurship, we expect that a sample size of at least 30,000 observations is required.     

Proposal for Components of Method Design Theories

Gregor and Jones have proposed components for design theories, building on theory concepts from behavioural sciences and prior publications. Their design theory structure addresses IT artefacts in general, not specific to any type, such as constructs, models, methods or instantiations. Their work is an important contribution to the academic discussion of design theories. The authors are building on this and believe that specialised design theory structures for different types of artefacts further increases utility, usability and acceptance of the components for both academia and practise. They have analysed each of the components published by Gregor and Jones and proposed refinements specific to method design artefacts wherever applicable. For each component, they derive evaluation criteria and present examples of method publications fulfilling the criteria. They argue that by presenting method design theories according to this structure the contribution of method design artefacts to the body of knowledge will increase.     

International investment in a model of stochastic growth and development traps

This paper investigates the effects of financial integration in a stochastic endogenous growth model of two economies in which heterogeneous agents face fixed costs of productive investment. The removal of investment barriers may enable a poor country to escape from a state of low and unstable growth by leading to large capital inflows and by raising the number of agents who invest in productive capital. However, since the two economies are characterized by increasing returns to capital and since financial integration may lower the saving rate, it is also possible that both countries' growth prospects worsen.     

Virtually enhancing the real world with holograms: An exploration of expected gratifications of using augmented reality smart glasses

Integrating virtual objects into the physical world is about to become real. Augmented reality smart glasses (ARSG), such as Microsoft HoloLens and other head‐mounted displays, allow users to augment and enhance their subjective perceptions of reality. However, extant research lacks findings to explain why people intend to use ARSGs in particular situations. To address this highly relevant research gap, this study proposes and tests a theoretical model that examines people's expected gratifications from ARSG usage. In doing so, this research enhances the understanding of ARSGs and adds novel constructs (e.g., desired enhancement of reality) to the stream of technology and media adoptance.     

The relationship between enterprise risk management,value and firm characteristics based on the literature

In the wake of the increasing importance of comprehensive enterprise-wide risk management approaches (ERM) in the last years, e.?g. due to stronger regulatory requirements, the field of research on ERM has attracted a considerable amount of attention in the literature. The aim of this paper is to provide a literature-based analysis of the theoretical arguments and empirical findings regarding firm characteristics in the context of measuring the impact of ERM on firm value. Due to the endogeneity problem, we focus on the direct impact as well as on the indirect impact (via ERM) of firm characteristics on firm value.     

Contests and unethical behavior in organizations: a review and synthesis of the empirical literature

Management Review Quarterly - Contests are widely used in business contexts because they are believed to increase the effort and performance levels of employees. One negative aspect of contests is...     

Designing for Cost Transparency in Investment Advisory Service Encounters

Investment advisory services of financial service providers (FSPs) exhibit several characteristics that are detrimental to advisory quality. The interaction of advisor and client is strained by a lack of transparency regarding the advisory process (what activities are performed and why) and the information used therein (what information is used for what purpose and with what effect), as well as regarding the precise costs of the service and the recommended products. In prior research, we suggested that process and information transparency issues may be appropriately addressed with collaborative information technology (IT) artifacts. In this paper, we argue that collaborative, transparent artifacts may also be a premise of enabling cost transparency. To this end, we describe a complete research cycle of designing, implementing, and evaluating a shared cost-transparent IT artifact to support client-advisor interaction in investment advisory encounters. Evaluation results suggest the efficacy of our design in improving the clients?? perceived cost transparency as well as increase their satisfaction and their willingness to pay for the received investment advice. These findings may also challenge the common belief of FSPs that transparent, fee-based advisory services would neither be accepted by clients nor be economically viable. Practical implications of these findings for designing advisory encounters with supportive IT are discussed.     

Social capital of venture capitalists and start-up funding

How does the social capital of venture capitalists (VCs) affect the funding of start-ups? By building on the rich social capital literature, we hypothesize a positive effect of VCs?? social capital, derived from past syndication, on the amount of money that start-ups receive. Specifically, we argue that both structural and relational aspects of VCs?? social networks provide VCs with superior access to information about current investment objects and opportunities to leverage them in the future, increasing their willingness to invest in these firms. Our empirical results, derived from a novel dataset containing more than 1,500 first funding rounds in the Internet and IT sector, strongly confirm our hypotheses. We discuss the implications of our findings for theories of venture capital and entrepreneurship, showing that the role and effect of VCs?? social capital on start-up firms may be more complex than previously argued in the literature.