Ursachen und Wirkungen der Finanzkrise — eine ökonomische Analyse

Zusammenfassung  Bei der derzeitigen Finanzkrise handelt es sich nicht um eine „einfache“ Vertrauenskrise, sondern um das Ergebnis l?ngerfristiger Fehlentwicklungen. Wo liegen die Ursachen für diese Fehlentwicklungen? Warum sind dadurch viele Wirtschaftssubjekte schlechter gestellt? Welche Ma?nahmen wurden kurzfristig zur Begrenzung der Finanzkrise ergriffen und welche sind l?ngerfristig erforderlich? Prof. Dr. Renate Neub?umer, 56, leitet am Campus Landau der Universit?t Koblenz-Landau die Abteilung für Wirtschaftswissenschaften. W?hrend eines halbj?hrigen Forschungsaufenthalts an der Harvard Universit?t hat sie die Finanzkrise „vor Ort“ erlebt und diskutiert.     

Justifying Public Sector Accounting Change from the Inside: Ex-post Reflections from Three Countries

Looking at accounting reforms in central government, the paper investigates how key actors (senior managers responsible for developing and/or implementing change) account for the related change outcomes subsequent to implementation. Using aggregated data from three countries (the UK, Italy, and Austria), and a mixed-methods approach, the study investigates which rhetorical strategies are used to construct ex-post legitimation or delegitimation of the changes, and how these strategies are associated with different perceived outcomes of change. Building on previous literature, possible strategies for ex-post (de-)legitimation and outcomes of change are identified. The study finds that radical change (leading to new accounting systems bedding down with accompanying new interpretative schemes) is associated with ex-post legitimation based on rationalization. In contrast, incremental change (introducing new accounting tools, but not resulting in changed interpretative schemes) is often connected with narratives criticizing (or delegitimating) the change. The study contributes to the scant body of literature focusing on ex-post legitimation of accounting change. How managers justify change in relation to its outcomes provides useful insights for the current situation when, as a consequence of crisis and austerity, new roles and relevancies for accounting and control systems continue to emerge. It is argued that for change to be substantive, it is not only essential that the actual systems and structures of accounting are adjusted, but it is critical that the way people interpret and make sense of accounting information (and consequently take decisions) is also modified. The particular challenges of achieving this in a period of crisis are highlighted.     

Divisia moments of U.S. consumption, 1929–1982

Using U.S. consumption data for 1929 to 1982, Divisia price and volume indexes are computed as well as Divisia variances and covariances. The quantity variances tend to be larger than the price variances, and the majority of the price-quantity covariances is negative.     

Institutions and Actorhood as Co-Constitutive and Co-Constructed: The Argument and Areas for Future Research

We argue that in order to overcome the reductionism and essentialism in institutional theory there is a need to acknowledge that institutions and social actors are co-constitutive and co-constructed in processes of communication. We elaborate this argument by drawing on the phenomenological foundation of institutional theory and point to promising areas of future research: the multimodal nature of institutions, the mediated and mediatized character of modern communication, and the contestedness of all social orders and their legitimation.     

Stimulating teachers’ team performance through team-oriented HR practices: the roles of affective team commitment and information processing

Abstract

Teams of teachers are increasingly held accountable for the quality of education and educational reforms in vocational education and training institutions. However, historically teachers have not been required to engage in deep-level collaboration, thus team-oriented HR practices are being used to promote teamworking in the sector. This paper examines the relationship between team-oriented HR practices and team performance in terms of innovation and efficiency via teachers’ affective team commitment and engagement in information processing. To examine these associations, a team-oriented HRM research instrument was developed and validated based on the ability-motivation-opportunity model (N = 970, 130 teams) and hypothesised associations were examined using multilevel structural equation modelling (N = 704, 70 teams). The results show positive relationships between the team-oriented HR practices of recruitment, team development, team evaluation and teamwork facilitation, and team innovation. Additionally, all practices except team development were positively related to team efficiency. The relationships between team-oriented HR practices and these team performance indicators were often partially or fully mediated by affective team commitment and information processing. Because affective team commitment and information processing sometimes only partially mediated the links between team-oriented HR practices and team performance, other underlying mechanisms await identification.