On the Utility of E-Learning in Statistics

Students of introductory courses consider statistics as particularly difficult, as the understanding of the underlying concepts may require more time and energy than for other disciplines. For decades statisticians have tried to enhance understanding with the help of technical solutions such as animation, video or interactive tools. However, it is not clear if the added value generated by these e‐learning tools justifies the work invested. In this paper the experience with various e‐learning solutions in terms of utility and the impact on teaching is discussed.     

Service industries and regional development: An analysis for eastern Germany

By using a shift-share regression approach the contribution of services to the development of employment in eastern Germany is analysed. The results obtained with highly differentiated data from the employment statistics show that services contributed more to a favourable path of development than other industries. This is due in part to general world-wide processes of structural change and the special situation in eastern Germany. Many subsidies were transferred to the East, which stabilises the special segment of the economy related to local demand. This segment is made up mostly of services in eastern Germany. Processes of industrial change can be explained using structural change approaches. It is shown that processes of de-concentration play a role in explaining regional disparities, since inverse localisation and positive urbanisation effects are visible. For the empirical analyses an augmented approach is applied which uses a generalisation of an econometric analogue from the common shift-share method. It combines the strengths of the traditional approach with all the advantages of theory-oriented modelling and regression analysis.     

Industry relatedness in trade sales and venture capital investment returns

We investigate relationships between the industry relatedness of venture capital-backed companies and their strategic acquirer in trade sales and the achieved investment returns of venture capitalists. Using a proprietary data set of 716 trade sales, we analyze return differences between lateral and synergetic trade sales, as well as between horizontal and vertical trade sales. We find that venture capitalists achieve higher returns with lateral rather than synergetic trade sales, and that the difference is greater for deals involving early stage companies characterized by strong information asymmetries. In addition, horizontal trade sales yield higher returns than vertical trade sales; however, in boom phases of the venture capital market, this effect reverses. Finally, we find that experienced venture capitalists are able to overcome disadvantageous situations in trade sales, resulting in comparable returns across all trade sale categories.     

Regional characteristics,opportunity perception and entrepreneurial activities

This article seeks to better understand the link between regional characteristics and individual entrepreneurship. We combine individual-level Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data for Western Germany with regional-level data, using multilevel analysis to test our hypotheses. We find no direct link between regional knowledge creation, the economic context and an entrepreneurial culture on the one side and individual business start-up intentions and start-up activity on the other side. However, our findings point to the importance of an indirect effect of regional characteristics as knowledge creation, the economic context and an entrepreneurial culture have an effect on the individual perception of founding opportunities, which in turn predicted start-up intentions and activity.