Luft zum Atmen

Mehr Sicherheit im Umgang mit Trachealkanülen - Pflegende, die Patienten mit einer Trachealkanüle betreuen, müssen den Kanülenwechsel sicher beherrschen. Denn bei Komplikationen kann das Warten auf den Arzt katastrophale Folgen haben. Daher muss der Umgang mit den Kanülen zur Routine werden.     

Economic Implications of Further Harmonisation of Electronic Communications Regulation in the EU

There are some aspects of the European RFEC and its implementation today that could benefit from increased harmonisation; there are others in which substantial accommodation to local, national or regional circumstances and preferences is desirable or required.     

Investor Reactions to Concurrent Positive and Negative Stakeholder News

This paper examines the impact on firm value created by investor reaction to same day news of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR) activities. First, using trading volume, the authors establish that the perceived value of moral capital generated by news involving institutional (e.g., environmental and community) stakeholders is less clear to investors than that of the news involving technical (e.g., customers and employees) stakeholders. Subsequently, the authors analyze abnormal returns from 565 unique firm events—each comprising at least one positive and one negative stakeholder news item. Using signaling theory, the authors demonstrate that news of the number of CSR activities involving institutional groups counteracts the effects of same day CSiR news in an inverted U-shaped fashion. In contrast, they find that news of the number of CSR activities involving technical groups mitigates the effects of same day CSiR news in a U-shaped fashion.     

How efficient is joint decision-making in the EU?

This paper looks at how the joint decision-making mode of governance enhances policy effectiveness in the field of European environmental policy. This is mainly due to the as yet neglected phenomenon of the interaction between representative institutions at different levels in the European Union that characterises joint decision-making. Broader versions of this paper have been presented at the ECPR meetings in Bordeaux at the Johns Hopkins University, SAIS, in Bologna, at the IEE of Universidade Católica and the IEEI-Gulbenkian Foundation conference in Lisbon and at the max-Planck Institute in Cologne. The author is indebted to seminar participants for comments and discussions, particularly to Annette Bongardt, Erik Jones, Jonathon Moses, Suzanne Schüttemeyer and Amy Verdun.     

Match Point Management — Gleichzeitig Kosten- und Marktperformance verbessern

Der Matchpoint entscheidet über Sieg oder Niederlage. Match Point Management zeigt, wie man Krisen meistert, indem man gleichzeitig Gewinn und Kosten verbessert — ohne in die Falle eines zyklischen Auf und Ab zu tappen.     

Das Securities Market Programme — viele Vorteile für den Euroraum

The Eurosystem’s Securities Market Programme (SMP,) the purchase of government bonds of euro area countries strongly affected by the crisis, started in 2010 and ended in 2012. The SMP benefited all parties concerned – the Eurosystem, all euro area countries and the crisis countries. The positive experience with the SMP can be replicated in the private sector with the creation of an exchangetraded fund (ETF), a Smart Beta ETF - SMP Fund. Like the SMP, the SMP Fund would buy government bonds, according to the ECB capital key. As an ETF, the SMP Fund would have low costs. Profits above the German Bund benchmark would be shared: 80% to investors, 10% to the SMP Fund and 10% to advisers who recommend the purchase. The related risks would be reduced by the diversification of the SMP Fund, the financing mechanisms of the euro area, especially the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) and the banking union. The SMP Fund could support the euro area fiscal capacity and the EU capital markets union. Past and future SMP profits create a fiscal capacity for the euro area with an initial amount of 50 billion Euro.     

Strategic Compatibility Choice,Network Alliance,and Welfare

Based on a simple model of compatibility choice under differentiated Cournot duopoly with network externalities, we consider how the levels of a network externality and product substitutability affect the choice of compatibility. In particular, if the level of network externality is larger than that of product substitutability, there are multiple equilibria involving imperfect and perfect compatibility. Furthermore, we demonstrate the conditions for constructing such a network alliance so that firms provide perfectly compatible products. The network alliance is stable and socially optimal.     

Capital Structure and Mergers: Retrospective Evidence from a Natural Experiment

This analysis evaluates the impact of corporate debt in influencing mergers of local exchange companies in the United States telecommunications industry between 1988 and 2001. Firms’ financial structures significantly affect behavior and performance; yet no evidence has shown how firms’ financial structures influence their merger activities. The impact of corporate debt levels on the various mergers that took place during the merger wave in the sector is significantly negative for the first set of mergers carried out, and significantly negative, but with smaller impact, for the second set of mergers. The results support the idea that firms with high debt levels can be monitored carefully, precluding engagement in potentially-risky mergers so as to not engender negative financial outcomes.     

What is not beautiful should match: how attractiveness similarity affects consumer responses to advertising

This study introduces the concept of attractiveness similarity, empirically examines its main effect and whether it moderates the effect of endorser attractiveness on consumer responses to advertising. The results show a positive main effect of attractiveness similarity over and above the mere effect of endorser attractiveness. In addition, a consistent moderating effect of attractiveness similarity on the effect of endorser attractiveness emerges: attractiveness similarity buffers against the less positive effects of lower levels of endorser attractiveness (i.e., it compensates for lower levels of endorser attractiveness). Overall, these findings reveal attractiveness similarity as a new variable in endorser advertising, which has important managerial implications. Advertising campaigns employing averagely attractive endorsers should pay special attention to attractiveness similarity.