“Interest Rate Trap”, or Why Does the Central Bank Keep the Policy Rate Too Low for Too Long?

In this paper, we provide a framework for modeling one risk‐taking channel of monetary policy, the mechanism whereby financial intermediaries' incentives for liquidity transformation are affected by the central bank's reaction to a financial crisis. The anticipation of the central bank's reaction to liquidity stress gives banks incentives to invest in excessive liquidity transformation, triggering an “interest rate trap” – the economy will remain stuck in a long‐lasting period of suboptimal, low interest rate equilibrium. We demonstrate that interest rate policy as a financial stabilizer is dynamically inconsistent, and the constrained efficient outcome can be implemented by imposing ex ante liquidity requirements.     

Consumer Perceptions of the Social Vs. Environmental Dimensions of Sustainability

Prior research on sustainable consumption has addressed a variety of issues yet is characterized by mixed results. Researchers have often treated sustainability as a uni-dimensional construct, overlooking important differences and thwarting a better understanding of consumer response. We demonstrate that consumers perceive the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability as psychologically distinct in theoretically and practically important ways. Specifically, consumers associate the social dimension of sustainability more with affective, short-term, and local considerations and the environmental dimension more with cognitive, long-term, and global considerations. We identify and explore these distinctions in a qualitative pilot study, which subsequently motivated development of three hypotheses. We provide evidence supporting these hypotheses in a series of five studies. Our findings enable a reinterpretation of prior equivocal research, serve as a foundation for future research, and provide guidance for how policy-makers can tailor policy and related communication efforts depending on whether the focal issue is related to social versus environmental concerns.     

Reflection as a facilitator of teachers' innovative work behaviour

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of reflection as a preparatory mechanism for employees' engagement in innovative work behaviour (IWB). This issue was explored in a study with 67 teachers at the highest level of German secondary education. Specifically, we investigated whether teachers who reflected on work tasks, the social context and their work performance were more engaged in the exploration of opportunities for innovation as well as the generation, promotion and realization of innovative ideas. By applying path modelling, we found that work‐related reflection facilitated all dimensions of IWB. Teachers' IWB most strongly depended on their performance‐related reflection. Also, reflecting on work tasks and the social context affected teachers' IWB indirectly by benefitting their performance‐related reflection. As a consequence, reflection should be valued as a resource for innovation and professional development as well as a vital component of work routines, organizational cultures and job training.     

Generating price‐effective intermodal routes

We describe the problem of intermodal international freight transport that is faced by some logistic service providers and the solution that ORTEC's logistic suite offers to these customers. This solution is based on a state of the art k‐shortest path algorithm for directed networks. Our focus is on the modeling aspects of the problem. In particular, we propose an approach in two phases and methods to reduce the size of the network, so as to obtain a solution within an acceptable calculation time.     

Explikation von implizitem Wissen: Stand der Forschung zu Barrieren und Lösungsansätzen

Knowledge management is essential to successful modern organizations. Often times uncovering hidden knowledge is seen as the central challenge in strengthening a company’s competiveness. Therefore a lot of knowledge is collected in extensive storages today. But a substantial part of knowledge is concealed in the minds of staff. That is why the explication of tacit knowledge becomes more and more important. A lot of companies are confronted with a lot of barriers when trying to uncover implicit knowledge, though. As a result the goal of this paper is to identify these barriers structurally to unveil the hidden skills and present different solutions to negotiate these barriers and to be competitive on the market.     

Fachkräftemangel: Scheinproblem oder Wachstumshemmnis?

Vor allem die Arbeitgeberseite beklagt schon l?nger, dass offene Stellen für Fachkr?fte h?ufi g nicht besetzt werden k?nnen. Tats?chlich war die Versorgung mit gut ausgebildeten Arbeitskr?ften bislang ein deutscher Standortvorteil. Fraglich ist jedoch, ob bei einer genauen Abgrenzung des Begriffs und bei einer Beobachtung m?glicher Signale für einen Mangel kurzfristig wirklich ein Problem konstatiert werden kann. Langfristig wird der demographische Wandel aber auf jeden Fall zu einem Rückgang der Fachkr?fte führen.