Attitudes and Motivations Toward Craft Beer Consumption: An Explanatory Study in Two Different Countries

This study adopts a revised model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour incorporating self-identity and desire for unique consumer products to understand and predict consumers’ motivation to drink craft beer in Germany (N=210) and Italy (N=211). Data were analysed using Partial Least Squares modelling (PLS) approach. The findings provide support that the extended TPB model is a useful tool for understanding the consumers’ choice to drink craft beer. The results confirm the major role played by consumers’ attitudes and self-identity. Mediation analysis indicates a potential indirect effect from self-identity, subjective norms and the desire for unique consumer products on individual behaviour both in the German and Italian sample. Implications for theory are discussed for further research developments within the context of consumption of crafted food products.     

Company reputation and its influence on consumer trust in response to ongoing CSR communication

There is considerable disagreement in academic scholarship and beyond as to whether, in cases of bad reputations, companies will want to communicate corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities because this kind of communication is likely to increase consumers’ skepticism. In this regard, the two empirical studies discussed in this article examine the influence of prior company reputation on consumers’ trust in response to CSR communication in general and the development in response to continuous CSR activities and their ongoing communication by companies as well as by the media in particular. The two studies show that consumers’ trust in companies’ CSR activities increases after a second presentation of information by companies even in instances when companies had prior negative reputations. The second study in particular fills a gap in the literature on underlying mechanisms of consumers’ reactions to CSR communication. The results suggest that companies with prior negative reputations do not need to remain silent about their CSR activities; instead, CSR communication can help improve consumers’ trust in companies. However, the findings of these two studies also suggest that this positive development is short-lived. Consumers’ developing trust in companies’ CSR activities decreases significantly if they are exposed to negative information on these companies.     

Optimal taxation and redistribution in an OLG model with unemployment

This paper concerns redistribution via nonlinear income taxation in an overlapping generations model with two ability-types. We assume that the wage rates are determined by bargaining between unions and firms, meaning that the equilibrium is characterized by involuntary unemployment. We show that the policy instruments that are used to calculate the marginal labor income tax rate for each ability-type give rise to intertemporal tax base effects. In addition, since the relationship between the employment and the capital stock implies intertemporal production inefficiency at the second best optimum, imperfect competition in the labor market may itself justify capital income taxation.      

Discussion of “decentralized capacity management and internal pricing”

Dutta and Reichelstein (2010) study the role of transfer pricing and organizational choice in providing incentives for efficient decisions on the acquisition and subsequent reallocation of capacity within decentralized firms. Their analysis suggests that transfer prices based on the historical cost of capacity facilitate the efficient allocation of resources. They also find that symmetric responsibility center structures are generally better suited for providing efficient investment incentives than hybrid organizations. An important condition for the derivation of the two results is the linearity of the shadow prices of capacity. If shadow prices are nonlinear, transfer prices should be below (above) the historical cost of capacity in order to counteract the managers’ incentives to underinvest (overinvest). Because profit center organizations can use transfer prices for mitigating the inefficiency caused by nonlinear shadow prices, they offer a natural advantage over pure investment center organizations in implementing efficient capacity decisions. Overall, these observations suggest that the curvature of profit functions is an important factor in determining the suitable instruments for decentralized capacity management.     

Für eine Rentenanpassung mit Sicherungsziel

Mit der Rentenreform 2001 wurde das Ziel der Lebensstandardsicherung der bundesdeutschen gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung (GRV) aufgegeben. Stattdessen sollte die Sicherung des Lebensstandards im Alter auf „drei S?ulen“ ruhen. Im Lichte dieses grundlegend ver?nderten Sicherungsziels muss die Frage der Rentenanpassungssystematik neu diskutiert werden. Eine Rentenanpassung ohne Sicherungsziel ist — das zeigen die vergangenen zehn Jahre — letztlich diskretion?r und intransparent. In dem vorliegenden Beitrag wird daher für eine vereinfachte Anpassungsformel mit integriertem Sicherungsziel pl?diert.