Will the Market Get it Right? The Placing of New Power Plants in Germany

This paper applies ELMOD, an economic-engineering model of the European electricity market to the issue of optimal investment placing of generation capacity in Germany under different market integration scenarios. The model is formulated as cost minimization approach. We conduct a scenario analysis comparing different rules for power plant placing in a national, a market-coupling and an integrated EU market approach. We find that there are great benefits for consumers and producers if taking into account network conditions and cross border congestion in generation location planning. Moreover a change from national planning to an integrated market planner perspective shows even more improvements in prices and network utilization.     

Configurations of resources and capabilities and their performance implications: an exploratory study on technology ventures

As one of the most widely accepted theoretical perspectives in strategy, the resource‐based view (RBV) suggests that a firm's resources underlie its ability to achieve competitive advantage. However, much of the extant work in this stream has examined the characteristics that resources must have in order to yield rents, while efforts to specify the crucial link between resources and value creation have been sparse. As a consequence, current theory is not sufficiently clear on how different kinds of resources and capabilities contribute to performance, nor does it clarify how firms can combine different resources and capabilities to achieve superior performance outcomes. Analyzing data obtained from 230 technology ventures with partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling and cluster analysis, this study seeks to improve understanding of the resource‐performance link in two main ways. Based on a careful measurement of resources and capabilities in a well‐defined functional area (sales and distribution), we first show how these resources and capabilities contribute to performance in that functional area. Second, we identify four clusters of firms that deploy different configurations of resources and capabilities. Among the four configurational solutions, two are associated with superior (equifinal) performance outcomes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tabaksteuer in Griechenland: steuerpolitische Fehlentscheidungen

Both Germany and Greece increased tobacco taxes beginning in 2010. Tobacco taxation in both countries is primarily aimed at generating revenues and at steering the behaviour of individuals affected by the taxation. The tobacco tax structure particularly in Greece has evolved from a mainly ad valorem excise to a specific excise. The comparison of both countries shows that the German tax system is able to generate stable revenues while Greek tobacco taxation policy leads to tax evasion activities among smokers.     

Cross-Industrial User Channel Preferences on the Path to Online Purchase: Homogeneous,Heterogeneous, or Mixed?

Though research literature addresses a broad range of advertising impact models, studies on the channel preferences of online purchasers have received little attention, regarding both multichannel settings and channel interplay in click sequences. To provide advertisers a method for better evaluating customer channel preference, this study investigates the path to purchase by building on four multichannel clickstream data sets from three industries, recorded with cookie-tracking technologies. Applying a Cox model and clustering techniques supports delineation of empirical generalizations and industry-specific findings on channel exposure, including their antecedents and distinct channel click sequences. Across data sets, online users show idiosyncratic channel preferences for a limited set of one or two channels rather than multiple online vehicles. Both channel homogeneous click sequences and combinations of two channels (including branded contacts) are effective as purchase predictors. Our study also presents industry-specific results regarding the influence of click sequences on purchase intent, thereby providing insights for advertising research, particularly as are suited to optimization of online advertising activities.     

Die Messung des technischen Fortschritts schwergemacht

Ohne ZusammenfassungMit 2 Textabbildungen     

Domestic institutions and the ratification of international agreements in a panel of democracies

A recent literature explores how domestic institutions affect politicians’ incentives to enter into international agreements (IAs). We contribute to this field by systematically testing the impact of a broad set of domestic institutional design features. This allows us to compare new and established political economy explanations of IA entry. For this purpose, 99 democracies are analyzed over the period 1975–2010. We find that domestic institutions determine countries’ disposition to enter into IAs, as predicted by political economic theory. For example, democracies with majoritarian electoral institutions are less likely to conclude IAs than other democracies. Countries also conclude more IAs when their democratic institutions are long-lived and they lack an independent judiciary. However, programmatic parties and the number of domestic veto players are not associated with IA-making. The key take-away of this study is that specific domestic institutions matter for how frequently states make formal deals with each other.     

RESEARCH ON THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY: STATE OF THE ART AND NEW DIRECTIONS OFF THE BEATEN TRACK AWAY FROM THEATRICAL RELEASE

The motion picture industry has been subject of extensive academic research over the last decades. However, most scholars focused on the U.S. theatrical motion picture market. The number of research activities regarding even more profitable release windows, such as home video or television, has been substantially lower. Although international distribution is essential for a motion picture project to break even, there has been little significant re-search on most other markets. This paper aims at summarizing the current state of research on the motion picture industry, particularly from marketing and management perspective, revealing research gaps, and proposing recommendations for future research endeavors. Therefore, a three-pillar scheme is developed to systemize previous findings: Research on intraorganizational decision making, contractual relationships between national stakeholders, and international market competition are differentiated. Since these insights are mainly derived from U.S. theatrical exhibition, they can hardly be applied to other markets and exhibition windows. Thus, potential research areas are identified to expand knowledge of posttheatrical and international markets.