Knowledge balance sheets in Austrian universities: The implementation,use, and re-shaping of measurement and management practices

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of how a mandatory external (mostly) non-financial reporting process, labelled Knowledge Balance Sheets (KBS), is interpreted and used by different stakeholders in the Austrian university system. We are also interested in how the content and structure of the report transforms over time, how the possible link to the internal management control agenda is made, and how it reshapes organizational routines. The paper applies a critical approach where mostly non-financial, intellectual capital-related measurement, management, and reporting processes and structures are being questioned and discussed from different perspectives.This study is based on a qualitative case study approach where a number of semi-structured interviews have been conducted in various Austrian universities at different management levels over a period of approximately one year. In addition, interviews have been held with other stakeholders of universities (e.g., representatives from the ministry) and with members of the working group dealing with the KBS at the supra-university level. An inductively oriented methodology was chosen to obtain a deeper understanding of the current (management) interpretation and use of the KBS, both externally and internally. This paper aims to investigate the practice of KBS in order to build new knowledge relating to both externally oriented reporting and internally oriented management control.The findings indicate that as a reporting-tool, the KBS is embedded in a broader framework of governance and accountability regarding public universities, and interlinks the following different reporting-formats: (1) the KBS itself, (2) the performance report, and (3) the financial statement of accounts. Rectors, deans, and management accountants have highlighted different parts of the framework as important and problematic. However, it is obvious that governing via externally oriented reports and rules of accountability also has relevance to internal management decision and control agendas.Furthermore, there is an on-going debate about measuring, benchmarking, and standardizing qualities within and between universities. Scientific professionals generally question the viability of only one standardized reporting format for scientific outcomes, while the administrative staff usually promotes the necessity of such a report – for example, with respect to benchmarking routines. By analysing the practices triggered by KBS reporting, we contribute to the discussion of how performance (measures and targets) can be represented, interpreted, and acted upon within public organizations in general and within public universities in particular.     

Analysing long memory and asymmetries

The paper presents evidence on nonlinearities in Finnish financial time series. The analysis concentrates on the so-called long-memory property which is examined using, various alternative test procedures. This analysis makes use of relatively long monthly Finnish time series which cover the period 1922–1996. The results give some evidence on long memory but one cannot say that the results would overwhelmingly support the existence of long memory in Finnish time series. There are, however, considerable differences between variables and the results are quite sensitive in terms of the treatment of short memory which also applies to different ways of prefiltering the data. Clearly more work is required to obtain more affirmative results in this respect. One way, of doing that is to apply asymmetric time models to find the source of nonlinearity. When that is done with the Finnish data some weak evidence on asymmetry is obtained.     

Moral Hazard,Income Taxation and Prospect Theory*

The standard theory of optimal income taxation under uncertainty has been developed under the assumption that individuals maximise expected utility. However, prospect theory has now been established as an alternative model of individual behaviour, with empirical support. This paper explores the theory of optimal income taxation under uncertainty when individuals behave according to the tenets of prospect theory. It is seen that many of the standard results are modified in interesting ways. The first‐order approach for solving the optimisation problem is not valid over the domain of losses, and the marginal tax schedule offers full insurance around the reference consumption level. The implications of non‐welfarist objectives under income uncertainty are also examined.     

Changing requirements and mental workload factors in mobile multi‐locational work

Working in multiple locations creates continuously changing physical, virtual and social settings for mobile employees. This paper shows, by exploring locally and globally moving employees, that changing environments arouse varying perceptions of both well‐being and stress. The identification of mental workload factors is necessary both for working in and managing mobile, multi‐locational work.     

Endogenous policy,structural shift,and demand for money

Zusammenfassung Endogene Politik, Strukturver?nderungen und die Geldnachfrage.- Dieser Artikel soll die Geldnachfrage-Gleichung überprüfen, die ursprünglich Goldfeld anhand der viertelj?hrlichen US-Daten der Periode 1955–1978 ermittelte. Die Ergebnisse verschiedener Sch?tzmethoden und Spezifikationstests deuten darauf hin, da\ Goldfelds Geldnachfrage-Gleichung falsch spezifiziert ist. Das l?\t sich trotz einiger gegenteiliger Behauptungen weder auf eine unzureichende dynamische Spezifikation noch auf die nur konventionelle Berücksichtigung von Autokorrelation zurückführen. Vielmehr müssen die Annahmen, Zinss?tze seien exogen und die Struktur sei konstant, zurückgewiesen werden. Eine Zinsreaktionsfunktion unter Verwendung der wichtigsten makroókonomischen Zielvariablen bei verzógerter Reaktion der Zinsen tr?gt in der Tat dazu bei, die Goldfeldsche Geldnachfragefunktion zu verbessern.

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Résumé Politique endogène, changement structurel et la demande de monnaie. - Le but de cet article est de revoir l’équation de la demande de monnaie suggérée la première fois par Goldfeld en utilisant les données trimestrielles des E.U. pour la période 1955Q1-1978Q4. Les résultats dérivés des méthodes différentes d’estimation et des tests de spécification différents indiquent que l’équation de la demande de monnaie de Goldfeld souffre d’une spécification fausse. Nonobstant quelques opinions contraires cela semble résulter ni d’une spécification dynamique impropre ni d’une estimation conventionnelle en terme d’un ajustement d’autocorrélation. Au contraire, il faut refuser les suppositions que des taux d’intérêt soient exogènes et que la structure soit stable. La spécification d’une fonction de réaction de taux d’intérêt en terme des principales variables de but macroéconomiques et du taux d’intérêt retardé contribue à améliorer la fonction de demande de monnaie à la Goldfeld.

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Resumen Politica endógena, cambio estructural y demanda de dinero. - El objeto de este trabajo es reevaluar la ecuación de demanda de dinero sugerida originalmente por Goldfeld utilizando datos trimestrales correspondientes al período 1955–1978. Los resultados obtenidos por diferentes métodos y los tests de especificación indican que la ecuación de demanda de dinero de Goldfeld no esta adecuadamente especificada. A la conclusion contraria no se llega ni partiendo de una especificación dinámica, que no sería apropiada, ni ajustando los resultados de la estimación convencional por autocorrelación. En cambio se rechaza el supuesto de exogeneidad de la tasa de interés y el de estabilidad estructural. La especificación de la tasa de interés como función de reacción de las variables macroeconómicas más importantes y de la tasa de interés desfasada contribuye a mejorar la función de demanda de dinero de Goldberg.

     

Granger causality between money,output, prices and interest rates: Some cross-country evidence from the period 1875–1984

Zusammenfassung Granger-Kausalit?t zwischen Geldmenge, Produktion, Preisen und Zinss?tzen: Evidenz aus einem L?ndervergleich für den Zeitraum 1875-1984. - In diesem Aufsatz wird die Granger-Kausalit?t zwischen Geldmenge, Produktion, Preisen und Nominalzinsen auf der Grundlage langer Zeitreihen für elf L?nder untersucht. Empirische Untersuchungen sowohl in der Zeit- als auch in der Frequenzdimension zeigen, da\ die Geldmenge nicht geeignet ist, die Entwicklung der Produktion vorherzusagen. Tats?chlich scheint nur in Kanada, Italien und Norwegen eine einseitige Kausalbeziehung von der Geldmenge zur realen Produktion zu bestehen. Ein ganz anderes Ergebnis zeigt sich bei der Beziehung zwischen Geldmenge und Preisen. Dort l?uft die Kausalkette typischerweise von der Geldmenge zu den Preisen.

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Résumé Causalité de Granger entre la monnaie, la production, les prix et les taux d’intérêt: Quelque évidence trans-pays dans la période 1875–1984. - Cet article étudie la causalité de Granger entre la monnaie, la production, les prix et les taux nominaux d’intérêt en utilisant des séries des longues périodes pour onze pays. L’analyse empirique, en domaine de temps aussi bien que de fréquence, suggère que la monnaie n’aide pas à prédire les mouvements en production. En fait, seulement dans les cas du Canada, de l’Italie et de la Norvège il semble exister une causalité unidirectionnelle de la monnaie vers la production réelle. Un résultat tout à fait différent est trouvé pour la monnaie et les prix. C’est pourquoi, les prix sont typiquement causés par la masse monétaire pendant la période d’analyse.

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Resumen Causalidad ?Granger? entre dinero, producción, precios y tasas de interés. Evidencia a nivel de países del período 1875–1984. - En este trabajo se estudia la causalidad tipo Granger entre dinero, producción, precios y tasas de interés nominales utilizando series de tiempo largas de 11 países. Los análisis empíricos, tanto en el dominio del tiempo como en el de la frecuencia, sugieren que el dinero no ayuda a predecir los movimientos del producto en el tiempo. En realidad, sólo en el caso de Canadá, Italia y Noruega pareciera existir una causación unidireccional del dinero hacia el producto real. El dinero y los precios llevan a un resultado bastante diferente. Por ello, la causación va del dinero hacia los precios durante del período de la muestra.

     

Threats and bargaining in capitalism a differential game view

The paper examines the Nash bargaining equilibrium in a simple model of growth and distribution formulated as a differential game between workers, who may save or consume, and capitalists, who may consume or invest. Optimal threats announced by the social classes to affect the negotiated solution to their own advantage are also derived. It is demonstrated that the workers' threat takes the form of refusing to save while capitalists threaten to refrain from investing. The threats as well as the possible gains from cooperation determine the players' relative importance or bargaining power. It is shown that capitalists are in general in a stronger bargaining position than workers. The dependence of the bargaining power on the parameters of the model is examined.     

Forward trading and collusion in oligopoly

We consider an infinitely repeated oligopoly in which at each period firms not only serve the spot market by either competing in prices or quantities but also have the opportunity to trade forward contracts. Contrary to the pro-competitive results of finite-horizon models, we find that the possibility of forward trading allows firms to sustain collusive profits that otherwise would not be possible to achieve. The result holds both for price and quantity competition and follows because (collusive) contracting of future sales is more effective in deterring deviations from the collusive plan than inducing the previously identified pro-competitive effects.     

Transboundary air pollution and soil acidification: A dynamic analysis of an acid rain game between Finland and the USSR

Transboundary air pollution is analysed as a dynamic game between Finland and the nearby areas of the Soviet Union. Sulphur emissions are used as the environmental control variables and the acidities of the soils as the state variables. Acidification is consequently considered to be a stock pollutant having long-lasting harmful effects on the environment. The state dynamics consist of two relationships: first, of a sulphur transportation model between the regions and, second, of a model describing how the quality of the soil is affected by sulphur deposition. The countries are assumed to be interested in maximizing the net benefits from pollution control as measured by the impacts on the values of forest growth net of the abatement costs. Cooperative and noncooperative solutions of the game are compared to assess the benefits of bilateral cooperation. Using empirical estimates of abatement costs, acidification dynamics and impacts on forest growth it is shown that cooperation is beneficial to Finland but not to the Soviet Union. Consequently, Finland has to offer monetary compensation to induce her neighbor to invest in environmental protection.     

Is more capability always beneficial for firm performance? Market orientation,core business process capabilities and business environment

This study examines the role of capabilities in core marketing-related business processes–product development management (PDM), supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM)–in translating a firm’s market orientation (MO) into firm performance. The study is the first to examine the interplay of all three business process capabilities simultaneously, while investigating how environmental conditions moderate their performance effects. A moderated mediation analysis of 468 product-focused firms finds that PDM and CRM process capabilities play important mediating roles, whereas SCM process capability does not mediate the relationship between MO and performance. However, the relative importance of the capabilities as mediators varies along the degree of environmental turbulence, and under certain conditions, an increase in the level of business process capability may even turn detrimental.