Ex ante identification of disruptive innovations in the software industry applied to web applications: The case of Microsoft's vs. Google's office applications

This paper analyzes the question whether web applications pose a disruptive threat to incumbents or a disruptive growth opportunity for entrants in the application software industry using a novel method for ex ante identification of disruptive innovations in the software industry. Building on the theory of disruptive innovations, network effects and existing frameworks for the ex ante identification of disruptive innovations a new method of analysis is deduced. The analysis is based on a list of criteria that indicate a disruptive innovation and trajectory maps of the technologies' performance attributes. This method is applied to study the potential disruption of Microsoft's desktop office applications by Google's web-based office applications.The chosen method of analysis indicates a small likelihood for web applications to pose a disruptive threat to Microsoft, and by extension, to incumbents in the software industry. While web applications show a potential to satisfy market demand in established performance attributes, strong network effects in existing software products should give incumbents enough time to co-opt the innovation. The case illustrates how our new method to analyze disruptive potential in the software industry ex ante can help to apply the theory of disruptive innovation better for forecasting purposes and to provide novel strategic insights for the players involved.     

Cost data quality considerations for eco-efficiency measures

Cost data are a central aspect of eco-efficiency measures, either as means to assess value of production, or, more directly, as one dimension of the efficiency ratio. Several aspects may affect the quality of cost data, among them definitions, time and space, and confidentiality issues. Somewhat surprisingly, cost data quality has received little attention in the field of sustainability and eco-efficiency so far. Even worse, perhaps, is the lack of tools suitable for a cost data quality assessment and management.This paper discusses parameters that affect cost data quality, and will then propose a pedigree matrix as a tool designed for managing cost data quality issues. The application of the matrix is described, also in combination with a previously proposed, and broadly used, pedigree matrix for environmental data quality management.     

智慧BIM乔木模型：从设计图纸到施工 现场

现有的BIM应用软件提供的乔木模型多为RPC或高 精度3D模型等3D CAD类型。这些模型着重于表达美感或进 行展示,无法反映根系情况。虽然可能包含一定附加属性,但 表达乔木生长和空间需求的功能有限。因而,冲突检查、工序 调度等BIM的优势功能无从应用。风景园林实践领域已就此问 题开始构建自己的模型库,但能够准确反映现状树木真实尺寸 体量,以及现状树木和规划树木未来空间需求的模型仍未广泛 出现。提出一种基于树冠、树干和根系构型与生长功能的实体/ 网面封装建模方法构建BIM乔木模型。模型形态通过一组参数 调整,并根据树龄和反映环境限制因子的值来反映其变化。所 包含的数据和参数数量随后期设计阶段所需的LoD(详细层级) 及专业实践的具体要求而增加。该模型可以与提供本地区内外 苗木商品信息的植物数据库连接使用。     

RENOVATIO MONETAE: WHEN GESELL TAXES WORKED

Gesell taxes on money have recently received attention as a way of alleviating the zero lower bound on interest rates. Less known is that such taxes generated seigniorage in medieval Europe for around two centuries. When a Gesell tax was levied, current coins ceased to be legal and had to be exchanged into new coins for a fee. Using a cash-in-advance model, we analyze under what conditions agents exchange coins and the tax generates revenues. A low exchange fee, high punishments for using old coins, and a long time period between re-mintings induce people to use new coins.     

Steady-state growth and the elasticity of substitution

In a neoclassical economy with endogenous capital- and labor-augmenting technical change the steady-state growth rate of output per worker is shown to increase in the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor. This confirms the assessment of Klump and de La Grandville (2000) that a greater elasticity of substitution allows for faster of economic growth. However, unlike their findings my result applies to the steady-state growth rate. Moreover, it does not hinge on particular assumptions on how aggregate savings come about. It holds for any household sector allowing savings to grow at the same rate as aggregate output.     

Kundenwertermittlung — wie viel Vertrieb ist uns der Kunde wert?

Ohne Zusammenfassung Prof. Dr. Andreas Mengen lehrt Controlling und General Management im Fachbereich Betriebswirtschaft der Fachhochschule Koblenz — University of Applied Sciences und ist Partner von B?cker Ziemen Management Consultants, Bonn. Dipl.-Betriebswirtin (FH) Alina Mettler studierte Betriebswirtschaft an der Fachhochschule Koblenz und ist Mitarbeiterin bei einem gro?enmittelst?ndischen Unternehmen für Kunststoff- und Metallverarbeitung, Gesch?ftsbereich Industrieverpackungen.     

Wilhelm Röpke and Richard C. Koo On Secondary Deflations and Balance Sheet Recessions

The concept of a ‘secondary deflation’ was developed in the 1930s by the German economist Wilhelm Röpke, who saw it as something different from a normal depression. While a primary deflation is a necessary reaction to the inflation from a boom period, a secondary deflation is independent and economically purposeless. Röpke argued that secondary depressions occurred in the US, Germany, France and Switzerland during the 1930s, but was vague on what made them follow primary depressions. Recently, the Taiwanese–American economist Richard C. Koo has claimed to have discovered the ‘Holy Grail of macroeconomics’, that is, what made the Great Depression so deep and long. During the Great Depression, the bursting of the asset price bubble resulted in private sectors having more debt than assets; as they shifted from maximising profits to minimising debt, the consequent debt deflation shrank the economy. According to Koo, Western economies today are suffering from a similar ‘balance sheet recession’. Strengthened by the notion of a balance sheet recession, Röpke's long‐lost insights might advance our understanding of the business cycle in general and the present crisis in the US and the Eurozone in particular.     

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