Analysis of Austrian stocks: Testing for stability and randomness

This paper is concerned with subjecting two popular assumptions about the behavior of stock market prices to empirical tests: first, the random walk hypothesis developed by Bachelier (1900), Osborne (1959), and Mandelbrot (1963); second, the stable distributions hypothesis by Mandelbrot (1963) and Fama (1965). For this purpose, ten time series from the Vienna Stock Exchange were used. The first hypothesis was tested using both non-parametric and parametric methods. To obtain evidence with regard to the seond hypothesis, a graphical procedure and statistical estimation on the basis of the empirical characteristic function were applied. On analysis of our data, it turned out that, at least for the time period under consideration (1985–1990), severe doubts are cast on the above assumptions.We gratefully acknowledge the help of Peter Mitter, Institute for Advanced Studies, and Franz Köstl, Österreichische Kontrollbank, who provided us with the necessary data, and the comments of the anonymous referees.     

维修功能及其组织模式的分析

未来生产领域的竞争正在变为与时间的竞争。我们需要的方法是能缩短产品的开发过程和／或能快速提高产品的性能。技术的发展也有利于使时间成为企业获得成功的关键。在基本的生产领域中，假如能缩短传递时间，我们会再度找到市场竞争的关键问题。生产过程中的另一个关键问题是生产设备的维修工作。维修工作包括专门的程序、任务、说明，需要有经验的工人，以及能满足生产设备可靠性要求所必需的装置和其他资源。     

Ausweitung der Arzthaftung als Einfallstor für neue Formen der Arzthaftpflichtversicherung?

In a recent case, the Austrian Supreme Court remarkably extended medical liability of a gynaecologist for inadequate information about a possible mental handicap of an unborn child. On this occasion, the paper outlines the modified risk exposure of physicians and analyses a possible impact of case-law on the availability and affordability of liability insurance. It raises the question whether a liability crisis could be possible in Austria and briefly explains the underlying U.S. legal and regulatory framework that led to liability crises in the past. In the U.S., alternative risk transfer by means of Risk Retention Groups (RRGs) has been crucial in improving availability and affordability of liability insurance and to rein in liability crises. The Austrian legal and regulatory framework as it stands now would allow for self insurance solutions like Risk Retention Groups but the economic necessity for alternative solutions to traditional insurance schemes seems to be lacking.     

Firm growth and innovation

In recent years, there has been an increase in empirical and theoretical work that addresses the role of innovation as one of the main sources of firm growth. The purpose of this special issue is to strengthen the role played by innovation as a determinant of firm growth. Despite the emergence of a vast empirical literature on whether innovative firms grow more quickly in terms of sales and employees, a number of crucial questions and answers remain. While a large number of applied papers observe a positive link between innovation and firm growth, the complexity of R&D activities, together with the diversity of innovation strategies and the multiplicity of growth modes, requires a multidimensional approach to examine the contribution of innovations on firm growth. To shed light on the link between firm’ growth and innovation sources, we organized a meeting of leading scholars of firm’ growth and innovation. The papers of this special issue were presented at the workshop on ‘Firm growth and innovation’ held on 28 and 29 June, 2012, in Tarragona, Spain. The papers that compose this special issue deal in depth with innovation activity, firm growth and the interaction between firm growth and innovation.     

维修功能及其组织模式的分析(续)

许多时候，有些组织机构所实施的程序，其实对普通目标并没有增加任何内容，所以它们是不必要的，甚至于毫无意义的。如果对这些程序不及时发现并加以删除，则它们带来的严重危害，会自动进入未来的信息技术中。通过这些程序会有怎样的结果呢？很快地完成了不必要的和毫无意义的程序。多么浪费时间啊!