Impact of Value‐Added Service Features in e‐Retailing Processes: An Econometric Analysis of Web Site Functions

We examine the impact of three classes of Web site functions (foundational, customer‐centered, and value‐added) upon e‐retailer performance. Using secondary panel data for 2007–2009 on operating characteristics of over 600 e‐retailers, our econometric analysis finds that only the value‐added service functions are positively associated with changes in e‐retail sales revenues across time. We also observe a decreasing marginal impact of deploying additional value‐added service features. To account for possible alternate explanations, we control for firm‐ and time‐specific fixed effects, merchant types, merchandise categories, and order fulfillment strategies. By further decomposing e‐retail sales revenues into Web site traffic, conversion rate, and average order value, we find that Web site functions affect e‐retail sales revenues mainly through their impact on Web site traffic. Our investigation demonstrates the empirical research usefulness of the Voss conceptual e‐service sand cone model. Our results identify for managers where to focus ongoing e‐retailing system development efforts, yet suggest that focusing too many retailing capabilities on exploratory and experimental value‐added service features may backfire, potentially leading to worsening e‐retailer performance.     

Mobile devices and their effect on the sociality on Dutch Intercity trains

ABSTRACT

Travelling by train is an activity that many people engage in on a daily basis, which is rarely performed alone. While trains are locations where many different strangers potentially encounter each other, they are also portrayed as non-social transient places of passenger conflict and disharmony. Especially the rapid rise of mobile devices has changed the way people interact on board. This mobile ethnography – based on observations, travel-diaries and diary-interviews with 16 frequent travellers of Dutch Intercity trains – contributes to earlier studies on passenger sociality by specifically focussing on how social interactions are influenced by these mobile devices. The findings illustrate that using a mobile phone is indeed the most reported on-board activity and direct interactions are limited. Nevertheless, people on the train speak a very subtle non-verbal language that enables them to interact without engaging in extensive direct interactions. Mobile devices are thus not just enabling or constraining but have become inherent parts of socialising. Furthermore, most people do watch out for each other and try not to bother others. Discomforts emerge from different interpretations and compliances of codes of conduct.     

Entwicklung einer Checkliste als Einstiegsinstrument beim Konfliktcoaching

Zusammenfassung  Diese Arbeit stellt die „Checkliste für das Konfliktcoaching“ (CKC) vor. Sie wurde als Einstiegsinstrument für das Konfliktcoaching entwickelt und soll den Klienten auf die bevorstehende Beratung einstimmen und den Coach bei seinen Vorfeldanalysen unterstützen. Die erstellte Checkliste basiert auf Theorien zum Konfliktmanagement (Regnet 1992; Glasl 1997) und der Beratungsform Coaching (Looss 1997; Rauen 2000) sowie der Etablierung eines Beratungssystems (Rappe-Giesecke 1999; Schein 1987). Dagmar Fuchs, Dipl.-Psych., Trainerin, Moderatorin, Coach, Freie Mitarbeit bei Mensch & Organisation im Wandel, Leiterin des Personalservicebüros der Berliner Stadtreinigungsbetriebe.     

Managing Enterprise Risks of Technological Systems: An Exploratory Empirical Analysis of Vulnerability Characteristics as Drivers of Exploit Publication*

Enterprises experience opportunistic exploits targeted at vulnerable technology. Vulnerabilities in software‐based applications, service systems, enterprise platforms, and supply chains are discovered and disclosed on an alarmingly regular basis. A necessary enterprise risk management task concerns identifying and patching vulnerabilities. Yet it is a costly affair to develop and deploy patches to alleviate risk and prevent damage from exploit attacks. Given the limited resources available, technology producers and users must identify priorities for such tasks. When not overlooked, vulnerability‐patching tasks often are prioritized based on vulnerability disclosure dates, thus vulnerabilities disclosed earlier usually have patches developed and deployed earlier. We suggest priorities also should focus on time‐dependent likelihoods of exploits getting published. We analyze data on software exploits to identify factors associated with the duration between a vulnerability discovery date and the date when an exploit is publicly available, a time window for patching before exploit attack levels may escalate. Actively prioritizing vulnerability patching based on likelihoods of exploit publication may help lessen losses due to exploit attacks. Technology managers might apply the insights to better estimate relative risk levels, and better prioritize protection efforts toward vulnerabilities having higher risk of earlier exploitation.     

Mapping heat and traffic stress of urban park vegetation based on satellite imagery - A comparison of Bucharest,Romania and Leipzig,Germany

Urban Ecosystems - Large and comparatively compact European cities such as Bucharest and Leipzig struggle with considerable urban heat island (UHI) effects characterized by heat and drought...     

Training research-minded social workers: experience from Estonia*

ABSTRACT

Social work education in its modern sense started to develop after Estonia regained independence from the collapsing Soviet Union. The aim of this article is to introduce good practices of teaching research-mindedness, this being one of the main principles in teaching social workers-to-be in the University of Tartu in Estonia. We have been inspired by the academic tradition of university teaching in general, the new international definition of social work and, not least, the realisation of social workers in practice of not being able to apply academic knowledge to everyday social work practices. This article revisits the term research-mindedness and examines how it has been integrated into the university level teaching process. Our purpose is to discuss the methods students of bachelor’s and master’s programmes can learn to ‘translate’ social issues into research questions, critically appraise the findings and ‘translate’ them back as new research evidence for social work practice.     

ViSC Social Competence Program

The ViSC Social Competence Program has been implemented in Austrian schools within the scope of a national strategy plan, Together Against Violence. The program is a primary preventive program designed for grades 5 to 8. The prevention of aggression and bullying is defined as a school development task, and the initial implementation of the program lasts one school year. The program consists of universal and specific actions that are implemented through in-school teacher training and a class project for students. The program was evaluated with a randomized intervention control group design. Data were collected from teachers and students. Results suggest that the program reduces aggression in schools.     

An alternative interpretation of the household’s optimization problem

This note is an invitation to academic economists to broaden the way in which we present and interpret the household’s optimization problem to our students in microeconomics courses. It suggests that while maximizing utility subject to a budget constraint is mathematically equivalent to minimizing expenditures for a given target level of utility, the psychological implications of these alternative presentations of the optimization problem may be quite different. Instead of influencing the attitude and consumption behavior of our students by explaining only one of these approaches, we may want to expose them to both interpretations and let them choose the one they find more appropriate, hopefully after giving careful thought to both of them.