Zur Wirkung von Neukunden-Promotions auf Bestandskunden

Service providers frequently offer better deals to prospective customers than they offer to customers who prolong their contracts. The present paper examines the effectiveness of incentives on new customers and, perhaps even more significantly, assesses negative effects on existing customers. To test the hypothesized effects, a series of two experiments was conducted. Results indicate that promotions that are offered exclusively to prospective customers have a negative effect on existing customers, and that this negative effect is stronger for customers with a short relationship age and for those at the end of their contract life-cycle. The unfairness and inequity perceived by existing customers can be substantially reduced if these customers are offered the opportunity to receive a part of the promotion value, while the promotion??s effectiveness to attract new customers remains unaffected.     

Die Akzeptanz der elektronischen Gesundheitskarte in Deutschland

Against the background of the increasing importance of eHealth, this contribution concentrates on the issue of acceptance regarding the introduction of the electronic health card (English for elektronische Gesundheitskarte, hereinafter referred to as eHC) on the part of the service providing health institutions. After presenting the general issue, the relevance of the subject is described and the eHC is defined. Then the eHC is classified in terms of terminology and afterwards the current state of research of investigations regarding acceptance in the field of eHC is presented and evaluated. Based on both the technology acceptance model and the relevant literature, the important factors influencing the attitude towards and the eventual use of the eHC are conceptualized and integrated in an investigation model. The empirical investigation took place throughout Germany within the scope of an online survey of the health care providers. All in all, 502 questionnaires were reflected in the evaluation of the willingness of acceptance. The empirical results show that regarding the perceived usefulness the performance of the system and a well balanced cost-/benefit-ratio lead to an increasing acceptance of the eHC. Being integrated in the decision process, however, is not relevant for the German physicians. Within the context of the perceived ease of use the compatibility of the system is much less relevant than the controllability or the general usability.     

Leitung mit Supervisionskompetenz

The author describes a position of a supervisor in a clinical institution, which he would have rejected some years ago??to adopt a management role as supervisor and to act mainly in the role of a supervisor. But the recent experiences have shown, that this may be possible and successful. This is illustrated by a case study.     

Warum und wodurch Coaching wirkt

The contribution reviews the state oft the art of the research on general success factors in the coaching process. Research in the field of psychotherapy on basic variables of client centered counseling and general therapeutic change mechanisms set an example. Results of first studies on these and modified factors show that the coaching outcome depends on observed esteem and emotional support by the coach, resource activation and support of transfer into practice. Process analysis of nonverbal interactions between coach and client demonstrate that goal attainment influence goal attainment. Finally, the paper focuses on limitations, of the studies, scientific and practical conclusions as well as future perspectives.     

Blended Business Coaching

The article presents an approach of Blended Coaching, which was evaluated in an empirical study in the non-profit-sector and emerged as a concept for the profit sector. Blended Business Coaching helps to transfer training contents of advanced vocational trainings into professional daily life. Using special methods, this transfer coaching utilizes the advantages of both face-to-face communication and internet based communication for the continuing education and coaching of the participants. This article shows the results of the empirical study and the approach itself.     

Pay-What-You-Want – Praxisrelevanz und Konsumentenverhalten

Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) is a participative pricing mechanism which is characterized by the fact that consumers have maximum control over the price they pay. We discuss the business relevance of PWYW and extend the findings of Kim et al. (2009) using latent class regression. Two different classes can be identified and transaction prices are explained by psycho- and socio-demographics. The estimation of the parameters shows that the internal reference price is a good predictor for the prices in class 1, whereas in the 2nd class the level of fairness and satisfaction with the product positively affect the final transaction prices.     

Ability, individual development and optimal selection decisions

The paper analyzes different selection policies in education and business. We show that incorrect self-perceptions combined with imperfect performance measurement may cause significant welfare losses in selective educational systems, in particular if selection starts too early. Of course, these welfare losses can be mitigated by an investment in better ability assessment. However, an affirmative action policy could serve the same purpose as such an investment. We apply our analysis also to diversity management in firms. Based on positive discrimination we establish an efficiency argument for diversity management.     

Die deutschen Gewerkschaften: Ein Review der aktuellen Forschungsliteratur

Unions, particularly in Germany, are the subject matter of intense public debates as well as discussions in academic research, which corroborate the former. The last systematically conducted analysis of the status quo in academic research was done in spring 2001. In view of the rather dramatic symptoms of the crisis German unions are facing, it is time to incorporate the latest results of scientific research. This paper addresses this task against the background of a systematic literature review. Three application areas are distilled out of a total of 79 pieces of research that are considered relevant and intensively discussed: (1) the membership in German unions, (2) the unions in the German system of industrial relations and (3) the reformation of the German unions. The detected symptoms of the unions' crisis are impressively documented and explained by the studies. However, shortcomings regarding the respective research questions and the development of recommendations for future courses of action for the unions can also be identified.     

Hierarchische Planung für industrielle Logistikdienstleister

In this paper a planning and control system for logistics service providers (called LPS system) is developed under consideration of their specific flexibility potentials. Due to the complexity of such planning decisions (different planning levels and data quality of these levels as well as time horizons etc.), a multi-stage, hierarchical planning system is proposed which minimizes the relevant costs under consideration of the flexibilities. The advantage of a hierarchical planning concept consists in a limited planning complexity because otherwise data collection and solution development would lead to unsolvable problems in practice. The results of using LPS systems for a real-life case show a significant pay-off for logistics service providers due to the remarkable cost savings by applying a hierarchical planning concept.