Determinanten des Informationsgehalts von Managementprognosen – eine empirische Untersuchung anhand der DAX und MDAX-Unternehmen

In this article the characteristics and determinants of the information content of management earnings forecasts of the German DAX and MDAX companies between 2002 and 2005 are analyzed. As proxy for the information content I use the precision of the wording of a forecast. I can show that the forecasts of MDAX companies are more precisely formulated than those of DAX companies. Furthermore forecasts are formulated more precisely, when companies have, (1) a lower percentage of intangible assets, (2) lower market capitalization, (3) lower volatility of earnings and (4) a higher need for external financing.     

Managing cohesion in transnational organizations: an introduction

Aesthetic approaches seek to enrich knowledge about the ‘sensible’ aspects of experience. The ‘aesthetic dimension’ of shipboard organizational life is evoked and co‐created through multiple aesthetic categories such as the agogic, the sacred, and the sublime rendered through multiple sensory experiences of life aboard. A researcher and sailor‐informant co‐authored aesthetic reading contributes to a growing niche of aesthetic‐based research within organization studies. Our article explores collaboration as an important element of the aesthetic project. Possibilities for future aesthetic inquiries are also considered.     

Childcare costs and the demand for children—evidence from a nationwide reform

Exploiting the exogenous variation in user fees caused by a Swedish childcare reform, we are able to identify the causal effect of childcare costs on fertility in a context in which childcare enrollment is almost universal, user fees are low, and labor force participation of mothers is very high. Anticipation of a reduction in childcare costs increased the number of first and higher-order births, but only seemed to affect the timing of second births. For families with many children we also find a marginally significant negative income effect on fertility.     

Liberalisierungspolitik

Political-economic classics of different schools agreed that capitalism inherently and inevitably leads to a decline of market principles. We analyze indicators of liberalization policies for 21 OECD-countries in five economic and social policy fields and demonstrate that western industrialized countries are subject of a convergent trend towards market-creating policies??in stark contrast to the theoretical expectations of several political economy authors. At the latest during the first half of the eighties, the western democracies entered a new phase of economic liberalization, which continues up to the present. A methodological implication of our findings suggests that the methods of causal analysis of convergent liberalization policies may not be the same as those who have been applied for the analysis of development and consolidation of the varieties of capitalism in the postwar era.     

Generic charisma - Conceptualization and measurement

In these times, when fame is available to almost anyone, it is worth being able to measure the extent and dimensions of a person's charisma. Most of the research on charisma to date is restricted to the area of leadership. In this article, however, charisma is generalized to take in all human beings and is conceptualized as a multi-dimensional cognitive-affective phenomenon. The article presents a pilot study aimed at providing an adequate operational definition of the construct as well as an initial tool for its measurement. A following literature review shows how authors have developed the concept of charisma and its initial operational dimensions for empirical research. A questionnaire is developed in three stages. The factor analyses applied in stages two and three point towards a six-factor solution (i.e. six dimensions of charisma). Further analysis reveals that the developed instrument is reliable and viable as well as applicable for future theoretical and practical work.     

Reliability analysis of consecutive k-out-of-n systems with non-identical components lifetimes

In recent years, the study of reliability properties of consecutive k-out-of-n systems has attracted a great deal of attention from both theoretical and practical perspectives. In this paper we consider linear and circular consecutive k-out-of-n systems. It is assumed that lifetimes of components of the systems are independent but their probability distributions are non-identical. We study the reliability properties of the residual lifetimes of such systems under the condition that at least (n−r+1), r≤n, components of the system are operating. We also investigate the probability that a specific number of components of the above-mentioned system operate at time t, t>0, under the condition that the system is alive at time t.     

The secular city and the Christian corpus

Abstract

Beginning with a discussion of Fritz Lang's ‘Metropolis’, this paper considers the rise of the city from a theological perspective. The ideal of the modern city was, it is argued, a secularised version of the City of God: the city was to be a place where all human desires might be met, a city without a church because the moral perfection of each human being has been fulfilled. The advent of the postmodern city of consumerist desire undermines this secular dream, and opens a space for theologians to frame alternative visions of cities of erotic participatory desire.     

Some efficient random imputation methods

Imputation methods that assign a selection of respondents’ values for missing i tern nonresponses give rise to an addd,tional source of sampling variation, which we term imputation varLance , We examine the effect of imputation variance on the precision of the mean, and propose four procedures for sampling the rEespondents that reduce this additional variance. Two of the procedures employ improved sample designs through selection of respc,ndents by sampling without replacement and by stratified sampl;lng. The other two increase the sample base by the use of multiple imputations.