Vertikale Integration und Unternehmenserfolg: eine empirische Untersuchung in der Formel 1

According to the (new) theory of the firm vertically integrated firms might under certain conditions outperform disintegrated firms. In particular, in a situation with high transaction specific investments and measurement problems concerning individual performance an underinvestment problem may arise. In this paper we show for Formula One motor racing that integrated firms solve arising underinvestment problems more efficiently than disintegrated firms and that the decision to integrate positively affect the firm’s performance.     

Diskussionsbeitrag zur betriebswirtschaftlichen Ethik

Adam Smith as a Professor for moral philosophy didn’t intend to enforce immorality on the markets. But after a while he realized, that his concept of empathy wasn’t sufficient. Publishing his “Inquiry” he made the “Interest” to the inner movement of the “sympathy”. In this way he knitted together the personal “Interest” with the “Interest” of the society, not only economically but in morals too. And the “Interest” of society, the public welfare, had to enforce the wealth of the Nation, by being just and fair in the sense of Aristoteles. But to Deism belongs the tendency to relieve from religious beliefs as well as from virtues and values. And thus people began to think later, they had only to rely on “godless” laws of nature in economics too. That made the economic market-concept of Adam Smith drift to Manchester liberalism. At last that enforced the “selfinterest” to an unacceptable immoral “selfishness”, what Smith didn’t aim to and what would destroy the ethical foundation of his thinking. In the meantime it had become evident that markets don’t simple work after quasi laws of nature, but are in the need of a spiritual foundation. To that every market-participant must be invited on and on.     

A TEMPLE FOR THE NATION: REDESIGNING A COMMON SYMBOLIC SPACE OF CENTRAL EUROPEAN CONSERVATISM

In the wake of ‘1989», the redefinition of a common European identity and national identities turned the symbolic representation of these identities into a major issue of political debates. Especially the construction of conservative and right-wing-populist politics in a redefined central European region relies on a symbolic redefinition of national identities in the frame of and in conflict with the design of a common European political culture. Examples are based on an analysis of the symbolic representation of politics, as the image design of the Austrian ‘Wende»-government (2000-2002), the symbolic representation of Forza Italia and the image-construction of Berlusconi, as well as the cultural representation of the former Hungarian government (1998-2002). The contribution proposes a reconstruction of a common right-wing conservative (political) culture and its representation in the region under the notion of ‘neo-patriotism».     

Shortest and longest length of success runs in binary sequences

The shortest and the longest length of success runs statistics in binary sequences are considered. The sequences are arranged on a line or on a circle. Exact probabilities of these statistics are derived, both in closed formulae via combinatorial analysis, as well as recursively. Furthermore, their joint probability distribution function and cumulative distribution function are obtained. The results are developed first for Bernoulli trials (i.i.d. binary sequences), and then they are generalized to the Polya–Eggenberger sampling scheme. For the latter case, the length of the longest success run is related to other success runs statistics and to reliability of consecutive systems.     

Lifecycle Pricing for Installed Base Management with Constrained Capacity and Remanufacturing

Installed base management is the policy in which the manufacturer leases the product to consumers, and bundles repair and maintenance services along with the product. In this article, we investigate for the optimal leasing price and leasing duration decisions by a monopolist when the production and servicing capacity are constrained. The effect of diffusion of consumers in the installed base is considered, with the ownership of the product resting with the monopolist during the product lifecycle. The monopolist operating the installed base jointly optimizes the profits from leasing the product/service bundle along with maintenance revenues and remanufacturing savings. We formulate the manufacturer's problem as an optimal control problem and show that the optimal pricing strategy of the firm should be a skimming strategy. We also find that the effect of remanufacturing savings on the pricing decision and the length of the leasing duration changes significantly depending on the duration of the product's lifecycle. If the product lifecycle is long and remanufacturing savings are low, the firm should offer a shorter leasing duration, whereas if the remanufacturing savings are high, the firm should optimally offer a higher leasing duration. In contrast, if the time duration of the product lifecycle is low and remanufacturing savings are low, the firm prefers to offer a shorter leasing duration, whereas if the remanufacturing savings are high, the firm should optimally have a longer leasing duration. The article also shows that if the production capacity is small, the manufacturer increases the leasing duration. If the production capacity is very small, the manufacturer sets the leasing duration to be equal to the product lifecycle and does not use remanufacturing.     

DO HIRING SUBSIDIES REDUCE UNEMPLOYMENT AMONG OLDER WORKERS? EVIDENCE FROM NATURAL EXPERIMENTS

Abstract We estimate the effects of hiring subsidies for older workers on transitions from unemployment to employment in Germany. Using a natural experiment, our first set of estimates is based on a legal change extending the group of eligible unemployed persons. A subsequent legal change in the opposite direction is used to validate these results. Our data cover the population of unemployed jobseekers in Germany and was specifically made available for our purposes from administrative data. Consistent support for an employment effect of hiring subsidies can only be found for women in East Germany. Concerning other population groups, firms’ hiring behavior is hardly influenced by the program and hiring subsidies mainly lead to deadweight effects. (JEL: J64, H24, C31)     

Imaginatives 360-Grad-Feedback

Nowadays 360 degree feedback has more and more found its way into organisations and companies. In this context, coaching is often provided or requested as a "follow up" intervention. This means in detail that results of the peer evaluation of the feedback as well as discrepancies with the client’s self-assessment (self-perception) etc. will be discussed. The aim of this article is to show that imaginative 360 degree feedback can be integrated in individual coaching especially applying the methods of psychodrama as well as gestalt therapy even without being based on a 360 degree feedback. This method primarily provides external coaches with basic information about the organisational setup of the coachee (person to be coached) as well as information about his/her professional environment.