Macht ökonomische Bildung die Marktwirtschaft sozialer?

Market economy is normatively ambivalent. It justifies individual self-interest; however it also provides an at least partly respectable level of satisfaction of needs. Economics education plays an interesting role concerning this ambivalence as it changes the relation between these two sides. An increase in economic competences seems to cause a shift from intentionalistic to systemic concepts and along with that a shift from deontological to consequentialist attitudes. In this respect it is important to notice that these shifts are caused by economic learning in educational context and not through every-day experience. With economic education thus increases the acceptance of market economy and the rejection of some deontological claims.     

Motivating teammates: The leader’s choice between positive and negative incentives

Team leaders often provide incentives for cooperation. A challenging question is how different incentive schemes and their actual choice by the leader shape the team’s culture and contribute to the team’s success. To shed light on this issue we investigate how a leader chooses between rewards or punishment in an experimental team setting and how teammates’ contributions are influenced by this choice. Leaders show a clear initial preference for rewards, which diminishes over time in some teams. Leaders who observe more free-riders in their teams tend to switch to punishment incentives. A change from rewards to negative incentives results in an immediate and enduring increase in contributions. On the other hand, contributions show a decreasing trend in teams with a leader who sticks to rewards.     

Ein Optimierungsansatz für ein fortlaufendes Datenqualitätsmanagement und seine praktische Anwendung bei Kundenkampagnen

Zusammenfassung  Die Verbesserung der Datenqualit?t (DQ) wird in Wissenschaft und Praxis intensiv diskutiert. Ob die ergriffenen DQ-Ma?nahmen jedoch ?konomisch überhaupt gerechtfertigt sind und wann und in welchem optimalen Umfang investiert werden soll, wird oftmals nicht analysiert. Zur Untersuchung dieser Fragestellungen entwickeln die Autoren ein Optimierungsmodell, mit dem die Umf?nge und Zeitpunkte für Investitionen in ein fortlaufendes DQ-Management ermittelt werden k?nnen. Hierdurch lassen sich vier Investitionsszenarien mit allgemeinen Handlungsempfehlungen identifizieren. So ist bspw. bei ehemalig intensiven Kundenbeziehungen, die sich inzwischen verschlechtert haben (nur wenige Gesch?ftstransaktionen), zwar über mehrere Perioden zu investieren, jedoch bei einem sich nicht ver?ndernden, geringen Transaktionsanteil, in abnehmender H?he. Daneben l?sst sich u. a. zeigen, dass der Umfang der existierenden Kundendatenmenge und nicht, wie oftmals angeführt, ein schlechtes existierendes DQ-Niveau ma?geblich für die Entscheidung ist, ob überhaupt in DQ investiert werden soll. Anhand einer Fallstudie wird abschlie?end nicht nur die praktische Anwendbarkeit des Optimierungsmodells verdeutlicht, sondern es soll zudem aufgezeigt werden, wie sich für einen konkreten Sachverhalt detaillierte Empfehlungen hinsichtlich des DQM-Einsatzes ermitteln lassen.

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A model based approach for continuous data quality management and its implementation to improve customer campaigns

Summary  The improvement of data quality (DQ) currently finds a great deal of attention in science as well as in practice. Nevertheless there are two fundamental questions that are often ignored in the analysis: i) Are the DQ measures already implemented economically reasonable? ii) When and to what extent is investing into the improvement of DQ justifiable? For an in-depth understanding considering the design of DQ management the authors develop an optimization model which determines the optimal amount and point of time for consecutive DQ investments. Hence they distinguish between four scenarios and propose corresponding action recommendations. For example, a customer relationship with declining intensity up to the present (i. e. diminishing volume of business transactions) requires DQ investments over several future business periods- and at a decreasing investment rate in cases where the transaction volume continues to go down. Additionally it can be shown that in general the amount of available client data is a crucial factor for the decision whether it is reasonable to invest into DQ at all as opposed to a low quality level — which is often claimed. A concluding case study determines the practical applicability of the proposed optimization model.

     

Promoting Good Behavior: Does Social and Temporal Framing Make a Difference?

Social marketing research grows increasingly relevant in the face of persistent modern problems; this study examines how social and temporal framing might influence the effectiveness of social marketing campaigns. By featuring diverse contexts, this study addresses both individual and prosocial behaviors. With a basis in self-referencing and psychological distance research, as well as social dilemma theory, the authors derive hypotheses about social and temporal framing effects. A between-subjects experiment, incorporated into an online survey among a large student sample, reveals the relevance of temporal framing for enhancing intentions to change both individual and prosocial behaviors. Social framing influences behavioral intentions especially in the prosocial condition. The category of behavior determines the effectiveness of social marketing related to that behavior. However, the small effect sizes and lack of globally interpretable effects indicate that social and temporal framing do not make relevant differences in social marketing effectiveness.     

Doppik und Produkthaushalte als Instrumente strategischen Managements in Kommunen – Eine vergleichende Fallstudie

This study aims at answering the question whether currently adopted approaches of accrual accounting and product-based budgeting are appropriate for strategic management in local government. A comparative case study is undertaken in Nordrhein-Westfalen as one of the leading federal states in Germany to reform its municipalities?? financial management. Generated insights allow deriving determinants of a successful change to accrual accounting and product-based budgeting thus contributing to a research framework for strategic management in local government. Furthermore, implications on how to deal with this paradigm shift are generated for public managers.     

Für Einen Moderaten Relativismus in der Wissenschaftssoziologie

The new sociology of science makes the relativist claim that social factors influence the generation and evaluation even of valid scientific knowledge, and mainly for its relativism it is sharply criticized by philosophers. The central objections of the critics concern the philosophical presuppositions and consequences of relativism. It is thus objected, on the one hand, that the relativism of the sociology of science is based on wrong philosophical assumptions about science; and, on the other hand, that the reflexivity of this relativism leads to unresolvable problems. The article provides a critical examination of the arguments given for these objections, especially of Popper’s rejection of relativism. A differentiation of two forms of relativism is proposed, and it is argued that the objections raised against relativism in general are justified for only one variety of relativism. While extreme relativism, holding that the evaluation of scientific knowledge is solely dependent on social factors, is indeed untenable, moderate relativism, holding that social factors are co-determinants of evaluation, has plausible epistemological presuppositions and allows the reflexive turn of relativism. Since moderate relativism is coherent with the research programme of the new sociology of science and the philosophical point of view, sociology of science should opt for this form of relativism.