Was ein Coach über Familienbetriebe wissen sollte Bücher über Familienunternehmen

This discourse presents three relevant books about family businesses. These books comprise the “minimum knowledge”, necessary for a coach who consults managers of family businesses. Different patterns of analysis of several disciplines, from the political economics up to the depth psychology, are referred to, and some family firms of different size and different age are described.     

Der Insolvenzprozess und die Eigenverwaltung in der Insolvenz auf Basis unterschiedlicher Theoriekonzepte

Zusammenfassung  Der Beitrag erkl?rt einerseits die Notwendigkeit eines durch Gesetz geregelten Verfahrens zur Insolvenzabwicklung mittels betriebswirtschaftlicher Grundlagentheorien. Andererseits werden dieselben Grundlagentheorien genutzt, um die unterschiedlichen sich ver?ndernden Machtstrukturen, die oft gegens?tzlichen Interessen von Stakeholdern, die Kosten des Insolvenzprozesses sowie deren Dynamik im Rahmen des vierphasigen Insolvenzprozesses (vor Insolvenzanmeldung, nach Antragstellung, nach Er?ffnung, nach Abschluss des Verfahrens) eines Not leidenden Unternehmens besser veranschaulichen zu k?nnen. Der besondere Schwerpunkt wird hierbei auf das Verfahren in Eigenverwaltung, das hei?t mit eigenem Management, gelegt.

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The bankruptcy process and the self-administration in the bankruptcy proceedings

Summary  This article explains on one hand the necessity of a legally fixed process for the bankruptcy proceedings with basic economic theories. On the other hand, the same theories are used to demonstrate the changing power structures, the often different interests of stakeholders, the costs of the bankruptcy proceedings as well as its dynamics during the four bankruptcy phases (before the filing, after the filing, after opening and after closing) of the bankruptcy process. The focus of this article lies hereby on bankruptcy proceedings in self-administration which means that the management stays on duty.

Dr. Martin K?rner ist promovierter Diplom- und Bankkaufmann und leitet die Abteilung Strategic Advisory bei einem führenden europ?ischen IT- und Telekommunikationsunternehmen. Seine Forschungsgebiete umfassen strategische Fragestellungen, Kapitalmarktthemen, das Outsorcing sowie das Krisen- und Insolvenzmanagement.     

Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Editorial

     

Environmental practices and firm performance in emerging markets: the mediating role of product quality

Environmental practices have not received as much research attention in emerging market contexts as traditional topics like quality. However, the importance of environmental practices for a firm’s production strategy has been increasing at an unprecedented level across the globe. Our research objective is, therefore, to investigate the interplay between environmental practices and quality in the pursuit of firm performance. Relying on 492 responses from Turkish manufacturers to test our hypotheses, we show that environmental practices directly improve the quality of products over and above the effect of quality management practices in emerging markets. Product quality, in turn, is important for increasing firm performance, acting as a mediator for the positive effects of environmental practices on performance. Thus, we reveal that product quality functions as an instrumental conduit between environmental practices and firm performance in emerging markets like Turkey where stakeholder pressures are weak, and regulations are often not properly enforced.     

Globalization,greed, and exploitation. How to break the baleful path?

During the last decades, a globalized and free market economy has become the worldwide accepted paradigm for organizing economic affairs. Indeed many positive effects of globalization have materialized and improved the wellbeing of humans, particularly in the poorer parts of the world. However, there is a dark side to globalization—negative external effects, e.g. the exploitation and destruction of natural resources—that is causing growing discontent (e.g. Stiglitz, Globalization and its discontents. Penguin, London, 2002). Different initiatives have been taken in order to deal with the deficits of globalization but have not yet resulted in a resounding success. This paper deals with the downsides of globalization and is not telling a “success story”. For this reason, it is a scholarly article and an essay at the same time, dealing with its subject sometimes from a personal point of view. After presenting some examples for negative side effects of our current economic system, it is argued that capitalism is not only promoting growth through innovation, but that it follows a path of greed and exploitation. Building on path dependence theory, self-reinforcing mechanisms are identified that lead into a lock-in of the current path and make it hard to alter its course. Against this background, three suggestions to tackle the deficits of globalization are presented and critically discussed—the Principles for Responsible Education (PRME), the attempt to restrict globalization (e.g. Steingart), and the implementation of a global governance system (e.g. Homann). Finally, a careful conclusion is drawn: A sequenced approach of education, sanction, and institution building might be the best solution to fasten up the slow moving process of fixing the shortcomings of globalization. It has to be clearly understood that this is not a contribution aimed against globalization and global competition. However, the issues raised in this article urgently need to be addressed. It logically follows that further research is needed in time.     

Reciprocal relationships between psychosocial work characteristics and sleep problems: A two-wave study

Sleep problems are common and impair the health and productivity of employees. Work characteristics constitute one possible cause of sleep problems, and sleeping poorly might influence wellbeing and performance at work. This study examines the reciprocal associations between sleep problems and psychosocial work characteristics. The participants were 1744 full-time employed individuals (56% women; mean age 38 years in 2007) from the Young Finns study who responded to questionnaires on work characteristics (conceptualised by the demand–control model and effort–reward imbalance model) and sleep problems (Jenkins Sleep Scale) in 2007 and 2012. Cross-lagged structural equation models are used to examine the associations. The results show that low control and low rewards at baseline predicted sleep problems. Baseline sleep problems predicted higher effort, higher effort–reward imbalance, and lower reward. Sleep problems also predicted lower odds for belonging to the low (rather than high) job strain group and active jobs group. The association between work characteristics and sleep problems appears to be reciprocal, with a stressful work environment increasing sleep problems, and sleep problems influencing future work characteristics. The results emphasise the importance of interventions aimed at both enhancing sleep quality and reducing psychosocial risks at work.     

The surprising effectiveness of earliest operation due-date sequencing

In make-to order production, schedule reliability is very important but still not sufficiently accomplished in industrial practice by the vast majority of companies. It has been known for long that processing the orders at a workstation in the order of their operation due-dates can compensate for lateness in the arrival at the workstation within certain boundaries. The paper analyses the effectiveness of earliest operation due date (EODD) sequencing by comparing it to an optimistic theoretical boundary. The surprising result is that EODD can nearly fully exploit the theoretical potential. It should therefore be used in practice whenever schedule reliability is important, with only few exceptions. Its effectiveness though is increasing with the workstation’s WIP level and thus is in conflict with the objective to reduce WIP levels and throughput times. A simple forecasting model allows to assess the extent to which lateness can be compensated by EODD sequencing and which schedule compliance can be achieved.