Demontage oder Revitalisierung?

The controversial assessments of the German employment model in the literature are generally based on analyses focused on individual pillars of the model, such as the production system, or the welfare state. The present paper suggests an alternative view which takes into account the interactions between various elements of the employment model. We argue that, by the implementation of what we call a German variety of lean production, the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry has been boosted over the last few years. However, in contrast to earlier decades, the success of the export machine does not entail a more general employment dynamic. That is, the cranks between manufacturing and the rest of the employment system has been damaged substantially. Most importantly, the state has reduced its anchor role for the whole of the employment model and the potentials for its revitalisation.     

Twenty-five years of the Journal of Economic Psychology (1981–2005): A report on the development of an interdisciplinary field of research

Economic Psychology has gained considerable momentum through the introduction of the Journal of Economic Psychology (JoEP) in 1981. Twenty-five years later, economic psychology has a clear profile as an interdisciplinary field of research. A content analysis of articles published in the JoEP together with a bibliometric analysis of references and citing journals identified the topics, the sources and the impact of JoEP. Results indicate the high degree of interdisciplinarity reached in the field, taking its ideas from social psychology, economics and consumer research, and its recognition in business and psychology. Implications for journal policy are discussed.     

Risk-defusing in decisions by probability of detection of harm and promotion and prevention focus

Risk-defusing operators (RDO) are actions that reduce risk, to be enacted either before a negative event occurs (pre-event RDOs) or afterwards (post-event RDOs). For post-event RDOs, detection probability of the negative events is relevant. Regulatory focus theory suggests that promotion-oriented individuals – independent whether it is a personal disposition or favored by situational cues – should focus on chances to succeed and therefore choose post-event RDOs more likely than prevention-oriented individuals who are likely to focus on possible failures and means to avoid them. In two experimental studies, we examined effects of detection probability and regulatory focus as a state variable on the choice of post-event RDOs. Results replicate findings that the likelihood to choose post-event RDOs increases with increasing detection probability of the negative events. Contrary to expectation, no clear effects of regulatory focus were found. Exploratory analyses showed some evidence that successful manipulation of regulatory focus might influence RDO choices if tasks are highly relevant for decision-makers.     

Activist e-mail action alerts and identification: Rhetorical relationship building strategies in collective action

This study analyzed 111 e-mail action alerts from three activist groups on opposing ends of the political and religious ideological continuum for examples of Burke's three identification strategies. Findings show the organizations employed identification by antithesis with the greatest frequency, indicating that activist groups most often take a reactionary or confrontational approach to establishing identification with publics.     

Choosing between alternative classification criteria to measure the labour force state

Summary.  Labour force counting relies on general guidelines that are set by the International Labour Office to classify individuals into three labour force states: employment, unemployment and inactivity. However, the resulting statistics are known to be sensitive to slight variations in operational definitions which are prima facie consistent with the general guidelines. We consider two interpretations of the general guidelines, operationalized by the criterion that is currently followed by Eurostat and a criterion that was followed by the Italian Statistical Office up to 1992. After showing that the labour force statistics resulting from the two criteria differ considerably, we compare individuals whose classification depends on the criterion that is adopted with individuals whose classification is common between criteria to study the boundary between unemployment and inactivity. An application of our strategy is presented using data from the Italian Labour Force Survey, painting a picture neatly against the criterion that is currently followed by Eurostat.     

Solving the Classification Problem in Discriminant Analysis Via Linear and Nonlinear Programming Methods*

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of applying nonlinear programming methods to solve the classification problem in discriminant analysis. The application represents a useful extension of previously proposed linear programming-based solutions for discriminant analysis. The analysis of data obtained by conducting a Monte Carlo simulation experiment shows that these new procedures are promising. Future research that should promote application of the proposed methods for solving classification problems in a business decision-making environment is discussed.     

Activist practitioner perspectives of website public relations: Why aren’t activist websites fulfilling the dialogic promise?

Kent and Taylor proposed five dialogic principles for mediated public relations in 1998 and numerous studies of activist groups, corporations, and educational institutions have shown that most websites fail to meet their dialogic potential. This study explores some of the reasons why activist organizations do not integrate dialogic features into their websites. Thirteen activist public relations practitioners were interviewed to determine their perceptions of websites as tools for information dissemination and resource mobilization. Three consistent themes emerged from the interviews: (1) website communication is perceived to be most effective when tied to issue-specific events and issue currency, (2) websites cater to existing and highly involved publics, and (3) websites are viewed as passive communication tools that must be supplemented with traditional public relations practices.     

Uncertainty resolution in tax experiments: Why waiting for an audit increases compliance

Tax compliance in a between-subjects experiment was higher when the uncertainty about the occurrence of an audit was not resolved until three weeks after participants had filed their tax returns than in a control treatment with immediate uncertainty resolution. Results have important implications for experimental tax research where providing immediate feedback whether participants are audited is common practice.