Erosion oder Stabilität der Beruflichkeit?

Regarding the changing patterns of mobility processes in the German labor market, this paper takes up the scientific debate on the declining significance of occupational qualifications. By comparing several labor market entry cohorts, the matching of the learned occupation and the practiced occupation is analyzed in both the horizontal and the vertical dimension of occupational mobility. In doing so, the question of a successful utilization of the skills acquired in the educational process can be addressed. Changes of occupations will be operationalized on the basis of a new professional classification by using the data set “Working and Learning in a Changing World” (ALWA). First, the Kaplan Meier survival curves show that the risks of horizontal occupational mobility have increased across cohorts. This indicates that the formerly close relationship between the education system and the employment system has weakened. Furthermore, according to our multivariate Cox regression analysis, the mobility towards inadequate status positions has increased. Thus, due to the expansion of atypical forms of employment and the increased volatility of the markets, altered mobility patterns of the younger cohorts entering the labor market can be shown. Consequently, the increase of unsuccessful transfers of skills in inter-firm mobility suggests a weakened cohesiveness between professionalism and a growing risk to loose professional qualifications.     

Theorizing the institution: foundations,duality, and data

Although a central construct for sociologists, the concept of institution continues to elude clear and full specification. One reason for this lack of clarity is that about 50 years ago empirical researchers in the field of sociology turned their gaze downward, away from macro-sociological constructs in order to focus their attention on middle-range empirical projects. It took almost 20 years for the concept of the institution to work its back onto the empirical research agenda of mainstream sociologists. The new institutional project in organizational sociology led the way. Since then, scholars in this tradition have achieved a great deal but there is still much more to accomplish. Here, future directions for research are considered by reviewing how the concept of the institution has come to be treated by mainstream philosophers, sociologists of science and technology studies, and social network theorists.

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Der Einfluss von Kognition und Affekt auf Unternehmensgründungsentscheidungen: Eine vergleichende Analyse von Angestellten und Unternehmern

The relationship between individuals?? entrepreneurial behavior and objective situational characteristics of an entrepreneurial opportunity??individual-opportunity nexus??lies in the focus of entrepreneurship research. The role of subjective appraisals and affective influences in the pre-entrepreneurial process was neglected in this context so far. On the basis of a questionnaire experiment with two different samples of employees and entrepreneurs, our results confirm central assumptions of cognitive appraisal and emotion theories. The subjective appraisals of objective entrepreneurial opportunities better predict entrepreneurial evaluation and exploitation decisions than the objective characteristics of the entrepreneurial opportunity. Furthermore, the results show in addition to an inverse direct effect of negative affect that the relationship between the entrepreneurial evaluation and exploitation is negatively moderated by negative affect. Our analyses indicate that the two subsamples show differences in their cognitive processes, but that they are still generally comparable. The affective influences on the pre-entrepreneurial process, however, demonstrate no group specific differences. These results extend the individual-opportunity-nexus-paradigm that is based on objective characteristics by examining the meaning of subjective appraisals and affective reactions and therefore the intersection of individuals and entrepreneurial opportunities.     

Der Personalverantwortliche als strategischer Partner

Since Ulrich (Human resource champions: the next agenda for adding value and delivering results, Boston, Harvard Business School Press, 1997) shaped the strategic role of HR managers, his concept of an HR business partner has been controversially discussed by researchers and practitioners. Explanations about when and how HR managers act as strategic business partners have found limited attention in the literature. Based on the theory of reasoned action developed by Ajzen und Fishbein (Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1980; J Pers Soc Psychol 27(1):41?C57, 1973), we hypothesize a positive relation between personal attitudes as well as subjective norm and the behaviour of HR managers to act as a strategic business partner. Results of the German Cranet survey in 2009 show that expected positive consequences influence the personal attitude, whereas the acceptance of the human resources as well as the existence of an HR strategy within the organisation is positively related with subjective norm. Hence, both attitude and subjective norm positively influence the behaviour of HR managers to act as a strategic business partner.     

Experimental Games on Networks: Underpinnings of Behavior and Equilibrium Selection

In this paper, we describe a series of laboratory experiments that implement specific examples of a general network structure. Specifically, actions are either strategic substitutes or strategic complements, and participants have either complete or incomplete information about the structure of a random network. Since economic environments typically have a considerable degree of complementarity or substitutability, this framework applies to a wide variety of settings. We examine behavior and equilibrium selection. The degree of equilibrium play is striking, in particular with incomplete information. Behavior closely resembles the theoretical equilibrium whenever this is unique; when there are multiple equilibria, general features of networks, such as connectivity, clustering, and the degree of the players, help to predict informed behavior in the lab. People appear to be strongly attracted to maximizing aggregate payoffs (social efficiency), but there are forces that moderate this attraction: (1) people seem content with (in the aggregate) capturing only the lion's share of the efficient profits in exchange for reduced exposure to loss, and (2) uncertainty about the network structure makes it considerably more difficult to coordinate on a demanding, but efficient, equilibrium that is typically implemented with complete information.     

An Empirical Analysis of the Amount of Publication Fees

Among the financing strategies available for Open Access (OA), the author-pays business model has received increasing attention. The consequences of this approach, however, for the system of scholarly communication and for publishing houses as participants in value added, have remained largely unclear. The paper presented here, therefore, analyzes the probable realistic magnitude of publishing fees in different subjects, based on empirical data. The paper shows that the most favorable conditions are met in the Natural Sciences and in Mathematics. However, the analysis also shows that publishing houses would have to raise publishing fees well beyond the level that scientists are willing to pay. Furthermore, the analysis leads to the conclusion that the amount of money currently available in the system of scholarly communication is probably not sufficient for the sustainable financing of publishing fees.     

Gesellschafterausstieg in großen Familienunternehmen

Zusammenfassung  Dieser Beitrag befasst sich mit dem Ausstieg von Gesellschaftern aus Familienunternehmen als bedeutendes Corporate Governance-Problem. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Untersuchung der Wirkung von Ausstiegsmotiven, Rahmenbedingungen sowie Ausstiegsbarrieren auf die Belastung von Unternehmen und Familie durch den Gesellschafterausstieg. Eine explorative empirische Untersuchung von 55 gro?en deutschen Familienunternehmen liefert Ans?tze für eine Organisationstheorie des Familienunternehmens und für praktische Empfehlungen bei der Gestaltung von Satzung und Ausstiegsverhandlung.

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Summary  This article deals with the exit of shareholders in family owned businesses as an important corporate governance problem. We mainly analyse the effect of exit motivations, exit conditions, and barriers to exit on the exit’s burden for the company and the family. An explorative empirical study of 55 large German family owned businesses comes up with ideas for an organization theory of family owned businesses as well as some practical recommendations for statutes and exit negotiations.

     

Cooperation,Trust and Performance – Empirical Results from Three Countries

Reverting to the resource‐based view of strategic management and cooperation theory, we provide argumentation for the value of two critical resources to cooperating firms: cooperation experience and maxim‐based trust. The results of a large‐scale survey in three European countries (Austria, Slovenia and the Czech Republic) reveal an important fact: although cooperation experience contributes to business performance, the contribution of maxim‐based trust to success is significantly higher. As a result, corporate success depends not only on the quantity of cooperation experience, but also – and to an even greater extent – on the quality of cooperation with regard to the form of coordinative power established within the cooperation arrangement. Given that maxim‐based trust has been identified as a feasible coordination mechanism in cooperation relationships, it might therefore be freed from its frequent characterization as utopian and out of touch with reality.     

The value of a player in n-person games

. The article decomposes the Shapley value into a value matrix which gives the value of every player to every other player in n-person games. Element Φ_ij(v) in the value matrix is positive, zero, or negative, dependent on whether row player i is beneficial, has no impact, or is not beneficial for column player j. The elements in each row and in each column of the value matrix sum up to the Shapley value of the respective player. The value matrix is illustrated by the voting procedure in the European Council of Ministers 1981–1995. Received: 9 September 1998/Accepted: 11 February 2000