Einf��hrung von Kommunikationsstandards in Unternehmensnetzwerken �C ein gestaltungsorientierter Ansatz bei dezentraler Entscheidungsstruktur

Standards and technologies (e.g. in the area of web services) that are currently discussed in research and practice will strongly change IT-based communication between organizations. However, the decision to standardize is accompanied by the risk of introducing a standard that is not adopted by other organizations afterwards. Hence, the interdependencies among the standardization decisions due to positive network effects result in a coordination problem, which is referred to as ??the standardization problem??. If the standardization decisions are taken by autonomous actors (e.g. legally independent organizations) that do not know the standardization decisions of the other actors in the network, this standardization problem arises for a decentralized decision structure and incomplete information. Thus, actors have to decide under uncertainty on whether to standardize or not. To avoid resulting inefficiencies and wrong decisions, we propose a formal, normative approach. This approach allows an actor within the network to anticipate the standardization decisions of the other actors and the associated network effects. Central to our approach are the consideration of interdependencies among the standardization decisions and the solution of the resulting system of equations.     

FROM FLEXIBILITY TO INSECURITY: HOW VERTICAL SEPARATION AMPLIFIES FIRM‐LEVEL UNCERTAINTY

This article presents a model where firms may endogenously externalize part of their production process. We start from the premise that adaptation to uncertainty cannot be contracted upon in the worker/employer relationship. Vertical separation then balances flexibility gains against hold‐up costs of opportunistic behavior by outside contractors. In equilibrium, the degree of separation is shown to depend on the degree of product market competition, contractor's bargaining power, and the volatility of demand shocks. Our main result is that an increase in the degree of vertical separation amplifies the elasticity to demand shocks of firms' sales and employment. It does not, however, amplify aggregate uncertainty. Evidence from firm‐level data is shown to be largely consistent with the main implications of our theory. (JEL: L16, L23, L24)     

Can’t buy me laughter – Humour in organisational change

This article reflects upon the potential role of humour during an organisational change process. We focus on three facets that are of special importance during change: coping with the change, resisting the change, and leading the change. For each facet, we present relevant quantitative and qualitative studies; and in a final section, we derive implications for employees, leaders, and organisations.In regards to coping with change, we focus on the stress-buffering effects of humour. High-humour individuals maintain higher levels of positive affect in stressful situations and appraise a potentially stressful event as a positive challenge rather than a threat. In regards to resisting change, we show that aggressive humour can be an indicator of serious distress and a means to express resistance towards authority or aspects of the change process. In regards to leading change, we point out how effective leaders may utilise humour to manage followers’ emotions in order to increase positive affect and to reduce perceived threat associated with change.We conclude by suggesting how humour can be used as a diagnostic tool, to foster a humour-supportive climate, to improve communication strategies, and to support an error management culture.     

How to ask sensitive multiple-choice questions

Motivated by recent failures of polling to estimate populist party support, we propose and analyze two methods for asking sensitive multiple-choice questions where the respondent retains some privacy and therefore might answer more truthfully. The first method consists of asking for the true choice along with a choice picked at random. The other method presents a list of choices and asks whether the preferred one is on the list or not. Different respondents are shown different lists. The methods are easy to explain, which makes it likely that the respondent understands how her privacy is protected and may thus entice her to participate in the survey and answer truthfully. The methods are also easy to implement and scale up.     

Premium Risk and Managed Care

This paper analyzes how individuals can insure premium risk and obtain high quality health insurance in a managed care environment. Insurers choose health care providers. Only a fraction of high risk individuals is unambiguously identifiable in front of a court. Premium insurance is not able to reach a first-best risk allocation while health insurers have an incentive to stint on quality under guaranteed renewable contracts. It is shown that a contract exists which can implement the first-best. This contract specifies payments to individuals and a third party upon switching to create a credible self-commitment by the insurer to provide high quality.     

Subjective Attendants of Unification and Transformation in Germany

The article is concentrated on negative aspects of quality of life, mainly anomie. Anomic attitudes have been thematized since the beginning of sociological analysis as phenomena accompanying rapid social change and economic crises. It is shown to what extent the processes of unification and transformation in Germany after 1990 are accompanied by a fragile perceived quality of life. That such a problematic has become virulent at the beginning of the nineteen-nineties indicates the fact that the unification of Germany and the transformation process of the former socialist states are undoubtedly part of the great rapid societal changes of the past decades.     

The Role of Migration in the Urban Transition: A Demonstration From Albania

Although natural increase has been recognized as the main driver of postwar urban growth in developing countries, urban transition theory predicts a dominant role for population mobility in the early and late phases of the process. To account for this discrepancy between theory and empirical evidence, I demonstrate the complex role played by internal and international migration in the pattern of urban growth. Using a combination of indirect demographic estimations for postwar Albania, I show that the dominant contribution of natural increase from the 1960s to the 1990s was induced by a limited urban in-migration; this was due to the restrictions on leaving the countryside imposed under communist rule and, thereafter, to the redirection abroad of rural out-migrants. Although young adults in cities also engaged in international movements and significantly reduced their fertility, the indirect effects of rural-to-urban migration attenuated the fall in urban birth rates and postponed demographic aging. In-migrants swelled urban cohorts of reproductive age and delayed the urban fertility transition. Despite a high level of urban natural increase in Albania, I thus conclude that the role of population mobility dominated in the early and most recent phases of urban growth. The results also have implications for our understanding of demographic processes during the second urban transition in developing countries.     

MORAL HAZARD AND CAPITAL STRUCTURE DYNAMICS

We base a contracting theory for a startup firm on an agency model with observable but nonverifiable effort, and renegotiable contracts. Two essential restrictions on simple contracts are imposed: the entrepreneur must be given limited liability, and the investor's earnings must not decrease in the realized profit of the firm. All message game contracts with pure strategy equilibria (and no third parties) are considered. Within this class of contracts/equilibria, and regardless of who has the renegotiating bargaining power, debt and convertible debt maximize the entrepreneur's incentives to exert effort. These contracts are optimal if the entrepreneur has the bargaining power in renegotiation. If the investor has the bargaining power, the same is true unless debt induces excessive effort. In the latter case, a nondebt simple contract achieves efficiency—the noncontractibility of effort does not lower welfare. Thus, when the noncontractibility of effort matters, our results mirror typical capital structure dynamics: an early use of debt claims, followed by a switch to equity‐like claims. (JEL: D820, L140, O261)     

On residual approximation in solution extension problems

The solution extension variant of a problem consists in, being given an instance and a partial solution, finding the best solution comprising the given partial solution. Many problems have been studied with a similar approach. For instance the Pre-Coloring Extension problem, the clustered variant of the Travelling Salesman problem, or the General Routing Problem are in a way typical examples of solution extension variant problems. Motivated by practical applications of such variants, this work aims to explore different aspects around extension on classical optimization problems. We define residue-approximations as algorithms whose performance ratio on the non-prescribed part can be bounded, and corresponding complexity classes. Using residue-approximation, we classify problems according to their residue-approximability, exhibit distinct behaviors and give several examples and first interesting results.