Kaiserslautern - Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften
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A branch-and-cut approach and alternative formulations for thetraveling salesman problem with drone
(2020)
In this paper, we are interested in studying thetraveling salesman problem withdrone(TSP-D). Given a set of customers and a truck that is equipped with a singledrone, the TSP-D asks that all customers are served exactly once and minimal deliv-ery time is achieved. We provide two compact mixed integer linear programmingformulations that can be used to address instances with up to 10 customer within afew seconds. Notably, we introduce a third formulation for the TSP-D with an expo-nential number of constraints. The latter formulation is suitable to be solved by abranch-and-cut algorithm. Indeed, this approach can be used to find optimal solu-tions for several instances with up to 20 customers within 1 hour, thus challenging thecurrent state-of-the-art in solving the TSP-D. A detailed numerical study providesan in-depth comparison on the effectiveness of the proposed formulations. More-over, we reveal further details on the operational characteristics of a drone-assisteddelivery system. By using three different sets of benchmark instances, considera-tion is given to various assumptions that affect, for example, technological droneparameters and the impact of distance metrics.
Personalized dynamic pricing (PDP) involves dynamically setting individual-consumer prices for the same product or service according to consumer-identifying information. Despite its profitability, this pricing provokes strong negative fairness perceptions, explaining why managers are reluctant to implement it. This research provides important insights into the effect of two PDP dimensions (price individualization level and segmentation base) on fairness perceptions and the moderating role of privacy concerns. The results of two experimental studies indicate that consumers perceive individual prices as less fair than segment prices. They also evaluate location-based pricing as less fair than purchase history-based pricing. Consumer privacy concerns moderate these effects.
Organizational routines constitute how work is accomplished in organizations. This dissertation thesis draws on recent routine research and is anchored in the field of organization theory. The thesis consists of four separate manuscripts that contribute to related research fields such as agility or coordination research from a routine perspective while also extending routine dynamics research. Recent routine dynamics research offers a wide perspective on how situated actions within and across routines unfold as emergent accomplishments. This allows us to analyze other organization research phenomena, such as agility and coordination. Accordingly, the first and second manuscripts argue for the adoption of a very dynamic perspective on routines and the incorporation of these insights into agility and coordination research. This is followed by two empirical manuscripts that expand the routine literature based on qualitative research within agile software development. The third manuscript of this dissertation analyzes how situated actions address different temporal orientations (i.e., past, present, and future). Last, the fourth manuscript addresses the performing of roles within and through routines. In general, this dissertation contributes to overall organization research in two ways: (1) by outlining and examining how agility is enacted; (2) by highlighting that actions are performed flexibly to consider the situation at hand.
Automated investment management: Comparing the design and performance of international robo-managers
(2021)
Robo-managers offer automated asset management; however, their overall performance is highly debated. We analyze 15 robo-managers from Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom by conducting a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative study. The qualitative comparison shows considerable differences between the various robo-managers, not only across but also within countries. The quantitative evaluation utilizes different measures to evaluate the performance of the robo-manager sample. Our results indicate that each country has one particularly favourable robo-manager. Furthermore, we find that the costs and characteristics of rebalancing measures have only a small effect on performance.
In the pre-seed phase before entering a market, new ventures face the complex, multi-faceted, and uncertain task of designing a business model. Founders accomplish this task within the framework of an innovation process, the so-called business model innovation process. However, because a set of feasible opportunities to design a viable business model is often not predictable in this early phase (Alvarez & Barney, 2007), business model ideas have to be revised multiple times, which corresponds to experimenting with alternative business models (Chesbrough, 2010). This also brings scholars to the relevant, but seldom noticed field of research on experimentation as a cognitive schema (Felin et al., 2015; Gavetti & Levinthal, 2000). The few scholars that discussed the importance of such thought experimentation did not elaborate on the manifestations of this phenomenon. Thus, building on qualitative interviews with entrepreneurs, the current state of the research has a gap that offers this dissertation the ability to clearly conceptualise the manifestation of experimentation as a cognitive schema in business model innovation. The results extend previous conceptualisations of experimentation by illustrating the interplay of three different forms of thought experimentation, namely purposeful interactions, incidental interactions, and theorising. In addition, the role of individuals in business model innovation has recently been recognised by scholars (Amit & Zott, 2015; Snihur & Zott, 2020). It is noticed that not only the founders themselves but also many other actors play a central role in this process to support a new venture on its way to designing a viable business model, such as accelerators or public institutions. It thus stands to reason that in addition to understanding how new ventures design their business model, it is also important to study how different actors are involved in this process. Building on qualitative interviews with entrepreneurs, this gap offers this dissertation the ability to study how different actors are involved in business model innovation and conceptualise actor engagement behaviours in this context. The results reveal six different actor engagement behaviours, including teaching, supporting, mobilising, co-developing, sharing, and signalling behaviour. Furthermore, it stands to reason, that entrepreneurs and external actors each play a certain role in business model innovation. Certain behavioural patterns and types of resource contributions may be characteristic for a group of actors, leading to the emergence of distinct actor roles. Thus, in this dissertation a role concept is established to illustrate how actors are involved in designing a new business model, including 13 actor roles. These actor roles are divided into task-oriented and network-oriented roles. Building on this, a variety of role dynamics are unveiled. Moreover, special attention is given to role temporality. Building on two case studies and a quantitative survey, the results reveal how actor roles are played at a certain point in time, thereby concretising them in relation to certain stages of the pre-seed phase.
Drawing on theorising on digital technologies as external enablers of entrepreneurial activities and an interactionist perspective on corporate entrepreneurship, this article examines the relationship between digital technology support and employee intrapreneurial behaviour. We propose that management support for innovation as an organisational characteristic and intrapreneurial self-efficacy as an individual characteristic moderate this relationship. Findings from a metric conjoint experiment with 1360 decisions nested within 85 employees showed that support by social media, support by collaborative technologies, and support by intelligent decision support systems were significant predictors of employee intrapreneurial behaviour. However, the relative impact of support by these digital technologies varied with different levels of management support for innovation and intrapreneurial self-efficacy.
I report on two experiments, which were designed to test theoretical predictions about individual behavior in a duopolistic setting. With quantity being the choice variable a simultaneous Cournot game and a sequential Stackelberg game were tested over two periods. The key feature of both models was that players were able to lower marginal cost for period two if they successfully outperformed their competition in period one in terms of profit. Experimental results suggest that in the Cournot game players are very competitive in period one but become Cournot players in period two. In the Stackelberg game Cournot play is modal, suggesting that players have preferences for equality in payoffs, which maybe brought about by punishment of Stackelberg followers and fear of punishment of Stackelberg leaders . Overall, players earned more money in the Stackelberg game than in the Cournot game.
This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one elaborates on the principle of cognitive consistency and provides an overview of what extant research refers to as cognitive consistency theories (e.g., Abelson et al., 1968; Harmon-Jones & Harmon-Jones, 2007; Simon, Stenstrom, & Read, 2015). Moreover, it describes the most prominent theoretical representatives in this context, namely balance theory (Heider, 1946, 1958), congruity theory (Osgood & Tannenbaum, 1955), and cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957). Chapter one further outlines the role of individuals’ preference for cognitive consistency in the context of financial resource acquisition, the recruitment of employees and the acquisition of customers in the entrepreneurial context.
Chapter two is co-authored by Prof. Dr. Matthias Baum and presents two separate studies in which we empirically investigate the hypothesis that social entrepreneurs face a systematic disadvantage, compared to for-profit entrepreneurs, when seeking to acquire financial resources. Further, our work goes beyond existing research by introducing biased perceptions as a factor that may constrain social enterprise resource acquisition and therefore possibly stall the process of social value creation. On the foundation of role congruity theory (Eagly & Karau, 2002), we emphasize on the question whether social entrepreneurs provide signals which are less congruent with the stereotype of successful entrepreneurs and, in such, are perceived as less competent. We further test whether such biased competency perceptions feed forward into a lower probability to receive funding.
Chapter three is also co-authored by Prof. Dr. Matthias Baum as well as by Eva Henrich. The aim of this chapter is to further our understanding of the early recruitment phase and to contribute to the current debate about how firms should orchestrate their recruitment channels in order to enhance the creation of employer knowledge. We introduce the concept of integrated marketing communication into the recruitment field and examine how the level of consistency regarding job or organization information affects the recall and the recognition of that information. We additionally test whether information consistency among multiple recruitment channels influences information recognition failure quota. Answering this question is important as by failing to remember the source of recruitment information, job seekers may attribute job information to the wrong firm and thus create an incorrect employer knowledge.
Chapter four, which is co-authored by Prof. Dr. Matthias Baum, introduces customer congruity perceptions between a brand and a reward in the context of customer referral programs as an essential driver of the effectiveness of such programs. More precisely, we posit and empirically test a model according to which the decision-making process of the customer recommending a firm involves multiple mental steps and assumes reward perceptions to be an immediate antecedent of brand evaluation, which then, ultimately shapes the likelihood of recommendation. The level of congruity/incongruity is set up as an antecedent state and affects the perceived attractiveness of the reward. Our work contributes to the discussion on the optimal level of congruity between a prevailing schema in the mind of the customer and a stimulus presented. In addition, chapter four introduces customer referral programs as a strategic tool for brand managers. Chapter four is further published in Psychology & Marketing.
Chapter five first proposes that marketing strategies specifically designed to induce word-of-mouth (WOM) behavior are particular relevant for new ventures. Against the background that previous research suggests that customer perceptions of young firm age may influence customer behavior and the degree to which customers support new ventures (e.g., Choi & Shepherd, 2005; Stinchcombe, 1965), we secondly conduct an experiment to examine the causal mechanisms linking firm age and customer WOM. Chapter five, too, is co-authored by Prof. Dr. Matthias Baum.
Capital budgeting or investment decisions have an essential influence on companies’ performance. Instead of a rational choice, capital budgeting might be regarded as a process of reality construction. Research suggests that decision makers have only limited control over their own cognitive biases in this construction process. It is in this perspective that this paper intends to answer the following research question: What are behavioral determinants for a successful capital-budgeting decision process? The authors identify and discuss three behavioral success factors (reflective prudence, critical communication and outcome independence) for five stages of the capital budgeting process against the backdrop of the findings of the managerial and organizational cognition theory and cognitive psychology.