Kaiserslautern - Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften
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Corporate environmental reporting makes good business and environmental sense. A big challenge for companies is to utilize the technical benefit of state of the art IT, especially of Internet-technologies and Internet-services. In this paper an approach of internet-based environmental reports by companies is presented. Three different levels are discussed: The first level deals with the basics of corporate environmental reports (CER) by companies. Illustrating the order within the emerging field of CERs a morphological box is suggested (section 1). Building on this, general requirements for corporate environmental reports are outlined (section 2). On the second level, the general reporting requirements are specified by IT-relevant challenges, seen as starting points for internet-based environmental reports (section 3). The immense technical benefit of using the Internet towards efficient, integrated, interactive, hypermedia-featured, dialog-oriented, and customised environmental reporting is analysed (section 4). On the basis of the technical benefit analysis, the state of the art of internet-based CERs is presented (section 5). The third level refers to the IT-application turning from the basics, IT-challenges and technical benefit to consequences for environmental reporting companies in practice. Thereby a fundamental framework for internet-based CERs is sketched (section 6). Grounded on this framework a basic architecture of an IT-implementation is explained (section 7).
Industrial Ecology's Hidden Philosophy of Nature. Fundamental Underpinning to Use Nature as Model
(2001)
In its scientific sense, industrial ecology represents an emerging transdisciplinary field of studying industrial systems and their fundamental linkage with natural ecosystems. As a short form, industrial ecology is called the "science of sustainability". At the bottom of industrial ecology there is a refreshingly different perspective of understanding nature as model in comparison with other scientific disciplines and concepts of understanding nature e.g. in terms of "sack of resources", "biophysical limit", "something outside", "surrounding", or just "environment" as opposed to industrial systems. The keynote of industrial ecology's specific perspective of understanding nature is to balance the development of industrial systems with the constraints of natural eco-systems, analogous to an "industrial symbiosis". The goal is to contribute for laying a fundamental underpinning for industrial ecology in its scientific sense, in this case especially for its use of nature as model. Therefore an impressive battery of philosophical arguments is provided bringing to bear against the sort of probably raised fallacies and facile or hasty proclaimed critics by sceptics, hard-liners, and mainstream-scientists who often overlook industrial ecology's stimulating role towards sustainability.
This thesis addresses challenges faced by small package shipping companies and investigates the integration of 1) service consistency and driver knowledge aspects and 2) the utilization of electric vehicles into the route planning of small package shippers. We use Operations Research models and solution methods to gain insights into the newly arising problems and thus support managerial decisions concerning these issues.
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.
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.
As there is a rising interest in accountability issues and governance in nonprofit organizations,
this work aims to give some notions on the context of these two topics. Hence,
within this work, a theoretical framework is developed, whereby the correlation of accountability
and governance in nonprofit organizations shall be measured. This framework
suggests, that in nonprofit organizations, nonprofit governance, represented by
board members and professionals, has an influence on compliance, as a component of
accountability. In respect to the board members, it is supposed that, board competence,
transparency, stakeholder relationship and (public) trust are positively related to compliance.
Furthermore, it is assumed, referring to professionals, that the variables performance,
training or development and satisfaction are positively and empowerment is
negatively correlated with compliance. These assumptions are based on a thorough theoretical
literature research. Furthermore, a questionnaire is designed to measure the correlations.
This questionnaire will be amplified in a discussion following to the explanation
of the research model. Concluding, some limitations on the research model are given,
which should be taken into account by undertaking the questionnaire.
The aim of this dissertation is to explain processes in recruitment by gaining a better understanding of how perceptions evolve and how recruitment outcomes and perceptions are influenced. To do so, this dissertation takes a closer look at the formation of fit perceptions, the effects of top employer awards on pre-hire recruitment outcomes, and on how perceptions about external sources are influenced.
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.