Spotlight on new research publications / June
06/01/2020
Photo: Shutterstock
This month, you can for instance learn more about the enormous security apparatus that has emerged in the wake of the global money-laundering scandals. In the article ”Fighting financial crime: Who designs global governance and who does the work?”, researcher Eleni Tsingou examines how this security apparatus works and who the winners and losers are.
On a different note, researcher Antonia Erz has looked into social media and its ability to impact users’ actions in ‘reality’ (offline). In the article ”The extended warming effect of social media: Examining whether the cognition of online audiences offline drives prosocial behavior in ’real life’”, she establishes that an awareness of your online audience (Facebook friends and Instagram followers) makes you more likely to e.g. donate money in the offline world.
Researcher Ismir Mulalic shows that the extension of the metro network in Copenhagen has decreased car ownership by 2–3%.
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The following is a rough list. If you need more information, please contact the researcher.
The academic articles have been peer-reviewed, which means they have been judged by other researchers within the same area.
THE FOLLOWING IS THIS MONTH’S PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH – ENJOY YOUR READING:
Find the abstracts under each heading.
Responses to Replica (vs. Genuine) Touristic Experiences
Abstract: A growing trend in tourism is the use of replica experiences. Yet, consumers' responses to replica (vs. genuine) touristic experiences are mostly overlooked in the literature. In this paper, we propose that consumers' perceptions of authenticity of the replica (vs. genuine) touristic experiences mediate their responses to these experiences. We define three theoretically driven factors that influence the authenticity perceptions of consumers—experience characteristics (restricted experience vs. not restricted experience; within close vs. distant geographical proximity to the genuine) and a consumer characteristic (salient goal: collecting experiences vs. having fun/pleasure), which influence consumers' responses to replica and genuine touristic experiences. We found support for the proposed theory using two field studies from Egypt's Luxor Tutankhamun tomb and three experimental studies.
Abstract: A growing trend in tourism is the use of replica experiences. Yet, consumers' responses to replica (vs. genuine) touristic experiences are mostly overlooked in the literature. In this paper, we propose that consumers' perceptions of authenticity of the replica (vs. genuine) touristic experiences mediate their responses to these experiences. We define three theoretically driven factors that influence the authenticity perceptions of consumers—experience characteristics (restricted experience vs. not restricted experience; within close vs. distant geographical proximity to the genuine) and a consumer characteristic (salient goal: collecting experiences vs. having fun/pleasure), which influence consumers' responses to replica and genuine touristic experiences. We found support for the proposed theory using two field studies from Egypt's Luxor Tutankhamun tomb and three experimental studies.
Journal: Annals of Tourism Research
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Gülen Sarial Abi
From Passion to Compassion: A Caring Inquiry into Creative Work as Socially Engaged Art
Abstract: This article considers the analytical potential of a concept of care that foregrounds human interdependencies, relational ties and the needs of others as the basis for action in analysing work, such as creative work, which is neither directly nor obviously associated with care provision. Work in the creative industries has recently become a central concern in sociology. Much of this scholarship reproduces or extends the idea of creative work as a paradigm of individualized work in contemporary societies that is characterized by high levels of worker autonomy, passion, self-expression and self-enterprise. This article challenges such theorizations by calling attention to the role of caring in creative work, understood both as an ontological phenomenon and as a relational practice of sustaining and repairing the world. Drawing on a qualitative study of socially engaged art in South-East Europe, I argue that creative work manifests itself as a labour of care and compassion.
Abstract: This article considers the analytical potential of a concept of care that foregrounds human interdependencies, relational ties and the needs of others as the basis for action in analysing work, such as creative work, which is neither directly nor obviously associated with care provision. Work in the creative industries has recently become a central concern in sociology. Much of this scholarship reproduces or extends the idea of creative work as a paradigm of individualized work in contemporary societies that is characterized by high levels of worker autonomy, passion, self-expression and self-enterprise. This article challenges such theorizations by calling attention to the role of caring in creative work, understood both as an ontological phenomenon and as a relational practice of sustaining and repairing the world. Drawing on a qualitative study of socially engaged art in South-East Europe, I argue that creative work manifests itself as a labour of care and compassion.
Journal: Sociology
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Ana Alacovska
The Power of Emotional Value: Moderating Customer Orientation Effect in Professional Business Services Relationships
Abstract: Just recently, the literature has established the existence of a dark side with regard to customer orientation (CO) in terms of sales performance. However, no clear position is presented about the possible dark side of CO when it comes to B2B relational outcomes, preventing managers from knowing when to accentuate/suppress CO activities. The aim of this study is to examine the relational consequences of suppliers' CO seen through the customers' lenses, and to investigate the moderating role of perceived emotional value in a professional service relationship context. A conceptual model anchored in value and relationship marketing theories is tested on a sample of 226 professional service firms' business customers, using the PROCESS routine. The study finds that perceived CO is related to satisfaction with the relationship and with relationship performance in an inverted U-shaped form, while satisfaction is positively related to relationship performance. We show that, although preferring to receive CO from their supplier, customers might want a relationship that is not as intense/comprehensive as the one that the supplier aims to achieve. The study unfolds emotional value as a moderating mechanism that can prevent the diminishing effect of CO activities.
Abstract: Just recently, the literature has established the existence of a dark side with regard to customer orientation (CO) in terms of sales performance. However, no clear position is presented about the possible dark side of CO when it comes to B2B relational outcomes, preventing managers from knowing when to accentuate/suppress CO activities. The aim of this study is to examine the relational consequences of suppliers' CO seen through the customers' lenses, and to investigate the moderating role of perceived emotional value in a professional service relationship context. A conceptual model anchored in value and relationship marketing theories is tested on a sample of 226 professional service firms' business customers, using the PROCESS routine. The study finds that perceived CO is related to satisfaction with the relationship and with relationship performance in an inverted U-shaped form, while satisfaction is positively related to relationship performance. We show that, although preferring to receive CO from their supplier, customers might want a relationship that is not as intense/comprehensive as the one that the supplier aims to achieve. The study unfolds emotional value as a moderating mechanism that can prevent the diminishing effect of CO activities.
Journal: Industrial Marketing Management
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Selma Kadic-Maglajlic
Accomplishing Leadership-in-Interaction by Mobilizing Available Information and Communication Technology Objects in a Virtual Context
Abstract: Leadership-in-interaction is a somewhat underdeveloped area of research which to date has concentrated on talk-in-interaction to the detriment of other modalities. Consequently, this paper seeks to illustrate how social actors make use of different modalities to accomplish leadership, which we conceptualize as the creation of direction, alignment, and commitment. Through multimodal conversation analysis this paper explores interactions between actors in virtual contexts, a particularly interesting empirical setting as the context offers specific constraints on everyday workplace interaction. By zooming in on the interaction using transcripts of naturally occurring interaction, we find that the accomplishment of leadership, direction, alignment, and commitment, in a constrained virtual context can appear mundane. However, at the same time the accomplishment of leadership calls for the mobilization of several multimodal resources (both talk and information and communication technology objects). The analysis makes it evident that the actors mobilize objects to draw on their situated affordances, in the accomplishment of direction, alignment, and commitment. With a fine-grained analysis of naturally occurring data, we illustrate that leadership is a collective achievement. We also expand the understanding of leadership in practice, especially in virtual contexts, by demonstrating how actors utilize objects and verbal resources in the co-production of leadership.
Abstract: Leadership-in-interaction is a somewhat underdeveloped area of research which to date has concentrated on talk-in-interaction to the detriment of other modalities. Consequently, this paper seeks to illustrate how social actors make use of different modalities to accomplish leadership, which we conceptualize as the creation of direction, alignment, and commitment. Through multimodal conversation analysis this paper explores interactions between actors in virtual contexts, a particularly interesting empirical setting as the context offers specific constraints on everyday workplace interaction. By zooming in on the interaction using transcripts of naturally occurring interaction, we find that the accomplishment of leadership, direction, alignment, and commitment, in a constrained virtual context can appear mundane. However, at the same time the accomplishment of leadership calls for the mobilization of several multimodal resources (both talk and information and communication technology objects). The analysis makes it evident that the actors mobilize objects to draw on their situated affordances, in the accomplishment of direction, alignment, and commitment. With a fine-grained analysis of naturally occurring data, we illustrate that leadership is a collective achievement. We also expand the understanding of leadership in practice, especially in virtual contexts, by demonstrating how actors utilize objects and verbal resources in the co-production of leadership.
Journal: Leadership
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Lise D. Arvedsen
Digital Transformation and the New Logics of Business Process Management
Abstract: Business process management (BPM) research emphasises three important logics–modelling (process), infrastructural alignment (infrastructure) and procedural actor (agency) logics. These logics capture the dominant ways of thinking in BPM, reflected in its assumptions, practices and values. While the three logics have proven useful in prior contexts, we argue that the applicability of these underlying assumptions in theorising BPM needs to be re-examined in the context of digital transformation. Based on an ethnographic study of BPM in a company undergoing digital transformation, we uncover tensions related to applying these prior logics that point to the need to update the underlying assumptions. Consequently, we propose new logics that we conceptualise as light touch processes (process), infrastructural flexibility (infrastructure) and mindful actors (agency). Our observations contribute to a rethinking of the dominant BPM logics by unpacking their dynamics in the context of digital transformation. Our study further highlight salient differences between digital transformation and IT-enabled organisational transformation contexts. We conclude by proposing new managerial approaches for BPM in digital transformation contexts.
Abstract: Business process management (BPM) research emphasises three important logics–modelling (process), infrastructural alignment (infrastructure) and procedural actor (agency) logics. These logics capture the dominant ways of thinking in BPM, reflected in its assumptions, practices and values. While the three logics have proven useful in prior contexts, we argue that the applicability of these underlying assumptions in theorising BPM needs to be re-examined in the context of digital transformation. Based on an ethnographic study of BPM in a company undergoing digital transformation, we uncover tensions related to applying these prior logics that point to the need to update the underlying assumptions. Consequently, we propose new logics that we conceptualise as light touch processes (process), infrastructural flexibility (infrastructure) and mindful actors (agency). Our observations contribute to a rethinking of the dominant BPM logics by unpacking their dynamics in the context of digital transformation. Our study further highlight salient differences between digital transformation and IT-enabled organisational transformation contexts. We conclude by proposing new managerial approaches for BPM in digital transformation contexts.
Journal: European Journal of Information Systems
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Abayomi Baiyere
The Roles of the State in the Governance of Socio-technical Systems’ Transformation
Abstract: The transformative turn of innovation policy has resulted in calls for a more entrepreneurial and directional role of the state. However, the multiple roles that the state might play remains underexplored. This paper studies the embedded role of the state in four distinct modes of governance of socio-technical systems. Using a three-pillar analytical model, the paper examines four illustrative cases: cryptocurrencies, smart cities, automated vehicles, and nuclear power. The paper identifies 13 different roles of the state: observer, warner, mitigator, opportunist, facilitator, lead-user, enabler of societal engagement, gatekeeper, promoter, moderator, initiator, guarantor and watchdog. The conceptualization of these roles serves to understand that the transformative agency of the state is leveraged/constrained by the modes of governance, and that it is also ultimately exercised through specific mixes of roles.
Abstract: The transformative turn of innovation policy has resulted in calls for a more entrepreneurial and directional role of the state. However, the multiple roles that the state might play remains underexplored. This paper studies the embedded role of the state in four distinct modes of governance of socio-technical systems. Using a three-pillar analytical model, the paper examines four illustrative cases: cryptocurrencies, smart cities, automated vehicles, and nuclear power. The paper identifies 13 different roles of the state: observer, warner, mitigator, opportunist, facilitator, lead-user, enabler of societal engagement, gatekeeper, promoter, moderator, initiator, guarantor and watchdog. The conceptualization of these roles serves to understand that the transformative agency of the state is leveraged/constrained by the modes of governance, and that it is also ultimately exercised through specific mixes of roles.
Journal: Research Policy
Published: June 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Susana Borrás
Attraction and Attrition under Extreme Conditions– Integrating Insights on PSM, SOC-R, SOC and Excitement Motivation.
Abstract: This paper expands the frontier of PSM in relation to attraction/attrition, by integrating insights from PSM, SOC, SOC-R and EM. It identifies an extreme case, which offers a basis for qualitative, conceptual generalization. The paper generates three findings. Firstly, that PSM, SOC, SOC-R and EM co-exist and overlap. Second, that while personal needs as well as responsibility are important to attraction, if needs are not met attrition is difficult. However, also other-regarding forms of motivation can lead to derecruitment. Thirdly, it informs practitioners on the need to foster communities at work places where burn-out and de-recruitement is out-spoken.
Abstract: This paper expands the frontier of PSM in relation to attraction/attrition, by integrating insights from PSM, SOC, SOC-R and EM. It identifies an extreme case, which offers a basis for qualitative, conceptual generalization. The paper generates three findings. Firstly, that PSM, SOC, SOC-R and EM co-exist and overlap. Second, that while personal needs as well as responsibility are important to attraction, if needs are not met attrition is difficult. However, also other-regarding forms of motivation can lead to derecruitment. Thirdly, it informs practitioners on the need to foster communities at work places where burn-out and de-recruitement is out-spoken.
Journal: Public Management Review
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Benedikte Brincker
Punk Routine and Academic Discipline
Abstract: This is a personal account of being an anarchist punk rock kid in academia, a meditation on the entanglement of punk rock arts and activism with organisation studies. To illustrate this entanglement, I present some of my experiences with hardcore punk rock and anarchist organisation and trace how I believe this background in a radical counterculture formed and conditioned my work within organisation studies and how my academic training has influenced my activism as a punk musician. The article employs Donna Haraway’s concept of partial perspective to reflect on how I have not only learned to see and understand organisation through my lasting engagement with punk and anarchist culture outside the walls of academia, but also learned to see and use art as a medium for change. The article conceptualises punk’s fidelity to the otherwise, the ever-present conviction that life, society and, indeed, the world could be otherwise. In my experience, this fidelity has translated into an anarchist scientific knowledge interest, and when employed in the service of organisation studies, it has enabled me to see, think and study organisation from an anarchist position. To be true to the spirit and aesthetic sensibilities of punk, the article is written in an impatient, erratic and fragmented style.
Abstract: This is a personal account of being an anarchist punk rock kid in academia, a meditation on the entanglement of punk rock arts and activism with organisation studies. To illustrate this entanglement, I present some of my experiences with hardcore punk rock and anarchist organisation and trace how I believe this background in a radical counterculture formed and conditioned my work within organisation studies and how my academic training has influenced my activism as a punk musician. The article employs Donna Haraway’s concept of partial perspective to reflect on how I have not only learned to see and understand organisation through my lasting engagement with punk and anarchist culture outside the walls of academia, but also learned to see and use art as a medium for change. The article conceptualises punk’s fidelity to the otherwise, the ever-present conviction that life, society and, indeed, the world could be otherwise. In my experience, this fidelity has translated into an anarchist scientific knowledge interest, and when employed in the service of organisation studies, it has enabled me to see, think and study organisation from an anarchist position. To be true to the spirit and aesthetic sensibilities of punk, the article is written in an impatient, erratic and fragmented style.
Journal: Organization
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Thomas Burø
The Role of Pre-innovation Platform Activity for Diffusion Success: Evidence from Consumer Innovations on a 3D Printing Platform
Abstract: Digital platforms are becoming increasingly important for household sector innovators that seek support for the innovation process and that want to make innovations available to large audiences. Innovation development and diffusion is especially challenging for first-time innovators as they cannot build on experiences from prior innovations. We argue that first-time innovators can increase the diffusion success of their innovations by engaging in pre-innovation platform activities. We use the context of the 3D printing platform Thingiverse to show that a consumer's pre-innovation platform activity increases innovation diffusion success and that frequency, quality and relatedness of a consumer's pre-innovation platform activity promotes this effect. We find support that innovation quality, the use of recombinant innovations, and innovation documentation are three mechanisms through which pre-innovation platform activities translate into higher diffusion success of consumers’ first innovation.
Abstract: Digital platforms are becoming increasingly important for household sector innovators that seek support for the innovation process and that want to make innovations available to large audiences. Innovation development and diffusion is especially challenging for first-time innovators as they cannot build on experiences from prior innovations. We argue that first-time innovators can increase the diffusion success of their innovations by engaging in pre-innovation platform activities. We use the context of the 3D printing platform Thingiverse to show that a consumer's pre-innovation platform activity increases innovation diffusion success and that frequency, quality and relatedness of a consumer's pre-innovation platform activity promotes this effect. We find support that innovation quality, the use of recombinant innovations, and innovation documentation are three mechanisms through which pre-innovation platform activities translate into higher diffusion success of consumers’ first innovation.
Journal: Research Policy
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Jörg Claussen
The Fact of the Belly: A Collective Biography of Becoming Pregnant as a PhD Student in Academia
Abstract: Pending
Abstract: Pending
Journal: M@n@gement
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Sara Dahlman, Jannick Friis Christensen, Thomas Burø
The Co-location of Innovation and Production in Clusters
Abstract:This paper quantifies the extent of co-location of innovation and production for industry clusters with varying knowledge intensity. If input-output, knowledge, and skill linkages are interdependent and geographically bounded, then we would expect innovation and production to be co-located in regional clusters. However, theory predicts that the degree of agglomeration benefits associated with co-location may vary across economic activities with different knowledge intensity. Using data from the U.S. Cluster Mapping Project, I develop measures of the co-location of innovation and production for 27 industry clusters, examining patterns across regions and over time (1998–2015) in the United States. I find that there is a significant co-location of innovation and production for many clusters, especially for those with higher knowledge intensity. This paper focuses on the Information Technology and Analytical Instruments cluster and the Automotive cluster to illustrate the co-location measures and the micro-geography of innovation and production.
Abstract:This paper quantifies the extent of co-location of innovation and production for industry clusters with varying knowledge intensity. If input-output, knowledge, and skill linkages are interdependent and geographically bounded, then we would expect innovation and production to be co-located in regional clusters. However, theory predicts that the degree of agglomeration benefits associated with co-location may vary across economic activities with different knowledge intensity. Using data from the U.S. Cluster Mapping Project, I develop measures of the co-location of innovation and production for 27 industry clusters, examining patterns across regions and over time (1998–2015) in the United States. I find that there is a significant co-location of innovation and production for many clusters, especially for those with higher knowledge intensity. This paper focuses on the Information Technology and Analytical Instruments cluster and the Automotive cluster to illustrate the co-location measures and the micro-geography of innovation and production.
Journal: Industry and Innovation
Published: February 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Mercedes Delgado
Looking beyond Formal Organization: How Public Managers Organize Voluntary Work by Adapting to Deviance
Abstract: This article suggests a system‐theoretical re‐reading of formal membership and inclusion within three public organizations that operate under the umbrella of a single municipality and incorporate volunteers into their welfare activities. While volunteers are a treasured resource in public organizations, those organizations face challenges when seeking to address volunteers with their formal structures. This article explores these issues in a Danish municipality in three different organizational settings that use volunteers to support children, the elderly, and city planning. It adds to research on voluntary work by illustrating a set of strategies for organizing volunteers that are radically different from the more controlling strategies that have previously been studied. These alternative strategies include postponing decisions, leading by coincidences, informal organization, and tolerating disruptive behaviour. Based on these findings, this article suggests new forms of inclusion and organizational deviance that can both enhance the flexibility of the organizational system and risk destabilizing its structures.
Abstract: This article suggests a system‐theoretical re‐reading of formal membership and inclusion within three public organizations that operate under the umbrella of a single municipality and incorporate volunteers into their welfare activities. While volunteers are a treasured resource in public organizations, those organizations face challenges when seeking to address volunteers with their formal structures. This article explores these issues in a Danish municipality in three different organizational settings that use volunteers to support children, the elderly, and city planning. It adds to research on voluntary work by illustrating a set of strategies for organizing volunteers that are radically different from the more controlling strategies that have previously been studied. These alternative strategies include postponing decisions, leading by coincidences, informal organization, and tolerating disruptive behaviour. Based on these findings, this article suggests new forms of inclusion and organizational deviance that can both enhance the flexibility of the organizational system and risk destabilizing its structures.
Journal: Systems Research and Behavioral Science
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Ghita Dragsdahl Lauritzen
Disappearing ‘Formal Organization’: How Organization Studies Dissolved its ‘Core Object’, and What Follows From This
Abstract: This article addresses itself to accounting for how and why the situation has arisen whereby much, though by no means all, of what self-identifies as organizational analysis – whether in sociology or organization studies – isn’t actually organizational, and to exploring what follows from this. The article argues that the specificity of ‘organizational analysis’ – which requires its proponents to think (and, indeed, act) ‘organizationally’ – has been returned to the amorphous world of ‘social explanation’. The article therefore attempts to highlight the manner in which the tropes of social explanation deployed within contemporary sociology and organization studies reduce ‘formal organization’ to the status of a social container. In making this case, the article commends an alternative stance towards organization that precisely eschews ‘talking about organizations’ epiphenomenally. It does so by seeking to highlight key aspects of the practical disposition towards organization adopted by classic organization theories and other related approaches throughout the history of organization analysis. In approaching organizational matters in this way, it also attempts to upend the reflex accusation of naivety, rationalism and contemporary irrelevance directed towards the ‘historical artefacts’ of organizational theorizing from the present, and indeed to suggest how classical preoccupations can be applied to pressing matters of contemporary organizational concern without any need to ‘update’ them.
Abstract: This article addresses itself to accounting for how and why the situation has arisen whereby much, though by no means all, of what self-identifies as organizational analysis – whether in sociology or organization studies – isn’t actually organizational, and to exploring what follows from this. The article argues that the specificity of ‘organizational analysis’ – which requires its proponents to think (and, indeed, act) ‘organizationally’ – has been returned to the amorphous world of ‘social explanation’. The article therefore attempts to highlight the manner in which the tropes of social explanation deployed within contemporary sociology and organization studies reduce ‘formal organization’ to the status of a social container. In making this case, the article commends an alternative stance towards organization that precisely eschews ‘talking about organizations’ epiphenomenally. It does so by seeking to highlight key aspects of the practical disposition towards organization adopted by classic organization theories and other related approaches throughout the history of organization analysis. In approaching organizational matters in this way, it also attempts to upend the reflex accusation of naivety, rationalism and contemporary irrelevance directed towards the ‘historical artefacts’ of organizational theorizing from the present, and indeed to suggest how classical preoccupations can be applied to pressing matters of contemporary organizational concern without any need to ‘update’ them.
Journal: Current Sociology
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Paul du Gay
How to Perpetuate Problems of the Self: Applying Foucault’s Concept of Problematization to Popular Self-help Books on Work and Career.
Abstract: This article investigates how popular self-help books on work and career construct problems and solutions related to the subject and its working life. The investigation draws on Michel Foucault’s concept of ‘problematization’ along with concepts of governmentality and ethical self-government. The first part of the analysis shows how problems in self-help are generally articulated as different types of inadequacies, which must accordingly be amended through constant development towards a goal of self-realization, which can never be fully achieved. Accordingly, the subject is offered a subjectivation as an incomplete project, which is never quite good enough and always in need of improvement. The second part of the analysis shows how this general form of problematization plays out in relation to the paradoxical cultivation of autonomy in self-help books, in which the subject must follow instructions of an external authority, in the form of a self-help book, in order to achieve independence.
Abstract: This article investigates how popular self-help books on work and career construct problems and solutions related to the subject and its working life. The investigation draws on Michel Foucault’s concept of ‘problematization’ along with concepts of governmentality and ethical self-government. The first part of the analysis shows how problems in self-help are generally articulated as different types of inadequacies, which must accordingly be amended through constant development towards a goal of self-realization, which can never be fully achieved. Accordingly, the subject is offered a subjectivation as an incomplete project, which is never quite good enough and always in need of improvement. The second part of the analysis shows how this general form of problematization plays out in relation to the paradoxical cultivation of autonomy in self-help books, in which the subject must follow instructions of an external authority, in the form of a self-help book, in order to achieve independence.
Journal: Culture and Organization
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Erik Mygind du Plessis
Business-to-Business Marketing Research: Assessing Readability and Discussing Relevance to Practitioners.
Abstract: Business practitioners tend to show little interest in academic journals, raising concerns that research-based knowledge potentially relevant to their managerial practice might evade them. The literature suggests academic writing style as one of the major reasons for this lack of interest. Against this background, we quantitatively examine the readability of 150 business-to-business (B2B) marketing research articles published in five leading journals. Our analysis identifies certain variations across journals and categories of papers, implying that it is possible to improve readability. We discuss the possible role of improved readability in encouraging practitioners to read B2B marketing research, while potentially increasing its relevance.
Abstract: Business practitioners tend to show little interest in academic journals, raising concerns that research-based knowledge potentially relevant to their managerial practice might evade them. The literature suggests academic writing style as one of the major reasons for this lack of interest. Against this background, we quantitatively examine the readability of 150 business-to-business (B2B) marketing research articles published in five leading journals. Our analysis identifies certain variations across journals and categories of papers, implying that it is possible to improve readability. We discuss the possible role of improved readability in encouraging practitioners to read B2B marketing research, while potentially increasing its relevance.
Journal: Industrial Marketing Management
Published: February 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Stefan Markovic
Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Algorithmic Management: A Virtue Ethics Approach to People Analytics
Abstract: The increasing use of People Analytics to manage people in organizations ushers in an era of algorithmic management. People analytics are said to allow decision-makers to make evidence-based, bias-free, and objective decisions, and expand workers' opportunities for personal and professional growth. Drawing on a virtue ethics approach, we argue that the use of people analytics in organizations can create a vicious cycle of ethical challenges - algorithmic opacity, datafication, and nudging - which limit people's ability to cultivate their virtue and flourish. We propose that organizations can mitigate these challenges and help workers develop their virtue by reframing people analytics as a fallible companion technology, introducing new organizational roles and practices, and adopting alternative technology design principles. We discuss the implications of this approach for organizations and for the design of people analytics, and propose directions for future research.
Abstract: The increasing use of People Analytics to manage people in organizations ushers in an era of algorithmic management. People analytics are said to allow decision-makers to make evidence-based, bias-free, and objective decisions, and expand workers' opportunities for personal and professional growth. Drawing on a virtue ethics approach, we argue that the use of people analytics in organizations can create a vicious cycle of ethical challenges - algorithmic opacity, datafication, and nudging - which limit people's ability to cultivate their virtue and flourish. We propose that organizations can mitigate these challenges and help workers develop their virtue by reframing people analytics as a fallible companion technology, introducing new organizational roles and practices, and adopting alternative technology design principles. We discuss the implications of this approach for organizations and for the design of people analytics, and propose directions for future research.
Journal: Information and Organization
Published: June 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Tina Blegind Jensen, Mari-Klara Stein
Investment Shocks and Inequality Dynamics
Abstract: We explore the dynamics of income and income inequality under asymmetric information in credit markets. Within a stochastic overlapping-generations framework, we study the investment decision of entrepreneurs with heterogeneous abilities. Under information asymmetry, banks do not observe entrepreneurial ability and offer a single pooled loan contract to all entrepreneurs. We show that, following a negative investment shock, the average quality of the entrepreneur pool improves and banks optimally react by lowering the pooled borrowing rate. This reduction in the borrowing rate mitigates the drop in entrepreneurs' income. Consequently, after a negative investment shock, income inequality decreases less compared to the case of full information. Our findings therefore suggest that information asymmetry lessens the fluctuations in income inequality.
Abstract: We explore the dynamics of income and income inequality under asymmetric information in credit markets. Within a stochastic overlapping-generations framework, we study the investment decision of entrepreneurs with heterogeneous abilities. Under information asymmetry, banks do not observe entrepreneurial ability and offer a single pooled loan contract to all entrepreneurs. We show that, following a negative investment shock, the average quality of the entrepreneur pool improves and banks optimally react by lowering the pooled borrowing rate. This reduction in the borrowing rate mitigates the drop in entrepreneurs' income. Consequently, after a negative investment shock, income inequality decreases less compared to the case of full information. Our findings therefore suggest that information asymmetry lessens the fluctuations in income inequality.
Journal: Economic Modelling
Published: February 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Annaig Morin
The Damage Done by Big Data-Driven Public Relations
Abstract: Over the last two decades it has been argued that public relations contributes to hegemony by corporate organizations over stakeholder groups who have less power and resources. In its original formulation, the concept of hegemony had two defining features: firstly, it was conceived of as a society-wide, macroscopic formation and second as self-reinforcing i.e. self-replicating. This article argues that the rise of big-data in public relations is a hegemonic development that further re-enforces the current institutional logics and power in the three main spheres of society: corporate, governance and civic. Using the economic notion of externalities, the authors argue that loss of agency over personal data is the unpriced, unrecognized externality that drives the big-data market. This externality is dependent on those who are the losers of agency not having the requisite information, power or resources to negotiate alternatives that might re-dress the balance. As users and proponents of the use of big data, the public relations profession has a number of key questions to answer if it is not to re-inforce arguments that it is a hegemonizing force in organizations and society. Normal economic remedies to address externalities are not adequate to a case that is both ethical as well as economic in nature. The article therefore concludes with five arguments that the public relations profession should debate to provide leadership within organisations and society.
Abstract: Over the last two decades it has been argued that public relations contributes to hegemony by corporate organizations over stakeholder groups who have less power and resources. In its original formulation, the concept of hegemony had two defining features: firstly, it was conceived of as a society-wide, macroscopic formation and second as self-reinforcing i.e. self-replicating. This article argues that the rise of big-data in public relations is a hegemonic development that further re-enforces the current institutional logics and power in the three main spheres of society: corporate, governance and civic. Using the economic notion of externalities, the authors argue that loss of agency over personal data is the unpriced, unrecognized externality that drives the big-data market. This externality is dependent on those who are the losers of agency not having the requisite information, power or resources to negotiate alternatives that might re-dress the balance. As users and proponents of the use of big data, the public relations profession has a number of key questions to answer if it is not to re-inforce arguments that it is a hegemonizing force in organizations and society. Normal economic remedies to address externalities are not adequate to a case that is both ethical as well as economic in nature. The article therefore concludes with five arguments that the public relations profession should debate to provide leadership within organisations and society.
Journal: Public Relations Review
Published: June 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Gregor Halff
The Decomposition of Innovation in Europe and China’s Catch-Up in Wind Power Technology: The Role of KIBS.
Abstract: Innovation is increasingly decentralized, traded and transferred internationally. Specialized suppliers of knowledge-intensive business services have emerged, enhancing the international transfer of knowledge and technology. This has important implications for the global geography of technological and innovative capabilities. This paper focuses on the role of European KIBS providers for the catch-up process in the Chinese wind turbine industry. Drawing on in-depth studies of three central technology domains in wind turbine research and development, it shows how the recent catch-up in the Chinese wind turbine industry was closely connected to organizational changes taking place in the incumbent wind turbine lead markets in Europe. The paper suggests that access to knowledge through KIBS can unlock rapid but bounded latecomer development in emerging markets.
Abstract: Innovation is increasingly decentralized, traded and transferred internationally. Specialized suppliers of knowledge-intensive business services have emerged, enhancing the international transfer of knowledge and technology. This has important implications for the global geography of technological and innovative capabilities. This paper focuses on the role of European KIBS providers for the catch-up process in the Chinese wind turbine industry. Drawing on in-depth studies of three central technology domains in wind turbine research and development, it shows how the recent catch-up in the Chinese wind turbine industry was closely connected to organizational changes taking place in the incumbent wind turbine lead markets in Europe. The paper suggests that access to knowledge through KIBS can unlock rapid but bounded latecomer development in emerging markets.
Journal: European Planning Studies
Published: January 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Stine Haakonsson
Information Leaks before CEO Change: Financial Gain and Ethical Cost.
Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there are information leaks immediately before CEOs change and – if so – whether some investors take financial advantage of such prior knowledge. It thirdly investigates the ethical, practical and professional options for communication managers to deal with such situations.
Design/methodology/approach: Working from sentiment theory of financial markets, the authors studied Internet search patterns for incoming CEO names and stock market movements immediately prior to the public mention or speculation of CEO change.
Findings: The authors find that in nearly a quarter of CEO changes at Fortune 500 companies, the name of the future CEO seems to have been leaked. Additionally, nearly half of those companies also experience extreme, otherwise unexplainable movements in the stock market.
Originality/value: This paper discovers the prevalence of extreme stock market movements for a company when the name of that company's next CEO has likely been leaked. Such leaks are an opportunity for unscrupulous investors, but they create ethical dilemmas for organizations. Communication managers typically respond by organizing tighter governance. However, to keep up with the speed of information and investments traveling through algorithms, organizing radical transparency could become an alternative instead.
Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there are information leaks immediately before CEOs change and – if so – whether some investors take financial advantage of such prior knowledge. It thirdly investigates the ethical, practical and professional options for communication managers to deal with such situations.
Design/methodology/approach: Working from sentiment theory of financial markets, the authors studied Internet search patterns for incoming CEO names and stock market movements immediately prior to the public mention or speculation of CEO change.
Findings: The authors find that in nearly a quarter of CEO changes at Fortune 500 companies, the name of the future CEO seems to have been leaked. Additionally, nearly half of those companies also experience extreme, otherwise unexplainable movements in the stock market.
Originality/value: This paper discovers the prevalence of extreme stock market movements for a company when the name of that company's next CEO has likely been leaked. Such leaks are an opportunity for unscrupulous investors, but they create ethical dilemmas for organizations. Communication managers typically respond by organizing tighter governance. However, to keep up with the speed of information and investments traveling through algorithms, organizing radical transparency could become an alternative instead.
Journal: Journal of Communication Management
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Gregor Halff
Material Temporality: How Materiality ‘Does’ Time in Food Organizing
Abstract: The organic and hence perishable nature of food makes it particularly useful for understanding how the temporal dimension of materiality influences organizing and innovation. We present, as our main theoretical contribution, the concept of ‘material temporality’ to account for the transformation of materials in time and their imagined states at different moments across time, which we label processual and epochal temporality, respectively. Our empirical study shows how two organizations in the beer and dairy industries searched for novel solutions in their past and future. We show how the organizations’ potential for more consequential innovation was greater when they engaged distant past or future epochal temporalities. However, distant epochal temporality may also become uncertain and contested through the lens of ongoing processual temporality. We discuss the implications of material temporality for industries other than food and for organizing in relation to the natural environment.
Abstract: The organic and hence perishable nature of food makes it particularly useful for understanding how the temporal dimension of materiality influences organizing and innovation. We present, as our main theoretical contribution, the concept of ‘material temporality’ to account for the transformation of materials in time and their imagined states at different moments across time, which we label processual and epochal temporality, respectively. Our empirical study shows how two organizations in the beer and dairy industries searched for novel solutions in their past and future. We show how the organizations’ potential for more consequential innovation was greater when they engaged distant past or future epochal temporalities. However, distant epochal temporality may also become uncertain and contested through the lens of ongoing processual temporality. We discuss the implications of material temporality for industries other than food and for organizing in relation to the natural environment.
Journal: Organization Studies
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Tor Hernes, Jonathan Feddersen, Majken Schultz
Translating the Distant into the Present: How Address Distant Past and Future Events through Situated Activity.
Abstract: Situated views demonstrate how ongoing activity is both framed by temporal structures and serves to reproduce those same structures. Yet, recent research on temporality shows that addressing distant events enables actors to reflect on and eventually transform the temporal structures that frame their ongoing activity. We develop a theoretical framework of how actors address distant events through situated activity in organizations in three steps. First, we discuss the notion of situated temporality to describe how actors go beyond, and potentially transform, the temporal structures within which they operate as they address distant events through situated activity. Second, we introduce the concepts of singular and exemplary events to show how distant pasts and futures comprise different combinations of events. Third, we discuss how certain areas of organization studies that advocate a situated view, notably practices, routines and materiality, may benefit from a situated temporal view. At the paper’s conclusion we suggest the concept of ‘temporal translation’ to describe the process of how actors may combine different temporalities through situated activity.
Abstract: Situated views demonstrate how ongoing activity is both framed by temporal structures and serves to reproduce those same structures. Yet, recent research on temporality shows that addressing distant events enables actors to reflect on and eventually transform the temporal structures that frame their ongoing activity. We develop a theoretical framework of how actors address distant events through situated activity in organizations in three steps. First, we discuss the notion of situated temporality to describe how actors go beyond, and potentially transform, the temporal structures within which they operate as they address distant events through situated activity. Second, we introduce the concepts of singular and exemplary events to show how distant pasts and futures comprise different combinations of events. Third, we discuss how certain areas of organization studies that advocate a situated view, notably practices, routines and materiality, may benefit from a situated temporal view. At the paper’s conclusion we suggest the concept of ‘temporal translation’ to describe the process of how actors may combine different temporalities through situated activity.
Journal: Organization Theory
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Tor Hernes, Majken Schultz
How to Deal with the Human Factor in Supply Chain Management?
Abstract: Pending
Abstract: Pending
Journal: International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Andreas Wieland
Mapping the Supply Chain of Ship Recycling
Abstract: Ship recycling refers to the process of dismantling vessels with the purpose of extracting and recovering materials for reuse, particularly the steel. The aim of this paper is to map the supply chain of ship recycling. This exploratory and qualitative research provides a glimpse on how regulations influence the supply chain management through inter-organizational arrangements. It considers the trade-offs and combinations of financial and sustainable values that, in many ways, determine these inter-organizational arrangements. Preliminary findings show that there are conflicts of interest with the ship recycling stakeholders. Although compliance of regulations should foster better transparency in the supply chain, these regulations have not yet fully embraced social aspects, such as the fact that domestic demand and supply for steel, as well as many jobs, are dependent on this industry. On the contrary, the initiatives to regulate ship recycling might induce negative effects. This paper suggests that transaction costs analysis and the principal agency theory are two complementary theories for analyzing inter-organizational relationships in the supply chain of ship recycling.
Abstract: Ship recycling refers to the process of dismantling vessels with the purpose of extracting and recovering materials for reuse, particularly the steel. The aim of this paper is to map the supply chain of ship recycling. This exploratory and qualitative research provides a glimpse on how regulations influence the supply chain management through inter-organizational arrangements. It considers the trade-offs and combinations of financial and sustainable values that, in many ways, determine these inter-organizational arrangements. Preliminary findings show that there are conflicts of interest with the ship recycling stakeholders. Although compliance of regulations should foster better transparency in the supply chain, these regulations have not yet fully embraced social aspects, such as the fact that domestic demand and supply for steel, as well as many jobs, are dependent on this industry. On the contrary, the initiatives to regulate ship recycling might induce negative effects. This paper suggests that transaction costs analysis and the principal agency theory are two complementary theories for analyzing inter-organizational relationships in the supply chain of ship recycling.
Journal: Marine Policy
Published: August 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Juliana Hsuan, Cristiana Parisi
Post M&A Innovation in Family Firms
Abstract: Purpose The paper empirically investigates how family firms appropriate acquired resources to become more innovative in the context of merger waves. It draws on resource-based view and the theory of first mover (dis)advantages to examine the implications of the timing of acquisitions on innovation in family firms.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a panel data set of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 manufacturing firms followed over a period of 31 years. Findings The study finds empirical support for the predictions that family firms are more able to utilize acquired resources better than nonfamily firms. Furthermore, targets acquired during the upswing of a merger wave are more valuable to family firms and associated with more innovation than for nonfamily firms.Originality/valueThe paper establishes that resources acquired during the upswing of a merger wave are more valuable, provide better resource synergies and impact innovation positively in family firms than nonfamily firms. Second, the paper makes an empirical contribution that family firms absorb external resources markedly differently and more efficiently than nonfamily firms. Third, the paper enhances a better understanding of the influence of family ownership on the relationship between acquisitions and innovation outputs.
Abstract: Purpose The paper empirically investigates how family firms appropriate acquired resources to become more innovative in the context of merger waves. It draws on resource-based view and the theory of first mover (dis)advantages to examine the implications of the timing of acquisitions on innovation in family firms.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a panel data set of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 manufacturing firms followed over a period of 31 years. Findings The study finds empirical support for the predictions that family firms are more able to utilize acquired resources better than nonfamily firms. Furthermore, targets acquired during the upswing of a merger wave are more valuable to family firms and associated with more innovation than for nonfamily firms.Originality/valueThe paper establishes that resources acquired during the upswing of a merger wave are more valuable, provide better resource synergies and impact innovation positively in family firms than nonfamily firms. Second, the paper makes an empirical contribution that family firms absorb external resources markedly differently and more efficiently than nonfamily firms. Third, the paper enhances a better understanding of the influence of family ownership on the relationship between acquisitions and innovation outputs.
Journal: European Journal of Innovation Management
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Abdul Basit Issah
Ownership Strategy: A Governance Mechanism for Collective Action and Responsible Ownership.
Abstract: A new strand of corporate governance literature on ownership is developing the next generation of the concept of active ownership: responsible ownership. This paper aims to contribute to this strand of literature by addressing an inchoate element of responsible ownership: collective action by owners. We introduce an ownership strategy as a governance mechanism for collective action and responsible ownership and ask how an ownership strategy improves corporate governance. Using data from semistructured interviews with owner representatives, board members, and non-executive insiders, together with observation and documentary analysis, we find support for the theoretical construction and an answer to the research question. Specifically, we find that the ownership strategy functions as a collaboration pact, which cultivates long-termism, and that the outcome is improved agency, i.e. that both the relationship between owners and directors and between directors and management is improved due to better alignment. The findings indicate that an ownership strategy establishes a much-needed long-term focus and commitment of owners while creating a sense of security and understanding among the members of the board of directors, i.e. that they are working with the will of their owners. As such, it suggests new avenues of research for corporate governance literature.
Abstract: A new strand of corporate governance literature on ownership is developing the next generation of the concept of active ownership: responsible ownership. This paper aims to contribute to this strand of literature by addressing an inchoate element of responsible ownership: collective action by owners. We introduce an ownership strategy as a governance mechanism for collective action and responsible ownership and ask how an ownership strategy improves corporate governance. Using data from semistructured interviews with owner representatives, board members, and non-executive insiders, together with observation and documentary analysis, we find support for the theoretical construction and an answer to the research question. Specifically, we find that the ownership strategy functions as a collaboration pact, which cultivates long-termism, and that the outcome is improved agency, i.e. that both the relationship between owners and directors and between directors and management is improved due to better alignment. The findings indicate that an ownership strategy establishes a much-needed long-term focus and commitment of owners while creating a sense of security and understanding among the members of the board of directors, i.e. that they are working with the will of their owners. As such, it suggests new avenues of research for corporate governance literature.
Journal: Corporate Ownership and Control
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Thomas Poulsen
The Power of Green Defaults: The Impact of Regional Variation of Opt-out Tariffs on Green Energy Demand in Germany
Abstract: The present paper focuses on green defaults as demand-side policies supporting the uptake of renewable energy in Germany. It sets out to gain a better understanding of whether and for whom green electricity defaults work. The present study is one of the first to use a large-scale data set to investigate this question. We combine micro-level data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) covering private households (including a wealth of individual information) with macro-level information such as population density of a region and proportion of energy suppliers in a given region that use a green opt-out tariff within their basic supply. We show that in Germany, green defaults, automatically enrolling customers in renewable energy sources, tend to stick, especially but not only among those who are concerned about the problem of climate change. This finding, based on real-world rather than experimental evidence, attests to the power of automatic enrollment in addressing environmental problems in Germany and potentially beyond, including climate change, and also adds to the growing literature on the substantial effects of shifting from opt-in to opt-out strategies.
Abstract: The present paper focuses on green defaults as demand-side policies supporting the uptake of renewable energy in Germany. It sets out to gain a better understanding of whether and for whom green electricity defaults work. The present study is one of the first to use a large-scale data set to investigate this question. We combine micro-level data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) covering private households (including a wealth of individual information) with macro-level information such as population density of a region and proportion of energy suppliers in a given region that use a green opt-out tariff within their basic supply. We show that in Germany, green defaults, automatically enrolling customers in renewable energy sources, tend to stick, especially but not only among those who are concerned about the problem of climate change. This finding, based on real-world rather than experimental evidence, attests to the power of automatic enrollment in addressing environmental problems in Germany and potentially beyond, including climate change, and also adds to the growing literature on the substantial effects of shifting from opt-in to opt-out strategies.
Journal: Ecological Economics
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Micha Kaiser, Lucia A. Reisch
Risk Perceptions and Safety Cultures in the Handling of Nanomaterials in Academia and Industry
Abstract: Objectives: Work and research with nanomaterials (NMs) has primarily focused on innovation, toxicity, governance, safety management tools, and public perceptions. The aim of this study was to identify academia and industry occupational safety and health (OSH) managers’ perceptions and handling of NMs, in relation to safety culture.
Methods: Semistructured interviews were carried out with OSH managers at six academic institutions and six industrial companies. The interview statements were coded into five topics regarding NMs: risk comprehension, information gathering, actions, communication, and compliance. The statements were then coded according to a five-step safety culture maturity model reflecting increasing occupational safety maturity from passive, to reactive, active, proactive, and exemplary occupational safety.
Results: The safety culture maturity of the academic institutions were primarily active and proactive, whereas the industry group were primarily active and reactive. None of the statements were rated as exemplary, with the majority reflecting an active safety culture. The topics varied from a passive approach of having no focus on NMs and regarding risks as a part of the job, to applying proactive measures in the design, production, application, and waste management phases. Communication and introduction to OSH issues regarding NMs as well as compliance provided challenges in both academia and industry, given the increasing cultural and linguistic diversity of students/staff and employees. Workplace leaders played a crucial role in establishing a legitimate approach to working safely with NMs, however, the currently available OSH information for NMs were described as insufficient, impractical, and inaccessible. There was an embedded problem in solely relying on safety data sheets, which were often not nanospecific, as this may have led to underprotection.
Conclusions: There is a need for more structured, up-to-date, easily accessible, and user-friendly tools and information regarding toxicity and threshold limit values, relevant OSH promotion information, legislation, and other rules. The study underscores the need for politicians and engineers to collaborate with communication experts and both natural and social scientists in effectively framing information on NMs. Such a collaboration should allow for flexible deployment of multilevel and integrated safety culture initiatives to support sustainable nanotechnology and operational excellence.
Abstract: Objectives: Work and research with nanomaterials (NMs) has primarily focused on innovation, toxicity, governance, safety management tools, and public perceptions. The aim of this study was to identify academia and industry occupational safety and health (OSH) managers’ perceptions and handling of NMs, in relation to safety culture.
Methods: Semistructured interviews were carried out with OSH managers at six academic institutions and six industrial companies. The interview statements were coded into five topics regarding NMs: risk comprehension, information gathering, actions, communication, and compliance. The statements were then coded according to a five-step safety culture maturity model reflecting increasing occupational safety maturity from passive, to reactive, active, proactive, and exemplary occupational safety.
Results: The safety culture maturity of the academic institutions were primarily active and proactive, whereas the industry group were primarily active and reactive. None of the statements were rated as exemplary, with the majority reflecting an active safety culture. The topics varied from a passive approach of having no focus on NMs and regarding risks as a part of the job, to applying proactive measures in the design, production, application, and waste management phases. Communication and introduction to OSH issues regarding NMs as well as compliance provided challenges in both academia and industry, given the increasing cultural and linguistic diversity of students/staff and employees. Workplace leaders played a crucial role in establishing a legitimate approach to working safely with NMs, however, the currently available OSH information for NMs were described as insufficient, impractical, and inaccessible. There was an embedded problem in solely relying on safety data sheets, which were often not nanospecific, as this may have led to underprotection.
Conclusions: There is a need for more structured, up-to-date, easily accessible, and user-friendly tools and information regarding toxicity and threshold limit values, relevant OSH promotion information, legislation, and other rules. The study underscores the need for politicians and engineers to collaborate with communication experts and both natural and social scientists in effectively framing information on NMs. Such a collaboration should allow for flexible deployment of multilevel and integrated safety culture initiatives to support sustainable nanotechnology and operational excellence.
Journal: Annals of Work Exposures and Health
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Katharina Christiane Jeschke
Embodied Cognition Effects on Tourist Behavior
Abstract: Pending
Abstract: Pending
Journal: Annals of Tourism Research
Published: September 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Florian Kock, Torsten Ringberg
Scale Development in Tourism Research: Advocating for a New Paradigm.
Abstract: The authors advocate for a new paradigm in scale development practices to increase the impact of tourism research.
Abstract: The authors advocate for a new paradigm in scale development practices to increase the impact of tourism research.
Journal: Journal of Travel Research
Published: September 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Alexander Josiassen, Florian Kock
Two Advantages of the Negligence Rule over Strict Liability when the Parties are Risk Averse
Abstract: When parties are risk-averse and therefore take out insurance, the efficiency of a tort rule depends on how well the insurance contracts govern incentives, risk allocation and transaction costs under the rule. This article presents two overlooked or discarded advantages of the rule of negligence over strict liability, which appear when insurance contracts are incomplete due to ex-ante transaction or ex-post verification costs. One advantage arises because of a legal impediment under strict liability: Insurers cannot exempt coverage for all acts of simple negligence. Instead, the insurer must, at a cost, precisely specify each act for which coverage is excluded. Such specification can be prohibitively costly when there are many acts and many contingencies. These transaction costs, or the inefficient risk allocation associated with a deductible, are avoided under the negligence rule, where under idealized conditions the injurer can simply take due care and need not take out insurance. The other advantage of the negligence rule is that it provides incentives for the victim to bring forward information about the injurer's acts. The victim has little incentive to convey such information under strict liability, whereas the victim's insurer may elicit it, e. g. by not covering the victim's loss fully.
Abstract: When parties are risk-averse and therefore take out insurance, the efficiency of a tort rule depends on how well the insurance contracts govern incentives, risk allocation and transaction costs under the rule. This article presents two overlooked or discarded advantages of the rule of negligence over strict liability, which appear when insurance contracts are incomplete due to ex-ante transaction or ex-post verification costs. One advantage arises because of a legal impediment under strict liability: Insurers cannot exempt coverage for all acts of simple negligence. Instead, the insurer must, at a cost, precisely specify each act for which coverage is excluded. Such specification can be prohibitively costly when there are many acts and many contingencies. These transaction costs, or the inefficient risk allocation associated with a deductible, are avoided under the negligence rule, where under idealized conditions the injurer can simply take due care and need not take out insurance. The other advantage of the negligence rule is that it provides incentives for the victim to bring forward information about the injurer's acts. The victim has little incentive to convey such information under strict liability, whereas the victim's insurer may elicit it, e. g. by not covering the victim's loss fully.
Journal: Review of Law and Economics
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Henrik Lando
The Extended Warming Effect of Social Media: Examining Whether the Cognition of Online Audiences Offline Drives Prosocial Behavior in ‘Real Life’.
Abstract: Online audiences (e.g. Facebook friends, Instagram followers) shape users' self-presentation online, but little is known about whether or not they impact users' actions in ‘reality’, so offline, when they are not engaged directly with a site interface. To bridge this gap, we provide the first investigation of the ‘extended warming effect’ of social media, a special form of a phenomenon in which saliency (cognition) of online audiences in offline encounters triggers impression management behavior in the pursuit of a more desirable online public image. Across two controlled experiments in the context of charity fundraising, we support the existence of the extended warming effect. We find that as online audiences become more salient, people show greater intentions of engaging in prosocial behavior offline (e.g. enhanced likelihood of making a donation). This effect is mediated by higher public self-awareness and extrinsic motivations. In addition, we find that the extended warming effect is amplified for more intense social media users. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.
Abstract: Online audiences (e.g. Facebook friends, Instagram followers) shape users' self-presentation online, but little is known about whether or not they impact users' actions in ‘reality’, so offline, when they are not engaged directly with a site interface. To bridge this gap, we provide the first investigation of the ‘extended warming effect’ of social media, a special form of a phenomenon in which saliency (cognition) of online audiences in offline encounters triggers impression management behavior in the pursuit of a more desirable online public image. Across two controlled experiments in the context of charity fundraising, we support the existence of the extended warming effect. We find that as online audiences become more salient, people show greater intentions of engaging in prosocial behavior offline (e.g. enhanced likelihood of making a donation). This effect is mediated by higher public self-awareness and extrinsic motivations. In addition, we find that the extended warming effect is amplified for more intense social media users. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.
Journal: Computers in Human Behavior
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Antonia Erz
Constructing Personas: How High-Net-Worth Social Media Influencers Reconcile Ethicality and Living a Luxury Lifestyle.
Abstract: Drawing from a multi-sourced data corpus (in-depth interviews and Instagram posts) gathered from high-net-worth (HNW) social media influencers, this article explores how these individuals reconcile ethicality and living a luxury lifestyle through the enactment of three types of personas on Instagram: (1) Ambassador of ‘True’ Luxury, (2) Altruist, and (3) ‘Good’ Role Model. By applying the concepts of taste regimes and social moral licensing, we find that HNW social media influencers conspicuously enact and display ethicality, thereby retaining legitimacy in the field of luxury consumption. As these individuals are highly influential, they could leave a potentially significant mark on public discourse and, consequently, on their audiences’ construction of ethically responsible luxury consumption. In this vein, this article offers significant managerial insights into professional influencers and discusses ethical managerial practices to ensure ethical collaborations between influencers and managers.
Abstract: Drawing from a multi-sourced data corpus (in-depth interviews and Instagram posts) gathered from high-net-worth (HNW) social media influencers, this article explores how these individuals reconcile ethicality and living a luxury lifestyle through the enactment of three types of personas on Instagram: (1) Ambassador of ‘True’ Luxury, (2) Altruist, and (3) ‘Good’ Role Model. By applying the concepts of taste regimes and social moral licensing, we find that HNW social media influencers conspicuously enact and display ethicality, thereby retaining legitimacy in the field of luxury consumption. As these individuals are highly influential, they could leave a potentially significant mark on public discourse and, consequently, on their audiences’ construction of ethically responsible luxury consumption. In this vein, this article offers significant managerial insights into professional influencers and discusses ethical managerial practices to ensure ethical collaborations between influencers and managers.
Journal: Journal of Business Ethics
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Thyra Uth Thomsen, Sylvia von Wallpach
Comprehending Customer Satisfaction with Hotels: Data Analysis of Consumer-generated Reviews
Abstract: Purpose: Building on the three-factor theory, this study aims to unravel how the role of hotel attributes such as basic, excitement and performance factors could differ in accordance with different hotel star ratings and distinct customer segments.
Design/methodology/approach: This study explores the asymmetric effects of hotel attributes on customer satisfaction by extracting 412,784 consumer-generated reviews from TripAdvisor across different cities in China.
Findings: By taking into account the origins of customers and hotel star ratings, the study uncovers that guests’ expectations of hotel performance differ with respect to their origins (domestic and international guests) and the star ratings of the hotels being reviewed, thereby moderating the asymmetric impact of hotel attributes on customer satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications: The study compares and contrasts the determinants of customer satisfaction for domestic and international guests in the context of Chinese hotels. Care should still be exercised when generalizing the insights gleaned from this study to other contexts.
Practical implications: The findings from this study translate into actionable guidelines for hotel operators to make informed decisions regarding service improvement.
Originality/value: The study extends previous work by offering a deeper understanding of the asymmetric impact of hotel attributes on customer satisfaction. Specifically, this study provides a deep understanding of the different hotel attributes such as basic, performance and excitement factors in explaining customer satisfaction among different hotel customer segments. Findings from this study can not only inform hotel operators on the significance of various hotel attributes in determining customer satisfaction but also guide the formulation of business strategies to retain customers by inducing delight and not frustration.
Abstract: Purpose: Building on the three-factor theory, this study aims to unravel how the role of hotel attributes such as basic, excitement and performance factors could differ in accordance with different hotel star ratings and distinct customer segments.
Design/methodology/approach: This study explores the asymmetric effects of hotel attributes on customer satisfaction by extracting 412,784 consumer-generated reviews from TripAdvisor across different cities in China.
Findings: By taking into account the origins of customers and hotel star ratings, the study uncovers that guests’ expectations of hotel performance differ with respect to their origins (domestic and international guests) and the star ratings of the hotels being reviewed, thereby moderating the asymmetric impact of hotel attributes on customer satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications: The study compares and contrasts the determinants of customer satisfaction for domestic and international guests in the context of Chinese hotels. Care should still be exercised when generalizing the insights gleaned from this study to other contexts.
Practical implications: The findings from this study translate into actionable guidelines for hotel operators to make informed decisions regarding service improvement.
Originality/value: The study extends previous work by offering a deeper understanding of the asymmetric impact of hotel attributes on customer satisfaction. Specifically, this study provides a deep understanding of the different hotel attributes such as basic, performance and excitement factors in explaining customer satisfaction among different hotel customer segments. Findings from this study can not only inform hotel operators on the significance of various hotel attributes in determining customer satisfaction but also guide the formulation of business strategies to retain customers by inducing delight and not frustration.
Journal: International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Chee-Wee Tan
Initial Findings on How Individual Taxpayers May Indirectly Influence Tax and Spend in Sweden, Germany and the United States
Abstract: Ongoing globalization and increased taxpayer mobility not only exacerbate the current in adequacies when allocating taxing rights but also intensify already existing tax competition between states as individual states have begun to use formal citizenship as a tax incentive when attracting high-income earners, highly skilled workers and high-net value individuals. (A. Christians, Buying in: Residence and Citizenship by Investment, 62 St. Louis U. L.J. 51 (2017)). This new tax incentive challenges the traditional perception of formal citizenship as the basis for bestowing political rights and benefits as it may beargued that this practise erodes its value and meaning in addition to emphasizing the differentiation between individuals regarding their state of origin (particularly noticeable when considering EU citizens compared to non-EU citizens) and economic status. At the present time, mobile individuals may, as a result of disparities between tax allocations, formal citizenship and voting privileges, contribute financially to a state yet not be afforded the opportunity to exercise influence over their tax situation due to the lack of formal citizenship and voting privileges in said state. The group who may influence taxation and public spending (tax and spend) through voting, therefore, is not always the same as those who pay taxes. This issue is naturally complex as the group of individuals excluded from such political influence is a highly diverse one encompassing high-net individuals to stateless persons seeking asylum who are subject to individual circumstances and needs. This article separates itself from previous research within the tax scholarship as it does not focus on tax nexus nor on the right to participate in democratic influencing but rather on how individuals may influence tax and spend themselves with methods other than traditional voting. Otherwise stated, would it be possible for individuals who contribute to a state financially yet have no possibilities to exercise influence over tax and spend through voting due to the lack of formal citizenship be able to influence in a different manner? Tax rules and constitutional safeguards offering taxpayer protection gathered from Sweden, Germany and the United States are introduced in order to describe and analyse to what extent a taxpayer may exercise such influence. The article concludes that affluent individuals often have greater access to such legal instruments, and it subsequently indicates that political power is awarded to the few rather than the many. Moreover, it argues for a current revision to how political rights and benefits are allocated, not only at domestic level but also in the international context. The article inherently forms one component of a larger body of work that was composed under the umbrella of political (tax) equity in a global context in which this author explored how increased taxpayer mobility challenges not only traditional legal frameworks that are associated with taxation but also the allocation of political rights and benefits. The traditional perception of citizenship as the basis for voting rights is, as illustrated through various publications linked to the project, found to be inadequate when dealing with mobile taxpayers.
Abstract: Ongoing globalization and increased taxpayer mobility not only exacerbate the current in adequacies when allocating taxing rights but also intensify already existing tax competition between states as individual states have begun to use formal citizenship as a tax incentive when attracting high-income earners, highly skilled workers and high-net value individuals. (A. Christians, Buying in: Residence and Citizenship by Investment, 62 St. Louis U. L.J. 51 (2017)). This new tax incentive challenges the traditional perception of formal citizenship as the basis for bestowing political rights and benefits as it may beargued that this practise erodes its value and meaning in addition to emphasizing the differentiation between individuals regarding their state of origin (particularly noticeable when considering EU citizens compared to non-EU citizens) and economic status. At the present time, mobile individuals may, as a result of disparities between tax allocations, formal citizenship and voting privileges, contribute financially to a state yet not be afforded the opportunity to exercise influence over their tax situation due to the lack of formal citizenship and voting privileges in said state. The group who may influence taxation and public spending (tax and spend) through voting, therefore, is not always the same as those who pay taxes. This issue is naturally complex as the group of individuals excluded from such political influence is a highly diverse one encompassing high-net individuals to stateless persons seeking asylum who are subject to individual circumstances and needs. This article separates itself from previous research within the tax scholarship as it does not focus on tax nexus nor on the right to participate in democratic influencing but rather on how individuals may influence tax and spend themselves with methods other than traditional voting. Otherwise stated, would it be possible for individuals who contribute to a state financially yet have no possibilities to exercise influence over tax and spend through voting due to the lack of formal citizenship be able to influence in a different manner? Tax rules and constitutional safeguards offering taxpayer protection gathered from Sweden, Germany and the United States are introduced in order to describe and analyse to what extent a taxpayer may exercise such influence. The article concludes that affluent individuals often have greater access to such legal instruments, and it subsequently indicates that political power is awarded to the few rather than the many. Moreover, it argues for a current revision to how political rights and benefits are allocated, not only at domestic level but also in the international context. The article inherently forms one component of a larger body of work that was composed under the umbrella of political (tax) equity in a global context in which this author explored how increased taxpayer mobility challenges not only traditional legal frameworks that are associated with taxation but also the allocation of political rights and benefits. The traditional perception of citizenship as the basis for voting rights is, as illustrated through various publications linked to the project, found to be inadequate when dealing with mobile taxpayers.
Journal: Intertax
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Yvette Lind
A Nested Copula Duration Model for Competing Risks with Multiple Spells
Abstract: A copula graphic estimator for the competing risks duration model with multiple spells is presented. By adopting a nested copula structure the dependencies between risks and spells are modelled separately. This breaks up an implicit restriction of popular duration models such as multivariate mixed proportional hazards. It is shown that the dependence structure between spells is identifiable and can be estimated, in contrast to the dependence structure between competing risks. Thus, by allowing these two components to differ, the model is not identifiable. This is an important finding related to the general identifiability of competing risks models. Various features of the model are investigated by simulations and its practicality is illustrated by an application to unemployment duration data.
Abstract: A copula graphic estimator for the competing risks duration model with multiple spells is presented. By adopting a nested copula structure the dependencies between risks and spells are modelled separately. This breaks up an implicit restriction of popular duration models such as multivariate mixed proportional hazards. It is shown that the dependence structure between spells is identifiable and can be estimated, in contrast to the dependence structure between competing risks. Thus, by allowing these two components to differ, the model is not identifiable. This is an important finding related to the general identifiability of competing risks models. Various features of the model are investigated by simulations and its practicality is illustrated by an application to unemployment duration data.
Journal: Computational Statistics & Data Analysis
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Ralf Wilke
On Distributional Effects in Local Electricity Market Designs: Evidence from a German Case Study
Abstract: The European Commission’s call for energy communities has motivated academia to focus research on design and trading concepts of local electricity markets. The literature provides a wide range of conceptual ideas and analyses on the technical and economic framework of single market features such as peer-to-peer trading. The feasible, system-wide integration of energy communities into existing market structures requires, however, a set of legal adjustments to national regulation. In this paper, we test the implications of recently proposed market designs under the current rules in the context of the German market. The analysis is facilitated by a simplistic equilibrium model representing heterogeneous market participants in an energy community with their respective objectives. We find that, on the one hand, these proposed designs are financially unattractive to prosumers and consumers under the current regulatory framework. On the other hand, they even cause distributional effects within the community when local trade and self-consumption are exempt from taxes. To this end, we introduce a novel market design—Tech4all—that counterbalances these effects. With only few legal amendments, it allows for ownership and participation of renewable technologies for all community members independent of their property structure and affluence. Our presented analysis shows that this design has the potential to mitigate both distributional effects and the avoidance of system service charges, while simultaneously increasing end-user participation
Abstract: The European Commission’s call for energy communities has motivated academia to focus research on design and trading concepts of local electricity markets. The literature provides a wide range of conceptual ideas and analyses on the technical and economic framework of single market features such as peer-to-peer trading. The feasible, system-wide integration of energy communities into existing market structures requires, however, a set of legal adjustments to national regulation. In this paper, we test the implications of recently proposed market designs under the current rules in the context of the German market. The analysis is facilitated by a simplistic equilibrium model representing heterogeneous market participants in an energy community with their respective objectives. We find that, on the one hand, these proposed designs are financially unattractive to prosumers and consumers under the current regulatory framework. On the other hand, they even cause distributional effects within the community when local trade and self-consumption are exempt from taxes. To this end, we introduce a novel market design—Tech4all—that counterbalances these effects. With only few legal amendments, it allows for ownership and participation of renewable technologies for all community members independent of their property structure and affluence. Our presented analysis shows that this design has the potential to mitigate both distributional effects and the avoidance of system service charges, while simultaneously increasing end-user participation
Journal: Energies
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Alexandra Lüth
Management of Project Portfolios: Relationships of Project Portfolios With Their Contexts
Abstract: Firms create and manage project portfolios to implement and renew their strategies. With the dominant contingency theory view, studies have primarily focused on project portfolios and their internal management whilst acknowledging that different practices are needed in different contexts. A strategic view of managing project portfolios, however, requires adopting a stronger external orientation, both within and outside of the firm. In this paper, we call for research on the management of project portfolios. We investigate the relationship between project portfolios and their context based on four theoretical alternatives: institutional theory, stakeholder theory, resource dependence theory, and sensemaking theory. The results offer explanations to the mechanisms connecting project portfolios with their context, call for a reformulation of portfolio success, and propose a new research agenda to revitalize the study of managing project portfolios in their contexts.
Abstract: Firms create and manage project portfolios to implement and renew their strategies. With the dominant contingency theory view, studies have primarily focused on project portfolios and their internal management whilst acknowledging that different practices are needed in different contexts. A strategic view of managing project portfolios, however, requires adopting a stronger external orientation, both within and outside of the firm. In this paper, we call for research on the management of project portfolios. We investigate the relationship between project portfolios and their context based on four theoretical alternatives: institutional theory, stakeholder theory, resource dependence theory, and sensemaking theory. The results offer explanations to the mechanisms connecting project portfolios with their context, call for a reformulation of portfolio success, and propose a new research agenda to revitalize the study of managing project portfolios in their contexts.
Journal: International Journal of Project Management
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Joana Geraldi
Institutions and Actorhood as Co-constitutive and Co-constructed: The Argument and Areas for Future Research.
Abstract: We argue that in order to overcome the reductionism and essentialism in institutional theory there is a need to acknowledge that institutions and social actors are co-constitutive and co-constructed in processes of communication. We elaborate this argument by drawing on the phenomenological foundation of institutional theory and point to promising areas of future research: the multimodal nature of institutions, the mediated and mediatized character of modern communication, and the contestedness of all social orders and their legitimation.
Abstract: We argue that in order to overcome the reductionism and essentialism in institutional theory there is a need to acknowledge that institutions and social actors are co-constitutive and co-constructed in processes of communication. We elaborate this argument by drawing on the phenomenological foundation of institutional theory and point to promising areas of future research: the multimodal nature of institutions, the mediated and mediatized character of modern communication, and the contestedness of all social orders and their legitimation.
Journal: Journal of Management Studies
Published: January 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Renate E. Meyer
Process Innovation and Performance: The Role of Divergence.
Abstract: Purpose: Process innovation is a key determinant of performance. While extant literature paints a clear picture of the drivers of process innovation, the effect of process innovation on performance has received little attention. This paper aims to examine how the divergence of process innovation impacts performance. Divergence concerns the extent to which the observed level of process innovation diverges from the expected level of process innovation. Positive divergence occurs when the observed level of process innovation is higher than expected while for negative divergence the opposite occurs. In turn, the authors consider how divergence acts as a driver of performance.
Design/methodology/approach: The authors use survey and archival data from 5,594 firms across 15 countries. The authors analyze the data using an advanced two-step random-effects estimator that accounts for the multi-level data used.
Findings: The authors find negative divergence to reduce performance under high competitive intensity, whereas positive divergence is detrimental under high environmental uncertainty.
Research limitations/implications: The authors present new and unique insights into the relationship between divergence and performance. The authors argue that each firm has an "ideal" level of process innovation, based on their resources and business environment, relative to which performance diminishes. Specifically, the authors argue that divergence from the firm's expected level of process innovation is associated with the reduced performance during high environmental uncertainty or high competitive intensity. Furthermore, the authors argue that there can be "too much" process innovation. This nuance of the majority of prior empirical studies in this area suggests that more innovation is always better for firms. The more nuanced approach reveals that the process innovation-performance debate should not focus on more or less innovation per se, but on how innovation is constructed and supported. Practical implications: Some argue the existence of an academia-practitioner gap, with both living in different worlds (Reibstein et al., 2009). The findings suggest that theory is not only useful to practitioners but also has a crucial and central role regarding decisions relating to efficiency and effectiveness of scarce resources, in the field of process innovation. More specifically, the authors demonstrate that the prior study on process innovation seems to be useful in that relative to a theory-predicted level, divergence diminishes performance in the global sample of companies across a wide range of industries. In addition, the authors suggest that firms should not strive for more innovation per se. The findings suggest that positive divergence or too much innovation is detrimental for performance under environmental uncertainty, while negative divergence or too little innovation is harmful to performance under competitive uncertainty. Moreover, the divergence approach is also useful for comparing performance to that of other firms, typically referred to as benchmarking.
Originality/value: This paper is useful and important for managers and theory development as it provides insight into situations where a firm may have "too little" or "too much" process innovation. Thus, divergence advances understanding as, in contrast with the previous study, the authors do not suggest that more innovation is always better.
Abstract: Purpose: Process innovation is a key determinant of performance. While extant literature paints a clear picture of the drivers of process innovation, the effect of process innovation on performance has received little attention. This paper aims to examine how the divergence of process innovation impacts performance. Divergence concerns the extent to which the observed level of process innovation diverges from the expected level of process innovation. Positive divergence occurs when the observed level of process innovation is higher than expected while for negative divergence the opposite occurs. In turn, the authors consider how divergence acts as a driver of performance.
Design/methodology/approach: The authors use survey and archival data from 5,594 firms across 15 countries. The authors analyze the data using an advanced two-step random-effects estimator that accounts for the multi-level data used.
Findings: The authors find negative divergence to reduce performance under high competitive intensity, whereas positive divergence is detrimental under high environmental uncertainty.
Research limitations/implications: The authors present new and unique insights into the relationship between divergence and performance. The authors argue that each firm has an "ideal" level of process innovation, based on their resources and business environment, relative to which performance diminishes. Specifically, the authors argue that divergence from the firm's expected level of process innovation is associated with the reduced performance during high environmental uncertainty or high competitive intensity. Furthermore, the authors argue that there can be "too much" process innovation. This nuance of the majority of prior empirical studies in this area suggests that more innovation is always better for firms. The more nuanced approach reveals that the process innovation-performance debate should not focus on more or less innovation per se, but on how innovation is constructed and supported. Practical implications: Some argue the existence of an academia-practitioner gap, with both living in different worlds (Reibstein et al., 2009). The findings suggest that theory is not only useful to practitioners but also has a crucial and central role regarding decisions relating to efficiency and effectiveness of scarce resources, in the field of process innovation. More specifically, the authors demonstrate that the prior study on process innovation seems to be useful in that relative to a theory-predicted level, divergence diminishes performance in the global sample of companies across a wide range of industries. In addition, the authors suggest that firms should not strive for more innovation per se. The findings suggest that positive divergence or too much innovation is detrimental for performance under environmental uncertainty, while negative divergence or too little innovation is harmful to performance under competitive uncertainty. Moreover, the divergence approach is also useful for comparing performance to that of other firms, typically referred to as benchmarking.
Originality/value: This paper is useful and important for managers and theory development as it provides insight into situations where a firm may have "too little" or "too much" process innovation. Thus, divergence advances understanding as, in contrast with the previous study, the authors do not suggest that more innovation is always better.
Journal: European Journal of Marketing
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Ad de Jong
Does Improving Public Transport Decrease Car Ownership? Evidence from a Residential Sorting Model for the Copenhagen Metropolitan Area
Abstract: Car ownership is lower in urban areas, where public transport is of high quality. This suggests that better public transport offers the possibility to relieve the many problems (congestion, pollution, and parking) associated with the presence of cars in urban areas. To investigate this issue, we develop a model for the simultaneous choice of residential location and car ownership by households, and estimate it on Danish data, paying special attention to accessibility of the metro network. We use the estimated model to simulate the impact of an extension of the metro network. We show that for the Greater Copenhagen Area an extension of the metro network decreases car ownership by 2–3%, while the average compensating variation is approximately 3% of household income.
Abstract: Car ownership is lower in urban areas, where public transport is of high quality. This suggests that better public transport offers the possibility to relieve the many problems (congestion, pollution, and parking) associated with the presence of cars in urban areas. To investigate this issue, we develop a model for the simultaneous choice of residential location and car ownership by households, and estimate it on Danish data, paying special attention to accessibility of the metro network. We use the estimated model to simulate the impact of an extension of the metro network. We show that for the Greater Copenhagen Area an extension of the metro network decreases car ownership by 2–3%, while the average compensating variation is approximately 3% of household income.
Journal: Regional Science and Urban Economics
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Ismir Mulalic
Forecasting Container Freight Rates for Major Trade Routes: A Comparison of Artifcial Neural Networks and Conventional Models
Abstract: Major players in maritime business such as shipping lines, charterers, shippers, and others rely on container freight rate forecasts for operational decision-making. The absence of a formal forward market in container shipping necessitates reliance on forecasts, also for hedging purposes. To identify better performing forecasting approaches, we compare three models, namely autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), vector autoregressive (VAR) or vector error correction (VEC), and artifcial neural network (ANN) models. We examine the China Containerized Freight Index (CCFI) as a collection of weekly freight rates published by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange (SSE) for four major trade routes. We fnd that, overall, VAR/VEC models outperform ARIMA and ANN in training-sample forecasts, but ARIMA outperforms VAR and ANN taking test-samples. At route level, we observe two exceptions to this. ARIMA performs better for the Far East to Mediterranean route, in the training-sample, and the VEC model does the same in the Far East to US East Coast route in the test-sample. Hence, we advise industry players to use ARIMA for forecasting container freight rates for major trade routes ex-China, except for VEC in the case of the Far East to US East Coast route.
Abstract: Major players in maritime business such as shipping lines, charterers, shippers, and others rely on container freight rate forecasts for operational decision-making. The absence of a formal forward market in container shipping necessitates reliance on forecasts, also for hedging purposes. To identify better performing forecasting approaches, we compare three models, namely autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), vector autoregressive (VAR) or vector error correction (VEC), and artifcial neural network (ANN) models. We examine the China Containerized Freight Index (CCFI) as a collection of weekly freight rates published by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange (SSE) for four major trade routes. We fnd that, overall, VAR/VEC models outperform ARIMA and ANN in training-sample forecasts, but ARIMA outperforms VAR and ANN taking test-samples. At route level, we observe two exceptions to this. ARIMA performs better for the Far East to Mediterranean route, in the training-sample, and the VEC model does the same in the Far East to US East Coast route in the test-sample. Hence, we advise industry players to use ARIMA for forecasting container freight rates for major trade routes ex-China, except for VEC in the case of the Far East to US East Coast route.
Journal: Maritime Economics & Logistics
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Hans-Joachim Schramm
A Mean-variance Benchmark for Household Portfolios over the Life Cycle
Abstract: We embed human capital as an innate, illiquid asset in Markowitz’ one-period mean-variance framework. By solving the Markowitz problem for different values of the ratio of human capital to financial wealth, we emulate life-cycle effects in household portfolio decisions. The portfolio derived with this simple approach matches the optimal portfolio from the much more complicated dynamic life-cycle models. An application illustrates that young households may optimally refrain from stock investments because a house investment combined with a mortgage is more attractive from a pure investment perspective. Another application examines the theoretical support for the observed growth/value tilts in households’ portfolios.
Abstract: We embed human capital as an innate, illiquid asset in Markowitz’ one-period mean-variance framework. By solving the Markowitz problem for different values of the ratio of human capital to financial wealth, we emulate life-cycle effects in household portfolio decisions. The portfolio derived with this simple approach matches the optimal portfolio from the much more complicated dynamic life-cycle models. An application illustrates that young households may optimally refrain from stock investments because a house investment combined with a mortgage is more attractive from a pure investment perspective. Another application examines the theoretical support for the observed growth/value tilts in households’ portfolios.
Journal: Journal of Banking & Finance
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Claus Munk
City Government Capacity and Patterns in Urban Development Project Governance
Abstract: This article explores the mutual influence between a city government’s jurisdictional capacity (its ability to plan and implement policy) and its interactions with other governance actors. It does so by quantifying, categorizing, and analyzing the composition of governance actors at various levels (national, regional, local) and of various types (public, private, civic) that are active in large-scale urban development projects in three cities: Hamburg, Manchester, Pittsburgh. Considering these findings in the context of national governance infrastructures, the article argues that divergent arrays of jurisdictional capacity (linked to multilevel distributions of state power) influence how city governments engage with other governance actors and influence which governance actors they engage with. This not only impacts project outcomes but also ultimately reinforces the kinds of governance strategies in which cities engage.
Abstract: This article explores the mutual influence between a city government’s jurisdictional capacity (its ability to plan and implement policy) and its interactions with other governance actors. It does so by quantifying, categorizing, and analyzing the composition of governance actors at various levels (national, regional, local) and of various types (public, private, civic) that are active in large-scale urban development projects in three cities: Hamburg, Manchester, Pittsburgh. Considering these findings in the context of national governance infrastructures, the article argues that divergent arrays of jurisdictional capacity (linked to multilevel distributions of state power) influence how city governments engage with other governance actors and influence which governance actors they engage with. This not only impacts project outcomes but also ultimately reinforces the kinds of governance strategies in which cities engage.
Journal: Urban Affairs Review
Published: January 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Luise Noring
User Preferences and Strategic Interactions in Platform Ecosystems.
Abstract: Research summary: User demand affects the emergence and growth of platform ecosystems through indirect network effects. But how do these effects play out in the strategies of platform providers and complementors as the ecosystem evolves? We study how user preferences for ecosystem innovativeness (complement novelty and quality) and ecosystem size (number of complementors/complements), and demand-based economies of scale, shape the strategic interactions between the platform provider and the complementors in the ecosystem. Using an analytical model, we identify the conditions that give rise to a trade-off between ecosystem innovativeness and size; when (and why) this trade-off generates a tension between value co-creation and appropriation among ecosystem participants; and the strategic implications for ecosystem competitiveness and for the different stages of the ecosystem's evolution. Managerial summary: Managing complementors’ incentives is critical for the success of a platform ecosystem. Such incentives may be offered not only for joining the platform, but also for contributing high-quality, innovative complements throughout the ecosystem's evolution. In this article, we show that demand-side economies of scale are the driving force of complementors’ incentives, and hence the key success factor for platform strategies. The strength of user preferences ultimately determines whether a larger ecosystem can also be more innovative, in which case all ecosystem participants can gain; or if instead there is a trade-off between size and innovativeness, which could also lead to a tension between value co-creation and appropriation among the platform provider and its complementors. The different stages of the evolution of a platform ecosystem call for different strategies that adapt to the evolution of user preferences.
Abstract: Research summary: User demand affects the emergence and growth of platform ecosystems through indirect network effects. But how do these effects play out in the strategies of platform providers and complementors as the ecosystem evolves? We study how user preferences for ecosystem innovativeness (complement novelty and quality) and ecosystem size (number of complementors/complements), and demand-based economies of scale, shape the strategic interactions between the platform provider and the complementors in the ecosystem. Using an analytical model, we identify the conditions that give rise to a trade-off between ecosystem innovativeness and size; when (and why) this trade-off generates a tension between value co-creation and appropriation among ecosystem participants; and the strategic implications for ecosystem competitiveness and for the different stages of the ecosystem's evolution. Managerial summary: Managing complementors’ incentives is critical for the success of a platform ecosystem. Such incentives may be offered not only for joining the platform, but also for contributing high-quality, innovative complements throughout the ecosystem's evolution. In this article, we show that demand-side economies of scale are the driving force of complementors’ incentives, and hence the key success factor for platform strategies. The strength of user preferences ultimately determines whether a larger ecosystem can also be more innovative, in which case all ecosystem participants can gain; or if instead there is a trade-off between size and innovativeness, which could also lead to a tension between value co-creation and appropriation among the platform provider and its complementors. The different stages of the evolution of a platform ecosystem call for different strategies that adapt to the evolution of user preferences.
Journal: Strategic Management Journal
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Carmelo Cennamo
Patent Enforcement Across 51 Countries: Patent Enforcement Index 1998–2017
Abstract: Indices are central for comparing the strength of patent systems across countries in international business research, intellectual property management and policymaking. However, existing approaches rely on book laws while most variance across countries emerges from enforcement. We address this weakness and present the Patent Enforcement Index which tracks differences in patent enforcement for 51 countries between 1998 and 2017. We utilize novel firm-level enforcement data and extend the conceptual framework of the patent systems strength index provided by Papageorgiadis et al. (2014). The new index reveals previously uncaptured volatility in patent enforcement and can be decomposed into three topical sub-indices.
Abstract: Indices are central for comparing the strength of patent systems across countries in international business research, intellectual property management and policymaking. However, existing approaches rely on book laws while most variance across countries emerges from enforcement. We address this weakness and present the Patent Enforcement Index which tracks differences in patent enforcement for 51 countries between 1998 and 2017. We utilize novel firm-level enforcement data and extend the conceptual framework of the patent systems strength index provided by Papageorgiadis et al. (2014). The new index reveals previously uncaptured volatility in patent enforcement and can be decomposed into three topical sub-indices.
Journal: Journal of World Business
Published: June 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Wolfgang Sofka
Virtue’s Embodied Malleability: the Plasticity of Habit and the Double-Law of Habituation
Abstract: This paper urges contemporary Business Ethicists to reconsider the relationship between habit and virtue in the light of recent debates between contemporary philosophers and scientists. Synthesizing insights from current Neuroscience, from twentieth century American Pragmatism and from nineteenth century French Aristotelianism, this emergent intellectual tradition proposes a dynamic account of habit’s embodiment which we will first describe and then advocate. Two recurring suggestions within this habit renaissance are of particular relevance to Business Ethicists: firstly, that there is a ‘plastic’ structure pertaining to habit and, secondly, that there is a processual ‘double-law of habituation’. Taken together, these accounts of habit and habituation provide virtue ethicists with a basis for claiming analytic and pragmatic authority within applied ethics debates in general and within Business Ethics debates in particular. We develop this argument in three steps. Firstly, we elaborate upon why habits are said to be plastic and why the process of habituation is said to be characterised by a double-law. Secondly, we distinguish this account of habit’s relationship to virtue from, and where necessary defend it against, the influential articulations of the habit: virtue relationship provided by situationism, by deontology and by communitarianism, respectively. Finally, we draw practical lessons from the initial elaborations made in the argument’s first step, and the subsequent clarifications provided in its second step, by announcing seven characteristics of highly effective virtue habituation projects.
Abstract: This paper urges contemporary Business Ethicists to reconsider the relationship between habit and virtue in the light of recent debates between contemporary philosophers and scientists. Synthesizing insights from current Neuroscience, from twentieth century American Pragmatism and from nineteenth century French Aristotelianism, this emergent intellectual tradition proposes a dynamic account of habit’s embodiment which we will first describe and then advocate. Two recurring suggestions within this habit renaissance are of particular relevance to Business Ethicists: firstly, that there is a ‘plastic’ structure pertaining to habit and, secondly, that there is a processual ‘double-law of habituation’. Taken together, these accounts of habit and habituation provide virtue ethicists with a basis for claiming analytic and pragmatic authority within applied ethics debates in general and within Business Ethics debates in particular. We develop this argument in three steps. Firstly, we elaborate upon why habits are said to be plastic and why the process of habituation is said to be characterised by a double-law. Secondly, we distinguish this account of habit’s relationship to virtue from, and where necessary defend it against, the influential articulations of the habit: virtue relationship provided by situationism, by deontology and by communitarianism, respectively. Finally, we draw practical lessons from the initial elaborations made in the argument’s first step, and the subsequent clarifications provided in its second step, by announcing seven characteristics of highly effective virtue habituation projects.
Journal: Philosophy of Management
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Michael Pedersen
Private and Public Authority Interactions and the Functional Quality of Sustainability Governance: Lessons from Conservation and Development Initiatives in Tanzania.
Abstract: The changing shape of sustainability governance has been a key academic and policy concern in the past two decades, as part of a wider debate on the interactions between public and private authority in governing the economy, society, and the environment. In this article, we contribute to these debates by examining how these interactions operate locally and across jurisdictions in three conservation and development initiatives in Tanzania and what impact they have on the functional quality of sustainability governance. We find that clear division of responsibilities, coupled with material incentives for communities and equal and transparent distribution of benefits, are key positive contributors to functional quality. These factors underpin the complementary interactions (collaborative at the local level; institutional layering across jurisdictions) that are needed to successfully negotiate and implement the compromises needed to balance conservation and development goals. We also find that competitive dynamics are harmful to functional quality, especially those taking the form of local institutional duplication and of dominance by central government across jurisdictions. These tend to appear especially when sustainability initiatives involve multiple stakeholders with wide discrepancies in resources, interests, and power, which leads to compromises determined in a top-down manner.
Abstract: The changing shape of sustainability governance has been a key academic and policy concern in the past two decades, as part of a wider debate on the interactions between public and private authority in governing the economy, society, and the environment. In this article, we contribute to these debates by examining how these interactions operate locally and across jurisdictions in three conservation and development initiatives in Tanzania and what impact they have on the functional quality of sustainability governance. We find that clear division of responsibilities, coupled with material incentives for communities and equal and transparent distribution of benefits, are key positive contributors to functional quality. These factors underpin the complementary interactions (collaborative at the local level; institutional layering across jurisdictions) that are needed to successfully negotiate and implement the compromises needed to balance conservation and development goals. We also find that competitive dynamics are harmful to functional quality, especially those taking the form of local institutional duplication and of dominance by central government across jurisdictions. These tend to appear especially when sustainability initiatives involve multiple stakeholders with wide discrepancies in resources, interests, and power, which leads to compromises determined in a top-down manner.
Journal: Regulation and Governance
Published: January 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Stefano Ponte
From Pyramid to Pointed Egg? A 20-year Perspective on Poverty, Prosperity, and Rural Transformation in Tanzania
Abstract: This article analyses the patterns of poverty, prosperity, and rural transformation in Tanzania through longitudinal research examining livelihoods and asset change in a 20-year period. We argue that some current measures of rural transformation are inadequate for capturing forms of change that matter to rural Africans. We consider in detail some of the processes that lie behind such change in selected locations in Morogoro region, noting the importance of improvements that are taking place through smallholder agriculture. In conclusion, the article discusses the implications of these findings for agricultural policy while also cautioning about the blindness of our methods to other forms of poverty.
Abstract: This article analyses the patterns of poverty, prosperity, and rural transformation in Tanzania through longitudinal research examining livelihoods and asset change in a 20-year period. We argue that some current measures of rural transformation are inadequate for capturing forms of change that matter to rural Africans. We consider in detail some of the processes that lie behind such change in selected locations in Morogoro region, noting the importance of improvements that are taking place through smallholder agriculture. In conclusion, the article discusses the implications of these findings for agricultural policy while also cautioning about the blindness of our methods to other forms of poverty.
Journal: African Affairs
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Stefano Ponte
Høring vedrørende EU-direktivet 2014/95 Ikke-Finansiel Rapportering
Abstract: EU’s grønne pagt (’Green Deal’) er en integreret del af EU Kommissionens strategi for implementeringen af de Forenede Nationers (FNs) 2030-dagsorden og målene for bæredygtig udvikling (Sustainable Development Goals, SDG’erne) (EU, 2019)1.
Abstract: EU’s grønne pagt (’Green Deal’) er en integreret del af EU Kommissionens strategi for implementeringen af de Forenede Nationers (FNs) 2030-dagsorden og målene for bæredygtig udvikling (Sustainable Development Goals, SDG’erne) (EU, 2019)1.
Journal: Revision & Regnskabsvæsen
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Caroline Aggestam Pontoppidan
Learning to Discover Value: Value-based Pricing and Selling Capabilities for Services and Solutions.
Abstract: Many manufacturers invest in advanced services and solutions to achieve superior customer value; however, research has only begun to examine capabilities for value-based pricing (VBP) and value-based selling (VBS) in relation to such offerings. This article explores (1) which capabilities firms seek to develop for VBP and VBS of industrial services and solutions and (2) how learning influences the development of these capabilities. An in-depth exploratory study of two global market leaders in their respective industries includes interviews with 66 respondents from the firms, as well as 12 interviews with customer and supplier informants, which reveal important capabilities for VBP and VBS. Higher-level learning supports value discovery, through dialogue with customers over time; this value in turn forms the basis for VBP and VBS. Higher-level learning capabilities also facilitate the adaptation and replication of the developed pricing and selling capabilities in various contexts.
Abstract: Many manufacturers invest in advanced services and solutions to achieve superior customer value; however, research has only begun to examine capabilities for value-based pricing (VBP) and value-based selling (VBS) in relation to such offerings. This article explores (1) which capabilities firms seek to develop for VBP and VBS of industrial services and solutions and (2) how learning influences the development of these capabilities. An in-depth exploratory study of two global market leaders in their respective industries includes interviews with 66 respondents from the firms, as well as 12 interviews with customer and supplier informants, which reveal important capabilities for VBP and VBS. Higher-level learning supports value discovery, through dialogue with customers over time; this value in turn forms the basis for VBP and VBS. Higher-level learning capabilities also facilitate the adaptation and replication of the developed pricing and selling capabilities in various contexts.
Journal: Journal of Business Research
Published: June 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Jawwad Raja, Thomas Frandsen, Martin Jarmatz
Gender Equality Law in Transition: Sexual Harassment as Discrimination
Abstract: For the purpose of directive 2006/54/EC on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation (recast), discrimination includes sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is analysed in this article in combination with the principle of protection of human dignity due to article 1 of the EU Charter of fundamental rights. Furthermore, the article addresses the Danish case law in both a discrimination law and a human dignity perspective and shows that the Danish courts and judicial boards to some extent apply additional criteria when assessing whether or not a conduct falls within the definition of sexual harassment or not.
Abstract: For the purpose of directive 2006/54/EC on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation (recast), discrimination includes sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is analysed in this article in combination with the principle of protection of human dignity due to article 1 of the EU Charter of fundamental rights. Furthermore, the article addresses the Danish case law in both a discrimination law and a human dignity perspective and shows that the Danish courts and judicial boards to some extent apply additional criteria when assessing whether or not a conduct falls within the definition of sexual harassment or not.
Journal: Europarättslig tidskrift
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Maria Rasmussen, Ruth Nielsen, Christina D. Tvarnø
Making the User Useful? How Translation Processes Managerialize Voice in Public Organizations
Abstract: One of the most pervasive topics in public management discussions in recent decades is the notion of user orientation. More than ever, external stakeholders expect public organizations to “get closer” to users and to treat citizens as knowledgeable consumers of public services with a view and a voice. Existing literature highlights how, through a wide range of calculative practices, information gathered from and about public service users is assembled into descriptions of organizational activity that are useful for managers in addressing issues of surveillance and internal control as well as legitimation. In our multiple case study of hospitals and prisons in Germany, we introduce a two‐step model of translation for explaining how user voice is transformed into management objects, which are then further translated into organizationally “useful” information. In doing so, we make three contributions to further our understanding of how user views are formatted to organizational activity and put to use by managers in the public sector. First, we developed a model of translation that highlights how user voices and the prospect of user orientation are enacted across diverse organizational contexts. Second, we found that different types of organizations deploy distinct methods of accounting, which nevertheless make user feedback useful in similar ways: to develop information that helps construct an image of performance, gain financial leverage, and enact compliance. Third, we found that in addition to quantitative forms of accounting, narrative accounting techniques played important roles in making users “useful” in public organizations.
Abstract: One of the most pervasive topics in public management discussions in recent decades is the notion of user orientation. More than ever, external stakeholders expect public organizations to “get closer” to users and to treat citizens as knowledgeable consumers of public services with a view and a voice. Existing literature highlights how, through a wide range of calculative practices, information gathered from and about public service users is assembled into descriptions of organizational activity that are useful for managers in addressing issues of surveillance and internal control as well as legitimation. In our multiple case study of hospitals and prisons in Germany, we introduce a two‐step model of translation for explaining how user voice is transformed into management objects, which are then further translated into organizationally “useful” information. In doing so, we make three contributions to further our understanding of how user views are formatted to organizational activity and put to use by managers in the public sector. First, we developed a model of translation that highlights how user voices and the prospect of user orientation are enacted across diverse organizational contexts. Second, we found that different types of organizations deploy distinct methods of accounting, which nevertheless make user feedback useful in similar ways: to develop information that helps construct an image of performance, gain financial leverage, and enact compliance. Third, we found that in addition to quantitative forms of accounting, narrative accounting techniques played important roles in making users “useful” in public organizations.
Journal: Financial Accountability & Management
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Christian Huber
Introducing the Missing 11th Principle of the United Nations Global Compact to Reach Sustainability: Follow the Money
Abstract: Purpose: Recent research has emphasized the need for engaging non-financial companies in combating money laundering for the efforts to be efficient and effective. To incentivize engagement, several options are available, such as regulation, voluntary disclosure or commitment to international principles such as the United Nations (UN) Global Compact. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how anti-money laundering fits the aim of the UN Global compact and how anti-money laundering can support the other principles of the UN Global Compact. Furthermore, this paper addresses the necessity to include anti-money laundering in the core principles to reach the overall goal of sustainability by the UN Global Compact. Such an inclusion will incentivize the signatories of the UN Global Compact to include anti-money laundering as a part of their social responsibilities, helping the financial sector in combating money laundering.
Design/methodology/approach: The methodology of this paper is a functional approach to law and economics. It seeks to enhance the efficiency of the regulatory framework combating money laundering by including economic incentive theory and addressing new areas of law.
Findings: The paper finds a strong relationship between the UN Global Compact and anti-money laundering. Furthermore, it is concluded that it is necessary to include anti-money laundering as a core principle in the UN Global Compact if the Global Compact is to be efficient and effective in terms of its sustainability goals. The reason being that money laundering to a great extent supplies operational finances to the illegitimate sector related to core issues of the UN Global Compact such as human trafficking, child labor and corruption.
Originality/value: The paper identifies a significant missing element with regard to the core principles of the UN Global Compact. Although most research within anti-money laundering concerns the financial sector and thereby does not address the UN Global Compact, the focus of this paper is the link between anti-money laundering and the UN Global Compact. Furthermore, most research related to the UN global compact does not connect the core principles to the illegal financing of the businesses contradicting the principles. This paper addresses both of the neglected areas and combines them to improve the overall combating of money laundering while supporting the UN Global Compact sustainability goal.
Abstract: Purpose: Recent research has emphasized the need for engaging non-financial companies in combating money laundering for the efforts to be efficient and effective. To incentivize engagement, several options are available, such as regulation, voluntary disclosure or commitment to international principles such as the United Nations (UN) Global Compact. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how anti-money laundering fits the aim of the UN Global compact and how anti-money laundering can support the other principles of the UN Global Compact. Furthermore, this paper addresses the necessity to include anti-money laundering in the core principles to reach the overall goal of sustainability by the UN Global Compact. Such an inclusion will incentivize the signatories of the UN Global Compact to include anti-money laundering as a part of their social responsibilities, helping the financial sector in combating money laundering.
Design/methodology/approach: The methodology of this paper is a functional approach to law and economics. It seeks to enhance the efficiency of the regulatory framework combating money laundering by including economic incentive theory and addressing new areas of law.
Findings: The paper finds a strong relationship between the UN Global Compact and anti-money laundering. Furthermore, it is concluded that it is necessary to include anti-money laundering as a core principle in the UN Global Compact if the Global Compact is to be efficient and effective in terms of its sustainability goals. The reason being that money laundering to a great extent supplies operational finances to the illegitimate sector related to core issues of the UN Global Compact such as human trafficking, child labor and corruption.
Originality/value: The paper identifies a significant missing element with regard to the core principles of the UN Global Compact. Although most research within anti-money laundering concerns the financial sector and thereby does not address the UN Global Compact, the focus of this paper is the link between anti-money laundering and the UN Global Compact. Furthermore, most research related to the UN global compact does not connect the core principles to the illegal financing of the businesses contradicting the principles. This paper addresses both of the neglected areas and combines them to improve the overall combating of money laundering while supporting the UN Global Compact sustainability goal.
Journal: Journal of Money Laundering Control
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Kalle Johannes Rose
Accumulation and Conversion of Capitals in Professorial Careers. The Importance of Scientific Reputation, Network Relations, and Internationality in Economics and Business Studies
Abstract: This paper studies the different biographic pathways to an economics and business studies professor position between 1957 and 2000 on the specific case of Switzerland. It focuses on the accumulation and conversion of capitals during academic trajectories, and their relation to three types of resources: scientific reputation, network relations, and internationality. Based on an original biographical database of 411 professors and an innovative use of sequence analysis and multinomial logistic regression, it shows that the three main principles of career structuration divide them between (1) academic and extra-academic trajectories, (2) “standard” positions and executive positions in influent academic organizations, and (3) according to the timing of the accession to a professor position (“early” vs. “slower” appointments). It also shows that careers are increasingly academic between 1957 and 2000. Academic only and long full professor trajectories are linked to reputation in the scientific field (through citations in “prestigious” journals) and internationality of the professors’ profile, while an earlier appointment as professor is associated to developed scientific collaboration networks. Relatively long careers in executive positions in influent academic organizations are linked to important connections to economic, political, and administrative “elite” members (through the supervision of their PhD) as well as scientific expertise for the state, while extra-academic careers only lead to subordinate (associate) professor positions and no detention of other resources within economics and business studies whatsoever.
Abstract: This paper studies the different biographic pathways to an economics and business studies professor position between 1957 and 2000 on the specific case of Switzerland. It focuses on the accumulation and conversion of capitals during academic trajectories, and their relation to three types of resources: scientific reputation, network relations, and internationality. Based on an original biographical database of 411 professors and an innovative use of sequence analysis and multinomial logistic regression, it shows that the three main principles of career structuration divide them between (1) academic and extra-academic trajectories, (2) “standard” positions and executive positions in influent academic organizations, and (3) according to the timing of the accession to a professor position (“early” vs. “slower” appointments). It also shows that careers are increasingly academic between 1957 and 2000. Academic only and long full professor trajectories are linked to reputation in the scientific field (through citations in “prestigious” journals) and internationality of the professors’ profile, while an earlier appointment as professor is associated to developed scientific collaboration networks. Relatively long careers in executive positions in influent academic organizations are linked to important connections to economic, political, and administrative “elite” members (through the supervision of their PhD) as well as scientific expertise for the state, while extra-academic careers only lead to subordinate (associate) professor positions and no detention of other resources within economics and business studies whatsoever.
Journal: Higher Education
Published: February 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Thierry Rossier
A Meta-analysis of Frontline Employees’ Role Behavior and the Moderating Effects of National Culture
Abstract: Many empirical studies have focused on understanding the frontline role process, which reflects the chain of effects including the antecedents and outcomes of frontline employees’ in-role behavior and extra-role behavior. A close examination of past findings reveals discrepancies across cultures. This meta-analysis provides insights into the moderating effects of national culture on the frontline role process. We build on role theory to consolidate role behavior’s antecedents to reflect the expectations emanating from four stakeholders of the frontline role: the organization, manager, peers, and customers. We formulate hypotheses on the moderating effects of national culture dimensions (i.e., power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance) and meta-analyze 105 articles, including 100 independent samples with 32,364 participants from 35 different countries, to test our predictions. The results show that customer expectations are the strongest antecedent to both in-role and extra-role behavior and furthermore confirm that the frontline role process differs across cultures. We offer managers advice on how to adapt expectations for sales and service employees across countries to enhance frontline performance evaluations, customer satisfaction, and ultimately the firm’s competitiveness. We also link our results to new frontline trends (e.g., service robots, artificial intelligence, remote service technology) and provide a future research agenda.
Abstract: Many empirical studies have focused on understanding the frontline role process, which reflects the chain of effects including the antecedents and outcomes of frontline employees’ in-role behavior and extra-role behavior. A close examination of past findings reveals discrepancies across cultures. This meta-analysis provides insights into the moderating effects of national culture on the frontline role process. We build on role theory to consolidate role behavior’s antecedents to reflect the expectations emanating from four stakeholders of the frontline role: the organization, manager, peers, and customers. We formulate hypotheses on the moderating effects of national culture dimensions (i.e., power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance) and meta-analyze 105 articles, including 100 independent samples with 32,364 participants from 35 different countries, to test our predictions. The results show that customer expectations are the strongest antecedent to both in-role and extra-role behavior and furthermore confirm that the frontline role process differs across cultures. We offer managers advice on how to adapt expectations for sales and service employees across countries to enhance frontline performance evaluations, customer satisfaction, and ultimately the firm’s competitiveness. We also link our results to new frontline trends (e.g., service robots, artificial intelligence, remote service technology) and provide a future research agenda.
Journal: Journal of Service Research
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Michel Van der Borgh
Free Shipping Promotions and Product Returns
Abstract: Free shipping promotions have become popular among online retailers. However, little is known about their influence on consumers’ purchases, return behavior, and, ultimately, firm profit. The authors propose that free shipping promotions encourage customers to make riskier purchases, leading to more product returns. They estimate the impact of these promotions on purchase incidence, high-risk and low-risk spend, and return share. The results show that free shipping promotions increase expenditure for high-risk products, expanding their share of the consumer’s market basket and thus increasing the overall return rate. This is validated in a field experiment. A field test and an online lab experiment analyze the mechanism linking free shipping and returns. The results suggest that the free shipping effect occurs through consumers’ perceptions that free shipping serves as a risk premium compensating them for potential returns and through positive affect generated by the promotion. A simulation shows that for the focal firm, free shipping promotions increase net sales volume, but higher product returns and lost shipping revenue render these promotions unprofitable.
Abstract: Free shipping promotions have become popular among online retailers. However, little is known about their influence on consumers’ purchases, return behavior, and, ultimately, firm profit. The authors propose that free shipping promotions encourage customers to make riskier purchases, leading to more product returns. They estimate the impact of these promotions on purchase incidence, high-risk and low-risk spend, and return share. The results show that free shipping promotions increase expenditure for high-risk products, expanding their share of the consumer’s market basket and thus increasing the overall return rate. This is validated in a field experiment. A field test and an online lab experiment analyze the mechanism linking free shipping and returns. The results suggest that the free shipping effect occurs through consumers’ perceptions that free shipping serves as a risk premium compensating them for potential returns and through positive affect generated by the promotion. A simulation shows that for the focal firm, free shipping promotions increase net sales volume, but higher product returns and lost shipping revenue render these promotions unprofitable.
Journal: Journal of Marketing Research
Published: May 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Edlira Shehu
Intra-industry Diversification Effects Under Firm-specific Contingencies on the Demand Side.
Abstract: How do firm-specific, demand-related factors influence the relationship between intra-industry diversification (IID) and performance? Recent findings regarding the performance effects of IID depict a complex picture with curvilinear relationships and several contingencies. However, firm-specific contingencies on the demand side have remained unexplored. We analyze how IID relates to firm performance (market share) in the German automotive industry using panel data between 1999 and 2008. We specifically focus on a firm's high-quality brand image as a demand-side contingency. We find support for our hypotheses of complex curvilinear relationships as well as for moderating effects of brand quality. Our results have significant theoretical implications for the IID literature.
Abstract: How do firm-specific, demand-related factors influence the relationship between intra-industry diversification (IID) and performance? Recent findings regarding the performance effects of IID depict a complex picture with curvilinear relationships and several contingencies. However, firm-specific contingencies on the demand side have remained unexplored. We analyze how IID relates to firm performance (market share) in the German automotive industry using panel data between 1999 and 2008. We specifically focus on a firm's high-quality brand image as a demand-side contingency. We find support for our hypotheses of complex curvilinear relationships as well as for moderating effects of brand quality. Our results have significant theoretical implications for the IID literature.
Journal: Long Range Planning
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Phillip C. Nell
In Search of Complementarities within and Across Platform Ecosystems: Complementors’ Relative Standing and Performance in Mobile Apps Ecosystems
Abstract: Firms can benefit immensely from participating in digital platform ecosystems - specifically, from the shared technological assets and market opportunities offered by the platform owner. Yet, while aligning with the platform ecosystem rules, each member must decide whether to specialize in a given platform ecosystem or across multiple platform ecosystems to capture these benefits. We examine two common patterns through which platform ecosystem members (i.e., complementors) specialize within and across platform ecosystems, and the relative impact on their market performance. We look at the high relative standing of the complementary product as a reflection of complementors' specialization in the given product category or platform ecosystem. We then theorize that having products with high relative standing in a single product category and a single platform ecosystem, together, diminishes complementors’ market performance over time. Similarly, high relative standing in multiple platform ecosystems and multiple product categories, at the same time, adversely impacts the market performance. We find supportive evidence for our hypotheses, in a panel dataset of mobile app developers. This paper contributes to the burgeoning stream of research that investigates the trade-offs faced by complementors, suggesting that complementor strategies are more complex than simply trying to maximize market reach.
Abstract: Firms can benefit immensely from participating in digital platform ecosystems - specifically, from the shared technological assets and market opportunities offered by the platform owner. Yet, while aligning with the platform ecosystem rules, each member must decide whether to specialize in a given platform ecosystem or across multiple platform ecosystems to capture these benefits. We examine two common patterns through which platform ecosystem members (i.e., complementors) specialize within and across platform ecosystems, and the relative impact on their market performance. We look at the high relative standing of the complementary product as a reflection of complementors' specialization in the given product category or platform ecosystem. We then theorize that having products with high relative standing in a single product category and a single platform ecosystem, together, diminishes complementors’ market performance over time. Similarly, high relative standing in multiple platform ecosystems and multiple product categories, at the same time, adversely impacts the market performance. We find supportive evidence for our hypotheses, in a panel dataset of mobile app developers. This paper contributes to the burgeoning stream of research that investigates the trade-offs faced by complementors, suggesting that complementor strategies are more complex than simply trying to maximize market reach.
Journal: Long Range Planning
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Carmelo Cennamo
Public Value through Innovation: Danish Public Managers’ Views on Barriers and Boosters
Abstract: This paper adds to current conversations on public value and public sector innovation by offering a quantitative analysis of the multiple types of public value that Danish public sector managers perceive to have created by innovating. Previous studies have primarily investigated public innovation on a case-by-case basis – and few with a focus on the outcomes of innovation. Access to a unique dataset permits a comprehensive study across the entire Danish public sector, centered on public managers’ perceptions of value created by public innovation. Using logistic regression analysis, a number of variables are tested to explore which antecedents will affect managers’ reported value creation.
Abstract: This paper adds to current conversations on public value and public sector innovation by offering a quantitative analysis of the multiple types of public value that Danish public sector managers perceive to have created by innovating. Previous studies have primarily investigated public innovation on a case-by-case basis – and few with a focus on the outcomes of innovation. Access to a unique dataset permits a comprehensive study across the entire Danish public sector, centered on public managers’ perceptions of value created by public innovation. Using logistic regression analysis, a number of variables are tested to explore which antecedents will affect managers’ reported value creation.
Journal: International Journal of Public Administration
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Ditte Thøgersen, Susanne Boch Waldorff
Mellem modeller og virkelighed: Om Finansministeriets policy-redskaber og deres rolle i dansk politik.
Abstract: Finansministeriet har de seneste år været genstand for megen debat vedrørende dets regnemetoder og disses rolle i lovgivningsprocessen. Ved at konceptualisere disse som policyredskaber og trække på en række eksempler og interviews analyserer og diskuterer artiklen den rolle, ministeriets redskaber spiller samt de institutionelle mekanismer, der gør dem i stand til at påvirke lovgivning og den politiske debat. Der argumenteres for, at deres institutionelle placering giver dem en unik rolle i det danske vidensregime.
Abstract: Finansministeriet har de seneste år været genstand for megen debat vedrørende dets regnemetoder og disses rolle i lovgivningsprocessen. Ved at konceptualisere disse som policyredskaber og trække på en række eksempler og interviews analyserer og diskuterer artiklen den rolle, ministeriets redskaber spiller samt de institutionelle mekanismer, der gør dem i stand til at påvirke lovgivning og den politiske debat. Der argumenteres for, at deres institutionelle placering giver dem en unik rolle i det danske vidensregime.
Journal: Samfundsøkonomen
Published: May 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Niels Fuglsang
Fighting Financial Crime: Who Designs Global Governance and Who does The Work?
Abstract: Fighting financial crime is a highly institutionalised global governance task. At a time of crisis for many of the institutions of global governance, tackling money laundering and combatting terrorist financing through global cooperation continues to be a priority for public officials. The global regime, if anything, is intensifying. This essay provides an overview of the regime’s development and addresses questions of design and implementation. It is structured around three sets of questions: (1) What does the regime look like and what is it for? (2) Who does the work? (3) And, in conclusion, what can we say about winners and losers?
Abstract: Fighting financial crime is a highly institutionalised global governance task. At a time of crisis for many of the institutions of global governance, tackling money laundering and combatting terrorist financing through global cooperation continues to be a priority for public officials. The global regime, if anything, is intensifying. This essay provides an overview of the regime’s development and addresses questions of design and implementation. It is structured around three sets of questions: (1) What does the regime look like and what is it for? (2) Who does the work? (3) And, in conclusion, what can we say about winners and losers?
Journal: Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences
Published: June 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Eleni Tsingou
Tourism Implications of Online Response to Terrorism
Abstract: Individuals all around the world are under constant threat of terrorist attacks. Not surprisingly, terrorist attacks have a strong impact on tourism. However, tourism research is silent on how people respond online after terrorist attacks. Analyzing 154,390 tweets that were posted on Twitter after eight major terrorist attacks that occurred between November 24, 2016 and January 10, 2017, our results demonstrate that people show more anger-related compared to fear-related emotions online after terrorist attacks. We call for further research in tourism to understand how tourism managers and public policy makers can leverage social media after terrorist attacks.
Abstract: Individuals all around the world are under constant threat of terrorist attacks. Not surprisingly, terrorist attacks have a strong impact on tourism. However, tourism research is silent on how people respond online after terrorist attacks. Analyzing 154,390 tweets that were posted on Twitter after eight major terrorist attacks that occurred between November 24, 2016 and January 10, 2017, our results demonstrate that people show more anger-related compared to fear-related emotions online after terrorist attacks. We call for further research in tourism to understand how tourism managers and public policy makers can leverage social media after terrorist attacks.
Journal: Annals of Tourism Research
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Gülen Sarial Abi
Likelihood‐based Inference for a Frailty‐copula Model Based on Competing Risks Failure Time Data.
Abstract: A competing risks phenomenon arises in industrial life tests, where multiple types of failure determine the working duration of a unit. To model dependence among marginal failure times, copula models and frailty models have been developed for competing risks failure time data. In this paper, we propose a frailty‐copula model, which is a hybrid model including both a frailty term (for heterogeneity among units) and a copula function (for dependence between failure times). We focus on models that are useful to investigate the reliability of marginal failure times that are Weibull distributed. Furthermore, we develop likelihood‐based inference methods based on competing risks data, including accelerated failure time models. We also develop a model‐diagnostic procedure to assess the adequacy of the proposed model to a given dataset. Simulations are conducted to demonstrate the operational performance of the proposed methods, and a real dataset is analyzed for illustration. We make an R package “gammaGumbel” such that users can apply the suggested statistical methods to their data.
Abstract: A competing risks phenomenon arises in industrial life tests, where multiple types of failure determine the working duration of a unit. To model dependence among marginal failure times, copula models and frailty models have been developed for competing risks failure time data. In this paper, we propose a frailty‐copula model, which is a hybrid model including both a frailty term (for heterogeneity among units) and a copula function (for dependence between failure times). We focus on models that are useful to investigate the reliability of marginal failure times that are Weibull distributed. Furthermore, we develop likelihood‐based inference methods based on competing risks data, including accelerated failure time models. We also develop a model‐diagnostic procedure to assess the adequacy of the proposed model to a given dataset. Simulations are conducted to demonstrate the operational performance of the proposed methods, and a real dataset is analyzed for illustration. We make an R package “gammaGumbel” such that users can apply the suggested statistical methods to their data.
Journal: Quality and Reliability Engineering International
Published: May 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Ralf Wilke
Accounting, Simultaneity and Relative Completeness: The Sales and Operations Planning Forecast and the Enactment of the ‘Demand Chain’
Abstract: This study adds to the literature on accounting incompleteness and instability an understanding of how accounting acts upon an object that is practised as a multiple. It explores how accounting, in the form of a sales and operations planning (S&OP) forecast, helps discover the objections attached to the various enactments of an object multiple, namely a ‘demand chain’ - a lateral ordering of the firm's production and products from customers backward to suppliers - and translate these objections into decision mechanisms. The paper finds a process of accumulation of accountings that contributes to the enactment of the ‘demand chain’ multiple. In this process, accounting becomes both performative and provocative. As a source of performativity, accounting is relatively complete because it turns each emerging objection into a specific decision model, enacting the ‘demand chain’ in a certain way. As a force of provocation, accounting stimulates new objections to emerge against what accounting reveals about the ‘demand chain’; this adds new accountings onto existing ones, all of which exist simultaneously.
Abstract: This study adds to the literature on accounting incompleteness and instability an understanding of how accounting acts upon an object that is practised as a multiple. It explores how accounting, in the form of a sales and operations planning (S&OP) forecast, helps discover the objections attached to the various enactments of an object multiple, namely a ‘demand chain’ - a lateral ordering of the firm's production and products from customers backward to suppliers - and translate these objections into decision mechanisms. The paper finds a process of accumulation of accountings that contributes to the enactment of the ‘demand chain’ multiple. In this process, accounting becomes both performative and provocative. As a source of performativity, accounting is relatively complete because it turns each emerging objection into a specific decision model, enacting the ‘demand chain’ in a certain way. As a force of provocation, accounting stimulates new objections to emerge against what accounting reveals about the ‘demand chain’; this adds new accountings onto existing ones, all of which exist simultaneously.
Journal: Accounting, Organizations and Society
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Jan Mouritsen
Assessing the Market Niche of Eurasian Rail Freight in the Belt and Road Era
Abstract: Purpose This paper presents an overview of the recent development of Eurasian rail freight in the Belt and Road era and further evaluates its service quality in terms of transit times and transport costs compared to other transport modes in containerised supply chains between Europe and China. Design/methodology/approach A trade-off model of transit time and transport costs based on quantitative data from primary and secondary sources is developed to demonstrate the market niche for Eurasian rail freight vis-a-vis the more established modes of transport of sea, air, and sea/air. In a scenario analysis, further cargo attributes influencing modal choice are employed to show for which cargo type Eurasian rail freight service is favourable from a shipper’s point of view. Findings At present, Eurasian rail freight is about 80% less expensive than air freight with only half of the transit time of conventional sea freight. Our scenario analysis further suggests that for shipping time-sensitive goods with lower cargo value ranging from 1.23 USD/kg to 10.89 USD/kg as well as goods with lower time sensitivity and higher value in a range of 2.46 USD/kg to 21.78 USD/kg, total logistics costs of Eurasian rail freight service rail is cheaper than all other modes of transport. Practical implications As an emerging competitive solution, Eurasian rail freight demonstrates to be an option beneficial in terms of transport cost, transit time, reliability and service availability, which offers a cost-efficient option enabling shippers to build up agile and more sustainable supply chains between China and Europe. Original/value Our study firstly provides a comprehensive assessment of present Eurasian rail freight including a thorough comparison with alternative modes of transport from a shipper’s point of view
Abstract: Purpose This paper presents an overview of the recent development of Eurasian rail freight in the Belt and Road era and further evaluates its service quality in terms of transit times and transport costs compared to other transport modes in containerised supply chains between Europe and China. Design/methodology/approach A trade-off model of transit time and transport costs based on quantitative data from primary and secondary sources is developed to demonstrate the market niche for Eurasian rail freight vis-a-vis the more established modes of transport of sea, air, and sea/air. In a scenario analysis, further cargo attributes influencing modal choice are employed to show for which cargo type Eurasian rail freight service is favourable from a shipper’s point of view. Findings At present, Eurasian rail freight is about 80% less expensive than air freight with only half of the transit time of conventional sea freight. Our scenario analysis further suggests that for shipping time-sensitive goods with lower cargo value ranging from 1.23 USD/kg to 10.89 USD/kg as well as goods with lower time sensitivity and higher value in a range of 2.46 USD/kg to 21.78 USD/kg, total logistics costs of Eurasian rail freight service rail is cheaper than all other modes of transport. Practical implications As an emerging competitive solution, Eurasian rail freight demonstrates to be an option beneficial in terms of transport cost, transit time, reliability and service availability, which offers a cost-efficient option enabling shippers to build up agile and more sustainable supply chains between China and Europe. Original/value Our study firstly provides a comprehensive assessment of present Eurasian rail freight including a thorough comparison with alternative modes of transport from a shipper’s point of view
Journal: International Journal of Logistics Management
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Hans-Joachim Schramm
The page was last edited by: Communications // 09/02/2020