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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...
Abstract: This article investigates the diverse and heterodox array of labour practices and economic activities in artistic work. Existing studies contend that artistic income is highly skewed, with the majority of artists living in poverty, and that artistic work is intermittent, project-by-project based and precarious, with artists juggling multiple jobs. However, these prevalent perspectives typically foreground only formal contractual employment while neglecting the variegated range of informal, alternative and relational economic practices. Building on a mixed method study of Danish visual artists’ livelihoods and drawing on the total social organization of labour perspective, the article maps a diverse spectrum of labour practices ranging from formal paid/unpaid work to informal cash-in-hand work and non-monetized barter exchanges, to wholly non-commodified everyday practices of mutual aid and favour-swapping, as well as ‘consumption work’ such as thrift and self-provisioning. Heterodox economic practices are the primary mode by which artists cope with and manage precarious artistic livelihoods.
Journal: Work, Employment and Society
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Ana Alacovska, Trine Bille
Abstract: Når vi forsøger at lede større organisationer ud fra nonhierarkiske principper, opstår værdimæssige spændingsfelter, som bringer medlemmerne på psykologisk overarbejde. For at få egalitære principper til at gå i samklang med hensyn til opgaveklarhed, gennemskuelige beslutningsprocesser og ansvarlighed i forhold til opdragsgivere og interessenter, må medlemmer være i stand til at udøve en balancekunst, som mildt sagt stiller store krav til deres modenhed. Denne artikel anlægger et udviklingspsykologisk perspektiv på de spændinger og udviklingstrin, som viser sig i forsøget på at organisere sig mindre hierarkisk.
Journal: Erhvervspsykologi
Published: December 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Klaus Majgaard
Abstract: This paper studies standard predictive regressions in economic systems governed by persistent vector autoregressive dynamics for the state variables. In particular, all – or a subset – of the variables may be fractionally integrated, which induces a spurious regression problem. We propose a new inference and testing procedure – the Local speCtruM (LCM) approach – for joint significance of the regressors, that is robust against the variables having different integration orders and remains valid regardless of whether predictors are significant and, if they are, whether they induce cointegration. Specifically, the LCM procedure is based on fractional filtering and band spectrum regression using a suitably selected set of frequency ordinates. Contrary to existing procedures, we establish a uniform Gaussian limit theory and a standard χ2-distributed test statistic. Using the LCM inference and testing techniques, we explore predictive regressions for the realized return variation. Standard least squares inference indicates that popular financial and macroeconomic variables convey valuable information about future return volatility. In contrast, we find no significant evidence using our robust LCM procedure. If anything, our tests support a reverse chain of causality, with rising financial volatility predating adverse innovations to key macroeconomic variables. Simulations are employed to illustrate the relevance of the theoretical arguments for finite-sample inference.
Journal: Journal of Econometrics
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Rasmus T. Varneskov
Abstract: This research analyzes the impact of Intellectual Capital (IC) on the financial performance (FP) of hotels in Mauritius using a sample 43 hotels for the period 2007 to 2017. This study departs from the related literature methodologically as it uses a dynamic panel data framework that takes into account the dynamic nature of the hypothesized link, while simultaneously catering for possible indirect and endogenous effects. The results show that IC enhances corporate FP, with a reported lower effect in the short run as compared to the long run. Asset turnover and size are the other important determinants of FP. Leverage, on the other hand, is observed to impact on FP adversely. Our findings also confirm that FP of the hotels is also a significant determinant of intellectual capital, suggesting the existence of reverse causal effects. Finally, there is also evidence that size positively influences intellectual capital.
Journal: Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Robin Nunkoo
Abstract: The financial crisis of 2008 resulted, among other, on a popular awareness that the monetary system was not working for the interest of the many. The blockchain technology that was launched soon after offered monetary activists and entrepreneurs a tool to re-imagine, re-claim and re-organize money along a vague ideal of a commons paradigm. A wave of monetary experimentation ensued that took a most concrete form in two entrepreneurial spaces: crypto-currencies with global ambitions and local currencies based on communal democracy. Seemingly distinct on the outset, both strands share a determination to develop a monetary system that serves the many. This has led participants on both sides to reach out toward each other. The article looks at one such attempt: the Sarafu community crypto-currencies in Kenya. These currencies are embedding the creation of money in traditional community savings groups. Using Eleanor Ostrom’s framework and building on interview and ethnographic material, the article identifies the economic logic of mutualization proper of the savings groups as one that transforms private assets (one’s savings) into a financial commons for the group. To build on this logic, the Sarafu model in-the-making is embedding the production and governance of the new community cryptocurrencies in these saving groups. In that doing, Sarafu has the potential to advance a new architecture of money. However, findings suggest that the standardization and automation of the new monetary rules through smart contracts impose neoliberal ideas that slipped into the code, risking the erosion of the very communal decision-making processes that made savings groups interesting anchors of a money commons in the first place.
Journal: Frontiers in Blockchain
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Ester Barinaga
Abstract: Energy poverty remains prevalent in many African countries, hindering economic development and exacerbating social inequalities. Simultaneously, population growth throughout the continent is expected to perpetuate the already high demand for basic energy services into the coming decades. Private sector finance is increasingly regarded as a necessary ingredient to remedy Africa’s energy challenges and to stimulate the adoption of renewable energy. However, investments remain insufficient for the burgeoning infrastructure requirements of the African economies. This paper seeks to delineate the financial and non-financial drivers of investment decisions to understand better the barriers to private participation in African renewable energy projects. Using a fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) approach, we evaluate country-level characteristics and their influence on investor decisions. Investor confidence in regulatory effectiveness is identified as the primary concern for investors. Local capacity building and policy instruments, designed to overcome institutional rigidities, are among the preferred solutions. The findings indicate that non-financial drivers contribute to understanding Africa’s private energy investment challenges.
Journal: Sustainability
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Tooraj Jamasb
Abstract: I forbindelse med årsrapporterne for 2020 skal de børsnoterede selskaber som noget nyt også aflægge en vederlagsrapport indeholdende en række detaljer om aflønningen til hvert medlem af bestyrelsen og direktionen. Dette betyder blandt andet, at selskabernes forskellige aktiebaserede incitamentsprogrammer skal værdiansættes. Denne artikel viser, at der blandt selskabernes aktiebaserede incitamentsprogrammer er en stigning i anvendelsen af programmer med betingede aktier og lignende. Disse opfattes af mange som mere simple end aktieoptionsprogrammer, men som det også vises i denne artikel, er eksempelvis værdiansættelsen af disse ret komplicerede. Disse resultater har betydning både i forhold til, hvorledes selskaberne afrapporterer om de anvendte aktieprogrammer og deres værdi, men har også en bredere relevans i forhold til, hvorledes disse programmer skal designes, og hvorledes de skabte incitamenter skal vurderes.
Journal: Finans/Invest
Published: December 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Ken L. Bechmann
Abstract: We suggest that the benefits of learning in international value chains for firms’ innovation performance are heterogeneous and depend on the specific source of learning (customers, suppliers, or competitors), whether these sources are based in countries that are technologically advanced or less advanced (learning opportunities), on technology leadership (learning capabilities) on the part of the focal firm, and on the simultaneous learning that occurs from domestic firms. Using direct survey evidence on learning and innovation by German firms, we confirm that technology leaders benefit from advanced foreign customer and supplier learning, that technology laggards benefit from less advanced foreign customer learning and advanced foreign competitor learning, and that both leaders and laggards benefit from domestic customer learning. The findings suggest a tradeoff between the opportunities to learn from foreign or domestic customers.
Journal: Industrial and Corporate Change
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Christoph Grimpe
Abstract: In practice, the calculation of workloads in different entities and the allocation of resources between such entities is often done using simple task weighting models. Different tasks are assigned weights and the total workload is the weighted sum of the tasks performed. Traditional approaches for establishing the weights, including the using of Delphi methods or detailed time-studies, are however expensive, and the resulting weights are often challenged by the evaluated entities. In this paper, we discuss how to mitigate these problems.
We study the problem within the context of the judiciary system. To ensure an efficient judiciary, it is usually considered necessary to have a reliable case weighting system (CWS). Different types of court cases, e.g. criminal versus civil cases, have different resource needs, and to get a relevant aggregate measure of the tasks at hand, it is therefore necessary to weight the different court cases, i.e. to construct a case mix corrected workload measure.
We suggest a “benefit-of-the-doubt” (BoD) approach inspired by recent developments in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). We allow for uncertain weights based on only partial information about the “true” weights, and we evaluate individual courts with the weights that put them in their most favorable light. In addition to making the weight setting easier and less disputable in applications, our approach dispenses with several limitations of a traditional weighted caseload approach, including the implicit assumptions of constant returns to scale and a constant rate of substitution between caseloads. Moreover, most of the applications of detailed case weights are still available using our BoD approach. We can continue to evaluate the efficiency of individual courts and device sound and fair resource allocation procedures that are robust to the remaining uncertainty about weights.
We illustrate our approach by several real-world applications and discuss relevant extensions and applications in other areas, including regulation.
Journal: Omega
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Peter Bogetoft
Abstract: In a recent paper, Bloom et al. (2020) find evidence for a substantial decline in research productivity in the U.S. economy during the last 40 years. In this paper, we replicate their findings for China and Germany, using detailed firm-level data spanning three decades. Our results indicate that diminishing returns in idea production are a global phenomenon, not just confined to the U.S.
Journal: Economics Letters
Published: December 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Paul Hünermund
Abstract: We develop a conditional capital asset pricing model in continuous time that allows for stochastic beta exposure. When beta comoves with market variance and the stochastic discount factor (SDF), beta risk is priced, and the expected return on a stock deviates from the security market line. The model predicts that low-beta stocks earn high returns, because their beta positively comoves with market variance and the SDF. The opposite is true for high-beta stocks. Estimating the model on equity and option data, we find that beta risk explains expected returns on low- and high-beta stocks, resolving the “betting against beta” anomaly.
Journal: Review of Financial Studies
Published: September 2020
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CBS researcher: Peter Christoffersen
Abstract: In this paper, we show evidence of a dramatic change in the structure and time-varying patterns of return connectedness across various assets (gold, crude oil, world equities, currencies, and bonds) around the COVID-19 outbreak. Using the TVP-VAR connectedness approach, the results show that the dynamic total connectedness across the five assets was moderate and quite stable until early 2020. After that, the total connectedness spikes and the structure of the network of connectedness alters, which concurs with the COVID-19 outbreak. The equity and USD indices are the primary transmitters of shocks before the outbreak, whereas the bond index becomes the main transmitters of shocks during the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the USD index is a net receiver of shocks to other assets during the outbreak period. Furthermore, using a recently developed newspaper-based index of uncertainty in financial markets due to infectious diseases to capture the recent impact of COVID-19, we find that connectedness is positively related to this index, and increases at higher levels (conditional quantiles) of connectedness. Overall, our results reflect the speedy disturbing effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, which matters to the formulations of policies seeking to achieve financial stability. The results also indicate a possibility to threaten investors’ portfolios and fade the benefits of diversification.
Journal: International Review of Financial Analysis
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Oguzhan Cepni
Abstract: Through a contents analysis of reporting in Denmark during 2008-2018, this article examines the transformational effect of mandatory NFR as a regulatory strategy. Based on a pilot study, the article contributes to the legal and organisational literature by exploring the under researched issue of the effect of mandatory NFR as a regulatory strategy to advance responsible business conduct by stimulating organisational transformation. NFR is typically viewed from an informational perspective, concerned with providing investors and other stakeholders with data relevant to their decisions concerning the company, or a transformational perspective, targeting internal learning and focused organisational change. The article provides novel understanding of the dynamics of a transformational approach based on stimulating organisational learning, as well as the effects of shifting to a disclosure orientation following the implementation of the NFRD. Based on the empirical analysis it concludes that the learning objective as well as the manner in which a NFR requirement is communicated in a legislative text or supporting guidelines are significant for the transformational potential and therefore regulatory effects of NFR.
Journal: International and Comparative Corporate Law Journal
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Karin Buhmann
Abstract: With its massive size, small population, and extreme climate, the Arctic is a highly relevant case for studying Search and Rescue (SAR) in remote and challenging environments. Climate change leads to increased shipping, tourism, and oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, creating new risks that need to be mitigated. The three major challenges to Arctic SAR are: (i) limited SAR capa-bilities, (ii) a multi-jurisdictional context with multiple Danish/Greenlandic and civilian/military authorities involved, and (iii) the need for coordination of a diverse set of organizational units operating both onshore and offshore. We use the case of a large-scale SAR exercise, LIVEX 2016, held off the west coast of Greenland, to explore these challenges from a three-tier analytical approach: Scalability, which investigates surge capacity in crisis management, Synchronization, which focuses on challenges related to the creation and maintenance of a situational picture during a SAR operation, and Speed of decision, which looks at how complex matters are managed in a multi-jurisdictional context under time pressure. Our findings show: (i) that surge capacity requires more focus on integration than activation, (ii), that actors must question information and challenge their own interpretations to maintain a synchronized situational awareness, and (iii) that urgency may result in a decrease of speed in decision-making.
Journal: Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Morten Thanning Vendelø
Abstract: We survey non-executive directors in emerging markets to obtain detailed information about the inner workings of corporate boards across a variety of institutional settings. We document substantial variation in the structure and conduct of boards as well as in directors' perceptions of the local legal environment. Our analysis indicates that directors who feel adequately empowered by local legislation are less likely to vote against board proposals. They also form boards that play a stronger role in the company's strategic decision-making. The evidence suggests that a supportive legal environment allows directors to focus more on their advisory role rather than on their monitoring role.
Journal: Emerging Markets Review
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Tom Kirchmaier
Abstract: This article examines the implementation of the European Union’s (EU) work-life balance directive in Denmark and Poland through examining the earmarking of paid parental leave. This enables us to assess whether the EU could be emerging as a gender equalizing regulatory welfare state (RWS). Our analysis points to tensions arising when regulatory decisions are made at a higher level of governance but require implementation and funding at lower levels of governance. In both countries, there are similar parental leave schemes ex-ante, and major actors had similar initial stances on parental leave, favoring stagnation. Yet the plans to implement show how the actors’ positions changed, and the likely result is extended parental leave, with payment (known as double expansion) and more gender-equal participation (degenderization) in parental leave. Although in two different institutional settings, the similar outcome suggests that these changes are due to the European Union acting as an emerging RWS, which influences Member States’ regulatory instruments with fiscal elements.
Journal: The Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science
Published: September 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Caroline de la Porte, Dorota Szelewa
Journal: Legislative Studies Quarterly
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: David Fortunato
Abstract: Online communities have emerged as important organizational forms, but there are many gaps in our understanding. In particular, researchers have mainly focused on individual-level drivers of behaviors in communities, while downplaying (formal, informal) context at various levels. We theorize that different dimensions of context (i.e. omnibus and discrete context) influence decision-making in online communities through mechanisms involving community members’ attention. Specifically, context influences which problems members perceive and which solutions they retrieve and apply, thereby shaping the process of matching solutions and problems. We derive four hypotheses about contribution behaviors in online communities and how such behaviors are influenced by context. The empirical setting for our study is the open-source software community. We find support for our hypotheses in a unique dataset that captures the behavior of 24,057 community members who used the SourceForge.net online platform from 2000 to 2002.
Journal: Industrial and Corporate Change
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Nicolai J. Foss, Lars Bo Jeppesen
Abstract: Extant literature on target-setting indicates that responding to achievability-related criticisms towards ex ante targets through repair actions are of significance in restoring fairness and maintaining the legitimacy of performance systems. By drawing on empirical materials on responses to unfairness criticisms raised against target-setting practices in a bank, the study shows that such legitimation work also requires responding to equity-related criticisms. Equity implies that, when situations differ, targets must be differentiated to make the intensity of efforts the same. This study shows that legitimately differentiating targets requires an original and highly complex commensuration work. This work is original because compared to prior commensuration studies it concerns the commensuration of efforts and not of entities. This work is complex because it is difficult to account for all differences during target-setting and because such differentiation can be made mechanically and discretionally, each form of differentiation bringing its own source of illegitimacy. Moreover, it is also complex because it is a distributed work, involving numerous actors with multiple concerns. Such commensuration work then appears to be continuous and dynamic. This complements prior studies in target-setting, which have focussed mainly on dyadic relations between a superior and a subordinate and on single-period adjustments to targets.
Journal: European Accounting Review
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Jan Mouritsen
Abstract: Purpose: The objective of the present research is to explore how firms, when engaged in collaborative new product development (NPD) activities, may be understood to be successful or unsuccessful in achieving ambidextrous processes. The study explores the organizational and managerial practices inside the firm and in the supply chain that enable or constrain the firm in reaching a balance between exploitation and exploration when engaged with NPD.
Design/methodology/approach: A case study approach was adopted with the ambition to develop new theoretical insight. Insights from multiple NPD projects in a single highly innovative firm were collected and coded.
Findings: The analysis shows how the organization of the NPD projects, alignment strategies, approaches to reward structure, supplier integration willingness and absorptive capacity were all formative in the firms' abilities to achieve ambidexterity in the NPD processes.
Originality/value: The presented research expands knowledge of how ambidextrous NPD processes can be reached. It demonstrates how a complex combination of factors and practices internal to the firm and concerning its supplier management strategies and practices enables or constrains ambidexterity in NPD processes. The results allow managers to devise more informed strategies and design decisions to enable NPD processes that reach adequate and simultaneous concerns for exploitation and exploration.
Journal: Business Process Management Journal
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Kim Sundtoft Hald
Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the economic consequences of aiming for sustainable procurement. The authors develop and apply a framework designed to identify and measure the risk-related cost trade-offs inherent in initiatives designed to improve sustainability in procurement.
Design/methodology/approach: The research uses a combined conceptual and case-based research method. A model is developed from theory; subsequently, it is applied using an action research approach and its limitations in use are identified.
Findings: Specifically, the authors develop and exemplify a framework designed to measure the risk-related cost impact of initiatives to improve sustainability in procurement and develop an initial list of difficulties and constraints when in use.
Research limitations/implications: This research presents one instance of a model that is applied in one single setting. The purpose is not to generalize, but to provide a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness between sustainability initiatives, risk mitigation and their economic effect. The framework and its calculation methods have to be further developed and refined using more case studies.
Practical implications: The model can provide initial inspiration and a starting point for firms with the ambition to develop business case models to assess initiatives to improve sustainability in procurement. Its main strength is to demonstrate the multiple cause–effect relationships as well as trade-offs involved in accounting for the risk related effect of a sustainable procurement initiative.
Originality/value: The presented research contributes to the existing literature by conceptually developing a framework with the potential of outlining the risk-related cost implications of investments initiatives designed to improve sustainability in procurement.
Journal: Measuring Business Excellence
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Kim Sundtoft Hald
Abstract: This paper looks at how the building industry can use the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) - to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. The research investigates SDG3-driven business model innovation for healthy buildings and the role of smart technology innovation in realizing the goal's implementation. It is based on an organizational ethnography of the VELUX Group and interviews from four business model innovation cases to illustrate how the industry can use SDG3 to create more sustainable and healthy buildings. The research finds that whereas SDG3 highlights the significance of human factors in the building industry, smart technologies support value creation based on formerly unmeasurable qualitative aspects like indoor health. Further, challenges to SDG3-based business model innovation underscore the need for expanded cross-sector collaboration in order to establish markets for the resultant smart, healthy building solutions. Public-private partnership for the smart and healthy renovation of public schools is identified as a promising way to stimulate wider market adoption.
Journal: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Lara Hale
Abstract: This article discusses the use of technologies in care. The context is nursing homes, and how the residents face the most sophisticated machinery relieving them from needs and also relieving the professionals from burdens related to care. This article will show how various forms of new technologies that are being implemented in modern nursing homes in Denmark, gives different voices to the people suffering from dementia.
Thereby the technology plays a significant role in the attempts to make it
possible for the dement to regain a kind of personhood. Observed in this way personhood is not something you either have or don’t have, it is something you achieve, and is, developed and maintained. In this case through the interaction between technologies and human element.
Journal: Sociologia e Politiche Sociali
Published: 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Anders la Cour
Abstract: An important policy discussion on joining the banking union is currently taking place in Denmark and Sweden. In this article we review the pros and cons of joining. The main rationale for joining the banking union is the importance of cross-border banking in the EU internal market. Reviewing the banking systems, we find that banks in Denmark and Sweden have the same cross-border characteristics as those in the euro area countries, suggesting a similar rationale for joining the banking union. Moreover, both countries have large banks which may be too big to save at country level, but not at the banking union level. Nevertheless, there are some governance concerns. While euro area countries have an automatic and full say in all banking union arrangements, the non-euro area countries (the ‘out’ countries) lack certain formal powers in ultimate decision-making; however, we find that this may be less of a problem in practice. If necessary, the ‘out’ countries would have the ‘nuclear option’ of leaving the banking union.
Journal: Journal of Financial Regulation
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Svend Erik Hougaard Jensen
Abstract: According to the 2018 Mercer Global Pension Index, the pension systems of Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands are the best three in the world. They ensure a minimum old age income for all and provide relatively high replacement rates for a large majority of citizens. At the same time, their fiscal sustainability is relatively robust with respect to population aging. This article seeks to identify differences and similarities between these three pension systems, including the institutional framework within which they operate. The authors emphasize the collective and compulsory nature of the earnings-related pension schemes and the important role for social partners in decision making as their common elements of success. They also discuss the most important challenges these systems face, namely, how to maintain the legitimacy of their decision-making processes given declining unionization and how to avoid restricting individual choices too much.
Journal: The Journal of Retirement
Published: September 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Svend Erik Hougaard Jensen
Abstract: We find that segments of society that have shorter life expectancy can expect a lower income from their pensions and lifetime utility due to the longevity of other groups participating in the same pension scheme. Linking the pension age to average life expectancy magnifies the negative effect on the lifetime utility of those who suffer low longevity. Furthermore, when the income of those with greater longevity increases, those with shorter life expectancy become even worse off. Conversely, when the income of those with shorter life expectancy increases, they end up paying more into the pension scheme, which benefits those who live longer. The relative sizes of the low‐ and high‐longevity groups in the population determine the magnitude of these effects. We calibrate the model based on data on differences in life expectancy of different socioeconomic groups and find that low‐income workers suffer from a 10–13% drop in pension benefits from being forced to pay into the same scheme as high‐income workers.
Journal: Economica
Published: December 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Gylfi Zoega, Svend Erik Hougaard Jensen
Abstract: Managerial coaching is an important and arguably emblematic example of the transformation of managerial techniques that has occurred in the last decades, where more equal work relations and empowerment of employees is increasingly promoted. In the literature on managerial coaching, the role of the manager-coach is to open up a space for the employee to formulate her desires and attempt to clear the way for their realization. Tensions between the desire of employees and that of managers, although to some degree acknowledged in parts of the literature, is not sufficiently addressed. Furthermore, there is a marked lack of recognition of how the fact that coaching takes place in the context of hierarchical organizations, operating on markets with the aim of creating profit, affect the praxis of managerial coaching. We address these issues by conducting a Lacanian discourse analysis of managerial coaching literature, and show that it operates with a paradoxical notion of autonomy: The autonomy of employees is only called upon in so far as it can be aligned with the aims of management. Through a transposition of Lacan’s four discourses, we furthermore situate the phenomena of managerial coaching in the context of the history of management forms. We argue that managerial coaching is emblematic of a shift from what Lacan calls the University discourse (under Taylorist management), to what is best understood as a semblance of the psychoanalytical discourse. It is only a semblance, since the manager-coach in reality retains the position of master in relation to employees.
Journal: Distinktion
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Mikkel Dehlholm
Abstract: This article contributes to the theory of rhetorical institutionalism (Green & Li, 2011) by considering the relationship between institutional entrepreneurs and the institutional fields in which they operate as configured by rhetorical strategies. Thus, we posit that the legitimacy of institutional entrepreneurs and institutional fields, respectively, is an inherently rhetorical construct (Suddaby & Greenwood, 2005), whereby rhetorical engagement becomes central to the establishment, maintenance, and reform of institutions (Brown, Ainsworth & Grant, 2012; Green, Babb & Alpaslan, 2008). Working with an illustrative case of the Co-operative Bank's financial distress and leadership scandal, we identify three particular strategies of rhetorical engagement with competing institutional logics, which we label convergence, conflict, and divergence. Thus, we add to the theory of rhetorical institutionalism by arguing, broadly, that institutional fields are arenas of rhetorical engagement between competing institutional logics and identifying, more specifically, three rhetorical strategies for constituting institutional legitimacy.
Journal: Communication Theory
Published: June 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Sara Dahlman
Abstract: Covid-19 has triggered a resurgence of interest in Albert Camus’ book, The Plague. The novel is a complex narrative of an epidemic, stressing the human factor in addressing a social crisis as well as how individuals experience the personal drama of quarantine, isolation and death. These existentialist tropes have powerful resonance in the age of Covid-19. However, Covid’s interlocking with structural violence worldwide requires a different engagement with The Plague beyond an aesthetics of suffering and hope. Both Camus’ book and Covid-19 intersect with structural violence and suffering which are mediated differentially. Covid-19 intensifies other social catastrophes feeding on the ruins of structural inequality and the racism that condemns the marginalised to loss of agency, social apartheid and disposability. It also lays bare the necropolitics of neoliberalism – its power to dictate life and death undergirded by racialised, class, gendered and neocolonial logics. We witness emerging cartographies of power combined with virulent nationalism, authoritarianism and xenophobia. The Covid crisis is also likely to expand disaster capitalism, digital imperialism and algorithmic surveillance, further entrenching racial, class and gender hierarchies. If humanity is to avoid the pitfalls of these myriad fields of disaster intervention, what is needed is reflective analysis that has to aim at major societal change, at decolonisation that ends systemic abandon and racist structural violence. Camus’ book fails to assist this.
Journal: Race & Class
Published: December 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Robert Phillipson
Abstract: How might emancipatory teaching practices look like in the context of the business school, when the meaning of the subject of emancipation, the human being, has become unsettled? Our philosophical essay addresses this question by excavating Jacques Rancière’s conception of intellectual emancipation and showing its practical relevance for experiments with emancipatory teaching in a business school environment. Speaking from within a tradition where the meaning of human is irrevocably unsettled, Rancière, remarkably, still insists on an essential link between emancipation and humanism – although in a minimal version. First, we show why and how Rancière’s analyses of emancipation are united by the common concern to affirm such a minimal humanism. Thereafter, we describe how three features sets intellectual emancipation apart from social and aesthetic emancipation and makes it pertinent to take intellectual emancipation to school: The possibility and intention to emancipate others, the acknowledgement of the constructive role of reason herein, and the significance of teacher authority in doing so. Lastly, we move beyond and problematize Rancière’s clear conceptual account of intellectual emancipation by extracting three heuristic pedagogical devices from it and by recounting their confrontation with the messy details of our teaching practice at the business school.
Journal: Management Learning
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Mads Kogut, Morten Sørensen Thaning
Abstract: Two views, inspired by Alf Ross, are sometimes raised against law and economics. One is that consequential analysis has no role in legal science, the task of which is to predict court verdicts. The other is that normative criteria involving fairness or social welfare are meaningless. I argue that the former view rests on a misreading of Ross, who in fact called for the development of law and economics. As for normative criteria, I argue in favor of a pragmatic approach, which inquires whether normative concepts can affect our views of the desirability of a legal rule or verdict.
Journal: Kritisk Juss
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Henrik Lando
Abstract: The credit default swap (CDS) remains an important class of derivatives contract despite the declining activity in the single-name corporate market. I provide a quick introduction to the contracts, the pricing formula used to interpret the market premiums, the development in trading volumes, and some key insights that are important for understanding its role in markets. I then take a closer look at the CDS-bond basis and the role of trading and regulatory frictions. Finally, the European sovereign debt crisis brought back in focus the notion of a quanto spread, which I explain.
Journal: Annual Review of Financial Economics
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Henrik Lando
Abstract: Purpose: This paper aims to introduce and advocate the concept of resource commitment to better understand multinational enterprise (MNE) research and development (R&D) behavior. Design/methodology/approach: Adopting a theory adaptation research design, this paper assesses the characteristics and antecedents associated with varying resource commitment positions. It does so in relation to MNE R&D activities, considering their importance to firm competitiveness and the recent increases in the number of locations and innovative activities a firm might choose to invest in. Findings: The paper presents a framework showing that differences in resource commitment are more nuanced than expected. The evaluation of antecedents shows that the external environment, the purpose of R&D activities and firm experience influence the resource commitment position of a firm’s R&D activities. Originality/value: The paper provides a pathway toward understanding of MNE R&D behavior, explaining observable differences in resource and commitment levels of R&D units. The presented framework offers MNE managers insight into when to adopt which resource commitment positions. It offers policymakers insights into the type of activities and the companies they need to attract to maximize the added value of firm’s investments in their country/region.
Journal: Multinational Business Review
Published: Decemer 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Niels le Duc
Abstract: Under far-reaching reforms, many cities have delegated core tasks previously delivered by their administrations to independent organisations that they formally own, e.g. municipal companies, or supervise, e.g. municipal trust funds. The coordination of these (as we call them) ‘domestic’ city organisations has proven challenging. Extant literature argues that such coordination is achieved through a mix of various hierarchical, market and network mechanisms. Yet it is unclear how these modes are combined. Addressing this gap, we ask: How do governance modes interact in the hybrid coordination of domestic city organisations? Analysing the case of Vienna, where 100 domestic organisations employ about 60,000 people, we find that while cultural mechanisms, rooted in the network mode, are predominant, they unfold in the shadow of latent structural mechanisms, which are associated with hierarchy and market. In the background, structural mechanisms keep cultural coordination effective, while cultural mechanisms allow structural coordination to remain (generally) hidden. This study aims to contribute to the literature on the governance of public organisations by exploring the relationship between governance modes as well as furthering urban governance studies by applying insights from studies on the coordination of public organisations to the city context.
Journal: Urban Studies
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Renate E. Meyer
Abstract: Common wisdom suggests that high-risk strategies will be associated with high expected returns, and vice versa. Focusing on the effect of new-product development on firm performance, in this paper we argue that this relationship may reverse in a market undergoing substantial institutional transition. We examine domestic pharmaceutical firms in China during the 1990s and find that, in this context, introducing new products was associated with lower average firm profitability but higher variance. In conformity with our predictions, these relationships were stronger in areas where the rate of institutional change was higher and for product types that take longer to develop. Thus, we explain why, for particular strategic actions, high risk may be associated with low returns. A key conceptual corollary of these findings—also for strategic management research in general—is that firms may sometimes be more focused on the potential upside of their actions than on the expected value of those actions.
Journal: Academy of Management Journal
Published: May 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Xu Li
Abstract: Recently, individual states have decided to restrict COVID-19 financial aid measures to those who have paid taxes to said state thus generally excluding those who are working cash-in-hand/unreported employment, unemployed, students, or retired. #is contribution assesses COVID-19 financial support packages with an emphasis on common state aid features targeting individuals with the intention to critically evaluate if, when, and how these measures discriminate against the socio-economic status of the recipient. #e impact that COVID-19 has had on income-generating activities is especially harsh for unprotected workers and the most vulnerable groups in the informal economy. #e preliminary results of this study indicate that impoverished and vulnerable groups such as immigrants, cash-in hand workers/unreported workers, unemployed, students, and pensioners are not only at risk of losing their sources of income due to the pandemic’s economic effects, but they are also excluded from receiving crucial financial aid. #is illustrates that there is great need for a revision of national COVID-19 policies and budget allocations in order to ensure a more equitable protection of individuals.
Journal: Europarättslig tidskrift
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Yvette Lind
Abstract: Ongoing globalization and increased taxpayer mobility not only exacerbate already existing shortcomings when allocating taxing rights but also legal mismatches in regard of access to welfare benefits and voting rights. All three legal areas (taxation, access to welfare benefits and voting rights) are of importance for those individuals who choose to cross-border work or relocate themselves to another state on a more permanent basis. The extent of this importance will, naturally, vary between taxpayer groups due to individual circumstances and needs. Yet some more general deductions may still be made.
This paper identifies and analyses, through a traditional legal study, legal mismatches between taxation, access to welfare benefits and voting rights in Sweden. These three legal areas are analysed through the application of a taxpayer case study consisting of six classical taxpayer groups commonly found within international taxation. The result of the study illustrates that there are apparent mismatches between taxpayer groups, some more comprehensible than others.
In conclusion, mobile individuals may as a result of disparities between tax allocation, formal citizenship and voting privileges contribute financially to a state yet not having the possibility 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 is therefore 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, reaching from high-net individuals to state-less persons seeking asylum, subject to individual circumstances and needs. The paper in itself form part of a larger body of work, done under the umbrella of Political (Tax) equity in a global context, in which I explore how increased taxpayer mobility challenges not only traditional legal frameworks associated to taxation but also the allocation of political rights and benefits. The traditional perception of citizenship as the basis for voting rights is, as is illustrated through various publications linked to the project, found inadequate when dealing with mobile taxpayers.
Journal: Florida Tax Review
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Yvette Lind
Abstract: This article explores the performance of agency within the context of unequal power resources and structural constraint. Based on 23 video‐recorded placement meetings in three homeless shelters, we find that participants' agency is the outcome of both collaboration and resistance. To avoid interaction that fails to empower, social actors engage in “repair work” and face‐saving practices. When clients display “wrong face”—that is, bring problems to the table that are not considered “reasonable”—then the service providers engage in “repair work.” Participants turn conflict into collaborative agency because interactions that fail to deliver mutually empowering forms of agency have costs for both: clients' problems are not solved, and service providers fail to reach organizational goals.
Journal: Symbolic Interaction
Published: December 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Nanna Mik-Meyer
Abstract: In this paper, I discuss possible avenues for future research aimed at bridging the research-practice gap on the topic of disruptions in human resources (HR). I focus on three global mega-trends—the flexible workforce, the digitalization of business models, and artificial intelligence and machine learning—and examine their influence on the field of human resource management (HRM) in general and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. I discuss why HRM research has overlooked potential paradigm-shifting possibilities that could ultimately equip HR practitioners with the knowledge needed to respond to disruptions caused by these mega-trends.
Journal: Human Resource Management Review
Published: December 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Dana Minbaeva
Abstract: This chapter addresses the relationship between the theory and practice of CSR (corporate social responsibility) and corporate tax avoidance. We argue that CSR scholars and practitioners only recently have begun to address matters of taxation and provide some explanations for this failure or neglect, ranging from silo-mentality to different ideologies regarding business and society. Furthermore we argue that CSR can be considered both as a problem and a solution in regard to corporate tax avoidance and develop both lines of reasoning. With regard to the solutions part, we argue that companies should exercise self-restraint in the face of legal loopholes and be responsive to and engaged with tax authorities and the spirit of the law—and that a responsible approach to corporate taxation can find justification in a political view of the corporation and its social responsibilities.
Journal: FIRE Journal: UCPH Fiscal Relations Law Journal
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Jeremy Moon, Steen Vallentin
Abstract: The pervasive influence of social media on our lives provides new opportunities to study residents’ attitudes to tourism. Even though it is now common for residents to express their opinions and read about tourism development on social media, the consequences of this for their attitudes remain to be understood. This article uses the analytical perspectives of the information society and draws from the elaboration likelihood model, the influence of presumed influence model, and the social exchange theory to develop a causal-chain framework that considers the influence of social media on residents’ attitudes to tourism. Twenty-five research propositions emanate from the conceptual framework. The framework examines the direct as well as indirect influence of social media tourism messages on residents’ attitudes. It also recognizes users as the receivers and expressers of pro- as well as anti-tourism messages on social media. Our framework is theoretically inclusive, providing a reference to scholars and stimulating new ideas for future research on social media and residents’ attitudes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that provides the necessary theoretical foundations and a conceptual framework to study residents’ attitudes to tourism in an information era intensified by the growth of social media.
Journal: Journal of Sustainable Tourism
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Robin Nunkoo
Abstract: Distributed collaboration has become increasingly common across many domains, ranging from software development, to information processing, to the creative arts, to entertainment. At the time of writing, the adoption of Distributed Collaboration has thrust into the limelight as organizations across the globe are forced to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, researchers have applied a myriad of terms to define these operations, we first addressed this issue by developing a definition of Distributed Collaboration which is representative of all its forms. Existing research has identified several factors that contribute to the success of Distributed Collaborations. Yet these factors are typically discussed in modular theoretical terms, meaning researchers and practitioners often struggle to identify and synthesize literature spanning multiple domains and perspectives. This research performs a systematic literature review to bring together core findings into one amalgamated model. This model categorizes the contributing factors for Distributed Collaboration along two axes (i) whether they are social or material (ii) whether they are endemic or relational. The relationships between factors is also explicitly discussed. The model further links these contributing factors to different collaborative outcomes, specifically mutual learning, relationship building, communication, task completion speed, access to skilled personnel, and cost savings.
Journal: Communications of the Association for Information Systems
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Rob Gleasure
Abstract: In German, past participles not only occur in root position with a directive force, as in Stillgestanden! ‘Stop!’ lit. ‘stood still(ptcp)’, but also as performatives in responses: A: Du sagst also nichts zu Papi. ‘So you won’t tell dad.’ B: Versprochen! ‘I promise!’ lit. ‘promised(ptcp)’. Here B performs the speech act denoted by the verb by saying that it has been performed. The propositional argument of the participle (what is promised) is resolved contextually, and the agent and the recipient arguments are restricted to the speaker and the hearer, respectively. This article presents a syntactic analysis of this rarely studied phenomenon, arguing that the construction with a performative participle is not ellipsis but an IP with a participial head and null pronominal complements. The syntactic analysis is formalized within Lexical-Functional Grammar. A pragmatic analysis is proposed arguing that the performative participle in its core use alternates with Yes! to express agreement with an assertion or compliance with a request, that is, to express consent to the effect that a proposition p may safely be added to the Common Ground. This analysis is cast within the dialogue framework of Farkas & Bruce (2010) and extended to response performative participles in monological uses.
Journal: Journal of Germanic Linguistics
Published: December 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Bjarne Ørsnes
Abstract: The ignition of the Faroese oil dream came in September 1992 when the Faroese Prime Minister Atli P. Dam returned to the Faroe Islands from a negotiation with the Danish Government and the Danish Prime Minister Poul Schlüter with an agreement stating that the subsoil and potential resources would transfer from Danish to Faroese affairs. Today, 28 years later and after nine oil exploration drillings in the Faroese offshore subsoil, oil in commercial quantities for further development and production is yet to be found. However, the oil dream has affected the Faroese society where great socioeconomic changes have occurred. This article tells the story about the dream that changed the Faroe Islands. The article arrives at a conclusion and a discussion of how this dream fits into the contemporary expectations of the future.
Journal: Økonomi og Politik
Published: December 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Árni Jóhan Petersen
Abstract: Exploring how transnational environmental governance and the operation of global value chains (GVCs) intersect is key in explaining the circumstances under which mandatory disclosure can improve the environmental footprint of business operations. We investigate how the governance dynamics of the tanker shipping value chain (a major emitter of greenhouse gases) limits the effectiveness of the European Union (EU) monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) regulation, which mandates the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions for ships calling at EU ports. Although MRV seeks to help shipowners and ship managers save fuel and reduce emissions, it does not address the complexity of power relations along the tanker shipping value chain and currently cannot disentangle how different actors influence the design, operational, commercial, and ocean/weather factors that together determine fuel consumption. In particular, the EU MRV neglects to reflect on how oil majors exert their power and impose their commercial priorities on other actors, and thus co-determine fuel use levels. We conclude that, in its current form, the EU MRV is unlikely to lead to significant environmental upgrading in tanker shipping. More generally, we argue that regulators seeking to facilitate environmental upgrading need to expand their focus beyond the unwanted behaviors of producers of goods and providers of services to also address the incentive structures and demands placed on them by global buyers.
Journal: Global Environmental Politics
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: René Taudal Poulsen, Stefano Ponte
Abstract: Niklas Luhmann's theory of social systems is based on two revolutionary ideas: firstly, that the social world should be conceptualized as consisting of nothing but communications; and secondly, that communications are produced not by human beings but by the network of communications of which they are part. We discuss the insights that can be gained by applying this theory to the study of strategic management. We show that it leads to a reconceptualization of central issues concerning strategy process, strategy content, and strategy context. On this basis, we offer an outline of a framework for studying strategic management from a Luhmannian perspective. This new framework highlights the paradoxical nature of strategizing and conceptualizes strategic management as meta-communication in organizations.
Journal: Critical Perspectives on Accounting
Published: December 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Andreas Rasche
Abstract: Artiklen undersøger arbejdsgiverens ansvar i henhold til ligebehandlingslovens forbud mod seksuel chikane, når en ansat på arbejdspladsen udsættes for seksuel chikane af en kollega eller en tredjemand. Det konkluderes, at en arbejdsgiver er forpligtet til at reagere med effektive tiltag, der er egnede til at bringe den seksuelle chikane til ophør, når der opnås viden om, at en ansat udsættes for seksuel chikane. Karakteren af disse tiltag afhænger af de konkrete krænkelsers beskaffenhed, men forudsættes ikke alene rettet mod krænkeren. Et synspunkt om, at en arbejdsgiver - ud over reaktionspligten - også er forpligtet til at forebygge, at seksuel chikane opstår på arbejdspladsen, ses gjort gældende i nyere retspraksis. Artiklen konkluderer i relation hertil, at det er uklart, om en sådan forebyggelsesforpligtelse følger af forbuddet mod seksuel chikane i ligebehandlingsloven eller alene følger af den arbejdsmiljøretlige regulering. Endelig afklaring heraf må afvente domstolenes, herunder eventuelt EU-Domstolens, stillingtagen eller lovgivningsinitiativer. Uanset om pligten til forebyggelse finder sin hjemmel i ligebehandlingsloven eller i den arbejdsmiljøretlige regulering, konkluderer artiklen, at yderligere præcisering af indholdet af pligten til forebyggelse er formålstjenlig.
Journal: Juristen
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Maria E. R. Rasmussen
Abstract: Integrating a broad range of information types and finding trade-offs between conflicting goals is a challenge in global supply chain network design (GSCND). Effective decision support systems (DSS) should be user-friendly, provide transparency, and support human judgement. There is a wide range of optimisation models that aim to improve the outcome of network design decisions. However, their practical performance often remains unknown, as their implementation into the managerial decision process is largely neglected. Such theory-driven models usually focus on single aspects of the decision, without being able to accommodate the practical problem comprehensively. We employ the CIMO approach to resolve the issue and contribute by showing how an integration involving these methods can be useful for managers once the proper knowledge transfer has been effectuated. An innovative decision support framework, which combines mixed-integer linear programming, the Analytical Hierarchy Process, and the Pareto front is created and analysed during a case study in the med-tech industry. Results show that the framework accommodates managerial experience, integrates qualitative as well as quantitative criteria, and provides transparency over the entire range of efficient solutions. The framework and application results contribute towards the development of more flexible and easy-to-use decision support systems for GSCND.
Journal: International Journal of Production Research
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Aseem Kinra
Abstract: In this editorial, we plea for radicalizing diversity research by re‐engaging with the notion of class. We argue that theories of class, which are today seldom used in critical diversity research, have the potential to conceptualize the relationship between difference and power in ways that go beyond the current focus on equality within capitalist organizations. Theories of class radicalize diversity research by providing a conceptual vocabulary to ground the critique of diversity in the critique of capitalism. To highlight this potential, we first reconstruct the ideological historical context of the 1980s in which diversity research emerged, re‐embedding it in a broader political project to restructure the economy, work and society as a whole. We then present four main uses of the concept of class in management and organization studies and the theoretical traditions that underpin them. We go on to introduce the four contributions to this Special Section, illustrating how class, variously understood, can inform critical understandings of diversity. We conclude by leveraging class within four strategies for more radical diversity scholarship: classing workers, occupations, and workplaces; classing diversity; classing meritocracy; and classing struggles for social justice.
Journal: Gender, Work and Organization
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Lotte Holck
Abstract: Using a quantitative theoretical framework this paper analyzes how problems of self-control influence housing and mortgage decisions. The results show that people with stronger problems of self-control are less likely to become homeowners, even though houses serve as commitment for saving. The paper then investigates the welfare effects of regulating mortgage products if people differ in their degree of self-control. Holding house prices fixed, higher down payment requirements and restrictions on refinancing turn out to be beneficial to people with sufficiently strong problems of self-control, even though these policies restrict access to the commitment device.
Journal: Review of Financial Studies
Published: September 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Kathrin Schlafmann
Abstract: As a result of the OECD/G20 project on base erosion and profit shifting as well as the adoption of the EU anti-tax avoidance directive, many countries have recently introduced or strengthened general anti-avoidance rules (GAARs) in their tax treaties and domestic tax legislations. Arguably, such general anti-avoidance rules are turning the responsibility to obey the spirit of the law from a CSR expectation into a legal obligation. Against this background, it is discussed whether CSR can or should (still) play an important role with respect to measuring and guiding MNEs’ tax planning behaviour. It is concluded that the widespread use of GAARs cannot be expected to eliminate or significantly reduce the need for CSR considerations and guidance - at least not in the foreseeable future, inter alia because these provisions bring along significant interpretive uncertainty and cannot be expected to prevent all tax planning that compromises the spirit of the tax legislation. Accordingly, instead of downplaying the role of CSR and responsible business conduct, it is suggested to update the chapter on taxation in the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in order to provide better and more detailed guidance on how MNEs should strike a proper balance between tax planning and CSR.
Journal: FIRE Journal: UCPH Fiscal Relations Law Journal
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Peter Koerver Schmidt, Karin Buhmann
Abstract: I artiklen analyseres en række nyere domme om skatteundgåelse afsagt af den danske Højesteret. På baggrund heraf konkluderes det, at Højesteret – i sager om skatteundgåelse – er villig til at inddrage en række bredere hensyn i den helhedsbetragtning, som Højesteret typisk anlægger. Der argumenteres i forlængelse heraf for, at Højesterets tilgang i sager om skatteundgåelse kan karakteriseres som pragmatisk, og at retspragmatismen derfor kan fungere som en brugbar forklaringsmodel. Denne erkendelse kan forbedre mulighederne for at forstå og forudse Højesterets ageren i vanskelige sager om skatteundgåelse.
Journal: Kritisk Juss
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Peter Koerver Schmidt
Abstract: Purpose: This article explores the analytical gains of what we refer to as “awkward ethnography.” How might our understanding of organizational phenomena benefit from those unexpected moments when our observations are laughed at, when our questions cause discomfort, or when we feel like a failure? While such instances seem to be an inherent aspect of organizational ethnography, they are often silenced or camouflaged by claims of intentionality. This article takes the opposite approach, arguing for the analytical value of awkwardness.
Design/methodology/approach: The authors draw on their respective ethnographic fieldwork in the Danish and Swedish armed forces. Based on observations, participation and interviews in two military units, the analysis focuses on situations that rarely find their way into final research publications. These will be explored as analytically productive material that can provide crucial insights into the organizational context studied.
Findings: The authors’ analysis demonstrates that awkward situations that arise during ethnographic work not only bring about unforeseen insights; they also enable vital analytical opportunities for discovering silent knowledge in the organization which researchers might otherwise not have considered to inquire about or understood the gravity of.
Research limitations/implications: Implied in the suggested methodological approach for ethnographers is an acceptance of awkward situations as productive encounters. This means doing away with ideals for (ethnographic) knowledge production steered by notions of objectivity, instead embracing the affective dimensions of fieldwork.
Originality/value: This research addresses a key, and often silenced, aspect of ethnographic fieldwork, and stresses the unique value of the unintended and unexpected when doing ethnography.
Journal: Journal of Organizational Ethnography
Published: December 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Beate Sløk-Andersen
Abstract: The reduction of Greenhouses gasses (GHG) and other air emissions represents a major challenge for ports. The world over, however, ports vary considerably in their efforts to reduce air emissions, and the causes for this variation remain under-researched. This paper examines the drivers for the adoption of air emissions abatement measures in a sample of 93 of the world’s largest ports, covering all continents and mobile emitters. We test five hypotheses with a Linear Probability Model to disentangle the impacts of key port characteristics on the current adoption of abatement measures and identify three key drivers for adoption: Population density, the port landlord business model, and a specialization in servicing container shipping. We also find that ports are more likely to implement specific bundles of measures, in particular combining pricing and new energy sources. Our work has implications for ports, as we suggest that they should coordinate abatement efforts to achieve effectiveness in their work.
Journal: Transportation Research. Part D: Transport & Environment
Published: January 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Henrik Sornn-Friese, René Taudal Poulsen, Peter de Langen
Abstract: Motivated by the stereological problem of volume estimation from parallel section profiles, the so-called Newton-Cotes integral estimators based on random sampling nodes are analyzed. These estimators generalize the classical Cavalieri estimator and its variant for non-equidistant sampling nodes, the generalized Cavalieri estimator, and have typically a substantially smaller variance than the latter. The present paper focuses on the following points in relation to Newton-Cotes estimators: the treatment of dropouts, the construction of variance estimators, and, finally, their application in volume estimation of convex bodies.
Dropouts are eliminated points in the initial stationary point process of sampling nodes, modeled by independent thinning. Among other things, exact representations of the variance are given in terms of the thinning probability and increments of the initial points under two practically relevant sampling models. The paper presents a general estimation procedure for the variance of Newton-Cotes estimators based on the sampling nodes in a bounded interval. Finally, the findings are illustrated in an application of volume estimation for three-dimensional convex bodies with sufficiently smooth boundaries.
Journal: Image Analysis and Stereology
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Mads Stehr
Abstract: We consider the problem of numerical integration when the sampling nodes form a stationary point process on the real line. In previous papers it was argued that a naïve Riemann sum approach can cause a severe variance inflation when the sampling points are not equidistant. We show that this inflation can be avoided using a higher-order Newton–Cotes quadrature rule which exploits smoothness properties of the integrand. Under mild assumptions, the resulting estimator is unbiased and its variance asymptotically obeys a power law as a function of the mean point distance. If the Newton–Cotes rule is of sufficiently high order, the exponent of this law turns out to only depend on the point process through its mean point distance. We illustrate our findings with the stereological estimation of the volume of a compact object, suggesting alternatives to the well-established Cavalieri estimator.
Journal: Advances in Applied Probability
Published: December 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Mads Stehr
Abstract: I professionssociologien er professioners kontrol af deres virke længe blevet forstået i modsætning til bureaukratisk og økonomisk kontrol. Nyere studier argumenterer imidlertid for, at særligt New Public Management reformer har ført til en hybridisering eller opløsning af en sådan dikotomi. I denne artikel undersøger vi lægers samfundsøkonomiske ansvar i to væsentlige perioder i velfærdsstatens udvikling, hvor økonomisk recession har været med til at problematisere styringen af sundhedsvæsenet og lægernes rolle. I 1930’erne fi nder vi, at lægernes rolle redefi neres med udvidelsen af sygekassesystemet, der stadfæstede lægegerningen som et offentligt embede og påbød lægerne at mediere borgernes og statens økonomiske interesser. I 1970’erne udfordres den klassiske lægerolle yderligere med krav om øget omkostningsbevidsthed, administrativt overblik og socialmedicinsk udsyn. I begge perioder reagerer lægerne på ansvarstildelingen ved at efterspørge tydeligere regulatoriske rammer og politisk prioritering, som kan guide deres professionelle vurderinger, når de pålægges at forvalte offentligt fi nansierede sundhedsydelser. Vores analyse viser, at velfærdsstatens udvikling og professionsdannelsen er gensidigt konstituerende, og at lægerne også før New Public Management påtog sig samfundsøkonomisk ansvar og kalkulative praksisser, som en udvidet men integreret del af deres lægefaglige embede. Studiet bidrager dermed til at nuancere den klassiske professionssociologiske forståelse af forholdet mellem stat og profession
Journal: Tidsskrift for Arbejdsliv
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Kirstine Zinck Pedersen
Abstract: Lack of concept clarification based on concept modelling results in inappropriate term use and inefficient information and communication technology. In this contribution, we refer to the fire aboard the ship Scandinavian Star in 1990 and the terror attack at Utøya in 2011 as examples. We establish a terminological ontology for 46 Danish concepts included in an alphabetically organized term list on incident management by the Danish Emergency Management Agency (DEMA). Based on this ontology, the main aim is to demonstrate how terminological principles may form the basis for creating structured data, which may support a common understanding of domain‐specific key concepts which again is a prerequisite for successful and well‐functioning disaster management systems. The terminological method will be explained, focusing on terminological ontologies and terminological definitions reflecting the semantic structure of the domain. Further, we illustrate the use of technology for knowledge modelling and sharing, and we briefly describe how the results of terminology work may be stored in a term bank in order to support common understanding and efficient communication. Moreover, terminological ontologies may lay the foundation for data models for disaster management systems, technologies involving Artificial Intelligence, and building blocks of semantic technologies.
Journal: Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management
Published: December 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Bodil Nistrup Madsen
Abstract: Most of the theories that have dominated supply chain management (SCM) take a reductionist and static view on the supply chain and its management, promoting a global hunt for cheap labor and resources. As a result, supply chains tend to be operated without much concern for their broader contextual environment. This perspective overlooks that supply chains have become both vulnerable and harmful systems. Recent and ongoing crises have emphasized that the structures and processes of supply chains are fluid and interwoven with political‐economic and planetary phenomena. Building on panarchy theory, this article reinterprets the supply chain as a social‐ecological system and leaves behind a modernist view of SCM, replacing it with a more contemporary vision of “dancing the supply chain.” A panarchy is a structure of adaptive cycles that are linked across different levels on scales of time, space, and meaning. It represents the world’s complexities more effectively than reductionist and static theories ever could, providing the basis for transformative SCM.
Journal: Journal of Supply Chain Management
Published: November 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Andreas Wieland
Abstract: In this paper, we prove the necessity of a terminal condition for a solution of the Bellman Equation to be the value function in dynamic optimization problems with unbounded payoffs. We also state the weakest sufficient condition, which can be applied in a large class of problems, including economic growth, resource extraction, or human behaviour during an epidemic. We illustrate the results by examples, including simple linear–quadratic problems and problems of resource extraction, with multiple solutions to the Bellman Equation or the maximizer of the right hand side of the Bellman Equation with the actual value function being the worst control instead of being optimal.
Journal: Automatica
Published: January 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Rajani Singh