Spotlight on new research publications in April
04/01/2022
Photo: Bjarke MacCarthy
Are you a journalist, researcher or simply interested in academic articles on business and culture?
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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...
Value-capture in Digital Servitization
Abstract: Purpose
Digital capabilities in operations and delivery through constant data acquisition and future predictions have accelerated digital servitization through reduced uncertainty. New flexibility in value-capture concepts like dynamic and value-based pricing is introduced, which was impossible before. This paper explores two things. Firstly, how embracing contractual flexibility of price-variance and contract lengths influences customer perceived value in artificial intelligence (AI) enabled digital offerings. Secondly, the role transparency plays in the perceived value of such offerings.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses an experiment-based survey and quantitative assessment within a business-to-business setup with 137 respondents across a couple of industrial manufacturers in the Nordic region.
Findings
The authors observations indicate that value-capture-related flexibilities introduced by digital offerings, namely price fluctuations and longer contract lengths, are perceived to deliver more value to customers than standard offerings with known conditions. The authors findings indicate that introduced flexibilities are perceived as opportunities rather than uncertainties leading to higher perceived value by customers. The increased value perception can be explained by the transparency of these offerings provided by data-driven digital technologies'.
Originality/value
The paper is an original work to understand the value-capture implication of digital servitization. The authors discuss the possibilities of different value-capture strategies that companies can adopt within digital business models.
Abstract: Purpose
Digital capabilities in operations and delivery through constant data acquisition and future predictions have accelerated digital servitization through reduced uncertainty. New flexibility in value-capture concepts like dynamic and value-based pricing is introduced, which was impossible before. This paper explores two things. Firstly, how embracing contractual flexibility of price-variance and contract lengths influences customer perceived value in artificial intelligence (AI) enabled digital offerings. Secondly, the role transparency plays in the perceived value of such offerings.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses an experiment-based survey and quantitative assessment within a business-to-business setup with 137 respondents across a couple of industrial manufacturers in the Nordic region.
Findings
The authors observations indicate that value-capture-related flexibilities introduced by digital offerings, namely price fluctuations and longer contract lengths, are perceived to deliver more value to customers than standard offerings with known conditions. The authors findings indicate that introduced flexibilities are perceived as opportunities rather than uncertainties leading to higher perceived value by customers. The increased value perception can be explained by the transparency of these offerings provided by data-driven digital technologies'.
Originality/value
The paper is an original work to understand the value-capture implication of digital servitization. The authors discuss the possibilities of different value-capture strategies that companies can adopt within digital business models.
Journal: Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management
Published: January 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Kim Sundtoft Hald
Price Strategies of Intellectual Property Rights Holders of Technology Products and Antidumping Policies: The Legal Risks of Price Discrimination beyond Competition Law
Abstract: Producers of technology products, including intellectual property (IP) rights holders, should not ignore the importance of states’ rights to apply antidumping duties in their pricing strategies. Although World Trade Organization (WTO) law aims at reducing states’ market barriers, antidumping is a legitimate barrier to trade. It offsets those pricing strategies where a producer dumps the export price, i.e. the export price is lower than the price charged by the producer on the domestic market. WTO law considers dumping as unfair trading practice. The article highlights why producers of technology products, including IP holders, need to consider antidumping policies when they make their pricing strategies. As competition law regulates pricing conduct, the article discusses the relationship between antidumping law and competition law, and it shows areas where antidumping policies go further than competition
law. Finally, the article discusses the limits in pricing conduct by IP holders in light of antidumping policies.
Abstract: Producers of technology products, including intellectual property (IP) rights holders, should not ignore the importance of states’ rights to apply antidumping duties in their pricing strategies. Although World Trade Organization (WTO) law aims at reducing states’ market barriers, antidumping is a legitimate barrier to trade. It offsets those pricing strategies where a producer dumps the export price, i.e. the export price is lower than the price charged by the producer on the domestic market. WTO law considers dumping as unfair trading practice. The article highlights why producers of technology products, including IP holders, need to consider antidumping policies when they make their pricing strategies. As competition law regulates pricing conduct, the article discusses the relationship between antidumping law and competition law, and it shows areas where antidumping policies go further than competition
law. Finally, the article discusses the limits in pricing conduct by IP holders in light of antidumping policies.
Journal: VIT Law Review
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Henrik Andersen
Voices from the Past: Economic and Political Vulnerabilities in the Making of Next Generation EU
Abstract: In this article, we show that Next Generation EU (NGEU) is mainly a response to the economic and political imbalances left over from the Eurozone crisis. It is a pre-emptive intervention, especially targeted at structurally weak economies with rising Euroscepticism, to avoid costly ex-post bailouts as in the Great Recession. We demonstrate, using quantitative analysis, that pre-existing vulnerabilities, rather than the impact of the pandemic, drove the allocation of NGEU resources: per capita grants largely correspond to past economic vulnerabilities, as well as to political ones. Countries most vulnerable to another adjustment by austerity after the COVID-19 economic crisis receive most resources. Also, countries with strong anti-EU sentiments are entitled to larger NGEU grants per capita. In contrast, grants are not correlated with the severity of the health crisis. Then, we show the domestic relevance of economic and political vulnerabilities through qualitative case studies of national political debates and domestic positions on NGEU in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. Despite its innovative traits, NGEU is a politically constrained solution to address the mess from the previous decade, and as such, it is a Janus solution: promising a fresh start, but haunted by the past.
Abstract: In this article, we show that Next Generation EU (NGEU) is mainly a response to the economic and political imbalances left over from the Eurozone crisis. It is a pre-emptive intervention, especially targeted at structurally weak economies with rising Euroscepticism, to avoid costly ex-post bailouts as in the Great Recession. We demonstrate, using quantitative analysis, that pre-existing vulnerabilities, rather than the impact of the pandemic, drove the allocation of NGEU resources: per capita grants largely correspond to past economic vulnerabilities, as well as to political ones. Countries most vulnerable to another adjustment by austerity after the COVID-19 economic crisis receive most resources. Also, countries with strong anti-EU sentiments are entitled to larger NGEU grants per capita. In contrast, grants are not correlated with the severity of the health crisis. Then, we show the domestic relevance of economic and political vulnerabilities through qualitative case studies of national political debates and domestic positions on NGEU in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. Despite its innovative traits, NGEU is a politically constrained solution to address the mess from the previous decade, and as such, it is a Janus solution: promising a fresh start, but haunted by the past.
Journal: Comparative European Politics
Published: March 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Caroline de la Porte
The Nordic Nomination Committee and Board Tenure: An Empirical Investigation
Abstract: This paper contributes empirically to the debate on who should nominate new directors: shareholders or the board? While nomination committees composed of incumbent board members are common around the world, the use of nomination committees composed of shareholders (SNBs) is recommended in several Nordic countries. We use the unique case of Finland as a quasi-experiment to examine the relation between the type of nomination procedure and board turnover. We find that firms with SNBs have boards with shorter average tenure, and fewer long-serving directors. We also find evidence suggesting a higher turnover performance sensitivity in the case of SNB firms: the average board tenure is more strongly related to firm performance in the case of SNB firms, and the relation between board tenure and the presence of experienced directors is more related to performance in SNB firms. In all, our results support the claim that SNBs might be useful tools to turn around board structures and tie individual director´s performance to company performance.
Abstract: This paper contributes empirically to the debate on who should nominate new directors: shareholders or the board? While nomination committees composed of incumbent board members are common around the world, the use of nomination committees composed of shareholders (SNBs) is recommended in several Nordic countries. We use the unique case of Finland as a quasi-experiment to examine the relation between the type of nomination procedure and board turnover. We find that firms with SNBs have boards with shorter average tenure, and fewer long-serving directors. We also find evidence suggesting a higher turnover performance sensitivity in the case of SNB firms: the average board tenure is more strongly related to firm performance in the case of SNB firms, and the relation between board tenure and the presence of experienced directors is more related to performance in SNB firms. In all, our results support the claim that SNBs might be useful tools to turn around board structures and tie individual director´s performance to company performance.
Journal: Spanish Journal of Finance and Accounting / Revista Española de Financiación y Contabilidad
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Therese Strand
Battle of the Primes: The Effect and Interplay of Health and Hedonic Primes on Food Choice
Abstract: People making food choices are often exposed to different cues that can activate relevant goals that influence the choice outcome. Hedonic goals are frequently primed by advertising while health policy enlists primes that activate health goals in the moment of food decision-making – e.g., healthy food labels. However, little is known about the effect of such goal-priming cues on the population level and how people respond when exposed to both types of primes simultaneously. The results of this study, based on a large, representative sample (N = 1200), show no effect of health-goal priming on healthy food choices. Being exposed to a sole hedonic prime, however, reduces healthy choices by 3%. This effect completely disappeared when both primes were presented at the same time. All effects remained insensitive to people's gender, hunger status, level of dietary restraint, and BMI. These findings cast doubt over the effectiveness of health goal primes as a tool to increase healthy food choices but suggest a protective effect against competing hedonic primes and could thereby prevent less healthy choices.
Abstract: People making food choices are often exposed to different cues that can activate relevant goals that influence the choice outcome. Hedonic goals are frequently primed by advertising while health policy enlists primes that activate health goals in the moment of food decision-making – e.g., healthy food labels. However, little is known about the effect of such goal-priming cues on the population level and how people respond when exposed to both types of primes simultaneously. The results of this study, based on a large, representative sample (N = 1200), show no effect of health-goal priming on healthy food choices. Being exposed to a sole hedonic prime, however, reduces healthy choices by 3%. This effect completely disappeared when both primes were presented at the same time. All effects remained insensitive to people's gender, hunger status, level of dietary restraint, and BMI. These findings cast doubt over the effectiveness of health goal primes as a tool to increase healthy food choices but suggest a protective effect against competing hedonic primes and could thereby prevent less healthy choices.
Journal: Appetite
Published: May 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Jan Michael Bauer, Lucia A. Reisch
Crowdsourcing Research Questions in Science
Abstract: Scientists are increasingly crossing the boundaries of the professional system by involving the general public (the crowd) directly in their research. However, this crowd involvement tends to be confined to empirical work and it is not clear whether and how crowds can also be involved in conceptual stages such as formulating the questions that research is trying to address. Drawing on five different “paradigms” of crowdsourcing and related mechanisms, we first discuss potential merits of involving crowds in the formulation of research questions (RQs). We then analyze data from two crowdsourcing projects in the medical sciences to describe key features of RQs generated by crowd members and compare the quality of crowd contributions to that of RQs generated in the conventional scientific process. We find that the majority of crowd contributions are problem restatements that can be useful to assess problem importance but provide little guidance regarding potential causes or solutions. At the same time, crowd-generated research questions frequently cross disciplinary boundaries by combining elements from different fields within and especially outside medicine. Using evaluations by professional scientists, we find that the average crowd contribution has lower novelty and potential scientific impact than professional research questions, but comparable practical impact. Crowd contributions outperform professional RQs once we apply selection mechanisms at the level of individual contributors or across contributors. Our findings advance research on crowd and citizen science, crowdsourcing and distributed knowledge production, as well as the organization of science. We also inform ongoing policy debates around the involvement of citizens in research in general, and agenda setting in particular.
Abstract: Scientists are increasingly crossing the boundaries of the professional system by involving the general public (the crowd) directly in their research. However, this crowd involvement tends to be confined to empirical work and it is not clear whether and how crowds can also be involved in conceptual stages such as formulating the questions that research is trying to address. Drawing on five different “paradigms” of crowdsourcing and related mechanisms, we first discuss potential merits of involving crowds in the formulation of research questions (RQs). We then analyze data from two crowdsourcing projects in the medical sciences to describe key features of RQs generated by crowd members and compare the quality of crowd contributions to that of RQs generated in the conventional scientific process. We find that the majority of crowd contributions are problem restatements that can be useful to assess problem importance but provide little guidance regarding potential causes or solutions. At the same time, crowd-generated research questions frequently cross disciplinary boundaries by combining elements from different fields within and especially outside medicine. Using evaluations by professional scientists, we find that the average crowd contribution has lower novelty and potential scientific impact than professional research questions, but comparable practical impact. Crowd contributions outperform professional RQs once we apply selection mechanisms at the level of individual contributors or across contributors. Our findings advance research on crowd and citizen science, crowdsourcing and distributed knowledge production, as well as the organization of science. We also inform ongoing policy debates around the involvement of citizens in research in general, and agenda setting in particular.
Journal: Research Policy
Published: May 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Marion Poetz
Give Me Your Rested, Your Wealthy, Your Educated Few? A Critical Discussion of the Current Literature on Immigrant Self-employment
Abstract: Purpose
The finding that immigrants are more likely to self-employ than natives has been consistently shown by different researchers. At the same time, many call for the prioritization of high-skilled immigration as they believe low-skilled entrepreneurs are not particularly innovative or high-growth-oriented. The purpose of this study is to critically review and synthesize the current literature on immigrant self-employment, paying particular attention to low-skilled immigrant entrepreneurship and the popular policy recommendation that high-skilled immigrants should be prioritized.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors survey the existing literature on immigrant self-employment and discuss recurring data issues, how those issues have or have not been addressed, as well as how these data issues impact the validity of policy recommendations that favor high-skilled immigrants and disfavor low-skilled immigrants. In particular, the authors examine how length of stay in the host country and host country institutions impact immigrant self-employment, especially low-skilled immigrant self-employment. The authors also point out unintended consequences of low-skilled immigration.
Findings
The authors find data issues significantly impact the potential justifications behind calls to favor high-skilled immigrants. In particular, many researchers underestimate the positive impacts of low-skilled immigrant self-employment by not accounting for institutions and length of stay in the host country. The authors conclude with policy recommendations that prioritize high-skilled immigration should be re-examined in light of recurring omitted variable biases within previous studies and evidence of a number of positive unintended consequences associated with low-skilled migration.
Originality/value
The authors review current literature and discuss how important confounding variables, like the number of years an immigrant entrepreneur has lived in a host country and the institutions of a host country, make common policy recommendations suggesting prioritization of high-skilled immigration problematic. The authors also discuss potential solutions to these data issues, ways these issues have been solved already, and possible ways forward. Finally, after considering the literature, the authors offer our own set of policy recommendations.
Abstract: Purpose
The finding that immigrants are more likely to self-employ than natives has been consistently shown by different researchers. At the same time, many call for the prioritization of high-skilled immigration as they believe low-skilled entrepreneurs are not particularly innovative or high-growth-oriented. The purpose of this study is to critically review and synthesize the current literature on immigrant self-employment, paying particular attention to low-skilled immigrant entrepreneurship and the popular policy recommendation that high-skilled immigrants should be prioritized.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors survey the existing literature on immigrant self-employment and discuss recurring data issues, how those issues have or have not been addressed, as well as how these data issues impact the validity of policy recommendations that favor high-skilled immigrants and disfavor low-skilled immigrants. In particular, the authors examine how length of stay in the host country and host country institutions impact immigrant self-employment, especially low-skilled immigrant self-employment. The authors also point out unintended consequences of low-skilled immigration.
Findings
The authors find data issues significantly impact the potential justifications behind calls to favor high-skilled immigrants. In particular, many researchers underestimate the positive impacts of low-skilled immigrant self-employment by not accounting for institutions and length of stay in the host country. The authors conclude with policy recommendations that prioritize high-skilled immigration should be re-examined in light of recurring omitted variable biases within previous studies and evidence of a number of positive unintended consequences associated with low-skilled migration.
Originality/value
The authors review current literature and discuss how important confounding variables, like the number of years an immigrant entrepreneur has lived in a host country and the institutions of a host country, make common policy recommendations suggesting prioritization of high-skilled immigration problematic. The authors also discuss potential solutions to these data issues, ways these issues have been solved already, and possible ways forward. Finally, after considering the literature, the authors offer our own set of policy recommendations.
Journal: Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Joshua Bedi
Profiting from Digital Innovation: Patents, Copyright and Performance
Abstract: It is yet unclear whether patents and copyright are effective at protecting digital innovations. In this paper, we investigate this question using novel product-level data on mobile apps, in which we relate the use of both patents and copyright to (i) revenue performance and (ii) IP licensing. We theorize that these relationships depend on differences in product-level characteristics and that apps differentiated by their design are more likely and effectively to be protected by patents; apps combining elements of differentiated content are more likely and effectively protected by copyright. Our results support these predictions that product characteristics shape the appropriate contingent use of patent and copyright protection in digital products. These patterns are especially relevant to industries where digital products combine elements of differentiated design and differentiated digital content.
Abstract: It is yet unclear whether patents and copyright are effective at protecting digital innovations. In this paper, we investigate this question using novel product-level data on mobile apps, in which we relate the use of both patents and copyright to (i) revenue performance and (ii) IP licensing. We theorize that these relationships depend on differences in product-level characteristics and that apps differentiated by their design are more likely and effectively to be protected by patents; apps combining elements of differentiated content are more likely and effectively protected by copyright. Our results support these predictions that product characteristics shape the appropriate contingent use of patent and copyright protection in digital products. These patterns are especially relevant to industries where digital products combine elements of differentiated design and differentiated digital content.
Journal: Research Policy
Published: June 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Lars Bo Jeppesen
Hedging Climate Risks with Green Assets
Abstract: Utilizing two novel measures of transition and physical climate risks obtained from textual analysis, we examine the hedging benefits of various green assets and popular precious metals against climate uncertainty. We find that green bonds stand out from the rest of the assets in our sample, including gold, exhibiting a consistent positive correlation with both types of climate risks. The findings suggest that green bonds can offer reliable safe haven benefits against climate uncertainty, providing new insight into the role of these assets not only as an investment that offers benefits associated with socially responsible investing, but also as a tool to manage climate risk exposures in investment portfolios.
Abstract: Utilizing two novel measures of transition and physical climate risks obtained from textual analysis, we examine the hedging benefits of various green assets and popular precious metals against climate uncertainty. We find that green bonds stand out from the rest of the assets in our sample, including gold, exhibiting a consistent positive correlation with both types of climate risks. The findings suggest that green bonds can offer reliable safe haven benefits against climate uncertainty, providing new insight into the role of these assets not only as an investment that offers benefits associated with socially responsible investing, but also as a tool to manage climate risk exposures in investment portfolios.
Journal: Economics Letters
Published: March 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Oguzhan Cepni
The Interpellated Voice: The Social Discipline of Member Communication
Abstract: Acknowledging that the voices of ordinary members may be perceived as more credible than official organizational voices, many organizations seek to mobilize members to speak on their behalf. In this conceptual paper, we examine the constitutive dynamics of such practice, highlighting the influence of social discipline on member voicing. With its notion of ventriloquism, the Montreal School has provided an interesting understanding of how organizations are constituted by the voices ascribed to them. Extant formulations of this perspective, however, fail to conceptualize how member voicing is informed and disciplined by social norms and expectations. Drawing on the notions of interpellation and role, we question how “organizational” organizational communication is and what is being constituted when members voice their organizations. By foregrounding the significance of social figures in this process, we call for an extension of the ventriloqual perspective beyond its current organization-centric perspective.
Abstract: Acknowledging that the voices of ordinary members may be perceived as more credible than official organizational voices, many organizations seek to mobilize members to speak on their behalf. In this conceptual paper, we examine the constitutive dynamics of such practice, highlighting the influence of social discipline on member voicing. With its notion of ventriloquism, the Montreal School has provided an interesting understanding of how organizations are constituted by the voices ascribed to them. Extant formulations of this perspective, however, fail to conceptualize how member voicing is informed and disciplined by social norms and expectations. Drawing on the notions of interpellation and role, we question how “organizational” organizational communication is and what is being constituted when members voice their organizations. By foregrounding the significance of social figures in this process, we call for an extension of the ventriloqual perspective beyond its current organization-centric perspective.
Journal: Management Communication Quarterly
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Lars Thøger Christensen
Flexible Institutionalisation in Auroville: A Prefigurative Alternative to Development
Abstract: Scholars interested in mechanisms of transformative change are increasingly looking at ‘real utopias’, emancipatory enactments within the mainstream that prefigure its transcendence: eco-villages and intentional communities, cooperatives, Time Banks, urban gardens, co-housing associations. Academic and activist views on these initiatives are divergent. While some argue that they are seeding the transcendence of the current dominant socio-economic and political system, others dismiss them as niches unable to socially reproduce themselves, let alone disrupt and present viable alternatives to a hegemonic mainstream. To better equip ourselves to understand their transformative potential and potentially move beyond this stalemate, in this article we examine how one of the most enduring and successful prefigurative experiments is organised and sustained. Our case study is the international township Auroville, in India, the largest intentional community in the world and one of the longest-standing. It presents a unique opportunity to examine how an alternative to development is maintained and developed within and in relationship with a dominant system, and whether prefigurative experiments can become ‘institutionalised’ while retaining a prefigurative character.
Abstract: Scholars interested in mechanisms of transformative change are increasingly looking at ‘real utopias’, emancipatory enactments within the mainstream that prefigure its transcendence: eco-villages and intentional communities, cooperatives, Time Banks, urban gardens, co-housing associations. Academic and activist views on these initiatives are divergent. While some argue that they are seeding the transcendence of the current dominant socio-economic and political system, others dismiss them as niches unable to socially reproduce themselves, let alone disrupt and present viable alternatives to a hegemonic mainstream. To better equip ourselves to understand their transformative potential and potentially move beyond this stalemate, in this article we examine how one of the most enduring and successful prefigurative experiments is organised and sustained. Our case study is the international township Auroville, in India, the largest intentional community in the world and one of the longest-standing. It presents a unique opportunity to examine how an alternative to development is maintained and developed within and in relationship with a dominant system, and whether prefigurative experiments can become ‘institutionalised’ while retaining a prefigurative character.
Journal: Sustainability Science
Published: March 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Lara Monticelli
Methodologies for Assigning Damages in Copyright Litigation Involving Value-destroying Copying
Abstract: Pending
Abstract: Pending
Journal: Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Stina Teilmann-Lock
Piketty amongst the Historians: Introduction to a Symposium on Thomas Piketty's Capital and Iideology
Abstract:This essay introduces this forum on Thomas Piketty's Capitalism and Ideology. We outline the debates that emerge from a joint reading of the six contributions to the forum. In doing so we assess the importance of Piketty's contribution to historical debates on capitalism, ideology, and inequality and consider how historians might respond to the challenges Piketty presents.
Abstract:This essay introduces this forum on Thomas Piketty's Capitalism and Ideology. We outline the debates that emerge from a joint reading of the six contributions to the forum. In doing so we assess the importance of Piketty's contribution to historical debates on capitalism, ideology, and inequality and consider how historians might respond to the challenges Piketty presents.
Journal: History Compass
Published: March 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Andrew Popp
Alternativity as Freedom: Exploring Tactics of Emergence in Alternative Forms of Organizing
Abstract: This article proposes that being alternative is not a question of adhering to certain principles or applying certain practices, but rather a question of freedom. It does so by exploring three empirical cases of alternative organizing, namely the sustainable fin-tech start-up SusPens, teachers of mindfulness meditation, and the UK minor party Independents for Frome. The article first identifies a common trajectory, according to which alternative organizing usually begins with a rejection of the dominant socio-economic order. However, in seeking to increase their impact on the world, alternatives are often appropriated by the very order they were meant to depart from. On that basis, we explore how freedom can be articulated and enacted as emergent tactics that break free from this common trajectory and constitute alternativity as the ‘other’ within the existing order; in the cracks and crevasses that evade (discursive) regulation and where liberties can be taken. More specifically, we identify three emergent tactics of endurance, germination, and reiteration and discuss what they may teach us about organizing for freedom in the 21st century.
Abstract: This article proposes that being alternative is not a question of adhering to certain principles or applying certain practices, but rather a question of freedom. It does so by exploring three empirical cases of alternative organizing, namely the sustainable fin-tech start-up SusPens, teachers of mindfulness meditation, and the UK minor party Independents for Frome. The article first identifies a common trajectory, according to which alternative organizing usually begins with a rejection of the dominant socio-economic order. However, in seeking to increase their impact on the world, alternatives are often appropriated by the very order they were meant to depart from. On that basis, we explore how freedom can be articulated and enacted as emergent tactics that break free from this common trajectory and constitute alternativity as the ‘other’ within the existing order; in the cracks and crevasses that evade (discursive) regulation and where liberties can be taken. More specifically, we identify three emergent tactics of endurance, germination, and reiteration and discuss what they may teach us about organizing for freedom in the 21st century.
Journal: Human Relations
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Emil Husted, Sine Nørholm Just
Den reelle værdi af kryptovaluta
Abstract: Der har været megen diskussion, om kryptovaluta i virkeligheden er en boble, og om kursen på bitcoin burde være nul i stedet for DKK 300.000. Men kryptovaluta er blevet vurderet på de forkerte præmisser. I denne artikel anvises en metode til at angive en mere retvisende og reel vurdering af kursen på kryptovaluta, der er baseret på funktionaliteten af den bagvedliggende blockchain. Det er blockchain, der giver kryptovaluta værdi, og den skal forstås og prissættes som en platform som Spotify, Facebook og SWIFT. I denne artikel vurderes værdien af Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Solana, Filecoin og Cardano, og det vurderes, at flere af disse kryptovalutaer betragtet som platforme er prissat lavt i forhold til deres potentiale og funktionsområde.
Abstract: Der har været megen diskussion, om kryptovaluta i virkeligheden er en boble, og om kursen på bitcoin burde være nul i stedet for DKK 300.000. Men kryptovaluta er blevet vurderet på de forkerte præmisser. I denne artikel anvises en metode til at angive en mere retvisende og reel vurdering af kursen på kryptovaluta, der er baseret på funktionaliteten af den bagvedliggende blockchain. Det er blockchain, der giver kryptovaluta værdi, og den skal forstås og prissættes som en platform som Spotify, Facebook og SWIFT. I denne artikel vurderes værdien af Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Solana, Filecoin og Cardano, og det vurderes, at flere af disse kryptovalutaer betragtet som platforme er prissat lavt i forhold til deres potentiale og funktionsområde.
Journal: Finans/Invest
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Jan Damsgaard
Klima relaterede risici og årsregnskabet
Abstract: Pending
Abstract: Pending
Journal: Revision & Regnskabsvæsen
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Thomas Riise Johansen
Introduction: EU Constraints and Opportunities in the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Politics of NGEU: The Politics of NGEU
Abstract: This Special Issue focuses on how EU politics, policies and institutions, all nested in the past, have a bearing on welfare states in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In this introductory article, we first provide a brief overview of the growing scholarship on the impact of the pandemic on both national welfare systems and EU policies. We then contextualise the initial pandemic policy responses by highlighting the economic challenges to European welfare states leftover from the Great Recession and Eurozone crisis before outlining the timeline of the EU reaction to the COVID-19 crisis, culminating in the Next Generation EU deal. Finally, we summarize the distinctive empirical and theoretical perspectives of each contribution to this Special Issue. Taken together, the articles in this issue offer a much-needed analysis of the interplay between EU level and member state politics that furthers our understanding of the social and economic policies implemented in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.
Abstract: This Special Issue focuses on how EU politics, policies and institutions, all nested in the past, have a bearing on welfare states in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In this introductory article, we first provide a brief overview of the growing scholarship on the impact of the pandemic on both national welfare systems and EU policies. We then contextualise the initial pandemic policy responses by highlighting the economic challenges to European welfare states leftover from the Great Recession and Eurozone crisis before outlining the timeline of the EU reaction to the COVID-19 crisis, culminating in the Next Generation EU deal. Finally, we summarize the distinctive empirical and theoretical perspectives of each contribution to this Special Issue. Taken together, the articles in this issue offer a much-needed analysis of the interplay between EU level and member state politics that furthers our understanding of the social and economic policies implemented in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.
Journal: Comparative European Politics
Published: March 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Caroline de la Porte
Cultural Revolutions: Interview with Paul du Gay and Michael Pryke
Abstract: Pending
Abstract: Pending
Journal: Industrial and Corporate Change
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Paul du Gay
Competing for Digital Human Capital: The Retention Effect of Digital Expertise in MNC Subsidiaries
Abstract: Employees with relevant knowledge and skills for digitalization have become increasingly important for the competitiveness of MNCs. However, the shortage of such digital human capital in many host countries is putting pressure on MNC subsidiaries to prevent these employees from leaving. We theorize that the retention of digital human capital in MNC subsidiaries does not merely depend on salaries but crucially on the learning opportunities that subsidiaries offer. By integrating mechanisms from the literature on subsidiary-specific advantages into theoretical models explaining voluntary mobility constraints of employees, we reason that the opportunities for acquiring new skills in subsidiaries with advanced digital expertise will reduce the odds of losing these valuable employees. We test our theoretical predictions for 11,598 employees with digital human capital working for 866 foreign MNC subsidiaries in Denmark observed between 2002 and 2012. We find that digital expertise helps retaining digital human capital. The effect is stronger if subsidiaries have an internationally diverse workforce and when they possess patented technologies. Both factors provide distinct learning opportunities from digital expertise. The effect is weaker if the subsidiary is located in regional clusters of digital expertise since alternative employers may offer similar learning opportunities.
Abstract: Employees with relevant knowledge and skills for digitalization have become increasingly important for the competitiveness of MNCs. However, the shortage of such digital human capital in many host countries is putting pressure on MNC subsidiaries to prevent these employees from leaving. We theorize that the retention of digital human capital in MNC subsidiaries does not merely depend on salaries but crucially on the learning opportunities that subsidiaries offer. By integrating mechanisms from the literature on subsidiary-specific advantages into theoretical models explaining voluntary mobility constraints of employees, we reason that the opportunities for acquiring new skills in subsidiaries with advanced digital expertise will reduce the odds of losing these valuable employees. We test our theoretical predictions for 11,598 employees with digital human capital working for 866 foreign MNC subsidiaries in Denmark observed between 2002 and 2012. We find that digital expertise helps retaining digital human capital. The effect is stronger if subsidiaries have an internationally diverse workforce and when they possess patented technologies. Both factors provide distinct learning opportunities from digital expertise. The effect is weaker if the subsidiary is located in regional clusters of digital expertise since alternative employers may offer similar learning opportunities.
Journal: Journal of International Business Studies
Published: January 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Christoph Grimpe, Wolfgang Sofka, Ulrich Kaiser
Associations of Sleep Duration and Screen Time with Incidence of Overweight in European Children: The IDEFICS/I.Family Cohort
Abstract: Introduction: Over the past decades, children have been increasingly using screen devices, while at the same time their sleep duration has decreased. Both behaviors have been associated with excess weight, and it is possible they act as mutually reinforcing behaviors for weight gain. The aim of the study was to explore independent, prospective associations of screen time and sleep duration with incident overweight in a sample of European children. Methods: Data from 4,285 children of the IDEFICS/I.Family cohort who were followed up from 2009/2010 to 2013/2014 were analyzed. Hours per day of screen time and of sleep duration were reported by parents at baseline. Logistic regression analyses were carried out in separate and mutually adjusted models controlled for sex, age, European country region, parental level of education, and baseline BMI z-scores. Results: Among normal weight children at baseline (N = 3,734), separate models suggest that every hour increase in screen time and every hour decrease in sleep duration were associated with higher odds of the child becoming overweight or obese at follow-up (OR = 1.16, 95% CI: 1.02–1.32 and OR = 1.23, 95% CI: 1.05–1.43, respectively). In the mutually adjusted model, both associations were attenuated slightly ( screen time OR = 1.13, 95% CI: 0.99–1.28; sleep duration OR = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.03–1.40), being consistently somewhat stronger for sleep duration. Discussion/Conclusion: Both screen time and sleep duration increased the incidence of overweight or obesity by 13–20%. Interventions that include an emphasis on adequate sleep and minimal screen time are needed to establish their causal role in the prevention of overweight and obesity among European children.
Abstract: Introduction: Over the past decades, children have been increasingly using screen devices, while at the same time their sleep duration has decreased. Both behaviors have been associated with excess weight, and it is possible they act as mutually reinforcing behaviors for weight gain. The aim of the study was to explore independent, prospective associations of screen time and sleep duration with incident overweight in a sample of European children. Methods: Data from 4,285 children of the IDEFICS/I.Family cohort who were followed up from 2009/2010 to 2013/2014 were analyzed. Hours per day of screen time and of sleep duration were reported by parents at baseline. Logistic regression analyses were carried out in separate and mutually adjusted models controlled for sex, age, European country region, parental level of education, and baseline BMI z-scores. Results: Among normal weight children at baseline (N = 3,734), separate models suggest that every hour increase in screen time and every hour decrease in sleep duration were associated with higher odds of the child becoming overweight or obese at follow-up (OR = 1.16, 95% CI: 1.02–1.32 and OR = 1.23, 95% CI: 1.05–1.43, respectively). In the mutually adjusted model, both associations were attenuated slightly ( screen time OR = 1.13, 95% CI: 0.99–1.28; sleep duration OR = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.03–1.40), being consistently somewhat stronger for sleep duration. Discussion/Conclusion: Both screen time and sleep duration increased the incidence of overweight or obesity by 13–20%. Interventions that include an emphasis on adequate sleep and minimal screen time are needed to establish their causal role in the prevention of overweight and obesity among European children.
Journal: Obesity Facts
Published: November 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Lucia A. Reisch
Understanding the Firm in the Informal Economy: A Research Agenda
Abstract: Informal firms prevail and preoccupy a dominant share of the economic activity in many developing countries. Yet, few attempts have been made to systematically integrate dominant theories of the firm with the empirical importance of informal enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to review established theories of the informal economy and the firm, and to explore potential for cross-fertilization to better understand the nature of the firm in the informal economy. We seek to convey two basic points: First, as informal economy firms vary in form, structure, and strategies, a systematic inquiry of their heterogeneous and idiosyncratic nature is warranted. Second, significant opportunities for future development research reside at the interface between existing theoretical explanations of the informal economy (dualistic, structuralist legal, and voluntarist theories) and dominant theories of the firm (contractual and competence theories). We discuss in detail three main themes for future development research seeking to understand informal economy firms: (i) Contract mechanisms and enforcement; (ii) Learning strategies; and (iii) Resource and capability development.
Abstract: Informal firms prevail and preoccupy a dominant share of the economic activity in many developing countries. Yet, few attempts have been made to systematically integrate dominant theories of the firm with the empirical importance of informal enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to review established theories of the informal economy and the firm, and to explore potential for cross-fertilization to better understand the nature of the firm in the informal economy. We seek to convey two basic points: First, as informal economy firms vary in form, structure, and strategies, a systematic inquiry of their heterogeneous and idiosyncratic nature is warranted. Second, significant opportunities for future development research reside at the interface between existing theoretical explanations of the informal economy (dualistic, structuralist legal, and voluntarist theories) and dominant theories of the firm (contractual and competence theories). We discuss in detail three main themes for future development research seeking to understand informal economy firms: (i) Contract mechanisms and enforcement; (ii) Learning strategies; and (iii) Resource and capability development.
Journal: European Journal of Development Research
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Amanda Haarman, Marcus Møller Larsen, Rebecca Namatovu
An FsQCA Exploration of Multiple Paths to Ecological Innovation Adoption in European Transportation
Abstract: Companies in the transportation and logistics business are key contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, their fleet choices are viewed as critical in climate change mitigation efforts. This study adopts a configuration theory approach to explore how drivers at multiple levels (i.e., country, locale, company, and field units) interact to shape the fleet decisions in one of Europe's leading third-party logistics providers operating a large, multi-country, road transportation network. Using fuzzy set/qualitative comparative analysis methodology, we identify and describe five distinct paths leading to high levels of adoption of ecological innovation and two paths to low adoption levels. Building on the findings, we develop a set of propositions that can help guide future research.
Abstract: Companies in the transportation and logistics business are key contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, their fleet choices are viewed as critical in climate change mitigation efforts. This study adopts a configuration theory approach to explore how drivers at multiple levels (i.e., country, locale, company, and field units) interact to shape the fleet decisions in one of Europe's leading third-party logistics providers operating a large, multi-country, road transportation network. Using fuzzy set/qualitative comparative analysis methodology, we identify and describe five distinct paths leading to high levels of adoption of ecological innovation and two paths to low adoption levels. Building on the findings, we develop a set of propositions that can help guide future research.
Journal: Journal of World Business
Published: August 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Andrew Inkpen
Finding the Tipping Point: When Heterogeneous Evaluations in Social Media Converge and Influence Organizational Legitimacy
Abstract: Can citizens impact the broader discourse about an organization and its legitimacy? While social media have empowered citizens to publicly question firms through large volumes of online evaluations, the high heterogeneity of their evaluations dilutes their impact. Our empirical study applying a threshold vector autoregressive model (TVAR) analysis of 2.5 million tweets and 1,786 news media articles tests the condition by which the heterogeneity of online evaluations converges and influences the broader media discourse. Although social media evaluations do not initially influence media legitimacy, they become influential after reaching a tipping point of refracted attention, which is created by high volume and convergence of individual evaluations around few aggregative frames. Thus, social media storms may influence the broader discourse about an organization when this discourse converges and reaches a tipping point, rather than merely through the massive participation of citizens.
Abstract: Can citizens impact the broader discourse about an organization and its legitimacy? While social media have empowered citizens to publicly question firms through large volumes of online evaluations, the high heterogeneity of their evaluations dilutes their impact. Our empirical study applying a threshold vector autoregressive model (TVAR) analysis of 2.5 million tweets and 1,786 news media articles tests the condition by which the heterogeneity of online evaluations converges and influences the broader media discourse. Although social media evaluations do not initially influence media legitimacy, they become influential after reaching a tipping point of refracted attention, which is created by high volume and convergence of individual evaluations around few aggregative frames. Thus, social media storms may influence the broader discourse about an organization when this discourse converges and reaches a tipping point, rather than merely through the massive participation of citizens.
Journal: Business & Society
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Michael Etter
Questioning Impact: A Cross-Disciplinary Review of Certification Standards for Sustainability
Abstract: This article provides a review of scholarly approaches to assessing the impact of certification standards for sustainability. While we observe that some theoretical advances have afforded a better understanding of the potential impacts of adopting such standards, we also find that progress has been constrained due to a strong emphasis on assessing impact via linear causal pathways. This linear focus on the net effects for single stakeholders, such as farmers and producers, local communities and ecosystems, falls short of adequately capturing the broader impact of certifications across social and ecological dimensions. Inspired by theories on complex systems thinking, we present a framework based on a systems-based impact logic that better captures and assesses the impacts of certification standards within broader social-ecological systems. Our framework can be used as a heuristic to design impact-related studies and assess the impact of certification standards across disciplinary vantage points and empirical contexts.
Abstract: This article provides a review of scholarly approaches to assessing the impact of certification standards for sustainability. While we observe that some theoretical advances have afforded a better understanding of the potential impacts of adopting such standards, we also find that progress has been constrained due to a strong emphasis on assessing impact via linear causal pathways. This linear focus on the net effects for single stakeholders, such as farmers and producers, local communities and ecosystems, falls short of adequately capturing the broader impact of certifications across social and ecological dimensions. Inspired by theories on complex systems thinking, we present a framework based on a systems-based impact logic that better captures and assesses the impacts of certification standards within broader social-ecological systems. Our framework can be used as a heuristic to design impact-related studies and assess the impact of certification standards across disciplinary vantage points and empirical contexts.
Journal: Business & Society
Published: March 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Andreas Rasche
State Capitalism and Spanish Port Development along the Maritime Silk Road
Abstract: With the rise of ‘new’ state capitalisms, control over transport infrastructure has returned to the forefront of competition in the global economy. This article investigates how different state capitalisms interact to enable economic developments in ports. It tracks the relationship between state-owned firms in the shipping and ports sectors through a case study of the port of Valencia in Spain and COSCO shipping group. The article identifies state capitalisms as variegated and relational to analyze the ways in which qualitatively different state capitalist dynamics interact at different scales. The article identifies two state capitalist dynamics which have been dominant in determining relations between Spanish and Chinese state capitalisms: 1) A commercial dynamic of maximizing Spanish ports profits by establishing new relationships with Chinese firms; and 2) an expansionary dynamic of increasing market share of Chinese state-owned firms in European shipping markets. These two dynamics are synergistic and have contributed to the competitiveness of Spanish ports and Chinese shipping firms by providing new capital to the port of Valencia and expanding the port's profile as a hub in the eastern Mediterranean, while also further solidifying COSCO's position in European shipping markets and its internalization and vertical integration strateg
Abstract: With the rise of ‘new’ state capitalisms, control over transport infrastructure has returned to the forefront of competition in the global economy. This article investigates how different state capitalisms interact to enable economic developments in ports. It tracks the relationship between state-owned firms in the shipping and ports sectors through a case study of the port of Valencia in Spain and COSCO shipping group. The article identifies state capitalisms as variegated and relational to analyze the ways in which qualitatively different state capitalist dynamics interact at different scales. The article identifies two state capitalist dynamics which have been dominant in determining relations between Spanish and Chinese state capitalisms: 1) A commercial dynamic of maximizing Spanish ports profits by establishing new relationships with Chinese firms; and 2) an expansionary dynamic of increasing market share of Chinese state-owned firms in European shipping markets. These two dynamics are synergistic and have contributed to the competitiveness of Spanish ports and Chinese shipping firms by providing new capital to the port of Valencia and expanding the port's profile as a hub in the eastern Mediterranean, while also further solidifying COSCO's position in European shipping markets and its internalization and vertical integration strateg
Journal: Environment and Planning A
Published: March 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Federico Jensen
Negotiating Mental Illness across the Lay-professional Divide: Role Play in Peer Work Consultations
Abstract: Patient involvement is a prominent policy aim in modern health care. Today, mental health services employ peer workers (PWs) who have personal experiences with mental illness. Based on 22 interviews with PWs and 26 audio recordings of real-life consultations, we show how PWs talk about their personal experiences as professional qualifications. Furthermore, we demonstrate how in real-life encounters, PWs and patients convert personal experiences into a professional approach through an interactionist role play that balance PWs role as former patients and current professionals. Our analysis shows that PWs combine the personal pronoun ‘I’ (stressing that it is personal) with the indefinite pronoun ‘one’ (referring to generalised patient experiences) when they recount illness experiences. This convey that PWs engage with mental illness as both a personal and professional topic. In addition, the analysis shows that PWs (and patients) use professional clues to manifest PWs’ positions as professionals. Overall, the article demonstrates that instead of focussing on authentic patient relationships, as previous research has done, it is beneficial to investigate peer work from a symbolic interactionist approach revealing how PWs and patients skilfully manoeuvre the contradictions embedded in the PWs’ dual role as former patients and current professionals.
Abstract: Patient involvement is a prominent policy aim in modern health care. Today, mental health services employ peer workers (PWs) who have personal experiences with mental illness. Based on 22 interviews with PWs and 26 audio recordings of real-life consultations, we show how PWs talk about their personal experiences as professional qualifications. Furthermore, we demonstrate how in real-life encounters, PWs and patients convert personal experiences into a professional approach through an interactionist role play that balance PWs role as former patients and current professionals. Our analysis shows that PWs combine the personal pronoun ‘I’ (stressing that it is personal) with the indefinite pronoun ‘one’ (referring to generalised patient experiences) when they recount illness experiences. This convey that PWs engage with mental illness as both a personal and professional topic. In addition, the analysis shows that PWs (and patients) use professional clues to manifest PWs’ positions as professionals. Overall, the article demonstrates that instead of focussing on authentic patient relationships, as previous research has done, it is beneficial to investigate peer work from a symbolic interactionist approach revealing how PWs and patients skilfully manoeuvre the contradictions embedded in the PWs’ dual role as former patients and current professionals.
Journal: Sociology of Health and Illness
Published: March 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Nanna Mik-Meyer
It's Not Only What They Buy, It's also What They Keep: Linking Marketing Instruments to Product Returns
Abstract: Online retailers implement various marketing instruments to boost their sales. These marketing instruments can not only impact sales, but also product returns. However, when assessing the performance of marketing instruments, retailers often ignore potential return effects. Theoretically, marketing instruments could increase or decrease returns, depending on how they affect expected and experienced costs and benefits related to a product. In this paper, we empirically examine whether, and how a comprehensive set of marketing instruments (newsletters, catalogs, coupons, free shipping, paid search, affiliate advertising and image advertising) affects product returns. We use data from two major online retailers and show that return effects vary largely across marketing instruments. Surprisingly, none of the instruments reduces product returns. Newsletters, paid search, catalogs and free shipping increase returns substantially by up to 18%. For free shipping and catalogs, the return effects emerge prevalently for fashion categories, whereas online advertising and newsletters increase returns of both fashion and non-fashion products. These findings enhance our understanding of how firm-initiated marketing instruments affect returns and provide guidance for online retailers in multimedia environments.
Abstract: Online retailers implement various marketing instruments to boost their sales. These marketing instruments can not only impact sales, but also product returns. However, when assessing the performance of marketing instruments, retailers often ignore potential return effects. Theoretically, marketing instruments could increase or decrease returns, depending on how they affect expected and experienced costs and benefits related to a product. In this paper, we empirically examine whether, and how a comprehensive set of marketing instruments (newsletters, catalogs, coupons, free shipping, paid search, affiliate advertising and image advertising) affects product returns. We use data from two major online retailers and show that return effects vary largely across marketing instruments. Surprisingly, none of the instruments reduces product returns. Newsletters, paid search, catalogs and free shipping increase returns substantially by up to 18%. For free shipping and catalogs, the return effects emerge prevalently for fashion categories, whereas online advertising and newsletters increase returns of both fashion and non-fashion products. These findings enhance our understanding of how firm-initiated marketing instruments affect returns and provide guidance for online retailers in multimedia environments.
Journal: Journal of Retailing
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Edlira Shehu
Multiplying Ignorance, Deferring Action: Dynamics in the Communication of Knowledge and Non-Knowledge
Abstract: Under the umbrella terms, ‘agnotology’, ’strategic ignorance’, and ‘willful ignorance’, scholars have identified and unpacked the mechanisms and strategies involved in producing and maintaining ignorance. These analyses tend to have in common that strategic ignorance is about avoiding, hiding, or rendering existing knowledge unreliable. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s sociological concept of communication, we supplement these accounts with an analysis of how ignorance can be produced and maintained by means of communicative selection. Taking the emergence of the zoonotic disease LA-MRSA in Denmark as our empirical case, we explore the management of ignorance under conditions of non-knowing. Our analysis demonstrates how ignorance may be not only maintained but also multiplied without hiding knowledge, keeping secrets, or creating doubts. The analysis thus sheds new light on the dynamics through which ignorance is produced, while knowledge is on full display and acknowledged. The analysis furthermore shows how strategic interests are coupled to ignorance by means of communicative selection.
Abstract: Under the umbrella terms, ‘agnotology’, ’strategic ignorance’, and ‘willful ignorance’, scholars have identified and unpacked the mechanisms and strategies involved in producing and maintaining ignorance. These analyses tend to have in common that strategic ignorance is about avoiding, hiding, or rendering existing knowledge unreliable. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s sociological concept of communication, we supplement these accounts with an analysis of how ignorance can be produced and maintained by means of communicative selection. Taking the emergence of the zoonotic disease LA-MRSA in Denmark as our empirical case, we explore the management of ignorance under conditions of non-knowing. Our analysis demonstrates how ignorance may be not only maintained but also multiplied without hiding knowledge, keeping secrets, or creating doubts. The analysis thus sheds new light on the dynamics through which ignorance is produced, while knowledge is on full display and acknowledged. The analysis furthermore shows how strategic interests are coupled to ignorance by means of communicative selection.
Journal: Social Epistemology
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Morten Knudsen
Globalisation and FRAND: IP & Competition Law Perspective
Abstract: The paper addresses the status of regulation of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) in the era og globalisation and the diversity of ways in which FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory) principles are being applied internationally. SEPs represent the core innovation in an industry and protect innovation that has taken extraordinary effort to develop. Smart phones, tablets, connected cars, smart home applications, smart retail, gaming technologies and connected healthcare are some of the examples entailing use of SEPs. Arriving at a consensus regarding application of FRAND terms at the global level, may be the need of the hour. The manner in which FRAND terms are being applied in different jurisdictions including the US and within the EU are different. Therefore, the task of arriving at a consensus is not straightforward. The paper, at first, explores the concept of SEPs, contextualises and establishes the relevance of addressing the issue. Thereafter, in the light of the recent case law – analyses the way in which FRAND terms are being interpreted in different jurisdictions, specifically within the EU and the United States. This is followed by presentation of the IP and competition law perspective. The paper concludes with a proposition for identifying the path forward.
Abstract: The paper addresses the status of regulation of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) in the era og globalisation and the diversity of ways in which FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory) principles are being applied internationally. SEPs represent the core innovation in an industry and protect innovation that has taken extraordinary effort to develop. Smart phones, tablets, connected cars, smart home applications, smart retail, gaming technologies and connected healthcare are some of the examples entailing use of SEPs. Arriving at a consensus regarding application of FRAND terms at the global level, may be the need of the hour. The manner in which FRAND terms are being applied in different jurisdictions including the US and within the EU are different. Therefore, the task of arriving at a consensus is not straightforward. The paper, at first, explores the concept of SEPs, contextualises and establishes the relevance of addressing the issue. Thereafter, in the light of the recent case law – analyses the way in which FRAND terms are being interpreted in different jurisdictions, specifically within the EU and the United States. This is followed by presentation of the IP and competition law perspective. The paper concludes with a proposition for identifying the path forward.
Journal: VIT Law Review
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Vishv Priya Kohli
Bequest Motives in Consumption-portfolio Decisions with Recursive Utility
Abstract: This paper studies finite-horizon consumption-portfolio decisions with recursive utility. We show that the parameter seemingly representing the individual’s bequest preference in traditional recursive utility formulations is quantitatively and qualitatively misleading. The parameter value is uninformative about the optimal bequest which, in some cases, is even inversely related to the magnitude of the apparent bequest weight. We argue that the ratio between optimal bequest and the optimal consumption rate just before the terminal date is a much better representation of the strength of the bequest motive. Numerical examples illustrate the pitfalls using the traditional specification and clarifies how the bequest preference affects optimal decisions and the life-cycle patterns of consumption and wealth assuming constant investment opportunities or stochastic interest rates. We show that the typical utility representation for a unit elasticity of intertemporal substitution actually assumes a strong bequest preference.
Abstract: This paper studies finite-horizon consumption-portfolio decisions with recursive utility. We show that the parameter seemingly representing the individual’s bequest preference in traditional recursive utility formulations is quantitatively and qualitatively misleading. The parameter value is uninformative about the optimal bequest which, in some cases, is even inversely related to the magnitude of the apparent bequest weight. We argue that the ratio between optimal bequest and the optimal consumption rate just before the terminal date is a much better representation of the strength of the bequest motive. Numerical examples illustrate the pitfalls using the traditional specification and clarifies how the bequest preference affects optimal decisions and the life-cycle patterns of consumption and wealth assuming constant investment opportunities or stochastic interest rates. We show that the typical utility representation for a unit elasticity of intertemporal substitution actually assumes a strong bequest preference.
Journal: Journal of Banking & Finance
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Claus Munk
Artificial Intelligence and the Changing Sources of Competitive Advantage
Abstract: Research Summary
We apply a resource-based view to investigate how the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) affects competitive capabilities and performance. Following prior work on using chess as a controlled setting for studying competitive interactions, we compare the same players’ capabilities and performance across conventional, centaur, and engine chess tournaments. Our analysis shows that AI adoption triggers interrelated substitution and complementation dynamics, which make humans’ traditional competitive capabilities obsolete, while creating new sources of persistent heterogeneity when humans interact with chess engines. These novel human-machine capabilities are unrelated, or even negatively related, to traditional capabilities. We contribute an integrated view of substitution and complementation, which identifies AI as the driver of these dynamics and explains how they jointly shift the sources of competitive advantage.
Managerial Summary
AI-based technologies increasingly substitute and complement humans in managerial tasks such as decision making. We investigate how such change affects the sources of competitive advantage. AI-based engines’ adoption in chess allows us to investigate competitive capabilities and performance in human, AI, and hybrid settings. We find that neither humans nor AI in isolation explain performance differences in the AI and hybrid settings. Instead, a new decision-making resource emerges at the human-AI intersection, which drives performance but is unrelated or even negatively related to humans’ original capability. Our results document how AI adoption changes the sources of competitive advantage and, in turn, requires managers to develop new capabilities to stay relevant in an AI-based competitive landscape.
Abstract: Research Summary
We apply a resource-based view to investigate how the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) affects competitive capabilities and performance. Following prior work on using chess as a controlled setting for studying competitive interactions, we compare the same players’ capabilities and performance across conventional, centaur, and engine chess tournaments. Our analysis shows that AI adoption triggers interrelated substitution and complementation dynamics, which make humans’ traditional competitive capabilities obsolete, while creating new sources of persistent heterogeneity when humans interact with chess engines. These novel human-machine capabilities are unrelated, or even negatively related, to traditional capabilities. We contribute an integrated view of substitution and complementation, which identifies AI as the driver of these dynamics and explains how they jointly shift the sources of competitive advantage.
Managerial Summary
AI-based technologies increasingly substitute and complement humans in managerial tasks such as decision making. We investigate how such change affects the sources of competitive advantage. AI-based engines’ adoption in chess allows us to investigate competitive capabilities and performance in human, AI, and hybrid settings. We find that neither humans nor AI in isolation explain performance differences in the AI and hybrid settings. Instead, a new decision-making resource emerges at the human-AI intersection, which drives performance but is unrelated or even negatively related to humans’ original capability. Our results document how AI adoption changes the sources of competitive advantage and, in turn, requires managers to develop new capabilities to stay relevant in an AI-based competitive landscape.
Journal: Strategic Management Journal
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Johannes Luger
Clean at Home, Polluting Abroad: The Role of the Chinese Financial System's Differential Treatment of State-owned and Private Enterprises
Abstract: Although China is the world’s largest investor in renewable energy, its overseas energy investments are primarily in fossil fuels. This is a cause of major concern as countries across the globe need to transition toward low-carbon development trajectories to meet the 1.5-degree warming target of the Paris Agreement. In this paper, we present data up until and including 2019 showing that power generation investment in renewables domestically (excluding medium and large hydro) is 77% while only 22% overseas. We add to the literature on the institutional environment surrounding Chinese overseas investment by finding that in addition to general barriers to renewables, such as higher up-front costs and different income cycles, Chinese renewable firms face significant structural financing disadvantages vis-à-vis conventional energy firms. We find that the underlying reason is that Chinese fossil fuel companies are largely state-owned while renewable companies are largely private-owned. The disadvantage then materializes through the Chinese financial system’s preference for state-owned enterprises. Lastly, we identify concrete policy options to overcome the disadvantage by addressing five types of actors: 1) policy banks that can emphasize their development focused mandate, 2) state-owned commercial banks currently financing the majority of Chinese overseas energy projects, 3) smaller financial institutions currently not involved in this type of financing overseas, 4) Sinosure, currently focusing on insuring fossil fuel projects, and 5) Chinese energy, utility, and construction companies that would benefit from further diversifying into renewables.
Abstract: Although China is the world’s largest investor in renewable energy, its overseas energy investments are primarily in fossil fuels. This is a cause of major concern as countries across the globe need to transition toward low-carbon development trajectories to meet the 1.5-degree warming target of the Paris Agreement. In this paper, we present data up until and including 2019 showing that power generation investment in renewables domestically (excluding medium and large hydro) is 77% while only 22% overseas. We add to the literature on the institutional environment surrounding Chinese overseas investment by finding that in addition to general barriers to renewables, such as higher up-front costs and different income cycles, Chinese renewable firms face significant structural financing disadvantages vis-à-vis conventional energy firms. We find that the underlying reason is that Chinese fossil fuel companies are largely state-owned while renewable companies are largely private-owned. The disadvantage then materializes through the Chinese financial system’s preference for state-owned enterprises. Lastly, we identify concrete policy options to overcome the disadvantage by addressing five types of actors: 1) policy banks that can emphasize their development focused mandate, 2) state-owned commercial banks currently financing the majority of Chinese overseas energy projects, 3) smaller financial institutions currently not involved in this type of financing overseas, 4) Sinosure, currently focusing on insuring fossil fuel projects, and 5) Chinese energy, utility, and construction companies that would benefit from further diversifying into renewables.
Journal: Climate Policy
Published: March 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Mathias Lund Larsen
The Future of Internal Auditing: Gardener of Governance
Abstract: Internal Auditing is a profession at crossroads. On the micro level, in organizations and institutions, stakeholders may see less and less value in the contributions from internal auditing and on a macro level, this projection jeopardizes the legitimacy and relevance of internal auditing as a profession. The good and bad news is that the future is uncertain. This article suggests five main fields of action and focus for the IIA Global – The Institute of Internal Auditors, its local chapters, internal auditors and academia that will determine the future role of internal auditing, its legitimacy, its relevance and its organizational and societal significance. The purpose of this article is to provide comprehensive content suggesting five concrete paths for the betterment of internal auditing. The five directions that deserve development are planet, public, profession, prosperity and people. Ultimately, positioning internal auditing as Gardener of Governance is a promising metaphor to strengthen its value proposition, both on a micro and on a macro level. Metaphors are an important way to convey ideas and make ideas stick.
Abstract: Internal Auditing is a profession at crossroads. On the micro level, in organizations and institutions, stakeholders may see less and less value in the contributions from internal auditing and on a macro level, this projection jeopardizes the legitimacy and relevance of internal auditing as a profession. The good and bad news is that the future is uncertain. This article suggests five main fields of action and focus for the IIA Global – The Institute of Internal Auditors, its local chapters, internal auditors and academia that will determine the future role of internal auditing, its legitimacy, its relevance and its organizational and societal significance. The purpose of this article is to provide comprehensive content suggesting five concrete paths for the betterment of internal auditing. The five directions that deserve development are planet, public, profession, prosperity and people. Ultimately, positioning internal auditing as Gardener of Governance is a promising metaphor to strengthen its value proposition, both on a micro and on a macro level. Metaphors are an important way to convey ideas and make ideas stick.
Journal: EDPACS - The EDP Audit, Control, and Security Newsletter
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Kim Klarskov Jeppesen
Development and Evaluation of a Virtual Reality Puzzle Game to Decrease Food Intake: Randomized Controlled Trial
Abstract: Background:
Virtual reality (VR) has gained popularity in daily life, and VR food cues seem to elicit food cravings, similar to real food cues. However, little is known about the impact of VR food cues on actual food intake.
Objective:
In real life (RL), exposure to food cues in a situation in which the desire to eat food interferes with the completion of a food-related task reduces the subsequent food intake (ie, the pre-exposure effect). In this study, we examine, on the one hand, whether the pre-exposure effect could be replicated in RL and, on the other hand, whether this effect could be extended to VR contexts.
Methods:
The study used a 2 (stimulus type: food vs nonfood) × 2 (mode: VR vs RL) between-subject design (n=175). Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of the 4 conditions.
Results:
We found the main effect of mode on food intake, with a higher food intake after both VR conditions than after RL conditions (P=.02). In addition, among female participants, we found that exposure to both food cues (ie, VR and RL) resulted in lower food intake than exposure to both nonfood cues (P=.05). In contrast, this effect was not observed among male participants (P=.34). Additionally, VR and RL cues generated similar emotional and behavioral responses (eg, arousal and game difficulty).
Conclusions:
We were unable to replicate the exposure effect in our complete sample. Subgroup analyses, however, showed that for women, exposure to food cues (either in VR or in RL) reduces food intake, indicating that a VR pre-exposure procedure may effectively be applied exclusively for women.
Abstract: Background:
Virtual reality (VR) has gained popularity in daily life, and VR food cues seem to elicit food cravings, similar to real food cues. However, little is known about the impact of VR food cues on actual food intake.
Objective:
In real life (RL), exposure to food cues in a situation in which the desire to eat food interferes with the completion of a food-related task reduces the subsequent food intake (ie, the pre-exposure effect). In this study, we examine, on the one hand, whether the pre-exposure effect could be replicated in RL and, on the other hand, whether this effect could be extended to VR contexts.
Methods:
The study used a 2 (stimulus type: food vs nonfood) × 2 (mode: VR vs RL) between-subject design (n=175). Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of the 4 conditions.
Results:
We found the main effect of mode on food intake, with a higher food intake after both VR conditions than after RL conditions (P=.02). In addition, among female participants, we found that exposure to both food cues (ie, VR and RL) resulted in lower food intake than exposure to both nonfood cues (P=.05). In contrast, this effect was not observed among male participants (P=.34). Additionally, VR and RL cues generated similar emotional and behavioral responses (eg, arousal and game difficulty).
Conclusions:
We were unable to replicate the exposure effect in our complete sample. Subgroup analyses, however, showed that for women, exposure to food cues (either in VR or in RL) reduces food intake, indicating that a VR pre-exposure procedure may effectively be applied exclusively for women.
Journal: JMIR Serious Games
Published: January 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Angelos Stamos
Updating the Theory of Industrial Marketing: Industrial Marketing as a Bayesian Process of Belief-updating
Abstract: While industrial marketing often comprises a process that, at least in principle, mirrors Bayesian reasoning, the notion of Bayesian inference has predominantly been utilized in the marketing field as a methodological tool. This article suggests that the practice of industrial marketing itself should be (re)conceptualized as a Bayesian process of belief-updating that entails a continuous cognitive cycle of formulation of hypotheses (i.e., beliefs about the market) and the subsequent updating of those hypotheses through exposure to market evidence (e.g., data from the market). A Bayesian perspective on industrial marketing enables a synthesis of a broad body of extant research as well as a focus on the interconnection between executives' market beliefs (theories-in-use) and belief-updating (assessing the validity of those beliefs in view of market evidence). A view of industrial marketing as a Bayesian process not only enhances our understanding in general but also fosters insights into market learning in uncertain and volatile situations. A Bayesian conceptualization suggests a new understanding of industrial marketing that also informs a typology of marketing approaches. We outline opportunities for developing a better understanding of the Bayesian foundation of industrial marketing.
Abstract: While industrial marketing often comprises a process that, at least in principle, mirrors Bayesian reasoning, the notion of Bayesian inference has predominantly been utilized in the marketing field as a methodological tool. This article suggests that the practice of industrial marketing itself should be (re)conceptualized as a Bayesian process of belief-updating that entails a continuous cognitive cycle of formulation of hypotheses (i.e., beliefs about the market) and the subsequent updating of those hypotheses through exposure to market evidence (e.g., data from the market). A Bayesian perspective on industrial marketing enables a synthesis of a broad body of extant research as well as a focus on the interconnection between executives' market beliefs (theories-in-use) and belief-updating (assessing the validity of those beliefs in view of market evidence). A view of industrial marketing as a Bayesian process not only enhances our understanding in general but also fosters insights into market learning in uncertain and volatile situations. A Bayesian conceptualization suggests a new understanding of industrial marketing that also informs a typology of marketing approaches. We outline opportunities for developing a better understanding of the Bayesian foundation of industrial marketing.
Journal: Industrial Marketing Management
Published: April 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Carsten Lund Pedersen, Thomas Ritter
Comparing Outsourcing-outlook of Manufacturing Firms and Logistiscs Service Providers in India and DACH Countries
Abstract: Purpose
According to the logistics performance index, emerging countries such as India are lagging behind developed countries such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH region). The purpose of this study is to compare and understand the differences in logistics outsourcing outlook in the two regions by considering both manufacturing firms (M-firms) and logistics service providers’ (LSPs) perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey targeting both LSPs and M-firms in DACH and India is conducted. A total of 96 responses were analyzed by using the chi-square test to investigate the differences and alignments in outsourcing motivation, relationship and governance between firms within and across regions.
Findings
M-firms in India bear strategic motivations behind outsourcing and those in DACH incline towards costs. LSPs in both regions align with the motivations of M-firms. M-firms in India rely more on LSPs by transferring the ownership of outsourced tasks, as compared to DACH. Both M-firms and LSPs in DACH claim a high level of ownership. However, firms in DACH and India do not differ significantly in terms of outsourcing engagements they seek.
Research limitations/implications
The findings may only be generalized to large firms in India and DACH.
Practical implications
The findings of this study help managers enhance their understanding of the differences between M-firms and LSPs, and also across countries. LSPs in DACH, if they wish to operate successfully in India, will have to adapt to the M-firms strategic motivations and offer higher dependency.
Originality/value
This study is novel, as it investigates differences between India and DACH countries while also including both manufacturers’ and logistics service providers’ perspectives.
Abstract: Purpose
According to the logistics performance index, emerging countries such as India are lagging behind developed countries such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH region). The purpose of this study is to compare and understand the differences in logistics outsourcing outlook in the two regions by considering both manufacturing firms (M-firms) and logistics service providers’ (LSPs) perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey targeting both LSPs and M-firms in DACH and India is conducted. A total of 96 responses were analyzed by using the chi-square test to investigate the differences and alignments in outsourcing motivation, relationship and governance between firms within and across regions.
Findings
M-firms in India bear strategic motivations behind outsourcing and those in DACH incline towards costs. LSPs in both regions align with the motivations of M-firms. M-firms in India rely more on LSPs by transferring the ownership of outsourced tasks, as compared to DACH. Both M-firms and LSPs in DACH claim a high level of ownership. However, firms in DACH and India do not differ significantly in terms of outsourcing engagements they seek.
Research limitations/implications
The findings may only be generalized to large firms in India and DACH.
Practical implications
The findings of this study help managers enhance their understanding of the differences between M-firms and LSPs, and also across countries. LSPs in DACH, if they wish to operate successfully in India, will have to adapt to the M-firms strategic motivations and offer higher dependency.
Originality/value
This study is novel, as it investigates differences between India and DACH countries while also including both manufacturers’ and logistics service providers’ perspectives.
Journal: Journal of Global Operations and Strategic Sourcing
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Hans-Joachim Schramm
Internationalization, Value-chain Configuration, and the Adoption of Additive Manufacturing Technologies
Abstract: In this study, we empirically explore the relationships among process innovation, internationalization, and the reconfiguration of the firm’s activities at the global level. In particular, we analyze the extent to which these factors are related to the propensity to adopt additive manufacturing (AM) technologies. Internationalization and value-chain configuration are measured using various dimensions, and we find that the impact on the adoption of AM technologies is moderated by the firms’ absorptive capacity. Our empirical findings are drawn from a proprietary database covering 197 manufacturing firms.
Abstract: In this study, we empirically explore the relationships among process innovation, internationalization, and the reconfiguration of the firm’s activities at the global level. In particular, we analyze the extent to which these factors are related to the propensity to adopt additive manufacturing (AM) technologies. Internationalization and value-chain configuration are measured using various dimensions, and we find that the impact on the adoption of AM technologies is moderated by the firms’ absorptive capacity. Our empirical findings are drawn from a proprietary database covering 197 manufacturing firms.
Journal: Industrial and Corporate Change
Published: December 2021
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Contact CBS researcher: Bent Petersen
Norwegian Ship-owners' Adoption of Alternative Fuels
Abstract: The shipping sector's rising greenhouse gas emissions are often considered “hard-to-abate”. Some ship-owners have recently adopted or started to consider the adoption of alternative fuels, but systematic studies of this are still lacking. We address this gap by studying how ship-owners differ in both actual and intended adoption of alternative fuels. We analyze data from a unique survey with 281 ship-owners in Norway, a major ship-owning country and center for maritime technology development, with descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. We find early adopters among large and established ship-owners in offshore, international cargo and domestic passenger shipping segments, which are often subjected to specific contractual demands for alternative fuel adoption. Laggards were typically small and young ship-owners operating in shipping segments where demands for alternative fuel adoption are weak. Our findings also suggest that firms' business strategy and financial and knowledge resources may have relevance for ship-owner's adoption of alternative fuels. Our study has implications for national and international policymaking, highlighting for example how contracting mechanisms can be an effective tool in incentivizing the adoption of alternative fuels.
Abstract: The shipping sector's rising greenhouse gas emissions are often considered “hard-to-abate”. Some ship-owners have recently adopted or started to consider the adoption of alternative fuels, but systematic studies of this are still lacking. We address this gap by studying how ship-owners differ in both actual and intended adoption of alternative fuels. We analyze data from a unique survey with 281 ship-owners in Norway, a major ship-owning country and center for maritime technology development, with descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. We find early adopters among large and established ship-owners in offshore, international cargo and domestic passenger shipping segments, which are often subjected to specific contractual demands for alternative fuel adoption. Laggards were typically small and young ship-owners operating in shipping segments where demands for alternative fuel adoption are weak. Our findings also suggest that firms' business strategy and financial and knowledge resources may have relevance for ship-owner's adoption of alternative fuels. Our study has implications for national and international policymaking, highlighting for example how contracting mechanisms can be an effective tool in incentivizing the adoption of alternative fuels.
Journal: Energy Policy
Published: April 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: René Taudal Poulsen
The Bureaucratic Ethos in Street-Level Work: Revitalizing Weber’s Ethics of Office
Abstract: Despite the centrality of bureaucracy to both the theory and the realities of street-level bureaucracy, street-level scholars have rarely engaged with the concept of bureaucracy as such. We argue that Weber’s perspective on bureaucracy represents an indispensable source that may help us align the theoretical foundation of street-level scholarship with its empirical findings and bring attention to aspects of street-level work that are often overlooked. Drawing on a value-based reading of Weber, we propose an ethics of office-approach that allows us to see frontline workers’ discretionary practices as an integrated aspect of their bureaucratic ethos, which enables them to handle complex demands and multiple obligations. The ethics of office-approach further recognizes that their actual possibilities for doing so are related to their training and expertise within specific life orders characterized by different purposes and ethical codes. The approach therefore calls for contextual sensitivity. To develop our argument, and demonstrate the analytical range and usefulness of the ethics of office-approach, we present three case examples based on ethnographic studies of midwifery care, child protection, and citizen services.
Abstract: Despite the centrality of bureaucracy to both the theory and the realities of street-level bureaucracy, street-level scholars have rarely engaged with the concept of bureaucracy as such. We argue that Weber’s perspective on bureaucracy represents an indispensable source that may help us align the theoretical foundation of street-level scholarship with its empirical findings and bring attention to aspects of street-level work that are often overlooked. Drawing on a value-based reading of Weber, we propose an ethics of office-approach that allows us to see frontline workers’ discretionary practices as an integrated aspect of their bureaucratic ethos, which enables them to handle complex demands and multiple obligations. The ethics of office-approach further recognizes that their actual possibilities for doing so are related to their training and expertise within specific life orders characterized by different purposes and ethical codes. The approach therefore calls for contextual sensitivity. To develop our argument, and demonstrate the analytical range and usefulness of the ethics of office-approach, we present three case examples based on ethnographic studies of midwifery care, child protection, and citizen services.
Journal: Perspectives on Public Management and Governance
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Kirstine Zinck Pedersen
Interactive Effects of Self-concept and Social Context on Perceived Cohesion in Intensive Care Nursing
Abstract: Group cohesion is critical in the workplace, especially when individual and contextual constraints coexist but high performance is essential. We assess the source of variation in group members’ perceptions of cohesion. Using an interactional psychology perspective, and within the context of intensive care, this study examines the interactive effects of nurses’ self-concept and the objective social context within which they are embedded. Individual- and unit-level factors are investigated since they jointly shape the degree to which nurses perceive their intensive care units as cohesive. A multi-source, multi-level study of approximately 140 nurses employed in 20 units across Denmark demonstrates the role self-concept plays in easing and enhancing the constraints workplaces impose on cohesion. Implications for research on emergent states and interactional psychology are discussed.
Abstract: Group cohesion is critical in the workplace, especially when individual and contextual constraints coexist but high performance is essential. We assess the source of variation in group members’ perceptions of cohesion. Using an interactional psychology perspective, and within the context of intensive care, this study examines the interactive effects of nurses’ self-concept and the objective social context within which they are embedded. Individual- and unit-level factors are investigated since they jointly shape the degree to which nurses perceive their intensive care units as cohesive. A multi-source, multi-level study of approximately 140 nurses employed in 20 units across Denmark demonstrates the role self-concept plays in easing and enhancing the constraints workplaces impose on cohesion. Implications for research on emergent states and interactional psychology are discussed.
Journal: Applied Psychology
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Minna Paunova
The Effects of IT Investments and Skilled Labor on Firms’ Value Added
Abstract: Investments in information technologies (IT) and skilled labor are often highlighted as central for firms wishing to improve their performance. However, what mechanisms enable these investments to improve firm performance? The literature suggests two such channels: the production frontier of upgrading the input factors and the technical efficiency of exploiting the input factors in a more efficient way. We study these channels for increasing firms' value added in a stochastic frontier model. Notably, we find that investments in IT and skilled labor improve firms’ value added, but they do so through different channels. Multi-purpose hardware investments mainly improve efficiency in concert with other input factors, while investments in application-oriented software and skilled labor generally work by raising the production frontier itself.
Abstract: Investments in information technologies (IT) and skilled labor are often highlighted as central for firms wishing to improve their performance. However, what mechanisms enable these investments to improve firm performance? The literature suggests two such channels: the production frontier of upgrading the input factors and the technical efficiency of exploiting the input factors in a more efficient way. We study these channels for increasing firms' value added in a stochastic frontier model. Notably, we find that investments in IT and skilled labor improve firms’ value added, but they do so through different channels. Multi-purpose hardware investments mainly improve efficiency in concert with other input factors, while investments in application-oriented software and skilled labor generally work by raising the production frontier itself.
Journal: Technovation
Published: August 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Torben Pedersen, Alina Grecu
Redistributive Solidarity? Exploring the Utopian Potential of Unconditional Basic Income
Abstract: Using unconditional basic income (UBI) as its empirical prism, this article offers new impetus to the foundational debate within critical theory as to whether and how redistribution and recognition can relate productively to each other. We explore the possibility of redistributive solidarity, arguing that unconditional and universal redistribution may be a means of furthering the recognition of different subjectivities that are not solely defined by their productive relations of labor. Seeing such redistributive solidarity as a potential but not necessary outcome of UBI, we develop a typology of existing UBI experiments that divide these according to whether they seek to affirm or transform the current social order based on principles of growth or degrowth. Surveying these four types of UBI, we find that the envisioned form of economic redistribution shapes the potential for social recognition. While the relationship is one of utopian potential rather than causal necessity, UBI may indeed enable redistributive solidarity.
Abstract: Using unconditional basic income (UBI) as its empirical prism, this article offers new impetus to the foundational debate within critical theory as to whether and how redistribution and recognition can relate productively to each other. We explore the possibility of redistributive solidarity, arguing that unconditional and universal redistribution may be a means of furthering the recognition of different subjectivities that are not solely defined by their productive relations of labor. Seeing such redistributive solidarity as a potential but not necessary outcome of UBI, we develop a typology of existing UBI experiments that divide these according to whether they seek to affirm or transform the current social order based on principles of growth or degrowth. Surveying these four types of UBI, we find that the envisioned form of economic redistribution shapes the potential for social recognition. While the relationship is one of utopian potential rather than causal necessity, UBI may indeed enable redistributive solidarity.
Journal: Critical Sociology
Published: March 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Emil Husted
Assembling Homo Qualitus: Accounting for Quality in the UK National Health Service
Abstract: This paper describes the historical emergence of an accountable quality in public policies and reforms of the UK National Health Service: that is a notion of quality which is expressed through accounting and other formal measurement and management devices. It also specifies the idealized subject of an accountable quality, homo qualitus, and attends to instances of his/her incomplete realization. Doing so contributes to the problematization and rethinking of the way that accounting, professionalism, and the relationship between the two, are often understood. It shows that an accountable quality involves attempts to transform accounting from something external to, and imposed upon, or selectively adopted by, medical professionals into a measure of, in principle, any healthcare workers’ individual enthusiasm for, and commitment toward, quality itself. The incomplete nature of this transformation offers insights into complex ways in which discourse and practice may interact.
Abstract: This paper describes the historical emergence of an accountable quality in public policies and reforms of the UK National Health Service: that is a notion of quality which is expressed through accounting and other formal measurement and management devices. It also specifies the idealized subject of an accountable quality, homo qualitus, and attends to instances of his/her incomplete realization. Doing so contributes to the problematization and rethinking of the way that accounting, professionalism, and the relationship between the two, are often understood. It shows that an accountable quality involves attempts to transform accounting from something external to, and imposed upon, or selectively adopted by, medical professionals into a measure of, in principle, any healthcare workers’ individual enthusiasm for, and commitment toward, quality itself. The incomplete nature of this transformation offers insights into complex ways in which discourse and practice may interact.
Journal: European Accounting Review
Published: March 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Kirstine Zinck Pedersen
Digitalize and Deny: Pluralistic Collective Ignorance in an Algortihmic Profiling Project
Abstract: The digital transformation paradigm, marked by optimistic tech determinism, pushes contemporary management to constantly consider the usefulness of cutting-edge digital technologies for their organizations. When experiments with such technologies fail, the same optimistic tech determinism seems to play a role in actors’ denial of that failure. Based on an ethnographic study of a public organization, this paper analyzes an empirical case involving an unsuccessful digitalization flagship project. Despite encountering fundamental problems and clearly failing to fulfill its promises, the project was allowed to continue, and daily work took place unabated. This study explores how managers, project managers, and employees reacted to the numerous problems and failures related to the project in both the development and implementation phases. Our paper is situated within the literature on organizational ignorance and denial, and it advances the concept of ‘pluralistic collective ignorance’. Inspired by science and technology studies, the term ‘pluralistic collective ignorance’ is developed to account for the diversity in how organizational members ignore a phenomenon and the diversity of actors who do so. Tech optimism seems to prevent otherwise reflective actors from asking certain kinds of questions about technological solutions. However, as it is often unknown whether a digitalization project will have a positive impact in practice, it remains on open question whether denial should be viewed as supportive or destructive for organizational development.
Abstract: The digital transformation paradigm, marked by optimistic tech determinism, pushes contemporary management to constantly consider the usefulness of cutting-edge digital technologies for their organizations. When experiments with such technologies fail, the same optimistic tech determinism seems to play a role in actors’ denial of that failure. Based on an ethnographic study of a public organization, this paper analyzes an empirical case involving an unsuccessful digitalization flagship project. Despite encountering fundamental problems and clearly failing to fulfill its promises, the project was allowed to continue, and daily work took place unabated. This study explores how managers, project managers, and employees reacted to the numerous problems and failures related to the project in both the development and implementation phases. Our paper is situated within the literature on organizational ignorance and denial, and it advances the concept of ‘pluralistic collective ignorance’. Inspired by science and technology studies, the term ‘pluralistic collective ignorance’ is developed to account for the diversity in how organizational members ignore a phenomenon and the diversity of actors who do so. Tech optimism seems to prevent otherwise reflective actors from asking certain kinds of questions about technological solutions. However, as it is often unknown whether a digitalization project will have a positive impact in practice, it remains on open question whether denial should be viewed as supportive or destructive for organizational development.
Journal: Ephemera: Theory & politics in organization
Published: 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Ursula Plesner, Lise Justesen
Economic Nationalism and Internationalization of Services: Review and Research Agenda
Abstract: The world is witnessing a growth in economic nationalism, especially in countries like the United States and United Kingdom, where this would scarcely have been predicted a few years ago. These developments threaten the internationalization of services and gains made through various global trading arrangements. Moreover, there are concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic will further undermine supranational forms of governance and nurture the trend towards protectionism and economic nationalism. We undertake a systemic literature review on economic nationalism and services internationalization to identify research themes. The findings of the study have implications for policymakers, and we provide directions for future research.
Abstract: The world is witnessing a growth in economic nationalism, especially in countries like the United States and United Kingdom, where this would scarcely have been predicted a few years ago. These developments threaten the internationalization of services and gains made through various global trading arrangements. Moreover, there are concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic will further undermine supranational forms of governance and nurture the trend towards protectionism and economic nationalism. We undertake a systemic literature review on economic nationalism and services internationalization to identify research themes. The findings of the study have implications for policymakers, and we provide directions for future research.
Journal: Journal of World Business
Published: April 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Peter D. Ørberg Jensen, Bent Petersen
Hvordan er danske revisionsudvalg sammensat?
Abstract: pending
Abstract: pending
Journal: Revision & Regnskabsvæsen
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Thomas Riise Johansen
From Integrated to Fragmented Elites: The Core of Swiss Elite Networks 1910–2015
Abstract: This article focuses on historical elite dynamics and investigates elites' integration over time. We describe the changing relations and composition of the central circles in Swiss elite networks at seven benchmark years between 1910 and 2015 by relying on 22,262 elite individuals tied to 2587 organizations among eight key sectors, and identify for each year the most connected core of individuals. We explore network cohesion and sectoral bridging of the elite core and find that it moved from being a unitary corporate elite, before 1945, to an integrated corporatist elite, between the 1950s and 1980s, before fragmenting into a loose group, with an increased importance of corporate elites, in the 1990s onwards. The core was always dominated by business and their forms of legitimacy but, at times of crisis to the hegemony of corporate elites, after the Second World War and (only) shortly after the 2008 financial crisis, elite circles expanded and included individuals with delegated forms of power, such as politicians and unionists. In the most recent cohort (2015), the share of corporate elites in the core is similar to the one before the First World War and during the interwar period. This return to the past echoes findings on wealth inequality and economic capital accumulation by a small group of individuals organized around the most powerful companies.
Abstract: This article focuses on historical elite dynamics and investigates elites' integration over time. We describe the changing relations and composition of the central circles in Swiss elite networks at seven benchmark years between 1910 and 2015 by relying on 22,262 elite individuals tied to 2587 organizations among eight key sectors, and identify for each year the most connected core of individuals. We explore network cohesion and sectoral bridging of the elite core and find that it moved from being a unitary corporate elite, before 1945, to an integrated corporatist elite, between the 1950s and 1980s, before fragmenting into a loose group, with an increased importance of corporate elites, in the 1990s onwards. The core was always dominated by business and their forms of legitimacy but, at times of crisis to the hegemony of corporate elites, after the Second World War and (only) shortly after the 2008 financial crisis, elite circles expanded and included individuals with delegated forms of power, such as politicians and unionists. In the most recent cohort (2015), the share of corporate elites in the core is similar to the one before the First World War and during the interwar period. This return to the past echoes findings on wealth inequality and economic capital accumulation by a small group of individuals organized around the most powerful companies.
Journal: British Journal of Sociology
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Christoph Houman Ellersgaard, Jacob Lunding
Performance Management Trends: Reflections on the Redesigns Big Companies Have Been Doing Lately
Abstract: Purpose
Since several high-profile companies announced that they were radically redesigning their performance management systems and processes (PMSPs), commentators and scholars argue that these changes represent a trend that many companies are following, and even more are considering pursuing. The present paper aims to provide an overview of these redesigns and their rationales from the companies' point of view and theoretically reflect on their organisational value.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is based on a review of articles from journals, professional magazines and the business press that describe how nine high-profile companies from the debate changed their PMSP design.
Findings
The PMSP redesigns are directed towards what in the literature has been referred to as people PMSPs. The authors identify five organisational challenges to which the people PMSPs are exposed and specify the design elements that the companies have changed to meet these challenges. Finally, the authors outline a set of theoretical propositions that demonstrate some of the trade-offs involved with the redesigns.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to researchers and practitioners by providing more insight into why and how companies have redesigned their people PMSPs. Answers to these questions are vital in understanding the trends and redesigns that practitioners are currently considering. Furthermore, since the empirical research of the effects of these redesigns is still limited, we outline a set of theory-based propositions helpful for future empirical investigations.
Abstract: Purpose
Since several high-profile companies announced that they were radically redesigning their performance management systems and processes (PMSPs), commentators and scholars argue that these changes represent a trend that many companies are following, and even more are considering pursuing. The present paper aims to provide an overview of these redesigns and their rationales from the companies' point of view and theoretically reflect on their organisational value.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is based on a review of articles from journals, professional magazines and the business press that describe how nine high-profile companies from the debate changed their PMSP design.
Findings
The PMSP redesigns are directed towards what in the literature has been referred to as people PMSPs. The authors identify five organisational challenges to which the people PMSPs are exposed and specify the design elements that the companies have changed to meet these challenges. Finally, the authors outline a set of theoretical propositions that demonstrate some of the trade-offs involved with the redesigns.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to researchers and practitioners by providing more insight into why and how companies have redesigned their people PMSPs. Answers to these questions are vital in understanding the trends and redesigns that practitioners are currently considering. Furthermore, since the empirical research of the effects of these redesigns is still limited, we outline a set of theory-based propositions helpful for future empirical investigations.
Journal: International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management
Published: March 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Katrine Schrøder-Hansen, Allan Hansen
Electrification and Socio-economic Empowerment of Women in India
Abstract: pending
Abstract: pending
Journal: The Energy Journal
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Tooraj Jamasb
The Effects of Climate Risks on Economic Activity in a Panel of US States: The Role of Uncertainty
Abstract: We analyse the impact of climate risks (temperature growth and its volatility) on the coincident indicator of the 50 US states in a panel data set-up, over the monthly period of March, 1984 to December, 2019. Using impulse response functions (IRFs) from a linear local projections (LPs) model, we show that climate risks negatively impact economic activity to a similar degree, irrespective of whether such risks are due to changes in temperature growth or its volatility. More importantly, using a nonlinear LPs model, the IRFs reveal that the adverse effect of climate risks is contingent on the regimes of economic and policy-related uncertainty of the states, with the impact being significantly much stronger under relatively higher values of uncertainty, rather than lower values of the same. In addition to this, temperature growth volatility is found to contract economic activity nearly five times more compared to when temperature growth increases by a similar magnitude in the higher uncertainty-based regime of the nonlinear model. Understandably, our results have important policy implications.
Abstract: We analyse the impact of climate risks (temperature growth and its volatility) on the coincident indicator of the 50 US states in a panel data set-up, over the monthly period of March, 1984 to December, 2019. Using impulse response functions (IRFs) from a linear local projections (LPs) model, we show that climate risks negatively impact economic activity to a similar degree, irrespective of whether such risks are due to changes in temperature growth or its volatility. More importantly, using a nonlinear LPs model, the IRFs reveal that the adverse effect of climate risks is contingent on the regimes of economic and policy-related uncertainty of the states, with the impact being significantly much stronger under relatively higher values of uncertainty, rather than lower values of the same. In addition to this, temperature growth volatility is found to contract economic activity nearly five times more compared to when temperature growth increases by a similar magnitude in the higher uncertainty-based regime of the nonlinear model. Understandably, our results have important policy implications.
Journal: Economics Letters
Published: April 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Oguzhan Cepni
Feminism in Women’s Business Networks: A Freedom-centred Perspective
Abstract: How do women’s business networks (WBNs) help to advance women’s freedom? Drawing on Zerilli’s freedom-centred feminism, our study sets out to answer this question at the intersection of freedom, feminism and work. Critics argue that WBNs promote a postfeminist view of freedom focusing on individual self-realisation and thus participate in rolling back collective, feminist efforts to dismantle structural inequalities. We reconceptualize WBNs as political arenas and argue that making claims about shared interests and concerns in such an arena constitutes a feminist practice of freedom. With an original, inductive and qualitative research design combining topic modeling and dialectical analysis, we examine the claims made in 1,529 posts across four WBN blogs. We identify postfeminist claims and new forms of change and transformation that can help to advance women’s freedom across three ‘dialectics of freedom’: conformity and imagination; performative care and relational care; sameness and openness. Our findings show that uncertain and contradictory ways of defining and engaging with women’s freedom can emerge through claim-making in such arenas. The fragility of the process and its outcomes are, then, what can move feminism forward at work and beyond.
Abstract: How do women’s business networks (WBNs) help to advance women’s freedom? Drawing on Zerilli’s freedom-centred feminism, our study sets out to answer this question at the intersection of freedom, feminism and work. Critics argue that WBNs promote a postfeminist view of freedom focusing on individual self-realisation and thus participate in rolling back collective, feminist efforts to dismantle structural inequalities. We reconceptualize WBNs as political arenas and argue that making claims about shared interests and concerns in such an arena constitutes a feminist practice of freedom. With an original, inductive and qualitative research design combining topic modeling and dialectical analysis, we examine the claims made in 1,529 posts across four WBN blogs. We identify postfeminist claims and new forms of change and transformation that can help to advance women’s freedom across three ‘dialectics of freedom’: conformity and imagination; performative care and relational care; sameness and openness. Our findings show that uncertain and contradictory ways of defining and engaging with women’s freedom can emerge through claim-making in such arenas. The fragility of the process and its outcomes are, then, what can move feminism forward at work and beyond.
Journal: Human Relations
Published: February 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Florence Villeseche
Do Environmental Policies Affect MNEs’ Foreign Subsidiary Investments? An Empirical Investigation
Abstract: We build on institutional theory to examine the impact of countries’ environmental policies on MNEs’ foreign subsidiary investments. We extend prior IB research that finds both positive and negative associations between environmental policies and MNE investments by showing that the relationship between environmental policy and MNE subsidiary investments is mediated by the effectiveness with which host countries enforce these policies. Specifically, we posit that environmental policies are effective when countries align them with tangible institutional outcomes such as actual reductions in emissions or increases in renewable energy production. This reduces uncertainty by providing a reliable and efficient framework for economic transactions. We test our arguments on a sample of 882 public US firms and their subsidiaries in 102 countries from 2000 to 2015, in conjunction with the Kyoto Protocol. We find that ratifying the Kyoto Protocol is associated with reductions in countries’ emission levels and increased reliance on renewables. Further, increased reliance on renewables positively mediates the relationship between the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and MNEs foreign subsidiary investments. For host countries, this relationship is stronger when there are greater improvements in institutions’ quality. For MNEs, this relation is weaker for those MNEs associated with higher pollution. We find no such relationships for greenhouse gas emissions. Our findings contribute to the growing IB literature on environmental sustainability by highlighting the importance of effective institutions and their interaction with country- and firm-level heterogeneities.
Abstract: We build on institutional theory to examine the impact of countries’ environmental policies on MNEs’ foreign subsidiary investments. We extend prior IB research that finds both positive and negative associations between environmental policies and MNE investments by showing that the relationship between environmental policy and MNE subsidiary investments is mediated by the effectiveness with which host countries enforce these policies. Specifically, we posit that environmental policies are effective when countries align them with tangible institutional outcomes such as actual reductions in emissions or increases in renewable energy production. This reduces uncertainty by providing a reliable and efficient framework for economic transactions. We test our arguments on a sample of 882 public US firms and their subsidiaries in 102 countries from 2000 to 2015, in conjunction with the Kyoto Protocol. We find that ratifying the Kyoto Protocol is associated with reductions in countries’ emission levels and increased reliance on renewables. Further, increased reliance on renewables positively mediates the relationship between the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and MNEs foreign subsidiary investments. For host countries, this relationship is stronger when there are greater improvements in institutions’ quality. For MNEs, this relation is weaker for those MNEs associated with higher pollution. We find no such relationships for greenhouse gas emissions. Our findings contribute to the growing IB literature on environmental sustainability by highlighting the importance of effective institutions and their interaction with country- and firm-level heterogeneities.
Journal: Management International Review
Published: March 2022
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Contact CBS researcher: Flladina Zilja
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