The objective of the Working Paper series is to quickly publish new research results. The Working Papers series contain preliminary reports intended for publication in specialized journals and serves as basis for academic debate and conferences.
As a key competence, data literacy is one of the so-called “future skills” that are needed in a digitalized world in order to successfully participate in science, the world of work and society in general. Data literacy refers to a wide range of skills in the critical handling of data, such as collecting, managing, evaluating and using data. Universities play a key role in teaching basic and subject-specific data skills. The authors consider the question of how data literacy skills can be integrated into the curriculum and extracurricular activities at universities. There are various approaches in literature and practice, which are presented in an overview of the current state of research on this topic. In addition, a specific case study is used to illustrate the practical implementation at a university.
The world is increasingly characterized by global and national disasters and crises. To cope with these, social cohesion is indispensable—and this in turn requires that young people are taught how to become responsible citizens. Strengthening students’ personal development and social commitment are therefore key responsibilities of universities. Service-learning is one possibility to integrate these into teaching and learning, however studies on the effectiveness of service-learning in Europe—and especially in Germany—are rare. This paper examines the effects of service-learning, whereby three different study groups are compared. The study includes n=132 bachelor and master students, and shows that the groups’ outcomes hardly differ from one another. It can tentatively be said that there are only minor differences between the formats and that service-learning is equal to more traditional teaching-learning formats, but again is not superior with regard to the variables investigated.
Urban area tessellation is a crucial aspect in many spatial analyses. While regular tessellation methods, like square-grid or hexagon-grid, are suitable for addressing pure geometry problems, they cannot take the unique characteristics of different subareas into account. Irregular tessellation methods allow the border between the subareas to be defined more realistically based on the urban features like road network or POI data. This paper studies and compares five different tessellation methods: Squares, hexagons, adaptive squares, Voronoi diagrams, and city blocks. We explain how (open-source) POI data can be integrated into the tessellation process to build what we call “Local Geo-graphic Units” (POI-based tiles). These units are flexible and adaptable to the structure of the studied area and underlying data and could improve the performance of further analyses. The results of the various tessellation methods are demonstrated for the city of Frankfurt am Main in Germany. A simple clustering of Local Geographic Units for the studied city indicates that city blocks perform better than the other methods in the city segmentation in terms of reflecting the structure of this city.
Empirical evidence suggests that international ownership of local firms supports firm performance and growth through various channels such as financing, technology transfer, and improved access to international markets. This is particularly true for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that otherwise may lack access to a variety of vital resources. At the same time small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) formation may promote economic development. The relationship between firm performance and international ownership has been well explored for firms in developed economies but this is not the case for firms – including SMEs – in Africa and the Middle East. Largely due to lack of relevant cross-country financial data, existing literature on African and Middle-Eastern firms has presented survey-based evidence on firm performance while evidence based on detailed financial information remains lacking. The present paper aims at filling this research gap. We identify African and Middle-Eastern SMEs operating in the formal sector and examine the impact of ownership structure on firm performance. We use cross-sectional financial data covering about 25,500 companies – including about 30% SMEs – in 69 African and Middle-Eastern countries for the years 2006 to 2015. Our results indicate that international ownership has significant positive association with firm performance. For internationally-owned SMEs this appears to be true despite lower levels of equity and debt capital, implying that internationally-owned firms use international resources – other than capital – more efficiently!
Working Paper 21 (11/2021) (German only)
Meat substitutes are on the rise. How does the naming of meat substitute products influence their acceptance? In a quantitative omnibus survey, six product names for meat substitute products are evaluated in terms of purchase preference. Respondents are asked about their preferred product names. A distinction is made according to the dietary form of the subjects. The product names are differentiated by the strength of the association with meat products. In addition, the extent to which consumers accept names, typically associated with meat-legged products, for naming meat substitutes was tested. Results showed no preference of product names as a function of the subjects' dietary form. The assumption that products with names reminiscent of meat products lead to lower acceptance among followers of meatless, could not be confirmed dietary forms. The acceptance of name additions such as "sausage" or "schnitzel" was constant for all dietary forms. Moreover, no differences in preference can be found with regard to gender. For companies in the industry, this means that when naming meat substitutes, the association with meat-containing products has little influence on their acceptance.
The aim of this paper, which is positioned within the research domain of logistics and supply chain management, is to present a holistic perspective on the development of an innovative halal air cargo supply chain.
To the best of our knowledge, a fully integrated halal supply chain “from farm to fork” represents a complete novelty, especially in the context of a non-Muslim-dominant country such as Germany. As a matter of fact, although some major European seaports have been certified according to halal standards (i.e. Rotterdam in 2007, and Zeebrugge and Marseille in 2012), they are still unable to guarantee the integrity of halal products across the entire supply chain.
B2C e-commerce is still one of the fastest growing marketing channels in almost all product categories yielding to less bundled direct-to-consumer deliveries. Last mile deliveries cause costs and emissions especially in urban areas with a high density of e-customers. Therefore, stakeholders in the context of last mile parcel deliveries are interested in implementing efficient, innovative and ecological last mile concepts. In our customer-driven central last mile micro depot (CMD) project a potential analysis was carried out for the implementation of a CMD with the aim of environmentally-friendly and bundled last mile delivery. Our paper tries to close a research gap by examining acceptance and willingness-to-pay for an alternative last mile delivery concept from the perspective of the customer. Our empirical results based on a survey among German major city residents indicate that city residential areas are potentially more suitable for the realization of a CMD-project than other areas. Furthermore, younger and employed inhabitants are most willing to use the CMD. Based on our statistical model we are able to predict values for the willingness to pay per parcel for a specific population of urban inhabitants.
Working Paper 16 (12/2020) (German only)
Leadership is changing due to many digital influences. Digitization requires new leadership skills and will increasingly produce automated decisions. Such “management by systems” and more independence of the employees leads to agile forms of organizations. Both managers and employees will use artificial intelligence and bots to interact with one another. The article shows that agility requires more leadership and “cyber leadership” requires more artificial intelligence.
Working Paper 15 (11/2020) (German only)
The current study explores the working conditions of lesbian women in Germany. It compares lesbian women's experiences to those of heterosexual women and examines the level of discrimination during job-application for women who enter professional life. The results of an experimental setting indicate that lesbian women do face discrimination when applying for jobs, as they are less often invited for job interviews. Another important result, based on survey among lesbian and heterosexual women shows that lesbian women experience stronger discrimination on the job due to their gender than their sexual orientation.
Working Paper 14 (10/2018) (German only)
Between 2006 and 2009, the authors studied the role of gender-specific negotiation skills of women for their advancement and obtained salary (Ruppert/Voigt 2009). In 2017, a follow-up study with the same methodological design examined to what extent the results found at that time are still applicable. We see that ten years after the implementation of the original study things are (mostly) as they were: men generally have a much more positive attitude towards negotiation and women are more frequently nervous and fearful in salary negotiations. Neither gender invests a lot of time in preparing for negotiations. And in the end we can note again: men achieve significantly better results.
Today we live in a post-truth and highly digitalized era characterized by the flow of (mis-)information around the world. Identifying the impact of this information on stock markets and, moreover, forecasting stock returns and volatilities has become a much more difficult, and perhaps an almost impossible, task purpose. This paper investigates the impact of macroeconomic factors on the German main stock index, the DAX30, for the time period from 1991 to 2016. There are no comparable investigations for the DAX regarding this time period and the GARCH approach in the literature. Using a dataset about 23 variables and over a timeframe of about 25 years, we find evidence that the growth rates of money supply M1 have a strong impact on the stock returns. The results illustrate that in the post-crisis period more macroeconomic factors have a significant impact on the German stock market compared to the pre-crisis period. This implies that in the post-crisis period a macro-driven market is prevailing. In the post-crisis period, however, increasing saving rates, M2 and M3 lead to shrinking stocks values due to higher risk aversion.
Economic theory implies that research and development (R&D) efforts increase firm productivity and ultimately profits. In particular, R&D expenses lead to the development of intellectual property (IP) and IP commands a return that increases overall profits of the firm. This hypothesis is investigated for the North American automotive supplier industry by analyzing a panel of 5000 firms for the years 1950 to 2011. Results indicate that R&D expenses in fact increase profitability at the firm level. In particular, increases in the R&D expense to sales ratio lead to increases in the profit contribution of intangible assets relative to sales. This indicates that more R&D intensive IP should command higher royalty rates per sales when licensed to third parties and within multinational enterprises alike.
Autor: Stefan Lutz
What assessment and expectations do students have?
Working Paper 11 (10/2016) (German only)
In 2015, the authors already presented the results of a study on the influence of the selected negotiation strategy and the gender of the negotiating person, and they examined the interaction that these two variables have on the negotiation success of executives in salary negotiations (see Ruppert/Voigt 2015b). This study showed that executives rate negotiation tactics that are part of a fact-oriented, cooperative negotiation strategy as better in terms of the chances of success in salary negotiations than negotiation tactics that are used in the context of an assertion-oriented, hard negotiation strategy. In the survey experiment they performed in this study, the fact-oriented, cooperative negotiation strategy proved to be more successful (even if only minimally) than the assertion-oriented, hard strategy (see Ruppert/Voigt 2015b). In parallel to this research project with executives, they also performed a study with students using the same methodological tools and compared the results of the two studies. We see that the assessments and expectations of the students clearly differed from those of the executives. These differences have implications for teaching at universities, in particular in terms of teaching key skills that need to be discussed further.
Authors: Andrea Ruppert and Martina Voigt
for Recipients of Disability Insurance Benefits in Switzerland
This paper evaluates a placement coaching program implemented in Zurich during 2009–2013 that focused on the reemployment of persons drawing disability insurance (DI) benefits. A private company was commissioned to implement the program. Kernel-based matching and radius matching with bias adjustment estimators combined with difference-in-differences are applied to administrative panel data. The estimates point to a successful project in terms of a reduction in DI benefits and an increase in income even in the medium-run. A simple cost–benefit analysis suggests that the project was a profitable investment for the social security system. Sensitivity analyses indicate that the results are robust to confounders and further specification issues. An interesting policy implication is that it seems possible to enhance the employment prospects of disabled persons with a relatively inexpensive intervention which does not include any explicit investments in human capital.
Published in: Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation 28: 1–19.
Author: Tobias Hagen
Working Paper 09 (11/2015) (German only)
Women in management positions in Germany are still underrepresented. it appears that the measures used for changing the situation have not been sufficient to date. Numerous studies already deal with the barriers that women encounter and how to diminish / prevent them. However, it is apparent that the previous tools and measures are not sufficient to help more women accede to management positions and be accepted. This study looks at the observed behaviors that are a sign of acceptance of executives. We assume that acceptance can have a significant impact on a career. Initial results indicate that, in the perception of the respondents, particularly acceptance from executives and colleagues has an impact on professional success. Furthermore, different indicators can be identified depending on the gender of the executive.
Authors: Caprice Weissenrieder und Anastassja Spura
Sustainability has been defined by the Brundtland Commission (Brundtland, 1987) as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
In times of increasing expectations of customers, shareholders, employees, and communities as well as the general public about corporations’ contributions to sustainability (WBCSD - World Business Council for Sustainable Development), the latter are severely and continuously criticized for actions that contradict their glossy sustainability reports (Holliday, 2010). However, it is often the case that such criticism is rooted in a lack of awareness of the complexity of relationships and the role that sustainability plays within the context of a firm’s operations, particularly SMEs, which cannot dedicate major resources to cope with the issues. Therefore, the question arises of what universities can do to build awareness and understanding among students in order to prepare them to cope with sustainability aspects in their future careers (Starik et al., 2010). This paper presents findings based on quantitative and qualitative data from five consecutive cross functional courses in sustainability for students in business, law, architecture, health management and engineering, and evaluates the extent to which their attitude and awareness changed over the course. Recommendations are given for institutions in higher education as well as for companies to follow up with further training initiatives for junior managers.
Author: Erika Graf
of women
Working Paper 07 (7/2015) (German only)
The topic of gender-specific differences in terms of career opportunities is controversial. Different studies show that compared to other European countries, the potential of women in Germany, in particular well-educated women, has not been fully exhausted. This study intends to show to what extent the company culture, i.e. values, standards, attitudes, convictions, behaviors, and processes prevalent in the companies, has a beneficial or detrimental effect on the career perspectives of women.
Authors: Caprice Weissenrieder, Regine Graml, Tobias Hagen, Yvonne Ziegler
Published in revised form as: Weissenrieder, C., Graml, R., Hagen, T. und Ziegler, Y. (2017): Ist die gläserne Decke noch aktuell? Untersuchung wahrgenommener Aspekte der Unternehmenskultur und der geschlechtsspezifischen Unterschiede in Karrierechancen (German only). In: GENDER Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, Volume 1/17, pp. 115–132.
Working Paper No. 6 (12/2014) (German only)
The study investigates the gender-differentiated success chances of an assertion-oriented, hard and fact-oriented, cooperative negotiation strategy as well as individual negotiation tactics during a salary negotiation.
Authors: Andrea Ruppert und Martina Voigt
An Application to Air Travel Demand
published in Journal of Forecasting 35 (2), 2016
Author: Andre Jungmittag
How Important Are the Different Dimensions of Distance?
Working Paper No. 4 (06/2014) (German only)
Author: Andre Jungmittag
Consumption on the Mortality Rate of Prostate and Ovarian Cancer
Working Paper No. 3 (06/2014) (German only)
Published in the American Journal of Medical Research 2(2), 2015, 7–41
Authors: Tobias Hagen und Stefanie Waldeck
and Fiscal Performance After the 2007 Financial Shock – Econometric Analyses Based on Cross-Country Data
(Published in: Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal, Vol. 7, 2013-33).
Author: Tobias Hagen
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