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Cancer is a complex disease where resistance to therapies and relapses often pose a serious clinical challenge. The scenario is even more complicated when the cancer type itself is heterogeneous in nature, e.g., lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphocytes which constitutes more than 70 different subtypes. Indeed, the treatment options continue to expand in lymphomas. Herein, we provide insights into lymphoma-specific clinical trials based on cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell therapy and other pre-clinical lymphoma models where CIK cells have been used along with other synergetic tumor-targeting immune modules to improve their therapeutic potential. From a broader perspective, we will highlight that CIK cell therapy has potential, and in this rapidly evolving landscape of cancer therapies its optimization (as a personalized therapeutic approach) will be beneficial in lymphomas.
Das autonome Fahren wird die Mobilität revolutionieren. Um die Auswirkung der Vollautomation auf dieEigenschaften der Verkehrsmittel und die Präferenzen der Nutzer besser zu verstehen, haben wir dieNutzenwerte neuen Verkehrsmodi im Vergleich zu den bestehenden Verkehrsmodi analysiert und imRahmen einer Online-Umfrage von potentiellen Nutzern in Form eines vollständigen Paarvergleichsbewerten lassen. Die Studie zeigt, dass der Privat-PKW, unabhängig davon ob traditionell odervollautomatisiert, zwar nach wie vor das präferierte Verkehrsmittel ist, im direkten Vergleich das Carsharingjedoch viel stärker von der Vollautomation profitiert. Darüber hinaus gibt es Hinweise darauf, dass dasvollautomatisierte Carsharing verstärkt in Konkurrenz zum ÖPNV tritt.
The clear-sky radiative effect of aerosol–radiation interactions is of relevance for our understanding of the climate system. The influence of aerosol on the surface energy budget is of high interest for the renewable energy sector. In this study, the radiative effect is investigated in particular with respect to seasonal and regional variations for the region of Germany and the year 2015 at the surface and top of atmosphere using two complementary approaches.
First, an ensemble of clear-sky models which explicitly consider aerosols is utilized to retrieve the aerosol optical depth and the surface direct radiative effect of aerosols by means of a clear-sky fitting technique. For this, short-wave broadband irradiance measurements in the absence of clouds are used as a basis. A clear-sky detection algorithm is used to identify cloud-free observations. Considered are measurements of the short-wave broadband global and diffuse horizontal irradiance with shaded and unshaded pyranometers at 25 stations across Germany within the observational network of the German Weather Service (DWD). The clear-sky models used are the Modified MAC model (MMAC), the Meteorological Radiation Model (MRM) v6.1, the Meteorological–Statistical solar radiation model (METSTAT), the European Solar Radiation Atlas (ESRA), Heliosat-1, the Center for Environment and Man solar radiation model (CEM), and the simplified Solis model. The definition of aerosol and atmospheric characteristics of the models are examined in detail for their suitability for this approach.
Second, the radiative effect is estimated using explicit radiative transfer simulations with inputs on the meteorological state of the atmosphere, trace gases and aerosol from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) reanalysis. The aerosol optical properties (aerosol optical depth, Ångström exponent, single scattering albedo and asymmetry parameter) are first evaluated with AERONET direct sun and inversion products. The largest inconsistency is found for the aerosol absorption, which is overestimated by about 0.03 or about 30 % by the CAMS reanalysis. Compared to the DWD observational network, the simulated global, direct and diffuse irradiances show reasonable agreement within the measurement uncertainty. The radiative kernel method is used to estimate the resulting uncertainty and bias of the simulated direct radiative effect. The uncertainty is estimated to −1.5 ± 7.7 and 0.6 ± 3.5 W m−2 at the surface and top of atmosphere, respectively, while the annual-mean biases at the surface, top of atmosphere and total atmosphere are −10.6, −6.5 and 4.1 W m−2, respectively.
The retrieval of the aerosol radiative effect with the clear-sky models shows a high level of agreement with the radiative transfer simulations, with an RMSE of 5.8 W m−2 and a correlation of 0.75. The annual mean of the REari at the surface for the 25 DWD stations shows a value of −12.8 ± 5 W m−2 as the average over the clear-sky models, compared to −11 W m−2 from the radiative transfer simulations. Since all models assume a fixed aerosol characterization, the annual cycle of the aerosol radiation effect cannot be reproduced. Out of this set of clear-sky models, the largest level of agreement is shown by the ESRA and MRM v6.1 models.
Studi ini bertujuan untuk memvalidasi perangkat penilaian efikasi diri yang berkaitan dengan kesehatan kerja yang dikembangkan pada tahap studi pendahuluan. Skala Efikasi Diri untuk Kesehatan Kerja (SEDKK) berlandaskan konsep efikasi diri pada teori kognitif sosial yang mengukur empat faktor yang berpengaruh pada kesehatan setiap individu yang bekerja, seperti: perilaku makan dan minum, tidur, keamanan dan kesehatan kerja, serta kegiatan pemulihan dari stres bekerja. Hasil analisis faktor eksploratori menunjukan bahwa ada empat faktor yang terefleksikan dari butir-butir SEDKK. Validitas konstruk SEDKK dapat dibuktikan dengan korelasi positif antara SEDKK dan skala Efikasi Diri Umum yang sangat signifikan. Pengujian validitas kriteria dapat ditelusuri melalui efek SEDKK terhadap kondisi kesehatan umum, kepuasan akan kesehatan pribadi, keseimbangan kehidupan kerja/KKK (work life balance), perilaku sehat, dan perilaku berisiko. Namun demikian, asumsi mengenai reliabilitas tes berulang (test-retest) pada penelitian ini ditolak. Implikasi dan saran-saran untuk penelitian selanjutnya didiskusikan pada artikel ini.
Many workers experience their jobs as effortful or even stressful, which can result in strain. Although recovery from work would be an adaptive strategy to prevent the adverse effects of work-related strain, many workers face problems finding enough time to rest and to mentally disconnect from work during nonwork time. What goes on in workers’ minds after a stressful workday? What is it about their jobs that makes them think about their work? This special issue aims to bridge the gap between research on recovery processes mainly examined in Occupational Health Psychology, and research on work stress and working hours, often investigated in the field of Human Resource Management. We first summarize conceptual and theoretical streams from both fields of research. In the following, we discuss the contributions of the five special issue papers and conclude with key messages and directions for further research.
Work-related thoughts during off-job time have been studied extensively in occupational health psychology and related fields. We provide a focused review of the research on overcommitment—a component within the effort–reward imbalance model—and aim to connect this line of research to the most commonly studied aspects of work-related rumination. Drawing on this integrative review, we analyze survey data on ten facets of work-related rumination, namely (1) overcommitment, (2) psychological detachment, (3) affective rumination, (4) problem-solving pondering, (5) positive work reflection, (6) negative work reflection, (7) distraction, (8) cognitive irritation, (9) emotional irritation, and (10) inability to recover. First, we apply exploratory factor analysis to self-reported survey data from 357 employees to calibrate overcommitment items and to position overcommitment within the nomological net of work-related rumination constructs. Second, we leverage apply confirmatory factor analysis to self-reported survey data from 388 employees to provide a more specific test of uniqueness vs. overlap among these constructs. Third, we apply relative weight analysis to assess the unique criterion-related validity of each work-related rumination facet regarding (1) physical fatigue, (2) cognitive fatigue, (3) emotional fatigue, (4) burnout, (5) psychosomatic complaints, and (6) satisfaction with life. Our results suggest that several measures of work-related rumination (e.g., overcommitment and cognitive irritation) can be used interchangeably. Emotional irritation and affective rumination emerge as the strongest unique predictors of fatigue, burnout, psychosomatic complaints, and satisfaction with life. Our study is intended to assist researchers in making informed decisions on selecting scales for their research and paves the way for integrating research on the effort–reward imbalance and work-related rumination.
Although work events can be regarded as pivotal elements of organizational life, only a few studies have examined how positive and negative events relate to and combine to affect work engagement over time. Theory suggests that, to better understand how current events affect work engagement (WE), we have to account for recent events that have preceded these current events. We present competing theoretical views on how recent and current work events may affect employees (e.g., getting used to a high frequency of negative events or becoming more sensitive to negative events). Although the occurrence of events implies discrete changes in the experience of work, prior research has not considered whether work events actually accumulate to sustained mid-term changes in WE. To address these gaps in the literature, we conducted a week-level longitudinal study across a period of 15 consecutive weeks among 135 employees, which yielded 849 weekly observations. While positive events were associated with higher levels of WE within the same week, negative events were not. Our results support neither satiation nor sensitization processes. However, a high frequency of negative events in the preceding week amplified the beneficial effects of positive events on WE in the current week. Growth curve analyses show that the benefits of positive events accumulate to sustain high levels of WE. WE dissipates in the absence of a continuous experience of positive events. Our study adds a temporal component by highlighting that positive events affect work engagement, particularly in light of recent negative events. Our study informs research that has taken a feature-oriented perspective on the dynamic interplay of job demands and resources.
In the literature on occupational stress and recovery from work, several facets of thinking about work during off-job time have been conceptualized. However, research on the focal concepts is currently rather diffuse. In this study we take a closer look at the five most well-established concepts: (1) psychological detachment, (2) affective rumination, (3) problem-solving pondering, (4) positive work reflection, and (5) negative work reflection. More specifically, we scrutinized (1) whether the five facets of work-related rumination are empirically distinct, (2) whether they yield differential associations with different facets of employee well-being (burnout, work engagement, thriving, satisfaction with life, and flourishing), and (3) to what extent the five facets can be distinguished from and relate to conceptually similar constructs, such as irritation, worry, and neuroticism. We applied structural equation modeling techniques to cross-sectional survey data from 474 employees. Our results provide evidence for (1) five correlated, yet empirically distinct facets of work-related rumination. (2) Each facet yields a unique pattern of association with the eight aspects of employee well-being. For instance, detachment is strongly linked to satisfaction with life and flourishing. Affective rumination is linked particularly to burnout. Problem-solving pondering and positive work reflection yield the strongest links to work engagement. (3) The five facets of work-related rumination are distinct from related concepts, although there is a high overlap between (lower levels of) psychological detachment and cognitive irritation. Our study contributes to clarifying the structure of work-related rumination and extends the nomological network around different types of thinking about work during off-job time and employee well-being.
Guzzo et al. (Reference Guzzo, Schneider and Nalbantian2022) argue that open science practices may marginalize inductive and abductive research and preclude leveraging big data for scientific research. We share their assessment that the hypothetico-deductive paradigm has limitations (see also Staw, Reference Staw2016) and that big data provide grand opportunities (see also Oswald et al., Reference Oswald, Behrend, Putka and Sinar2020). However, we arrive at very different conclusions. Rather than opposing open science practices that build on a hypothetico-deductive paradigm, we should take initiative to do open science in a way compatible with the very nature of our discipline, namely by incorporating ambiguity and inductive decision-making. In this commentary, we (a) argue that inductive elements are necessary for research in naturalistic field settings across different stages of the research process, (b) discuss some misconceptions of open science practices that hide or discourage inductive elements, and (c) propose that field researchers can take ownership of open science in a way that embraces ambiguity and induction. We use an example research study to illustrate our points.
An der Fachhochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg wurde im Rahmen eines Forschungssemesters eine Szenarioanalyse durchgeführt, welche die Entwicklungspfade von Mobile Business bis zum Jahr 2011 untersucht. Dabei wurden maßgebliche Entwicklungstreiber bestimmt und ihre zukünftige Ausprägung sowie ihr Zusammenspiel analysiert. Es entstanden drei plausible Zukunftsbilder. Das wahrscheinlichste der drei Trendszenarien, mit einer Eintrittswahrscheinlichkeit von 60 %, basiert auf der Untersuchung der zehn bedeutendsten Entwicklungstreiber von Mobile Business. Danach wird der Ausbau der UMTS-Netze bis 2011 soweit vorangeschritten sein, dass 70 % der potentiellen Anwender breitbandige Anschlüsse werden nutzen können. In Ballungsgebieten/Großstädten werden Übertragungsraten von mehr als acht MBit/s verfügbar sein. Speicherkapazität, Geschwindigkeit und Funktionsumfang der Endgeräte verbessern sich deutlich. Software für moilbe Lösungen unterstützen vielfältige Geschäftsprozesse und bieten bis 2011 weitgehend Desktop-Funktionalität. Es entstehen alternative Betreibermodelle - die Software verlagert sich zunehmend ins Netz. Die laufenden Kosten des Mobile Business sinken nur langsam, da die Tarife für mobile Kommunikation weiterhin künstlich hochgehalten werden. Die Preise für Endgeräte bleiben relativ konstant. Mobile Lösungen werden in vielen Branchen zu Schlüsselanwendungen, und wer hier nicht das Optimierungspotential ausschöpft, der erleidet zunehmend Wettbewerbsnachteile. Aus diesenTrends ergeben sich Handlungsempfehlungen für Unternehmen. Sie sollten ihre Prozesse gezielt durch Multimedia-Kommunikation unterstützen und mobile Mitarbeiter mit für sie maßgeschneiderten Endgeräten ausstatten.
Background
Consumers rely heavily on online user reviews when shopping online and cybercriminals produce fake reviews to manipulate consumer opinion. Much prior research focuses on the automated detection of these fake reviews, which are far from perfect. Therefore, consumers must be able to detect fake reviews on their own. In this study we survey the research examining how consumers detect fake reviews online.
Methods
We conducted a systematic literature review over the research on fake review detection from the consumer-perspective. We included academic literature giving new empirical data. We provide a narrative synthesis comparing the theories, methods and outcomes used across studies to identify how consumers detect fake reviews online.
Results
We found only 15 articles that met our inclusion criteria. We classify the most often used cues identified into five categories which were (1) review characteristics (2) textual characteristics (3) reviewer characteristics (4) seller characteristics and (5) characteristics of the platform where the review is displayed.
Discussion
We find that theory is applied inconsistently across studies and that cues to deception are often identified in isolation without any unifying theoretical framework. Consequently, we discuss how such a theoretical framework could be developed.
The aim of this study was to investigate whether beneficial vacation effects can be strengthened and prolonged with a smartphone-based intervention. In a four-week longitudinal study among 79 Finnish teachers, we investigated the development of recovery, well-being, and job performance before, during, and after a one-week vacation in three groups: non-users (n = 51), passive (n = 18) and active (n = 10) users. Participants were instructed to actively use a recovery app (called Holidaily) and complete five digital questionnaires. Most recovery experiences and well-being indicators increased during the vacation. Job performance and concentration capacity showed no significant time effects. Among active app users, creativity at work increased from baseline to after the vacation, whereas among non-users it decreased and among passive users it decreased a few days after the vacation but increased again one and a half weeks after the vacation. The fading of beneficial vacation effects on negative affect seems to have been slower among active app users. Only few participants used the app actively. Still, results suggest that a smartphone-based recovery intervention may support beneficial vacation effects.
This article concerns with the accessibility of Business process modelling tools (BPMo tools) and business process modelling languages (BPMo languages). Therefore the reader will be introduced to business process management and the authors' motivation behind this inquiry. Afterwards, the paper will reflect problems when applying inaccessible BPMo tools. To illustrate these problems the authors distinguish between two different categories of issues and provide practical examples. Finally the article will present three approaches to improve the accessibility of BPMo tools and BPMo languages.
Background: Falls are common in older adults and can result in serious injuries. Due to demographic changes, falls and related healthcare costs are likely to increase over the next years. Participation and motivation of older adults in fall prevention measures remain a challenge. The iStoppFalls project developed an information and communication technology (ICT)-based system for older adults to use at home in order to reduce common fall risk factors such as impaired balance and muscle weakness. The system aims at increasing older adults’ motivation to participate in ICT-based fall prevention measures. This article reports on usability, user-experience and user-acceptance aspects affecting the use of the iStoppFalls system by older adults.
Methods: In the course of a 16-week international multicenter study, 153 community-dwelling older adults aged 65+ participated in the iStoppFalls randomized controlled trial, of which half used the system in their home to exercise and assess their risk of falling. During the study, 60 participants completed questionnaires regarding the usability, user experience and user acceptance of the iStoppFalls system. Usability was measured with the System Usability Scale (SUS). For user experience the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) was applied. User acceptance was assessed with the Dynamic Acceptance Model for the Re-evaluation of Technologies (DART). To collect more detailed data on usability, user experience and user acceptance, additional qualitative interviews and observations were conducted with participants.
Results: Participants evaluated the usability of the system with an overall score of 62 (Standard Deviation, SD 15.58) out of 100, which suggests good usability. Most users enjoyed the iStoppFalls games and assessments, as shown by the overall PACES score of 31 (SD 8.03). With a score of 0.87 (SD 0.26), user acceptance results showed that participants accepted the iStoppFalls system for use in their own home. Interview data suggested that certain factors such as motivation, complexity or graphical design were different for gender and age.
Conclusions: The results suggest that the iStoppFalls system has good usability, user experience and user acceptance. It will be important to take these along with factors such as motivation, gender and age into consideration when designing and further developing ICT-based fall prevention systems.
Through the “Act to Strengthen the Non-financial Reporting by Corporations in their Management and Group Management Reports” (Gesetz zur Stärkung der nichtfinanziellen Berichterstattung der Unternehmen in ihren Lage- und Konzernlageberichten) (CSR Directive Transposition Act, „CSR-RUG“) of 11 April 2017[1], the German Bundestag implemented Directive 2014/95/EU (“CSR Directive”)[2] into German law. Following the European impetus, the CSR-RUG enriches the traditional repertoire of forms of action under environmental law by a further instrument. Already the regulatory context gives an idea of its atypical nature: The centrepiece of the CSR-RUG is the amendment of and addition to the Third Book of the German Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch, “HGB”), which deals with the “trading books” of undertakings, i.e., accounting and reporting requirements. Since the reporting year 2017, large capital market-oriented corporations must report extensively within the framework of their annual management reports on their activities and effects in certain areas of “Corporate Social Responsibility”. This also includes environmental matters. The transparency and publicity this entails is intended to generate positive stimuli for more responsible, sustained and not least of all environmentally friendly entrepreneurial action.
Following a brief presentation of the European legal bases and their implementation in Germany (I.), we will classify the provisions within the underlying concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (II.) and analyse and systemise the governance effects of non-financial reporting (III.). A few remarks on selected aspects of the chosen approach and its implementation (IV.) as well as an outlook summarising our conclusions (V.) will complete this article. By detailing the German approach to transposing the CSR Directive, this paper intends to provide an example of the challenges member state legislators face when complying with modern governance concepts such as Corporate Social Responsibility by way of non-financial reporting obligations.
[1] Federal Law Gazette, Part I 2017, 802 et seq.
[2] Directive 2014/95/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council 22 October 2014 amending Directive 2013/34/EU as regards disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by certain large undertakings and groups, OJ EU No. L 330, p. 1.
Das Windenergie-auf-See-Gesetz und das Verfassungsrecht: Eine Vervollständigung in drei Etappen
(2021)
Pursuant to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations, one pivotal target is to halt biodiversity loss. This paper’s objective is to analyze why and how German farmers hesitate to implement more than the prescriptive measures with regard to cross compliance and direct payments under the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and what their aspirations are for possible incentives to bring biodiversity into focus. By applying a mixed methods approach, we investigate the experience of individual farmers by means of a qualitative approach followed by a quantitative study. This analysis sheds light on how farmers perceive indirect influencing factors and how these factors play a non-negligible role in farmers´ commitment to biodiversity. Economy, policy and society are intertwined and need to be considered from a multi-faceted perspective. In addition, an in-depth analysis is conducted based on online focus group discussions to determine whether farmers accept financial support, focusing on both action- and success-oriented payments. Our results highlight the importance of paying attention to the heterogeneity of farmers, their locations and, consequently, farmers’ different views on indirect drivers influencing agricultural processes, showing the complexity of the problem. Although farmers’ expectations can be met with financial allocations, other aspects must also be taken into account.
This paper aims to assess farmers’ challenges in enhancing biodiversity. The so-called “trilemma” (WBGU 2021) of land use stems from the multiple demands made on land for the benefit of mitigating climate change, securing food, and maintaining biodiversity. Agriculture is accused of maladministration, causing soil contamination, animal cruelty, bee mortality, and climate change. However, farmers play a key role in overcoming upcoming sustainability challenges. While their supportive role is urgently needed, farmers find themselves caught between a “rock” and a ”hard place”. Consumers call for sustainable production and affordable food products without pesticide residues, demanding enough for all. Farmers are restricted by the wants and needs of consumers who are influenced by interest groups and exposed to interdependent direct and indirect influencing factors. They need to balance the scrutiny of the critical public as well as the regulatory control. In this paper, we collected and surveyed the data of farmers within or close to the 21 selected nature protected areas of the DINA (Diversity of Insects in Nature protected Areas) Project, using a mixed methods approach with a semi-structured questionnaire considering issues’ interdependencies and the complexity of today´s problems. The conflicts and obstacles faced by farmers were assessed. The results reflect the farmers’ willingness and the importance of receiving appreciation for implementing biodiversity measures. These results, complemented by a following quantitative study, are the basis for recommendations for policymakers and farmers in all German nature protected areas.
Háttér és célkitűzések: A játékszenvedély vizsgálatával foglalkozó tudományos cikkek sora dinamikusan bővült az elmúlt években. Kutatások folynak a témában például Nagy-Britanniában, (1) Finnországban(2) és Svédországban(3) is. Ugyanakkor ezen kutatások empirikus eredményei még nem publikáltak, így az értékelésük is csak később lehetséges.(4)
Smallholder farmers as a backbone for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals
(2018)
The phenomenon of the deviation between purchase attitudes and actual buying behaviour of responsible consumers is called the attitude-behaviour gap. It is influenced by individual, social and situational factors. The main purchasing barriers for sustainable (organic) food are price, lack of immediate availability, sensory criteria, lack or overload of information as well as the low-involvement feature of food products in conjunction with well-established consumption routines, lack of transparency and trust towards labels and certifications. The last three barriers are mainly of a psychological nature. Especially the low-involvement feature of food products due to daily purchase routines and relatively low prices tends to result in fast, automatic and subconscious decisions based on a so-called human mental system 1, derived from Daniel Kahneman’s (Nobel-Prize laureate in Behavioural Economics) model in behavioural psychology. In contrast, the human mental system 2 is especially important for the transformations of individual behaviour towards a more sustainable consumption. Decisions based on the human mental system 2 are slow, logical, rational, conscious and arduous. This so-called dual action model also influences the reliability of responses in consumer surveys. It seems that the consumer behaviour is the most unstable and unpredictable part of the entire supply chain and requires special attention. Concrete measures to influence consumer behaviour towards sustainable consumption are highly complex. Reviews of interdisciplinary research literature on behavioural psychology, behavioural economics and consumer behaviour and an empirical analysis of selected countries worldwide with a view to sustainable food are presented. The example of Denmark serves as a ‘best practice’ case study to illustrate how sustainable food consumption can be encouraged. It demonstrates that common efforts and a shared responsibility of consumers, business, interdisciplinary researchers, mass media and policy are needed. It takes pioneers of change who succeed in assembling a ‘critical mass’ willing to increase its ‘sustainable’ behaviour. Considering the strong psychological barriers of consumers and the continuing low market share of organic food, proactive policy measures would be conducive to foster the personal responsibility of the consumers and offer incentives towards a sustainable production. Also, further self-obligations of companies (Corporate Social Responsibility – CSR) as well as more transparency and simplification of reliable labels and certifications are needed to encourage the process towards a sustainable development.
Windkraft Offshore
(2010)
In March 2020, the world was hit by the coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic which led to all‐embracing measures to contain its spread. Most employees were forced to work from home and take care of their children because schools and daycares were closed. We present data from a research project in a large multinational organisation in the Netherlands with monthly quantitative measurements from January to May 2020 (N = 253–516), enriched with qualitative data from participants' comments before and after telework had started. Growth curve modelling showed major changes in employees' work‐related well‐being reflected in decreasing work engagement and increasing job satisfaction. For work‐non‐work balance, workload and autonomy, cubic trends over time were found, reflecting initial declines during crisis onset (March/April) and recovery in May. Participants' additional remarks exemplify that employees struggled with fulfilling different roles simultaneously, developing new routines and managing boundaries between life domains. Moderation analyses demonstrated that demographic variables shaped time trends. The diverging trends in well‐being indicators raise intriguing questions and show that close monitoring and fine‐grained analyses are needed to arrive at a better understanding of the impact of the crisis across time and among different groups of employees.
The aim of this study was to investigate employees’ self-reported creativity before and after vacation and to examine the impact of recovery experiences (detachment, relaxation, mastery, meaning, autonomy, affiliation) on changes in creativity. The DRAMMA model of Newman et al. provides the theoretical background of our approach. Longitudinal data was assessed with four repeated measurements. The study encompassed data from 274 white-collar workers. Analyses showed that employees subjectively perceive their creativity to benefit not immediately after their vacation but 2 weeks later. Detachment was significantly related to lower creativity within persons, while mastery experiences explained differences in creativity between persons. This study provides a detailed picture of changes in creativity around vacations.
Eintreten und abschalten
(2022)
GRI4-Guidelines
(2014)
In diesem Beitrag wird gezeigt, dass das Corporate Social Responsibility-Controlling (CSR-Controlling) im Zuge der neuen Berichterstattungsvorgaben der Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) vor neuen Herausforderungen steht. Die neue GRI-4-Version fordert über erweiterte und neue Pflichtstandardangaben die CSR-Umsetzung in höchster Niveauausprägung ein und setzt neue Maßstäbe an die CSR-Gütekriterien „Transparenz“ und „Rechenschaftslegung“ in der gesamten Supply Chain. In der Analyse werden die für den zukünftigen GRI-4-Berichtseinstieg erforderlichen Anpassungsschritte dargestellt und in einem GRI-3.1-versus-GRI-4-Vergleich indikatorenbezogen erläutert.
Corporate Social Responsibility ist freiwillig, aber keineswegs beliebig. Um sich als CSR-Unternehmen zu qualifizieren, muss ein systematisches und geplantes Engagement als nachhaltiges Unternehmen nachgewiesen und auch dokumentiert werden. Dies wird auch für Unternehmen der Immobilienwirtschaft zunehmend wichtiger, weil die Anforderungen vonseiten der Stakeholder der Unternehmen wachsen. Die Analyse zeigt, dass die deutschen Immobilienunternehmen im internationalen Vergleich gut dastehen. Ihr Anteil an allen nach der Global Reporting Initiative berichtenden Immobilienunternehmen lag im Jahr 2012 bei 15 Prozent. Von den betrachteten 135 Unternehmen in Deutschland klassifiziert sich jedoch nur ein kleiner Teil als CSR-Unternehmen. Durch eine bessere Dokumentation des Engagements kann die Anzahl an Unternehmen rasch vergrößert werden.
Purpose – The aim of the study is to investigate the implementation of corporate sustainability (CS) in the German real estate sector.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors begin by outlining the framework set by the European Union and the German Federal Government for companies wanting to be classified as sustainable. After this, the relevance of sustainability for German real estate companies is discussed. Their empirical section contains an international comparison. Finally, they present an analysis checking the implementation of CS for the main 135 German real estate companies.
Findings – The present analysis shows that German real estate companies compare well with their international counterparts, in 2012 representing 15 per cent of all real estate firms reporting on the basis of the Global Reporting Initiative. However, of the 135 companies in Germany surveyed, only a small proportion classify themselves as CS and CSR (corporate social responsibility) enterprises. This number could be rapidly increased by better documentation of companies’ commitment to sustainability.
Practical implications – The study’s importance lies in the overview it provides of CS activities in the German real estate industry. In addition, it provides hints on how companies can improve their documentation to classify as CSR enterprises. Although the analysis concentrates on Germany, the results are also relevant for companies in other European countries.
Seit der Einführung der Fallpauschalen im Jahr 2004 herrscht ein sich rapide verschärfender Wettbewerb im deutschen Krankenhausmarkt. Über alle Bettengrößen-Klassen hinweg ist die Zahl der Krankenhäuser mit wirtschaftlichen Problemen gestiegen. Laut Krankenhaus- Barometer hat jedes vierte Krankenhaus das Jahr 2009 mit Verlusten abgeschlossen. Am erfolgreichsten wirtschafteten Krankenhäuser mittlerer Größe (300 bis 599 Betten), sie verbuchten am häufigsten einen Jahresüberschuss (67,8 Prozent) und am seltensten einen Jahresfehlbetrag (9,9 Prozent). Kleine Krankenhäuser (50 bis 299 Betten) schreiben tendenziell häufiger rote Zahlen (23,5 Prozent) und erzielen seltener Gewinne (59,2 Prozent) oder ausgeglichene Ergebnisse (15,3 Prozent). Eine klare strategische Positionierung im Wettbewerb wird somit insbesondere für sie immer wichtiger, um langfristig Marktanteile zu sichern. Ein geeignetes Instrument zur Schaffung von Transparenz und Klarheit im Hinblick auf die regionalen aktuellen und langfristigen Marktbedingungen ist die geografische Marktanalyse auf der Basis der Geocodierung, die im Rahmen eines Pilotprojektes im Dreifaltigkeits-Krankenhaus Wesseling analysiert und eingesetzt wurde.
The technological development of the digital computer and new options to collect, store and transfer mass data have changed the world in the last 40 years. Moreover, due to the ongoing progress of computer power, the establishment of the Internet as critical infrastructure and the options of ubiquitous sensor systems will have a dramatic impact on economies and societies in the future. We give a brief overview about the technological basics especially with regard to the exponential growth of big data and current turn towards sensor-based data collection. From this stance, we reconsider the various dimensions of personal data and and market mechanisms that have an impact of data usage and protection.
Who do you trust: Peers or Technology? A conjoint analysis about computational reputation mechanisms
(2020)
Peer-to-peer sharing platforms are taking over an increasingly important role in the platform economy due to their sustainable business model. By sharing private goods and services, the challenge arises to build trust between peers online mostly without any kind of physical presence. Peer rating has been proven as an important mechanism. In this paper, we explore the concept called Trust Score, a computational rating mechanism adopted from car telematics, which can play a similar role in carsharing. For this purpose, we conducted a conjoint analysis where 77 car owners chose between fictitious user profiles. Our results show that in our experiment the telemetric-based score slightly outperforms the peer rating in the decision process, while the participants perceived the peer rating more helpful in retrospect. Further, we discuss potential benefits with regard to existing shortcomings of user rating, but also various concerns that should be considered in concepts like telemetric-based reputation mechanism that supplements existing trust factors such as user ratings.
In Form der Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung werden erstmals sämtliche darauf bezogenen Daten im Unternehmen zusammengestellt und zu Indikatoren aggregiert. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird überprüft, inwieweit dieser Datenpool für die Produktionsplanung und -Steuerung (PPS) genutzt werden kann. Dazu werden die Berichterstattungsstandards GRI und SASB herangezogen. Die Qualität der Nachhaltigkeitsindikatoren wird anhand der Kriterien Fehlerfreiheit, Aktualität, Relevanz und Angemessener Umfang hinterfragt. Der Lösungsansatz besteht zunächst darin, die für die Nachhaltigkeitsindikatoren aggregierten Daten wieder in ihre Komponenten zu separieren. Bei Daten ohne klaren Bezug zum Produktionsprozess (z.B. gemischte Abfallsammelbehälter) liefert das Erfahrungswissen der Mitarbeiter vor Ort die Basis für einen weiteren Regelkreis, der als Kontinuierlicher Verbesserungsprozess (KVP bzw. Kaizen) innerhalb der Produktion und Montage auf gebaut werden kann. Die Langform des Beitrags wurde online auf ERP-Management.de veröffentlicht.
While academic research on recovery was rather segregated between occupational health psychology and management research at the beginning of the 20s century and streams of research developed independently, recent developments hint at a closing divide and better integration of recovery research across disciplines. This for example becomes evident in publications of researchers across the traditional outlets within both fields, as well as increasing close collaborations of researchers firmly rooted in one of the fields. In preparation of this special issue, the editors were interested in whether this development represents a convergence or even a true merging of research in these different disciplines. We therefore interviewed Prof. Sabine Sonnentag as expert from occupational health psychology research and Prof. Ute Stephan with expertise in management research. Both are excellent and world-famous researchers in their disciplines. We discussed the current state, the advances during the last years, and the future directions of recovery research in their respective fields. We also talked about their perspectives on integrative topics and about specific issues in both domains that might stimulate a new recovery management research agenda.
Background: While work-related rumination increases the risk of acute stressors developing into chronic load reactions and adverse health, mental detachment has been suggested as a way to interrupt this chain. Despite the importance of mentally detaching from work during leisure time, workers seem to struggle to disengage and, instead, experience the constant mental representation of work-related stressors, regardless of their absence. Those who struggle with work-related rumination could benefit from an easy-access intervention that fosters mental detachment by promoting recreational activities. Especially during vacations, workers appear to naturally engage in sufficient recovery activities; however, this beneficial behaviour is not sustained. The smartphone app-based intervention “Holidaily” promotes recovery behaviour and, thus, mental detachment from work with the intension of extending the beneficial effects of workers’ vacations into their daily working life.
Methods: This randomised-controlled trial (RCT) evaluates the efficacy of “Holidaily”. The Holidaily app is a German stand-alone program for mobile devices with either Android/iOS operating systems. The sample includes workers, who are awaiting to go on vacation and are randomly assigned to either the intervention (IG) or a waitlist-control group (CG). The IG receives two weeks pre-vacation access to Holidaily, while the CG receives access two weeks post-vacation. On a daily basis participants in the IG are provided with three options promoting recreational activities and beneficial recovery experiences. Online questionnaires are distributed to all participants at several timepoints. The primary outcome measure assesses participants’ work-related rumination (Irritation Scale). A significant difference two weeks post-vacation is expected, favouring the IG. Secondary outcomes include symptoms of depression, insomnia severity, emotional exhaustion, thinking about work, recovery experiences, vacation specifics, work and personal characteristics. To help explain the intervention’s effect, explorative analyses will investigate the mediation properties of the frequency of engaging in recreational activities and the moderation properties of Holidaily users’ experiences.
Discussion: If successful, workers will maintain their recovery behaviour beyond their vacation into daily working life. Findings could, therefore, provide evidence for low-intensity interventions that could be very valuable from a public-health perspective. App-based interventions have greater reach; hence, more workers might access preventative tools to protect themselves from developing adverse health effects linked to work-related rumination. Further studies will still be needed to investigate whether the vacation phenomenon of “lots of fun quickly gone” can be defied and long-term benefits attained.
Recovery Across Different Temporal Settings: How Lunchtime Activities Influence Evening Activities
(2022)
Recovery from work stress during workday breaks, free evenings, weekends, and vacations is known to benefit employee health and well-being. However, how recovery at different temporal settings is interconnected is not well understood. We hypothesized that on days when employees engage in recovery-enhancing lunchtime activities, they will experience higher resources when leaving home from work (i.e., low fatigue and high positive affect) and consequently spend more time on recovery-enhancing activities in the evening, thus creating a positive recovery cycle. In this study, 97 employees were randomized into lunchtime park walk and relaxation groups. As evening activities, we measured time spent on physical exercise, physical activity in natural surroundings, and social activities. Afternoon resources and time spent on evening activities were assessed twice a week before, during, and after the intervention, for five weeks. Our results based on multilevel analyses showed that on days when employees completed the lunchtime park walk, they spent more time on evening physical exercise and physical activity in natural surroundings compared to days when the lunch break was spent as usual. However, neither lunchtime relaxation exercises nor afternoon resources were associated with any of the evening activities. Our findings suggest that other factors than afternoon resources are more important in determining how much time employees spend on various evening activities. Fifteen-minute lunchtime park walks inspired employees to engage in similar healthbenefitting activities during their free time.
Improved Thermal Comfort Model Leveraging Conditional Tabular GAN Focusing on Feature Selection
(2024)
The indoor thermal comfort in both homes and workplaces significantly influences the health and productivity of inhabitants. The heating system, controlled by Artificial Intelligence (AI), can automatically calibrate the indoor thermal condition by analyzing various physiological and environmental variables. To ensure a comfortable indoor environment, smart home systems can adjust parameters related to thermal comfort based on accurate predictions of inhabitants’ preferences. Modeling personal thermal comfort preferences poses two significant challenges: the inadequacy of data and its high dimensionality. An adequate amount of data is a prerequisite for training efficient machine learning (ML) models. Additionally, high-dimensional data tends to contain multiple irrelevant and noisy features, which might hinder ML models’ performance. To address these challenges, we propose a framework for predicting personal thermal comfort preferences, combining the conditional tabular generative adversarial network (CTGAN) with multiple feature selection techniques. We first address the data inadequacy challenge by applying CTGAN to generate synthetic data samples, incorporating challenges associated with multimodal distributions and categorical features. Then, multiple feature selection techniques are employed to identify the best possible sets of features. Experimental results based on a wide range of settings on a standard dataset demonstrated state-of-the-art performance in predicting personal thermal comfort preferences. The results also indicated that ML models trained on synthetic data achieved significantly better performance than models trained on real data. Overall, our method, combining CTGAN and feature selection techniques, outperformed existing known related work in thermal comfort prediction in terms of multiple evaluation metrics, including area under the curve (AUC), Cohen’s Kappa, and accuracy. Additionally, we presented a global, model-agnostic explanation of the thermal preference prediction system, providing an avenue for thermal comfort experiment designers to consciously select the data to be collected.
Due to expected positive impacts on business, the application of artificial intelligence has been widely increased. The decision-making procedures of those models are often complex and not easily understandable to the company’s stakeholders, i.e. the people having to follow up on recommendations or try to understand automated decisions of a system. This opaqueness and black-box nature might hinder adoption, as users struggle to make sense and trust the predictions of AI models. Recent research on eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) focused mainly on explaining the models to AI experts with the purpose of debugging and improving the performance of the models. In this article, we explore how such systems could be made explainable to the stakeholders. For doing so, we propose a new convolutional neural network (CNN)-based explainable predictive model for product backorder prediction in inventory management. Backorders are orders that customers place for products that are currently not in stock. The company now takes the risk to produce or acquire the backordered products while in the meantime, customers can cancel their orders if that takes too long, leaving the company with unsold items in their inventory. Hence, for their strategic inventory management, companies need to make decisions based on assumptions. Our argument is that these tasks can be improved by offering explanations for AI recommendations. Hence, our research investigates how such explanations could be provided, employing Shapley additive explanations to explain the overall models’ priority in decision-making. Besides that, we introduce locally interpretable surrogate models that can explain any individual prediction of a model. The experimental results demonstrate effectiveness in predicting backorders in terms of standard evaluation metrics and outperform known related works with AUC 0.9489. Our approach demonstrates how current limitations of predictive technologies can be addressed in the business domain.
Der Trend zum CTA-Model basiert auf Überlegungen zur Insolvenzsicherung, zur Verbesserung des Bilanzbilds und zur Steuerung des Risikos. Das Argument der Insolvenzsicherung ist nicht schlüssig, da einerseits die Sicherung der Verpflichtungen umfassender Personalbestände nicht im Vordergrund steht und andererseits potenzielle Konkursmasse verloren geht. Auch das Bilanz-, GuV- und Cash Flow-Bild wird bei einer sorgfältigen Arbeit der Analysten nur vordergründig beeinflusst. Bei Vorhandensein und Erkennbarkeit der potenziellen Auslagerungsmittel ändert sich die Effektivverschuldung nicht und im Fall der Notwendigkeit der Aufnahme von Fremdmitteln entsteht ein Passivtausch von zweifelhafter Wirkung. Insgesamt sei aber darauf hingewiesen, dass die Kombination von CTA-Modellen zusammen mit anderen externen Durchführungswegen, insbesondere dem Pensionsfonds, je nach unternehmerischer Präferenz der Grad der Zeilerreichung durchaus erhöht werden kann.
The number of studies on work breaks and the importance of this subject is growing rapidly, with research showing that work breaks increase employees’ wellbeing and performance and workplace safety. However, comparing the results of work break research is difficult since the study designs and methods are heterogeneous and there is no standard theoretical model for work breaks. Based on a systematic literature search, this scoping review included a total of 93 studies on experimental work break research conducted over the last 30 years. This scoping review provides a first structured evaluation regarding the underlying theoretical framework, the variables investigated, and the measurement methods applied. Studies using a combination of measurement methods from the categories “self-report measures,” “performance measures,” and “physiological measures” are most common and to be preferred in work break research. This overview supplies important information for ergonomics researchers allowing them to design work break studies with a more structured and stronger theory-based approach. A standard theoretical model for work breaks is needed in order to further increase the comparability of studies in the field of experimental work break research in the future.
Allgemeines Steuerrecht
(2015)
Die Konzernrechnungslegung
(2010)
Es wird kurz darauf eingegangen, wie ein Konzern entsteht, welche Risiken damit verbunden sind und welche Rechte die jeweils Mutter- beziehungsweise Tochterunternehmen im Konzern haben. Die Empfänger des Konzernabschlusses, vor allem die Konzernführung selbst sowie Anteilseigner an beteiligten Unternehmen, werden genannt und die Funktionen des Konzernabschlusses erläutert. Es wird kurz der Ablauf des Konzernabschlusses und die Aufstellungspflicht nach den verschiedenen rechtlichen Grundlagen dargelegt. Der Konsolidierungskreis wird genannt sowie die Vollkonsolidierung und die Quotenkonsolidierung ausführlich beschrieben. Abschließend wird erklärt, was assoziierte Unternehmen sind und wie diese gemäß Konzernrechnungslegung entsprechend ihres anteiligen Eigenkapitals ("at equity") einbezogen werden. Die Problematik dieser Einbeziehung "at equity" wird besprochen.
Abschlussarbeiten FAQ/FGA
(2006)
Die Jahresabschlussanalyse
(2009)
INTRODUCTION: The cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) data on mid- to long-term myocardial damage due to COVID-19 infections in elite athletes are scarce. Therefore, this study investigated the mid -to long-term consequences of myocardial involvement after a COVID-19 infection in elite athletes.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study included 27 athletes at the German Olympic Centre North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)/Rhineland with a confirmed previous COVID-19 infection between January 2020 and October 2021. The athletes were part of an ongoing observational COVID-19 study at the Institute of Cardiology and Sports Medicine Cologne at the German Sport University (DSHS).Nine healthy non-athletes with no prior COVID-19 illness served as controls. CMR was performed within a mean of 182 days (standard deviation [SD] 99) of the initial positive test result.
RESULTS: CMR did not reveal any signs of acute myocarditis (according to the current Lake Louise criteria) or myocardial damage in any of the 26 elite athletes with previous COVID-19 infection. Of these athletes, 92% experienced a symptomatic course, and 54% reported symptoms lasting for more than 4 weeks. One male athlete was excluded from the analysis because CMR revealed an arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC). Athletes had significantly enlarged left and right ventricle volumes and increased left ventricular myocardial mass in comparison to the healthy control group (LVEDVi 103.4 vs 91.1 ml/m2, p = 0.031; RVEDVi 104.1 vs 86.6 ml/m2, p = 0.007; LVMi 59.0 vs 46.2 g/m2, p = 0.002). Only two cases of elevated high-sensitivity-Troponin were documented; in one, the participant had previously engaged in high-intensity training, and in the other, CMR revealed a diagnosis of an arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy.
CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that the risk for mid- to long-term myocardial damage is very low to negligible in elite athletes. Our results do not allow conclusions to be drawn regarding myocardial injury in the acute phase of infection nor about possible long-term myocardial effects in the general population.