In a 2015 study, policy measures to promote electric mobility were examined with regard to their acceptance by consumers in 20 countries on five continents. Results of a choice-based conjoint Analysis showed that people appreciate monetary incentives; however, the application of the Kano method to detect dissatisfaction with missing features revealed that charging networks are absolute must-haves. In the same 20 countries, the present article examines the actual effects of three kinds of policy measures: monetary incentives, traffic regulations in favour of electric vehicles (EVs), and Investments in charging infrastructure. The outcome variable was the percentage of new registered EVs in 2016. All policy measures had positive direct effects; however, the number of existing charging stations as a moderator increased the effect of monetary measures over proportionately. The widespread uptake of EVs has been challenged by the problem that people do not accept EVs as long as the number of charging stations is insufficient, and the low number of EVs has not stimulated sufficient demand for charging stations yet. The results demonstrate how this ‘chicken or the egg’ Dilemma will be resolved over time as soon as a sufficient number of charging stations are available. Because the effects of monetary measures and charging stations reinforce each other and the number of charging stations is accumulative, governments will be able to offer fewer and fewer monetary incentives to produce the same promoting effects.
Our study investigates how an organization’s contribution to society (macro-level) relates to a person’s work outcomes and individual well-being (micro-level). Focusing on the occupational context and using cross sectional data of 1520 respondents we propose the organization’s societal value added in terms of creating public value to be an important mediator for effects of transformational leadership on work engagement, civic virtue, absenteeism, and happiness. We found general support for this both in method bias uncorrected and corrected analysis, suggesting employees to be influenced by the organization’s public value. However, we found no significant relations to absenteeism. Unexpectedly, transformational leadership revealed low positive relationships to work engagement and negative relationships to civic virtue and happiness. The study contributes to further understand the societal dimension of peoples’ workplace experience.
In the last two decades, economic motivation research has undergone a paradigm shift when it comes to the effect of incentive schemes on individual performance and motivation. Inspired by self-determination theory, a new branch in economics evolved called behavioral economics. Especially by evidencing the negative effect of “pay-for-performance” on intrinsic motivation, called the “crowding-out” or “overjustification” effect, it challenges the economic paradigm of the relative price-effect and its inherent belief in incentives as universal remedy for motivation and individual performance. This article reviews the findings of behavioral economics on motivation. Drawing on these results we discuss which institutional conditions strengthen rather than weaken intrinsic motivation. We demonstrate that fairness, participation, market-driven wages, and normatively affected decision-making contexts have a positive effect on intrinsic motivation.
This paper investigates whether and how strongly the share of homeowners in a community affects residential property taxation by local governments. Different from renters, homeowners bear the full property tax burden irrespective of local market conditions, and the tax is more salient to them. "Homeowner communities" may hence oppose high property taxes in order to protect their housing wealth. Using granular spatial data from a complete housing inventory in the 2011 German Census and historical war damages as a source of exogenous variation in local homeownership, we provide empirical evidence that otherwise identical jurisdictions charge significantly lower property taxes when the share of homeowners in their population is higher. This result is invariant to local market conditions, which suggests tax salience as the key mechanism behind this effect. We find positive spatial dependence in tax multipliers, indicative of property tax mimicking by local governments.
We address the heated debate over the staggered board. One theory claims that a staggered board facilitates entrenchment of inefficient management and thus harms corporate value. Consequently, some institutional investors and shareholder rights advocates have argued for the elimination of the staggered board. The opposite theory is that staggered boards are value enhancing since they enable the board to focus on long-term goals. Both theories are supported by prior and conflicting studies and theoretical law review articles. We show that neither theory has empirical support and on average, a staggered board has no significant effect on firm value. Prior studies did not include important explanatory variables in their analysis or account for the changing nature of the firm over time. When we correct for these issues in a sample of up to 2,961 firms from 1990 to 2013 we find that the effect of a staggered board on firm value becomes statistically insignificant after controlling for variables that affect both value and the incidence of a staggered board. Notably, we find that the adoption of a staggered board, its retention, and its removal are not random and exogenous but are rather endogenous, being related to firm characteristics and performance. The effect of a staggered board is idiosyncratic; for some firms it increases value, while for other firms it is value destroying. Our results suggest caution about legal solutions which advocate wholesale adoption or repeal of the staggered board and instead point to an individualized firm approach.
Die vorliegende Publikation richtet sich besonders an mittelständische Unternehmen, die bereits ein solides Fundament an Umwelt- und/oder Nachhaltigkeitspraktiken in den eigenen Werkshallen und Büros gelegt haben und die nun beim nachhaltigen Lieferkettenmanagement erste Schritte gehen möchten. Sie soll ihnen helfen, konkret herauszuarbeiten, wie sie ihre Lieferketten nachhaltiger gestalten können.
Kaum etwas hat sich in den letzten Jahrzenten so verändert wie die Geschlechterverhältnisse. Frauen haben im Bildungsbereich aufgeholt – sie stellen einen Anteil von über 50% bei Matura, Studium und auch den Hochschulabschlüssen. Frauen verfügen über die gleichen politischen Rechte und es wird als normal angesehen, dass Mütter erwerbstätig sind. Die Gleichstellung der Geschlechter ist im ‚Mainstream‘ angekommen. Zugleich ist aber auch vieles beim Alten geblieben – so ist der Frauenanteil in Führungspositionen nach wie vor klein, der größte Teil der Hausarbeit wird von den Müttern erledigt und Altersarmut ein Thema, das vor allem Frauen betrifft. In meinem Vortrag gehe ich diesem paradoxen Verhältnis von Veränderung auf der einen und Beharrung auf der anderen Seite nach. Neben den verschiedenen Hindernissen, die nach wie vor für Frauen in Führungspositionen bestehen werde ich aufzeigen, warum in meinen Augen die grösste Hürde auf dem Weg zur Veränderung in der fehlenden Empörung über diese Befunde liegt.
