In der Wirtschaftsdidaktik kursiert der Satz: «Wer nur etwas
von Ökonomie versteht, versteht auch nichts von Ökonomie!»
Diese Aussage spielt darauf an, dass ökonomische Sachverhalte
unvermeidbar in gesellschaftliche, politische und kulturelle
Kontexte eingebettet sind. Wirtschaftliches Handeln zu
verstehen, erfordert daher u. a. das Verständnis der Kontexte,
in denen es sich vollzieht. Einer dieser Kontexte stellen die
Werte und Normen dar, die dem wirtschaftlichen Handeln von
Politik, Unternehmen oder Privaten unterlegt sind.
Wir vertreten die Position, dass die Auseinandersetzung mit
Werten und Normen im Rahmen des wirtschaftlichen Handelns
eine anspruchsvolle, aber sehr wesentliche Komponente des
Ökonomieunterrichts darstellt. Zukünftige Wirtschaftsbürger1
sollen die Kompetenz erwerben, die ethischen Grundlagen
von wirtschaftlichen Sachverhalten zu reflektieren und daraus
Schlüsse für ihr eigenes Handeln zu ziehen (ethisch-reflexive
Kompetenz).
By modifying the work environments, work routines, and work tasks of employees with health restrictions, organizations can effectively help them continue to perform their jobs successfully. As such, job accommodations are an effective tool to secure the continued employment of aging workers who develop disabilities across their life span. However, while accommodations tackle health-related performance problems, they might create new challenges on the part of the affected employee. Building on the organizational change and accommodations literatures, we propose a theoretical framework of negative experiences during accommodation processes and apply it to qualitative data from group interviews with 73 manufacturing workers at a German industrial company who were part of the company’s job accommodation program. Although problems associated with health-related impairments were mostly solved by accommodation, affected employees with disabilities reported about interpersonal problems and conflicts similar to those that typically occur during organizational change. Lack of social support as well as poor communication and information were raised as criticisms. Furthermore, our findings indicate that discrimination, bullying, and maltreatment appear to be common during accommodation processes. To make accommodation processes more successful, we derive recommendations from the organizational change literature and apply it to the accommodation context. We also emphasize unique characteristics of the accommodation setting and translate these into practical implications.
The purpose of this study is to shed light on the chain of causality frommacroeconomic financial policy to the microeconomic investment function. Concretely, we aim to provide an in-depth analysis of the relationships between the monetary policy of central banks, the loan policy of commercial banks, and the investment behavior of firms. We focus on countries that conduct their monetary policy under the inflation-targeting framework. Our empirical analysis with data from Germany, Switzerland and Thailand provides several new insights. First,after controlling for the US monetary policy, the monetary policy in Germany and Thailand appears to influence the banks' lending rate in the short run (i.e. within two months), whereas the monetary policy in Switzerland seems to be ineffective at influencing the banks' lending rate in the short run. Second, our results show that the banks' lending rate has a negative effect on their loans and that this negative effect is weakened by their growth opportunities. Third, we find that the supply of bank loans plays a more pivotal role in determining firms' investment than the lending rate. Last but not least, we document that neither the lending rate nor the loan-to-assets ratio moderates the sensitivity of the firms' investment to growth opportunities.
In diesem Essay geht es um den sozioökonomischen Kontext und den sozialphilosophischen Fortschrittshorizont, unter dem sich die neue Grundrechtskategorie eines Wirtschaftsbürgerrechts auf ein Basiseinkommen für alle aufdrängen könnte. Entfaltet wird der Leitgedanke, dass es sich dabei um ein wesentliches Moment auf dem emanzipatorischen Weg zu einer voll entfalteten Bürgergesellschaft handeln dürfte; ein Moment allerdings, das aufgrund seiner weit reichenden kulturellen und strukturellen Auswirkungen als stufenweise umzusetzendes Generationenprojekt anzugehen ist.
In this paper, we develop our argument in three steps: Firstly, we elaborate on some theoretical perspectives for industry-specific CSR by referring to cultural business ethics, a theoretical approach which is located between purely business perspectives and purely normative perspectives on CSR. Secondly, we briefly introduce the papers of this special issue, which covers a wide range of theoretical approaches and empirical studies in the field of industry-specific CSR. Thirdly, we draw attention to shortcomings of an industry-specific approach and sketch some theoretical—but also empirically applicable—perspectives for further research that stress cross-sectoral perspectives based on societal needs.
Firms increasingly use games to interact with their customers. Yet, surprisingly little is known about whether, when, and how such “gamified” interactions engage consumers with a firm’s brand, thereby facilitating self–brand connections. Building on flow theory, we show that gamified interactions that are highly interactive and optimally challenging facilitate self–brand connections, because such games lead to emotional and cognitive brand engagement. A field study and three experiments across various product domains and game designs support our theory. We also identify conditions under which consumers do not become engaged with a brand, namely when firms restrict their decisional control either to voluntarily participate in the game (i.e., compulsory play) or to spend as much time as desired playing the game (i.e., time pressure). Our findings advance existing knowledge about the use of games in marketing and provide important implications for how marketers can harness their potential to build self–brand connections.
