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The importance of a social perspective on the relationships between humans and nature has longbeen acknowledged. The field of social-ecological systems research in particular is striving toachieve a holistic understanding of human-nature relationships by balancing social andecological perspectives. Here I sought to develop a social understanding of the Saxon area inCentral Romania, by exploring aspects of human-nature relationships as seen from theperspective of local people. To this end, I employed the concepts of social-ecological systems(SES), ecosystem services (ES) and cultural landscapes to assess perceptions of locals throughempirical case studies.I first conducted a literature review to acquire an overview of a particular type of human-naturerelationship mediated by non-consumptive use and non-use values (“cultural ecosystemservices”). Second, to isolate and address the interaction from the social system to the ecologicalsystem, I investigated the different ways locals perceived the role of landscapes in SouthernTransylvania. I conceptually mapped these landscape preferences by revealing their potentialland use and management implications. Third, to approach the human-nature relationship fromthe ecological system to the social system, I studied the flow of ES to disaggregated humanbeneficiaries. Specifically, I studied which factors, beyond ecosystem processes and functions,influenced nature derived human well-being from the perspective of potential beneficiaries. Iconceptualised the mediating role of a range of contextual factors underpinning the currentdistribution of ES, with regard to the relation between ES and human well-being. Fourth, inorder to explore an example of bidirectional human-nature relationship, I studied the particularcase of human-carnivore coexistence and the suite of mechanisms shaping it.Despite building throughout this thesis a more complex and in-depth understanding of the humandimensions of the studied system, I chose four main cross-cutting themes to explain the human-nature connection in Southern Transylvania. These four themes may serve as pillars of a sociallyminded understanding, as well as potential research and policy foci. First, the values held bylocals are key for understanding the endemic human-nature relationships and should not beoverlooked in future social-ecological assessments or policy interventions. Second, the culturallandscape of Southern Transylvania is both a physical and virtual space of social-ecologicalinteraction fostering human-nature experiences and social-ecological knowledge integration.Third, the identified diversity of the social system in terms of landscape aspirations and ESbeneficiaries is expanding the range of human-nature connections, but at the same time, may infuture be a source of conflict or disconnection if not managed appropriately. Finally, small-scalefarmers, through their interactions with the land and resultant belief system, play a major role inmaintaining the human-nature relationships, but their values and lifestyle are threatened.
Recent studies have confirmed that the aquatic ecosystem is being polluted with an unknown cocktail of pharmaceuticals, their metabolites and/or their transformation products (TPs). Although individual pharmaceuticals are typically present at low concentrations, their continuous input into the aquatic ecosystem and their toxic and persistent presence are the major environmental concerns. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the environmental risk caused by these aquatic pollutants. Data on exposure are required for quantitative risk assessment of parent compounds and their transformation products (TPs) and/or metabolites. Such data are mostly missing, especially for TPs, because of the non-availability of TPs and very often metabolites for experimental testing. Therefore, the application of different in silico tools for qualitative risk assessment can be used. Also, the presence of these micro-pollutants (active pharmaceutical ingredients, APIs) in the aquatic cycle are increasingly seen as a challenge to the sustainable management of water resources worldwide due to ineffective effluent treatment and other measures for their input prevention. Given the poor prognosis for effluent treatment (‘end of the pipe’ approach) for input prevention of APIs in the environment, it is necessary to focus on the ‘beginning of the pipe’ strategy. The very beginning of the pipe is the molecules themselves. Therefore, novel approaches are needed like designing greener pharmaceuticals, i.e. better biodegradable ones in the aquatic environment after their release. Therefore, the present research work focused on two important topics a) assessment of the environmental risk associated with the presence of highly prescribed drugs and their TPs; b) demonstrating the feasibility of the ‘benign by design’ concept for designing biodegradable drug derivatives, which will have the better biodegradability in the environment after their release. The present thesis includes four research articles (1-4) which address these approaches. The first article is about the qualitative environmental risk assessment using the example of transformation products formed during photolysis (photo-TPs) of Diatrizoic acid (DIAT). Photolysis is the chemical reaction in which the compound is broken down by photons and often in combination with hydroxyl radicals. Photolysis is the most common abatement process of micro-pollutants in the environment. The qualitative risk assessment of DIAT and selected photo-TPs was performed by the PBT approach (i.e. Persistence, Bioaccumulation and Toxicity), using chemical analysis, experimental biodegradation test assays, QSAR models with several different toxicological endpoints and in silico read-across approaches. The second article addresses a tiered approach of implementing green and sustainable chemistry principles for theoretically designing better biodegradable and pharmacologically potent pharmaceuticals derivatives. Photodegradation process coupled with LC-MSn analysis, biodegradability testing and in silico tools such as quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) analysis and molecular docking proved to be a very significant approach for the preliminary stages of designing chemical structures that would fit into the ´benign by design´ concept in the direction of green and sustainable pharmacy. Metoprolol (MTL) was used as an example. The third article was also the conceptual framework to get new drug derivatives that are biodegradable in order to tackle the global challenge of micro-pollutants in the aquatic cycle. This study increased the knowledge about the role of the attachment of certain functionalities to the parent drug molecule for its biodegradability whilst conserving drug-likeness. This approach was in the past a totally neglected issue within drug development. Atenolol (ATL), a selective β1 blocker, was selected as an example to incorporate the additional attribute such as biodegradability into its molecular structure while conserving its substructures responsible for β adrenergic receptor blocker activity. In fourth article, the concept of designing green biodegradable pharmaceuticals has been proven through expanded experimental analysis setting out from the experiences collected as described in article two and three. This study could be considered as a more extensive feasibility study of rational design of green drug derivatives. The non-selective β-blocker Propranolol (PPL) was used as an example. The risk assessment study (Article #1) contributes in enhancing the existing knowledge about the life cycle and behavior (fate) of pharmaceuticals with a special focus on photo-TPs which are generally formed during advanced effluent treatment and enter as such into the environment. Based on the obtained results, the application of the in silico tools for qualitative risk assessment analysis increased knowledge space about the environmental fate of TPs in case of their non-availability for experimental testing. The benign by design studies (Article #2-4) were based on the knowledge and experience collected during the work on DIAT. It demonstrated the feasibility of a novel approach of designing comparatively better degradable and pharmacological potent derivatives through the implementation of ´green chemistry´ principles. However, the present approach is in the juvenile stage and further knowledge has to be collected beforehand for the full implementation of this approach into drug development.
This dissertation deals with the investigation of success factors in the field of entrepreneurship, especially entrepreneurship training, from a psychological perspective. In particular, I argue that the identification of certain psychological aspects helps to better understand the underlying mechanisms for successful entrepreneurship trainings and thus, enables successful entrepreneurship. In the second chapter I theoretically examined planning as a fundamental action an entrepreneur hast to undertake in order to succeed. Scholars are in disagreement about the question if planning is crucial for the entrepreneurship. Thus, I provide a comprehensive overview of the advantages and disadvantages of planning in entrepreneurship from a psychological perspective. I explain negative aspects (e.g., lack of knowledge, difficulty to predict the future, and inflexibility) as well as positive aspects (e.g., legitimating, action-regulatory, and learning function) about planning in entrepreneurship. Furthermore, I develop a theoretical model that combines both the positive and negative aspects of planning in entrepreneurship. With this theoretical model, I integrate different types of planning (e.g., formal and informal plans) as well as positive and negative functions of planning (e.g., learning or stickiness, inflexibility) to provide a first approximation for a theory of entrepreneurial planning. In the third chapter, to focus on the field of entrepreneurial trainings, I empirically examine the under-researched field of the relation between trainer and trainee. I use the transformational leadership theory (Bass, 1985) and a theory of learning outcome (Kraiger, Ford, & Salas, 1993), to hypothesize that the trainers´ charisma has a positive effect on the trainees´ entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Additionally, I search for possible moderators for the hypothesized trainer-trainee-relationship in an explorative manner, using insight from different research areas (e.g., pedagogy, philosophy). To test the hypotheses, I conducted a 12-week entrepreneurship training by which I had 12 measurement waves across four classes with 161 students and 12 trainers, which lead to 919 observations. In the fourth chapter, to broaden the perspective on the mechanisms within entrepreneurship training, which lead to a successful outcome, I empirically examined the short- and long-term effects of entrepreneurship training on life satisfaction. To do so, I developed a theoretical model based on theories of life satisfaction, that explain the underlying mechanisms of the short- and long-term effects of the entrepreneurship training on life satisfaction. With this model I hypothesize, that entrepreneurship training has a positive short- effect on life satisfaction, which is mediated through entrepreneurial self-efficacy. I furthermore hypothesize, that the long-term effect of the entrepreneurship training is mediated through self-employment. The short term-effect acts like a boost and vanishes over time, whereas the long-term effect holds in the long run. To test these hypotheses, I conducted entrepreneurship training as part of a randomized controlled field experiment with five measurement waves over a total period of 2.5 years. Using discontinuous growth modeling to take into account the temporality of our hypothesized effects we statistically analyzed the 1,092 observations from 312 students. Chapter 5 concludes this dissertation with general discussion of the three chapters.
This paper-based dissertation deals with the concepts of economic heterogeneity and environmental uncertainty from different perspectives, and at multiple levels of abstraction. At its core sits the observation that heterogeneity and uncertainty are deeply entangled, for there would be no uncertainty without heterogeneity of options to act regarding multiple future states of the world. At the same time, heterogeneity - in the form of diversification - has been suggested as a way to reduce uncertainty in portfolio theory (Markowitz 1952). The dissertation evolves around two research foci: (1) methodological implications of heterogeneity of scientific theories in the face of empirical data (Paper 1), and (2) two different forms of uncertainty are considered, environmental risk (Paper 2) and Knightian uncertainty (Paper 3). Paper 1 develops a new framework for model selection for the special case of fitting size distribution models to empirical data. It combines Bayesian and frequentist statistical approaches with the criterion of model microfoundation, which is to select, all other things considered being equal, the model that comes with a suitable micromodel, that explains, from the perspective of the individual constituent, the genesis of the overall size distribution. The approach is subsequently illustrated with size distribution data on commercial cattle farms in Namibia. We find that the double-Pareto lognormal distribution fits the data best. Our approach might have the potential to reconcile one of the oldest debates in current economics, i.e. the one about the best model to describe and explain the distribution of economic key variables such as income, wealth and city sizes in a country. The second paper revisits the Namibian commercial cattle farm data and uses it to put some theories from the agricultural economics literature regarding farm management under environmental risk to an empirical test. We focus on the relations between inter-annual variability in rainfall (environmental risk), risk preferences, farm size and stocking rate. We demonstrate that the Pareto distribution - which separates the distribution into two parts - is a statistically plausible description of the empirical farm size distribution when ´farm size´ is operationalized by herd size, but not by rangeland area. A statistical group comparison based on the two parts of the Pareto distribution shows that large farms are on average exposed to significantly lower environmental risk. Regarding risk preferences, we do not find any significant differences in mean risk attitude between the two branches. Our analysis confirms the central role of the stocking rate as farm management parameter, and shows that environmental risk and the farmer´s gender are key variables in explaining stocking rates in our data. Paper 3 develops a non-expected-utility approach to decision making under Knightian uncertainty which circumvents some of the conceptual problems of existing approaches. We understand Knightian uncertainty as income lotteries with known payoffs but unknown probabilities in each outcome. Based on seven axioms, we show that there uniquely (up to linear-affine transformations) exists an additive and extensive function from the set of Knightian lotteries to the real numbers that represents uncertainty preferences on the subset of lotteries with fixed positive sum of payoffs over all possible states of the world. We define the concept of uncertainty aversion such that it allows for interpersonal comparison of uncertainty attitudes. Furthermore, we propose Renyi´s (1961) generalized entropy as a one-parameter preference function, where the parameter measures the degree of uncertainty aversion. We illustrate it with a simple decision problem and compare it to other decision rules under uncertainty (maximin, maximax, Laplacian expected utility, minimum regret, Hurwicz).
Human activities have converted natural ecosystems worldwide, mostly for agricultural purposes. This change in land use has been recognized as one of the key drivers causing mass extinction of biodiversity. Yet, there are species which persist particularly in traditional, low-intensity agricultural areas. However, this farmland biodiversity is increasingly threatened by the consequences of land-use intensification and land abandonment. One effect of these two processes is the change in existing landscape structures. This dissertation aimed at quantifying the relationship between biodiversity and landscape structures because a better understanding of current biodiversity patterns and their drivers is needed to navigate biodiversity conservation for a sustainable development. Specifically, this dissertation anticipates the impacts of land-use change on biodiversity in Southern Transylvania, focusing on butterflies and plants as study groups. In a first step, a methodological baseline for subsequent biodiversity studies is developed by exploring an optimal survey strategy, allocating the available resources in a study design that enables high statistical power and covers a wide range of environmental conditions. This study shows that in the highly heterogeneous farmland mosaic of Southern Transylvania, survey effort can be moderately reduced while still showing similar patterns of species richness, species turnover and species composition (Chapter 2). In a second step, biodiversity patterns of plants and butterflies are empirically investigated in response to different landscape structures, particularly towards heterogeneity and woody vegetation cover. These studies provide evidence that all main land-use types in Southern Transylvania, namely arable land, grassland and forests, contribute to an overall landscape pool. Species richness of plants, but not of butterflies, differed significantly between arable land and grassland. Presence of woody vegetation in farmland had a positive effect on plant species richness. Heterogeneity has been found beneficial for butterfly species richness in arable land, but not in grasslands. Species composition of plants was determined by land-use, but butterfly species composition was widely overlapping in arable land and grassland (Chapters 3 & 4). Investigations on the potential spread of invasive plant species in the Transylvanian landscape exhibited that distance to roads and heterogeneity, especially in arable land, were key variables determining the invasibility of the landscape (Chapter 5). By studying movement patterns of butterflies in agricultural landscapes, land-use intensity could be revealed having an impact on butterfly movements. Furthermore, butterflies were found to prefer non-arable patches within farmland (Chapter 6). In a third step, this dissertation conceptually embeds socio-economic considerations into the local and international discourse on sustainable rural development: Reflections on a participatory projects on establishing butterfly monitoring in Romania conclude that involving citizens in biodiversity conservation is possible in Romania, but need tailored approaches which consider the unique social and cultural settings (Chapter 7). Current recommendations from scientific literature to increase the agricultural yield, for example in Eastern European landscapes, through ´sustainable intensification´ for global food security are scrutinized for their engagement with sustainability. This dissertation concludes that genuine sustainable solutions need to respect the various aspects of sustainability, including procedural and distributive justice. Furthermore, it is clarified that general recommendations for agricultural intensification, for instance in Romania, may lead to devastating impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functions (Chapter 8). This dissertation provides evidence that the beneficial characteristics of the Translvanian farmland are linked to the fine spatial scale of the agricultural mosaic, the amount and distribution of semi-natural elements and the scattered woody vegetation throughout the landscape. Hence, the future of biodiversity depends on human interventions in the ancient cultural landscape. Navigating biodiversity conservation in Southern Transylvania thus needs genuine sustainable solutions, which integrate socially acceptable and ecological meaningful landscape management.
Traditional farming landscapes typically support exceptional biodiversity. They evolved as tightly coupled social-ecological systems, in which traditional human land-use shaped highly heterogeneous landscapes. However, these landscapes are under severe threats of land-use change which potentially pose direct threats to biodiversity, in particular through land-use intensification and land abandonment. Navigating biodiversity conservation in such changing landscapes requires a thorough understanding of the drivers that maintain the social-ecological system. This dissertation aimed to identify system properties that facilitate biodiversity conservation in traditional farming landscape, focusing specifically on birds and large carnivores in the rapidly changing traditional farmland region of Southern Transylvania, Romania. In order to identify these properties, I first examined the effects of local and landscape scale land-use patterns on birds and large carnivores and how they may be affected by future land-use change (Chapters II-V). Second, to gauge the role of particular traditional land-use elements for biodiversity I focused on the conservation value of traditional wood pastures (Chapters VI-VIII). Third, I took a social-ecological systems approach to understand how links between the social and ecological parts of the system affect human-bear coexistence (Chapters IV and IX). Bird diversity was supported by the broad gradients of woody vegetation cover and compositional heterogeneity. Land-use intensification, and hence the loss of woody vegetation cover and homogenization of land covers, would thus negatively affect biodiversity. This was especially evident from predictions on the distribution of the corncrake (Crex crex) in response to potential future land cover homogenization. Here, a moderate reduction of land cover diversity could drastically reduce the extent of corncrake habitat. Further results showed that the brown bear (Ursus arctos) would mainly be affected by land-use change through the fragmentation of large forest blocks, especially if land-use change would reduce habitat connectivity to the presumed source population in the Carpathian Mountains. Moreover, this dissertation revealed that large carnivores (brown bear and wolf, Canis lupus) may have important and often ignored roles in structuring the ecosystem of traditional farming landscapes by limiting herbivores. Wood pastures were found to have a high conservation value. The combination of low-intensity used grasslands with old scattered trees provided important supplementary habitat for different forest species such as woodpeckers and the brown bear. Worryingly, current management of wood pastures differed from traditional techniques in several aspects, which may threaten their persistence in the landscape. The majority of people had a positive perception on human-bear coexistence. The use of traditional sheep herding techniques combined with the tolerance of some shepherds to occasional livestock predation facilitated coexistence in a region where both carnivores and livestock are present. More generally, the genuine links between people and their environment were important drivers of people´s positive views on coexistence. However, perceived failures of top-down managing institutions could potentially erode these links and reduce people´s tolerance towards bears. Through the consideration of two different animal taxa, this dissertation revealed six important system properties facilitating biodiversity conservation in traditional farming landscapes. Similar proportions of the main land-use types (arable land, grassland, and forests) support species richness at the regional scale possible through habitat connectivity and continuous spill-over between land-use types. Heterogeneous landscapes can further support biodiversity through complementation and supplementation of habitat at the landscape scale. Gradients of woody vegetation cover and heterogeneity, supported biodiversity at both local and landscape scales possibly through the provision of a wide range of resources. The heterogeneous character of the landscape is tightly linked to traditional land-use practices, which also maintain specific traditional land-use elements and facilitate human-carnivore coexistence. Top-down limitation of large carnivores on herbivores possibly enhances vegetation growth and tree regeneration. The genuine links between humans and nature support human-bear coexistence, and these links may form the core of people´s values and sustainable use of natural resources.
This PhD thesis examines the connections between sustainability knowledge management (SKM) and sustainability management tools in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). While previous literature has established that knowledge is essential for the application of sustainability management tools, the effects of such tools on knowledge management are under-researched in the sustainability context. Drawing on multiple academic papers and utilizing various research methods, including a systematic literature review, several quantitative surveys and a multiple case study approach, the thesis systematically examines how such tools can facilitate the identification, acquisition, conversion, application and retention of sustainability knowledge, and potentially lead to the improvement of SKM effectiveness in SMEs. Furthermore, it examines how support functions for sustainability management tools and SKM correspond with each other. The findings reveal that sustainability management tools facilitate the SKM processes (identification, acquisition, conversion, application and retention), and align with the support factors (e.g. top management support, shared vision, employee qualifications) to advance SKM in SMEs. Particularly, such tools permit the institutionalization of sustainability knowledge into the daily routines and practices in SMEs. Additionally, tools create a support structure for SKM, embedding and preserving sustainability knowledge in documents, policies, procedures and norms for an enterprise´s collective knowledge for sustainability management. The thesis concludes with complementing areas of future research and offers practical implications for SME management.
A characteristic of the German health care market is the high complexity, amongst others due to the plurality of actors and interest groups. With so many players involved, health care reforms necessarily are the outcome of a quest for influence reflecting the relative power of interest groups. However, in much of the health economics literature, this fact is neglected, with the consequence that public regulation fails to have the intended effect. The treatment of social (interest) groups is central to understand political economic processes. Basic models in this area are the models of Olson (1965), Peltzman (1976) and Becker (1983). The objective of such model considerations in the health care market is to maximize efficiency and quality of care and thereby reduce expenditures. The section “The German health care market and its players: An overview from an economic perspective” analyses the structure of the health care market in Germany together with selected health challenges of the last decade. It questions to which extent the new political economy in contrast to welfare economy is able to explain health economic aspects. The section “Drug Prices and Pressure Group Activities in the German Health Care Market: An Application of the Becker Model” analyses the shift of power and influence among the pharmaceutical industry, the pharmacies and the social health insurers (SHI). Since the health care reform in 2004, these interest groups have been negotiating the structure of surcharges and discounts among each other without any intervention from the government. This reflects the assumption of a passive government in the Becker (1983) model and makes this model to a good choice for application. The negotiations and the resulting amendments of this ordinance express the shift of power and influence among the involved interest groups in the German health care market after 2004. The first assumption is a closed system based on the theoretical work by Becker. The amount of total budget and the amount of total influence is constant and defined as 10. In such a standardized system, the influence by producers and pharmacies decreases about 0.007 units of political pressure to the value 9.989, whereas the influence by SHI increases about 0.007 units to the value 0.011 between 2008 and 2010. More realistic is the second assumption, the assumption of an open system where the amount of total budget and the amount of total influence can change over the years. With this assumption a trend becomes apparent which shows an increase in political pressure by SHI about 0.015 units to the value 0.036 and a decrease of political pressure by pharmacies and producers about 18.326 units to the value 34.022 between 2008 and 2010. This reflects the cost control trend in combination with the empowerment incentives for SHI. Noteworthy is the high pressure level of producers compared to the other interest groups. As a conclusion one can say that the last years show a movement to more competition between the interest groups. This leads to more balanced power relations. But nevertheless, the most powerful group is still the producer group and the influence of the SHI is still very low. However, the government does not always behave passively. On sensitive issues for voters such as co-payments, the government tries to maximize votes. So, in the section “Drug Prices, Rents, and Votes in the German Health Care Market: An Application of the Peltzman Model”, the reaction of consumers (insured persons) and producers (pharmaceutical industry) based on electoral behavior and relating to drug prices and co-payments imposed on drugs is analyzed, using the health care reform of 2004 as an experience. The changes in prices and medications after this reform make it to a natural choice. For the analysis, the interest group model by Peltzman (1976) is applied to the German health care market. The vote-maximizing government has to find the optimal combination of rent and price of regulation. For the optimum solution, the variation of votes on the part of pharmaceutical industry has to equal the variation of votes on the part of consumers. Reflecting different power structures leads to drug prices ranging from 5 to 50 Euros, associated with a co-payment of 5 Euros. Prices between 50 and 100 Euros are possible as well, reflecting a balance of power facing the pharmaceutical industry. These prices are associated with a co-payment of 10% of the selling price. Concerning the transition from 1989 reference price regime to the 2004 reform one can say that producers who had accepted the reference price had an incentive to increase their price while lowering their sales volume.
The concept of corporate entrepreneurship continues to occupy the minds of scholars and practitioners alike. This is not surprising as corporate entrepreneurship constitutes a major driver of organizational revitalization, learning, and growth within large and medium size organizations. However, despite extensive research on corporate entrepreneurship, there is still confusion about the interplay of its macro- and micro-level constituents. To unveil how the structures, practices, and behaviors, which constitute entrepreneurship in large, diversified firms, interact, I utilize a systemic reasoning and link the notion of corporate entrepreneurship to diverse theoretical positions in the strategic management field including intraorganizational ecology, institutional theory, and configuration theory - links that have been so far neglected in the literature on corporate entrepreneurship. I develop my arguments in three complementary articles. In the first article, I provide a review of the theoretical framework that to a large extent underpins my research: the Bower-Burgelman process model. In the second article, I take a qualitative case study approach to analyze how micro-level practices affect the intraorganizational and external environment in favor of an entrepreneurial initiative. In the third article, I identify four different design types on the basis of a qualitative meta-synthesis, which reflect coherent constellations of managerial interpretive-schemes, structures, and systems that cultivate entrepreneurial behavior. In sum, this dissertation contributes to a new understanding of corporate entrepreneurship as a system of entrepreneurially behaving actors who are constrained and simultaneously enabled by a set of social, cultural, political, and structural context factors.