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In my dissertation I explore conceptual and economic aspects of resilience, i.e. a system’s ability to maintain its basic functions and controls under disturbances. I provide methodological considerations on the conceptual level and general insights derived from stylized ecological-economic models. In doing so, I demonstrate how to frame resilience so as to economically evaluate and investigate it as an important property of ecological-economic systems. Is conceptual vagueness an asset or a liability? In chapter 1 I address this question by weighing arguments from philosophy of science and applying them to the concept of resilience. I first sketch the wide spectrum of resilience concepts that ranges from concise concepts to the vague perspective of “resilience thinking”. Subsequently, I set out the methodological arguments in favor and against conceptual vagueness. While traditional philosophy of science emphasizes precision and conceptual clarity as precondition for empirical science, alternative views highlight vagueness as fuel for creative and pragmatic problem-solving. Reviewing this discussion, I argue that a trade-off between vagueness and precision exists, which is to be solved differently depending on the research context. In some contexts research benefits from conceptual vagueness while in others it depends on precision. Assessing the specific example of “resilience thinking” in detail, I propose a restructuring of the conceptual framework which explicitly distinguishes descriptive and normative knowledge. Chapter 2 investigates the common assumption that the optimization problem within a simple selfprotection problem (spp) is convex. It is shown that the condition given in the literature to legitimate this assumption may have implausible consequences. Via a simple functional specification we analyze the (non-)convexity of the spp more thoroughly and find that for reasonable parameter values strict convexity may not be justified. In particular, we demonstrate numerically that full self-protection is often optimal. Neglecting these boundary solutions and analyzing only the comparative statics of interior maxima may entail misleading policy implications such as underinvestment in self-protection. Thus, we highlight the relevance of full self-protection as a policy option even for non-extreme losses. Chapter 3 starts from the observation that ecosystem resilience is often interpreted as insurance: by decreasing the probability of future drops in the provision of ecosystem services, resilience insures risk-averse ecosystem users against potential welfare losses. Using a general and stringent definition of “insurance” and a simple ecological-economic model, we derive the economic insurance value of ecosystem resilience and study how it depends on ecosystem properties, economic context, and the ecosystem user’s risk preferences. We show that (i) the insurance value of resilience is negative (positive) for low (high) levels of resilience, (ii) it increases with the level of resilience, and (iii) it is one additive component of the total economic value of resilience. Chapter 4 performs a model analysis to study the origins of limited resilience in coupled ecologicaleconomic systems. We demonstrate that under open access to ecosystems for profit-maximizing harvesting forms, the resilience properties of the system are essentially determined by consumer preferences for ecosystem services. In particular, we show that complementarity and relative importance of ecosystem services in consumption may significantly decrease the resilience of (almost) any given state of the system. We conclude that the role of consumer preferences and management institutions is not just to facilitate adaptation to, or transformation of, some natural dynamics of ecosystems. Rather, consumer preferences and management institutions are themselves important determinants of the fundamental dynamic characteristics of coupled ecological-economic systems, such as limited resilience. Chapter 5 describes how real option techniques and resilience thinking can be integrated to better understand and inform decision making around environmental risks within complex systems. Resilience thinking offers a promising framework for framing environmental risks posed through the non-linear responses of complex systems to natural and human-induced disturbance pressures. Real options techniques offer the potential to directly model such systems including consideration of the prospect that the passage of time opens new options while closing others. Examples are provided which illustrate the potential for integrated resilience and real options approaches to contribute to understanding and managing environmental risk.

This paper-based dissertation deals with financial issues of family businesses. These businesses are mainly characterized by the overlapping of the two social systems: family and business. Thus, the involvement of an owner family can have a significant impact on corporate decision- making, for instance in terms of corporate finance decisions. In Germany, the latter is dominated by a strong orientation towards banks. Nevertheless, the relevance of external equity, as source of funding, has increased during the last years due to regulatory interventions (Basel III) and a growing number of alternative private equity providers. Against this backdrop, the present dissertation and its four papers examine different research questions in the context of capital structure decisions of family firms. These decisions are related to external equity as well as debt financing. The first paper is a structured literature review concerning the interaction of family firms and external equity investors. The paper analyzes the current state of knowledge and points out directions for future research, which is particularly relevant for a young and recently growing field of research. The second paper is a conceptual paper that deals with the differences of various types of private equity investors from the perspective of family firms looking for funding. The literature review paper revealed that existing studies so far neglected the topic of heterogeneity among investor types. Thus, the second paper represents a first attempt to close this research gap. Paper three also takes up a research gap identified by the first paper and examines the exit of private equity minority investments in family-owned businesses. The paper applies a qualitative empirical research design, which includes fourteen cases and related six interviews. The results reveal that the disinvestment phase of private equity investors only rarely leads to conflicts with owner families. The fourth paper uses a quantitative research design with a comprehensive dataset of 691 companies. The paper aims to compare the capital structures of large family and non-family firms. Overall, the findings show that family firms have significantly higher overall and long-term debt levels compared to their non-family counterparts. The identity as a family firm, which leads to a leap of faith by banks, can be a possible explanation for these results.

Due to increased life expectancy, a growing number of retirees are spending more and more time in retirement. Life satisfaction in later life therefore becomes an increasingly important societal issue. Good work ability and health are prerequisites for a self-determined transition to retirement, for example allowing for a continuation of gainful employment beyond retirement age. Such continued employment is one way of dealing with the consequences of a historically unique long retirement phase: a self-determined continued employment can have a positive effect on individual well-being, on societal level relieve the burden on the pension insurance system, and on meso-level provide companies with urgently needed human capital. The self-determination of life circumstances is postulated by Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a basic psychological need with effects on individual well-being. This dissertation investigates work ability as a concept that supports workers, employers, and societies in the extension of working lives, and how work ability is related to the level of self-determination in the transition to retirement, and ultimately life satisfaction. In the first study of this dissertation, the Work Ability Survey-R (WAS-R) was translated from English into German and then evaluated regarding its psychometric properties and construct validity. The WAS-R operationalizes work ability as the interplay of personal and organizational resources and thus allows companies to derive targeted interventions to maintain work ability. In the second study, the WAS-R was examined together with the questionnaire Work-Related Behavior and Experience Pattern (Arbeitsbezogenes Verhaltens- und Erlebensmuster, AVEM) regarding its construct validity. A striking feature of this study was the high number of participants with the answering pattern indicating low work-related ambitions and protection. Persons with this pattern are in danger of entering the risk pattern for burnout in the future. The findings support the validity of the WAS-R. In the third contribution, two studies examined the experience of control (i.e., autonomy) in the transition to retirement as a mediator between previous work ability, health, and financial well-being, and later life satisfaction in retirement. Control was found to partially mediate the relationship between work ability and later life satisfaction. Different mechanisms on later life satisfaction of work ability and health, and the subjective and objective financial situation were found. This dissertation contributes to research on and practice with aging workers in two ways: (1) The German translation of the WAS-R is presented as a useful instrument for measuring work ability, assessing individual and organizational aspects and therefore enabling employers to make targeted interventions to maintain and improve work ability, and eventually enable control during later work life, the retirement transition and even old age. (2) This dissertation corroborates the importance of good work ability and health, even in old age, as well as control in these phases of life. Work ability is indirectly related to life satisfaction in the long period of retirement, mediated by a sense of control in the transition to retirement. This emphasizes the importance of the need for control as postulated by the SDT also in the transition to retirement.

This paper presents the first nonparametric test whether German works councils go hand in hand with higher labor productivity or not. It distinguishes between establishments that are covered by collective bargaining or not. Results from a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for first order stochastic dominance tend to indicate that pro-productive effects are found in firms with collective bargaining only. However, the significance level of the test statistic is higher than a usually applied critical level. This somewhat weak evidence casts doubts on the validity of results from recent parametric approaches using a regression framework that point to high positive effects of works councils on productivity.

Zahlreiche Untersuchungen belegen, dass die exportierenden Firmen den nur für den Inlandsmarkt produzierenden Firmen in vieler Hinsicht überlegen sind – sie sind im Durchschnitt größer, produktiver und innovativer, und sie waren dies schon, bevor sie mit dem Export begonnen haben. Eine offene Frage ist, wie und in welchem Maße die Firmen dann vom Export profitieren. Ökonometrische Auswertungen auch der Basis von Längsschnittdaten von Firmen zeigen nur selten positive Auswirkungen der Exportaktivitäten. Dies kann auch an den hierbei verwendeten Methoden liegen, denn ein Vergleich der exportierenden Firmen mit sich selbst in einer Situation ohne Export ist ja nicht möglich. Eine direkte Befragung von Exporteuren kann hier neue Erkenntnisse bringen. Eine Befragung von exportierenden Firmen aus den IHK-Bezirken Lüneburg- Wolfsburg und Stade zeigt, dass die Firmen sehr heterogen sind – nicht alle profitieren in gleicher Weise und in gleichem Maße vom Export. Große positive Effekte finden sich bei mehr als der Hälfte der Firmen bezogen auf Wachstum, Kapazitätsauslastung und Erträge sowie bei rund 40 Prozent mit Bezug auf den Ausgleich inländischer Konjunkturschwankungen. Umgekehrt sieht es bei den „Lerneffekten“ (Anregungen von Auslandskunden zur Verbesserung der Produkte; Steigerung der Produktivität als Reaktion auf höheren Wettbewerbsdruck auf Auslandsmärkten; bessere Einschätzung der eigenen Konkurrenzfähigkeit aufgrund von Kontakten mit Konkurrenten auf Auslandsmärkten und daraus folgende entsprechende Reaktionen) aus – hier überwiegen deutlich die Angaben wonach keine oder allenfalls geringe Effekte vorliegen. Was erklärt die in der Befragung festgestellten Unterschiede zwischen den Firmen in Bezug auf die Auswirkungen der Exporttätigkeit? Als zentrales Ergebnis können wir festhalten, dass bis auf den Exportanteil am Umsatz keine der anderen betrachteten Firmeneigenschaften wie Größe, Dauer der Exporterfahrung, Forschungs- und Entwicklungstätigkeit oder Auslandsniederlassungen ausschlaggebend dafür sind, ob eine Firma vom Export in verschiedener Hinsicht positiv beeinflusst wird oder nicht. Vom Export können also sehr unterschiedliche Firmen gleichermaßen profitieren, wobei tendenziell die Wahrscheinlichkeit dafür, dass ein starker positiver Effekt zu beobachten ist, mit zunehmendem Anteil des Auslandsumsatzes am Umsatz ansteigt. Simulationsrechnungen mit den geschätzten Modellen zeigen hierbei: Wenn es Effekte des Exports gibt, dann werden diese in der Regel erst ab einem Exportanteil am Umsatz von mindestens 25 Prozent deutlich.

Die Fragestellung dieses Forschungsvorhabens resultiert aus der Praxis: Was ist ein christliches Hotel? Ist ein christliches Hotel etwas Besonderes? Wie konkretisieren sich die christlichen Wertehaltungen im betrieblichen Alltag eines Hotels in Deutschland? Gibt es in der betrieblichen Praxis Unterschiede zwischen christlichen und nicht christlichen Hotels aus Sicht der Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter christlicher Hotels? Wenn es Unterschiede gibt, welche sind das und sind diese christlichen Werte attraktiv aus Sicht der Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter? Können christliche Hotels ihre Werte im Personalmarketing als Anreize verwenden? Welche Anreize erwarten die Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter christlicher Hotels grundsätzlich von ihren Arbeitgebern? Gibt es Unterschiede in den Bewertungen der Wichtigkeit der christlichen Ausrichtung christlicher Hotels je nach Glaubenszugehörigkeit (christlich, andere, ohne) der Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter christlicher Hotels? Da die Anwendung bzw. Konkretion christlicher Werte im betrieblichen Kontext nicht vom kulturellen außerbetrieblichen Umfeld getrennt betrachtet werden kann, beziehen sich die vorliegenden Ausführungen allein auf christliche Hotels in Deutschland. Das Objekt ´Christliches Hotel´ wurde bislang in der Forschungsliteratur noch nicht näher beschrieben. Der vorgestellte Forschungsansatz wird im Kontext der Anreiz-Beitrags-Theorie (March/Simon, 1958) eingeordnet. Der Anreizaspekt christlicher Werte im Management wird vorgestellt. Hierfür wird auf das Modell bzw. Inventar christlicher Werte zur Unternehmensführung (Schönborn/St. Gallen, 2006) Bezug genommen. Um den Forschungsgegenstand ´Christliches Hotel´ zunächst näher zu beschreiben, wird das in der Qualitätsdiskussion bekannte EFQM Excellence Modell herangezogen und anhand des Werteinventars unternehmensrelevanter christlicher Werte auf die Hotellerie übertragen. Dieses für die christliche Hotellerie entwickelte EFQM Excellence Modell - auch EFQM Excellence Modell Hotel ´C´ genannt - dient zum einen einer ersten Konkretion des Forschungsgegenstandes christliches Hotel und bildet zum anderen die Basis für die empirische Studie. Hierfür wurden 276 Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter christlicher Hotels befragt, wie sie die im Rahmen des EFQM Excellence Modell Hotel ´C´ konkretisierten Werte im Management ihres Arbeitgeberhotels wahrnehmen und im Vergleich zu nicht christlichen Hotels und zudem bezüglich der Wichtigkeit bewerten. Die Studienergebnisse zeigen, dass die befragten Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter christliche Hotels in den EFQM Konstrukten Führung, Strategie, Mitarbeiter und Prozesse, Produkte und Dienstleistungen sowie in den kulturbezogenen Konstrukten Christliche Werte und Ergänzende christliche Werte im Vergleich zu nicht christlichen Hotels als signifikant besser bewerten. Christliche Werte, sofern sie nicht explizit als solche bezeichnet werden, sind den Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern christlicher Hotels in Deutschland unabhängig von ihrer Glaubenszugehörigkeit (christlich, anders, ohne) gleich wichtig. Christlich gläubigen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern christlicher Hotels in Deutschland ist - explizit gefragt - die christliche Ausrichtung ihres Arbeitgebers signifikant wichtiger, als Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter ohne Glaubenszugehörigkeit. Christliche Werte spielen für die Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter christlicher Hotels in Deutschland zusammenfassend eine wichtige Rolle, diese immateriellen Werte sind starke Beitrags- und Bleibeanreize, die christliche Hotels im Personalmarketing als Anreize verwenden können. Dies gilt umso mehr, wenn die christlichen Werte von den christlichen Hotels in Deutschland nicht nur explizit als solche zusammenfassend genannt, sondern konkret und vor allem realitätsgetreu dargestellt werden.

In sub-Saharan Africa, women own or partly own one third of all businesses, thereby having a large potential to contribute to the economic development and societal well-being in this region. However, women-owned businesses tend to lag behind men-owned businesses in that they make lower profits, grow more slowly, and create fewer jobs. To identify reasons for this gap and effective means to promote women entrepreneurs, large parts of the entrepreneurship literature have compared male and female entrepreneurs with regard to individual characteristics, paying only limited attention to the underlying environmental conditions. This is problematic as women entrepreneurs operate under different conditions than men, with particularly pronounced differences in sub-Saharan Africa. Against this backdrop, the goal of this dissertation is to contribute to a more profound understanding of women entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa and its promotion through training by examining critical context factors. Specifically, I analyze two context factors that influence women’s entrepreneurial performance and the success of training interventions: 1) women entrepreneurs’ husbands and 2) the entrepreneurship trainer. These analyses are embedded in considerations of the cultural, social, and economic conditions women entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa are facing. In Chapter 2, I conduct a systematic literature review on spousal influence in entrepreneurship and identify six recurrent types of influence. Complementing the literature originating from Western settings, I develop propositions on how the sub-Saharan context affects husbands’ influence on women entrepreneurship in this region. In Chapter 3, I build on a cultural theory and an economic theory of the household to develop and empirically test a theoretical model of husbands’ constraining and supportive influences on women entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa. The empirical results point to three distinct types of husbands that differ significantly in their impact on women entrepreneurs’ business success. In Chapter 4, I explore the influence of the trainer on the effectiveness of entrepreneurship training in sub-Saharan Africa by drawing on an unsuccessful training implementation. Qualitative analyses indicate that the use of adequate teaching methods is critical towards training success. Overall, this dissertation makes an important contribution towards a better understanding of women entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa and their promotion by shifting the perspective from a purely individualist to a more contextualized view of women entrepreneurship.

The issue under investigation in this study is to explore the drivers and suggest methods for environmental managers to integrate environmental issues in the top management strategic decision-making. In order to make the reading easy the whole study has been written following the principle of providing the minimum information to clarify the point under discussion, no more, no less. The conclusions, the analysis, the implications and the limitations are discussed on a chapter by chapter basis, making it easier for the reader to remember the issue under discussion. The closing chapter brings together the conclusions of each chapter of the study. The study is divided into two parts. Part I: Planning describes the planning and preparation for the research and consists of the following chapters: Chapter 1 provides an overview of the interest, relevance and importance of this study. Also it proposes, through the introduction of the relevant literature, an exact wording for the research problem and a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of each process step. Chapters 2 and 3 describe and justify the chosen framework that prompts managers during interviewing and organises the resulting contents in a way that will support effective decision making. This is the end of the planning part of the study and we now move into the action part where the case studies are explained in full. Part II: Intervention comprises the following chapters: Chapter 4 is where the action begins, the first phase of the process. This chapter discusses the reasons selection and participation in the research and the process for choosing a business unit. Chapter 5 details, justifies and discusses the choices of who to interview. It outlines how the interviews were conducted and summarises the resulting contents. In Chapter 6 the general issue of who to involve in interviews is explored further for the specific case of the environmental manager. The main objective is to discuss whether and why the environmental manager had more/less/different ideas from the rest of the management team. Chapter 7 deals with the first time that the people meet as a group. For this process step the choices were about how to display and generate discussion on the contents gathered during the interviews. Chapter 8 focuses on the environmental manager’s contribution to the objective Fine-tuning discussion. Chapter 9 describes the Indicator Building process and how this may be relevant for the environmental manager. Concluding Remarks wraps up the results and discusses the need for extending this research further.