OPUS 4 | Search

Car-following in self-, assisted-, and autonomous driving (2017)

Siebert, Felix Wilhelm

In this dissertation the relation between time headway in car following and the subjective experience of a driver was researched. Three experiments were conducted in a driving simulator. Time headways in a range of 0.5 to 4.0 seconds were investigated at 50km/h, 100km/h, and 150km/h under varied visibility conditions and at differing levels of driver control over the car. The main research questions addressed the possible existence of a threshold effect for the subjective experience of time headways and the influence of vehicle speed, forward visibility, and vehicle control on the position of time headway thresholds. Furthermore, the validity of zero-risk driver behavior models was investigated. Results suggest that a threshold exists for the subjective experience of time headways in car following. This implies that the subjective experience of time headways stays constant for a range of time headways above a critical threshold. The subjective experience of a driver is only influenced by time headway once this critical time headway threshold is passed. Speed does not influence preferred time headway distances in self- and assisted-driving, i.e. time headway thresholds are constant for different speeds. However, in completely automated driving preferred time headways are influenced by vehicle speed. For higher speeds preferred time headways decrease. A reduction of forward visibility leads to a shift in preferred time headways towards larger time headways. Results of this dissertation give credence to zero-risk models of driver behavior.

Governance for corporate sustainability : national and global governance influencing TNCs’ sustainability management in Germany, the US and India (2017)

Wedl, Isabella

Economic globalization has not only reinforced the power of global firms, but also the sustainability challenges we are facing today on global and regional levels. Against this background, an increasingly broad range of governance efforts has aimed at fostering more sustainable business practices. At the national level, in addition to regulatory policy instruments, market-based and network instruments as well as self-regulatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives have emerged. These instruments differ not only in their degree of bindingness between compulsory and voluntary, but also involve a greater diversity of actor groups like government, business, and civil society organizations. In addition, international instruments like the UN Global Compact principles, the GRI Reporting Guidelines or the

Proactivity against poverty : personal initiative training and its impact on entrepreneurial success in developing countries (2017)

Mensmann, Mona

Micro- and small enterprises are of great importance for the economic growth in developing countries, as they contribute to employment creation and innovation. In light of their economic relevance, several approaches to support micro- and small enterprises have emerged, including building human capital through business trainings. However, the effects of existing business trainings on entrepreneurial success have so far been limited. One promising alternative training approach that has emerged in the last years is personal initiative training, which teaches self-starting, future-oriented, and persistent entrepreneurial behavior. This dissertation helps to improve the understanding of personal initiative training by shedding light on the mechanisms through which it affects business success, on supporting factors, and on its long-term impacts. Chapter 1 provides an overview on the topic of personal initiative training for entrepreneurs in developing countries. Chapter 2 introduces personal initiative training and other proactive behavior trainings in various contexts of work, including entrepreneurship. The chapter presents action regulation theory and the theory on personal initiative as the theoretical foundation of the training. In addition, the chapter provides insights into training and evaluation methods and makes recommendations for the successful implementation of personal initiative training. Chapter 3 offers a first answer to the question how personal initiative after training can be maintained over time. The chapter introduces training participants´ need for cognition as beneficial factor for post-training personal initiative maintenance. Chapter 4 explains how action regulation trainings like personal initiative training contribute to poverty reduction in developing countries by supporting entrepreneurial success. Chapter 5 enlarges upon the topic of personal initiative training for entrepreneurial success in developing countries. The chapter focuses on how personal initiative training supports female entrepreneurs in developing countries by helping them to overcome the uncertainty involved in entrepreneurial actions. Chapter 6 summarizes the overall findings and illustrates the theoretical and practical implications that result from this dissertation. In sum, this dissertation makes a contribution to the better understanding of personal initiative training and its effects on entrepreneurship in developing countries and thereby helps to create effective interventions to combat poverty in developing countries.

It’s time for change : toward a dynamic perspective on motivational and cognitive processes in entrepreneurship (2017)

Lex, Maike

Research on motivational and cognitive processes in entrepreneurship has commonly relied on a static approach, investigating entrepreneurs´ motivation and cognition at only one point in time. However, entrepreneurs´ motivation and cognition are dynamic processes that considerably change over time. The goal of this dissertation is thus to adopt a dynamic perspective on motivational and cognitive processes in entrepreneurship. In three different chapters, I examine dynamic changes in the level and impact of three different processes, i.e., creativity, entrepreneurial passion, and opportunity identification. In Chapter 2, I develop a theoretical model on the alternating role of creativity in the course of the entrepreneurial process. The model emphasizes that the effects of two components underlying creativity, i.e., divergent and convergent thinking, considerably change both in magnitude and in direction throughout the entrepreneurial process. In Chapter 3, I establish and empirically test a theoretical model on entrepreneurial passion. The theoretical analysis and empirical results show that the relationships between feelings of entrepreneurial passion, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial success are dynamic and reciprocal rather than static and unidirectional. In Chapter 4, I develop and test a theoretical model on the effect of entrepreneurship training on opportunity identification over time. The theoretical and empirical investigation indicates that entrepreneurship training effects systematically decay over time and that action planning and entrepreneurial action sustain the effects in the long term. Altogether, the research reported in this dissertation provides novel insights into entrepreneurs´ motivation and cognition which more static approaches would have obscured. Moreover, the theoretical and empirical results of each chapter resolve apparent contradictions in past research and integrate hitherto fragmented theoretical perspectives into more inclusive theoretical frameworks. Thereby, this dissertation represents an important step toward a more integrated understanding of motivational and cognitive mechanisms underlying successful entrepreneurship.

Die Epigenetik – eine Lebenswissenschaft im Wandel (2017)

Egger, Daniela

Essays on the growth and investment of small German firms (2017)

Habermann, Harald

In 2013, the European Commission adopted the so called ´Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan´ to ease the creation of new ventures and to support the takeover of existing firms. The goal is to create a supportive environment for entrepreneurs to thrive and grow (European Commission 2013). This shows that the European Union puts its efforts to support small firms as they are seen as means for Europe´s sustainable economic growth. However, the successful processes of growth and investment are complex and depend on different determinants. The present thesis focuses on the firm level and analyzes in three independent articles: how small firms invest over time, how new ventures grow and which variables influence growth, how small firms grow after business takeover and which variables influence growth. The framework that connects these articles forms the content-related focus on the early stage of development of small firms and the methodological and analytical approaches that comply with up-to-date and adequate statistical analysis techniques. Supported by an extensive dataset, which is the foundation of all three articles, it is possible to investigate empirically different open research questions using bivariate and multivariate analysis techniques. Thus, this thesis also serves the research needs for more multivariate analyses for small firms, for which so far mainly cross-sectional studies have been conducted.

Key competencies in sustainability - Application in sustainable entrepreneurship (2017)

Hagmaier, Bastian

Shaping realities: investigating sensemaking and sensegiving in managerial practice (2017)

Schlapfner, Jan-Florian

In this work, I contribute to a social constructionist research agenda by investigating how managers/consultants (practitioners) of different ranks are engaged in patterns of behavior (practices) in socially situated contexts (practice) attempting to shape preferred shared interpretations of reality to achieve their goals. Following this line of inquiry, the work aims at (1) advancing our understanding of the role of practitioners in shaping managerial realities and (2) investigating how practitioners actually shape managerial realities, particularly focusing on ´reality-shaping´ practices and their content. The dissertation comprises a set of four complementary articles investigating these research questions empirically based on in-depth, empirical case studies and theoretically within various managerial contexts (client-consultant relationship, CEO post-succession strategic change process, evolutionary initiative development) and considering different actor perspectives (top managers, middle managers, consultants and clients). Resulting from this variety, the articles rely on and contribute to different, at times distant, research fields and therewith scholarly discussions. However, the literature on sensemaking and sensegiving offers a suitable overarching theoretical frame which I use in this work to synthesize the key contributions of the four articles.

Financial decisions in family firms : private equity investors, capital structures and firm identity (2017)

Thiele, Felix Kristian

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.

Erhebung zur Risikowahrnehmung von Bodenverdichtung deutscher Landwirt_innen (2017)

Gnutzmann, Nele

Nachweisführung und Feststellung der Anspruchshöhe bei Nachträgen aus gestörten Bauabläufen – Analyse am Beispiel eines Praxisfalls (2017)

Eventov, Semjon

Untersuchung der Schnittstelle zwischen §650 b und c BGB mit dem Schwerpunkt baubetriebswirtschaftlicher Aspekte (2017)

Meister, Torge

Das Bauvertragsrecht ist im Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuch (BGB) im Titel des Werkvertragsrechts in den §§ 631 – 651 BGB enthalten. Aus dem reinen Werkvertrag des BGB heraus war bisher nicht die Möglichkeit gegeben, nachvertragliche Änderungen in den Bauvertrag einfließen zu lassen. Für die notwendige Ausführung vergessener Leistungen wurde unter Beachtung des Konsenzprinzips hilfsweise § 315 BGB „Bestimmung der Leistung durch eine Partei“ in Verbindung mit § 242 BGB „Treu und Glaube“ herangezogen, um einseitig den Leistungserfolg ändern zu können. Eine Konkretisierung, welche Leistungen der Besteller einseitig ändern kann und wie der sich hieraus entstehende Anspruch auf Gegenleistung zu ermitteln ist, fehlte gänzlich. Die bestehenden Regelungen sind daher nicht konkret genug für die heutigen komplexen Bauvorhaben. Mit der Novellierung des Bauvertragsrechts im BGB wurde auch das einseitige Leistungsänderungsrecht und Regelungen für die Ermittlung der Mehr- und Mindervergütung in dem BGB – Bauvertrag aufgenommen. Durch Beschluss des Deutschen Bundestages vom 28. April 2017 ist das neue Bauvertragsrecht eingeführt und wird am 1. Januar 2018 in Kraft treten. Durch diese neuen Regelungen soll „eine interessengerechte und ökonomisch sinnvolle Gestaltung und Abwicklung von Bauverträgen“ (Deutscher Bundestag, 2016, S.2) erzielt werden. Ob die Schnittstelle zwischen Leistungsänderung und Gegenleistung, unter Berücksichtigung baubetriebswirtschaftlicher Aspekte und der Ausgeglichenheit zwischen Leistungsänderung und Gegenleistung mittels der vorgegebenen Maßstäbe überhaupt möglich ist, wurde in der vorliegenden Arbeit untersucht. Hierfür wurde das baubetriebliche System des BGB – Bauvertrags erarbeitet und die Novellierung des Bauvertragsrechts im Hinblick auf die Masterarbeit Torge Meister IV Bereiche des Änderungsrechts (§ 650 b BGB) und der Vergütungsanpassung (§ 650 c BGB) vorgestellt. Basierend auf der Vorstellung des neuen BGB – Bauvertrags sind die Möglichkeiten der Leistungsänderungen in der Schnittstelle zu der Ermittlung der Mehr- oder Mindervergütungen herausgearbeitet worden. Dabei wurde festgestellt, dass neben den beiden Vergütungsermittlungsmethoden des § 650c BGB auch die Möglichkeit der freien Vergütungsermittlung nach § 650 b Abs.1 BGB gegeben ist. Auch wie die Sachverhalte Nachlässe, Mengenänderungen bei Einheitspreisverträgen sowie Bauzeit und die Art der Ausführung bei der Kostenermittlung und der Beauftragung von vergessenen Leistungen zu berücksichtigen sind, ist in die Untersuchung eingeflossen. Trotz der aufgezeigten Lücken des neuen Bauvertragsrechts wurde mittels der Untersuchung der Schnittstelle zwischen den Änderungsverlangen und der Vergütung der vergessenen Leistungen festgestellt, dass grundsätzlich die Umsetzung im baubetrieblichen System möglich ist. Mit den vorgestellten Kalkulationsansätzen in Kombination mit einer Gemeinkostenausgleichsrechnung wird ein Ansatz für die Lösung der fehlenden Ausgeglichenheit zwischen Leistung und Gegenleistung vorgestellt. Darüber hinaus wird herausgearbeitet aus welchen Gründen es bei Bauprojekten, die auf auf dem neuen BGB – Bauvertrag basieren, zu Streit zwischen den Vertragsparteien und damit zu einer Verteuerung und Verzögerung der Bauprojekte kommen wird.

Fristverlängerungen infolge von Bauablaufstörungen (2017)

Spang, Karoline

Die Bauwirtschaft unterscheidet sich von den anderen Produktionsbranchen insbesondere dadurch, dass in der Baupraxis i.d.R. keine oder nur teilweise stationäre Produktion vorliegt. Somit werden die Projektbeteiligten in der Baubranche häufig vor individuelle Probleme ge-stellt, die bei einer stationären Fertigung nicht auftreten würden. Um diese individuellen Prob-lemfaktoren zu minimieren und den Bauablauf zu beschleunigen, werden teilweise die Haupt-bestandteile der Gebäudekonstruktion bereits in Fertigungswerken vorgefertigt, so z.B. bei Stahlbetonfertigteilen. Die Leistungserbringung auf der Baustelle wird somit zwar zeitlich optimiert, die örtliche Montage der gefertigten Konstruktionselemente bietet allerdings weite-re mögliche Unwägbarkeiten. Durch die bei jedem Bauvorhaben individuellen Gegebenheiten können unvorhersehbare Fak-toren zu einer Störung des Bauablaufs führen. Die in der theoretischen Terminplanung, bei-spielsweise anhand eines Balkenterminplans getakteten Arbeitsschritte der einzelnen Gewer-ke, können in der Baupraxis durch unterschiedliche Ursachen gestört werden. Ausgehend von dieser Tatsache sind für die Projektbeteiligten die jeweiligen Auswirkungen einer Bauablaufstörung entscheidend. Die Folgen, die sich aus einer Bauablaufstörung erge-ben, sind von der jeweiligen Störungsursache abhängig. Hierbei ist insbesondere zu unter-scheiden, ob die Ursache aus der Verantwortungssphäre des Auftraggebers oder des Auftrag-nehmers resultiert. Bauablaufstörungen können sowohl zeitliche als auch monetäre Auswirkungen mit sich brin-gen. Durch die heutzutage häufig sehr eng getakteten Terminpläne ohne große Pufferzeiten können die zeitlichen Auswirkungen auf die Projektfristen von großer Bedeutung für die Pro-jektbeteiligten sein. Die Auswirkungen auf die gesetzten Fristen infolge von aufgetretenen Bauablaufstörungen sind von den vertraglich vereinbarten rechtlichen Grundlagen abhängig. In dieser Masterarbeit im Rahmen des Masterstudiengangs ‚Baurecht und Baumanagement‘ soll das Thema der Fristverlängerungen in Folge von Bauablaufstörungen näher betrachtet werden. Diesbezüglich werden zunächst die Grundlagen von Fristen und Bauablaufstörungen aufgegriffen. Anschließend werden Nachweisführung und Berechnungsansätze vorgestellt.

Kunst- und Kulturproduktion im Bezugsrahmen von Pierre Bourdieus Theorie und die kultursoziologische Analyse sozialer Bewegungen (2017)

Kastner, Jens

In der vorliegenden Textsammlung werden verschiedene kunst- und kultursoziologische Fragestellungen behandelt. Grundlage und Zentrum der Beiträge bildet die Kultur- und Sozialtheorie Pierre Bourdieus. Die wichtigsten Konzepte und Begrifflichkeiten Bourdieus werden anhand unterschiedlicher theoretischer Problematiken wie auch am Beispiel praktisch-künstlerischer Arbeiten diskutiert. Dabei wird ein Verständnis der Bourdieu´schen Kunstsoziologie als Kultursoziologie vertreten, das in Die ästhetische Disposition ausgeführt wird.

Team leaders’ and members’ pro-diversity beliefs: powerful means to overcome the detrimental effects of diversity faultlines in teams (2017)

Schölmerich, Franziska

Western organizations increasingly organize work in team-based structures. Members of these teams often differ in various diversity attributes (e. g., gender, age, cultural background). In response, research aims to provide evidence-based recommendations on how to effectively manage diversity in teams. Within diversity research, the diversity faultlines approach has been particularly fruitful. It considers the impact of the alignment of multiple diversity attributes in teams. Strong diversity faultlines are associated with the emergence of relatively homogeneous subgroups in teams and have an overall negative impact on team processes and outcomes. This dissertation investigates factors that mitigate the detrimental consequences of strong diversity faultlines in teams, namely pro-diversity beliefs. It extends faultline literature beyond the conventional focus on processes and outcomes related to team members by emphasizing the leaders´ perspective. The three empirical papers included in this dissertation systematically examine how strong pro-diversity beliefs can help unleashing the positive effects of team diversity despite strong faultlines. The first paper highlights the role of leaders´ pro-diversity beliefs in mitigating the negative impact of diversity faultlines on two team processes: perceived cohesion and social loafing. Moreover, it compares the impact of socio-demographic faultlines (based on gender and age) and experience-based faultlines (based on team tenure and education level). Data was collected in a multisource field sample with 217 team members nested in 44 teams and the corresponding leaders. We found that socio-demographic, but not experience-based faultlines were negatively related to perceived cohesion and positively to perceived loafing. Path analysis further revealed that these relationships were mitigated when leaders held strong pro-diversity beliefs. The second paper extends these findings by additionally taking the impact of members´ pro-diversity beliefs into account. It examines whether the impact of sociodemographic faultlines on performance is contingent on leaders´ and members´ pro-diversity beliefs. Moreover, we assumed that aggregate LMX would mediate this relationship. In a multisource data set obtained from 41 teams with 219 members and the corresponding leaders working for the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we found partial support for our hypotheses. As expected, the impact of strong socio-demographic faultlines on diplomats´ performance was least negative when both leaders and members held strong pro-diversity beliefs. However, neither the two-way interactions of faultlines and leaders´ or members´ prodiversity beliefs nor aggregate LMX had a significant impact in our research model. The third paper zooms into processes and outcomes related to team leaders. It investigates how leaders´ pro-diversity beliefs and their perceptions of members´ prodiversity beliefs in teams with strong socio-demographic faultlines impact leaders´ task role assignment, performance expectation, and motivation. To test our hypotheses, we conducted two experimental studies with students, one in Germany (N = 55) and one in the US (N = 134). Findings showed that strong pro-diversity beliefs held and perceived by leaders made them assign task roles that cross-cut rather than aligned with the subgroup structure created by faultlines. Moreover, leaders´ perceptions of members´ pro-diversity beliefs, but not their own beliefs, had a positive impact on their motivation, mediated by their performance expectation. In sum, findings of these three papers extend the literature on diversity faultlines and leadership by systematically demonstrating the mitigating impact of pro-diversity beliefs on faultlines´ detrimental consequences on processes and outcomes related to team leaders and members. Based on various samples, we showed that it is worthwhile to distinguish between pro-diversity beliefs held by leaders, pro-diversity beliefs held by members, and leaders´ perceptions of members´ pro-diversity beliefs. Fostering strong pro-diversity beliefs among leaders and members should thus be a crucial element of effective diversity faultline management in organizations.

Testing paradigms in conservation biology : spatio-temporal dimensions of habitat fragmentation in a stenotopic woodland ground beetle (2017)

Marcus, Tamar

Habitat fragmentation and changes in land use are currently two major drivers of biodiversity loss around the world by causing habitat loss and reducing connectivity across landscapes. These processes affect not only species diversity, but genetic structure as well. The loss of habitat and the increased isolation prevent gene flow and accelerate genetic drift, causing loss of genetic diversity and facilitating development of genetic differentiation. The effects of habitat fragmentation and land use changes are usually studied by relating patterns of genetic diversity and differentiation to environmental factors, habitat history, landscape structure, or to a combination thereof. However, these three drivers are rarely addressed simultaneously. In addition, these studies are usually carried out in conservation-driven contexts, and therefore tend to concentrate on hyper-fragmented landscapes and on rare or endangered species. However, how habitat fragmentation and land use affect widespread species in more typical landscapes has not been fully investigated. In this thesis I address these two gaps, and do so in three study regions, allowing for generalization of the results. I used Abax parallelepipedus, a flightless ground beetle with low dispersal power as a model species to test how environmental factors, habitat history, and landscape structure affect genetic diversity and genetic differentiation in three study regions located across Germany. This species seldom leaves wooded habitats, and rarely crosses linear barriers such as roads and railways. It is also known to be susceptible to rapid changes in genetic structure after habitat fragmentation. Nevertheless, A. parallelepipedus is widely distributed as it can inhabit a variety of woodland types in which it maintains high population densities. Although all of my study regions represent fairly typical rural landscapes for central Europe, each consisting of a complex matrix of land uses, they differ from one another in terms of environmental factors, habitat history, and landscape structure, and thus can serve as three test cases. In the first stage of my work, I identified polymorphic microsatellite loci which could potentially be used to study genetic diversity and differentiation in A. parallelepipedus. I then developed PCR and genotyping protocols for two suites of loci, in the end selecting to use the set of 14 fully multiplexed loci for my study. After I had developed the needed study system, I genotyped over 3300 beetles from 142 study sites. In my investigation of how environmental factors and habitat history affect genetic diversity and genetic differentiation, I found that genetic diversity was being driven by variables that could be related to population sizes rather than by habitat history. I also did not find evidence of an influence of habitat history on the genetic differentiation patterns. Although populations of A. parallelepipedus in the past were probably smaller due to deforestation, they apparently remained large enough to prevent rapid genetic drift. Thus, recolonization processes of woodlands planted after the peak of deforestation either occurred without incurring founder effects or bottlenecks, or the effects of thereof have since been erased by gene flow. As the genetic structure found in my landscapes is driven current processes, rather than historical ones, I carried out a landscape genetics analysis of the genetic differentiation patterns found in each of my study regions, in which I examined the relationship between genetic differentiation and landscape structure. I tested whether I could find patterns of isolation by distance, isolation by resistance, or isolation by barriers in my study regions. Surprisingly, I found no effects of land use or of fragmentation. Based on the importance of population sizes found in my previous study, combined with the beetle´s known avoidance of non-wooded areas and its inability to cross roads, I conclude that although there is probably little gene flow across my study regions, large population sizes are preventing the rapid development of genetic differentiation. Models simulating the development of genetic differentiation over time in populations of different starting sizes support this conclusion. My work highlights the importance of population sizes in determining how patterns of genetic diversity and differentiation will develop across landscapes. While emphasis has been placed in conservation contexts on the deleterious effects of fragmentation on genetic structure, this may be overstated for widespread species in typical landscapes. In such cases, large population sizes may mitigate the development of genetic differentiation and prevent loss of alleles, despite existing barriers and lack of gene flow.

Assessing organizational culture and investigating its link to organizational effectiveness (2017)

Puppatz, Martin

Organizational culture is widely acknowledged to be a driver of organizational effectiveness. However, existing empirical research tends to focus on investigating the links between individual, isolated culture dimensions and effectiveness outcomes. This approach is at odds with the theoretical roots of organizational culture and does not do justice to the complex reality that most organizations face. This issue is addressed by this dissertation, which is comprised of four studies. Study 1 investigated the psychometric quality and cultural equivalence of three culture measures in a German context, based on a sample of 172 employees in a bank. The results suggested that the German versions of the Denison Organizational Culture Survey and the Organizational Culture Profile performed satisfactorily, while results regarding the GLOBE survey fell short of expectations. The study contributes to facilitating cross-cultural research on organizational culture by providing evidence on instruments that can be applied in international settings, which is an important prerequisite for investigating relationships between culture and effectiveness in an increasingly globalized economy. Study 2 reviewed the literature on the link between culture and effectiveness with a focus on studies that treat organizational culture as a holistic phenomenon. The review yielded four kinds of holistic approaches (aggregation-based, agreement-based, moderation- or mediation-based, and configuration-based). For each approach, main findings, theoretical foundations, and specific avenues for future research are provided. Study 3 investigated how a change in organizational culture induced by an M&A project impacts employee commitment. Based on a sample of 180 employees in a German organization, the findings suggest that individuals perceive cultural change differently, that cultural stability is positively related to employee commitment, and that group-level leader-member exchange and individual self-efficacy moderate this relationship. The study thus contributes to the literature by enabling a better understanding of how cultural change affects employee-related effectiveness factors and by illuminating important contextual factors at the group and the individual level. Study 4 introduced a new theoretical perspective (set theory) and a novel methodology (fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis) to the field of organizational culture. Across two samples (1170 employees in a financial service provider and 998 employees in fashion retailer), results indicated that culture dimensions do not operate in isolation, but jointly work together in achieving different effectiveness outcomes. The study offers new theoretical and methodological impulses for investigating the culture-effectiveness link. In sum, this dissertation contributes to the literature by providing novel insights that can help researchers to analyze the relationship between organizational culture and effectiveness in a manner that acknowledges both the complexities of organizational reality and of organizational culture´s theoretical roots. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and promising directions for future research are identified.

Widerständigkeit gegenüber der Schule - Eine strukturanalytische Perspektive auf die Lernenden in der TV-Serie The Wire (2017)

Becher, Eleonora

Regionale Energiewende als sozial-ökologische Transformation: Der Einfluss gesellschaftlicher Natur- und Geschlechterverhältnisse auf die Wissensgenerierung und den Wissensbestand im ´Reallabor´ Energieavantgarde Anhalt (2017)

Härtel, Annika

Closing Loops in the Circular Economy - A Make or Buy Analysis for the Smartphone Industry (2017)

Revellio, Ferdinand Paul

Smartphones make intensive use of precious metals and so called conflict minerals in order to reach their high performance in a compact size. In recent times, sustainability challenges related to production, use and disposal of smartphones are increasingly a topic of public debate. Thus, established industry actors and newly emerging firms are driven to engage in more sustainable practices, such as sustainable sourcing of materials, maintenance services or take-back schemes for discarded mobile phones. Many of these latter efforts can be related to the concept of a circular economy (CE). This thesis explores how CE-related value creation architectures (VCAs) in the smartphone industry contribute to slowing and closing resource loops in a CE. In order to analyze these new industry arrangements, transaction cost theory (TCT) is used as a guiding theory for a make-or-buy analysis. Combining TCT with the concept of a CE is a novel research approach that enables the empirical analysis of relationships between focal actors (e.g. manufacturers) and newly emerging loop operators (e.g. recycling firms) in the smartphone industry. Case studies of such VCAs are conducted with case companies drawn from the Innovation Network on Sustainable Smartphones (INaS) at Leuphana Universtity of Lüneburg and analyzed regarding their involved actors, partnerships, circular activities, motivation and perceived barriers. Evidence from the conducted case studies suggests that asset specificity for circular practices increases for higher order CE-loops such as maintenance or reuse, therefore long-term partnerships between focal actors and loop operators or vertical integration of CE practices are beneficial strategies to reach a sophisticated CE. Similarly, circular practices that go beyond recycling require a strong motivation, either through integration in the focal firm´s quality commitment or through business model recognition. It is further suggested that the circular design of products and services could reduce necessary transaction costs and thus overall costs of a circular economy. Four different integration strategies for circular economy practices have been derived from the conducted case studies. These are: 1) vertically integrated loops, 2) cooperative loop-networks, 3) outsourcing to loop operators and 4) independent loop operators. This work thus provides evidence that circular economy activities do not necessarily have to be managed by focal actors in the value chain. Rather, circular practices can also be put forward by specialized loop operators or even independent actors such as repair shops.

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