Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften

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http://hdl.handle.net/2003/39261

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The Transformation of Non-traditional higher education in Switzerland: individual and institutional ambidexterity in research and teaching
(2024) Baumann, Sheron; Leišytė, Liudvika; Wilkesmann, Uwe
This dissertation explores how former vocational education institutions have achieved and are managing organizational ambidexterity during their transformation into higher education institutions with publicly mandated teaching and research missions. Focusing on universities of applied sciences and universities of teacher education in Switzerland, it examines how these institutions balance the demands of research and teaching in a binary higher education system. The research contributes to the field of higher education research by applying the concept of organizational ambidexterity, typically used in business, to non-traditional universities, and by linking it to Humboldtian and post-Humboldtian configurations of research and teaching. The dissertation consists of three empirical studies, each contributing insights into the research-teaching balance within these institutions. The first study analyzes the structural conditions for research and the research competence of lecturers, finding that the degree of integration of research and teaching at the individual level remains unclear. The second study uses cluster analysis to identify distinct research profiles among lecturers, revealing significant differences in research activity. The third study addresses lecturer-related challenges in adapting to a dual teaching-research mission and describes solutions implemented by HEIs. The findings provide empirical evidence of a shift toward post-Humboldtian configurations of research and teaching in Swiss higher education institutions. The research highlights the complexities of managing organizational ambidexterity in a non-traditional higher education sector and contributes to understanding how these institutions balance professional and academic missions. Limitations of the study include data collection methods and the country-specific sample, with future research suggested in less-studied fields like social work and the arts, and the role of the third mission in sustaining ambidexterity.
Bioökonomie-Start-up Puls 2024
(2024) Strese, Steffen; Flatten, Tessa; Kindermann, Bastian; Lentzen, Lena; Hame, Daniel
Bioökonomie-Start-up Puls 2023
(2023) Strese, Steffen; Flatten, Teresa; Kindermann, Bastian; Lentzen, Lena; Hame, Daniel
The importance of an ethical framework for trust calibration in AI
(2023-09-29) Schmid, Amelie; Wiesche, Manuel
The transformative power of AI raises serious concerns about ethical issues within organizations and implicates the need for trust. To cope with that, numerous ethical frameworks are generally published, but only on a theoretical level. Furthermore, proper trust calibration in AI is of high relevance for the workers. Up to now, only limited studies have been carried out to investigate how an ethical framework can foster proper trust calibration of workers in practice. To close this gap, an ethical framework is investigated that ensures trust calibration by targeting AI reliability and AI safety. Finally, the effectiveness of the applied framework is evaluated based on 17 interviews within an international automotive supplier. As a result, this ethical framework led to a major increase in trust. This is a groundbreaking outcome since workers are willing to accept a lower level of AI safety and AI reliability at the same time.
International trade in the European Union
(2024) Kaliske, Maren; Hellmanzik, Christiane; Wrona, Jens
The European Union stands as a remarkable example of regional economic and political integration, fostering trade relationships among its member states through committing to joint laws and policies. Despite all the EU’s successes, it faces constant challenges. This thesis combines three chapters and reflects upon various dimensions of international trade within the EU. By applying theory consistent structural gravity estimations this thesis sheds light on the influence of converging and diverging political preferences, environmental policies, and infrastructure investments on trade flows at both country and regional levels. The first chapter of this thesis examines the interdependence of the political and economic integration process by raising the question of how changes in the similarity in political preferences affect intra-EU trade integration. The findings of this chapter suggest that member states converging to the EU’s political mainstream experience a reduction in domestic trade and an increase in trade with other EU member states. Building on the results of chapter one, the second chapter delves into the question of whether differences in environmental policy preferences within the EU have given rise to “pollution havens”. This chapter provides evidence for binding multilateral environmental agreements successfully eliminating comparative advantages for emission-intensive industries. The third chapter of this thesis shifts the focus of revealed policy preferences to the effect of cohesion policy in the form of infrastructure investment. The results of this chapter reveal that improved infrastructure helps facilitate trade and promotes economic linkages of NUTS-2 regions thereby reducing persistent trade costs in the EU Single Market. The three chapters of this thesis thereby deepen the understanding of factors determining and promoting trade integration in the EU Single Market.
Essays on platform work: freelancers on digital labor platforms
(2023) Gussek, Lisa; Wiesche, Manuel; Strese, Steffen
More and more people are working independently as online freelancers on digital labor platforms and the number of different projects mediated and coordinated on these online markets is increasing. We argue that the current understanding of platform work is incomplete. A mixed-method research strategy was used in this thesis. First, we collected and linked previous research findings to capture the status quo and derive avenues for future research. Based on this, we conducted four qualitative and quantitative empirical studies. First, we combined a latent-dirichlet allocation analysis of almost 3,000 forum posts from IT freelancers with an additional qualitative analysis. This was followed by two qualitative exploratory analyses using a total of 35 interviews with freelancers and clients on digital labor platforms and secondary data in the form of the personal online profiles and archival documents downloaded from the platforms. Finally, we analyzed a dataset of about 7,000 IT freelancer profiles using a negative binomial regression. Therefore, we develop a framework on digital labor platform research. By synthesizing findings from the literature, we develop a classification of forms of platform work and identify research gaps. Second, we synthesize and extend the challenges and identify discussion topics of online IT freelancers. We also illustrate specifics of IT freelancing. Third, we systematize the advancement, decline, and exit dynamics within a career model of online freelancing. We also define four underlying factors that alter freelancers' relationship with the platform. The probability of exit and the dependence and benefit of the platform change over time. Fourth, we illustrate the positive relationship between the use of signals and the success of IT freelancers. We develop a new signaling typology on digital labor platforms that includes three types of signals: activating, pointing, and supporting signals. Finally, we identify concrete IT-specific success factors. This work makes several contributions to theory and practice. We contribute to research on digital platforms by characterizing the forms of platform work, structuring and add-ing new aspects to the challenges of online freelancing, identifying success factors, and devel-oping a long-term and dynamic freelance career model. We also contribute to the platform literature that addresses specific platform mechanisms by explaining lock-in effects and switching costs related to platform power. We also contribute to the career literature by illustrating that the careers of online freelancers do not fit traditional career theories or perceptions of bounda-ryless or protean careers. We contribute to signaling theory by proposing a typology of signals and analyzing the signaling environment as an under-researched aspect. Moreover, we provide empirical evidence on the specifics of IT work on digital labor platforms. We also contribute to research dealing with skill obsolescence or IT teams. Finally, our results on the platform exit dynamics contribute to research on IT turnover. For practice, our results provide insights for online freelancers, organizations or individuals as clients and the platform owners.
Digital gravity? Firm birth and relocation patterns of young digital firms in Germany
(2022-09-23) Hellwig, Vanessa
This paper analyses the spatial patterns of young (<10 years) digital firms in Germany between 2008 and 2017 on county level. Determinants of firm birth locations as well as relocations are considered jointly to understand differences in location choices within firms' life cycles. I match commercial register data of 107,321 firms with county-level administrative data to capture local characteristics. Using an OLS model with fixed effects, I find that the local knowledge base—that is, universities, research institutes, and colocated incumbents—are significant key determinants of digital firm birth when controlling for a host of local characteristics. My results indicate that for five firms per 1000 inhabitants, there is around one firm birth. Second, using a fixed effects gravity model for the analysis of relocations, I find that the most dominant explanatory factor for firm relocation across specifications is distance, that is, relocation costs. Relocation flows are more than twice as high to neighboring counties relative to other locations which shows that digital firms are not as footloose as their business model may suggest. Jointly, my results reflect economic activity's regional persistence, particularly for new firms. My paper provides evidence for policies targeting homogenous digital clusters based on strong colocation and that digital economic activity is not shifted over long distances, but the regional entrepreneurship capital is crucial for local growth.
User-centered requirements for augmented reality as a cognitive assistant for safety-critical services
(2022-12-19) Bräker, Julia; Osterbrink, Anna; Semmann, Martin; Wiesche, Manuel
Augmented reality (AR) is widely acknowledged to be beneficial for services with exceptionally high requirements regarding knowledge and simultaneous tasks to be performed and are safety-critical. This study explores the user-centered requirements for an AR cognitive assistant in the operations of a large European maritime logistics hub. Specifically, it deals with the safety-critical service process of soil sounding. Based on fourteen think-aloud sessions during service delivery, two expert interviews, and two expert workshops, five core requirements for AR cognitive assistants in soil sounding are derived, namely (1) real-time overlay, (2) variety in displaying information, (3) multi-dimensional tracking, (4) collaboration, and (5) interaction. The study is the first one on the applicability and feasibility of AR in the maritime industry and identifies requirements that impact further research on AR use in safety-critical environments.
Shared leadership and trust: A two study investigation of the relationship, antecedents and boundary conditions on several levels of an organization
(2022) Marschalkowski, Maximilian M.; Rowold, Jens; Hoffjan, Andreas
In this dissertation, the reciprocal relationship between shared leadership and trust on different levels of an organization (top-management to team members) is investigated in two studies. Furthermore, the focus are antecedents and boundary conditions (empowering leadership, vision communication, voice, feedback seeking and perceives team support) that may shape this relationship. We found at the top-management and middle management, by using a multilevel analysis, significant positive associations between organizational trust and empowering leadership, and empowering leadership and shared leadership. In addition, there was a significant positive mediation of empowering leadership for the relationship between organizational trust and shared leadership. At team leader and team member level, by using a structural equation model, we found a significant positive relation of voice on shared leadership and perceived team support on team trust of the team leader. Keywords: Shared leadership, empowering leadership, organizational trust, vision communication, voice, perceived team support, feedback seeking, followership-theory, trickle-down-effect, top-management
Education: optimal choice and efficient policy
(2021-08-11) Richter, Wolfram F.; Schneider, Kerstin
This paper argues that it suffices to assume distortionary wage taxation to prove the efficiency of effective subsidization of education. The paper does not rely on considerations of equity and market failure to justify subsidies. Instead, the optimal subsidy reduces the social cost of distortive wage taxation. The theoretical approach assumes a Mincer-type earnings function, analyzes corner solutions of optimal schooling choice and derives the result of efficient subsidization in a Ramsey-type framework. Second-best policy is confronted with empirical evidence from OECD countries. The majority of countries are shown to subsidize tertiary education in effective terms.
Understanding the effect of market orientation on circular economy practices: the mediating role of closed-loop orientation in German SMEs
(2021-07-21) Schmidt, Corinna Vera Hedwig; Kindermann, Bastian; Behlau, Cassian Felix; Flatten, Tessa Christina
The implementation of circular economy (CE) practices is considered a key driver towards sustainable development of firms. Earlier studies point to the general strategic approach of market orientation as an antecedent to CE practice implementation. Still, insights are limited as the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. Based on a sample of 121 German small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), we empirically examine how the strategic approach of closed-loop orientation mediates the relationship between market orientation and the implementation of three types of CE practices. Using structural equation modelling, we find that while market orientation is positively related to all three types of CE practices, closed-loop orientation mediates these relationships for only two. Our study extends CE literature by suggesting that market orientation is translated into closed-loop orientation to spur CE practice implementation. We also offer a differentiated understanding of CE practice implementation in the context of German SMEs.

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