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The purpose of this paper is twofold: First, it analyzes demand and supply-side factors that influence patient flows to and from Austria. Second, building on the empirical research and existing conceptualizations, the study offers a general extended framework to guide future comparative analysis.

The paper draws on multiple data sources including a literature review, secondary data, website analysis and semi-structured interviews with patients and health providers. Content analysis was carried out to identify common motives for seeking care abroad and providers' orientation towards medical travel.

Outbound medical travel is largely determined by factors of access, affordability and vicinity, while inbound medical travel is predominately driven by a lack of adequate medical infrastructure in source countries and quality, both in terms of medical and service quality. Providers distinguish themselves according to the extent they take part in medical travel.

The findings emerging from a single country case study approach cannot be generalized across settings and contexts, albeit contributing to a better understanding of current medical travel patterns in Europe.

Unlike most recent contributions, this study focuses both on inbound and outbound medical travel in Austria and investigates patient flows for distinctive treatments and drivers. While analysis of the supply-side of medical travel is often limited to tourism studies, this study provides a critical insight into developments in Europe from a health policy perspective, acknowledging that diverse medical travel patterns in Europe coexist.

Austria has not yet established a single national organisation for research management and administration (RMA). Various research related institutions are organised in individual professional networks within their categories of organisational structure – public, private, and industry. Hence, the creation of a joint RMA association is a good aim to target in the near future. The obvious need of a strong networked community of RMAs across disciplines and organisational structures, especially in a setting of a growing global research arena, shall exemplify the development of such an Association of Research Managers and Administrators-Austria (ARMA-T). Furthermore, external factors play an increasingly important role in research development and RMAs. It depends on how their home organisations – universities, industry, and intermediaries – will understand the need for cooperation, platform building, and continuous development and professionalisation. Vision and foresight from several constituents and stakeholders will have to play a starring role as well as supporting the whole community. On top of it, international knowledge exchange helps to create those necessary conversations and networks for such a development.

The 2013 Central European floods were not only one of the most severe natural disasters in Austria in the last decades, but also constituted a landmark in crisis communication. For the first time, social media and online newspapers were important news channels, creating a need for new crisis communication strategies. Based on 20 semi-structured interviews and an analysis of online data, we reconstruct in this chapter the online communication of different stakeholders such as the authorities, rescue organisations and journalists during this emergency situation. The study shows that the use of social media was a weak point in official crisis communication. Through detailed analyses of information flows and the requirements of different stakeholders, the study reveals new challenges and possibilities for crisis communication in the digital age.

This research paper aims to explore asymmetric market efficiency of the 13 Euro countries, i.e. Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain, concerning the period before global financial crisis (GFC), after GFC and period of COVID-19 pandemic.

Multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA) is applied to examine the persistence and anti-persistency. It also discusses the random walk behavior hypothesis of these 13 countries non-stationary time series. Additionally, generalized Hurst exponents are applied to estimate the relative efficiency between short- and long-run horizons and small and large fluctuations.

The current study results suggest that most countries' markets are multifractal and exhibit long-term persistence in the short and long run. Moreover, the results with respect to full sample confirm that Portugal is the most efficient country in short run and Austria is the least efficient country. However, in long run, Austria appeared to be highly efficient, and Slovakia is the least efficient. In the pre-GFC period, Greece is said to be the relatively most efficient market in the short run, whereas Austria is the most efficient market in the long run. In the case of Post-GFC, Netherland and Ireland are the most efficient markets in short and long run, respectively. Lastly, COVID-19 results indicate that Finland's stock market is the most efficient in short run. Whereas, in the long run, the high efficiency is illustrated by Germany. In contrast, the most affected stock market due to COVID-19 is Belgium.

This study will add value to the present knowledge on efficient market hypothesis (EMH) with the MF-DFA approach. Also, with the MF-DFA approach, potential investors will be capable of ranking the stock markets of Eurozone countries based on their efficiency in the period before and after GFC and then specifically in the period of COVID-19.

本研究旨在探討13個歐元區國家在環球金融危機前後, 以及2019新型冠狀病毒病肆虐時期之不對稱市場效率; 這13個國家包括: 奧地利、比利時、芬蘭、法國、德國、希臘、愛爾蘭、義大利、荷蘭、葡萄牙、斯洛伐克、斯洛維尼亞和西班牙。

研究人員使用多重分形去趨勢波動分析法、來探討持續性與反持續性。這分析法也用來討論正在研究中的13個國家的非平穩時間序列的隨機漫步假說; 而且, 廣義赫斯特指數被用來估算長期/短期投資與大/小波動之間的相對效率。

研究結果間接表明了大部份國家的市場都是多重分形的; 而且, 它們無論以短期抑或以長期來審視觀察, 均能展示持久性。再者, 就整體樣本而言, 研究結果確認了在短期來看, 葡萄牙是效率最高的國家, 而奧地利則效率最低。唯以長期來審視觀察, 奧地利則似乎效率很高, 而效率最低的則是斯洛伐克。在環球金融危機爆發前, 就短期而言, 希臘被認為是相對效率最高的市場, 而長期而言, 效率最高的則是奧地利。至於在環球金融危機爆發後, 就短期而言, 荷蘭是效率最高的市場, 而就長期而言, 效率最高的則是愛爾蘭。最後, 2019新型冠狀病毒病的結果顯示, 就短期而言, 荷蘭的股票市場是效率最高的, 而長期而言, 德國則展示了其高效率性。而受疫情影響最大的股票市場則是比利時。

研究採用了多重分形去趨勢波動分析法、來探討股票市場的效率, 並以此分析法來討論有關國家的非平穩時間序列的隨機漫步假說, 這使我們對效率市場假說有進一步的認識; 就此而言, 本研究為有關的探討增添價值; 而且, 有意投資者在使用多重分形去趨勢波動分析法下, 能夠基於歐元區國家的股票市場在環球金融危機前後, 以及更明確地在2019新型冠狀病毒病肆虐時期的效率, 來把這些股票市場分等級。

環球金融危機、2019新型冠狀病毒病、效率市場假說、多重分形去趨勢波動分析.

This research paper aims to provide information about certified learning apps for biological education and gave an ordered list of all learning apps currently used by Austrian biology teachers in the classroom, which should serve as an overview for all biology teachers. In addition, the (currently little known) certification process of learning apps (seal of quality for educational applications) is described.

Online questionnaire for all biology teachers throughout Austria, on the one hand to find out the apps, and on the other hand to research how Austrian teachers find suitable apps. The data were evaluated using descriptive statistics.

A total of84 different learning apps are currently used by biology teachers in Austria. There are two certified lernapps in Austria, both are used. The most common app in biology lessons is “Anton”. The teachers find the information about apps throughout their own research or through colleagues. There are regional and school-specific differences in regards of usage and knowledge about seal of quality. It needs its own teacher training (TT) via suitable learning apps, because problems (data protection, advertising) are sometimes not taken into account during use.

Limitations of this paper are that some of the teachers indicated the apps from other subjects (mathematics) to use this learning app, although this is not possible for biology lessons. Data protection was stated to the best of the authors’ knowledge by the authors, if the authors were not sure it says “unsure”. The participants are mainly women, but this corresponds to the gender ratio, which is typical of the Austrian teaching profession.

The overview of the apps, compiled by this Austria-wide research, can be taken over into the biology lessons of all teachers. In addition, on the basis of this study, a TT at the University of Education 2023 in Linz was created. In addition, the (currently little known) certification process of learning apps is described.

The TT and the overview of the learning apps used serve as guidelines for teachers as to which apps they can use in biology lessons without hesitation. Above all, the aspect of the follow-up of digital media/apps will be emphasized. Data backup, inappropriate advertising must be processed in class or completely omitted. Biology teachers need the right training (TT) and appropriate materials and tools (apps) to reduce problems (cybercrimes).

Currently, there is no prepared list of suitable (certified and uncertified) learning apps for biology lessons. There are isolated recommendations and individual apps, but the selection criteria and backgrounds of the authors are not clear. This list shows which apps (how often) are used by which teachers. In addition, the (currently little known) certification process of learning apps is described.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual frame for scholars who draws on the conflicting logics of the postpandemic university.

This feature paper is based on a systematic review of research and studies conducted in the field of higher education. It illustrates broader trends with respect to how the various elements of contemporary and conflicting challenges present themselves within higher education institutions (HEIs).

A combination of literature review and fieldwork across a broad range of scientific fields presents a potentially powerful means of reducing the gap between research and practice. For this reason, this paper sets out to provide conceptual perspectives as to contemporary and conflicting challenges in higher education.

This paper presents many descriptive results from HEIs in the western world which do not allow for making global inferences toward the entire higher education sector.

The results have a number of implications for the postpandemic university. Among them are that HEIs should not only be more open toward contemporary changes but also embrace previously excluded student populations with their purpose-driven and sustainable orientation toward life.

This paper presents a conceptual contribution to contemporary challenges in higher education as a way of refraining from one-size-fits-all approaches. It demonstrates how institutional positioning and profiling depend on conflicting logics. Consequently, each institution of higher learning needs to address these challenges in line with their strategic, economic and political settings.

The purpose of this paper is to represent the first empirical attempt to explore global-local consumer identities as drivers of global digital brand usage. Specifically, this study considers a unique category of digital products, social networking sites (SNS), and develops a set of hypotheses to assess the mechanism through which location-based identities influence the actual usage of global SNS (Facebook and Instagram). Moreover, cross-country variations are investigated under the lens of developed vs developing countries.

Cross-country surveys in a developed (Austria) and a developing country (Thailand) were conducted. Data collected from 425 young adults were analyzed using SEM techniques in order to test a set of hypotheses.

Results show that in Thailand, users with a global identity enjoy participating in global SNS more than their counterparts in Austria. In addition, consumers with a local identity in Thailand demonstrate less pleasure when participating in global SNS than their counterparts in Austria, and consequently are less inclined to use global SNS.

Findings provide digital marketers with useful insights into important strategic decisions regarding the selection and potential adaptation of global digital brands according to the country context.

This research is the first to extend the location-based identity research in the context of global digital brands, explain how global-local identities predict SNS usage through an engagement mechanism and investigate cross-country variations of this mechanism.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of inheritance tax behavior with normative value principles and factors found relevant for income tax compliance. Also, it examines the influence of affectedness and earmarking on inheritance tax compliance. Furthermore, it compares two countries similar in tax morale, tax culture as well as dominant normative value principles, Austria and Germany, of which one – Germany – levies inheritance taxes and the other – Austria – is debating its reintroduction.

A two (affected vs nonaffected) by two (Austria vs Germany) by two (inheritance tax vs stock profit tax) by three (no earmarking vs social justice earmarking vs equality of opportunity earmarking) experimental online questionnaire was conducted with 296 Austrians and 230 Germans.

Normative value principles and other socio-psychological variables play an important role concerning inheritance tax behavior. Affectedness does not influence inheritance tax compliance. Earmarking inheritance tax to projects corresponding to these value principles increases inheritance tax compliance in the Austrian sample and could represent a measure to increase inheritance tax compliance in countries implementing inheritance tax or increasing inheritance tax.

This study draws a comprehensive picture of the socio-psychological variables relevant to inheritance tax behavior and tests the effect of earmarking as a policy measure to increase inheritance tax compliance.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a great challenge for older people both in terms of the severity of the disease and the negative consequences of social distancing. Assumptions about negative effects on the lives of the elderly, affecting dimensions of successful aging (such as the preservation of social relationships), have thus far been hypothetical and have lacked empirical evidence. The aim of this paper is to shed empirical light on the effects of COVID-19 on the everyday life of older people against the background of the concept of successful aging.

Data of a standardized, representative telephone survey with residents of Lower Austria, a county of Austria, were used for this secondary analysis. The sample included 521 persons of 60 years of age and older. For this paper, contingency analyses (χ² coefficients, z-tests using Bonferroni correction) and unidimensional correlational analyses were calculated.

The empirical data show that successful aging along the three dimensions of successful aging is a challenge in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic – leaving the elderly caught between two fronts.

The present work focusses on a unique moment in time, describing the changes to the lives of Austrian elderly because of the social distancing measures imposed to protect against the spread of COVID-19. These changes are discussed in the theoretical framework of successful aging.

The present article deals with the topic of migrants’ exclusion from welfare benefits in European host countries from the angle of the research on the so-called “welfare chauvinism” (Andersen and Bjørklund 1990, p. 212). More specifically, it explores the political justifications behind welfare chauvinism in the policy debate surrounding some recent chauvinist-oriented social policies. Drawing on that, the article develops a theoretical argument to generate expectations about how politicians use different types of justifications. The fundamental proposition is that the chauvinistic arguments used are shaped by the different types of social programs, i.e. either universal or means-tested programs.

Qualitative content analysis of several selected parliamentary debates in the period 2017–2019 in Austria is carried out. In order to improve the efficiency of the research, the author relies on MAXQDA, an advanced piece of software for qualitative data analysis, to code the qualitative data and analyze them. The author prefers this to other similar programs as it is considered a valid and reliable tool within the academic research world.

The article points out that programs design works as an explanatory factor to highlight variations of welfare chauvinist arguments.

It develops for the first time a theoretical argument explaining the presence and variation of welfare chauvinist arguments based on social programs design.