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The study aims to demonstrate how different arrangements and characteristics of institutions can generate or mitigate uncertainty thereby facilitating or hampering the possibilities of entrepreneurial action.

This is a conceptual paper that advances the theoretical understanding of the relationship between entrepreneurial uncertainty and the different institutional levels, their characteristics and their interplay.

Entrepreneurial uncertainty also comes from the institutional environment and this has direct impact on the propensity to take action. The characteristics of the different institutional levels, in specific, their quality, stability, alignment and the burden imposed by L2 impact in the emergence of entrepreneurial uncertainty.

This is a conceptual paper that makes a number of theoretical suggestions which need to be further analyzed by empirical work.

The findings suggest that different institutional levels need to be dealt with differently by research studies and institutional agents, including policy makers. Among others, the findings also suggest that stability is key to entrepreneurship and that the benefits of high quality regulation can be undermined by its excessive burden, reducing entrepreneurial action and harming development.

Institutional actors should provide stability and allow for the improvement of the environment overall. Specifically, policy makers should aim at good quality regulation that is valid across the board, that provides stability and gives room for improvement of the institutions. Policy makers should refrain from trying to foster specific industries; they should instead provide a leveled playing field without trying to direct the entrepreneurial efforts towards an industry or geographic region and without being overly demeaning.

This research breaks new ground. It unites ideas from entrepreneurship and institutions suggesting a novel, much more nuanced approach to their interplay. The results can be used by scholars in the fields of entrepreneurship, institutions and economic development. They also have the potential to help to educate policy makers in their quest to improve the context for entrepreneurs.

The purpose of this paper is to qualitatively analyze and compare people’s objectives when participating in two sets of co-creation initiatives – business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) – to what the theory in the field states about that participation.

A qualitative approach has been adopted; it uses laddering, a qualitative technique, in a novel manner through the analysis of an abstract product: the co-creation process.

Results in B2C point to a disconnection between the motivation of participants and what the theory suggests that should be expected from a co-creation agenda. In the B2B setting, the disconnections are much smaller.

The research used small and narrow samples. Additionally, the research considers only the consumers’ perspective.

Considering the context in which they compete (industrial or consumer market), companies must come up with better selection criteria for co-creators and must be more specific in setting and pursuing the goals of the co-creation projects. By doing so, organizations can achieve more fruitful results in those innovation initiatives.

The present study is innovative in the use of laddering to understand not a product nor a service, but a process: co-creation. The study reveals that, despite the buzz about co-creation, practical examples suggest that this process may not be as fruitful or satisfying as the theories suggest.

The type of flooring in stalls is an important factor that shapes consumers' overall perception of animal husbandry. Although slatted and straw floors have benefits and drawbacks, consumers strongly prefer slatted over straw floors in pig husbandry. The present study investigates whether information provision can depolarise consumers' implicit and explicit attitudes towards both floor types to enable a more realistic evaluation of pig husbandry systems. Furthermore, this study examines the effectiveness of information depending on different frames and consumers' personality traits.

An experimental laboratory study with 185 German consumers was conducted to investigate the effect of information on implicit and explicit attitudes towards different flooring types. Participants received information on straw and slatted floors in a cognitive or affective frame or about a control topic. Furthermore, it was analysed whether certain consumer groups respond differently to the cognitive or affective frame.

The results demonstrated that information provision is a successful tool for depolarising consumers' implicit and explicit attitudes regarding straw and slatted floors. Although consumers continued to prefer straw floors after receiving information, the magnitude of this preference considerably decreased. Mediation analysis illustrated that implicit and explicit attitudes are highly interconnected. The study found no evidence that the personality traits of consumers moderated the effectiveness of the cognitive or affective frame.

The study proposes that information provision can be a potential avenue for increasing the societal acceptance of conventional methods in pig husbandry and provides recommendations for communicating conditions related to animal husbandry. Furthermore, through the inclusion of an implicit measure, this study overcomes biases of other studies in an agricultural context which usually rely only on explicit measures.

The wide divergence of the people’s expectations and agricultural reality results in conflicts between the agricultural sector and the general public. Contemporary animal husbandry systems are being increasingly critically addressed by media; however, there is no information about peoples’ perceptions and attitudes concentrating precisely on specific animal husbandry systems. The purpose of this paper is to explore citizens’ perceptions, expectations and main points of criticism in regard to intensive pig production in Germany, and to identify and describe distinct population groups reflecting different attitudes.

A mixed method approach combining qualitative focus groups with a quantitative online survey has been employed. Focus groups capture a wide variety of opinions and concerns in an exploratory manner. Based on these findings, the quantitative survey (n=1,500 citizens) allowed the identification and characterisation of population groups with identical attitudes regarding pig husbandry.

Qualitative research uncovered a huge range of criticism on pig husbandry, e.g. lack of space, frequency and prophylactic use of medications as well as a lack of care. A relationship was seen between the lack of space, widespread use of medications and behavioural disorders. Consumer preferences for buying cheap meat were believed to be part of the problem since this behaviour fosters the development of larger farms. Quantitative research confirmed the generally critical perception and identified three population groups. Only one third of the population was really concerned about animal husbandry. Younger people and people with better knowledge of agriculture were stronger opponents of intensive pig husbandry.

Results indicate that increasing people’s knowledge may have an adverse effect on their acceptance of modern farming systems. More communication and better information strategies will probably not improve societal acceptance by itself. Instead, agricultural production systems need to be improved to meet better consumers’ expectations whereas communicating these improvements to consumers and the general public in a well-targeted manner will be required as well.

When considering options for enhancing public acceptance of modern animal husbandry, a combination of different strategies by different stakeholders is needed. The agricultural sector should improve its communication with the general public and rethink its production practices against the background of public expectations. The government and its agencies urgently need to improve monitoring of the compliance of actual production practices with existing laws and to enforce them. Additionally, adjustments of current regulations of animal husbandry in light of public expectations should be considered.

The New Basel Capital Accord (Basel II) was published in June 2004. This modification of the regulatory framework for banking institutions raises the question to what extent real estate financing will be impacted and how market participants can be adequately prepared. Aims to examine the impact of Basel II on the future pricing and availability of debt capital and on the cost of capital in real estate financing and to present possible reactions for real estate developers.

This research paper follows a deductive approach. First, the New Basel Capital Accord and the main features of commercial real estate financing are presented. On a normative level, the implications for developers are explained. Since no information regarding the behaviour of market participants in commercial real estate financing was available, the authors have ascertained the relevant questions within the framework of an empirical analysis. A total of 205 banking institutions were asked to fill out a survey pertaining to commercial real estate financing. The results of this survey are partly presented and interpreted.

The availability and the pricing of debt capital will be risk‐adjusted and will depend on the amount of regulatory equity banks will have to hold in reserve for a credit engagement. The cost of debt capital in real estate financing will rise due to systemic reasons of the New Basel Capital Accord. Banks are/will be very restrictive with regard to credit allowances. The use of the positive leverage effect will become more difficult. Structured financing, particularly the use of private equity, is the best way to fill a potential financing gap.

The paper is a timely investigation of a significant regulatory framework that is of world‐wide significance. The New Basel Capital Accord is introduced in its fundamental structure and the two relevant rating approaches are described and put into context. The paper reduces the complexity of the comprehensive and sophisticated Basel Capital Accord. Based on the facts that have been analysed, recommendations of how real estate developers can react to the changes in financing that lie ahead are given.

The use of multi-level labels can enhance product visibility by enabling labeling of various items. Moreover, it can better accommodate the diversity on both the producer and consumer sides. However, studies on the willingness to pay (WTP) for premium levels of those animal welfare labels are scarce.

We investigate consumers’ WTP for a four-level animal husbandry label introduced to the market by German retailers in 2019 by conducting an online survey with 1,223 German meat consumers using Van Westendorp’s price sensitivity meter (PSM).

There is a significant increase in WTP for level 3 of the husbandry label, but only a slight increase for level 4. One explanation is that consumers may have the mistaken belief that level 3 already includes outdoor access for animals. As a result of this expectation, consumers may not perceive much added value in level 4, which is reflected in their reluctance to pay a higher price. This is reinforced by the finding that once informed of the criteria, 18% of the participants reduced their WTP for level 3, whereas only 6% considered a discount for level 4. Furthermore, 40% were prepared to pay more for level 4 after being informed of the respective criteria than they had previously stated.

To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to analyze and emphasize the importance of clear label communication, particularly for multi-level animal husbandry labels.

In this study, a novel glutathione (GSH) surface molecular imprinting polymer (SMIP) was successfully prepared by using macroporous adsorption resins (MAR) as substrate, which could separate and purify GSH efficiently.

SMIP was synthesized by chloromethylated modified MAR (LX1180-Cl) as the substrate, N, N’-methylenebisacrylamide (NMBA) as a crosslinker, GSH as a template, acrylamide (AM) and N-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP) as functional monomers. The morphology and structure of the polymer were characterized by scanning electron microscope and Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy.

The maximum adsorption capacity toward GSH was 39.0 mg/g and the separation decree had relation to L-cysteine (L-cys) was 4.2. The optimal operation conditions were studied in detail and the got as follows: the molar ratios of NMBA, AM, GSH and NVP, were 7.0, 0.8 and 0.5. The optimal time and temperature were 14 h and 40°C, respectively. The Langmuir and pseudo-first-order model were fitting these adsorption characteristics well.

GSH has a diversity of medicinal and bioactive functions, so the purpose of this study representing a method in separate and purify technology of GSH, which provided a way for the development of medicine.

This contribution provided a novel way to separate GSH from L-cys. Under the optimal conditions, the maximum adsorption capacity toward GSH was 39.0 mg/g and the separation decree had relation to L-cys was 4.2.

The outstanding reform of the Common Agriculture Policy allows for changes regarding its most criticized component, the direct payment scheme. The purpose of this paper is to investigate farmers’ acceptance of subsidized whole farm income insurance (WFI) and single-crop, multi-peril revenue insurance (RI) that are associated with a reduction of direct payments.

By applying a generalized multinomial logit model on data of a discrete choice experiment, German farmers’ preferences, expressed as their willingness to pay (WTP), for WFI and RI are revealed.

The results show a positive WTP for WFI and RI. The average farmer has a higher WTP for WFI than for RI. By increasing the coverage level, the negative influence of a reduction of direct payments on WTP for insurance can be compensated. Individual risk attitude and assessed importance of direct payments for the farm business show a statistically significant influence on the WTP.

The results suggest that, even if direct payments were abolished in order to subsidize WFI or RI, German farmers’ WTP for both insurance products would remain positive. However, to finally assess whether subsidizing insurance is the right means of providing public support, it is necessary to assess whether farmers’ WTP meets the costs for such an insurance scheme.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study investigating German farmers’ WTP for WFI and RI using an experimental approach by explicitly considering the partial to complete replacement of direct payments by subsidized insurance.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel maturity model for health-care cloud security (M²HCS), which focuses on assessing cyber security in cloud-based health-care environments by incorporating the sub-domains of health-care cyber security practices and introducing health-care-specific cyber security metrics. This study aims to expand the domain of health-care cyber security maturity model by including cloud-specific aspects than is usually seen in the literature.

The intended use of the proposed model was demonstrated using the evaluation method – “construct validity test” as the paper’s aim was to assess the final model and the output of the valuation. The study involved a literature-based case study of a national health-care foundation trust with an overall view because the model is assessed for the entire organisation. The data were complemented by examination of hospitals’ cyber security internal processes through web-accessible documents, and identified relevant literature.

The paper provides awareness about how organisational-related challenges have been identified as a main inhibiting factor for the adoption of cloud computing in health care. Regardless of the remunerations of cloud computing, its security maturity and levels of adoption varies, especially in health care. Maturity models provide a structure towards improving an organisation’s capabilities. It suggests that although several cyber security maturity models and standards resolving specific threats exist, there is a lack of maturity models for cloud-based health-care security.

Due to the selected research method, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, future research studies can investigate the propositions further. Another is that the current thresholds were determined empirically, although it worked for the case study assessment. However, to establish more realistic threshold levels, there is a need for more validation of the model using more case studies.

The paper includes maturity model for the assessment management and improvement of the security posture of a health-care organisation actively using cloud. For executives, it provides a detailed security assessment of the eHealth cloud to aid in decision making. For security experts, its quantitative metrics support proactive and reactive processes.

The paper fulfils a recognised requirement for security maturity model focussed on health-care cloud. It could be extended to resolve evolving cyber settings.