Search results

Obwohl die Hotellerie und Gastronomie einen bedeutenden Wirtschaftszweig darstellt, gibt es in der bisheringen Bundesrepublik Deutschland auf universitärer Ebene keine Einrichtung, die sich speziell mit den Problemen des Gastgewerbes auseinandersetzt. Eine intensivere Beschäftigung mit dem Hotel‐ und Gaststättenwesen erscheint gerade im Rahmen des Studienganges Ökotrophologie (Haushalts‐ und Ernährungswissenschaft) angebracht. Diese noch relativ junge interdisziplinäre Fachrichtung — sie wurde in den sechziger Jahren in das Leben gerufen — widmet sich vor allem hauswirtschaftlichen Betrieben, und zwar sowohl was die sozial‐ökonomische Seite als auch was die ernährungsphysiologische, produktionstechnische Seite anbelangt. Das Fach Ökotrophologie wird in Deutschland an den Universitäten Bonn, Giessen, Kiel sowie an der Technischen Universität München in Weihenstephan gelehrt. Teilweise können sich die Studenten weitgehend auf den sozialökonomischen beziehungsweise den ernährungsphysiologischen, produktionstechnischen Teil spezialisieren. Andernorts wird besonderer Wert auf eine breit angelegte, beide Hauptgegenstandsgebiete umfassende Ausbildung gelegt wie insbesondere in München‐Weihenstephan. Eine völlige Trennung erfolgt an der Universität Stuttgart‐Hohenheim, wo entweder Haushaltswissenschaft oder Ernährungswissenschaft studiert werden kann.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the entrepreneurial and policy consequences of the structural changes associated with postindustrialization.

The approach uses Schumpeterian and institutional theories to predict the consequences of postindustrialization on four types of innovative markets: global mass markets; global niche markets; local mass markets and local niche markets.

The paper makes two key predictions. First, global mass markets will account for most cost-cutting process innovations. Second, niche markets, whether global or local, will provide the bulk of product innovations. Opportunities for product innovations in niche markets multiply both as the result of a more complex economy and as the result of heterogeneous preferences of consumers with divergent learning trajectories.

The key implication of the theoretical pattern prediction of this paper is that there are increasing opportunities for entrepreneurs to introduce novelties that cater to niche demands, and this includes new lifestyle communities. The increasing diversity of values and preferences implies that one-size-fit-all policies are becoming increasingly inimical to the entrepreneurial discovery of higher-valued resource uses.

This paper takes a standard prediction of entrepreneurial theories – that innovations become more common with an increase in economy-wide product complexity – and extends this to increasing complexity on the consumption side. With increases in opportunities for learning, consumers diverge and develop disparate lifestyles. The resultant super-diversity, which multiplies consumption niches to a much greater extent than what ethnicity-based diversity indices would imply, makes it more difficult to achieve consensus about the desirability of public policies.

Nested within institutional theory and the political economy perspective, this study aims to examine Chinese outward foreign direct investments (OFDI)-supporting organizations and fostering mechanisms for its SMEs in Europe’s largest economy, Germany.

The authors conduct a multiple-case study to present rich insights from elite interviews with representatives of Chinese and German governmental organizations, intermediary parties and specialized OFDI consultants. In addition, the authors analyze secondary data such as presentations, websites, brochures, social media and recent Chinese OFDI policies for SMEs. The findings are triangulated by interviewing business owners and senior executives of seven Chinese SMEs that have invested in Germany.

Cooperating with Germany’s federal government, China’s ministries implemented an effective OFDI support network in Germany, which connects and benefits both economies. This includes Chinese governmental organizations, privately-held national champions, German–Chinese business associations and linked intermediary parties. These organizations support SMEs through four main mechanisms: networking and information, mutually beneficial knowledge transfer between innovation partners, lobbying for potential cooperation and an objective picture of Chinese OFDI and facilitating investment services.

This study advances OFDI theory and contributes to the growing discussion on the internationalization of Chinese SMEs by shedding light on China’s OFDI support organizations and mechanisms in the German market. The study also offers practical contributions. Understanding better how governments can spur internationalization is vital, as it determines the effectiveness of policymaking and fosters international mutual understanding, cultural exchange and firm growth and innovation (Ahlstrom, 2010), and hence ultimately contributes positively to society. Moreover, knowing the specific OFDI support organizations and measures China is currently adopting can serve as a helpful orientation for Chinese entrepreneurs who plan to invest in Germany.

Energy scenarios have long been successfully used to inform decision-making in energy systems planning, with a wide range of different methodological approaches for developing and evaluating them. The purpose of this study is to analyze the existing approaches and classify them with a morphological box.

This paper builds upon the methodological literature on developing and evaluating energy scenarios and presents a morphological box, which comprises parameters describing the scenario properties, (energy system) model properties, scientific practice and institutional settings of energy scenarios. The newly developed morphological box is applied to four selected energy scenarios of the German energy transition.

The morphological box is a suitable tool to classify current energy scenarios. The exemplary application also points toward four challenges in the current practice of energy scenario development and evaluation: increasing complexity of decision problems, transparency of the scenario development process, transparency of the decision support process and communication of uncertainty.

The morphological box of energy scenarios helps researchers soundly document and present their methodological approaches for energy scenario development and evaluation. It also facilitates the work of analysts who want to classify, interpret and compare energy scenarios from a methodological perspective. Finally, it supports the identification of gaps between current practice and the methodological literature on energy scenarios, leading to the development of new types of energy scenarios.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the arousal of negative consumer emotions as a consequence of fast food consumption among individuals with restrained food consumption. Furthermore, a moderating effect of socio-cultural pressure to buffer these relationships is positioned for the first time.

The field study is completed with data collected through an online survey among 353 customers by employing a random sampling technique. The collected data are analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis procedures.

The hypotheses related to the effects of fast food consumption on body image guilt and shame, body image guilt on planning diet and shame, moderator role of socio-cultural, in terms of shame, are accepted.

A key limitation is data collected from individuals with restrained food consumption in Turkey which limits the generalizability of results to other countries and contexts.

The results call for paying attention to socio-cultural pressures that enhance shame.

The primary contribution of this paper lies in the fact that fast food consumption is scantly related to the arousal of negative consumer emotions. Furthermore, moderating effects of social pressures and Turkish context are also unique to this study.