Search results

This paper analyses how the employment histories of cohorts born after World War II in Germany have changed. A specific focus is on the role of atypical employment in this context.

This paper uses data from the adult cohort of the National Educational Panel Study and presents descriptive evidence on employment patterns for different cohorts. In addition, a sequence analysis of employment trajectories illustrates key aspects related to the opportunities and risks of atypical employment.

Younger cohorts are characterised by acquiring more education, by entering into employment at a higher age and by experiencing atypical employment more often. The latter is associated with much higher employment of women for younger cohorts. The sequence analysis reveals that the proportion of individuals whose entry into the labour market is almost exclusively characterised by atypical employment rises significantly across the cohorts. Moreover, a substantial part of the increase in atypical employment is due to the increased participation of women, with part-time jobs or mini-jobs playing an important role in re-entering the labour market after career breaks.

The most important contribution of this article to the existing literature lies in the life course perspective taken for different birth cohorts. The findings are of great interest to the general debate about the success of the German labour market in recent decades and its implications for individual labour-market histories, but also about rising income inequality at about the same time.

China’s economy is transforming at a brisk pace. A partially dismantled command economy and introduction of competition have fueled consumer demand for a greater selection of innovative new products in the retail market. The challenge for retail buyers is to adjust their procurement processes to respond to consumer needs in an efficient and effective manner. This study examines factors influencing buyer‐supplier relationships in a transition economy. We present a model to explain the factors driving retail buyer dependence on suppliers. We find that retailer evaluation of supplier credibility mediates the relationship between retailer perceptions of a supplier ability to add value to its business and the ability to achieve its desired goals. In part, this is due to the supplier’s market orientation. Interestingly, guanxi ties have no impact on the retailer perceptions of the supplier credibility, but have a positive affect on retailer dependence on its supplier partners.

This paper specifically seeks to explore the contribution of extended TCE‐reasoning to our understanding of intended change in management control in interfirm transactional relationships.

The approach is theoretical of nature. After having outlined the essentials of TCE‐reasoning and having critically reviewed the extant TCE‐contribution to research in management control, this paper extends TCE‐reasoning by incorporating the notion of trust into the analysis. Different sources of trust as well as the management control related impacts of trust are explored.

The paper develops propositions that, in the context of an interfirm transactional relationship, confront choices for alternative management control patterns with situational and institutional features.

The paper particularly covers the overt instrumental level of management control in interfirm transactional relationships. Although the paper covers relational aspects, it does not provide a strong theory of the working of “soft controls”.

An explanation of intended change could help practitioners to improve decision making at the level of their organizations.

The paper contributes to the extant knowledge by exploring the scope of TCE with regard to choices in the (re)design of management control patterns in interfirm transactional relationships.

This chapter presents two examples of misinterpretation of the philosophical term and historical concept of human dignity in contemporary legal theory and practice. Current legal theories (R. Alexy) still introduce Pico’s concept of dignity regarding the human personality and personal (volitional and rational) abilities. The term ‘dignity’ is marginal for Pico and shows the spiritual way to the status of the original Adam. Pico’s concept of dignity is located in the area of spirit (hyperphysics), not metaphysics (soul) or physics (materials). Günter Dürig in his commentary to Grundgesetz also used the Kantian concept of human dignity. Dürig exaggerated this value and used it also for the area of physics (to protect the human being as a personality). For Kant, the term ‘dignity’ was also marginal, and he used it in the area of metaphysics (soul – especially the moral and rational parts), regarding transcendence for homo noumenon, not for homo phaenomenon. In general, it seems to be problematic to use the ideal of the dignity for the law, which regulates the social relations between concrete phenomenal personalities. There are parallels to Pico. The Kantian starting point was different from Pico, because Kant stays in the area of metaphysics (especially the moral and rational parts). Both consider freedom as a condition of dignity. The concept of autonomy of will is significant for both, but each thinks of it in different ways. For both, human being can become master of oneself, but in a different context.

Entrepreneurship is a key factor in the growth of regions, given its impact on innovation and job creation. The relationship between start-up companies and their environment is closely linked to negotiation mechanisms since the formation of trust, the governance structure, and how entrepreneurs protect themselves from adverse situations depend on them. However, no single framework can bring together the bargaining, entrepreneurship, and institutional factors that determine the success or failure of start-ups. The objective of this chapter is to jointly analyze bargaining and entrepreneurship through the theory of economic institutionalism, Transaction Cost Theory, and Cognitive Organization Theory. To this end, an analytical scheme is proposed that brings together these precepts applied theoretically to the Latin American case. The scope is to provide a novel framework of analysis by incorporating essential institutional elements for negotiation, such as contracting, governance, organizational structure, trust, relational risks, and hedging against opportunism.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the process through which ideas are translated across disciplines. It does this by focussing on how the idea that people are corporate assets was translated between the accounting and human resource management (HRM) disciplines.

This paper is based on the interpretation of a historical case study of the travel of ideas between the accounting and HRM disciplines. Translation is used as an analytical lens as opposed to being the object of the study and is theorised drawing on insights from the Scandinavian Institutionalist School, Skopos theory and linguistic translation techniques.

Translation by individual translators involved the translator stepping across disciplinary boundaries. However, translation performed by interdisciplinary teams occurs in the “contact zone” between disciplines. In this zone, both disciplines are, at once, source and target. Ideas are translated by editing and fusing them. In both cases, translation is value laden as the motives of the translators determine the translation techniques used. Legitimacy and gravitas of the translator, as well as contextual opportunities, influence the spread of the idea while disciplinary norms limit its ability to become institutionalised. Also, differential application of the same translation rule leads to heterogeneous outcomes.

This is the first accounting translation study to use the theories of the Scandinavian Institutionalist School or indeed combine these with linguistic translation techniques. It is also the first study in accounting which explores the translation of ideas across disciplines.

Conceptualizing trust alone or as the starting point for understanding both trust and distrust is insufficient. Therefore, this chapter focuses on the construction of phenotypic trustscapes and distrustscapes that permit an abstract exploration of the concepts of trust and distrust using societal and dyadic relationships and perceptions of the individual as the units of analysis. For theoretical understanding of trust and distrust, it uses social and evolutionary biologic multi-level theory. This chapter builds on the existing trust literature in three ways: (1) by triangulating on trust and distrust through the use of a number of research methodologies; (2) by placing trust and distrust in value orientation theory and models; and (3) by extricating trust and distrust from reciprocity constructs, and placing them into separate phenotypes: trustscapes and distrustscapes. These efforts show that both trust and distrust are naturally occurring phenomena, with one or the other predominant in specific contexts. The chapter includes scenarios in Japan, Bulgaria, and Indonesia to demonstrate how micro- and macro-level examples of trustscapes and distrustscapes function.

The emergence of children as a distinct consumer class has led to a stronger influence on the parents and their participation in the family buying process. This paper aims to investigate the different socializing agents of children across different product categories leading to their enhanced pester power.

With the help of a bilingual questionnaire (English and Arabic language), a survey was conducted in Dhofar, Oman. Purposive sampling was used to collect the data from the parents of young children (8-12) years. The collected data was then tabulated in MS Excel and analyzed using SPSS and AMOS 24 Statistical software.

The study found that parents are the strongest consumer socialization agents for young Arab children, followed by friends and internet, and the weakest agent is TV. Arab children use persuasion strategy more often and use aggressive strategy least often to pester their parents.

The study has been very perspicacious in understanding child’s role in the otherwise reserved Arab families. Marketers can make use of this finding and can develop marketing communications with more appropriate content.

The growth of Gulf markets offers marketers a great opportunity to renew their marketing practices and techniques. Still not much has been found in literature to study this region. With this in mind, the current study aimed at analyzing the consumer socialization and influence strategies of the Arab children.