Bücher veröffentlicht von Deutscher Universitats-Verlag

Orientiert an den Prozessen der Informationsgewinnung und anhand von Fallbeispielen zeigt Andreas Zeller nicht nur wo, sondern insbesondere wie schwache Signale identifiziert werden können. Erkenntnisse aus Innovations-, Kreativitäts- und Chaosforschung unterstützen die Operationalisierung von Ansoffs "weak signals"-Konzept sowie ein neues Verständnis technologischer Diskontinuitäten.

Auf der Basis der Lenkpreistheorie entwickelt Roland Rollberg eine neuartige anwendungsorientierte Heuristik zum Auffinden moglichst guter Losungen des Planungsproblems unter Sicherheit und Unsicherheit.

Dietmar Schantin beschreibt die Grundlagen der Prozessorganisation, analysiert den Einfluss von Transaktionskosten und wissensökonomischen Aspekten auf die Gestaltung von Unternehmensprozessen und entwickelt ein strukturiertes, an der Marktleistung des Unternehmens orientiertes Vorgehen zur Gestaltung der Geschäftsprozesse und deren Schnittstellen.

'How should finns decide between Partnering and M&A?' In today's globalizing economy company processes look more and more like Lego bricks in a world where company borders, national borders, and industry borders are losing their mean­ ing. Value chains are de constructed and re-assembled, processes are outsourced across the globe, and companies are bought and sold, split and merged at a seemingly ever increasing rate. New organizational relationships emerge and companies are increasingly forced to search for their success outside their existing boundaries. Partnering as well as mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are the typical means to accomplish this. Although every merger, acqui­ sition or partnership is presented to the press and the shareholders with a clear rationale, the logic is not always easy to follow. How do finns decide between Partnering and M&A? And how should finns make this deci­ sion? These two questions are central to this thesis, and although much has been written about both Partnering and M&A, little is written about the choice between these two options for external growth. In this thesis, Hannes Saubert addresses this topic in a very clear and convincing way, build­ ing on an extensive and integrative literature review and an in-depth case study in the tourism industry where he enjoyed excellent access to all the different actors involved in these deci­ sions.

Carmencita Cheung examines the "forced" technology transfer policy China allegedly imposes on foreign investors. She shows that, in addition to changes brought about by China's WTO accession, the concurrence of industry evolution and generational migration plays a key role in shaping technology transfer decisions. The findings also shed light on China's technology policy and its concerted efforts to set technical standards in the global information and communication technology industry.

"Knowing, in order to predict". It was this leitmotiv alone that Auguste Comte, in the 19th century, considered suitable for the then rapidly developing empirical sciences. This view remains unchanged until today¿not only in the empirical sciences themselves, but also in the philosophy of science. A scientific theory is and should be evaluated primarily on the grounds of its capacity to correctly predict observable phenomena. The aim of predicting takes precedence over the other important aim of science, namely to produce and purposefully manipulate phenomena by technical means in the laboratory, moreover, it even includes the latter. For if scientists successfully produce and manipulate certain phenomena in an experiment, they can ipso facto predict how that experiment will evolve under certain conditions. We live in a scientifically-dominated world: The more science progresses, the more important correct scientific predictions become. To a sometimes even fa­ tal extent we have made ourselves dependent on science and its results. Our scientifical-technological interventions into nature, yet also into social processes, cover ever larger spatial and temporal distances, and the consequences are ever more drastic given the increasing effort that would be required to reverse the effects¿if that is possible at all. That is the reason why we ought to be very well informed about the consequences of our actions, in particular those based on science and technology.

Foreword The management consulting industry has grown into a sizeable eco­ nomic sector and employment market in the outgoing 20* century. Globally operating management consulting firms, with thousands of consultants, have emerged. They coexist alongside many small consultancies and single practi­ tioners. As a result, a remarkable diversity in the organizational structure of management consulting firms has developed. Organizational structure is of utmost importance for consultancies as it directly impacts their business and employment models. Yet, little scientific explanation has been offered so far on the factors accounting for the diversity of organizational structure in manage­ ment consulting. Michael Graubner explores this contemporary topic. His research is guided by the contingency theory of organizations, one of the classical organi­ zation theory schools of thought that has been traditionally applied to investi­ gate organizational structure in manufacturing, banking, and the public sector. The author thoroughly reviews the different aspects of contingency theor- contingency factors, constructs of organizational structure, the concept of fit between contingencies and structure, organic vs. bureaucratic theory - and reflects on them in the light of other organization theory schools of thought.

How firms choose among competing instruments of external finance has been widely discussed in the finance literature for decades. However, many important questions raised in this discussion remain unanswered today - in particular with regard to a firm's use of hybrid securities. The core market for these financing instruments, which comprise structures such as convertible debt, mandatory convertibles or exchangeable debt, is the US market, which has been characterized by a sharp increase in issuance volumes during recent years. In his thesis, Mr. Kleidt sets out to answer the question why firms issue hybrid securities. This is not only a remarkable endeavour, because Mr. Kleidt uses US-American data, but in particular because he presents state-of-the-art analyses, which are competitive and meet highest international standards. The thesis on hand carefully identifies and addresses open research questions related to the use of hybrid securities by corporations. Its primary objective was to identify issuance motives for different types of hybrid securities in the US analyzing stock price and accounting data. Thusly objectifying managerial action allows to derive recommendations for financing practice. Another focus of the thesis concerns the use of exchangeable debt, a divestment vehicle commonly employed by German corporations to disentangle the 'Deutschland AG'. Updated empirical evidence provides significant value-added for capital market participants, in particular financial managers, in Germany and Western Europe.

Ulrich Lichtenthaler analyzes the main challenges of externally leveraging technology with a focus on strategy, process, organization, culture and reputation. On this basis he investigates the management and performance of external technology commercialization in more than 150 European firms. He presents a detailed benchmarking analysis and empirically identifies success factors for the management of external technology exploitation.

In today's competitive environment, managers are continuously faced with the need to take decisions. Decision-making is often portrayed as being based on rigorous analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the decision alternatives in a specific situation. However, managers do not always take decisions in isolation. Rather, decisions are embedded in a social and organisational environment that serves as frame of references for decision-making. Norms and behaviours of others in this environment play an important role in decision­ making. In addition, decisions are the result of social processes in today's organisations. Being embedded in social environments, the outcomes of decisions taken in organisations are characterised by systematic similarities that can be interpreted as patterns of decisions. Robert Urlichs provides an empirical examination of these patterns of decisions in organisations and interprets them on the basis of the theoretical and empirical literature on the decision-making behaviour of individuals and organisations. In particular, he differentiates the classical from the behavioural decision-making literature. Whereas the classical perspective is based on the assumptions of perfect rationality, the behavioural perspective replaces these assumptions with the notion of bounded rationality. The author provides an extensive review of the biases and heuristics, and their impact on the outcomes of decisions. He concentrates on the outcomes of decisions and on their interrelations. In contrast, the existing literature on decision-making behaviour focuses largely on the process of individual decisions.

Jan Wieseke entwickelt ein Erfolgsfaktorenmodell zur Implementierung innovativer Dienstleistungsmarken. Mit Hilfe einer großangelegten Mehrebenenuntersuchung erfolgt dessen empirische Überprüfung am Beispiel einer realen Markenimplementierung. Die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse werden anschließend in konkrete Handlungsempfehlungen für die Unternehmenspraxis übersetzt; so wird u.a. eine umfassende Implementierungsscorecard entworfen.

Claas Christian Germelmann untersucht in zwei empirischen Studien, wie die Einkaufszentrengestaltung auf das wahrgenommene bzw. erinnerte Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis von Einkaufszentren wirkt.

Georg Volk zeigt, dass Vorgesetzte durch fundierte Unterstützung bei der Aufgabenerledigung, konstruktives Feedback sowie entsprechende Wertschätzung nicht nur für gute Leistungen ihrer Mitarbeiter sorgen können, sondern dadurch auch das Betriebsklima verbessern, der negativen Kommunikation den Nährboden entziehen und Mobbing vorbeugen.

Um die Rekrutierungspraktiken der IT-Unternehmen detailliert zu durchleuchten, führten Afschin Mechkat und Peter Weise in den Jahren 2000 und 2001 eine schriftliche Befragung von IT-Unternehmen durch. Erfasst wurde der Zeitraum von 1998 bis 2001, die eigentliche Boom-Phase der IT-Branche.

Wieland Achenbach arbeitet die Bedeutung der Führungs- und Fachkräfte für die Unternehmensentwicklung heraus und konzipiert unter Verwendung arbeitsmarkttheoretischer und neoinstitutionalistischer Ansätzen das Personalmanagement als Beschaffungsproblem auf dem Arbeitsmarkt. Er entwickelt Gestaltungsvorschläge für ein Personalmanagement dieser Berufsgruppen, das unternehmens- und personalstrategische Überlegungen integriert.

Markus Junginger erarbeitet ein Risikomanagementkonzept für das Informationsmanagement (IM), das Möglichkeiten aufzeigt, informationssysteminduzierte Risiken umfassend zu bewältigen. Aufbauend auf grundlegenden Überlegungen zum Wertbeitrag des IM identifiziert er in einem lebenszyklusorientierten Modell Risiken, die diesen Wert gefährden können. Die Verknüpfung von IT-Werttreibern und IT-Risikotreibern erlaubt eine sinnvolle Risikobewertung und -steuerung unter ökonomischen Gesichtspunkten. Besonderen Wert legt der Autor auf die Berücksichtigung der Anforderungen externer Rahmenbedingungen zum Risikomanagement, die aus dem Deutschen Corporate Governance Kodex, dem Sarbanes-Oxley-Act und Basel II resultieren.