Reprocessing and repairing white and brown goods - the R.U.S.Z case: An independent and non-profit business

Reprocessing of used products is a growing field, with respect to both scientific and practical approaches. In this context, we present an in-depth case study dealing with the reverse logistics processes at Repair- and Service Center R.U.S.Z, an Austrian Work Integration Social Enterprise (WISE) located in Vienna, Austria. The main business segments of R.U.S.Z are reprocessing, repairing, and servicing of (used) products and repair services. The reverse logistics activities include relevant processes like acquisition, testing and grading, and disposition/reprocessing of used goods. Based upon the case study, we present the gained insights and furthermore identify research opportunities. Our main findings are: (1) the reverse logistics activities of this non-profit-organization are equivalent compared with the profit-driven approaches used in literature; (2) the business of R.U.S.Z is not solely profit- or cost-driven but the company is based on the triple bottom line and pursues environmental and social goals, too; (3) in spite of legislation aiming at the reuse of used products, there is lack of collaboration between manufacturers and reprocessors

Auswirkungen des Bundesverfassungsgerichtsurteils zum Sportwettmarkt auf die deutsche Volkswirtschaft

Im vorliegenden Gutachten werden auf Grundlage der Entscheidung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts zum Sportwettenmarkt vom 28. März 2006 vier Szenarien erstellt, in denen beschrieben wird, wie sich der deutsche Sportwettmarkt bis zum Jahr 2010 unter unterschiedlichen gesetzlichen Rahmenbedingungen entwickeln könnte. Dabei wird auf einzelne Marktteilnehmer insbesondere Oddset, ausländische Onlineanbieter, stationäre Wettvermittler und Pferdebuchmacher gesondert eingegangen. Die Szenarien werden als Ansatzpunkt für die Input-Output Analyse genutzt, die herangezogen wird, um die Wertschöpfungs-, Steuer- und Beschäftigungseffekte zu ermitteln, welche mit den jeweiligen Aktivitäten der Branche verbunden sind. - Die Studie wurde im ifo Forschungsbereich Branchenforschung erstellt

Industrienahe Forschungs- und Technologiepolitik der chinesischen Regierung: Studie im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Technologie

Nachdem die chinesische Volkswirtschaft im Verlauf der 1990er Jahre zur Werkbank der Welt” aufgestiegen war, ist angesichts massiv ausgeweiteter F&E Budgets in den letzten Jahren die Frage aufgekommen, inwiefern China in naher Zukunft nicht auch zur Wissensfabrik der Welt aufsteigen könnte. Aber kann China tatsächlich auch zu einem Zentrum der globalen Wissensgenerierung werden? Welche Implikationen würden dadurch für den bislang die globale W&T [Wissenschaft & Technik] Landschaft mit dominierenden Forschungsstandort Deutschland ergeben? Die vorliegende Studie befasst sich vor dem Hintergrund dieses Fragenkomplexes mit den aktuellen Entwicklungen im chinesischen W&T Komplex. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf der industrienahen Forschung. Ziel ist es, die strategische Ausrichtung und Leistungsfähigkeit des chinesischen W&T Systems besser einschätzen zu können, um auf dieser Grundlage dann Schlussfolgerungen für den mit der chinesischen Herausforderung konfrontierten Forschungsstandort Deutschland ziehen zu können

The perspective of customers and repair companies

Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)Using repair services instead of new purchases creates local added value and contributes to a circular economy. The main aim of this research was to characterize repair service convenience for customers and to investigate ways to increase convenience to make repairs more attractive for customers, as the construct service convenience has neither been used nor adapted to a repair context until now. For this purpose, focus group interviews with potential customers of repair companies and interactive workshops with repair companies were conducted in the region of Styria (Austria). Findings state that a variety of factors like lack of information regarding repair services and product repairability, inconvenient store hours, or long waits reduce repair service convenience. However, due to skilled labor shortage, long delivery times of spare parts, or lacking financial resources for advertisements, repair companies can only partially improve convenience. Considering that, interventions from different actors, for example, the local government are needed as they can increase convenience by organizing awareness/information events, repair networks, or central repair-points. Hence, this study highlights once more the necessity to collaborate with different stakeholders (including customers, repair companies, local initiatives, and governments) to successfully transform the linear economy to a circular economy.publishersversionpublishe

Drivers of the consumers’ intention to use repair services, repair networks and to self-repair

Repair is a central component of a circular economy to extend the operational phase of products. Yet, the number of repair service providers as well as demand for repair have declined over the last decades, while more products than ever before were sold. Thus, for a successful transition from a linear to a circular economy the demand for repair services must be boosted to promote repair business. A starting point to achieve this goal is to increase knowledge about the end consumers’ intention whether to repair broken products or not. An extensive literature research revealed a comprehensive set of drivers of the repair intention covering aspects related to environmental protection, social acceptance, and economic considerations as well as socio-demographic variables, past behaviour, and perceived repair difficulty. Those factors are not only relevant for a specific product category but for repairs of consumer goods in general. The aim is to evaluate the relevance of those drivers for three different repair intentions: (1) to make use of repair service providers, (2) to self-repair broken items, and (3) to use repair service providers incorporated in a repair network. A quantitative online survey was designed, and distributed in Styria, Austria. By means of a structural equation model the acquired data of 900 respondents was analysed. The results emphasise the trade-off between acting environmentally-friendly and economic aspects like repair cost and time, but also highlight the effect of government intervention – in the form of setting up a network and financial support for repair – on shaping this trade-off. Furthermore, past behaviour is found to strongly drive repair intention. Our research contributes to scientific literature by shedding light on the influence of diverse drivers on different repair intentions. It is also relevant for supporting repair companies’ decision making with respect to repair service design, as well as public authorities interested in promoting repair

Exploring a regional repair network with a public funding scheme for customer repairs: The ‘GRAZ repariert’-case

Repair is an essential part of the transition towards a circular economy by recovering full functionality of faulty products or components, and thus, extending the product usage phase. This is seen as a core strategy to obtain desired environmental impact like waste reduction and resource conservation. Beyond that, repair services also affect societal and economic aspects like the number of local jobs. To realize the potential, supply with as well as demand for repair services has to be ensured. In this study we report on how the city of Graz, Austria deals with challenges related to this by introducing a public funding scheme for repair services to increase demand, and funding and organizing a repair network to strengthen the suppliers. By means of a case study, we explore success factors and critical aspects related to setting up a repair network, and provide insights into the interplay of a financial incentive scheme for promoting repair. Key findings show that: (1) having the local government as the network organizer facilitates the integration of multiple sectors but might jeopardize the network's sustainability due to political reasons; (2) the interplay between public funding and the repair network is effective, but network heterogeneity induces risk; (3) cooperation within the network can improve price and service quality and thus, affect customer demand, but lacking awareness of repair in general and the repair network constrains demand. These insights and the related discussion result in the identification of future research opportunities and related questions

Detecting Starting Point Bias in Dichotomous-Choice Contingent Valuation Surveys

We examine starting point bias in CV surveys with dichotomous choice payment questions and follow-ups, and double-bounded models of the WTP responses. We wish to investigate (1) the seriousness of the biases for the location and scale parameters of WTP in the presence of starting point bias; (2) whether or not these biases depend on the distribution of WTP and on the bids used; and (3) how well a commonly used diagnostic for starting point bias - a test of the null that bid set dummies entered in the right-hand side of the WTP model are jointly equal to zero - performs under various circumstances. Because starting point bias cannot be separately identified in any reliable manner from biases caused by model specification, we use simulation approaches to address this issue. Our Monte Carlo simulations suggest that the effect of ignoring starting point bias is complex and depends on the true distribution of WTP. Bid set dummies tend to soak up misspecifications in the distribution assumed by the researcher for the latent WTP, rather than capturing the presence of starting point bias. Their power in detecting starting point bias is low

Towards an integrated view of reverse logistics and closed-loop supply chains

Im Bereich der geschlossenen Lieferkreisl\ue4ufe fokussieren sich wissenschaftliche Arbeiten oft auf einzelne Prozesse, so etwa die Akquisition von Gebrauchtg\ufctern, die Ermittlung der Produktqualit\ue4t oder eine optimale Dispositionsstrategie. Die in der Dissertation pr\ue4sentierte integrierte Betrachtung reverser Logistik mit in Wechselbeziehungen stehenden Subprozessen soll diese Forschungsl\ufccke schlie fen. Dazu werden verschiedene Prozesse kombiniert und Komplexit\ue4t schrittweise in Form von zus\ue4tzlichen Prozessen hinzugef\ufcgt, um das Verst\ue4ndnis aller im integrierten Modell auftretenden Effekte sicherzustellen. Diese Vorgangsweise wird durch Einblicke, die mittels einer Fallstudie \ufcber R.U.S.Z (Reparatur- und Servicezentrum) gewonnen wurden, motiviert.Als Startpunkt dient ein neuartiger Ansatz zur optimalen, qualit\ue4tsabh\ue4ngigen Disposition von retournierten Gebrauchtg\ufctern. Dieses Modell kombiniert einen Prozess zur Klassifizierung von gebrauchten, bez\ufcglich der Qualit\ue4t heterogenen Produkten mit optimalen Entscheidungen bez\ufcglich der Wiederaufarbeitung. In einem weiteren Schritt wird ein aktiver, aufwandsabh\ue4ngiger Akquisitionsprozess mit der Qualit\ue4tsfeststellung verkn\ufcpft. Der integrierte geschlossene Lieferkreislauf vereint beide vorhergehenden Modelle mit all ihren Eigenschaften.Aufgrund der Komplexit\ue4t des integrierten Modells und der Vielzahl der Komponenten kann ? im Gegensatz zu den Basismodellen ? kein analytischer L\uf6sungsweg ermittelt werden. Daher erfolgt die Analyse des Modells anhand einer umfassenden numerischen Studie. Die numerischen Experimente umfassen einen Vergleich von integrierten Modellen mit deterministischer bzw. stochastischer Nachfrage, die Ermittlung des potenziellen Nutzens einer zus\ue4tzlichen Dispositionsoption und die Auswirkungen der bevorzugten Wiederaufarbeitung von hochpreisigen Produkten. Die Resultate zeigen, dass integrierte Ans\ue4tze zus\ue4tzliche und teilweise nichttriviale Erkenntnisse liefern k\uf6nnen.In the area of reverse logistics and closed-loop supply chains, scientific works often focus on modeling individual processes like acquisition of used products, grading of acquired used items, or optimizing disposition decisions. In this dissertation, an integrated model including interdependent processes instead of separated sub-problems is presented. Main parts of the research are motivated by a case study concerning R.U.S.Z, a social-economical reprocessing company. Based upon findings of this case study, different processes are combined; complexity in terms of sub-processes is added step-by-step to increase the understanding of observed effects in the integrated model.First, a novel approach for the quality-dependent disposition of returned used products is developed to address the link between classification of used products and a subsequent reprocessing disposition. As a result, the optimal assignment of used products to reprocessing options on the basis of their quality is determined. In a further step, a joint acquisition-grading model dealing with effort-dependent acquisition as well as heterogeneous quality of used products is introduced. Finally, the two models are merged to an integrated reverse logistics system, including all the presented components and properties.Although analytical solutions can be obtained for the less complex models, the scope of the integrated model exceeds the use of exact solution approaches due to numerous model components. This requires an exploration of the model by exhaustive numerical studies. Particularly, numerical experiments cover a comparison of models with deterministic and stochastic demand, the determination of the potential value of additional disposition options, and the impact of preferring high-priced reprocessed products on profit. The results of the numerical analysis indicate that integrated models may deliver additional ? partially non-trivial ? insights and value.Gernot LechnerZsfassung in dt. und in engl. SpracheGraz, Univ., Diss., 201

Predicting Voter Ideology Using Machine Learning

Many surveys require respondents to place themselves on a left-right ideology scale. However, non-experts may not understand the scale or their ’objective’ position. Furthermore, a uni-dimensional approach may not suffice to describe ideology coherently. We thus propose a novel way to measure voter ideology: Combining expert and voter survey data, we use machine learning to infer how political experts would place voters on three axes: general left-right, economic left-right and social/cultural ’GAL-TAN’. Our analysis suggests that i) voters are more likely to place themselves at the political center than we would pre-dict experts to do, ii) voters are ideologically most fragmented along the ’GAL-TAN’ axis, iii) European countries differ significantly in all ideological dimensions, and iv) ’objective’ ideology as predicted by our models improves the predictive power of simple spatial voting models even after accounting for the subjective ideological distance between voters and parties as perceived by the voters themselves.</p

Objectifying the Measurement of Voter Ideology with Expert Data

Many surveys require respondents to place themselves on a left-right ideology scale. However, non-experts may not understand the scale or their \u201cobjective\u201d position. Furthermore, a uni-dimensional approach may not suffice to describe ideology coherently. We thus develop a novel way to easure voter ideology: Combining expert and voter survey data, we use classification models to infer how experts would place voters based on their policy stances on three axes: general left-right, economic left-right and libertarian-authoritarian. We validate our approach by finding i) a stron connection between policies and ideology using data-driven approaches, ii) a strong predictive power of our models in cross-validation exercises, and iii) that \u201cobjective\u201d ideology as predicted by our models significantly explains the vote choice in simple spatial voting models even after accounting or the subjective ideological distance between voters and parties as perceived by the voters. Our results shed new light on debates around mas polarization.Version of recor