Japanese Horizontal Keiretsu and the Performance Implications of Membership

Our study investigates the effect of Japanese horizontal keiretsu group membership on firm risk and return. Like prior studies, our results show that horizontal keiretsu membership has a negative effect on firm profitability. However, we find that horizontal keiretsu networks are likely to increase the gap between targeted and realized returns, which we call the outcome-aspiration gap. Moreover, in contrast to prior studies, our results indicate that keiretsu membership does not enable member firms to reduce risks by smoothing profitability. Instead, our findings provide evidence that is counter to the conventional notion that Japanese horizontal keiretsu allow their member firms to trade off profits for reduced risk.Horizontal keiretsu, Performance, Risk sharing

Can Experience be Trusted? Investigating the Effect of Experience on Decision Biases in Crowdworking Platforms

Companies increasingly involve the crowd for collective decision making and, to aggregate the decisions, they commonly average the scores. By ignoring crowdworkers’ different levels of experience and decision biases, this method may not favor the best outcome. Alternatively, decisions can be weighted in favor of the more experienced judges in the crowd. However, previous research is inconclusive as to whether more experienced individuals are any better at avoiding decision biases. To answer this question, we conduct online crowd-based experiments with a range of treatments, comparing the anchoring effect of individuals with different levels of experience. Results indicate that not only does greater experience not protect crowdworkers from the anchoring effect but it increases their confidence in their decision, compared to less experienced individuals, even if they are wrong. Our findings provide valuable insights for both researchers and practitioners interested in improving the effectiveness of crowdworking decision-making

Thermisches Gleichgewicht und Stabilität komplentärer topologischer Solitonen in zweidimensionalen Magneten

In this thesis the thermal stability of magnetic solitons, beyond skyrmions, in ultrathin transition metal films and 2D van der Waals magnets is investigated by means of transition state theory. The basis for this investigation is an extended Heisenberg model, which is parameterised from density functional theory and consists of exchange interaction, Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy as well as Zeeman energy in an external magnetic field. Based on this spin model annihilation and nucleation rates for magnetic solitons are computed, which are then used to compute the thermal stability of these topological spin configurations. The investigation of solitons with various topological charges thereby requires dedicated treatment of different numbers of internal symmetries, as discussed in this thesis. Beyond that, the basis for the embedment of higher-order exchange interactions into the framework of transition state theory is developed

Re-Evaluating the Offshoring Decision: A Behavioural Approach to the Role of Performance Discrepancy

Firms are in a continuous process of critically re-evaluating their offshoring strategies due to performance discrepancies. While prior research has focused on the implementation of organizational responses to performance shortfalls, we examine the offline search process, a key antecedent of organizational change, during which firms simultaneously explore alternative solutions when facing either a positive or a negative discrepancy between performance and aspirations. We adopt the Behavioural Theory of the Firm (BTOF) to investigate how the search process is affected by the size and nature (as being positive or negative) of the discrepancy as well as how it is moderated by cognitive biases. By examining 441 offshoring initiatives, we study firms' search processes in a novel context that refers either to ‘local’ solutions that are close to the current activity (i.e., expansion in the same host country) or ‘distant’ solutions that are far from the current one (i.e., relocation to a third country or to the home country). Our results provide new insights into organizational search, namely that performance shortfalls lead to distant search unless this choice is moderated by a location-specific anchor bias relating to the strategic importance of host location, while positive discrepancies trigger local search with decision-makers more inclined to consider expansion in the current host country

Improving yield in alfalfa seed stands with balanced fertilization

Non-Peer Reviewe

Advanced producer service firms as strategic networks, global cities as strategic places

Sassen’s identification of global cities as ‘strategic places’ is explored through world city network analysis. This involves searching out advanced producer service (APS) firms that constitute ‘strategic networks’, from whose activities strategic places can be defined. 25 out of 175 APS firms are found to be strategic and from their office networks, 45 cities out of 526 are designated as strategic places. A measure of ‘strategicness’ of cities is devised and individual findings from this are discussed by drawing on existing literature about how APS firms use specific cities. A key finding shows that New York and London have different levels of strategicness and this is related to the former’s innovation prowess and the latter’s role in global consumption of services. Other cases of strategicness discussed in terms of the balance between production and consumption of advanced producer services are: Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai; Palo Alto; Mexico City; Johannesburg; and Dubai and Frankfurt

Зрительское кресло для учреждений культуры

Выпускная квалификационная работа посвящена проектированию зрительского кресла для учреждений культуры. Несмотря на то, что в дизайне делается уклон на особенности кинокресел, разработанный проект универсален и для других учреждений культуры, таких как театры, концертные залы, библиотеки и др. Особенностью и уникальной чертой кресла является встроенная барьерная защита, выполняющая профилактическую функцию по защите человека от распространения респираторных инфекций, передающихся воздушно-капельным путём. Объект исследования. Мебель для общественного пользования. Предмет исследования. Разработка зрительского кинокресла, универсально подходящего и для иных учреждений культуры благодаря некоторым трансформируемым элементам.The graduation project is aimed to design a cinema seating suitable for several other entertaining institutions. The unique feature of the seating is a build-in barrier screen, designed to keep people safe from airborne infections. The result of the work is a design solution for a cinema chair that meets the modern requirements of comfort, convenience and safety. The project offers options for solving some uncomfortable aspect of cinema settings, such as ineffective navigation in the audience hall, lack of storage for personal belongings, low level of ergonomics, etc. The graduation project includes an introduction, five chapters, a conclusion, a list of used sources and additions to the chapters

El sorprendente legado que nos dejó el sabio Moisés Bertoni: el Ka’a He’ê

El esfuerzo del científico Moisés Santiago Bertoni por sistematizar parte de la riqueza quetiene el Paraguay, se refleja en la Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, (Ka’a He’ê), una planta quehace parte de la identidad como nación, pero que al mismo tiempo, luego de un siglo,sigue siendo promisoria como elemento fundamental para la implementación de unmodelo de desarrollo sostenible en áreas rurales

Geographic dispersion and co-location in global R&D portfolios: consequences for firm performance

We examine how the ways in which firms geographically configure their global portfolios of R&D units influence the effectiveness of firms’ own R&D investments and of external technical knowledge in enhancing firm performance. Our analysis indicates that the strength of these effects depends on the extent to which firms spread their R&D units across countries (geographic dispersion of R&D) and the extent to which firms establish multiple R&D units within each country (co-location of R&D). We show that geographic dispersion and co-location are associated with distinct value creation and value capture mechanisms and in turn lead to different performance outcomes. Although geographic dispersion enhances the effects of a firm’s own R&D on its performance, R&D co-location limits such effects. These relationships are reversed when we consider the effects of external technical knowledge on firm performance. R&D co-location, rather than geographic dispersion, is what renders the exploitation of external knowledge more effective in enhancing firm performance. Our results suggest that future research should shift its focus from the degree of R&D globalization to how a portfolio is globalized and geographically structured