FORSCHUNGSSEMINARE

FORSCHUNGSSEMINARE

Die Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg organisiert regelmäßige Forschungsvorträge aus dem eigenen Professorium sowie auch von externen Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern. Die Vorträge sind offen für alle interessierten Studierenden, Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler sowie Praktikerinnen und Praktiker.

Die Planung der Forschungsseminare erfolgt durch Zofia Hartl, B.A. M.A. und Univ.-Prof. Clemens Hutzinger, Ph.D.. Bei Interesse, Fragen oder Anmerkungen wenden Sie sich bitte an zofia.hartl@uni-seeburg.at

Zukünftige Forschungsseminare

Vielen Dank für Ihr Interesse an unseren Forschungsseminaren. Ab Februar 2021 finden unsere Forschungsseminare hybrid statt. Wir freuen uns schon sehr auf Ihre Teilnahme und den aktiven Forschungsaustausch.

Mit dem nachfolgenden Link gelangen Sie zu den hybriden Forschungsseminaren:

LINK ZUM FORSCHUNGSSEMINAR

Prof. Dr. Jenny van Doorn – Professor in Services Marketing an der University of Groningen

Many service industries face personnel shortages that will only worsen in the future. Socially engaging service robots can help solve these personnel shortages. In health and elderly care, robots are becoming indispensable helpers, for instance in assisted living, the fastest growing form of long-term care. However, robots cannot (yet) fully replace human service employees. Furthermore, robots encounter resistance from the side of both the human client and co-worker.

Departing from literature documenting resistance to the use of robots in services, I will present evidence on when robots are valued similar, or perhaps even more, than a human service provider. Given that the complexity of real service environments is such that robots can unlikely serve customers on their own, humans and robots are likely to divide tasks and work side-by-side in a team. Therefore, my research pays particular attention to human-robot teamwork, taking both the client perspective and the perspective of the co-worker into account.

David Bourdin, PhD – Senior Researcher at the Department of Communication at University of Applied Sciences for Management & Communication Vienna

The increase of immigrant employees in services has made intercultural service encounters a commonplace phenomenon. In these encounters, customers frequently use service employees’ accent to infer their ethnic background, often eliciting cultural stereotypes. However, it is still unknown how accent-based stereotyping impacts customer participation (CP), that is, the degree to which customers engage in the service process by contributing effort, knowledge, and information to improve their service experience. Addressing this question in four experimental studies (N = 1,027), we find that (1) customers contribute less to the service encounter voluntarily when the employee has an unfavorable foreign (compared to a local) accent, (2) the negative effects of unfavorable accents on voluntary CP are stronger than the positive effects of favorable ones, (3) accent-based employee stereotypes (superiority, attractiveness, dynamism) mediate the impact of accents on CP, (4) unfavorable accents impede even participatory tasks mandatory for service completion, and (5) accent effects on CP are dampened for customers with a high need for interaction and can be managerially neutralized through self-service options that offer customers higher control over the service delivery. Our findings inform staffing and training decisions for frontline service roles commonly undertaken by immigrants and assist the design of intercultural service delivery systems.

Ass. Prof. Dr. Astrid Weiss – Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Informatics at the Institute of Visual Computing and Human-Centered Technology TU Wien

Ass. Prof. Christian Kerschner – Assistant Professor at School of Sustainability, Governance, and Methods at Modul University Vienna

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Monika Köpple-Turyna – Professorin für Betriebswirtschaftslehre, insb. Entrepreneurship an der Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg

Ass. Prof. Marion Poetz – Associate Professor of Innovation Management at the Department of Strategy and Innovation at Copenhagen Business School

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Florian Follert – Professor für Betriebswirtschaftslehre, insb. betriebswirtschaftliche Entscheidungslehre an der Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andrea Seidl – Professorin für Betriebswirtschaftslehre insb. Operations Research an der Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg

Frühere Forschungsseminare (2024)

Prof. Mag. Mag. Dr. Ivo Ponocny – Fakultät für Psychologie und Fakultät für Psychotherapie an der Sigmund Freud Privatuniversität

The definition of wellbeing may play a crucial role in the transition towards sustainability to come. However, there are many different concepts of quality of life, and many aspects involved. Particularly difficult is the assessment of the subjective component of quality of life, subjective wellbeing, which is necessary since the “objective” indicators can only give an incomplete picture of life. Human needs and experienced emotions must also be considered, whereby the relationship between the two is not sufficiently understood yet. The presentation will discuss a new conceptual approach and report about the development of a systematic classification of the components of wellbeing.

Prof. Dr. Jörn Block – Leitung der Professur und Sprecher des Forschungszentrums Mittelstand an der Universität Trier

Identifying green innovations and the firms that generate them is important to understand the role of technology and innovation in the transition to a more sustainable economy. Information from patent and trademark data provides an objective, transparent, fast and cost-effective way to identify green innovations, especially when compared to information gathered from surveys. However, the validity of this identification approach is not yet fully established. In the first study, we use patent, trademark and survey data from two characteristically different samples of SMEs and mid-cap firms from Germany and Italy to investigate whether green patents and trademarks can contribute to the identification of green innovative firms. The results show that many green innovative firms are overlooked when only patent- and trademark-based measures are used. While green trademarks are a useful indicator for different types of green innovation, green patents as a measure show mixed results. The predictive power of green patents and trademarks is strongest for green product innovation, for large and established firms, and in manufacturing industries. Based on the results of the first study, we then use green patents and green trademarks and link them to the reduction of carbon emissions in a sample of large polluting firms. Our results show that green patents and trademarks are not only related to green innovation but are also to predict actual environmental outcomes of firms. The results of our two studies have relevance for policy makers, managers and investors dealing with green innovation and its impact on environmental sustainability.

Frühere Forschungsseminare (2023)

Prof. Dr. Habil. Sorin Gabriel Anton – Professor at the Department of Finance, Money and Public Administration of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi

The importance of high-growth firms (HGFs) has been extensively recognized in the extant literature and also by policymakers. Numerous papers have shown that HGFs create the bulk of new jobs, innovate and disseminate innovation throughout the economy, and create economic spillovers in their local areas. HGFs’ activity is especially meaningful for economic growth and structural change in transition countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) given that positive firm growth means creating new jobs and output (Stam and van Stel, 2011). Despite the numerous studies conducted in the last 10 years, current knowledge on the determinants of HGFs’ performance is limited. The participants of this presentation will find out more about the decision-making process and its impact on firm performance in the case of young HGFs (gazelles) in CEE countries.

Privatdozent Dr. Eduard Braun (TU Clausthal) – Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter an der TU Clausthal Abteilung für Volkswirtschaftslehre

According to the widespread, neoclassical market ideology, market prices are not simply helpful, yet imperfect, reference points for consumers and profit-seeking enterprises. Rather, they are interpreted as reflecting the true value of goods. The hypothetical end result of the market process is thereby assumed to be an ever-satisfied condition of the market economy. Based on this unrealistic presupposition, this market ideology maintains that the performance of managers can be evaluated from the prices of the assets they control and, in the case of publicly traded companies, share prices. The share prices supposedly reflect the value that managers create for shareholders and, thus, the economy as a whole. Based on this assumption, the maximization of so-called shareholder value appears to be a socially beneficial goal for managers. The present paper demonstrates, however, that the ongoing re-orientation of corporate governance towards the maximization of values (as revealed by share prices) instead of profits (as determined by the accounting system) destroys the very market processes that coordinate business activity and allocate resources in the market economy.

Prof. Dr. Tobias Vogel – Professor für Markt-, Konsumenten-, & Medienpsychologie im Fachbereich Gesellschaftswissenschaften der Hochschule Darmstadt

The vast majority of adolescents uses social media, and follows the content of social media influencers. Followers tend to perceive their favorite influencers as trustworthy and knowledgeable. They view them as role models, but also as kind of friends they feel close to. From a social-psychological perspective, it is therefore not surprising that adolescents are impacted by their favorite influencers’ content. More often than not, this content also comprises advertising for products and brands. This so-called influencer marketing has proven highly effective, but its side effects on adolescents’ maladaptive consumption has been widely neglected in academic research. The present research seeks to fill this gap. In a large-scale study (total N = 1011), we assess the effect of influencer marketing activities on maladaptive consumption in an adolescent sample (14-18 yrs.). We predict that the extent of influencer marketing activities predicts maladaptive consumption in adolescents as measured by a) craving and intrusions, b) post-purchase dissonance, and c) consumption-related interpersonal problems. Derived from the social-psychological literature, we further hypothesize that these relations will be stronger if adolescents d) engage in para-social relations with their favorite influencer, and e) if they engage in wishful identification. Results support the predicted relation (a-c), and partially support the moderating function of para-social relations and wishful identification (d&e). Findings are discussed regarding their implications for consumer protection.

Ass. Prof. Dr. Samuel Stäbler – Assistant Professor at the Department of Marketing of Tilburg School of Economics and Management

While loyalty programs (LPs) remain popular among both retailers and consumers, research indicates that LPs often do not live up to managers’ expectations. But maybe there are also some more hidden benefits that only materialize when the going gets tough. Specifically, do LPs hurt or help retailers when they get caught up in a marketing crisis? To address this question, the authors conduct, adopting an Empirics-First approach, a large-scale study in the Dutch retail industry. The study investigates how more than 11,000 households (who are either a member or non-member of various retailers’ LP) respond to close to 50 different crises that took place in a 9-year period. The results indicate that LP membership buffers against a crisis’ negative effects not only in terms of a smaller reduction in purchase frequency and (conditional) purchase volume, but also in terms of a higher effectiveness of various marketing-mix-related recovery efforts.

Prof. Dr. Arno Scharl – Professor of Information Systems at the New Media Technology Research Center of Modul University Vienna

Facts and opinions about current and future events are reflected in stakeholder Web sites and the public debate across news outlets, participatory platforms, social media, etc. Artificial Intelligence and semantic technologies help to identify emerging stories across these channels, and to provide timely insights into consumer and stakeholder perceptions. Content producers and communication professionals can use these insights to improve their decision-making. They can forecast future topics, for example, visualize the relevance of these topics for specific products or services, or identify opinion leaders who might help promote a product or amplify a message.

The talk will present results from ongoing European research initiatives, including a live demonstration of a visual analytics dashboard with examples on sustainability and brand communication. It will discuss how AI-based tools can support the entire digital content value chain, from the data-driven production to the distribution, promotion and analysis of content assets.

Dr. Patrick Maier – Data Scientist (KTM AG)

We study how the introduction of broadband internet affects the occupational and educational structures of firms, exploiting the staggered technology roll-out in Brazil and a physical constraint in internet connectivity. Results show peculiar polarization effect on establishments’ employment structures and significant job losses in response to broadband availability. The consistent expansion of the management layer across all types of firms strongly supports that broadband has introduced more exceptions to be solved by managers. Overall, our findings suggest that structural changes are driven by efficiency-seeking firm behavior and are an important mechanism helping firms to survive in the market.

Alexander Christopher Sebald, PHD – Head of Department of Economics an der Copenhagen Business School

Subjective performance evaluations are commonly used to provide feedback and incentives to workers. However, such evaluations can generate significant disagreements and conflicts, the severity of which may be driven by many factors. In this paper we show that a workers’ level of self-confidence plays a central role in shaping reactions to subjective evaluations – overconfident agents engage in costly punishment when they receive evaluations below their own, but provide limited rewards to principals when evaluations exceed their own. In contrast, underconfident agents do not significantly react to evaluations below their own, but reward significantly evaluations exceeding their own. Our analysis exploits data from a principal-agent experiment run with a large sample of the Danish working age population, varying the financial consequences associated with the evaluations workers receive. In contrast to existing economic models of reciprocal behavior, reactions to evaluations are weakly related to the financial consequences of the evaluations. These results point towards a behavioral model of reciprocity that intertwines the desire to protect self-perceptions with over-/underconfidence.

Prof. Dr. Bernd Frick – Professor für Professor für Sportökonomie an der Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg

Recently the persistent gender pay gap and the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions has been explained by differences in mental attitudes and dispositions between women and men. In an already large (and still increasing) number of laboratory experiments women have been found to be more risk-averse, less self-confident, less competitive and more altruistic than men. The question whether and to what extent these findings can be generalized to “real life” outside the lab remains open. I use field data from wine critics on the one hand and professional athletes and judges on the other hand to show that women are nearly as competitive and less generous than men. Thus, when adequately controlling for self-selection into particular jobs, the gender differences in individual behavior largely disappear.

Prof. Dr. Christoph Grimpe – Professor für Innovation und Entrepreneurship am Department für Strategie und Innovation an der Copenhagen Business School

The delegation of decision-making authority from founders to dedicated managers is an important step in the professionalization of startups. However, such delegation changes the distinct nature of startups as workplaces with frequent interaction between founders and their employees. We build on theory of relational disruption in workplaces and theorize how delegation of decision-making authority affects employee retention. We reason that through delegation, employees lose opportunities to learn from founders and influence startup decisions. As a result, relational advantages of startup employment decrease, leading to employee mobility. Moreover, employees are particularly likely to leave after decision-making has been delegated when they are early in their careers and when founder teams are small. Using a sample of 13,737 employees in 1,797 German startups, we find support for our conjectures.

Frühere Forschungsseminare (2022)

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Magdalena Bekk – Professorin für
Wirtschaftspsychologie, insbesondere Consumer Behavior an der Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg

Research has found differences between men and women regarding for example their working hours and salary. Research also found that there is a difference between employees with and without children regarding for example their working hours and salary. In this study, we evaluate the gender-family gap in Academia. Scientists from all over the world took part in our survey 1.5 years into the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results show differences in performance-related measures as well as emotional and cognitive measures between male and female scientists with and without responsibilities for kids.

Professor Jaywant Singh PhD MBA MA LLB BA (Hons) FHEA – Professor of Marketing at University of Southampton

Digital influencers are a growing phenomenon.  In consumer markets, the social media influencer market is worth almost US$15 billion, and is set to grow further.  In B2B markets, the purchasing managers have traditionally sought opinions from trusted industry experts.  B2B vendor companies, however, are increasingly employing digital influencers to communicate about their offerings to buyer organizations. Given the growing B2B digital engagement, cues that help to differentiate highly impactful digital influencers are crucial for vendor companies. Drawing upon Stereotype Content Model, this study analyses competence and warmth as relevant cues of digital influencers. Employing experimental studies, the study examines how competence and warmth influence B2B purchasing managers’ evaluation and selection of vendors’ solutions. The findings show that digital influencers’ competence enhances purchasing managers’ intention to buy the advocated vendor’s offering. When compared with warmth, competence minimizes capability and relational concerns associated with the purchase decision. Further, the study shows that such effect of competence is prominent when manager-influencer identification is low. The study also identifies concern-based psychological mechanisms underlying the effect of influencers’ characteristics, and related boundary conditions.

The research advances knowledge on the characteristics of digital influencers that shape B2B purchasing managers’ evaluation and selection of vendors. The findings provide implications for digital influencers seeking to expand reach in B2B markets, and for vendor companies and marketing agencies in the selection of digital influencers.

Assoz. Prof. Priv.-Doz. Dr. Jochim Hansen – Assoziierter Professor für Psychologie an der Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg

Construal level theory suggests that abstraction fulfills the important function of traversing psychological distance (which includes traversing social distance). Therefore, abstraction may cause a third-person view of oneself. Accordingly, it can be hypothesized that abstraction increases public relative to private self-awareness. In this talk, I will present three studies that tested this hypothesis. In a pilot study, abstraction and self-awareness were measured; a correlation between abstraction and public self-awareness but not private self-awareness was found. In Studies 1 and 2, abstraction was manipulated experimentally, and public and private self-awareness were measured. In both studies, the level of abstraction increased the level of public self-awareness compared to private self-awareness. Study 2 additionally investigated downstream consequences, namely the effect on social anxiety and embarrassment in a situation in which participants were asked to recite a poem. It was demonstrated that abstraction indirectly increased social anxiety and embarrassment via public self-awareness. Implications of the findings will be discussed.

Em. o. Univ.-Prof. Dip.-Ing. Dr. Dr. h.c. Udo Wagner – Lehrstuhl für Marketing an der Universität Wien

Die Verwendung von Digital Signage im stationären Einzelhandel steht schon seit längerem im Fokus meiner Forschung. Im Rahmen der Präsentation werde ich über mehrere Projekte berichten, beginnend von der Verwendung digitaler Preisschilder, über die Möglichkeit zur emotionalen oder kognitiven Kommunikation mit Kundinnen und Kunden via Digital Signage an ausgewählten Orten im Supermarkt (insbesondere in der Gemüseabteilung zur Stimulierung der Nachfrage und im Kassenbereich zur Verkürzung der Wartezeit) bis hin zur individualisierten Ansprache auf Basis ihrer, automatisch identifizierten, Stimmungen. Die Projekte wurden bereits in wissenschaftlichen Journalen publiziert, bereiten die einschlägige Literatur auf und berichten darüber hinaus von den empirischen Studien, zumeist im Feld.

Prof. Dr. Simon Hensellek – Juniorprofessur für Entrepreneurship und Digitalisierung an der Technischen Universität Dortmund

The grounded theory methodology (GTM) has been labeled the epitome of qualitative research because it represents one of the main approaches for building theory in entrepreneurship research. However, studies vary greatly in their application of GTM and its procedures. The purpose of this study is to scrutinize the use and contribution of GTM in entrepreneurship research. We analyzed 135 GTM-based articles across 15 major entrepreneurship and management journals. This study extends entrepreneurship research by empirically examining the use of GTM, finding content-related and methodological developments. We discuss the importance of GTM for the past and future development of entrepreneurship research.

Assoc.-Prof. Dr. Agnes Bäker – Associate Professor of Leadership at the Department of Management and Organization at VU Amsterdam

Gig work, with its short-term nature, has reduced employers’ interest in investing in workers’ productive capacity. In contrast, online staffing platforms as intermediaries matching workers and employers have an interest in developing (and retaining) a high-performing worker base. We propose three easily implementable and low-cost measures that online staffing platforms can incorporate into their matching algorithms to improve on-site gig worker performance and retention on the platform. Testing these measures in a sample of 4,025 worker-gig matches of a major European staffing platform, we find that the combined effect of these measures can increase worker performance by 55.6 percentage points.

Prof. Dr. Jörg Königstorfer – Professor für Sport- und Gesundheitsmanagement an der Technischen Universität München

Evidence on fan-related determinants of the support of athlete activists for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is scarce. The authors propose that fans’ own race influences implicit, and hence, explicit attitudes toward Black vs. White people; and that the latter relates positively with attitude toward athlete activists, which, in turn, positively associates with fans’ intentions to support BLM. Across two studies using different contexts (i.e., athlete activism by Serena Williams [Study 1] and Olympic athletes in general [Study 2]), 308 Black or White fans from the U.S. took part in an Implicit Association Test and filled in a survey afterwards. The results support the proposed serial mediation between fans’ own race, implicit attitude and explicit attitude toward Black vs. White people, attitude toward athlete activists (here, Serena Williams and Olympic athletes), and consequently fans’ intentions to support BLM, controlling for fans’ political affiliation. The model explains 50% (Study 1) and 63% (Study 2) of the variance in intended support of BLM. The findings increase sport managers’ understanding of the determinants of fan support of athlete activism for BLM, a timely and relevant topic to managers around the world and across different sports, given today’s frequently occurring race discrimination issues on and off the pitch. Beside both implicit and explicit attitudes toward Blacks or Whites, Black race and political voting for the Democratic party are determinants of the intended support of BLM.

Dr. Benedetta Crisafulli – Senior Lecturer at the Department of Management at Birkbeck University of London

The practice of forming brand alliances is common among companies in business-to-business (B2B) settings that seek to launch social innovations. Research evidence on the efficacy of such practice is, however, scarce. Based on the perspective of organizational buyers, we examine how social innovations should be launched by companies in B2B settings, whether through alliances with nonprofits or for-profits, or via independent ventures, across two experimental studies. Underpinned by the stereotype content model, we find that alliance launch strategies with nonprofits or for-profits result in greater purchase intentions, along with perceptions of warmth and competence, when compared to independent ventures. Further, we demonstrate that communicating societal benefits accruing from a social innovation favours an alliance launch strategy over an independent venture. Alliance strategies show comparable advantage to independent ventures when both societal and company-focused benefits are communicated. Our research advances knowledge on organizational buyers’ evaluations of alliances and social innovations, the psychological mechanism underlying organizational buyers’ evaluations of social innovations launch strategies, and in communication management. Our findings provide insights for companies seeking to launch social innovations, and guidelines on partner selection.

Dr. Hilmar Brohmer – Postdoctoral Researcher am Arbeitsbereich Sozialpsychologie der Universität Graz

In languages such as German, French, or Spanish, plural forms of job occupations and societal roles are often in a generic-masculine (GM) form. That is, instead of employing gender-fair forms, people often use the male plural form implying men and women likewise. Proponents of gender-fair language and language psychology argue that the GM form excludes women from everyday language and might even entail the cognitive effect that listeners and readers will more likely think of men only, mentally reinforcing gender inequality. Several studies have demonstrated this and related cognitive effects in the past, but hardly any replication studies of these effects exist. We picked one prominent German study in the field by Stahlberg, Sczesny and Braun (2001, Experiment 2), which yielded evidence that people indeed think of more male exemplars when they are asked to “name three politicians”, “athletes”, “tv hosts”, and “singers” in the GM form (e.g., male politician or “Politiker”), compared to two alternative gender-fair forms (naming-both form: female and male politician or “PolitikerInnen und Politiker”; internal-I form: “PolitikerInnen”). Following a prestudy replication in accordance with the Replication Recipe (Brandt et al., 2014), we extended the original work and included relevant control variables such as participants perceived base rate of women in these occupations and their inclination to use gender-fair language. This was done for a multi-lab study (anticipated N ~ 2100) in a Registered-Report format. As data collection is currently under way, results from the prestudy will be discussed.

Frühere Forschungsseminare (2021)

Assoc.-Prof. Dr. Ursula Lutzky – Associate Professor am Institute for English Business Communication (WU Wien)

Today, users engage on social media platforms to share everyday activities and thoughts with their friends and followers, but also to talk to each other about their experiences with products and services. At the same time, they use these media to address businesses directly when they encounter an issue and want to voice a complaint. As a consequence, recent years have seen an increase in research into webcare (van Noort and Willemsen 2012), which refers to businesses’ responses to their customers’ feedback online. While research has found that customers “no longer want to be talked at” but “want firms to listen, appropriately engage, and respond” (Kietzmann et al. 2011: 250), few studies have addressed the nature of businesses’ responses and their perception from a linguistic perspective (but see e.g. Zhang and Vásquez 2014). This study aims to do exactly that. It is based on a corpus linguistic analysis of tweet exchanges between passengers and social media managers of four British and Irish airlines, two national and two budget airlines. The customised corpus comprises a total of 5.2 million words addressed to and tweeted by the airlines Aer Lingus, British Airways, Ryanair and EasyJet. By combining the study of collocation and clusters, this paper focuses on uncovering customers’ perception of airlines’ responses to their tweets: how do customers react to the answers they get from social media representatives on Twitter? The results indicate the kind of response behaviour that customers appreciate and that thus leads to positive customer attitudes, but also underline the specific features they miss or evaluate negatively. This study therefore provides linguistic insights into the persuasive effects of webcare response strategies.

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Sandra Diller – Assistant Professor für Organizational Psychology an der Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg

The past year has taught us that challenging situations can make us feel anxious and distressed: In many situations, our basic needs were threatened, such as being reminded of the own mortality, feeling incompetent at work, or experiencing difficult interpersonal situations. In this talk, I will present a set of studies on how mindfulness interventions can help after these three named threatening situations (Diller et al., submitted). I would further explore how mindfulness during working from home could have positive organisational effects (research concept & hopefully first data from the Bachelor seminar 2021). Furthermore, I will share some projects from my mindfulness research seminar (winner of the distance teaching award 2020; projects from 2020 and 2021), where future teachers developed an intervention for their students for helping with different Covid-related threatening situations.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Florian Kutzner – Professor für Wirtschaftspsychologie, insbesondere behavioural public policy an der Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg

Many decision makers seek to optimize choices between uncertain options such as strategies, employees, or products. When performance targets must be met, attending to observed past performance is not enough to optimize choices—option uncertainty must also be considered. For example, for stretch targets that exceed observed performance, more uncertain options are often better bets. A significant determinant of option uncertainty is sample size: for a given option, the smaller the sample of information we have about it, the greater the uncertainty. In several studies, choices were made between pairs of uncertain options with the goal of exceeding a specified performance target. Information about the options differed in the size of the sample drawn from them, sample size, and the observed performance of those samples, the proportion of successes or “hits” in the sample. We found people to be sensitive to sample size–based uncertainty only when differences in observed performance were negligible. We conclude that in the presence of performance targets, people largely fail to capitalize on the advantages of unknown options. Implications for innovations in relation to climate change mitigation will be discussed.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Oliver Koll – Professor für Marketing an der Universität Innsbruck

The most basic manifestation of brand loyalty is repurchasing – making the same choice on the next category occasion. This study tests to which extent stable or unstable contextual cues across purchase occasions affect repurchasing. We investigate these effects by analyzing a total of 1.6 million brand choice pairs (i.e., two consecutive choices) of 20,587 German and 23,036 British shoppers in three FMCG categories. We find that stable contextual cues (same retailer, basket size or weekday as on previous occasions) further repurchasing whereas unstable contextual cues (a promotion on one of the occasions or a different assortment size) hinder repurchasing.

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Florian Follert – Assistant Professor für Unternehmensrechnung und Sportökonomik an der Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg

Der Fall der im deutschen Börsenindex DAX notierten Wirecard AG entwickelte sich im Sommer des Jahres 2020 zu einem der größten Betrugsskandale der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, da in der Bilanz des Unternehmens ausgewiesene Treuhandkonten mit einem Buchwert von etwa 2 Mrd. Euro nicht auffindbar waren. In der Folge entwickelte sich eine öffentliche Debatte um die Versäumnisse der entsprechenden Kontrollorgane auf unternehmensinterner, -externer und staatlicher Ebene. Insbesondere die Wirtschaftsprüfungsbranche sah sich großer Kritik ausgesetzt. Als Folge dieser Diskussion wurde im Herbst 2020 der Referentenentwurf für ein Finanzmarktintegritätsstärkungsgesetz durch die zuständigen Bundesministerien vorgelegt, welcher am 16.12.2020 in einen Gesetzesentwurf mündete. Dieser zielt auf eine weitere Verschärfung der Regulierung des Marktes für Abschlussprüfungen ab, was insbesondere durch Regelungen zur Prüfungsdauer, zur gleichzeitigen Beratung durch die prüfende Gesellschaft und zur Haftung des Abschlussprüfers erfolgen soll. Dabei stellt sich aus wissenschaftlicher Perspektive die Frage, ob das politisch sehr zügig vorangetriebene Maßnahmenpaket evidenzbasiert gestaltet wurde oder vielmehr aus einem politischen Kalkül heraus resultieren könnte. In diesem Projekt wird daher vor dem Hintergrund der Spezifika des Abschlussprüfermarkts der Referentenentwurf dahingehend untersucht, inwieweit die darin vorgeschlagenen Maßnahmen vor dem Hintergrund des Falls Wirecard und dem derzeitigen Stand der einschlägigen Forschung ökonomisch gerechtfertigt werden können. Im Ergebnis scheinen die Vorschläge weniger durch den Fall Wirecard oder die Erkenntnisse der empirischen Prüfungsmarktforschung erklärbar, sodass sich ein möglicher Erklärungsansatz der Neuen Politischen Ökonomie anbietet.

Frühere Forschungsseminare (2020)

Prof. em. Dr. Werner Güth – Emeritus director am Max-Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods

The presentation provides a broad methodological discussion beginning with a discussion of the rational choice approach as a purely philosophical exercise without any consideration of human cognition and psychology. Methodological dualism confronts this with the behavioral alternative of trying to describe and explain actual decision making and how one can improve it.
Via two experimental studies we partly illustrate the need to improve human decision making, irrespective whether or not it involves social and strategic interaction. A striking aspect of the second study is that crucial stochasticity crowds out altruistic sanctioning and rewarding. We conclude by offering a dynamic process framework for experimentally exploring rational decision making.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Martin Högl – Professor für Leadership und Organization an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Over the past years, a growing number of scholars have reported that Base of the Pyramid (BOP) communities engage in small, but creative activities as they are propelled by the necessity to find ways of supplementing their environmental scarcity (Ramachandran, Pant, & Pani, 2012). However, research remains rare on how creativity emerges at the BOP and whether this understanding provides the means for creative BOP business solutions (Radjou, Prabhu, & Ahuja, 2012). We focused on two cognitive concepts assumed to influence creative problem solving at the BOP: functional fixedness, i.e. the inability to generate an atypical function of an object after it has been primed with its typical function (Duncker, 1945), and resource parsimony, i.e. the frugal use of resources.

To test whether the BOP context has an influence on these two concepts, we conducted an experiment in South-Africa comparing individuals from a wealthy context (i.e. 57 students from a study program of one of the most prestigious universities in Africa) with 62 individuals from a BOP context (i.e. students from a program at the same university aiming at educating individuals from townships). The box problem (German & Barrett, 2005) was used to measure functional fixedness by the time to identify the box as fixedness object and resource parsimony by counting the number of objects used to solve the task. Surprisingly, the results show that both populations do not differ with regard to functional fixedness. They do, however, with regard to resource parsimony, in that individuals from the BOP context turn out to be more parsimonious.

By taking a bottom-up BOP rather than top-down corporate perspective like traditionally done in BOP research (Nakata, 2012), we offer an alternative approach to explore critical factors regarding the BOP as potential innovator. The fact that BOP individuals tend to display a more frugal mindset when it comes to deploy resources offers implication for BOP theory dealing with success factors for frugal innovation targeting the BOP (Prahalad & Mashelkar, 2010) and other global markets (Immelt, Govindarajan, & Trimble, 2009).

Frühere Forschungsseminare (2019)

Dr. Lukas Thürmer – Independent Researcher am Fachbereich Psychologie der Universität Salzburg

A recent focus on the “Industry 4.0” has highlighted how disruptive technologies change existing production processes within a short time frame. I argue that success in this endeavor requires a worker-centric perspective: Continued company success in changing markets depends on flexible employee adaptation, and most of these employees nowadays work in teams. These teams need to fulfill at least three main goals: (a) ensuring sufficient contributions by their members, (b) integrating available information effectively, and (c) creating and protecting a unifying team identity. One may argue that teams only need to “be motivated enough” to attain these goals; however, research at the individual and at the group level shows that a high goal commitment only leads to moderate increases of goal-directed behavior. Individuals can increase their rates of goal attainment by augmenting goals with an if-then plan (implementation intention, e.g., When I encounter situation S, then I will perform goal-directed action R!). I therefore argue that teams need to supplement their goals with a we-if-then plan (collective implementation intention, e.g., When we encounter situation S, then we will perform goal-directed action R!) to attain their goals. I report research on information integration in hidden profile decisions, investments in escalation of commitment situations, and consumer decisions in social contexts. I will discuss how the combination of basic and applied research makes unique contributions towards mastering teamwork in the “Industry 4.0”.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Alexandra Zaby – Professorin für Volkswirtschaftslehre, insbesondere Innovationsökonomie an der Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg

The digitization of trust as well as decreased transaction costs were the pre-requisites for the recent emergence of a Sharing Economy. Regarding shared mobility we argue that especially ride-sourcing could induce a behavioral change when moving to alternative forms of mobility. Our analyses focusses on the transition from owning a car to using the services of a ride-sharing network. In a first step we investigate observable patterns of UBER entry strategies in different US cities. This case study reveals that the availability of public transportation in a city plays a crucial role for UBER’s market entry strategies. In a second step we develop a general model describing the entry of a platform offering ride sharing, implementing the lessons learned from the case study. In the model the comparative advantage of sharing increases in the number of users who share, whereas the demand for the platform increases in the number of consumers who do not own a car. The entering platform thus initially under-prices access to ride-sharing in order to dissuade potential users from acquiring a car and to grow a larger base of potential customers. A larger base of users uncommitted to their own car, however, also attracts competitive entry by a rival platform. The threat of rival entry reduces incentives for under-pricing, which can lead to persistent excessive inertia in self-ownership of cars. The incentive for under-pricing and the risk of excessive inertia are higher, the larger the share of potential customers initially owning a car, whereas the opposite is true, the larger the share of potential customers using public transportation. The development and expansion of public transportation is thus identified as a possible lever to encourage the deployment of shared mobility.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dominik van Aaken – Professor für Strategisches Management und Organisation an der Universität Salzburg

Social class has begun to attract interest in management research on how managers’ choices are constructed and carried out. In this paper, we examine how the social-class origin of CEOs determines a firm’s growth. Our study draws on social psychology, imprinting and social class theory and considers a variety of factors that may influence the effects of social-class origin. The results we derived from a sample of 1,799 German CEOs indicate that the social class of a CEO’s parents have a lasting, multifaceted impact on several dimensions of firm growth.

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Florian Offergelt – Assistant Professor for Organizational Knowledge Management and Leadership an der Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg

Knowledge hiding (KH), the intentional attempt of withholding knowledge requested by colleagues or employees is a behavior found in organizations around the globe and across all industries. Although KH has only recently become the subject of greater scientific attention, far-reaching consequences are already known. For instance, considering the consequences of KH on an organizational level, the 500 largest American companies by revenue are estimated to lose more than $30 billion each year owing to unshared knowledge. In several studies, we have examined the role of leaders in the development of KH behavior among employees. We also investigated the individual consequences of KH on the perpetrator. In addition to the expansion of theoretical knowledge on the topic of KH, practical recommendations are given on how organizations and leaders can contribute to reducing the deliberate withholding of knowledge in everyday organizational life.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Reinhard Grohs – Professor für Sportmanagement und Studiengangsleiter Bachelorprogramm Sport- und Eventmanagement an der Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg

On the background of the rising economic relevance of professional sports, this paper develops a novel conceptualization of brand associations in professional team sports and relates these associations to brand-relevant outcomes. A free association task administered through an online survey elicited 18,140 top-of-mind brand associations from a representative sample of 4,450 consumers for a total of 36 different sport team brands. A combination of inductive and deductive data analysis results in five broad brand association categories consisting of 32 brand association types and provides evidence that these five association categories affect consumer brand attitudes.

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Julia Kensbock – Assistant Professor for Organization and Strategy an der Maastricht University

We introduce a new way of seeing burnout as a phenomenon being much more pervasive, devastating, and enduring than previously thought. Building upon knowledge from medical science—specifically, infectious disease epidemiology—we theorize burnout-related syndromes as infectious, epidemic diseases that is able to spread not only within, but also across the boundaries of organizations. We suggest a framework for assessing the patterns of burnout transmission, with employee mobility serving as the driver of disease contagion across organizations. We empirically test the proposed burnout transmission patterns by observing more than 250,000 employees and more than 17,000 Danish firms over a time period of 12 years. Our findings reveal that newly hired burned-out employees as well as employees leaving prior burned-out organizations (with a high prevalence of burnout in their workforces) serve as carriers of the burnout disease. More strikingly, once burnout-related diseases are “implanted” into the hiring organization, our results indicate that the spreading of burnout is so extensive that it reaches the magnitude of an epidemic. We advance theories in the field of burnout by integrating knowledge from infectious disease epidemiology, which helps to see burnout and burnout contagion in a novel way.

Ass.-Prof. Ewald Kibler, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director of the Master’s Programme in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management an der Aalto University

The current work presents a theoretical and empirical account of the mechanisms by which shared emotions among, and created, by entrepreneurial agents enable institutional work. By doing so, this work seeks to propose and discuss new ways to expand knowledge at the intersection of emotions, entrepreneurship and institutions.

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Tim Vriend – Assistant Professor for Human Resource Management & Organizational Behavior an der University of Groningen

Given the increasing intercultural context in which people work, self-other agreement between leaders and observers has become more important for leadership development and effectiveness than ever. Empirical evidence for the effects of cultural differences within culturally dissimilar leader-observer dyads is lacking. Based on literature on self-other agreement, Implicit Leadership Theory, and the Approach/Inhibition Theory of Power, we hypothesize that cultural dissimilarity within leader-observer dyads decreases self-other agreement and that this effect is stronger for leader-superior than leader-subordinate dyads. We use an extensive dataset of 8,984 leaders rated by 26,788 subordinates and 12,023 superiors across 41 different nationalities to test our hypotheses. Results demonstrate that cultural dissimilarity indeed reduces agreement on leadership behaviors. Moreover, it is shown that these effects are more pronounced for leader-superior than leader-subordinate dyads. These results have important implications for the theory and practice of self-other agreement and multisource feedback systems.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Gunnar Mau – Professor für Wirtschaftspsychologie, Studiengangsleiter für Wirtschaftspsychologie an der Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg

Während Wissenschaft und Politik diskutieren, ob und wie Kinder bei Lebensmitteln auf mögliche Gefahren hingewiesen werden können, ist bis heute weitgehend unklar, ob solche Hinweise bei Kindern überhaupt wirken. Dass eine positive Wirkung aber nicht vorausgesetzt werden kann, ergibt sich bereits aus dem Entwicklungsprozess der Kinder: Tatsächlich reifen bestimmte kognitive, für das Verständnis von Warnhinweisen notwendige Fähigkeiten erst mit zunehmenden Alter. Gleichzeitig hängen konsumspezifische Erfahrungen auch von der Sozialisierung durch Eltern, Schule und Umfeld der Kinder ab.

Wie können Kinder dann gesunde von ungesunden Produkten unterscheiden? Und welchen Beitrag liefern Warnhinweise? Empirisch gesichertes Wissen liegt dazu bisher kaum vor. Zudem wird die Rolle der Marken kaum berücksichtigt, die aber großen Einfluss auf die Konsumentscheidung der Jugendlichen nehmen. Vor diesem Hintergrund führten wir eine Studie durch, die sowohl Wirkung von Warnhinweisen als auch der Markenbeliebtheit auf Kinder zwischen 8 und 11 Jahren testete.

Hierfür entwarfen wir zwei Limonaden: Eine Limonade einer Marke, die sich in Vorstudien als unbeliebt entpuppte (Barbie), und eine mit einer Marke, die sich als beliebt herausstellte (adidas). Diese Getränke wurden 108 Schülern zusammen mit einer gesunden Alternative dargeboten – bei der Hälfte der Schüler verbunden mit einer Warnung vor der Schädlichkeit der Limonade für Zähne.

Tatsächlich legen die Ergebnisse einen Einfluss des Warnhinweises nahe: Gewarnte Schüler griffen seltener zur süßen Limonade (41% ohne Warnung, mit Warnhinweis nur 22 %). Dabei zeigte sich dieser Effekt nur bei der unbeliebten Limonadenmarke, bei der beliebten Marke hatte die Warnung keinen nachweisbaren Effekt. Offensichtlich sind Kinder bei Lebensmitteln beliebter Marken eher dazu bereit, Warnungen in den Wind zu schlagen. Daraus erwächst für die Hersteller von Produkten beliebter Marken eine besondere Verantwortung.

Frühere Forschungsseminare (2018)

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Matthias Spörrle –  Professor für Wirtschaftspsychologie, Studiengangsleiter für Wirtschaftspsychologie (Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg)

We present preliminary evidence of an experimental study which addressess evolutionary sleeping site preferences examining young children.

Assoc.-Prof. Dr. Ursula Scholl-Grissemann –  Associate Professor für Service Marketing & Konsumverhalten (Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg)

The nature of services has shift dramatically in recent years. Customers, more than ever, demand greater involvement, customization, and personalization from services. Online banking, arranging travel packages online, and using self-service kiosks at airports represent daily routines for many customers. The Internet and the raise of big data and advanced analytics allow companies to personalize and tailor their services. Moreover, it also grants customers access to a wide range of opportunities to engage with companies. In our research, we identify outcomes of such customer participation behaviors, including increased loyalty intentions, satisfaction with a company, and purchase intentions. Our research contributes to marketing management by revealing not only whether or if participation leads to positive customer responses but also how and in which circumstances these effects arise. Another key tenet involves the question of for whom these effects occur—that is, which individual traits strengthen the effects of customer participation on customer responses. Answering such how and when questions can lead to a deeper understanding of key phenomena and new insights into how that understanding can be applied.

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Plank –  Assistant Professor Management & Sustainability (Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg)

This study contributes to prior research on ethical consumption by comparing the effects of driver and barrier variables on Fair Trade purchasing intentions and observed Fair Trade purchasing behavior. Combining observation in the field with a survey, this study shows that while attitude, ethical obligation, and self-identity have positive effects on Fair Trade purchasing intentions these factors have no effects on actual Fair Trade purchasing behavior. The results moreover show that price sensitivity and inertia are barriers to ethical consumption. Comparing self-reported intentions and observed actual behavior this study contributes to our understanding of the ethical purchasing gap. The results show that consumers who don’t walk their talk are more price sensitive, exhibit more inertia in purchasing behavior, and have a lower income than consumers with consistent Fair Trade purchasing intentions and Fair Trade purchasing behavior.

Univ.-Prof. PD Dr. Thomas M. Schneidhofer, Professor für Personalmanagement und Organisation, Studiengangsleiter für Betriebswirtschaftslehre, Leiter des Standortes Wien (Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg)

Die Einwerbung von Drittmitteln steht an fast allen wissenschaftlichen Einrichtungen an erster Stelle. Obwohl sie als „Pervertierung von Forschung unter ökonomischen Gesichtspunkten“ bezeichnet werden kann (Liessmann, 2006, S. 96), die im Gegensatz zu demnach verpönter „Gelegenheitsforschung“ (ibidem, S. 97) den Rahmen der Freiheit in Forschung einzuengen imstande ist, wird sie gerne auch als eines jener Kriterien herangezogen, die den Wert von Wissenschafter_innen evaluieren. Auf dieser Dimension zu reüssieren wird jedoch zunehmend schwieriger: Während beispielsweise beim FWF im Jahr 1978 78% der Anträge angenommen wurden (Tuppy, 1978), sank die Bewilligungsquote bis zum Jahr 2013 auf 25,8% (Illetschko, 2015), Tendenz leicht steigend (2016 waren es 26,1%, Rebitsch & Steinmüller, 2017).

Daher stellt sich die Frage, ob und wie man alternative Möglichkeiten der Forschungsfinanzierung lukrieren könnte. Für Unternehmen gibt es hier die Möglichkeit des Crowdfundings, einer internetbasierten Methode des Fundraisings, bei dem Einzelne mittels Inaussichtstellung kleinerer Geldspenden durch die Masse („Crowd“) zur Förderung größerer Projekte – vor allem Start-ups und Kunst – beitragen (Mollick, 2014). Diese Idee wurde insbesondere für die Naturwissenschaften bereits auf den Forschungsbetrieb übertragen (vgl. z.B. Hui et al., 2014; Wheat et al., 2013). Dieser Vortrag soll die Möglichkeiten darstellen, Crowdfunding für die Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften zu nützen und insbesondere das (a) warum, (b) weswegen und (c) wie zu thematisieren.

Hui, J., Gerber, E., & Gergle, D. (2014). “Understanding and leveraging social networks in crowdfunding: implications for support tools”. Paper presented at the CHI – Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 26 April – 1 May, Toronto, Canada.
Illetschko, P. (2015, 27. Jänner). Zu wenig Butter auf dem Brot: FWF verschärft Antragsrichtlinien. DerStandard, 27. Jänner.
Liessmann, K. P. (2006), “Theorie der Unbildung. Die Irrtümer der Wissensgesellschaft”, Wien, Paul Zsolnay Verlag.
Mollick, E. (2014), “The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study”, Journal of Business Venturing, 29, 1-16.
Rebitsch, R., & Steinmüller, K. (2017). Fördermöglichkeiten regional, national und international, Seminar Antragstellung und Projektmanagement. Universität Innsbruck.
Tuppy, H. (1978). Bericht an das Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung über die Tätigkeit des FONDS im Jahre 1978, über die Lage und die längerfristigen Bedürfnisse wissenschaftlicher Forschung (Jahresbericht für 1978). Wien: FWF.
Wheat, R. E., Wang, Y., Byrnes, J. E., & Ranganathan, J. (2013), “Raising money for scientific research through crowdfunding”, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 28, 2, 71-72.

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Roland Schroll – Assistant Professor for Marketing & Innovation an der Universität Innsbruck

By 2020, 85% of all customer interactions are estimated to happen without any human involvement. While, this automation and standardization saves costs and time, it deprives customer interactions of their human element. De-humanizing interactions might be counter-effective, given that service recovery and relationship marketing literature find that interactions that include a human touch are generally more effective. Consequently, marketers are interested in efficient ways to add a human element to standardized customer interactions. As a response and across five studies involving both lab and field settings, the current research investigates the effects of humanizing service recovery efforts. The research shows that customer interactions (e.g., an apology letter after a service failure) can be humanized by adding a cue that makes human involvement salient (e.g., a handwritten typeface) and, thus, creates a sense of human presence. A sense of human presence enhances consumer responses to service recovery because of increased perceptions of interactional justice.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christoph Stöckmann – Professor für Innovation und Entrepreneurship (Schwerpunkt Digital Business) Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg

Eine entrepreneuriale Orientierung (EO), also eine innovative, proaktive und risikofreudige Ausrichtung der Unternehmung, gilt – sowohl für junge als auch für etablierte Unternehmen – als bedeutender Treiber von organisationalem Erfolg. Obwohl EO zu einem der am häufigsten untersuchten Konzepte der Entrepreneurship- und Managementforschung gehört, existieren kaum Studienergebnisse, die die Genese von EO erklären. Die vorliegende Studie identifiziert ein gut entwickeltes transaktives Gedächtnissystem (Transactive Memory System; TMS) als Antezedens der EO. Bei einem gut entwickelten TMS sind sich die Teammitglieder dem speziellen Wissen der anderen Teammitglieder bewusst, vertrauen diesem Wissen und sind in der Lage, das spezielle Wissen effektiv zu koordinieren. Damit fördert es das Verlassen etablierter Routinen und begünstigt das Engagement in komplexe und Nicht-Routine-Aufgaben, wozu unternehmerisches Verhalten gezählt werden darf. Basierend auf sozialpsychologischen und -kognitiven Theorien wird eine sequentielle Mediation hypothetisiert, die TMS über die Anregung von Teamlernen, gemeinschaftlicher Entscheidungsfindung und Teamidentifikation mit EO verbindet. Eine empirische Studie mit 56 funktional-spezialisierten Führungsteams (255 Antworten) aus dezentralisierten Niederlassungen eines internationalen Logistikunternehmens unterstützt die hypothetisierten Beziehungen. Die Ergebnisse der Studie erweitern die Forschung in den Feldern TMS und EO und liefern praktische Impulse zur Gestaltung der Zusammenarbeit in Führungsteams.

Prof. Dr. Andranik Tumasjan – Interim Professor for Management and Digital Transformation (Universität Mainz)

With the emergence of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, so called initial coin offerings (ICO) provide startups with a new form of financing. In this talk, we focus on the question which factors of a blockchain startup influence the funds raised during ICOs and to what extent ICOs are comparable to other forms of startup financing (e.g., venture capital). We address this question using a unique dataset of 278 ICO projects including data on funds raised, startup team characteristics, business model quality, and social media presence. Our study pioneers research in the field of ICOs as a novel form of startup fundraising. We discuss future research needs in this growing but as yet under-researched area.

Ass.-Prof. Clemens Hutzinger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor für Organizational Behavior (Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg)

According to Social Comparison Theory, people judge their own abilities based on how similar they perceive themselves to others. Assuming to be similar to others leads to an assimilation of perceived abilities. Assuming to be dissimilar to others leads to a contrast of perceived abilities. The present work investigates the role of social comparisons on people’s estimation of their abilities in future group situations. In a 2 (influence of the observed person: low vs. high) x 2 (social distance: low vs. high) between subjects experimental design, 205 female participants estimated their anticipated influence in group discussions after viewing a video of a 5-person group solving a problem. Results showed that participants observing the low-influence person, estimated themselves higher in anticipated influence, as compared to participants observing the high-influence person, which represents a contrast effect. Exploratory analysis using the manipulation check items revealed that the more similar and close participants felt to the high-influence person, the higher they estimated their own anticipated influence. Furthermore, the more similar and close participants felt to the low-influence person, the lower they estimated their own anticipated influence. These results show an assimilation effect, which matches theoretical assumptions. Results are discussed and future research is outlined.

Frühere Forschungsseminare (2017)

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Eva Lermer (Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg)
Subjective risk estimates are of great importance for many areas of life (e.g., insurance and banking industry). However, the question of how to measure risk estimates is still ambiguous and underlying psychological processes are not yet well understood. As a suggestion for a starting point for the development of an integrative framework, a model, the Risk Assessment Matrix, is presented. The Risk Assessment Matrix combines evidence-based theoretical approaches of probabilistic reasoning (singular vs. distributional) and kind of thinking (intuitive vs. deliberative).

Prof. Dr. Gregor Weihs (Universität Innsbruck)
Die Naturwissenschaften und einige Disziplinen in den Sozialwissenschaften haben eine lange Tradition in experimenteller Forschung. Die wissenschaftlichen Standards haben sich jedoch unterschiedlich entwickelt und in aktuellen Studien werden diese unterschiedlich angewandt und bewertet. Dieses Forschungsseminar dient dem interdisziplinären Austausch zwischen Experimentalphysik und Experimentalpsychologie zu disziplinspezifischen Experimentalstandards und deren Anwendung und Bewertung in aktuellen wissenschaftlichen Studien.

Your Content Goes HereUniv.-Prof. Dr. Harald Stummer (UMIT)
The diary study focused on the specific tasks a person had performed for work outside of office hours, how long, and why. In total, 70 managers of three organizations (two hospitals, one technical company) participated. For the statistical analysis for this paper we could draw on 45 complete surveys and 205 diary entries. For testing the relationship between the drivers of availability outside office hours and its extent, we used a regression analysis. For the dependent variable, we calculated the average daily extent of availability as reported in the diary study, which was slightly above 37 minutes per participant and day. (We had also asked for an estimation of the extent in the survey, which was typically lower.) The sum indices of the above mentioned scales plus the hierarchical level (dummy coded; reference category: top management) were included as independent variables. For this regression model, 34 participants were investigated.
The findings imply that the higher a person is up in the hierarchy, the higher they also score for average availability during off-hours. However, the ability to detach almost halves the average availability. Therefore, training mainly topmanagers in detachment skills would have positive outcomes for them – a decrease of worklife imbalances –and for the organization.

Prof. Dr. Bernd Frick (Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg)
Using a large dataset including more than 54,000 different wines that have been produced by some 800 wineries over the period 2010 thru 2017 we show that the returns to ecological behavior are statistically significant and economically highly relevant: Self-declared eco-wineries can charge about 5 percent higher prices per bottle than observationally similar conventional wineries raising the question why only a small minority of all German wine-makers produce eco-friendly wines (about 10 percent). Moreover, eco-certification is associated with yet another statistically significant and economically relevant price premium of 5 percent per bottle, suggesting that the costs that are associated with the production of this signal are high enough to achieve a separating equilibrium.

Assoc.-Prof. Dr. Theresa Treffers (Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg)
How should organizational teams be composed to optimize their performance in complex tasks that require fast and accurate decisions? Recent research suggests that teams perform better when they learn from each other, but we know little what stimulates team learning. Defining team learning as a cognitive process and knowing that cognitions and emotions are interlinked, a team’s affective composition might influence if and how teams learn. While some studies address the role of team affect in team cognitive processes, they only look at diversity in positive affect among team members and only consider singular aspects of the learning process, e.g., information sharing. Thus, neglected in extant studies is diversity in negative affect among team members and how diversity in positive and negative affect would influence various team learning processes (i.e., action, reflection, adaption) and team performance. This study investigates in an experimental setting how different affective trait compositions among team members influence a team’s learning processes and performance. In our experiment, teams are randomly formed according to team members’ individual levels of positive and negative affective traits. The subsequent experimental task is completed in several rounds to allow team learning and team performance is measured after every round of the task in terms of speed and accuracy. This study contributes to organization theory on how team affective trait composition enhances team learning and performance and delivers practical implications about how to compose high performance teams.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Reinhard Grohs (Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg)
Using a data set from the Deutsche Bundesliga, Germany’s highest level football league with 18 soccer clubs, we model changes in each team’s Facebook fans as a function of its Facebook interactions (likes, shares, comments), heterogeneity of posts (Herfindahl-Index of post types), sponsor mentions (number), and team success (rank), controlling for different types of posts (statuses, videos, photos, links, and questions), different activations (requests, questions, competitions, auctions, and promotions), and idiosyncratic characteristics of the 18 soccer clubs. Data were collected for every team on every day of the 2012/13 Deutsche Bundesliga season. The data set consists of 5,472 (304 days x 18 soccer clubs) observations with overall 18,574 Facebook messages. Analyses show that interactions, heterogeneity of posts, and team success have significant positive effects on the relative change in a team’s Facebook fans. In addition, interactions on a team’s Facebook fan page are significantly positively influenced by the heterogeneity of posts, by photo posts, and by request activations, and significantly negatively influenced by competition activations. Modeling issues and managerial implications are discussed.