Browsing Departments by Title
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The Case of 'Making-or-Buying' ArticlesVang, Jan (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In this paper the two canonical theories of the firm - transaction costs economics and the knowledge-based view of the firm – predictions on ‘make-or-buy’ are tested on the news industry. The news industry provides an interesting case on which to test the two theories since it is characterized by a high degree of urgency. Urgency refers to the need to catch and process inputs fast. A tendency that is becoming more widespread in other industries where the production cycle tends to be reduced. The test is don on original data on the newspaper industry collected by the author. The conclusions drawn are that that newspapers are organized differently than is predicted from the knowledge-based view of the firm and transaction cost economics. The newspapers do no specialize in core competencies measured in terms of topics covered. On the contrary, a precondition for outsourcing is well-developed competencies in house. The widespread use of integration cannot either be explained as a solution to hold up either, such as transaction cost economics predicts. The reason behind has to be sought in urgency. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7259 Files in this item: 1
03-13.pdf (345.4Kb) -
Foss, Nicilai J.; Klein, Peter G.; Linder, Stefan (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Austrian economics focuses on markets, but has much to say about organizations. In particular, Austrian insights on the structure of production, the heterogeneity and subjectivity of resources, the nature of uncertainty, the role of monetary calculation, and the function of the entrepreneur provide solid foundations for a distinctly Austrian theory of organizations. We review these insights, discuss recent literature on Austrian economics and the theory of the firm, and suggest new directions for developing and extending an Austrian approach to organizations. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8692 Files in this item: 1
Foss_Klein_Linder_SMGWP2013.pdf (544.3Kb) -
(Re)assembling work in the Danish PostMogensen, Mette (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The well-being of employees is currently a central matter of concern both in public and private companies. If employees do not feel well, in the last instance they might experience a burn out or fall ill from stress and thus add to the highly costly yet ever growing number filling up the statistics of this modern epidemic. In short, well-being is key to productivity. For sure this is not a new story, but at the core of organization and management theory: how to best organize the human resources of production balancing off the need for increased productivity and the preservation of physical and mental resources of the worker? In contrast to classic principles such as Taylor’s scientific management, it seems today generally agreed that well-being thrives when work is organized by principles of ‘flexibility’, ‘learning’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘creativity’. However, at the same time workplaces and organizations are under an enormous pressure towards standardization and optimization. This dissertation investigates empirically competing or intersecting ways of organizing well-being and productivity, with an analytic outset in the work task, departing from historically generated, however still prevalent, dichotomies and normativities of standardization and flexibility respectively. The empirical case of the dissertation is the organization of postal work in a big and formerly publicly run distribution company in Denmark. Based on an ethnographic field work and the employment of an auto-photographic method, the dissertation investigates how the current and simultaneous efforts of standardization and flexibility configure the well-being(s) and productivities of postal work. The theoretical framework is primarily informed by Actor Network Theory and the dissertation attend to a detailed investigation of how well-being and productivity are enacted in the daily work practices and the constant shifting/delegation going on between the inscribed postal worker of work tools, standard procedures and management programs on the one side and the routinized bodies of the postal workers on the other. Most of the time this results in ‘working compatibilities’ silently enacting bodies-with-standards that are both productive and well. At other times, however, controversy and conflicts arise, pointing to the fact that the presence of multiple modes of organizing are not always productive. The empirical chapters departs from selected auto-photographs that prompt different unfoldings of the way postal work is organized – or sought organized – and the way well-being and productivity arise as effects of these organizations. In this unfolding the analysis proceed on a tension between phenomenological and actor-network theoretical readings of empirical material creating a patchwork-like assemblage of postal work. This involves a stitching together of highly mundane, corporeal practices and material such as bicycles and kickstands, personal experiences, the researcher’s interpretations, the technical scripts of electric bikes, the norms of postal workers, the discourse of management and the political-economic developments of European postal markets. Through the empirical chapters, the dissertation depicts postal work not as a story of standardization versus flexibility, but as a constant ‘juggling’ and balancing act between them. This is not a story of humanization or the opposite, it is both at once. It is not a story of stabilization or perpetual change, it is both at once. It is a story of the hanging-togetherness of an organization that displays multiple versions of well-being and productivity as well as multiple controversies as a result of this. Depending on the stakes one has in this complex organizational set-up, whether one is the postal worker, the local manager, the HR consultant or perhaps the customer, preferences will differ, and indeed this is an important discussion. What is the better way to organize postal work? The analysis presented in the dissertation will not deliver the answer to this, but hopefully make the discussion a more qualified one, by displacing old truths. Having as point of departure and final emphasis a heuristics of the work task, the thesis aims to contribute to a specification of organization theory, HRM and work environment theorizing, which otherwise tend to have lost its primary object: work. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8589 Files in this item: 1
Mette_Mogensen.pdf (9.923Mb) -
past and future directionsFüssel, Lanni (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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Competency and Change in Public Sector Work PracticesHull Kristensen, Peer; Bojesen, Anders (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper invites to discuss the processes of individualization and organizing being carried out under what we might see as an emerging regime of change. The underlying argumentation is that in certain processes of change, competence becomes questionable at all times. The hazy characteristics of this regime of change are pursued through a discussion of competencies as opposed to qualifications illustrated by distinct cases from the Danish public sector in the search for repetitive mechanisms. The cases are put into a general perspective by drawing upon experiences from similar change processes in MNCs. The paper concludes by asking whether we can escape from a regime of competence in a world defined by a rhetoric of change and create a more promising world in which doubt and search serve as a strategy for gaining knowledge and professionalism that improve on our capability for mutualism. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7376 Files in this item: 1
organizing process.pdf (581.6Kb) -
An Entrepreneurial Theory of Economic OrganizationKlein, Peter G.; Foss, Nicolai J.; Foss, Kirsten (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Recent work links entrepreneurship to the economic theory of firm using the Knightian concept of entrepreneurship as judgment. When judgment is complementary to other as-sets, and these assets or their services are traded in well-functioning markets, it makes sense for entrepreneurs to hire labor and own assets. The entrepreneur’s role, then, is to arrange or organize the human and capital assets under his control. We extend this Knightian concept of the firm by developing a theory of delegation under Knightian uncertainty. What we call original judgment belongs exclusively to owners, but owners may delegate a wide range of decision rights to subordinates, who exercise derived judgment. We call these employees "proxy-entrepreneurs," and ask how the firm’s or-ganizational structure — its formal and informal systems of rewards and punishments, rules for settling disputes and renegotiating agreements, means of evaluating perform-ance, and so on — can be designed to encourage forms of proxy-entrepreneurship that increase firm value while discouraging actions that destroy value. Building on key ideas from the entrepreneurship literature, Austrian economics, and the economic theory of the firm we develop a framework for analyzing the tradeoff between productive and de-structive proxy-entrepreneurship. We link this analysis to the employment relation and ownership structure, providing new insights into these and related issues in the eco-nomic theory of the firm. Keywords: Judgment, entrepreneur, delegation, employment relation, ownership. JEL Codes: B53, D23, L2 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7452 Files in this item: 1
smg 2006-48.pdf (368.6Kb) -
Mikkelsen, Line; Hardt, Daniel; Ørsnes, Bjarne (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Overt VP anaphors like do so, do it and do the same can host a following PP (Culicover & Jackendoff (2005:285–6), Huddleston & Pullum (2002:1533), Miller (2011:5–6), Sobin (2008:150, 155–157)): (1) The House is set to take up the final version of the funding bill tomorrow. The Senate will do the same on Thursday. [COCA] (2) You have jilted two previous fiances and I expect you would do the same to me. [COCA] Using (1) to fix terminology, the ANAPHOR is do the same, the ANTECEDENT is take up the final version of the funding bill, the ORPHAN is on Tuesday, and the CORRELATE is tomorrow. Examples like (2) are of particular interest because the correlate (two previous fiances) is inside the antecedent and, consequently, the orphan and the antecedent must interact to produce the interpretation of the clause containing the anaphor. In order to arrive at the interpretation ‘you would jilt me’, the me of the orphan must take the place of two previous fiances inside the antecedent VP. A superficially similar situation arises with remnants of ellipsis, including pseudogapping (3), sluicing (4), and fragment answers (5). In each case, the interpretation of the ellipsis clause combines part of the antecedent with all or part of the remnant. (3) I wouldn’t say that to my mother, but I would to you. (4) I know he gave the dresser away, but I don’t know to who. (5) Q: Who did he give the dresser to? A: To me. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8469 Files in this item: 1
mikkelsen_hardt_oersnes_2011.pdf (136.1Kb) -
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Lessons from EstoniaKhoury, Sarkis Joseph; Wihlborg, Clas (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The literature on Currency Boards (CB) stops at the water edge in terms of dealing with the totality of the functions of a central bank. Monetary policy, and banking supervision can be "outsourced" in an open economy with substantial foreign direct investment (FDI) in the banking sector if political nationalism does not trump economic rationality. An orthodox CB renders the central banking function redundant in terms of interest rate and exchange rate determination. FDI in banking could perform the same role for the supervisory function of central banks. We use the case of Estonia to illustrate the feasibility of, and constraints on, outsourcing of central bank functions. A brief discussion of the Argentinian experience is used for contrast. Key words: Currency Board, Foreign Banks, Supervision, Regional Integration,outsourcing. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7168 Files in this item: 1
wplefic032005.pdf (270.1Kb) -
Bennedsen, Morten; Schultz, Christian (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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reducing employee computer crime through Situational Crime PreventionWillison, Robert; Siponen, Mikko (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Employee computer crime represents a substantial threat for organisations. Yet information security researchers and practitioners currently lack a clear understanding of how these crimes are perpetrated, which, as a consequence, hinders security efforts. We argue that recent developments in criminology can assist in addressing the insider threat. More specifically, we demonstrate how an approach, entitled Situational Crime Prevention, can not only enhance an understanding of employee computer crime, but also strengthen security practices which are designed to address this problem. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6456 Files in this item: 1
11_2006.pdf (167.9Kb) -
Industry Involvment in the Development of Energy RegulationsGeorg, Susse; Garza de Linde, Gabriela; Schweber, Libby; Sexton, Martin (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The 2002 European Union (EU) directive on the energy performance of buildings (Directive 2002/91/EC) set minimum standards on the energy performance of new buildings and existing buildings. It also indicated that these would be subject to periodic renovation. In some countries the directive supported policymakers in their bid for national commitments to carbon reduction. In others, it affirmed existing commitments. In most countries, it informed the ongoing reformulation of building regulations. This paper explores energy related developments in building regulations for new housing in Denmark (DK) and the United Kingdom (UK). The interest of the comparison lies in similarities in the type of changes introduced into the regulations and differences in industry responses. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8406 Files in this item: 1
Susse_Georg_2.pdf (97.79Kb) -
Med udgangspunkt i støtteverbers leksikaliseringsmønstre i dansk og franskHein, Birgitte (Frederiksberg, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Enhver oversætter mellem et germansk sprog som dansk og et romansk sprog som fransk ved, at det ofte er bestemte sproglige konstruktioner, der volder problemer. En af disse konstruktioner består af et støtteverbum og et objekt, der tilsammen danner en semantisk enhed. Da denne konstruktion er hyppigt forekommende, specielt i juridiske og administrative tekster, kan det være af både praktisk og teoretisk værdi at skaffe et klarere billede af, hvordan konstruktionerne idiomatisk opbygges og bruges på de to sprog. Undersøgelsen søger at indskrive sig i en sammenhæng, der vedrører både oversættelse og lingvistisk beskrivelse, ud fra et ønske om at en komparativ beskrivelse skal kunne give en oversætter viden, som han kan bruge i sit praktiske arbejde. De fleste, som har benyttet computer-støttede oversættelser, må være enige i, at det stadig er nødvendigt med kvalificeret menneskelig oversættelse, hvis man skal have en idiomatisk korrekt og brugbart resultat. Der er ganske vist i dag mulighed for computer-støttede ”rå-oversættelser”. Somme tider kan disse oversættelser tjene til for eksempel at give en internetbruger et hurtigt indtryk af indholdet af en web-side på et sprog, som han ikke behersker.... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8623 Files in this item: 1
Birgitte_Hein.pdf (776.8Kb) -
Clemmensen, Torkil; Roese, Kerstin (, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In this paper, we analyze the concept of human-computer interaction in cultural and national contexts. Building and extending upon the framework for understanding research in usability and culture by Honold [3], we give an overview of publications in culture and HCI between 1998 and 2008, with a narrow focus on high-level journal publications only. The purpose is to review current practice in how cultural HCI issues are studied, and to analyse problems with the measures and interpretation of this studies. We find that Hofstede’s cultural dimensions has been the dominating model of culture, participants have been picked because they could speak English, and most studies have been large scale quantitative studies. In order to balance this situation, we recommend that more researchers and practitioners do qualitative, empirical work studies. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7948 Files in this item: 1
WP_2009_003.pdf (415.2Kb) -
Does negative equity exist as a permanent feature in the Danish housing market?Lunde, Jens (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: House and flat prices have been through a tremendous bust and boom cycle in Denmark. From 1986 to 1993 real prices for houses and flats dropped by one third on average, foreclosures accounted for around 1/6 of the house and flat turnovers in numbers, and in reality the market for owner-occupied houses and flats was in a crisis. Initiated by a strong interest rate drop and by an expansive finance policy, the market turned. From 1993H1 to 2004H1 real house prices increased 76% and real flat prices 128%. Moreover, Denmark has a leading position in the international household debt race and as in many other countries the fear of the consequences of a strong interest rate increase for the housing market is widespread. Therefore, in order to examine the financial stability among owner-occupiers, a sample of approx. 40,000 owner-occupier families with data at household level has been drawn from the tax statistics for each year from 1987 to 2003. Through the analysis it is shown that the distributions of the owner-occupiers’ capital structure, measured by the net liability/housing wealth ratios, have more or less been the same throughout the 16 years, even during the long-lasting steep house and flat price rise. Moreover, since 1994 the median value of the net liability/income ratio has increased by 71% for all owner-occupiers and by 54% for owner-occupiers between 30-39 years of age.Finally, one last, important aspect of the financial stability of owner-occupiers, namely, their capacity to service their debt has been analysed. The owner-occupiers’ net interest expenditures/ income ratios before tax have been nearly halved from 1987 to 2003. Most of the drop happened during the years of the "housing market failure". From 1994 on the ratios were more slightly reduced and were in 2003 at 8.8% (median value) for all owner-occupiers and 12.2% for owner-occupiers between 30-39 years of age. However, if the reductions of the tax rates for deducting interest expenditures are taken into account, the 2003 after-tax-ratios are only about 2 percentage points below the 1987 after-tax ratios. At March 2005, a new challenge facing Danish owner-occupiers is that 50% of their mortgages carry interest adjustment. Keywords: house prices, housing wealth, real estate wealth, housing debt, mortgage debt, personal wealth, personal finance, loan-to-value, debt-to-income, interest expenditures, interest-to-income, financial stability. JEL classifications: D 14, E 44, G 21, R 20, R 31. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7197 Files in this item: 1
endeligt_wp_jens_lunde_2005_3.pdf (1.494Mb) -
Insights from Annual General MeetingsStrand, Therese (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This thesis consists of five empirical studies, all relating to shareholder activism at annual general meetings. The first study concerns the structure and content of general meetings in Denmark and Sweden comparatively. The paper reveals significant differences in the level of activism, with Swedish investors being the most active in terms of proposals, proxy voting, and ‘voice’. The paper takes a legal approach, and discusses divergence in activism levels from the perspective of shareholder prerequisites to engage in monitoring efforts. Further, the paper investigating the topics addressed through questions and opinions. The results show that matters which can be categorized as irrelevant are reasonably rare. This is an important finding, as suggestions to abolish general meetings have often been based on the assumption that general meetings facilitate nothing but irrelevant, time consuming, and costly discussions that serves no monitoring function. The second study analyses the impact of voting power on shareholder activism. We hypothesize that there is a positive relationship between shareholder activism and a measure of the largest shareholder’s sensitivity to increased participation by small shareholders and find that firms’ amenability to small shareholder influence leads to more proposals by the nomination committee, but fewer proposals by other shareholders. We interpret this as evidence that the shareholder elected nomination committees effectively channel shareholder concerns and preempt other kinds of activism. Politicians and companies that desire active shareholders could improve the amenability of firms to shareholder influence by ownership transparency, shareholder committees, and contacts with shareholder associations and other vehicles for collective action... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8460 Files in this item: 1
Therese_Strand.pdf (1.719Mb) -
noter til en tiltrædelsesforelæsningFoss, Nicolai Juul (København, 1998)[More information][Less information]
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The case of video production at the BBC Digital Media InitiativeMariategui, Jose-Carlos; Marton, Attila (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The unfolding of the paradoxical interplay between overarching institutional orders and domain-specific, situated practices has been a central theme of organization studies. With the rise of information and communication technology (ICT), digital infrastructures and the standards they foster are disseminating on a global scale based on the computational rationale of binary-based digitalization. The following paper will delve into this paradoxical interplay by studying digital video as it travels across work practices of broadcasting qua computational standards and processes. Using BBC’s Digital Media Initiative (DMI) as a case study, we seek to assess how work practices are affected by the use of digital video throughout the editing process. In particular, we take a semiological approach in order to understand two distinctive image-intensive practices, news and long-form productions, and the ways they changed due to the implementation of a digital infrastructure. Thus conceived, we demonstrate how digitalization as a technical process decontextualizes digital video information, while the work practices related to their management rely on highly contextualized and situated information. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8771 Files in this item: 1
Attila_Marton_egos2013.pdf (222.9Kb) -
Evidence from Unexpected Inheritance due to Sudden DeathAndersen, Steffen; Meisner Nielsen, Kasper (Frederiksberg, 2010)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We use a natural experiment to investigate the impact of participation constraints on individuals' decisions to invest in the stock market. Unexpected inheritance due to sudden deaths results in exogenous variation in financial wealth and allows us to examine whether fixed entry and ongoing participation costs cause non-participation. We have three key findings. First, windfall wealth has a positive effect on participation. Second, the majority of households do not react to sizeable windfalls by entering the stock market, but hold on to substantial safe assets—even over longer horizons. Third, the majority of households inheriting stock holdings actively sell the entire portfolio. Overall, these findings suggest that participation by many individuals is unlikely to be constrained by financial participation costs. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8169 Files in this item: 1
wp3-2010.pdf (254.6Kb)