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The challenges that the EU faces with 5G go beyond cyber and national security threats. For Europe, the rollout of the 5G infrastructure has become a geopolitical test on several levels. Will Europe be a shaper or taker of 5G technology and the new era of industrialization it promises to propel? How will it be able to control the security and reliability of such key digital infrastructures in the long-term? Eventually, how should EU member states manage their dependencies on foreign technologies and strengthen their “technological sovereignty” – a political priority of the incoming EU Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen? The latter might be the most important strategic issue the EU will need to tackle in the long-term and will be decisive for the Union’s ability to shape its own future in the digital age.

There have been multiple aircraft accidents in the aviation industry resulting from a lack of error communication. Even though cultural differences have been cited as contributing factors, many accidents have happened due to the hierarchical status of the first and second officers and the reluctance of the latter to speak up during critical situations.
This is why, three decades ago, Crew Resource Management (CRM) was developed in the aviation industry. Its goal was to reduce the hierarchy gradient on the flight deck and achieve open, factual error communication to ensure the safe operation of flights. This meant creating an environment in which lower-ranking crew members would feel comfortable speaking up when observing an error made by their superiors. Today, CRM is a mandatory element of flight crew training in civilian and military flight operations worldwide. Since its introduction, accident rates have declined tremendously.
However, even after three decades, the human factor continues to be the main cause of accidents. When talking to flight crews, we observe that lower-ranking crew members are still hesitant to speak up. We therefore suggest that – on top of training people to speak up more – we should start focusing on the leadership behavior involved. This requires leaders to include subordinates through active inquiry when making decisions in critical situations, thereby creating a flat hierarchy that allows them to speak freely.

In distributive negotiations, people often feel that they have to choose between maximizing their economic outcomes (claiming more value) or improving their relational outcomes (having a satisfied opponent). The present research proposes a conversational strategy that can help negotiators achieve both. Specifically, we show that using an offer framing strategy that shifts offer recipients' attention to their reservation price (e.g., “How does my offer compare to your minimum price?”) leads to both (a) an assimilation effect whereby recipients make more favorable counteroffers (economic benefit) as well as (b) a contrast effect whereby recipients feel more satisfied with the negotiation (relational benefit). We find evidence for the effectiveness of this conversational strategy across four experiments (N = 1522) involving different negotiation contexts (real estate, restaurant sale) and participant samples (MBAs, sales agents, online participants), and also document negotiator power as an important boundary condition. Overall, our research suggests that economic and relational benefits do not have to be mutually exclusive in distributive negotiations, that the perceived extremity of an offer is subjective and can be strategically influenced, and that assimilation and contrast effects can operate simultaneously when they relate to separate outcomes.

With permission of Elsevier

Luxury is as old as humankind and has sparked multiple debates throughout of history. In today’s consumer society, luxury brands have become aspirational symbols. Yet, to date, a comprehensive overview of the different perspectives that have shaped the discourses about luxury is missing. Hannes Gurzki provides a broad overview of luxury research, highlights and details important perspectives on luxury, and derives practical guidelines for managers based on research. Thereby the author combines insights from different disciplines, such as philosophy, sociology, psychology, anthropology, cultural studies, economics or management, to broaden and deepen our understanding of luxury and its creation principles.

Copyright Information: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2020

New regulations and opportunities in the decentralized energy market can be good for the planet and business.

Increasing dependence on information technology calls for strengthening the requirements on their safety and security. Vulnerabilities that result from flaws in hardware and software are a core problem which market mechanisms have failed to eliminate. A strategy for resolving this issue should consider the following options: (1) private- and public-sector
funding for open and secure production, (2) strengthening the sovereign control over the production of critical IT components within an
economic zone, and (3) improving and enforcing regulation. This paper
analyses the strengths and weaknesses of these options and proposes
a globally distributed, secure supply chain based on open and mathematically proved components. The approach supports the integration
of legacy and new proprietary components.