Publication records

Consumers often do not have complete information about the choices they face and therefore have to spend time and effort in acquiring information. Since information acquisition is costly, consumers trade-off the value of better information against its cost, and make their final product choices based on imperfect information. We model this decision using the rational inattention approach and describe the rationally inattentive consumer’s choice behavior when she faces alternatives with different information costs. To this end, we introduce an information cost function that distinguishes between direct and implied information. We then analytically characterize the optimal choice probabilities. We find that non-uniform information costs can have a strong impact on product choice, which gets particularly conspicuous when the product alternatives are otherwise very similar. There are significant implications on how a seller should provide information about its products and how changes to the product set impacts consumer choice. For example, non-uniform information costs can lead to situations where it is disadvantageous for the seller to provide easier access to information for a particular product, and to situations where the addition of an inferior (never chosen) product increases the market share of another existing product (i.e., failure of regularity). We also provide an algorithm to compute the optimal choice probabilities and discuss how our framework can be empirically estimated from suitable choice data.

Book review of Paul Voigt, “IT-Sicherheitsrecht”, (IT security law), 2018

Betting on right technologies, selecting meaningful fields of application and thus steering technology developments with suitable properties in the right direction is crucial for the sustainable success of technology companies. However, due to the worldwide increase and rapid acceleration of research and development activities as well as the increasing integration of value chains, it is becoming increasingly difficult to correctly assess technology developments. At the same time, access to data and information has dramatically improved powered by the developments of the world wide web. Powerful information and telecommunication devices as well as software make large data sets easier to access and complex data analyses with new types of indicators possible. Thus, the possibilities of indicator-based technology assessments have also improved for companies that have very limited resources for technology analysis. In order to provide an up-to-date overview of which indicators and methods for technology analysis are currently used in practice and in science, the Chair of Innovation Management of the Free University Berlin conducted a survey of German-speaking experts* from business and science in November and December 2017. The results are presented in this report.

Precise first offers strongly anchor negotiation outcomes. This precision advantage has been previously documented only when the parties were already engaged in a negotiation. We introduce the concept of negotiation entry, i.e., the decision to enter a negotiation with a particular party. We predict that precise prices create barriers-to-entry, reducing a counterpart’s likelihood of entering a negotiation. Six studies (N=1,580) and one archival analysis of real estate sector data (N=11,214) support our barrier-to-entry prediction: Potential negotiators were less likely to enter a negotiation with precise versus round first offers. Using both statistical mediation and experimental-causal-chain analyses, we establish that perceptions of offer maker inflexibility underlie the precision barrier. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this inflexibility mechanism of precision is distinct from the mechanism (being offended) that creates barriers-to-entry for extreme first offers. The discussion theoretically integrates research on first-offer precision and extremity by offering the Precision-Extremity Model of First Offers.

With permission of Elsevier

When managers are confronted with a corporate crisis, such as the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil exploration platform, they have to operate under conditions that differ fundamentally from those experienced during normal management processes. Among other things, they may have to work with specialized teams and understand their priorities and decision-making processes, without giving up their own responsibilities. The following case simulation confronts participants with an escalating crisis situation in an unfamiliar environment and requires a series of team decisions to be taken under time pressure. The case is based on real experiences of the German Air Force during its ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) mission in Afghanistan.
The participants are divided into groups of four, each group being responsible for a large military transport aircraft and its mission. Within the groups, each participant assumes the role of a specified flight crew member. Each participant receives individual instructions on their roles and duties as well as background information on the other crew members. Based on this information, the teams must prepare and execute their flight missions. The main objective of the simulation is to highlight the challenges of sharing information within a team and of decision-making under time pressure in an unfamiliar environment.

The case simulation may be used in a leadership course in MBA programs. It may also be used in executive-education programs to support sessions on both group decision-making and crisis management. On the whole, the case may be used to learn:
1. how to cooperate in teams
2. how team decisions may effectively be made
3. how to prioritize tasks under time pressure in a crisis situation
4. how to examine the impact of framing in decision-making processes

On the surface, this case study deals with a straightforward sales management issue: The protagonist, Andreas Keller, needs to increase the company’s revenue to get the Chinese business unit out of the red. However, as students dig deeper into the case study, they detect the following underlying, intriguing issues:

• Setting priorities and making decisions in sales management, especially in times of distress.
• Understanding intercultural and leadership challenges for a foreign “airborne manager” (空降) in a foreign subsidiary.
• Comprehending the suitability of premium, service-based business models in China.
• Understanding the limitations of applying business models from mature markets in Western countries to China.
• Preparing for expatriate positions in China and elsewhere.

The case study can be taught in both executive education and degree courses. More specifically, the case study is ideally suited for international MBA students with some working experience and international career ambitions. It can be used in both the general management courses and specialized courses on sales, business development, or marketing.

With the digitization of nearly all aspects of life, our societies increasingly depend on the resilience and security of computing and communication technologies. Hence, the protection of information technology (IT) against unauthorized access, attack, and accidental failure, has become a priority for nation-states around the world. Throughout the past one or two decades, most countries have adopted strategies, policies, and practical steps to protect the security of IT and critical infrastructures within their territory, and, by extension, their citizens. These practices are generally subsumed under the umbrella of cybersecurity. The book provides an analysis of the evolution of cybersecurity policy in Germany over the past two and a half decades. It highlights development lines as well as upcoming strategic challenges of the German cybersecurity policy.

Appearing self-confident is instrumental for progressing at work. However, little is known about what makes individuals appear self-confident at work. We draw on attribution and social perceptions literatures to theorize about both antecedents and consequences of appearing self-confident for men and women in male-dominated professions. We suggest that performance is one determinant of whether individuals are seen as confident at work, and that this effect is moderated by gender. We further propose that self-confidence appearance increases the extent to which individuals exert influence in their organizations. However, for women, appearing self-confident is not enough to gain influence. In contrast to men, women in addition are “required” to be prosocially oriented. Multisource, time-lag data from a technological company showed that performance had a positive effect on self-confidence appearance for both men and women. However, the effect of self-confidence appearance on organizational influence was moderated by gender and prosocial orientation, as predicted. Our results show that through self-confidence appearance, job performance directly enables men to exert influence in their organizations. In contrast, high performing women gain influence only when self-confidence appearance is coupled with prosocial orientation. We discuss the implications of our results for gender equality, leadership, and social perceptions.

© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.