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Technology entrepreneurship is on the rise around the world. In the quest for change, comparative advantage, innovation creation and socioeconomic progress, a turn to entrepreneurial solutions to persistent developmental challenges has provided a powerful and captivating alternative to past solution approaches. As a consequence, innovation clusters have mushroomed, and an enthusiasm for entrepreneurial activity has caught the attention of many in localities as diverse as Kenya’s Silicon Savannah, Nigeria’s Yabacoon Valley, South Africa’s Silicon Cape, Chile’s Chilecon Valley and Germany’s Silicon Allee, to mention just a few. Yet despite this new, vibrant entrepreneurial activity that continuous to nourish a global wave of excitement, we know little about how technology entrepreneurship is actually performed in these disparate places. This doctoral thesis sought to fill this gap by taking a look “behind the scenes” of one of the most prominent innovation clusters in Africa — Kenya’s information and communications technology (ICT) sector. In this empirical setting, industry participants were in the midst of actively negotiating and rationalizing how technology entrepreneurship needs to work to make it a success, to unlock the benefits of a knowledge economy for Kenya and to carve out a space in the global innovation landscape for innovations made in Africa. Three interconnected academic papers form the core of this thesis. The first paper provides a detailed illustration of the local and global prescriptions that influence entrepreneurial action in Kenya’s ICT sector and inspired the conceptualization of a dynamic process model of globalization. The second paper offers a fine-grained view into the work realities of Kenyans and the generation of the multidimensional work portfolios across which workers diversify their activities to achieve economic survival, create wealth and exert agency for change. The third paper is a theoretical piece that theorizes the process of nonnative organizational forms diffusing and becoming adopted in new organizational environments. All in all, the thesis can be seen as an attempt to study the complexities that reign in African economies through an organizational lens and thus to foster a global organizational scholarship research agenda and discourse that can be of benefit to the many rather than just the few.
Globalization is altering the international economic environment. To remain competitive and
gain future competitive advantage, corporations need to operate successfully in an
international context. Exploiting the potential offered by the increasingly global economy
requires the effective capture of markets. Although the world economy is becoming
globalized, some international markets continue to have high entry barriers and are thus
closing themselves off to foreign companies. These barriers impede access to these markets
and thus hamper corporations from adequately exploiting them. However, corporations
should by no means allow these markets to lie fallow since this would deprive them of the
possibility to participate in prospective growth markets. Corporations must consequently
promote adequate internationalization and engage in market exploitation strategies to remain
successful in an internationally competitive environment.
It is the aim of this research to support corporations within the processes of
internationalization and market exploitation. Therefore, the research explicitly focuses on
developing an encompassing model that supports corporations in identifying markets, which,
in order to be exploited effectively, require local production activities. Typically, this entails
markets that show foreclosure tendencies. A decision-making process model for corporations’
internationalization and market exploitation strategies structured in different phases is
developed, and relevant influencing factors are compiled and assigned to the appropriate
phases. The process model, which aims to enable corporations to follow a structured
internationalization and market exploitation approach by analyzing the most decisive
influencing factors at respective process phases, is thereby targeted at empowering
corporations to adequately exploit the potential the globalizing world economy offers. The aim
of this research is thus to develop a comprehensive decision-making process model to effectively
support corporations during the process of internationalization.
To further strengthen European integration much can be done and is actually needed. The present work provides a wide range of empirical results and corresponding policy recommendations from the perspective of economics. The collection of articles here provides a clear illustration that there is a lot of potential to amend the architecture of the European Union and the euro area, respectively. It is well understood that the process of European integration is a continuous process which requires adjustments from time to time. This thesis provides results which indicate that very specific measures, such as facilitating a catch-up in terms of institutional quality by central and eastern European countries, would be beneficial for the process of European integration. This is in line with the general claim that institutional harmonization has to be enhanced.
It is shown that within the more narrow framework of the euro area measures to enhance the functioning of the single currency are needed as well. In sum, this implies a strong need for policy measures in response to the recent developments of European integration. Moreover, it is demonstrated that common rules have to be equally binding for all countries. In fact, a number of necessary policy measures are already being implemented, for example the implementation of Basel III. With respect to implementation, results of this thesis imply that such measures have to be implemented carefully. Policy makers have to take into account country-specific characteristics when implementing one-fits-all policy measures. Nonetheless, the uniform European rules are not questioned here.
In addition to the results and corresponding policy recommendations, the bulk of the research done here also contributes methodologically to economics. The increasing availability of micro-data is used to address macroeconomic questions and derive corresponding macroeconomic results and implications. Future research in economics will most likely make more and more use of such data.
With the ripple effects of the global financial crisis of 2008 exhibiting enduring rifts in the global economy to date, an assessment of the crisis as being rooted in both market and regulatory failure sheds light on the significance and the severity of the challenges cross-border financial capitalism presents nation states with in the wake of globalization. As externalities increase, the threats the unprecedented interdependence and instability of the modern financial system pose are unlikely to recede; on the contrary, they are bound to
become more pressing. This is of considerable significance for financial governance, implying that sovereign nation states – formally legitimized to conduct regulatory functions – must construct robust cross-border structures to cope with the challenges of governing an inherently crisis-prone system.
In an attempt to address the underlying shortcomings exposed by the crisis – among them that the regulatory and supervisory architecture was not commensurate with the complexity and sophistication of financial markets – the European Union embarked on an ambitious reform path. The potential capacity of European integration in this regard, though central in the academic debate, has yet to be analyzed systematically with respect to systemic risk in terms of both its systemic qualities and political embeddedness. Drawing on a refined definition thereof set out by Willke et al. (2013), this research aims to shed light on how these themes resonate in the European context to inform the critical analysis of
conducted reforms. Based on the assumption that cross-border finance requires integrated governance schemes to ensure its integrity and efficacy, the central goals are to (i) assess both systemic-risk related reform measures and the challenges they are confronted with, and (ii) illuminate the significance of reform, while underpinning the case for enhanced integration.
Drawing on a broad theoretical framework combining insights from various EU integration theories to trace the rationale and assess the potential and significance of supranational integration, and constructing an analytical framework within which to assess the order-, legitimacy- and expertise-related challenges current structures are confronted with, i.e. factors inhibiting governance capacity, the research concludes that though substantive reforms have largely failed to address the core systemic issues exposed by the crisis, there has indeed been substantial progress in terms of the reform of the institutional governance
architecture at the European level. While monumental challenges remain, it would be premature to discredit the response in its entirety. The analysis highlights the European Union’s remarkable capacity to adjust, with institutional responses essentially at the boundaries of legal and political feasibility. Given what is at stake, however, it contends that – with a view to future challenges – supranational governance regimes remain short of optimal scope and must be strengthened to forestall the gradual erosion of governance capacity vis-à-vis an increasingly interdependent and fragile financial system.
The goal of the research presented in this dissertation is to analyze decision-making processes in different mindsets, specifically their impact on economic risk-taking behavior, and to find out whether they can support better performance and outcomes. This is a major concern of motivation research in general: understanding the reasoning mechanisms that determine actions and using that knowledge to promote healthy and rational behavior. In the present work, this goal related to a specific set of behaviors, that is, decisions under risk and in an economic context. A key strategy to improve outcomes in this field is to increase rational choices. More than that, however, this work also focuses on decision processes that forego rational or irrational behavior, to better understand the nature of mindset effects. Thus, it is not only relevant how individuals decide, but also how they arrive at that decision. To that end, risk-taking situations were examined with repeated measurements, different levels of difficulty, and different incentives. To explain mindset effects and their overall implications for risk taking, achievement motivation, learning processes, and different strategies of goal pursuit are discussed. All in all, the goal of this work is to provide new insights into risk-taking behavior and decision processes in economic contexts, as they are influenced by different states of mind. In addition, possible measures to help increase rationality in risky situations are outlined to provide some practical applications for the findings of this work. For some, the suggestion of the “improvement” of decisions through manipulations of individuals’ states of mind may have an Orwellian ring to it. On the contrary, however, the present research will hopefully increase knowledge about naturally occurring, everyday mindsets and their impact on human perception and behavior, in order to enable or train people to make a targeted use of their mindsets and reach their desired goals.
According to dual-process models, human behavior is the result of an interaction between automatic and controlled processes. Although automatic processes often lead to positive results, they can also lead to severely negative consequences. The current dissertation investigated via 4 studies the effect of self-control depletion, mindsets, framing, and preference for consistency on the usage of automatic processes in decision tasks where heuristics (e.g., reinforcement heuristic) can either conflict or be aligned with Bayesian updating. In particular, Study 1 hypothesized that when a reinforcement heuristic opposed Bayesian updating, ego-depletion would influence the reliance on automatic processes. Three sub-studies (1a, 1b and 1c) were conducted using different depletion manipulations plus controls. Although the manipulation checks indicated successful ego-depletion induction, only Study 1a found the predicted effect. It seems that the ego depletion effects in complex decision-making tasks are less robust than previously reported in the literature.
CROSS-SECTORAL HYBRIDIZATION AS A STRATEGY TO TURN INSTITUTIONAL VOIDS INTO OPPORTUNITY SPACES
(2017)
Organizations that aim at delivering essential goods and services to low-income populations a the base of the pyramid increasingly blend the social welfare and the commercial logics in an effort to create financially sustainable solutions to social problems. Scholars have portrayed these cross-sectoral hybrid organizations as particularly agentic and resilient in institutionally complex settings, highlighting their ability to turn institutional voids into opportunity spaces. At the same time, the reconciliation of two antagonistic goals, namely poverty alleviation and financial value creation, as well as the multiple institutional voids that hybrid organizations face at the base of the pyramid (BoP) expose them to severe tensions. By investigating eight hybrid organizations in four countries, namely Colombia, Mexico, Kenya and South Africa, the present study contributes to a better understanding of cross-sectoral hybrid organizations in BoP settings in two ways. First, it shows that hybrid organizations not only face tensions between sector logics, but also between formal and informal, as well as between “Western-style” and “local style” strategic action fields. In settings which do not effectively provide guidance on the prioritization of social vs. financial objectives, these institutional voids manifest as tensions over goals and tensions over means in hybrid organizations.
Second, the study sheds light on how field-level dynamics influence the ability of hybrid organizations to strategically employ factors that spur legitimacy advantages in an effort to turn institutional voids into opportunity spaces. Two different scenarios have been identified. One scenario refers to Colombia, Mexico and Kenya, which have been classified as fields that don’t effectively enforce a dominant sector logic concerning the legitimate way that health services should be provided to low-income populations. The present study has shown that in such fields, an organization’s logic of origin as well as the personal background of founders are factors that may spur legitimacy advantages in hybrid organizations. In effect, organizations which strategically employ these factors can select more freely from competing logics and ultimately overcome the prevailing tensions. This resonates with previous research, which has suggested that in fields with a dominant logic, hybrid organizations may take advantage of legitimacy advantages if their logic of origin corresponds to the dominant logic at the field level (Pache and Santos, 2012). However, the present study suggests that the factors leading to legitimacy advantages are more complex in fields with no effective dominant logic regarding social service provision. Here, the dominant logics among funding organizations, possible legitimacy spill-over effects from other market players, as well as the specifications of the commercial and the social welfare logics become important sources of possible legitimacy advantages. However, the study suggests that an organization’s ability to employ them strategically is dependent on their time of founding and their size.
In addition to these findings, the study also provides insights on cross-sectoral hybridization in fields with a weakly enforced dominant logic, which is the second scenario that has been identified in South Africa. In particular, the study suggests that in such settings, hybrid organizations are more restricted to freely draw from competing logics, given that they face effective, normative imperatives about the goals they should pursue. However, the empirical investigation also indicates that an organization’s resource dependence structure is more influential than the encountered normative claims of audiences in health fields at the BoP. Further research is needed to refine these insights and explore cross-sectoral hybridization in social service provision fields in contexts of a weakly enforced dominant logic.
Based on these findings, the author derives a range of practical recommendations that may themselves be interpreted as paradoxical. As the empirical study suggests, blended value creating hybrid organizations in Colombia, Mexico and Kenya currently face legitimacy
advantages when originating from a commercial origin. The researcher is thus, on the one hand, inclined to recommend them to position themselves as commercially oriented organizations as to take advantage of the legitimacy advantages that the commercial logic currently entails. On the other hand, she cautions actors in the field of blended value creation, particularly funding entities, not to neglect the actual role of nonprofit organizations. The establishment of (health) markets that provide low-income populations in developing and emerging economies with affordable, high-quality products and services is likely to require significant unprofitable efforts. Finally, hybrid organizations in South Africa need to be more careful when adopting structures or practices from
the commercial logic given the low legitimacy that this logic has in the health market at the BoP. There, organizations need to thoroughly analyze the institutional claims in the specific context of post-Apartheid South Africa.
This study was designed to answer the question of whether resource performance depends more on good governance or rather on effective institutional structures. The specific aim is to make clear the extent to which good governance and institutions promote small scale gold mining businesses, to explain empirically the nature of human rights challenges in the small-scale mining (SSM) industry from the perspective of mining mangers, to investigate the nature, determinants, and frequency of conflicts associated with SSM, and to discuss the challenges facing SSM operations and ways to confront them. The findings show that, in the context of efforts to spur economic development, the exploitation of mineral resources has the potential to bring about far-reaching environmental and social changes. These changes can create opportunities, but they also represent a business risk for corporations and a social risk for communities. There is as a consequence a pressing need to investigate recent threats to mineral resource exploration relating to economic development, peace and stability, and the survival of private businesses. These threats are particularly serious for less-developed countries that are net exporters of natural resources. Such countries could use these resources to drive economic development and decrease their dependence on aid from developed countries. In most of them, however, owing to a lack of strong institutions, mismanagement of mineral and other natural resources has fueled social conflict without producing meaningful development.
In addition, there is often the perception in countries such as Ghana, which is the subject of this study, that mining, whatever its benefits, is responsible for significant environmental damage and for Human Rights Adverse Impacts (HRAI), including child labor and exploitation, displacement of rural households, and violence. For these reasons, investment in the mining sector and associated businesses has often faced stiff resistance. Given the right governmental institutions, small-scale gold mining and associated activities can prove beneficial to and be accepted by a society and can attract further investment; under the wrong circumstances, this type of mining can impact society negatively. At the very least, when SSM is poorly managed, the anticipated benefits to the business community and the broader society are unlikely to materialize. The evidence from large-scale mining, particularly in the wake of Ghana’s civil war, indicates a correlation between mineral resources and conflict. Less is known about the nature, frequency, and causes of conflicts that afflict households in Ghana’s artisanal mining communities. There is accordingly a need for research into ways to prevent human rights violations and to create share value in the SSM sector through social development and renewed incentives for investment in it.
This thesis represents an attempt to fill this need by exploring whether the capacity of resources—in this case, gold mining—to spur economic development—here, by creating competitive SSM businesses, improving livelihoods, or reducing poverty—depends on governance structures and whether there is a correlation between SSM and conflict outside the context of civil war.
This thesis is informed by three broad insights. The first concerns the challenges facing the SSM activities that play a vital role in the Ghanaian economy. Second, there is the importance of the role played by institutions in the development of SSM amid renewed attraction of investment in the sector. Third, changing social expectations are a crucial aspect sustainable mining and the protection of human rights.
This thesis is an investigation into the climate change discourse in the German networked public sphere with a focus on the climate skeptic counterpublic. It focuses in particular on the hypothesis that a polarizing discourse might lead to a fragmentation of the public sphere and the formation of echo chambers. This overarching research question of this thesis, then, asks how the climate skeptic counterpublic can potentially be integrated in the German networked public sphere and to what extent. The climate change discourse in Germany serves as a suitable example since it is heavily polarized with the mainstream being convinced that dangerous anthropogenic climate change is happening while the skeptic minority rejects the idea of a global warming and / or mankind’s responsibility. In order to understand the possible integration of the skeptic counterpublic in the networked public sphere, three studies were conducted based on the integration dimensions of similarity of discourse, connectivity and collective identity.
In the first study, the German-language climate networked public sphere was mapped with a hyperlink network analysis of over 10,000 climate websites. The results show a highly polarized, almost unconnected discourse and suggest that climate skeptics could even be considered to form an echo chamber in which only climate skeptic and antagonistic messages are being shared. The second study, then, identifies several skeptic frames in the German news medias’ reporting on COP17. However, it can be concluded that climate skeptic messages are barely being included in the media coverage thus showing that skeptics are also excluded in the mass media. In the third study, 10,262 online comments of ten comment sections (four news sites, two climate skeptic blogs, two climate activist blogs, two climate science blogs) were analyzed to look at if and how connected skeptics are on the different sites. The results show that skeptics are highly active in the comment sections and account for over 40 % of the relevant comments. It is further shown that even though there is discussion between mainstream and counterpublic, users from the mainstream react highly critical to skeptic messages.
In sum, this thesis shows that albeit the climate skeptic counterpublic is structurally only barely connected to the mainstream as well as excluded from the mass media, skeptics are very vocal and foster discussions over climate change and climate science. These discussions, even though characterized by the clash of two opposing beliefs, are a sign of integration and show that the fear of an echo chamber that is disconnected from other opinions and, indeed, society is premature.
The global economy has gained momentum in recent years, with advances in technology and digitalization leading to shorter product life cycles, increased competition, and transformed industries. These circumstances call for the need for constant innovation. Organizations are required to act and adapt quickly to technological changes, dynamic markets, competitive threats, and rapidly altering customer needs, without losing focus of their established business. Two notions are important for organizations in this setting: (1) reaching ambidexterity and (2) structuring the front-end of innovation.
Ambidextrous companies, which own the ability to balance between innovation activities that exploit current competencies (exploitation) and those that explore new competencies (exploration), are more successful than companies which concentrate on only one of these activities (Gibson & Birkinshaw, 2004; He & Wong, 2004; Jansen, Van Den Bosch, & Volberda, 2006; Katila & Ahuja, 2002; C. Kim, Song, & Nerkar, 2012). However, both exploration and exploitation require the allocation of resources, causing a trade-off, which makes it difficult to perform the combination of both (Greve, 2007; Levinthal & March, 1993). Previous research does not focus on how organizations can adapt their innovation activities in order to reach ambidexterity (Cantarello, Martini, & Nosella, 2012; Judge & Blocker, 2008; Z. Wei, Yi, & Guo, 2014).
Managing innovations poses an increasingly daunting task for organizations, demanding different requirements regarding the innovation management process. Managing innovation through a structured innovation process facilitates the creation and planning of innovation to transform ideas into marketable products. The first stage of this process – the front-end of innovation – is of significant meaning, since activities in the front-end of innovation are strongly linked to innovation success (Dwyer & Mellor, 1991; Markham, 2013; Moenart, De Meyer, Souder, & Deschoolmeester, 1995; Reid & de Brentani, 2004). The creation of value and competitive advantage takes primarily place in the front-end of innovation, and the actual costs of mismanagement can only be discovered at later stages (Markham, 2013; Reid & de Brentani, 2004; P. Smith & Reinertsen, 1991).
A concept to foster ambidexterity and structure the front-end of innovation described mainly by practitioners are so-called innovation fields (Cooper, Edgett, & Kleinschmidt, 2004; Crawford, 1980; Hambrick & Fredrickson, 2001; Khurana & Rosenthal, 1998; Reid & de Brentani, 2004; Talke, Salomo, & Rost, 2010).
Innovation fields establish guidelines that determine search strategy, scope, depth, and locus of innovation search by setting search boundaries. Literature describes different types of applications for innovation fields such as strategic purposes, ideation, lifting synergies, technology intelligence and portfolio extension. With innovation fields, organizations (1) can structure the front-end of innovation and align corporate objectives to innovation activities and (2) have an instrument at hand to facilitate the shift of resources and to prioritize innovation activities according to the balance between exploitation and exploration, thereby fostering ambidexterity.
However, research on innovation fields is scarce, thus, the objective of this dissertation is to examine how and why perceived contextual factors influence the intended application and perceived proficiency of innovation fields in the front-end of innovation.
The theoretical foundation is based on the theory of organizational learning. A research framework is derived from acknowledged literature, focusing on (1) strategic orientation, (2) organizational context and (3) external environment as main contextual factors influencing the intended application of innovation fields. An explorative research design is followed, composed of an embedded single case study design using a mixed-methods approach. As a case, a corporate R&D division of a Germany-based company is selected.
First, a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews is conducted, followed by a quantitative survey to get a more comprehensive picture of the role of perceived contextual factors influencing intended innovation field applications and proficiency.
Based on the underlying empirical research, distinct differences regarding perceived contextual factors and their influence on intended innovation field applications and proficiency have been identified. Notably, the perceived contextual factors vary across the different types of applications for innovation fields. Overall, the strategic orientation and external environment have a strong influence on the intended innovation field applications and proficiency, while organizational context only play a minor role. Furthermore, the findings substantiate the use of different types of applications for innovation fields in the front-end of innovation.
This study contributes to theory by creating a research framework linking perceived contextual factors to intended innovation field applications and proficiency. Finally, this dissertation delivers a comprehensive description of innovation field applications. The findings enhance the existing body of knowledge regarding innovation research, specifically regarding the front-end of innovation and innovation fields as well as organizational learning. Besides the advancement of scientific knowledge, managerial implications are drawn for the application of innovation fields in a corporate context.
Today, transportation is a central element of a society’s welfare in terms of economic, political and social success. It creates jobs, allows international cooperation between firms and countries, contributes to firms’ productivity, and enables social participation and interaction. It has become an essential intermediate. Consequently, changes in transportation affect many more sectors. Therefore, transportation of goods and persons has been growing immensely within the past decades. Against this background, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) gain importance in improving and changing transport. Technology can cover all modes (e.g. advanced driving systems, cooperative vehicle systems as vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, or mobile and multimodal information and ticketing systems). The deployment of ITS substantially changes our transportation system. These changes concern several elements and stakeholders of mobility, e.g. infrastructure, technology, users, providers, public institutions, or regulatory frameworks. Up to now, research on ITS strongly focused on technical aspects, i.e. technical development and feasibility. However, these aspects can only represent part of a comprehensive analysis of ITS. This dissertation gives systematic analysis of elements that in the end have a strong impact on the successful market introduction of ITS. It discusses different aspects of intelligent transportation systems providing a view on the framework conditions for intelligent transportation systems. This work, hereby, focuses on passenger transportation. It shows that the successful deployment of ITS requires multiple actors. Each of them can positively or negatively influence the success of ITS-deployment. This work specifically analyses the investment decisions of public authorities on the example of socio-economic cost-benefit analysis, the users’ willingness to accept a multimodal information and ticketing system and its impact on modal choice, and finally the municipalities’ role in providing mobility for specific user groups on the example of immigrants showing the potential and limitations of ITS. The work picks up research questions that have not been addressed before and contributes to a deeper understanding of the interplay of ITS as a technology and the society.
