Business Models in the context of carbon mitigation: New Questions and Approaches illustrated by the Example of Energy Performance Contracting in Germany

The German government has set ambitious climate protection targets to limit global warming. The goal is to achieve an energy efficient and almost climate-neutral building stock by 2050. This will require, among other actions, a reduction of the primary energy demand of buildings by up to 95% by the end of 2050. In order to achieve an almost climate-neutral building stock, measures for deep energy retrofit are required. In addition to an existing financial demand, there are additional barriers to the expansion of activities to improve the energy performance and to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the existing building stock. One way to overcome these barriers are novel business models such as Energy Performance Contracting (EPC). The question arises as to whether and how the reduction of GHG emissions can be taken into account in the savings guarantees as they are typical for EPCs. This and other questions are addressed in the paper using conjoint analysis. Among other results, it is pointed out that specific approaches are required for different target groups such as the public sector and private homeowners. Finally, recommendations for further action are given. The presented partial results are drawn from the research work "Analysis of business models with regard to their potential for GHG reduction and energy efficiency of buildings"

Evolution of complex organic molecules in hot molecular cores: Synthetic spectra at (sub-)mm wavebands

Hot molecular cores (HMCs) are intermediate stages of high-mass star formation and are also known for their rich emission line spectra at (sub-)mm wavebands. The observed spectral feature of HMCs such as total number of emission lines and associated line intensities are also found to vary with evolutionary stages. We developed various 3D models for HMCs guided by the evolutionary scenarios proposed by recent empirical and modeling studies. We then investigated the spatio-temporal variation of temperature and molecular abundances in HMCs by consistently coupling gas-grain chemical evolution with radiative transfer calculations. We explored the effects of varying physical conditions on molecular abundances including density distribution and luminosity evolution of the central protostar(s). The time-dependent temperature structure of the hot core models provides a realistic framework for investigating the spatial variation of ice mantle evaporation as a function of evolutionary timescales. With increasing protostellar luminosity, the water ice evaporation font ($\sim$100K) expands and the spatial distribution of gas phase abundances of these COMs also spreads out. We simulated the synthetic spectra for these models at different evolutionary timescales to compare with observations. A qualitative comparison of the simulated and observed spectra suggests that these self-consistent hot core models can reproduce the notable trends in hot core spectral variation within the typical hot core timescales of 10$^{5}$ year. These models predict that the spatial distribution of various emission line maps will also expand with evolutionary time. The model predictions can be compared with high resolution observation that can probe scales of a few thousand AU in high-mass star forming regions such as from ALMA.[Abridged]Comment: accepted for publication in A&

Learning from Trump and Xi? Globalization and innovation as drivers of a new industrial policy. Bertelsmann GED Focus 2020

Technological innovations are essential drivers of longterm and sustainable growth. Accordingly, there currently is a debate in Germany and the EU as to whether a new, strategic industrial policy can be an answer to the complex dynamics of digitization. Products of this discussion are, for example, the Industrial Strategy 2030 published by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in November 2019 and the Franco-German Manifesto for a European Industrial Policy for the 21st Century. The focus here is on the question of how the EU and its member states can maintain their innovative and thus competitive ability in the face of diverse challenges. However, there is no standard recipe for building and expanding the innovative capacity of an economy. Different countries rely on different strategies that can be equally successful. An important distinguishing feature is the role of the state. A clear example of divergent innovation models are China and the USA. Although both countries have completely different approaches to an innovation-promoting industrial policy, both models are characterized by major technological successes. With an analysis of the Chinese and American innovation system, this study highlights the main features and success factors of both innovation models and discusses whether and to what extent these factors are transferable to the European and German case. Five fields of action for an innovation-promoting industrial policy in the EU and Germany emerge from this analysis • Implementation of a long-term innovation strategy • Expansion of venture capital • Expansion of cluster approaches at EU level • Thinking and strengthening of cybersecurity at EU level • Creation of uniform and fair conditions for competition In addition to these fields of action, which are relevant both for the EU and for individual member states, industrial policy measures in the following three areas could be useful for Germany. In particular: • Improvement of framework conditions for research and development • Gearing the education and research system more strongly towards entrepreneurship and innovation • State as a pioneer and trailblazer in new technologies In their implementation, however, strategic European and German industrial policies face a trade-off between the protection and promotion of legitimate self-interests on the one hand and the defense against economically damaging protectionism and ill-considered state interventionism on the other. The so-called “mission orientation” can make a significant contribution here: Accordingly, industrial policy should serve to address specific societal challenges (e. g. globalization, digitization, demographic change, climate change) and be coherently targeted towards these objectives. Furthermore, industrial policy is to be driven in parallel by different actors. Above all, it is a joint task of business and politics to enable a competitive business location where the state ensures good competition- promoting framework conditions and the private actors implement concrete actions

Doing Well by Doing Fair? Investigating the Effect of Users’ Fairness Perceptions on Adoption Intentions of Services

Within the IS discipline, the concept of fairness as a determinant for social good recently gained attention. However, a comprehensive understanding of the influence of different fairness dimensions on user perceptions and their adoption intention of new technologies is missing. Based on fairness research, the FAIRSERV model, and the technology acceptance model, we derived a research model to study how users’ fairness perceptions along different dimensions influence their adoption intentions in the context of online services. We tested our model in an online experiment with 407 participants. Our results show that perceived distributive, procedural, and interactional fairness positively influence users’ perceived overall fairness regarding an online service, which, in return, positively influences their adoption intentions. We contribute to IS research by shedding light on the societal impact of fairness in the context of adopting new digital services. Practitioners can utilize our findings to improve their service offerings

Verbindung von Fach- und Sprachlernen als Zugang zu Forschendem Lernen

Der Beitrag, der die Ergebnisse einer Kooperation von Geschichtsdidaktik und Deutsch als Zweitsprache im Rahmen des Projektes BiProfessional zusammenführt, zeigt Herausforderungen in der Verbindung von Fach- und Sprachlernen hinsichtlich der Konzeption von Aufgabenstellungen auf. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei das von Zörner und Must weiterentwickelte Konkretisierungsraster (2019, zurückgehend auf Tajmel & Hägi-Mead, 2017), das die Strukturierung einer Aufgabengestaltung unterstützen und Gelegenheit zu Reflexionen über die Mehrdeutigkeit von Operatoren bieten soll. Insbesondere Letzteres soll Impulse für Forschendes Lernen schaffen und sowohl Studierende als auch tätige Lehrkräfte für die Erfordernisse einer sprachsensiblen Aufgabengestaltung sensibilisieren. Hierfür liefert der Beitrag konkrete didaktische Anregungen und Materialien für den Einsatz in Seminar- und Fortbildungskontexten

Interaction between regional temperature and shade level shapes saproxylic beetle communities

AimThe 'concept of relative constancy of habitats' assumes that species differ in their habitat preferences depending on the regional temperature so that all populations experience similar microclimatic conditions. Our aim was to assess the relevance of this concept by disentangling the effects of shade level and regional temperature on southern and northern distributed saproxylic (=dead wood dependent) beetle species.LocationSweden.MethodsWe established a field experiment by placing 435 logs of Norway spruce (Picea abies) along shade gradients in six regions differing in regional temperature (along a 1200 km latitudinal gradient). For each log, we sampled the saproxylic beetle community and calculated the Community Temperature Index (CTI), indicating to what extent the community is dominated by southern or northern species.ResultsSpecies richness and total abundance were better explained by shade level, whereas species composition was better explained by study region. In colder regions, CTI varied along the shade gradient, whereas in warmer regions, CTI was more similar along the shade gradient. Moreover, in colder regions, the number of southern species was higher in sun-exposed logs, whereas in warmer regions, the number of southern species was higher in shaded logs. This supports the concept of relative constancy of habitats. In contrast, northern species preferred shaded conditions regardless of the regional temperature.Main ConclusionsRegional temperature, shade level and resulting microclimate are important drivers of species richness, total abundance and composition. Occurrence patterns of saproxylic beetle species follow to some extent the concept of relative constancy of habitats since their habitat preferences vary with regional temperature. Northern species are of conservation concern due to disadvantages by climate warming and clear-cutting. They are favoured by preserving forests with rarely disturbed canopies

New business models to support sustainable development: The case of energy-efficiency measures in buildings

The German government has set ambitious climate-protection targets to limit global warming. The aim is to achieve an energy-efficient and almost climate-neutral building stock by 2050. This applies particularly to buildings, responsible for more than 20% of CO2 emissions. The aim is to reduce the primary energy demand of buildings by 80% by the end of 2050. Achieving a nearly climate-neutral building stock requires targeted modernization measures that contribute to increasing energy efficiency. Barriers confronting the implementation of energy-efficient measures include lack of knowledge due to inadequate provision of information, lack of trust, and problems regarding financing possibilities. Therefore, solutions are needed for holistic concepts that make energy-efficient building and modernization more attractive. In addition to traditional business models (BM), measures that accelerate the implementation of energy-efficiency and BM that support the sustainable development of potential customers are sought. Expert knowledge must be shared to close information gaps; savings guarantees must be considered to build trust, and finally, financing possibilities must be available to support implementing sustainable measures. The research focuses on a modification of BM under the aspect of increasing energy efficiency in buildings for customers. This approach considers specific functions, effects, and benefits of BM. The aim of this extension is to create a basis for systematizing existing BM on the one hand, and on the other, to extend the proposed methodology. Finally, the developed guide supports startups designing new BM