2017 Two-Legged Stool: New Findings from California on Nonprofits and Overhead

Nonprofit overhead is a prevalent and controversial topic in the non- profit and philanthropic sector. Online raters (such as Charity Navigator) point to the overhead rate as a key indicator of nonprofit worthiness. Different govern- ment entities use wildly different indirect cost rates when contracting with nonprofits, which translate into billions of dollars of funding being gained or lost. Foundations rarely have explicit guidelines, but most have informal rules of thumb that affect how a nonprofit can use grant funds. Meanwhile, nonprofit executives struggle to make sense of it all as they manage their operations amidst the conflicting requirements of their funding sources. To gain insights into how overhead costs are handled in nonprofits, the California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits) conducted a survey of 451 California nonprofit execu- tives, as well as interviews with elected members of county boards of super- visors and their staff throughout California in the spring of 2016. This paper reports on both of these, which were part of a larger initiative of CalNonprofits called The Nonprofit Overhead Project.https://digital.sandiego.edu/npi-npissues/1000/thumbnail.jp

An Exploratory Study of Risk Perception for Data Disclosure to a Network of Firms

Research on the Privacy Calculus, which explains individuals\u27 intention to disclose personal data, mostly focuses on dyadic disclosures in which individuals disclose data to a single firm. So far, little attention has been paid to understand the characteristics of data disclosures to a network of firms. We refer to data sharing of firms in a network as Business Network Data Exchange (BNDE). We explore risk perception for data disclosures in a BNDE context based on an exploratory survey. Our results indicate that risk perception for data disclosures in the BNDE context deviates from rational risk perception theory. In particular, individuals perceive the risk to disclose data to a network of two firms as lower than the maximum risk of the separate dyadic data disclosures. These results portend the need for an adapted and nuanced view on perceived risks in this context and have important practical implications for data-sharing among firms

What Drives a Successful Adoption of E-Learning Modules for Sustainable Management? An Empirical Investigation of Influencing Factors and Challenges

In order to have corporations contributing to the environmental and social challenges of the coming years, employees have to develop competences for sustainable management. These competences are necessary to reduce environmental impacts of production or to increase efficiency in terms of energy consumption. In this context, E-Learning modules can offer learner-centered scenarios in which employees can simulate the consequences of their decisions and thereby develop competences for sustainable management. However, such modules focusing on sustainable management have not been used widely. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate the determinants of a successful adoption and the challenges facing this adoption process of E-Learning modules for sustainable management. To achieve this aim, we conducted a literature review and a qualitative interview study. Thereby, we identified eleven general and eight specific influencing factors as well as twelve related challenges that affect the adoption of E-Learning modules for sustainable management

Basin structure of optimization based state and parameter estimation

Most data based state and parameter estimation methods require suitable initial values or guesses to achieve convergence to the desired solution, which typically is a global minimum of some cost function. Unfortunately, however, other stable solutions (e.g., local minima) may exist and provide suboptimal or even wrong estimates. Here we demonstrate for a 9-dimensional Lorenz-96 model how to characterize the basin size of the global minimum when applying some particular optimization based estimation algorithm. We compare three different strategies for generating suitable initial guesses and we investigate the dependence of the solution on the given trajectory segment (underlying the measured time series). To address the question of how many state variables have to be measured for optimal performance, different types of multivariate time series are considered consisting of 1, 2, or 3 variables. Based on these time series the local observability of state variables and parameters of the Lorenz-96 model is investigated and confirmed using delay coordinates. This result is in good agreement with the observation that correct state and parameter estimation results are obtained if the optimization algorithm is initialized with initial guesses close to the true solution. In contrast, initialization with other exact solutions of the model equations (different from the true solution used to generate the time series) typically fails, i.e. the optimization procedure ends up in local minima different from the true solution. Initialization using random values in a box around the attractor exhibits success rates depending on the number of observables and the available time series (trajectory segment).Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

Wechselwirkungen von Baulogistik und Bauproduktion im Fassadenbau

Die vorliegende Arbeit behandelt die Wechselwirkungen zwischen den baulogistischen Anforderungen der Ausführung von Fassadenbauleistungen und deren Berücksichtigung in Planung und Integration in den Bauablauf von Hochhäusern mit Vorhangfassaden in innerstädtischen Lagen. Obwohl es sich augenscheinlich zunächst um eine baubetriebliche oder bautechnologische Fragestellung handelt, werden Aspekte und Mechanismen der Projektorganisation, also der Projektaufbauorganisation und der Projektablauforganisation, berücksichtigt. Denn das baustellenbezogene Querschnittsthema Baulogistik bietet viele Möglichkeiten, die Realisierungsphase eines Bauwerks im Interesse des Auftraggebers so zu gestalten, dass seine Projektziele erreicht werden. Da das Gewerk Fassade das Leitgewerk der Ausbauphase ist, bietet es sich an, an dieser Stelle eine Verbesserung des Produktionsablaufs zu erwirken. Die Herstellung der Gebäudehülle ist grundsätzlich Voraussetzung, dass Folgegewerke beginnen können. Es liegt demnach im Interesse des Auftraggebers, dass dieser Vorgang in möglichst kurzer Zeit abgeschlossen wird. Und gerade das baubetriebliche Handlungsfeld der Baulogisitik bietet hierfür einen großen Gestaltungsspielraum. Zur Erfassung und Beschreibung der Ausgangssituation erfolgte eine Bestandsaufnahme in Form einer morphologischen Bauprojekttypanalyse aus der zunächst Hypothesen abgeleitet werden, die im Wesentlichen nach Auswertung von leitfadengestützter Expert*inneninterviews bestätigt wurden. Aus den Ergebnisse der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse der Expert*inneninterviews wird das Prozessmodell der Baulogistik um Handlungs- und Gestaltungsoptionen für Auftraggeber, Fassaden- und Objektplaner, Baulogistikplanern und -dienstleister, sowie Ausführende Unternehmen, erweitert

Spillover effects of service failures in coalition loyalty programs:the buffering effect of special treatment benefits

Coalition loyalty programs are on the rise, yet few studies investigate the impact of service failures in such programs. Using data from a retail context, the authors show that a program partner deemed responsible for a service failure suffers negative customer responses. However, customers' perceptions of the benefits of the coalition loyalty program buffer these consequences. Perhaps most importantly, when customers perceive the program's special treatment benefits as low, direct and indirect spillover effects occur, such that a service failure by one program partner has a negative effect on customer loyalty toward the program itself