Trust-based work time and the productivity effects of mobile information technologies in the workplace

We investigate whether the returns to mobile information and communication technology (ICT) in the workplace are contingent on granting employees autonomy over the structure of their workday through trust-based work time arrangements (TBW). Our regression analysis is based on a production function framework and exploits fine-grained firm survey data on ICT use and organisational practices for 1,045 service firms in Germany. We find empirical support for the argument that the returns to mobile ICT are higher when TBW allows for discretion over when, where and how to perform work-related tasks. The finding holds when we account for more limited forms of workplace flexibility, suggesting that the high degree of formal employee autonomy under TBW drives the complementarity between mobile ICT and organisational practices

BIG data - BIG gains? : empirical evidence on the link between big data analytics and innovation

This paper analyzes the relationship between firms’ use of big data analytics and their innovative performance in terms of product innovations. Since big data technologies provide new data information practices, they create novel decision-making possibilities, which are widely believed to support firms’ innovation process. Applying German firm-level data within a knowledge production function framework we find suggestive evidence that big data analytics is a relevant determinant for the likelihood of a firm becoming a product innovator as well as for the market success of product innovations. These results hold for the manufacturing as well as for the service sector but are contingent on firms’ investment in IT-specific skills. Subsequent analyses suggest that firms in the manufacturing and service sector rely on different data sources and data-related firm practices in order to reap the benefits of big data. Overall, the results support the view that big data analytics have the potential to enable innovation

Kritische Bemerkungen zur Bestimmung der pleistozänen Inlandeismächtigkeit mit Hilfe von Drucksetzungsmessungen

Die bisher vorliegenden Angaben über die pleistozänen Inlandeismächtigkeiten differieren untereinander sehr stark (Tab.). Sie beruhen fast ausschließlich auf mehr oder weniger groben Abschätzungen und Vergleichen mit den rezenten Inlandeisgebieten. Es erscheint grundsätzlich möglich, zu genaueren Werten über die ehemaligen maximalen Eismächtigkeiten zu kommen, indem man mittels bodenmechanischer Messungen die durch die Eisbelastung in veränderlich - festen Lockergesteinen erfolgten Gefügeänderungen, d. h. die sogen. maximale Vorbelastung des Sedimentes bestimmt. Es werden die Ergebnisse von einigen an der interglazialen Kieselgur von Klieken bei Coswig, an glazigen gestörten und ungestörten Bändertonen von Niemegk (Fläming) und Sternberg (Mecklenburg), sowie versuchsweise an der Schreibkreide Rügens durchgeführten Messungen mitgeteilt und ihre geologische bzw. glaziologische Deutung diskutiert. Dabei ergeben sich durch die erforderlichen Annahmen über das Raumgewicht des z. T. verschütteten Eises und die Art und Mächtigkeit der zwischen Probeschicht und Eissohle liegenden Ablagerungen sowie durch die Schubbeanspruchung des Untergrundes seitens des sich bewegenden Eises einige z. T. erhebliche Fehlerquellen. Eine grundsätzliche Schwierigkeit stellt außerdem die Möglichkeit nachträglicher Gefügeänderungen, vor allem durch die kaltzeitliche Bodengefrornis, dar. Man wird daher auch durch derartige bodenphysikalische Untersuchungen nur in seltenen Einzelfällen zu genaueren Angaben über die pleistozänen Eismächtigkeiten kommen. Das zeigen auch die an mehreren Braunkohlenvorkommen Mitteldeutschlands durchgeführten Messungen der maximalen Vorbelastung (Tab.), von denen einige Ergebnisse zitiert werden.researc

The ZEW ICT survey 2002 to 2015 : measuring the digital transformation in German firms

Modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been proliferating through the entire business sector over recent decades. This increasing digitalization is having a substantial impact on economic activity and is continuously changing the nature of production processes and our day-to-day working life. Since 2002, the ICT Survey carried out by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) has tracked the diffusion and use of ICT in different industries within the German economy. Further surveys were conducted at irregular intervals in 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2015. The survey was designed by ZEW’s Research Department Information and Communication Technologies. The data was collected via computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) by infas Institute for Applied Social Sciences. The central aim of the survey is twofold: Firstly, a representative picture of the use of ICT by German firms is obtained. Secondly, taking account of a large set of further firm characteristics it should allow an analysis of the consequences of employing ICT and ICT-related projects with respect to different measures of firm performance

BIG data - BIG gains? : empirical evidence on the link between big data analytics and innovation

This paper analyzes the relationship between firms’ use of big data analytics and their innovative performance in terms of product innovations. Since big data technologies provide new data information practices, they create novel decision-making possibilities, which are widely believed to support firms’ innovation process. Applying German firm-level data within a knowledge production function framework we find suggestive evidence that big data analytics is a relevant determinant for the likelihood of a firm becoming a product innovator as well as for the market success of product innovations. These results hold for the manufacturing as well as for the service sector but are contingent on firms’ investment in IT-specific skills. Subsequent analyses suggest that firms in the manufacturing and service sector rely on different data sources and data-related firm practices in order to reap the benefits of big data. Overall, the results support the view that big data analytics have the potential to enable innovation

IT outsourcing and firm productivity : eliminating bias from selective missingness in the dependent variable

Missing values are a major problem in all econometric applications based on survey data. A standard approach assumes data are missing-at-random and uses imputation methods, or even listwise deletion. This approach is justified if item non-response does not depend on the potentially missing variables’ realization. However, assuming missing-at-random may introduce bias if non-response is, in fact, selective. Relevant applications range from financial or strategic firm-level data to individual-level data on income or privacy-sensitive behaviors. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to deal with selective item nonresponse in the model’s dependent variable. Our approach is based on instrumental variables that affect selection only through potential outcomes. In addition, we allow for endogenous regressors. We establish identification of the structural parameter and propose a simple two-step estimation procedure for it. Our estimator is consistent and robust against biases that would prevail when assuming missingness at random. We implement the estimation procedure using firm-level survey data and a binary instrumental variable to estimate the effect of outsourcing on productivity

Tolerance to Sound Intensity of Binaural Coincidence Detection in the Nucleus Laminaris of the Owl

Neurons of the owl's nucleus laminaris serve as coincidence detectors for measurement of interaural time difference. The discharge rate of nucleus laminaris neurons for both monaural and binaural stimulation increased with sound intensity until they reached an asymptote. Intense sounds affected neither the ratio between binaural and monaural responses nor the interaural time difference for which nucleus laminaris neurons were selective. Theoretical analysis showed that high afferent discharge rates cause coincidence detectors with only excitatory input to lose their selectivity for interaural time difference when coincidence of impulses from the same side becomes as likely as that of impulses from the two sides. We hypothesize that inhibitory input whose strength increases with sound intensity protects nucleus laminaris neurons from losing their sensitivity to interaural time difference with intense sounds

Crowdworking in Deutschland 2018: Ergebnisse einer ZEW-Unternehmensbefragung

Im Rahmen der alle zwei Jahre stattfindenden ZEW-Konjunkturumfrage Informationswirtschaft hat das Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit erneut Unternehmen des Verarbeitenden Gewerbes und der Informationswirtschaft zur Nutzung von Crowdworking über Plattformen befragt. In beiden Branchen ist die Vergabe von Aufträgen an Crowdworker ein mittlerweile weit bekanntes Konzept (bekannt bei rd. 72 % der Unternehmen im verarbeitenden Gewerbe und rd. 84 % der UN in der Informationswirtschaft). Die tatsächliche Nutzung dieser Auftragsvergabeform verblieb hingegen auch 2018 auf einem recht niedrigen Niveau von durchschnittlich rd. 2 %. In einzelnen Bereichen, wie etwa den Mediendienstleistern, lag die Nutzung deutlich höher (6,4 %, in Planung bis Ende 2019 weitere 2,7 %). Im verarbeitenden Gewerbe ist Crowdsourcing am weitesten verbreitet im Maschinenbau, hier setzten im Jahr 2018 4,5 % der befragten Unternehmen Crowdworkingvergaben ein

Accessory Mineral Eu Anomalies in Suprasolidus Rocks: Beyond Feldspar

Accessory mineral Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu*) are routinely measured to infer changes in the amount of feldspar over time, allowing accessory mineral U‐Pb dates to be linked to the progressive crystallization of igneous and metamorphic rocks and, by extension, geodynamic processes. However, changes in Eu/Eu* can reflect any process that changes the relative availability of Eu2+ and Eu3+. We constructed partitioning budgets for Sm, Eu2+, Eu3+, and Gd in suprasolidus metasedimentary rocks to investigate processes that can influence accessory mineral Eu anomalies. We modeled three scenarios: (1) closed‐system, equilibrium crystallization; (2) fractionation of Eu by feldspar growth during melt crystallization; and (3) removal of Eu by melt extraction. In the closed‐system equilibrium model, accessory mineral Eu/Eu* changes as a function of fO2 and monazite stability; Eu/Eu* changes up to 0.3 over a pressure‐temperature range of 4–12 kbar and 700–950°C. Fractionation of Eu by feldspar growth is modeled to decrease accessory mineral Eu/Eu* by ~0.05–0.15 per 10 wt% feldspar crystallized. Melt extraction has a smaller effect; removal of 10% melt decreases accessory mineral Eu/Eu* in the residue by ≤0.05. Although these models demonstrate that fractionation of Eu by feldspar growth can be a dominant control on a rocks u budget, they also show that the common interpretation that Eu/Eu* only records feldspar growth and breakdown is an oversimplification that could lead to incorrect interpretation about the duration and rates of tectonic processes. Consideration of other processes that influence Eu anomalies will allow for a broader range of geological processes to be investigated by petrochronology.Plain Language SummaryMetamorphic rocks—rocks in which new minerals grew in response to increase in pressure and temperature related to deep burial or subduction—and igneous rocks—rocks that formed as magmas cool and crystallize—provide a direct record of how Earth’s continents have moved and changed through time. To read this record, geologists need to be able to measure the ages of metamorphism and magmatism: When did it happen? How long did it last? How does it relate to other rocks around the world? A common approach to addressing these questions is using U‐Pb dating of the minerals zircon, monazite, and apatite. The elements these minerals incorporate are indicative of how hot and how deep in the Earth they were when they grew. In this study we explore how geologists can use the concentrations of the element Europium (Eu) in these minerals to provide new insights into the geological meaning of U‐Pb dates, leading to more robust interpretations of Earth’s plate tectonic history.Key PointsEu anomalies in suprasolidus rocks record any process that changes the relative availability of Eu2+ and Eu3+, not just feldspar growthDisequilibrium is required for feldspar growth to strongly influence accessory mineral Eu anomaliesComparing accessory mineral Eu anomalies and Sr concentrations leads to more robust interpretation than evaluating Eu anomalies alonePeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156481/1/ggge22268_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156481/3/ggge22268.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156481/2/ggge22268-sup-0001-2020GC009052-Text_SI-S01.pd