Search results

To develop a new, biodegradable hydraulic fluid, numerous standard and in‐house screening tests are necessary to verify the lubricating properties. It was further determined that evaluation within a hydrostatic transmission, simulating field operating conditions, as a final test is critical but needed, as new fluids will occasionally fail this test, although all prior tests were passed. This paper describes recent experiences at the authors’ institute with ester based hydraulic fluids run in a heavily loaded hydrostatic transmission under laboratory conditions on the so‐called “flywheel test rig”. Change of fluid properties and wear behavior of the hydrostatic components are compared to derive statements about the fluids’ behavior to be expected in the field application.

This paper's purpose is to show how literary texts can be used as a source for gaining insights into social practices, including accounting. It aims to deepen our understanding of such social practices in their cultural, social, economic and political contexts by examining portrayals of business and accounting transactions and of reflections of social and economic concerns in two German novels set during a time of economic and political crisis, namely the Weimar Republic's hyperinflation period.

The paper analyses, against the historical, social and economic backgrounds of the inflation period, the novels' authors' social and political perspectives as reflected in the novels; the literary devices employed; the way in which the description of business and accounting matters aids our understanding of everyday inflation period transactions and underlying economic and social concerns; and the links made between accounting/business, money and inflation on the one hand, and morality and rationality on the other hand.

The paper finds that in this exceptional economic situation, the relationship between accounting and morality as explored by Maltby is reversed. The portrayal of (often unusual and creative) economic transactions is used to illustrate the lack of economic, legal and moral certainty experienced by individuals and to evoke and critique the damage caused by the hyperinflation on German society and on human relationships, including the commoditisation of all aspects of life and the resulting moral decline.

The paper contributes to the literature exploring the role of representations of business/accounting and finance in narrative fiction. The novels examined here provide an alternative means for observing, interpreting and critiquing social phenomena, specifically in a setting where financial considerations dominate human interaction and social relationships.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the ‘real’ world and substantially impacted the virtual world and thus the Internet ecosystem. It has caused a significant exogenous shock that offers a wealth of natural experiments and produced new data about broadband, clouds, and the Internet in times of crisis. In this chapter, we characterise and evaluate the evolving impact of the global COVID-19 crisis on traffic patterns and loads and the impact of those on Internet performance from multiple perspectives. While we place a particular focus on deriving insights into how we can better respond to crises and better plan for the post-COVID-19 ‘new normal’, we analyse the impact on and the responses by different actors of the Internet ecosystem across different jurisdictions. With a focus on the USA and Europe, we examine the responses of both public and private actors, with the latter including content and cloud providers, content delivery networks, and Internet service providers (ISPs). This chapter makes two contributions: first, we derive lessons learned for a future post-COVID-19 world to inform non-networking spheres and policy-making; second, the insights gained assist the networking community in better planning for the future.

Eckbo, Masulis, & Norli (2000) question previous examination of initial public offering (IPO) underperformance with the keen argument that the increase in the number of traded shares and the infusion of equity reduce two significant premia in the stock’s return, namely, liquidity risk and financial risk. The new market for high (expected) growth stock in Germany is examined for evidence of underpricing, underperformance, and liquidity improvements during the first two complete years of operation – 1998 and 1999. The initial trading period examines the offering day and also the first ten days of trading (for the investor who can not get allocation but enters the secondary market). The postissue performance study period is taken as the 5‐day period one‐year after the IPO. Using regression of four underpricing measures upon issuing firm characteristics deemed important from the extant literature, we seek to explain the degree of underpricing discovered. We find that substantial underpricing occurs and performance is high one year later, even adjusted for the German market return for the period or the firm‐specific sector performance for the same period. Trading dwindles for most stocks after the offering day. One year later, the trading of the stock is even lower. We do find that the more active the trading in the initial period, the greater the returns and trading one year after.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether credit ratings issued by Fitch predict auditor’s opinion for the Tunisian financial companies. It studies the association between Fitch’s credit rating and the audit opinion.

The whole population was analyzed. It is composed of 35 banks, leasing companies and factoring companies in Tunisia. The hand-collected data over 11 years (2005–2015) were used and a multiple-ordered logistic regression was performed.

The findings show that firms with a high short-term grade, a high long-term grade or a positive outlook are more likely to receive an unqualified audit opinion. In addition, companies with a stable outlook are more likely to receive an explanatory paragraph, a qualification or a going-concern opinion.

Studies examining the relationship between credit ratings and audit opinion are rare. This piece of research adds to knowledge about the relationship between different components of agency ratings and the auditor’s opinion in a developing country. Previous studies have investigated the case of developed countries and have been interested in the only impact of the long-term credit rating. This study analyzes three components of credit rating, namely long-term credit rating, short-term credit rating and rating outlook. In addition, it sheds light on the effect of various rating grades issued by rating agencies on the audit opinion. It gives a broader view of the relationship between credit ratings and audit opinion.

This study aims to investigate the role of interfirm communication on the complementary effect between corporate political action (CPA) and research and development (R&D) investments under transaction costs.

A quasi-experiment study design was used, combining business game simulation and a public goods experiment with communication as a controlled variable. A fixed-effect regression analysis was performed on panel data collected from 72 students.

The findings indicate that collective CPA is positively and significantly associated with R&D investments, particularly when interfirm communication is present. Conversely, for non-communicating firms, the effect is limited to the relationship between individual CPA and R&D investment.

Despite advancing the research on political ties and innovation, the study acknowledges limitations related to framing effects and institutional variability.

The complementary effects indicate that institutional arrangements (i.e. business associations) may foster interfirm communication and cooperation in CPA efforts, mitigating opportunistic behaviours and legitimising CPA strategy towards innovation.

This study contributes to understanding how firms’ political and R&D decisions can positively impact innovation, despite the challenges of ex post transaction costs.

The positive effect of communication on political action and cooperation on firms’ innovation, even in weak institutional environments, is highlighted. An innovative methodological approach combining business games and economic experiments was used to examine participants’ decisions under transaction costs.

To cope with the increasing challenges of globalisation, various manufacturing companies have established intra-company manufacturing networks. The purpose of this paper is to link the strategic network targets (i.e. accessibility, thriftiness represented by economies of scale and economies of scope, mobility, and learning) with the capabilities and characteristics of the constituting sites of the manufacturing network and thus facilitate the identification of mismatches and the discussion of possible development paths for the network.

The authors derive a conceptual framework from the literature which is tested with a single case; a manufacturing network consisting of eight manufacturing sites. Case data were collected based on 24 interviews with operations managers at network level and a standardised online survey among the sites’ management teams.

Results indicate that manufacturing network and site levels need to be related when striving for a fit between manufacturing strategy, network strategy, and site capabilities and characteristics.

Single case studies have only limited generalisability. Nevertheless, the case demonstrates the usefulness of several dimensions when analysing manufacturing networks on site and network level.

This paper represents the first attempt to link strategic targets of intra-company manufacturing networks with site capabilities and characteristics. Thereby, it provides a theoretical basis for future research on the relationship between strategic targets of manufacturing networks and their fulfilment. The developed manufacturing site portfolio, moreover, extends the site role typology discussion by a multi-dimensional perspective and represents a starting point for a multi-faceted discussion of site roles.

This paper seeks to give an overview on the benefits and challenges of moulded interconnect devices‐technology and the use of flexible printed circuits (FPC) in electronics production.

Each process step was adapted to the boundary conditions of manufacturing three‐dimensional substrates and FPC. The substrate materials were examined under the specific requirements of electronics production with a special focus on the thermal stability of the materials and the adhesiveness of the metallization.

The use of thermoplastics as substrate materials for electronic devices offers high potential but new challenges, e.g. the higher coefficient of thermal expansion of thermoplastics, have to be taken into consideration as well. In most cases, standard machines for surface mount technology can be used with few modifications. Research has shown that even components with very fine pitches can be used successfully on alternative substrate materials.

The paper covers a selection of possible thermoplastic materials that can be used in electronics production. Depending on the requirements of the application and the operating environment other substrate materials open up a large variety of possible solutions.

The paper details the most promising thermoplastic materials for use in electronics production as rigid and FPC. Furthermore, it gives information about manufacturing guidelines for the production of three‐dimensional circuit carriers.

This study explores the phenomenon of company-specific plant role models. Following the establishment of distinct lead factories, recent studies imply that multinational companies are now using more detailed plant roles to manage manufacturing networks. While multiple plant role typologies can be found in literature, this is, to our knowledge, the first article to systematically analyze the content of such company-specific plant roles.

We rely on a multiple-case study design of 29 plant role models primarily belonging to multinational companies headquartered in German-speaking countries. Coding is performed to analyze the models for similarities and differences.

The content of company-specific plant role models seems highly dependent on a company’s context; hence, there is no one best way to build them. Companies appear to be pursuing different priorities with the application of plant roles, for example, the reorganization of manufacturing networks, the systematic allocation of products or the definition of decision-making autonomy. Compared to the primarily two-dimensional models from theory, companies rely on more dimensions to make their plant roles practical. Similar to models from literature, competence bandwidth, inter-plant knowledge/information flow and location advantage are the most relevant dimensions to differentiate plants from a headquarters’ perspective.

Plant role models are a powerful management tool that enables delayering the complexity and allows for proactive management of manufacturing networks. Managers fit the content of their plant role models to their company-specific context and the intended application for manufacturing networks. Managers aiming to build company-specific plant roles can use the conceptual framework based on the empirical findings as a benchmark.

This study complements prior research on plant roles by acknowledging that companies might develop their own version of plant role models rather than copying the ones from the literature. By doing so, we explore how plant roles look like in a real-world setting.