[...]To explore these questions, we present the firstsystematic analysis of the determinants and impact of thesovereign credit ratings assigned by the two leading U.S.agencies, Moody’s Investors Service and Standard andPoor’s.1 Such an analysis has only recently become possibleas a result of...

The computational properties of an econometric method are fundamentaldeterminants of its importance and practical usefulness, in conjunction withthe method’s statistical properties. Computational methods in econometricsare advanced through successfully combining ideas and methods in...

Konsumgütermärkte sind in vielen Branchen durch eine weitgehende Austauschbarkeit der funktionalen Leistungsmerkmale konkurrierender Angebo-te gekennzeichnet.1 Diese Austauschbarkeit stellt in vielen Fällen das Ergebnis mas-siver Standardisierungs-, Kooperations- und Outsourcingaktivitäten...

Truancy is often seen as irrational behaviour on the part of school ageyouth. This paper takes the opposite view and models truancy as thesolution to a time allocation problem in which youths derive currentreturns from activities that reduce time spent at school. The model isestimated using a US...

In this paper the process of the entrepreneurial decision is decomposed in seven engagement levels ranging from never thought about starting a business to gave up, thinking about it, taking steps for starting up, having a young business, having an older business and no longer being an...

This paper presents an Eclectic Framework explaining (developments in and determinants of) entrepreneurship incorporating different streams of literature and spanning different disciplines. The Eclectic Framework integrates factors shaping the demand for entrepreneurship on the one hand, with...

Die Bedeutung der Kundenbindung hat im Rahmen des Relationship Marketings seit den 80erJahren in der Wissenschaft und Praxis zugenommen.1 Nach einer begrifflichen Definition erläutertdieser Abschnitt zunächst die Faktoren, die zur Kundenbindung führen, ihren Nutzen undihre Kosten sowie das...

This paper releases the result of an empirical study of the trends and major determinants of technological diversification in the period from 1983 to 1997.