German Private Research Articles

Personal Values and Their Impact on the Opinion Leadership of Managers and Employees in Internal Communication

ABSTRACT Opinion leaders play a prominent role in the internal communication network of organizations, although the concept and its drivers have rarely been addressed in internal communication research. Based on a representative online survey of 1,030 managers and employees in German private and public corporations, this paper analyzes the impact of personal values on the opinion leadership of managers and employees. The results show that specific personal values positively predict opinion leadership and particularly harmonizing behavior, with some differences between managers and employees. Theoretical and empirical implications for internal communication research and practice are discussed.

Changes of Paradigm in Private International Law of Contracts – A high-level comparison between 1989 and 2024, with tribute to the Unidroit Principles, the development of arbitration law and to Simplified Global Contracting

The article on German private law of contracts compares the state of private international law in Germany in 1989 with its state today, in 2024. It demonstrates a change of paradigm by looking at six selected parameters of relevance: (i) the respect of constitutional rights and European fundamental freedoms, (ii) the unitarian European character of private international law of contracts, subject to treaties, (iii) the dissemination of the CISG, (iv) the emergence of the the Unidroit Principles as a sound system of general principles and rules of international commercial contracts, (v) the development of international arbitration, and (vi) the emergence of internet and data platform based comparative legal research. Regarding the traditional private international law of contracts, as applied by European courts (of member states of the European Union), the author observes that more European uniformity has come at the cost of complexity. At the same time, the emergence and dissemination of the Unidroit Principles – described as “the biggest achievement of the international legal society since the year 534” – has enabled Simplified Global Contracting (i.e. the choice of the Unidroit Principles in combination with an arbitration clause) and thereby more freedom on a global level.

Getting the right tail right: Modeling tails of health expenditure distributions

Health expenditure data almost always include extreme values, implying that the underlying distribution has heavy tails. This may result in infinite variances as well as higher-order moments and bias the commonly used least squares methods. To accommodate extreme values, we propose an estimation method that recovers the right tail of health expenditure distributions. It extends the popular two-part model to develop a novel three-part model. We apply the proposed method to claims data from one of the biggest German private health insurers. Our findings show that the estimated age gradient in health care spending differs substantially from the standard least squares method.

Equity in German Private Law

The German legal system, as in most continental legal systems, is primarily based on statutes. When deciding a case, judges apply the law as written in norms and do not put their own idea of a just and equitable result in place of the solution provided by the legislature. Seen in this light, statutes are “curdled equity”. This leaves little room for deciding a case under the principle of equity, understood as a means to find a resolution of the tension between the abstract-general provisions of the law and the particularities of the case at hand, i.e., the establishment of justice in individual cases. In this article, the relationship between statute and equity will be illustrated for German private law, highlighting the principle (predominance of statutes) and the exemptions (gateways to equity for legislature and courts). Further examples from German insolvency law complete the picture.

Do sustainability attributes play a role for individuals’ decisions regarding unit-linked life insurance? A survey research on German private investors

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relevance of sustainable product attributes as compared to ongoing costs and risk–return profiles when individuals choose funds underlying unit-linked life insurances. Regarding sustainability attributes, we focus on the product classification according to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation as a European regulatory transparency standard, and on sustainable investment strategies. We conduct two choice-based conjoint analyses using a German panel for unit-linked life insurances as well as fund savings plans as a financial product comparison. We estimate the relative importance, part-worth utilities, and the marginal willingness to pay for changes in product attributes. Our results suggest that private investors of unit-linked life insurances value sustainable product attributes and that they result in a slightly higher marginal willingness to pay, but risk–return indicators and especially ongoing costs are currently more relevant. We find further indications that sustainability attributes are less relevant in the setting of a unit-linked life insurance as compared to a fund savings plans setting.

Function follows Form or Form follows Function – The Legal Nature of CBDC

Abstract 211Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is often described as the future of money, pictured to function as a new, widely adopted means of payment. Whilst economic and public law implications of CBDC issuance have received close scrutiny, private law issues – especially the question of CBDC’s legal nature – have received little attention. This is surprising, given that the function of money as a means of payment is primarily shaped by the private law framework. So far, this framework is tailored to money’s specific forms of appearance, either as (tangible) property or as (intangible) claims against financial intermediaries. Early research has sought to simply classify CBDC within this dichotomy, according to its design respectively being token or account based. Assuming a German private law point of view, this paper will put such classification to the test as regards the intended “European CBDC”, the digital euro. It will show that the focus on token versus account is misguided and ultimately unhelpful, as the digital euro would in neither form fit within the existing legal framework. Drawing on the discussions surrounding the legal nature of cryptocurrencies and cryptoassets, as well as the recent experience with the dematerialisation of securities, it will be argued that the envisioned dematerialisation of cash offers the opportunity to re-think the legal nature of such new money, based not on its form, but on its function as a circulating means of payment. Putting function before form allows technology-neutral answers to related issues, such as the legal assessment of CBDC transfer, ultimately equipping private law for the future of money.

Parental Knowledge of Appendicitis and Its Management Options Among Children of Makkah Region, Saudi Arabia.

Despite decades of studies, appendicitis in children still presents several uncertainties regarding optimal treatment. To assess parental understanding of appendicitis, along with its risks and treatment, and to determine attitudes to operative and non-operative treatment of uncomplicated appendicitis. This is a cross-sectional study. The current study has targeted all parents who visited the pediatric outpatient departments or clinics at three different hospitals in Makkah and Jeddah City, including Maternity and Children Hospital (MCH) in Makkah, King Fahad Armed Force Hospital (KFAFH), and Saudi German Private Hospital (SGH) in Jeddah. Data was collected via an online Google form and was analyzed by using SPSS. A total of 408 subjects were involved in this study. The majority of them were females (74.5%); 25.5% weremales. Most of the study participants aged between 25 and 34 years. Our results found that the average knowledge score of the study population was 4.1±1.81 out of 11. Only 23.5%of them had good knowledge about appendicitis. More than half of the respondents identified the appendix as a part of the digestive system and most of the study population were aware of the currenttreatment for appendicitis, which is surgery (80.9%). Female participants and respondents who knew someone that has been treated for appendicitis were significantly associated with a better level of knowledge about appendicitis (P-values: 0.011 and 0.033, respectively). Moreover, we found that educational level significantly influenced preference for treatment with antibiotics and surgeryif appendicitis happened again (P-value: 0.049). The study population had poor knowledge of appendicitis and its management options. The highlighted criteria of self-reported relevance to parents should be addressed in all appendicitis counseling and consent. We advocate for the establishment of national public awareness campaigns, as well as increased research and clinical trials. Understanding lay views of treatment alternatives and efficacy will influence future approaches to appendicitis therapy by analyzing the community's preference for emerging treatment modalities and identifying future directions for patient-centered clinical trials.

Lowering acquisition costs with a commission cap? Evidence from the German private health insurance market

AbstractWhen consumers are neither particularly financially literate nor price sensitive, insurers have a strong incentive to pay high commissions to intermediaries for profitable new business. As a part of cost reduction regulation in the German private substitutive health insurance market, a commission cap and a minimum cancelation liability period for insurance intermediaries were introduced in 2012. Despite the fact that the commission cap lowered commissions paid to intermediaries, we provide evidence that the reform was only partly effective, as it led to a decrease in reshuffling of new business in the substitutive market, but did not significantly reduce total acquisition costs of health insurers. Our findings confirm that cost regulation is tricky and can be easily circumvented by insurers, as commission payments are only a part of total acquisition costs.

The structure and predictors of instructional quality in private tutoring: a study among German private tutors

ABSTRACT Research on the instructional quality of private tutoring is scarce. Meanwhile, poor instructional quality may be a reason for the minimal or null effects of private tutoring on academic achievement reported in many studies. It is also not clear what makes a good private tutor. To fill in these gaps, the study examined whether the structure of instructional quality in private tutoring could be described using dimensions typically applied to classroom teaching. Moreover, it verified whether tutor enthusiasm for teaching and tutor emotional exhaustion, two central but under-researched antecedents of instructional quality, predicted the quality of private tutoring. We used data of 402 German private tutors (76.74% were female, 57.1% reported being either pre-service or in-service teachers). Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the expected structure of instructional quality consisting of cognitive activation, classroom management, and student support. Latent regression analyses revealed enthusiasm and emotional exhaustion to predict the dimensions. The findings suggest that research on instructional quality in private tutoring can connect to research on instructional quality in regular lessons. Moreover, it might be fruitful for tutoring companies and parents to search for tutors who are enthusiastic about teaching.

Promoting physical activity-related health competence to increase leisure-time physical activity and health-related quality of life in German private sector office workers

BackgroundOffice workers (OWs) are at risk of low levels of health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA) and impaired health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Interventions based on physical activity-related health competence (PAHCO) aim to facilitate long-term changes in HEPA and HRQOL. However, these assumptions rely on the changeability and temporal stability of PAHCO and have not been tested empirically. This study therefore aims to test the changeability and temporal stability of PAHCO in OWs within an interventional design and to examine the effect of PAHCO on leisure-time PA and HRQOL.MethodsThree hundred twenty-eight OWs (34% female, 50.4 ± 6.4 years) completed an in-person, three-week workplace health promotion program (WHPP) focusing on PAHCO and HEPA. The primary outcome of PAHCO as well as the secondary outcomes of leisure-time PA and HRQOL were examined at four measurement points over the course of 18 months in a pre-post design by employing linear mixed model regressions.ResultsPAHCO displayed a substantial increase from the baseline to the time point after completion of the WHPP (β = 0.44, p < 0.001). Furthermore, there was no decrease in PAHCO at the first (p = 0.14) and the second follow-up measurement (p = 0.56) compared with the level at the end of the WHPP. In addition, the PAHCO subscale of PA-specific self-regulation (PASR) had a small to moderate, positive effect on leisure-time PA (β = 0.18, p < 0.001) and HRQOL (β = 0.26, p < 0.001). The subscale of control competence for physical training (CCPT) also had a positive small to moderate effect on HRQOL (β = 0.22, p < 0.001).ConclusionThe results substantiate PAHCO’s theoretical characteristics of changeability and temporal stability, and underline the theoretically postulated effects on leisure-time PA and HRQOL. These findings highlight the potential of PAHCO for intervention development, which can be assumed to foster long-term improvements in HEPA and HRQOL in OWs.Trial registrationThe study was retrospectively registered in the German Clinical Trials Register, which is an approved Primary Register in the WHO network, at the 14/10/2022 (DRKS00030514).

My Study of Law and Economics. An Educational Journey with Knowledgeable Tour Guides

Abstract After studies of economics and business administration in Cologne my academic career as an economist started 1968 as a doctoral student and later as a post doc in the Institute of Development Research and Development Policy of the University of Bochum in Germany. The economic theories, with which I worked at the time had no relation to legal or social norms. This changed, after I became a professor of economics in the newly established second law department of the University of Hamburg. It was a model trial of a reformed legal education. My lawyer colleagues propagated a more policy oriented and teleological understanding of the law, legal scholarship, and teaching and demanded the integration of social sciences into the study of the law. I began studying and teaching the classical writings of the American law and economics pioneers and related them to German private law. Gradually I shifted the focus of my academic interest and publications from development studies to the economic study of civil law and became increasingly convinced that “law and economics” corrects a scientific fallacy, which emerged when the two disciplines fell apart. Later I joined -together with my lawyer colleague Claus Ott-the European master program in law and economics, established a doctoral program in law and economics and the Hamburg institute of law and economics. After the merger of the two competing law departments the united faculty took supportive and far reaching decisions to consolidate the institute and make it a center for the study of law and economics. The following pages show in more detail the factors and reasons, which made me a convinced supporter and scholar of the economic approach to law and of institutional economics.

Deutsche Kulturpropaganda und deutsche Auslandsschulen. Von der Kaiserzeit bis in den Nationalsozialismus

During the German Emperor Period—aside of the few state-financed foreign “propaganda” schools—German private schools in external countries were put under the influence of German foreign cultural policy. The focusing on political consideration increased afterWWIas result of the treaty ofVersailles.As part of the heavily discussed foreign policy the mobilization of these schools in foreign countries for the use for propaganda seems restricted until the National Socialists within their aggressive policy changed and made use of these schools in foreign countries for their foreign cultural policy. For a short time, this was realized by the National Socialist Teachers League creating inside a Foreign School District. To study the result of their activity in the archives only few documents have survived for research explaining the work and its ideology, stressing the teachers engaged with their role of a cultural ambassador of the Nazi movement.

Gambling with lottery stocks?

In this article, we assess whether German private investors gamble in the stock market. Other studies that have analyzed private investors’ preferences with regard to lottery-like characteristics have used retail or discount brokerage data. They have shown that stock trading has common entertainment features with traditional gambling. In particular, clients of discount brokers may invest for speculative purposes and thus have disproportional preferences for lottery-like characteristics. In consequence, assessing preferences by solely using a subset of investors—associated brokerage clients—may lead to substantially biased results. We assess this issue by using SHS-base data from Deutsche Bundesbank which captures the aggregate holdings of the German private sector. In line with the research, we find that German private investors overinvest in stocks with lottery-like features. Yet, when assessing the economic significance of the aggregate overinvestment, the effect is negligible. Further, we do not find consistent evidence of skewness that positively affects the aggregate holdings of the private sector. As studies have identified preferences for skewness as a driving force for retail investors’ stock purchases, our results challenge the preconceived notion of which characteristics actually induce (disproportional) private sector investments.

Paradox or Mitigation? Childless and Parent Gender Gaps across British, Finnish, and German Wage Distributions

Abstract Part of the welfare paradox is that generous family policies increase private sector employer discrimination particularly against higher-wage women. We argue instead that bundles of generous policies mitigate gender productivity differences among parents, and in turn the discrimination also affecting childless women. We test these assertions by estimating the two gaps across the British, Finnish, and German private sector wage distributions using 2000–2018 panel data and unconditional quantile regression. Because of smaller motherhood penalties below the median, parenthood gaps are smallest in Finland and Germany. In contrast, fatherhood premiums constitute most of the parenthood gap for high-wage German and British women, whereas high-wage British women are disadvantaged by motherhood penalties and fatherhood premiums. The childless gap is also smaller across the bottom of the Finnish and German wage distributions. Overall, our advanced modeling strategy finds strong support for the mitigating effects of generous family policies on gender wage gaps.

Tweeting in the ‘Expert Bubble’: Social Media Engagement of German Private Environmental Foundations

This paper explores Twitter adoption and social media engagement of private German environmental foundations. The study follows Lovejoy and Saxton’s (2012) approach to the hierarchy of social media engagement. It demonstrates the domination of an information provision role on Twitter and the almost equal relevance of action mobilizations and community building posts. At the same time, the study supplements the existing typology with the additional dimension of communication partners addressed in each type of tweet. Finally, using data from interviews, the study interprets and explains the role of social media tweets and patterns of engagement with different groups. In-depth analysis of tweets and interviews with the foundation representatives confirmed a limited use of social media as a means for dialogue and community development. Simultaneously, analysis shows that tweets posted by foundations predominantly address a professional community of other civil society actors, experts and politicians, creating an online expert bubble. Interviews confirmed that such online connections mirror offline cooperation networks that are perceived to be more important for successful communication and project development by the investigated organizations.

Preferences for service bundles in the energy sector – a survey of German private households

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine private households’ preferences for service bundles in the German energy market.Design/methodology/approachThis investigation is based on survey data collected from 3,663 customers of seven mainly municipal energy suppliers in the German energy market. The data set was analyzed via a binary logistic regression model to identify the most prospective customers and their preferences regarding bundles of energy services.FindingsThe results indicate that potential adopters of energy-related service bundles have greater prior knowledge about service bundles; place higher importance on simplified handling, flat rates and long price guarantees; prefer to purchase a service bundle from an energy supplier; live in urban areas and have a gas tariff; are both less likely to have a green electricity tariff and to support the German energy transition; have a greater intention to purchase a smart home product; are less likely to already be prosumers; and prefer customer centers and social media as communication channels with energy providers.Practical implicationsThis paper offers several implications for decision-makers in developing marketing strategies for bundled offerings in a highly competitive energy market.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the sparse research on service bundles in the energy sector, despite the growing interest of energy suppliers and consumers in this topic. It expands the research focusing on the telecommunications sector.

Business Model of Sustainable Robo-Advisors: Empirical Insights for Practical Implementation

The given research paper examines the characteristics of German private investors regarding the probability of using robo-advisory-services. The used data set was gathered for this purpose (N = 305) to address the research question by using a logistic regression approach. The presented logit regression model results indicate that the awareness of sustainable aspects make a significant difference in the probability of using a sustainable robo-service. Additionally, our findings show that being male and cost-aware are positively associated with the use of a sustainable robo-advisor. Furthermore, the probability of use is 1.53 times higher among young and experienced investors. The findings in this paper provide relevant research findings for banks, asset managers, FinTechs, policy makers and financial practitioners to increase the adoption rate of robo-advice by introducing a sustainable offering.

La réforme du droit de l’adoption internationale en Allemagne

The German private international law on adoption has long been considered in need of reform. Above all, the criticism concerned the fact, that the (complex) connecting factor under the conflict of law rules, which primarily took into account the interests of the adopter(s), was n° longer up to date. A decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court finally gave the impulse for a reform of the conflict-of-law rules. The legislature had been instructed to implement a change in the substantive adoption law by 31 March 2020. The subject matter of the reform was the (previously excluded) stepchild adoption in non-marital partnerships. The corresponding change in substantive law resulted in a need for adaptation in private international law. On this occasion, the legislature took the opportunity to fundamentally reform the relevant regulations. The amendments came into force on 31 March 2020. An adoption in Germany is now always subject to German law. Otherwise, it is subject to the law of the state in which the person to be adopted has his or her habitual residence at the time of adoption. For potential requirements of consent, the old law provided for a supplementary connection to the national law of the person to be adopted. This is n° longer the case in the new law. The following article provides an overview of the new regulation and explains the background.

Punitive damages under the new Chinese Civil Code – a critical and comparative analysis

ABSTRACT Punitive damages have their roots in the common law system. Recently, punitive damages have been increasingly discussed also in non-common law jurisdictions. This Article scrutinizes whether it is viable for a jurisdiction with a civilian legal system to adopt punitive damages in the realm of tort law. It is argued that societal development has brought unprecedented challenges to tort law where merely compensatory damages can no longer provide sufficient remedies to victims. We conduct research mainly from the perspective of China, which has been very progressive in introducing punitive damages into various areas of private law in the past decades and recently codified it in its new Chinese Civil Code. The discussion of Chinese law is proceeded with a comparison with the German law, which is also a civilian legal system that used to have a great influence on the making of Chinese law. We find that the German private law put much emphasis on disgorgement damages, while the Chinese legislator put his trust in punitive damages. German disgorgement damages and Chinese punitive damages focus both on the avoidance of efficient breaches of ubiquitous individual legal rights, such as personality rights or intellectual property rights, but the Chinese legislator makes punitive damages also available in several other legal situations. We provide recommendations for the future implementation of the Chinese punitive damages law in order to maintain a balance between efficient protection for claimants and sanctions on wrongdoers.

Digitalization of waste management: Insights from German private and public waste management firms.

Policymakers, practitioners, and scholars have long-lauded digital technologies, such as smart waste containers or artificial intelligence for material recognition and robotic automation, as key enablers to more effective and efficient waste management. While these advances promise an increasingly digitalized future for collecting, sorting, and recycling waste material, little is known about the current extent of digitalization by waste management firms. Available studies focus on firms’ digitalization intentions, largely neglecting the level of actual adoption of digital technologies, and do not differentiate the level of digitalization alongside different steps of the waste management value chain. Our study reports on a cross-sectional descriptive survey that captures current digitalization efforts and strategies of 130 public and private waste management firms in Germany. We analyze their levels of digitalization along with different steps of the waste management value chain, explore their different objectives, approaches, and transformational measures with regard to digitalization. Our findings reveal that while the perceived importance of digitalization in the waste management sector continues to grow, the actual adoption of advanced digital technologies falls notably behind intentions reported in 2016 and 2017. We explore the reasons for this gap, point out so far largely ignored research opportunities, and derive recommendations for waste management firms and associations.