http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/25255/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38069/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Fairness in financial services is a hotbutton issue the world over. More and more voters, not just in the U.S., are convinced that the financial system benefits its institutions more than the consumers they serve. Even the microfinance industry - long a poster child for benevolent capitalism - has been called into question. As a result, bankers and other finance professionals in the U.S. and Western Europe are bracing themselves for waves of regulation, and the financial institutions of emerging markets like China and Brazil are likely to remain heavily regulated and insulated from competition for the foreseeable future. Underlying the strong appetite for regulation are the assumptions that it’s impossible for a bank to make money by being fair to its consumers and that fairness can be achieved only through legal and policy tools. These assumptions are false. Banking can be both fair and profitable - in fact, fairness can be a source of competitive advantage. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38110/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Bei vielen Kunden gelten Anbieter von Verbraucherkrediten als Abzocker, deren Interesse allein den Profiten gilt. In dieser schwierigen Branche geht die deutsche TeamBank einen neuen Weg: Sie baut ihre Marke auf dem fairen Umgang mit Kunden auf. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/35007/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Mit einer simplen Idee hat der Dachfensterhersteller Roto die Arbeit seiner Entwicklungsabteilung verbessert. Dem Hilferuf eines einzelnen Ingenieurs folgt die prompte Problemlösung durch die Gruppe. Die positiven Folgen: Weniger Verzögerungen, höhere Motivation und bessere Zusammenarbeit mit anderen Abteilungen, Zulieferern und Kunden. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37688/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Abstract: This article analyzes dual sourcing decisions under stochastically dependent supply and demand uncertainty. A manufacturer faces the trade-off between investing in unreliable but high-margin offshore supply and in reliable but low-margin local supply, where the latter allows for production that is responsively contingent on the actual demand and offshore supply conditions. Cost thresholds for both types of supply determine the optimal resource allocation: single offshore sourcing, single responsive sourcing, or dual sourcing. Relying on the concept of concordance orders, we study the effects of correlation between supply and demand uncertainty. Adding offshore supply to the sourcing portfolio becomes more favorable under positive correlation, since offshore supply is likely to satisfy demand when needed. Selecting responsive capacity under correlated supply and demand uncertainty is not as straightforward, yet we establish the managerially relevant conditions under which responsive capacity either gains or loses in importance. Our key results are extended to the broad class of endogenous supply uncertainty developed by Dada et al. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/20808/ 2010-12-01T00:00:00Z Firms that source from offshore plants frequently perceive the lack of reliability and flexibility to be among the major drawbacks of their strategy. To mitigate against imminent mismatches of uncertain supply and demand, establishing capacity hedges in the form of responsive backup suppliers is a way out that many firms follow. This article analyzes how firms should contract with backup suppliers, inducing the latter to install responsive capacity. We show that supply options are appropriate to achieve sourcing channel coordination under forced compliance, whereas any firm commitment contract imposes a deadweight loss on the system. Whereas price-only contracts are unable to coordinate the sourcing channel under voluntary compliance, utilization-dependent price-only contracts are. Under the former contract, a price-focused strategy on the part of the manufacturer turns out to diminish the system’s service level and possibly has negative implications on installed backup capacity, and not least on the manufacturer’s profit. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/20802/ 2010-10-01T00:00:00Z The article focuses on how the German car manufacturer, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG or BMW, is managing the effects of population aging on the industry. The redesign of BMW's factories to accommodate older workers and increase productivity is mentioned. Research on a pilot production line, which is based on a mix of employees who have an average age of 47 in the year 2017, is discussed. The roles of Peter Jürschick, Helmut Mauermann, Günther Stadler, and Kurt Dickert in the development of the pilot project are mentioned. The costs associated with an aging population are noted.