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In digital media environments, gendered inequalities can be observed on the level of representation and participation in online discussions and digital communities as well as regarding the prevalence of gender norms in self-presentations, and power relations in social interactions. The #MeToo debate exemplifies how gendered inequalities become visible in social media but also reveals the increasing hostility against women online. Drawing on the concept of digital visibility and informed by theoretical perspectives on gendered digital visibility from gender and feminist research and media and communication studies, the article reviews current research and identifies three distinct processes that characterize gendered digital visibility: (1) replication, (2) reinforcement, and (3) resilience. In doing so, the article proposes a taxonomy of research on gendered digital visibility. Findings highlight the ambivalence of women’s participation in online discussions as well as the replication and reinforcement of gender norms through digital technology. Moreover, interrelatedness of these processes and implications for future research are discussed.

In the context of the reform of the tax system and the accounting and reporting system, as well as the integration of Ukraine with the European Community, the issue of simplifying the conditions for doing business, building an effective and understandable system for administering taxes and other duties acquire special significance. One of the important aspects of reforming the tax system of Ukraine is the introduction of unified reporting on personal income tax and unified social tax. The purpose of the article is to identify the positive and negative aspects of the process of reforming the reporting on personal income tax and unified social tax and scientifically substantiate the structure of such unified reporting. The existing forms of reporting on personal income tax and unified social tax, proposed by government agencies, were analyzed. In addition, the unified reporting models from these taxes proposed by scientists were critically assessed by the author. It was found that such indicators as the presence of Ukrainian citizenship, gender and the sign of a new job, do not participate in the process of monitoring the completeness of tax payments. Therefore, it is impractical to fill in these indicators for each employee, and it is enough to submit the total number and structure of these indicators on the reporting title page. The opposite situation exists with the military tax, which is advisable to display for each employee in the reporting for more effective control over its accrual and payment. The author has improved the structure of unified reporting on personal income tax and unified social tax, which will reduce the time spent on filling out such reports, increase the efficiency of control by the fiscal authorities and simplify the process of processing unified reporting data. The main advantages of the proposed form of unified reporting are: significant reduction in the number of indicators; simplicity and compactness; personalized registration of military tax; ease of filling and processing information.

Germany is currently reforming its municipal property tax. To simplify the assessment, some German states are considering a land-value tax as a practical alternative. The authors discuss the pros and cons and find some merit in the land-value tax. However, they suggest that states implement precursions to prevent excessive taxation, such as setting a maximum tax rate.

The purpose of the article is to deepen the essence of the tax mechanism as a financial and managerial category, which has its own components and interrelations with the tax policy and tax system under the conditions of fiscal and regulatory impact on distribution relations. The versatile approaches of scientists to the disclosure of the category "tax mechanism" were revealed. The differences in the scientific approaches to the purpose of the tax mechanism were shown. Emphasis is placed on the expediency of isolating the specific purpose of the tax mechanism.The role of the tax mechanism in ordering the distribution relations at the stage of primary and secondary distribution has been clarified. The scientific approaches to the construction of the tax mechanism were presented. The elemental approach and the instrumental approach in the tax mechanism construction were distinguished. The sequence of formation of components of the tax mechanism and their influence on distributive relations were traced. Author proposes to consider the tax mechanism as a financial and managerial category. The category "mechanism" and the sequence of its application in financial science were characterized. The relationship between the tax mechanism and the financial mechanism was shown. The importance of tax optimization in the implementation of the fiscal and regulatory functions of taxes was argued. The relationship between management and tax functions was analyzed. The necessity to combine management and tax functions in determining the tax mechanism has been proved. The essence and selection of tax regulation methods for their implementation in the tax mechanism were characterized. Classification groups of tax methods and tax instruments have been identified. Algorithm of tax policy implementation through tax mechanism and tax system has been formed. The basic components of the tax mechanism have been determined. The author defines the tax mechanism and justifies its advantages.

Over the past three years, we have witnessed how online digital platforms have deeply penetrated every sector in society, disrupting markets, labor relations and institutions. Five American tech companies (Google-Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft) are now dominating the western world, not just transforming social and civic practices, but affecting the very core of western democratic processes. The digitization of society involves intense struggles between competing ideological systems and contesting societal actors – market, government and civil society – raising an important question: Who is or should be responsible and accountable for anchoring public values in an online world? This article describes and analyzes the European challenge to govern “platform societies” which are increasingly dependent on global commercial infrastructures – ecosystems that are privatized and whose mechanisms are hidden from public view. Translated by Eleonora Benecchi

Inspired by Niiniluoto’s account of the logic of imagination, this work proposes a combined logic able to deal with interactions of imagination, conception and possibility. It combines Descartes’ view according to which imagination implies conception with Hume’s view according to which both imagination and conception imply possibility., a, Bd. 6 Nr. 1 (2010)

Fiscal policy has a significant impact on us all. How governments mobilize resources and spend them on public goods and services, and how fiscal policy is used to steer the economy, are critical for the well-being of societies. The digital revolution holds vast potential to improve fiscal policy. By transforming the way countries collect, process, and act on information, digital technology can reshape the way governments design and implement their tax, spending and macro-fiscal policies. If technology is used in a smart way, fiscal policy will be more efficient, transparent, equitable, and impactful-improving lives all over the world. The purpose of the article is forming the theoretical concept of digital transformation of taxation – from modern methods and procedures to the digital world in the context of a global digital economy development trend and formation of a network interactions society. The basic approaches to understanding the phenomenon of digital economy and its fiscal consequences were determined. It was found that changes in the structure of trust and relationships between taxpayers and the government, tax inversion are the fundamental innovation in the world's tax systems. The main participants or stakeholders in the taxation process were determined. They are: individual taxpayers, legal entities, software companies, tax agents (intermediaries), and the government, represented by the national tax office. Their goals, objectives and functions were defined. Considerable attention to innovative tax procedures and tools was paid: pre-population of tax return, electronic tax administration, electronic receipt, digital taxpayer's office, automation and data analysis, automatic tips. The expediency of new tax instruments' implementation into Ukrainian tax practice was substantiated, and the terminology and mechanism of implementation were proposed. The phenomena of tax flow inversion and digital exclusion were justified. In order to disseminate the latest digital tools successfully, the fisc requires extensive collaboration between the government and taxpayers, which will change the nature of the agent, authority and taxpayer relationship in the future. The SWOT-analysis of digital tax instruments was carry out. It was proved that the government expenditures for tax system functioning transformed imperceptibly into additional costs by economic entities in the information age. World experience that can be used to improve tax efficiency in Ukraine was generalized.

Today with the spread of mass media, the attacks on the honor and dignity of the i

The accelerated expansion of the Internet as a communication tool, the mobile internet, and the social networks and commercial platforms, commonly observed as digitalisation, have greatly affected the functioning of the economy and with it also businesses, public institutions, and individuals. The state of the digitalisation of business and industry varies between the European Union (EU) countries and regions. Each economy struggles to keep up with digitalisation in order to keep their productivity and achievement on a high level. Using the Composite I-distance Indicator (CIDI) methodology, we have created a multivariate indicator that can serve as a measurement of digital economy performances. Furthermore, we evaluate and rank 28 countries in EU (EU-28), based on their digital performances. We made an in-depth comparative analysis of countries in Europe, providing information about each economy with information on where they currently stand in terms of digital economy and what steps they need to undertake to improve and boost up their position in the domain of digitalisation.

The article deals with the use of the platform Twitter for internal scholarly communication from the perspective of contrastive linguistics of academic language. Since such a genuinely linguis­tic perspective on the scholarly use of Twitter is largely new, it is merely possible to take stock of the interdisciplinary dicussion of the phenomenon on the one hand and to methodologi­cally/ methodically explore a linguistic approach to it on the other. The perspective presented here combines a genuinely pragmatic approach to the analysis of scholarly language with media linguistic principles and terms that make it possible to compare recent and historical develop­ments in scientific communication.

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Firms are facing progressively more stringent tax disclosure requirements. In this paper, we examine whether increased qualitative tax transparency leads to intended outcomes using, as an exogenous shock, the 2016 UK reform that mandated the disclosure of a tax strategy for arms above a certain size threshold. We and that arms that have to publish a separate tax strategy report significantly increase their voluntary tax disclosure in the annual reports, but we show no widespread effect on tax avoidance, measured by changes in effective tax rates. We document two mechanisms through which mandating a tax strategy report affects overall tax disclosure. First, we and large changes in disclosure for arms facing high public scrutiny. Second, arms with higher quality of tax strategy reports increase the qualitative discussion of their tax affairs in their annual reports by larger amounts, while arms with lower quality reports show increases in tax avoidance. Our results demonstrate the diffculty of generating a standard that effectively incentivizes desirable behavior when the disclosure mandate is asking for purely qualitative information.

Platform ecosystems are complex ecologies of firms with individual competencies and collective objectives. The sustainable evolution of platform ecosystems is thereby contingent on taking advantage of the individual competencies of the ecosystem’s actors toward obtaining collective objectives. To learn more about platform ecosystem evolution and dynamics, we study Salesforce, a leading and thriving B2B platform ecosystem. We find that the ecosystem’s evolution was closely defined not only by the platform owner’s orchestrating initiatives, but also by its complementors’ and customers’ competencies and particularities. Specifically, we derive three distinct dimensions of evolution, namely the extension of the platform core technology, the extension of the platform’s functional scope, and the industry-specific specialization of the platform. We further identify three cross-dimension levers, namely proprietary developments, acquisitions, as well as partnerships and alliances, which were employed by the platform owner to drive its platform ecosystem’s evolution.

The financialization of commodity markets over the last decade has changed the behavior of commodity prices in fundamental ways. In this paper, we uncover the gradual transformation of commodities from a physical to a financial asset. Although economic demand and supply factors continue to play an important role, recent indicators associated with financialization have emerged since 2008. We show that financial variables have become the main driving factors explaining the variation in commodity returns and volatility today. Our findings have important implications for portfolio analysis and for the effectiveness of hedging in commodity markets.

The emergence of online labor markets calls the validity of traditional career models into question. Given the volatility and digital nature of this environment, short-term employment relationships and heterogeneity of workers, employers and tasks in these markets, it is unclear how careers might unfold – whether they are largely random and accidental or whether there are distinct trajectories and patterns in online careers. We document dominant career paths and develop a taxonomy of novel career patterns in OLMs. This addresses recent calls for research to update and refine our theories and understanding of careers (Rahman et al., 2016).We adopt a quantitative-inductive approach to describe workers’ careers in terms of their task and skill specialization. This helps us understand the different types of careers on a continuum between more stable and random, unsystematic careers. Our results provide an innovative way of thinking about career development in OLMs and open up several fruitful areas of future research.

The following paper assesses whether current policy environments are appropriate for the emergence of cloud computing technology. In particular, this research uses firm-level data for Germany and the UK to examine the impact of capital incentive programmes (a common policy present in most OECD countries) on cloud adoption. The design for many of these policies target investments in physical capital while excluding digital services like the cloud. Firms view digital investments and digital services as substitutes, therefore narrowly define dincentive programmes may actually discourage the use of emerging tools like cloud computing, which are found to enable the growth and performance of young entrants. Overall, the results find that while capital incentive policies encourage firm investments in ICT and other forms of capital, they actually reduce the probability of cloud adoption. Policy makers may therefore need to reconsider the design of capital incentive programmes within their jurisdictions.

Copyright 2020 Thieme, Introduction: Compared to traditional models of care, midwife-led models of care provide better opportunities for midwives to make use of their full scope of practice. This has consequences for their professional satisfaction. The aim of this survey was to gain an overview of the occupational situation of midwives in the maternity units of a Swiss canton and to compare the situations between institutions with and without midwife-led care. Methods: An online-survey was developed based on a literature search. All 17 institutions with maternity units in the canton of Zurich were eligible to participate. Data was analysed descriptively using Stata 15. Results: 16 maternity units (94.1%) participated in the survey: 12 public hospitals, 2 private hospitals, and 2 midwifery-led birthing centres. A total of 5 units (31.3%) provided midwife-led births or were birthing centres. In institutions providing midwife-led care, women and midwives were more likely to know each other before admission to birth (60.0 vs. 9.1%, p=0.063), fewer routine interventions were carried out (e. g. venous access: 20.0 vs. 81.8%, p=0.036), midwives had more decision-making competences as well as responsibility (e. g. autonomous discharge check-up: 60.0 vs. 9.1%, p=0.063) and used supervisions more often (60.0 vs. 9.1%, p=0.013). Conclusion: Fostering midwife-led models of care increases continuity of care and decreases the application of routine interventions. It also fosters the independent assumption of tasks.

There is a widespread perception that Chinese companies, compared to their Western counterparts, are not good at creating novel products and services. But in the arenas of e-commerce and other digi...

Skilled labor is a key input to the innovation process. A shortage in supply of skilled labor may hence impede innovation activities, resulting in lower productivity gains. While governments are concerned about these likely negative impacts, there is only limited empirical evidence whether and to what extent labor shortage affects innovation activities. The paper addresses this question using panel data from three waves (2017 to 2019) of the German innovation survey. We measure labor shortage by job openings that could not be filled at all, not with the required skills or only with significant delay, distinguishing different skill levels. We analyze whether labor shortage resulted in stopping or abandoning of innovation projects. Endogeneity issues are tackled by instrumental variable estimation techniques. Our results show that innovative firms are more likely to be subject to skill shortage, whereas skill shortage induces the cancelation of innovation projects. Effects are stronger for labor shortage related to professional occupations and less for academic qualifications.

Copyright 2019 Thieme, Unspezifische chronische untere Rückenschmerzen (Non-specific chronic low back pain, NSCLBP) sind weltweit die Hauptursache für körperliche Behinderung. Lassen sie sich nicht auf eine entsprechende Pathologie zurückführen, werden sie durch veränderte neurobiologische Prozesse und Verhaltensanpassungen des Patienten (unter anderem Vermeidung körperlicher Aktivität aus Angst vor Schmerzausweitung) erklärt. Individuelle Gesundheitsfaktoren (physische, psychologische, soziale, [epi-]genetische, Lifestyle-Faktoren, etc.) können NSCLB beeinflussen. Die Folge der zunehmenden Prävalenz sind steigende Gesundheitskosten.

The challenges of the economy and of the modern society based on knowledge are closely related to the success of firms, their ability to generate new, innovative products and services, in a steady pace and in a large, diverse structure in order to ensure performance and long-term welfare. In a global world where countries compete to produce and promote the market for quality and convenient products for the consumers, the innovation capacity of a country and the innovative capabilities of companies acquire a special importance. Numerous studies have analyzed the determinants of innovation of the innovative activities in companies, focusing in particular on organizational and technological capabilities and associated strategies required for successful innovation. There are different types of measuring innovation at the firm level, and in this paper we chose four main groups inspired by the typology promoted by OECD and Eurostat: product innovation, process innovation, organizational innovation, and marketing innovation. To remain competitive in the long term, companies must consider all these areas, introduce new products to market, improve the quality of the existing products, upgrade or purchase new production technologies. Based on statistical reports of world and national organizations, our research highlights an extremely diverse and heterogeneous picture of the performance innovation indicators in Europe and the situation in Romania, by comparison both with the EU average, with countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), but also with their own performance in prior periods.

This article consists of seven parts. The first part describes the quarrel over copyright, which was introduced in 2011 and 2012 year by the agreement ACTA. The second part presents the development of copyright protection. The next two parts are in sequence and refer to the main arguments in favor of copyright and against copyright. Then the concept of copyright of Immanuel Kant is shown. The penultimate part of the rethinking of Kant based on the arguments of the supporters and the opponents of copyright. And finally, the conclusions are shown, which can be achieved on the basis of the analysis. The most important observation is that Kant’s vision of copyright is still timely. It means that in the face of today’s conflicts, we should return to the idea of Kant because he described the fundamental rights of authors. Kant also presented the works that are and are not protected by copyright. Only those works are protected by copyright according to Kant, which are the extension of the personality of the author.

The success of economies or firms has been explained in the recent decades by the degree of innovation they have. Companies innovate to conquer markets through new products and services, to reduce production costs, to have an effective management system. It has been statistically demonstrated that there is a direct link between performances, profit level and degree of innovation. The ranking of countries by their degree of innovation prompted the reassessment of how innovation is quantified. The pillars that measure the degree of innovation do no longer refer strictly to research and development costs or number of patents and inventions. There are institutions, human and research capital, infrastructure, market environment, business environment, knowledge and technology outputs as well as creative outputs when we speak about the assessment of the degree of innovation of companies / countries. More and more indicators measuring innovation are focused on items that are not necessarily related to the number of patents or inventions obtained. The developed countries of the world have understood that their success on the international market is related to the degree of novelty and innovation their economy has. Due to globalization, companies and emerging countries are under pressure to engage continuously in innovation: R & D, software, design, engineering, human resources, marketing, etc. - all play an increasingly important role in what we call international competitiveness. We can also state that innovation has evolved along with the development of the human society, from a simple concept of invention or technological novelty to a very complex concept that takes all forms and sectors of economy. Innovation has become a fundamental factor in the whole value chain. Social changes, both in the developed and in the emerging countries, have recognized lately the importance of innovation, and therefore tried to introduce development policies that bring the education and R&D system closer to market requirements.

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Corporations, social organisations, and government stakeholders are increasingly engaged in implementing Western information and communication technologies (ICTs) in sub-Saharan Africa. Given the impact of the digital revolution, critical questions emerge around the presumed need for this “into Africa” implementation. Our contribution aims to strike a counter-intuitive note amid the global perspective of “expanding” ICT into Africa. In the first place, we argue that the “digital revolution” in Africa is taking place successfully because it is based on important values originating in indigenous cultures – including African cultures – rather than Western principles. In the second place, we assume that digitalisation will be driven through “out of Africa” developments rather than an “implementation in Africa”. To substantiate our thesis, we present an example of a successful ICT service provider “made in Africa” and cutting-edge propositions created by African ICT students as potential future “out of Africa” business solutions.

As a young teacher and researcher, the prospective of introducing western philosophical themes to a public of students from a non-western country, came in 2016 as a once-in-a lifetime opportunity, which I met with great enthusiasm. However, as in any situation involving pre-conceived expectations, facing and dealing with the real situation on the ground opens up a pathway for a closer understanding of both the new culture explored, a perception of one’s own limits and the willingness to overcome them. The following lines are intended to cover the way my approach to teaching to a Chinese public has evolved from pre-conceptions and empty enthusiasm to an attitude of pedagogical creativity in identifying and presenting the key topics that would attract my students’ attention. As I will show, students’ expectations were to approach the western ideas not directly, but via a more complex process of being acquainted with the major historical and cultural movements in Europe and the western world. This meant the involvement in the teaching process of a wider number of elements taken not only from philosophy but from other humanistic disciplines.

The AIMS (African Institute of Mathematical Sciences) supports the higher mathematical education of African Master students by providing postgraduate courses, which are taught by lecturers from both local and international institutes. This report reflects the author’s own experience; it aims to motivate lecturers to offer courses or supervision of research topics for AIMS students., AIMS (African Institute of Mathematical Sciences) fördert die universitäre Mathematikausbildung von afrikanischen Studierenden durch postgraduelle Studiengänge. Anhand des eigenen Erlebens möchte ich Dozenten und Lehrkräfte dazu motivieren, Kurse oder Abschlussarbeiten für das AIMS anzubieten., GMS Medizinische Informatik, Biometrie und Epidemiologie; 15(1):Doc01

How do firms' avoidance and evasion opportunities affect market prices? We investigate the causal link between tax-evasion opportunities and prices in a situation where firms remit sales taxes and have access to tax-evasion possibilities. In light of difficult causal identification with observational data, we design a controlled experiment in which buyers and sellers trade a fictitious good in competitive markets. A per-unit tax is imposed on sellers, and sellers in the treatment group are provided the opportunity to evade the tax whereas sellers in the control group are not. We find that the equilibrium market price in the treatment group is lower than in the control group, and the number of traded units is higher in treatment markets. The results further show that the after-tax incomes of sellers increase through the evasion opportunity despite the lower prices. Our findings have implications for tax incidence. We show that sellers with access to evasion shift a smaller share of the nominal tax rate onto buyers relative to sellers without tax evasion opportunities. In addition, we find that sellers with evasion opportunities shift the full amount of their effective tax rate onto buyers. Additional experimental treatments show that this full shifting of the effective tax burden is due to the evasion opportunity itself rather than the evasion-induced lower effective tax rate.

Business ecosystems are currently transforming many established sectors. Understanding how ecosystems emerge and influence strategic outcomes is thus an important concern for academics and managers of incumbent firms alike. Ecosystems result from configuration processes where an ecosystem leader aligns multiple independent but complementary organizations to offer an integrated solution to meet a specific and often complex customer need. In this review, we analyze empirical research on the processes and outcomes of ecosystem emergence. We structure our findings along three analytical levels, highlighting the changes that ecosystems engender in competitive dynamics, the inter-organizational relationships, and the required internal organization of the participating firms. Ecosystem participants, leaders and complementors have to navigate the creation phase dynamically and then develop the strategic activities suited to their eventual role in the ecosystem., Unternehmens-Ökosysteme transformieren derzeit viele etablierte Wirtschaftssektoren. Ein Verständnis für das Entstehen und die strategischen Auswirkungen von Unternehmens-Ökosystemen ist daher sowohl für Akademiker und Manager von grosser Bedeutung. Ökosysteme sind das Resultat eines Konfigurationsprozesses, bei dem ein Ökosystem-Leader unabhängige, aber komplementäre Organisationen zur Erbringung einer integrierten Lösung für ein spezifisches und komplexes Kundenbedürfnis ausrichtet. In diesem Review analysieren wir die empirische Forschung über die Prozesse und Auswirkungen von entstehenden Unternehmens-Ökosystemen. Wir strukturieren unsere Ergebnisse in drei analytische Ebenen und stellen dadurch die Veränderungen dar, die Ökosysteme in der Wettbewerbsdynamik, den Beziehungen zwischen Organisationen, und der adäquaten internen Organisation der Teilnehmer auslösen. Ökosystem-Teilnehmer, sowohl Leader als auch Komplementoren, müssen die Dynamiken der Entstehungsphase flexibel navigieren und dann strategische Aktivitäten, die auf ihre Rolle im Ökosystem spezialisiert sind, aufbauen.

The framework explained in this article is based on PhD research at the University of St.Gallen and professional experiences gained in both Switzerland and Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley remains the world leader in high-tech startups to which the rest of the world looks for inspiration, giving rise to cutting-edge companies such as Apple, Intel, Google, Facebook and Twitter. In 1998 Swisscom established its first Silicon Valley Outpost in Palo Alto. The Outpost as well, identifies technology developments and new business opportunities by fostering the exchange and collaboration with major technology firms, incubators and accelerators, investment experts and ambitious startups. With years of experience and a solid network built up, the Outpost further serves its Swiss headquarters with insights on latest trends and technologies, valuable partnerships, and a visionary mindset. With the aspiration to connect Switzerland with the Silicon Valley and to accelerate its overall innovative strength, Swisscom runs a Corporate Program and industry-specific Focus Weeks for visiting individuals and groups. During those customizable programs, corporate executives, innovation managers or industry experts benefit from privileged access to the Outpost’s local network and first-hand insights like the SCM from innovators and digital disruptors of Silicon Valley.

Using new survey and experimental data for a representative sample of the German population, we study preferences for tax simplification. The general wisdom seems to suggest that most tax systems are overly complex and that tax simplification is generally desirable. Consistent with this general wisdom, we find that more than 90% of our sample believe that the tax system needs to be simplified. However, there also are efficiency and equity arguments in support of a certain degree of tax complexity and it is puzzling why tax systems remain highly complex despite the conventional view in favor of more simplification. The main purpose of our study then is to investigate if the high support for tax simplification is driven by a lack of awareness about the trade-offs behind simple and complex tax systems. Our data show that the support for simplification decreases as we randomly provide economic arguments against simplification and as we ask respondents if the tax system should account for specific differences in living situations (such as costly care of elderly family members). Overall, our findings suggest that the high support for simpler taxes is to some extent driven by a lack of awareness about the implications of tax simplification.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the elements of an integrated innovation and patent management that support the sensing, seizing of innovation and if necessary the reconfiguring of a business. We found several organizational and managerial processes, procedures, systems, and structures of an integrated innovation and patent management that represent specific microfoundations for managing innovation. The importance of an integrated innovation and patent management has grown in today’s fast changing environment. The findings in this paper emphasize to demonstrate the fact that management should integrate innovation and patent functions one process as well as on strategic level to develop significant technologies in-house and act and react on competitive markets. This paper is valuable since it contributes to recent research calls for more qualitative studies on the integration of innovation and patent management and for the identification of specific microfoundations of dynamic capabilities.

This paper investigates the time-varying volatility patterns of some major commodities as well as the potential factors that drive their long-term volatility component. For this purpose, we make use of a recently proposed GARCH-MIDAS approach which typically allows us to examine the role of economic and financial variables of different frequencies. Using commodity futures for Crude Oil (WTI and Brent, Gold, Silver and Platinum as well as a commodity index, our results show the necessity of disentangling the short-term and long-term components in modeling and forecasting commodity volatility. They also indicate that the long-term volatility of most commodity futures is significantly driven by the level of the global real economic activity as well as the changes in consumer sentiment, industrial production, and economic policy uncertainty. However, the forecasting results are not alike across commodity futures as no single model fits all commodities.

U radu se problematizira pojam i značaj instituta obvezujućih mišljenja kao dijela poreznih sustava i poreznih postupovnih pravila. Prikazuju se opća obilježja akta čije je donošenje u nadležnosti porezne vlasti, a koje ima za cilj doprinijeti predvidljivosti primjene normi poreznoga prava. Poredbeno-prav- na iskustava koristan su pokazatelj već stvorenih praksi te daju uvid u stvarne i očekivane učinke primjene instituta obvezujućih mišljenja. Hrvatsko porez- no pravo dobilo je navedeni institut novelom Općeg poreznog zakona 2015. godine, nakon prethodna neuspjelog pokušaja 2009. godine. Obvezujuća su mišljenja institut suvremenih poreznih sustava koji je usmjeren zaštiti prava poreznih obveznika i ostvarenju potrebne predvidivosti postupanja poreznih ti- jela pa time i pravne sigurnosti. Istodobno, primjećuje se da se obvezujućim mišljenjima pridaju i druge zadaće., This article talk over the concept and importance of the institution of advance tax rulings as part of the tax systems and tax procedural rules in contemporary world. Presenting the general characteristics of advance tax rulings it is underlined that this institute aims to contribute to the predictability of the application of the tax law rules. Comparative legal experiences and already existing practices are useful indicator that provides an insight into the actual and the anticipated effects in the application of the institute of advance tax ruling. Croatian tax law has adopted this institute through the General Tax Act amendments in 2015, after previous failed attempt in 2009. Advance tax rulings are part of modern tax systems that aims are the protection of taxpayers’ rights and achieving the predictability of tax authorities’ actions. Thus, rule of law and legal certainty are main targets as expected effects. It is noted that the advance tax rulings might have some other meanings that should be more analyzed as to be established.

The strong competitive power of Japan’s export products is attracting world-wide attention. This is mainly due to the favourable trade balance and the recent sharp increase in Japan’s foreign exchange reserves, tendencies being particularly remarkable in relation to Japan’s trade with the U.S. and the ECAFE areas. In view of this situation, it is expected that Japan’s future trade policy, both with respect to horizontal trade with industrialized countries and to vertical trade with developing countries, should clearly be focused on opening the Japanese market and increasing imports., Internationales Asienforum, Bd. 3 Nr. 3 (1972): Internationales Asienforum

Copyright 2018 Thieme, Hintergrund: Der Einsatz von Antibiotika gehört zum medizinischen Alltag. Ein dabei häufig eingesetzter Wirkstoff ist die Gruppe der Chinolone. Physiotherapeutisch relevant sind deren muskuloskeletale Nebenwirkungen, insbesondere auf das Sehnengewebe. Meist sind die Achillessehnen durch Tendinopathien oder Rupturen betroffen. Es besteht ein Mangel an Literatur bezüglich der Pathophysiologie als auch der Rehabilitation dieser klinischen Muster. Ziel: Diese Fallstudie evaluierte die Anwendung eines exzentrischen Trainingsprotokolls bei chinoloninduzierter Tendinopathie der Achillessehne. Methode: Die physiotherapeutische Rehabilitation einer 48-jährigen Frau mit unilateraler Tendinopathie der Achillessehne unter Einnahme des Antibiotikums Ciprofloxacin nach Lungentransplantation wird beschrieben. Dabei wurde ein kriterienbasierter Ansatz mit ausschließlich Hands-off-Therapie unter Einsatz eines exzentrischen Belastbarkeitsaufbaus der Achillessehne angewendet. Ergebnisse: Nach 9 Einzeltherapien fanden sich Verbesserungen beim 1-Minute-Sitz-Stand-Test, der Range of Motion bei Dorsalextension des oberen Sprunggelenks rechts, beidseitige Kraft von Knieextensoren und -flexoren, Dorsalextensoren und Plantarflexoren des oberen Sprunggelenks, beim VISA-A-Fragebogen sowie bei Schmerz und Partizipation. Schlussfolgerungen: Bei chinoloninduzierter Tendinopathie der Achillessehne ist ein exzentrisch betontes Trainingsprotokoll durchführbar und wirksam, wobei die zahlreichen Komorbiditäten der primär betroffenen Population zu beachten sind. Da Physiotherapeuten aufgrund der demografischen Entwicklung zunehmend mit hochkomplexen Fällen konfrontiert werden, ist es für sie wichtig, die unerwünschten Wirkungen von Medikamenten zu kennen.

LAND ART INSTALLATIONS

This paper examines the links between internationalisation, innovation and productivity in service enterprises. For this purpose, we use micro data from the Community Innovation Survey 2008 in Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom, and estimate an augmented structural model. Our empirical evidence highlights the importance of internationalisation in the context of innovation outputs in all three countries. Our results indicate that innovation in service enterprises is linked to higher productivity. Among the innovation types that we consider, the largest productivity returns were found for marketing innovations.

Peer-to-peer accommodation networks in general, and Airbnb in particular, are frequently referred to as part of the sharing economy. This chapter provides an overview of key characteristics of the sharing economy, discusses how these characteristics relate to peer-to-peer accommodation, and positions peer-to-peer accommodation networks within the sharing economy.

The article defines the role of innovation in the tourism industry. The author’s definition of “innovation in tourism” was proposed. The principles of innovation in tourism were analyzed. The classification of innovations in tourism innovation logistics was developed. Modern examples were given for each type of innovation in tourism.

The paper discusses the problem of creating conditions for an innovative society. It presents the results of global innovation rankings. The case of Finland indicates the importance of democracy and education as key conditions for the development of innovation

The subject of the study is tax burden on employees who are one of the income tax groups and the purchasing power of employees, within the framework of taxing principles. The heavy tax burden on employees in Turkish Tax System is claimed. Moreover a field research is done on the academics that are making high work-related expenses compared to their salaries. Descriptive analysis and analysis of variance tests are done accordingly. It is determined that academics strongly agree with the statements that increasing purchasing power via tax advantages encourages academic studies. In order to realize conformity of employee salaries with the taxing principles such as ability-to-pay and tax justice principle, purchasing power of academics to make work-related expenses should be increased. Improvement suggestions for Turkish Tax System related to the employees are proposed accordingly.

Competitiveness designates efficiency, productivity, success, adaptability, quality products, optimum costs. Competitiveness is a complex concept which defines the ability of a firm or country to cope with actual or potential competition companies or countries on a particular market, on the world market respectively and it is synonymous with economic efficiency; competitiveness reflects a certain state of the economic activity arising from a certain resource consumption in order to achieve economic goods. Supporting the national competitiveness and flexibility is aimed at a sustained increase in productivity relying on the diversification and the innovation of the domestic industrial base. The Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012 ranks Romania as the 77th out of 142 assessed economies. Romania has access to a large market and free trade area, which makes it attractive for many foreign companies, but Romania needs a coherent economic policy that changes the approach used today - from the traditionalist design of restructuring following the resources and, therefore, related to the comparative advantage to finding solutions that stimulate the activities based on knowledge and information so that they allow the emphasis of the competitive advantages. This paper aims to identify the factors and reasons that gave rise to the level of competitiveness for some activities or fields of activities from the economy of Romania during the reporting period, as well as the possibilities that would lead to increasing and supporting the competitiveness of the national economy.

The article describes leaming and teaching behaviour of Chinese students and teachers based on the author’s personal experience as a lecturer of German language and culture at universities in the People’s Republic of China. The author offers insights into the Chinese university system, portraying the role of teachers and students and describing aspects of the daily life of Chinese students. With this as a background the article delineates specific problems and difficulties of Chinese students studying at German universities. Reports of personal experiences compiled by Chinese students and teachers were also taken into account., Internationales Asienforum, Bd. 19 Nr. 2 (1988): Internationales Asienforum

This report gives an in-depth overview of the topic of participation in the sharing economy. It forms one part of a European Union Horizon 2020 Research Project on the sharing economy: "Ps2Share Participation, Privacy, and Power in the Sharing Economy". We aim to foster awareness of the consequences of the sharing economy for the way people behave, think, interact, and socialize across Europe. Our overarching objective is to identify key challenges of the sharing economy and improve Europe’s digital services through providing recommendations to Europe’s institutions. The initial stage of this research project involves a set of three literature reviews of the state of research on three core topics in relation to the sharing economy: participation (1), privacy (2), and power (3). This piece is a literature review on the topic of participation. It summarizes previous research on the antecedents of participation in the sharing economy, including factors such as age, gender, socio-economic status, attitudes, motivations, Internet skills and urbanity. It also looks at the outcomes of participation in the sharing economy in terms of economic and noneconomic outcomes including factors such as social capital, trust and reputation. By assessing the drivers and barriers to participation in the sharing economy, as well as the outcomes, it sheds light on points of intervention for policy and directions for future research.

The concept of innovation ecosystems gained significant importance in academic research on strategy and practice over the last years. The emergence of the Internet of Things is disrupting industries and setting the ecosystem in the focus of innovation. Even traditional analog industries, like the energy industry, are under pressure to foster and manage ecosystems during their innovation efforts. Thus, the energy industry represents an appropriate setting for examining the evolution of an innovation ecosystem under the empirical lens of controversies, which describe the challenges of the status quo and is congruent with previous research on dialectical inquiries as source of innovation dynamics. For the purpose of this paper, the Actor-network theory (ANT) is regarded as an appropriate tool since it allows researchers to analyze how actors interact due to their specific interests with each other and thus configure the ecosystem in its base. ANT further enlarges the perspective of handling actors, while it involves not only human but also non-human actors (i.e. technologies). This is a valuable and necessary feature while dealing with digital innovations such as virtual power plants (VPP). By analyzing three how distinctive typologies, their mechanisms as well as their pathways of controversies affect the innovation ecosystem of VPPs and the evolution of the technological components of the innovation, this interaction between human and non-human actors is highlighted. In consequence, our research emphasizes the significance of involving non-human actors into managerial strategies and the role they inherit for the evolution of ecosystems. Furthermore, the present research reveals that controversies are not only a moderating factor but also a constitutional one for the coevolution of the ecosystem as well as the innovation itself especially during the forming phases. With respect to recent research of the management of digital innovation, this paper contributes to a better understanding of managerial challenges associated with digital innovation and their respective ecosystems.

Mentoring stellt in der Begleitung von in den Beruf einsteigenden Lehrpersonen eine international gängige Praxis dar. Ausgehend von theoretischen und empirisch fundierten Annahmen wird in diesem Beitrag der Ansatz der practice architectures genutzt, um Formen des Mentorings in Deutschland und Finnland im Hinblick auf länderspezifische Verständnisse vom Berufseinstieg von Lehrpersonen und deren Professionalisierung zu untersuchen. (DIPF/Orig.) Internationally, mentoring is a well-recognized practice in supporting newly qualified teachers. Based on theoretical and empirical understanding, this paper compares mentoring practices in two countries: Germany and Finland. The theoretical framework of practice architectures is used to explore mentoring as an expression of a particular view on teacher induction and professionalization of teachers. (DIPF/Orig.)

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