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T Becker, P Schneckenleitner, W Reitberger, A Brunner-Sperdin-Conference Proceedings Trends in Business Communicati PDF
T Becker, P Schneckenleitner, W Reitberger, A Brunner-Sperdin-Conference Proceedings Trends in Business Communicati PDF
Peter Schneckenleitner
Wolfgang Reitberger
Alexandra Brunner-Sperdin Editors
Conference Proceedings
Trends in Business
Communication 2016
Conference Proceedings Trends in
Business Communication 2016
Timo Becker · Peter Schneckenleitner
Wolfgang Reitberger
Alexandra Brunner-Sperdin
(Eds.)
Conference Proceedings
Trends in Business
Communication 2016
Editors
Prof. Dr. Timo Becker Wolfgang Reitberger
Freiburg, Germany Kufstein, Austria
Springer Gabler
© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2017
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Foreword ...............................................................................................................V
1.1 Introduction
Marketing new or improved technology is not always easy. Competition is high,
and the variety of solutions may be overwhelming to the potential customer. Also,
technology develops rapidly so that the customer might not be aware of the
differences of the products on the market, and the smaller or new companies might
have a hard time in gaining the attention of customers. An additional challenge
with many technological solutions is that the developed solutions might not
respond to the needs of the end user, as they rarely are involved in the development
process. This results into the technology having some unnecessary features while
at the same time lacking some necessities. In this paper, we discuss some of the
challenges that have occurred as well as added value that is present in a live
demonstration marketing environment.
One opportunity for marketing ones technological solutions is to take part in
Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) projects funded by different
instruments. One example is the AIRBEAM project. AIRBEAM stands for
Airborne Information for Emergency situation Awareness and Monitoring, which
1
Laurea University of Applied Sciences/Finland, kaci.bourdache@laurea.fi
2
Laurea University of Applied Sciences/Finland, mari.aro@laurea.fi
had the goal to propose a situation awareness toolbox for the management of crisis
over wide area, taking benefit of an optimised set of aerial unmanned platforms.
The purposes of the project are to demonstrate the availability of unmanned
airborne solutions for law enforcement and emergency services; and to convince
regulatory stakeholders such as European Union and national legislatures of the
maturity of the fast growing civilian Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS)
market and the urgency to deliver a regulatory framework for RPAS insertion
(AIRBEAM, 2011).
The project had 21 partners from 12 EU countries, including representatives from
the academia, industry, and end users. During the project the partners worked
together to develop solutions that complied with the legislation, were technically
state-of-the-art and responded to the end user’s needs and standards. This four-
year (2012-2015) EU project culminated in two live demonstrations – one
emergency-related in Belgium 20.6.2015, and one law enforcement-related in
Portugal 8.10.2015.
Then, the guests were taken to the field to observe the action, and were also given
the opportunity to ask the operational staff questions. After the official demon-
stration there was also a general debriefing session, also during which a team
belonging to the project consortium interviewed the end users on how useful they
perceived the system. In addition to the feedback that was gotten from the end
users the involved companies mainly from the industry had stands where they
presented their company, products and services that they offered and solutions that
were currently under development.
Both of the AIRBEAM live demonstrations were successfully completed and the
conceptual approach was proven to work. It is great to see that systems from
different manufacturers and operabilities produce high quality data that can be
combined, and which complement one another. Yet, the most important aspect is
that the end-users could see the system providing added value to their operations,
as was answered to the AIRBEAM consortium by the majority of the interviewees.
The conclusions in this paper are therefore based on these debriefings, semi-
structured interviews conducted with end-users on site, and also a survey
conducted to complement those. As the demonstrations were very dynamic events,
6 Live Demonstrations as Means of Services Marketing …
it was challenging to glean data systematically, but when the right moment and
person was chosen we believe the results to be trustworthy. Observation of the
live demos themselves – or rather, observing the end users themselves observing
the live demos – was a constant source of notes as well. Observation provides
researchers with ways to check for nonverbal expression of feelings, determine
who interacts with whom, grasp how participants communicate with each other,
and check for how much time is spent on various activities (Schmuck, 1997). In
addition to the demos, observing briefing and debriefing events, Q&A sessions
and informal discussions were also important fodder for notes. In the following
few paragraphs, we attempt to condense our results in a straightforward manner.
to be able to make use of the additional and valuable resource, how the materiel
purchased is maintained and stored, and possible licenses to operate, and so on.
Therefore, the need and enthusiasm for the marketed technology or solution can
be met, but the authority to make actual purchasing decisions might not be
currently present even if the supplier is granted a marketing opportunity to the
authorities. Based on our observations, it was quite common for attendees of
demonstrations to be enthusiastic, but when the matter was discussed further it
was clear that for the intent and will to purchase to actually become a reality, there
were multiple steps from asking permission from superiors to actually having to
include entire committees and subgroups in the acquisition process. At times it
was made clear that there are no funds in the budget this season, year or even
longer time, so it would be necessary to approach the issue when the next budget
preparation is underway. Naturally this can also happen in the private sector, but
the discussions clearly indicated that no flexibility was possible. Interestingly,
while the private sector seems to perceive technology as an investment, the public
sector appeared to perceive it as acquiring additional resources, as if to aid or even
replace missing personnel.
When the demonstrations are assessed from a marketing perspective, they seem to
provide two excellent opportunities for the companies. The first perspective is the
traditional one where they receive an opportunity to present their products and
services. The end-users have an opportunity to ask questions on their operational
requirements. As public entities have tight budgets and constant oversight, the
solution has to be a well-fitting one. With the RPA system and payload such as
camera and sensor manufacturers at the demonstration scene, they had a unique
opportunity to see how the system was working, and what features were popular
with the end-users. It is not common to have the opportunity to collect their
experiences right away after the demonstration. The other is to also hear feedback
and collect end user needs and requirements to further develop their products.
Naturally, such projects require both time and budgetary resources.
The needed resources could be considered as an investment. Additionally, some
of the investment in RDI projects is supported by the monetary instrument. The
end user feedback provides a possible advantage over competitors. Again, rather
than an opportunity to market the product there are additional benefits in
participating into RDI, such as the networking with both the end users and also
the partners.
An additional aspect with the demonstrations as a marketing opportunity is the
possibility to discuss and demonstrate the operational requirements the system
needs for the user to gain the maximum benefit from it. There, the end users can
see the systems in operation and the technology and service provider may explain
8 Live Demonstrations as Means of Services Marketing …
how the system operates and explain the functionalities what comes to the training.
Also, as the solutions are on the field the end users may see what the products
need for maintenance, and what is needed for storage and transportation.
One of the biggest difficulties in providing products and services to the law
enforcement authorities as end users is that they cannot or will not provide
information on their operational work and needs and requirements without a
signed confidentiality clause. Hence, to target the products to their needs might
prove difficult. In a demonstration session the guests are attending in a closed
circle, which means that the needs can be discussed more freely, yet still usually
on an abstract level. The subtle hints could indicate what the expectations are, but
also reveal what the existing systems are to which the new product should be
compatible with. In addition, as the end users might not know the state-of-the-art
technological solutions, they might not know what they want, need or require.
Without proper understanding of the needs and requirements of the end users, the
technological engineers cannot offer any solutions for those needs.
The potential in the integration of the end users in the development and testing
phases is many times forgotten. Alternatively, it might not be thought of even if
the industry would be open to it, even though it could be considered as the basics
of marketing: good reputation. Good reputation and recommendation from one
end user to another is cost effective, efficient and beneficial. In turn, bad
experiences travel as fast amongst the customers, too.
When an international project is used as the platform for marketing and brand
communication, then naturally the target groups are also international. This has
the usual added challenges of internationality such as language and cultural
barriers. Considering the AIRBEAM project, cross-border operations and
international cooperation between the relevant authorities were also important
points that came up during the project. Thus, any proposed Remotely Piloted
Airborne (RPA) system should have national and international compatibility, such
as a wide variety of language options and support functions. While private entities
can choose a common working language, authorities always operate in their local
languages and have to handle international cooperation in other languages, which
in Europe and worldwide is typically English.
Parallels could be drawn with the current European situation regarding cellular
trunked radio systems that authorities use: both TETRA and Tetrapol standards
are currently competing in the European market, and the systems are largely
incompatible. Therefore, an authority that uses TETRA cannot efficiently
communicate with another that has chosen Tetrapol, hindering international
cooperation. I. e., while the technology is the same and compatible with one
another, even across the borders, the operational culture including trust, language,
Bourdache K., Aro M. 9
2.1 Introduction
Building up strong brands as well as cultivating the relationships towards fans and
customers become more important in professional sports. Football managers need
to permanently rethink and optimize their corporate communication. This paper
presents results of an empirical study that was conducted in Germany in 2015. The
basic population of the underlying survey is the (global) fan base of Bayern
Muenchen, Germany’s most successful and probably best-known football club.
Perception and usage of the different ticket markets have been questioned and
hypotheses were set up to test whether or not an authorized secondary market can
combat grey and black markets and if it can strengthen the relationship between
fans and professional sport clubs.
3
SRH University Heidelberg/Germany, alex.hahn89@gmail.com
4
SRH University Heidelberg/Germany, markus.breuer@hochschule-heidelberg.de
5
Heilbronn University/Germany, sebastian.kaiser@hs-heilbronn.de
the league association itself is responsible for the organization of the matches
which assigns the staging and operation as well as the associated rights and
obligations to the respective home team. This club may then receive all revenue
generated throughout the match (esp. tickets, merchandize, sales of comple-
mentary goods). As far as the distribution of tickets is concerned, clubs make use
of the classic marketing channels. Moreover, several clubs cooperate with
authorized sales partners such as advance booking offices or sales agencies
offering a large network for distribution. These sales partners usually finance
themselves through a commission fee while they are not allowed to resell tickets
to other traders at self-determined prices. This is one of the most characteristic
features of the primary market: tickets are only dealt at official rates according to
the price structure of the respective club (Holzhäuser, 2012).
statistics) whereas section 2.3.3 presents the findings from hypothesis testing.
Hypotheses were set up to test whether or not an authorized secondary market can
combat grey and black markets and strengthen the relationship between fans and
professional sport clubs.
6
Xing is a professional social network similar to LinkedIn that is mainly used in Germany,
Austria and Switzerland.
16 The Use of Online Platforms in the Fight Against Black Market Sales …
de facto a sub group of the club members (group one). Only 24 participants of
the survey hold a season ticket without being a member of Bayern Muenchen.
Against this background, season ticket holders will not be considered as a
group on its own for all further analysis.
c) A third group shall be called fans/visitors. A total number of 733 survey
participants are neither members of the club nor season ticket holders.
However, we can assume a strong relationship to the sports club and regular
stadium visits. Otherwise these participants would not have received the link
to the questionnaire. Moreover, fans have used unauthorized secondary
markets for several times in the past. Participants belonging to this group are
on average 33.5 years old. 89.5% are male.
The knowledge of the authorized secondary market for tickets that is organized by
the club itself differs significantly between the groups: Whereas 88.5% of the
members are aware of the online market (93.7% of the season ticket holders), only
34.7% of the fans/visitors have ever realized that there is the official secondary
market. In contrast, more than 90% of all groups are aware of unauthorized
secondary markets including online platforms like Ebay. Moreover, for all groups
the awareness of black and grey markets is above the awareness of the online
platform that is driven by the club.
Regarding the communication channels, it is striking that members (including
season ticket holders) receive their information on the authorized secondary
market mainly through the official club webpage. In contrast, for fans/visitors
independent webpages could be found to be the most important source of
information on the authorized market. The importance of social media is in line
with these initial findings: Social media play a minor role for members. For
fans/visitors social media are ranked fourth and, thus, are of much higher
importance.
Usage of the authorized secondary market (for purchasing tickets) is strongly
influenced by the affiliation to one of the identified groups. Whereas 42.74% of
all members and 38.27% of all season ticket holders used the official secondary
market at least once, only 1.36% of the fans/visitors ever participated in the
authorized sales platform. In contrast, black market activities are more equally
spread between the different groups. Figures for the sale of tickets are similar.
Most important factors for the purchase of tickets using online platforms are
“original sales price” (price on the secondary market equals the original sales
price) and “security of the platform” (regarding e.g., the submission of credit card
details, etc.). Regarding the question whether or not an authorized platform is used
for tickets trades, members and season ticket holders show a significantly higher
preference for official platforms compared to fans/visitors. The same result can be
observed for the demand for security. In other words: Fans/visitors are less
Hahn A., Breuer M., Kaiser-Jovy S. 17
interested in using authorized and, thus, secure platforms but tend to trade on grey
and black markets.
Focusing on factors influencing the willingness to sell tickets on online platforms,
the following items have been checked: Importance of:
- selling the ticket to another fan (in contrast to any anonymous buyer)
- sales price
- fast payment
- paying methods (e.g., debit card, credit card, PayPal, etc.)
- sales and payment conditions
Among others, the survey showed that ticket sales “to other fans” are evaluated
more important by members/season ticket holders compared to fans/visitors. In
contrast, a maximum sales price was rated less important. Both results are highly
significant.
Table 1: OSM = Official Secondary Market; BLACK = Grey and Black Market
(Own description)
1 A higher identification with the club leads to more detailed knowledge of the OSM.
1 A higher identification with the club implies less detailed knowledge of the BLACK.
2 Better knowledge of the OSM leads to a more frequent use of the OSM.
2 Better knowledge of the OSM implies a less frequent use of the BLACK.
3 A higher perceived quality of the OSM implies a more frequent use of the OSM.
3 A higher perceived quality of the OSM implies a less frequent use of the BLACK.
4 A higher identification with the club implies a more frequent use of the OSM.
4 A higher identification with the club leads to a use of the BLACK at a lower level.
to collect socio-economic data of their customers that might be used for all kind
of CRM activities.
However, the results of the survey (section three) show that official secondary
markets might not be the first choice to combat grey and black markets. Future
research could repeat the survey with other clubs (and other sports). Additional
surveys should focus on considering those fans visiting the stadium only from time
to time and showing minor commitment. The findings at hand might suffer from
the fact that mainly club members and/or season ticket holders participated in the
survey.
7
CAMPUS 02 Graz University of Applied Sciences/Austria, georg.jungwirth@campus02.at
The last criterion is a feature which is not exactly quantified, but rather a
qualitative estimate.
Three of the four specified criteria have also been applied to Austria, however the
sales ceiling had to be adapted to the small and medium-sized structure of the
Austrian economy, because companies with up to € 3 billion annual turnover from
the Austrian perspective are neither referred to as medium-sized nor as "hidden".
In order now to be considered for this empirical analysis, the following criteria
had to be met (Jungwirth, 2010):
- No. 1, 2 or 3 on the world market or no. 1 in Europe
- Turnover under € 200 million
- Corporate headquarters in Austria
- Low public profile
The market share itself was - as with Simon - not independently determined, but
ascertained based on company statements and press reports.
The turnover limit of € 200 million, which is significantly lower in comparison to
Simon, on the one hand better conforms to the image of a medium-sized company,
and on the other hand relates to a finding by Meffert and Klein (2007), which
determined that the strategy of specialization - which is pursued by almost all
Hidden Champions - delivers the greatest potential of success for companies with
less than 200 million annual turnover.
Prior to the start of the field work, in January 2015 191 medium-sized companies
fulfilling these criteria of an Austrian Hidden Champion were ultimately able to
be tracked down.
The Marketing Directors of these companies were then contacted by telephone in
February and March 2015 and 87 of them (response rate: 45.5%) finally agreed to
participate in this study.
If you ask the Marketing Directors of Austrian Hidden Champions about the
importance of digital communication tools for their company, it appears that so-
called website marketing is considered most important. Nevertheless, 39.6% of
respondents consider website marketing very important, a further 45.3% still
rather important.
This is closely followed by the communication instruments of search engine
marketing as well as email marketing and newsletters (Morten Bach, 2006).
The last places in this list are occupied by the digital tools of social media
marketing and mobile marketing, whereby the latter was not even once rated as
very important. Mobile marketing is furthermore identified by more than half of
the companies surveyed (56.6%) as rather unimportant or even as very
unimportant (see Figure 4).
However, email marketing and newsletters are rated by nearly two-thirds (65.4%)
of the surveyed executives of Austrian Hidden Champions as very important or
rather important. Yet, interestingly only 22.5% of these respondents indicate that
they engage in permission marketing. There is either a misunderstanding here
regarding this technical term or one risks legal consequences if one sends emails
or newsletters without the express permission of the customer.
28 Trends in Corporate Communication …
Within the framework of the telephone survey, a few statements were presented
to the executives of medium-sized Austrian world market leaders regarding their
company's communication policy (see Figure 5).
The largest affirmation was obtained by the statement "We integrate many images
into our communication". 43.4% of the respondents fully agreed with this
statement, a further 45.3% rather agreed. Obviously images carry a very great
significance, even in companies that are active in the business-to-business area
and which sell their high-tech products on the world markets.
But also the statement "We tailor our communication to the customer" was mostly
affirmed. Although only 22.6% of respondents fully agreed with this statement,
therefore 54.7% of surveyed executives rather agreed. Obviously it is not only the
products and services of these medium-sized world market leaders that are mostly
tailored to the customer, but also communication is apparently broadly tailored to
the respective customer.
The relatively lowest affirmation was for the statement "Our advertisements have
mainly technical content". Also here, 22.6% of Marketing Directors of Austrian
Hidden Champions fully agreed with the statement, but only 35.8% of respondents
rather agreed. It nevertheless appears that the communication and especially the
advertising of these high-tech companies seems to be dominated by technical
content. But it could be worth considering emphasizing the benefit or even
Jungwirth G. 29
3.5 Conclusion
Even though the product policy of Hidden Champions seems to be a key factor in
the company's success, communication policy is classified by 86.8% of surveyed
executives as very important or rather important. They have the task of convincing
international customers of these medium-sized world and European market
leaders from Austria of the high quality of their products and services using the
various classic and digital communication instruments. It is thereby important, on
the one hand, to visualize the technical advantages of the mostly highly innovative
products of these high-tech companies, among other ways with the help of images,
in such a way that ideally not only rational arguments, but also emotions are
conveyed. In addition, it is the goal of these companies to communicate as
Jungwirth G. 31
4.1 Introduction
Public relations and investor relations are strategically important functions which
play a crucial role in establishing a relationship between a corporation and its
investors and public (e.g., Ragas, Laskin, & Brusch 2014; Penning, 2011).
Companies invest therefore considerable amounts of monetary and personal
resources in these functions. A survey conducted annually by BNY Mellon
on investor relations practices worldwide reports a growing task scope and
increasing budgets in investor relations (BNY Mellon, 2015). Another inter-
national survey shows that IR professionals belong to the best paid employees
among communication experts (Laskin, 2008). According to a survey carried out
8
UAS St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences/Austria, monika.kovarova-simecek@fhstp.ac.at
outline their specific roles in and contributions to the overall corporate com-
munications.
9
For critical discourse regarding this definition see Hutton (1999, pp. 209).
36 Effective Resource Allocation in PR and IR …
2011). Only few surveys examine the effects of communications measures or the
correlations between the resource input and the impact (e.g., Bushee & Miller,
2012) and put the light on the effectiveness of corporate communications. PR and
IR are, thus, hardly investigated from the strategic perspective. This indicates that,
despite of the effort to establish PR and IR as such, they are not yet perceived as
strategic functions.
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Due to the exploratory and qualitative character of the study the results may not be generalized
but rather considered to be a basis for further investigations.
Kovarova-Simecek M. 39
Schäffer, 2016). This general concept can be also applied to PR and IR controlling
as part of corporate communications management (Piwinger & Porák, 2005; Porák
& Fieseler, 2009) where the intended qualitative and financial impacts are defined
as strategic objectives, e.g., trust, reputation, market position, attractiveness as an
employer, attractiveness as an investment opportunity, resilience in the event of
crisis, market share, sales, share price, cost of capital etc. This step appears to be
constitutional, since if the targeted impact of communications activities is not
defined, the contribution of corporate communications cannot be measured, and,
in consequence, not managed (Piwinger, 2005; Porák, 2005; Marcus, 2005; Cole,
2003; Metzker, 2010; Rieves & Lefebvre, 2002). Strategic objectives in PR and
IR are not only important to enhance the effectiveness of corporate
communications, but also its efficiency by optimizing the resource allocation in
dependence on the maximum possible impact of a specific measure. However,
despite of the awareness of the importance of goal definition among scholars and
practitioners, Austrian PR and IR experts claim a lack of strategic objectives
specified prior to PR and IR program development and measure implementation.
International studies confirm this gap as a widespread phenomenon (Manning &
Rockland, 2011). According to our findings ad hoc measures prevail even though
they might bear the risk of sunk or higher costs, e.g., due to the lack of
coordination between PR and IR.
Clear goals could also help outline the strategic importance of PR an IR, and might
thus serve as an important justifying argument. We, however, observe a different
need of justification between PR and IR, which might explain why, in particular
in investor relation, strategic goals in terms of impact are hardly specified. Based
on the fact that IR is legally required the need of justification is much lower than
in public relations. From the resource perspective, however, the need of
justification for public relations might be much higher due to its broader focus,
greater audience, and thus the need of higher budgets.
Researchers and experts therefore emphasize the alignment of communications
objectives in terms of the impact of communications measures as an essential step
in corporate communications management and measurement. At the organi-
zational level, the coordination between PR and IR, e.g., with one Head of
Communications, seems to be essential to optimize both the effectiveness and the
efficiency of corporate communications. This is mirrored also in the international
discourse. Penning (2011) argues that based on the interrelationship between PR
and IR and their mutual relevance to each other, a targeted coordination is needed.
40 Effective Resource Allocation in PR and IR …
4.5 Communications-SWOT-Matrix
Based on our findings, we developed a corporate communications matrix which
can be applied to manage both public relations and investor relations. The matrix
combines the internal perspective in terms of communication competences of a
company and resources associated with communication measures with the
external perspective in terms of the impact defined as a chance to unfold a positive
effect among stakeholders. A company has communication competence when it
can set a specific communication measure at both the organizational and the
technical level. The organizational and technical feasibility of a communication
measure can be rated from low to high. Each activity set causes monetary and
personal resources, whereas the level of resource use depends on the competences
of the company’s communication professionals. The extent of the resource use
and thus the expenses of a specific communication measure can be displayed
through differently sized circles. As we know from prior research work (e.g.,
42 Effective Resource Allocation in PR and IR …
Figure 8: Communications-SWOT-Matrix
(Own description)
4.6 Conclusion
This paper provides first a concept of performance measurement in PR and IR
based on and concluding the findings of prior research, theoretical approaches,
and international measurement principles and guidelines. As main pillars of a
prospectively effective measurement concept could be specified (1) the definition
of strategic goals in terms of the targeted impacts of corporate communications,
(2) measurement of different performance levels differentiating between the
activities (input) and the impacts (outcome), and (3) implementation of
organizational and technical environment which enables to link the monetary and
human resources used in PR and IR with the effects triggered by specific
measures.
Second, the paper presents an insight into the PR and IR measurement practice in
Austrian companies as a result of a focus group discussion, whereas the concept
showed above served as a benchmark to explore the status quo and to elaborate
gaps and possible solutions. The discussion results reveal that ad hoc measures
dominate the PR and IR practice while strategic objectives in terms of impacts are
hardly defined. We also observe a wide range of measures applied in corporate
communications, however, without assessing their efficiency and effectiveness
which bears the risk of an inappropriate resource allocation. Overall, strategic
goals expressing the contribution of PR and IR to the corporate value and focus
on a manageable number communications measures with the greatest possible
impact with respect to the value enhancement are considered to be necessary steps
towards a successful PR and IR management. We also see that numerous metrics
are collected and reported, however, these metrics focus on (1) the input
perspective measuring the resource use, (2) the output perspective measuring the
activity level, (3) the combined input-output-perspective measuring the
productivity, or (4) the outcome perspective measuring the quantitative and
qualitative perception of these activities. The measurement hardly comprises the
outcome perspective measuring the impact caused by these measures or their
contribution to it. Most of the metrics are documented and reported by PR and IR
departments, whereas controlling does not seem to consider PR and IR
measurement one of its core tasks. Putting PR and IR measurement on controllers’
agenda as well as a better coordination between PR and IR are, however, seen as
a way to raise the awareness of the strategic relevance of PR and IR. Finally, we
observe the need of a technical infrastructure, organizational alignment, and the
awareness of the importance of measurement, in particular among not project-
oriented and smaller companies, since these aspects are seen as necessary
preconditions of a solid database in turn enabling an effective measurement. Our
results are consistent with findings of prior research and current discourse topics
among scholars. This supports the overall impression that despite of the noticeable
Kovarova-Simecek M. 45
4.7 Acknowledgements
We would like to thank PRVA (Public Relations Verband Austria) and C.I.R.A.
(Cercle Investor Relations Austria) for establishing the working group Financial
Communications, and thus enabling a focus group discussion on IR and PR
measurement.
5.1 Introduction
Financial reporting standards such as IFRS and US-GAAP aim to ensure a high
level of transparency of company activities, and thus protect stakeholders’
interests. Currently, companies fulfil the legal requirements by providing a
considerable amount of financial data to all stakeholders without differentiating
their information needs and financial expertise. Doing so, both, governmental
entities and companies assume a high level of financial literacy and widely ignore
the fact that not all users of financial data are financial experts. Users of financial
data have, on the contrary, different levels of financial literacy and different
information needs. For stakeholders, financial data can only be transferred into
decision usable information if users are capable to combine and interpret the data
with regard to specific purposes (Wang, 2013). Applying current technologies, the
responsibility for the usability of financial data is shifted from the companies
11
UAS St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences/Austria, monika.kovarova-simecek@fhstp.ac.at
12
UAS St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences/Austria, tassilo.pellegrini@fhstp.ac.at
Over recent years, various business reporting standards have been developed that
among other things address the reuse of financial data. The most comprehensive
and mature format is XBRL, the eXtensible Business Reporting Language, an
expressive XML-vocabulary optimized to represent financial data at a highly
granular level. XBRL separates the presentation layer from the data contained in
it, and thus increases the usability of financial data for purposes such as reporting,
analytics and targeted contextualization. Dunne, Helliar, Lymer, and Mousa
(2013, p. 167) argue that: “Documents rendered by XBRL are digitally-enabled
so that it is easier for stakeholders to extract information directly into spreadsheets,
or any other XBRL-enabled software, without the need to re-key data thus
providing significant improvements in information flows and enhancing inter-
company comparability.” Accordingly, XBRL is perceived to be a promising
standard that meets the requirements of new reporting routines and also challenges
existing (de-facto) standards in the domain of financial reporting (Dunne et al.,
2013; Guilloux, Locke, & Lowe, 2013; Rodriguez Bolivar, 2009).
This paper contributes to the increasing number of works investigating the
diffusion of XBRL as an enabling technology for new reporting routines and
practices. Several country-specific studies have already been provided (for details
see sec. 5.3), but no attention has so far been paid to the adoption of XBRL in
Austria.
To close this gap, we conducted a survey among publicly listed Austrian firms
whether they perceive a need to develop new reporting practices and if they have
already started to adjust to the new circumstances. Aside these general insights,
the survey investigated the state of the art in XBRL adoption among Austrian
companies, analyzing supporting and inhibiting factors for its application and
rejection.
The paper is structured as follows: Chapter 5.2 gives a brief introduction into
XBRL, explaining its evolution and core features. Chapter 5.3 discusses related
work dealing with the diffusion and adoption of XBRL and associated institutional
setups. In chapter 5.4 the authors explain the survey’s methodology and present
the survey results. Chapter 5.5 provides a discussion and conclusion.
13
Additional standards commonly used for business reporting purposes are RosettaNet, ANX,
OFX2, OAGIS.
Kovarova-Simecek M., Pellegrini T. 53
14
Among these countries and institutions are Brazil (SICONFI - Public Sector Account. & Fiscal
Inf. System), Belgium (NBB Annual Financial Statement), Chile (SVS Listed Company
Filing), Columbia (Financial Supervision & Business Registrar), Denmark (Danish Business
Authority), EU (European Banking Authority COREP/FINREP), Germany (German E-
Bilanz), Indonesia (Banking Regulatory Reporting System), Japan (Financial Services
Agency Next Generation EDINET), Mexico (Mexican Securities Regulation), Panama
(Panama Banking Supervision), Peru (Peru Superintendency of Securities), Spain (Spanish
Business Register), UAE (ESCA Securities Filings), UK (HMRC Corp. Tax Returns & Comp.
House Finance. Stmt. Filing), USA (SEC Interactive Data & FFIEC Call Reports).
15
Among the latter case are countries like Austria, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Ireland,
Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, to name but a few.
54 Reporting to Machines – Reporting Trends and XBRL Diffusion …
their XBRL filings, and they expect to further reduce outsourcing over the coming
year. Significantly, over half of large accelerated filers do not expect to use XBRL
professional services for their next annual filing. This trend suggests that larger
filers continue to become confident that they can be self-sufficient with the
preparation and review of their XBRL reports.”
By analyzing the impact of XBRL on analyst forecast behavior Liu, Wang, & Yao
(2014, p. 69) found “a significant positive association between mandatory XBRL
adoption and both analyst following and forecast accuracy.” According to the
authors “the findings not only support the SEC’s requirement of detailed tagging
of footnotes but also show that the benefits of adopting XBRL are realized
regardless of errors found and concerns raised at the early stage of adoption”
Interestingly, Dhole et al. (2015) come to a somewhat contradictory conclusion.
Their survey results conducted among US XBRL filings indicates that the existing
adoption of XBRL among US companies lead to a decline of financial statement
comparability, also due to the company-specific extension taxonomies. Addi-
tionally, they found that selling, general and administrative expense comparability
declined after the mandate, while depreciation comparability did not change.
information among the different users” (Rodriguez Bolivar et al., 2007, p. 163).
Since then various initiatives originating from the Bank of Spain started an
Initiative in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce
have taken place whose aim it was to stimulate the adoption of XBRL among the
public and the private sector. According to Escobar-Rodriguez and Gago-
Rodriguez (2010, p. 105) “the use of the standard is spreading to all areas. In the
public sector, taxonomy for the rendering of accounts by the Local Entities of the
Ministry of Economy and Finance has been developed, on the initiative of the
General Inspectorate of the Administration of the State, the Ministry of Economy
and Finance, and the General Directorate of Financial Coordination with the
Autonomous Communities and with Local Entities. In the private sector, the
taxonomies of the Institute of Accounting and Auditing of Accounts of the
Ministry of Economy and Finance (ICAC) and of the National Commission of the
Securities Market (CNMV) are significant.”
Guilloux et al. (2013) investigate the contestation of two technical reporting
standards - EDIFACT and XBRL - among French government agencies for
purposes of collecting business data for regulatory purposes. By conducting an
actor-network-analysis the authors illustrated the institutional diffusion of XBRL
as an informal competitor to the official EDIFACT standard. According to their
findings “[s]ome proponents originally believed that companies would voluntarily
adopt XBRL to enhance information for investors, but it came apparent that only
regulators had a clear business case for adoption and businesses would not
volunteer to be accountable” (Guilloux et al., 2013, p. 269). They conclude that
“the newness of XBRL’s technology just as regulators need to respond to an
economic crisis and its [XBRL] adoption by French regulators not using
EDIFACT create an opportunity for the challenger to make significant network
gains over the long term” (Guilloux et al., 2013, p. 257).
For the UK Dunne et al. (2013) collected 1733 questionnaires from business
accountants, tax practitioners, auditors and financial professionals. They come to
the conclusion that “awareness of XBRL, and second generation reporting more
generally, resides in key champions but there is little diffusion outside this narrow
set of stakeholders. Regulatory engagement seems to be the only impetus for
diffusion and better channels of communication within stakeholder networks, such
as between regulators, preparers, users and the XBRL community are needed”
(Dunne et al., 2013, p. 167).
At the international level the European Committee of Central Balance-Sheet Data
Offices (ECCBSO) has established the ERICA working group to monitor the
usefulness of XBRL as a tool to reduce the reporting burden for IFRS. The group
is chaired by the Banco de España and comprised of the following members:
Banco de Portugal, Banque de France, Banque Nationale de Belgique - Nationale
56 Reporting to Machines – Reporting Trends and XBRL Diffusion …
Bank van België, Cerved Group spa - Centrale dei Bilanci, Banca d’Italia,
Deutsche Bundesbank, Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Bank of Greece and the
European Central Bank. In an activity report from 2010 they come to the
conclusion that “(...) the European commitment to XBRL has meant the creation
of the XBRL Europe entity, with the aim of coordinating the efforts of the different
European XBRL jurisdictions. Finally, some Central Balance Sheet Data offices
belonging to the Committee have developed and are continuing to play a key role
in the diffusion of XBRL as a new tool for dissemination of financial information
in their countries; (...)” (ERICA Working Group, 2010, p. 5).
This brief overview of the XBRL diffusion in the US and Europe outlines a
twofold scenario. On the one side we see various governmental initiatives that aim
at stimulating the adoption of XBRL as technical reporting standard, on the other
side awareness about XBRL exists, but the voluntary uptake of XBRL by
companies and their stakeholders is lagging despite the multiple benefits of the
standard in fulfilling the requirements of a “second generation reporting” (Dunne
et al., 2013). ICAEW (2011, p. 7) conclude that “[t]agging business data using
XBRL is part of the larger movement to create a semantic web to free data for
exchange and automated re-use. It has made significant progress, but faces
important institutional and infrastructure challenges in becoming ubiquitous in
business reporting settings in Europe.”
industry segmentation of the Wiener Börse are represented in the sample. The
distribution among the industries reflects the the overall industry distribution at
the stock market and is as follows: industrial goods and services (32%), basic
industries (24%), financials (12%), consumer products (12%), technology and
telecom (12%), utilities (4%), consumer services (4%), miscellaneous (4%). The
majority of the respondents (72%) are investor relations experts, the other
respondents are in charge of controlling (12%), public relation (4%), member of
executive board (4%) or miscellaneous (4%). 64% of all respondents are at the top
or middle management level.
This survey proposes to collect and display descriptive information on first the
current role of financial reporting in the company, second the expected
development of financial reporting in the future and the challenges associated with
the new requirements, and finally the adoption and diffusion of XBRL among
Austrian listed companies and their promoting and inhibiting factors.
Table 2: Sample Structure: This table displays the frequencies regarding (1) the market, in which
the companies are listed, (2) the industry, in which the companies are active, (3) the
working area, (4) the management level of the respondents, and (5) the role of financial
Table 1.1reporting withinThis
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company.
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listed, (2)(Own description)
the industry, in which the companies are active, (3) the working area, (4) the management level of the
respondents, and (5) the role of financial reporting within the company.
(Own description)
58 Reporting to Machines – Reporting Trends and XBRL Diffusion …
Table 3: Estimated trends in financial reporting: This table summarizes views of all respondents
regarding the estimated trends in financial reporting. Means reflects a Likert scale
where 1 = fully agree, 2 = somewhat agree, 3 = rather disagree, 4 = disagree. As shown
by the skewness and kurtosis, the data is not normally distributed and mirror clear
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4 4Challenges
44Challenges
Challenges
Challenges ofofofimplementation
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implementation :ofThis
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statistics
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table
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reports
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descriptive
descriptive
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statistics
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statistics
Table 5:theChallenges
(frequencies)
(frequencies)
(frequencies)
(frequencies)
with ofimplementation
of
challenges
ofofchallenges
challenges
challenges of implementation
associated
associated
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new technical
withwith
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(Own
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description)
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all
technical
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respondents
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reporting Thisbytable
standards
standards
standards
standards byby
all
byall
all reports
respondents
allrespondents
respondents the
respondents
independent
independent
independent
independent ofof their
ofof
their
their
their
XBRL
XBRL
XBRL
XBRL knowledge
knowledge
knowledge
knowledge (n(n =(n(n
25).
=== 25).
25).
25).
Table
Table descriptive
Table444Challenges
Challenges
Challenges statistics
ofofofimplementation
implementation : This(frequencies)
implementation table
ofofoftechnical
technical
reports
technical theof
reporting challenges
reporting
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descriptive
standards:
standards:
standards:associated
statistics
This
This
Thistable
table with
tablereports
reports
reports the
the
the implementation
thedescriptive
descriptive
descriptivestatistics
statisticsof
statistics
with
(frequencies)
(frequencies)
(frequencies)
the implementation ofofof
challenges
challenges
challenges
of new associated
associated
associated
technicalwith with
reporting
with the
the
theimplementation
implementation
implementation
standardsby by all
all
ofofof
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respondents
new
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reporting
reporting standards
standards
standards byby by
allall
all
respondents
respondents
respondents
Questionnew technical reporting standards
Question
Question
Question Yes No respondents YesYes
YesYes independent NoNo No No of their XBRL
independent
independent
independent ofof
of
their
their
their XBRL
XBRL
XBRL knowledge
knowledge
knowledge (n(n
(n= = 25).
= 25).
25).
Table
Table
Table knowledge
44Challenges
4Challenges
Challenges ofofof (n = 25). ofofoftechnical
implementation
implementation
implementation technical
ntechnical
(%) reporting
reporting
reporting nstandards:
standards:
standards:
(%) This
This
This
n table
ntable
(%) ntable
n(%) (%)
(%)reports
reports
reports the
the
nthedescriptive
ndescriptive
(%) ndescriptive
n(%) (%)
(%) statistics
statistics
statistics
(frequencies)
(frequencies)
(frequencies) ofofof
challenges
challenges
challenges associated
associated
associated with
with
with the
thetheimplementation
implementation
implementation ofofof
new
new
newtechnical
technical
technicalreporting
reporting
reporting standards
standards
standards by bybyall
allall
respondents
respondents
respondents
What
What
What
What
challenges
Question
Question
Question
independent
independent
independent
(Own
challenges
challenges
challenges
implementing
ofofofdo
their do
their
description)
do
companies
do
theircompanies
companies
XBRL companies
XBRL
XBRL have
knowledgehave
knowledgehave
have
knowledge to to
face
toto
face
Yes face
(n(n(nface
by
==25). byby
implementing
=25). byimplementing
25). implementing
implementingNo Yes
Yes
Yes NoNo
No
technical
technical
technical
technical
reporting
reporting
reporting
reporting standards?
standards?
standards?
standards? (n(n =25)
(n(n
=25)
=25)
=25) n (%) n (%) nn(%)
n(%) (%) nn(%)
n(%) (%)
Question
Question a.
Question a.
Adjustment
a.a.
Adjustment
Adjustment
Adjustment of of
existing
ofofexisting
existing
existingworkflow
workflow
workflow
workflow and and
22
andand
conventions
(88.0)
conventions
conventions
conventions 3 (12.0) 22 22
22
(88.0)
Yes
Yes 22
Yes (88.0)
(88.0)
(88.0) 3No
No (12.0)
3No3(12.0)
3(12.0)
(12.0)
What
What
What challenges
implementing
challenges
challenges dododo
companies
companies
companies have
have
have tototo
face
face
face bybybyimplementing
implementing
implementing
b. b.Education
b.b.Education
Education
Education and and
and
and
training
training
training
trainingofof staff
ofof
staff
staff
staff
in incharge
inin
charge
21
charge
charge
(84.0) 4 (16.0) 2121 21
(84.0)
21 (84.0)
(84.0)
(84.0) 4 (16.0)
44(16.0)
4(16.0)
(16.0)
technical
technical
technical reporting
reporting
reporting standards?
standards?
standards? (n(n(n=25)
=25)
=25) nn(%)
n(%) (%) nn(%)n(%) (%)
c. c.
Development
c.c.
Development
Development
Development ofof aofof
new
aanewanew
new
policy
policy
policy
policyforforfor
the
forthe
10
the
use
the (40.0)
use
use
of
useof
financial
ofof
financial
financial
financial
data
15data
data
(60.0)
data 1010 10
(40.0)
10 (40.0)
(40.0)
(40.0) 1515 15
(60.0)
15 (60.0)
(60.0)
(60.0)
What
WhatWhat a.a.a.
Adjustment
challenges
challenges Adjustment
challengesAdjustment
dodo do ofofof
existing
companies
companies
companiesexisting
existing workflow
have
have workflow
haveworkflow
22
tototo face
face (88.0)
facebyand
byand
and
by conventions
conventions
conventions
implementing 3 (12.0) 2222
22(88.0)
(88.0)
(88.0) 33(12.0)
3(12.0)
(12.0)
d. d.
Missing
d.d.Missing
Missing
Missing IT IT
expertise
ITITexpertise
expertise
expertise 5implementing
implementing
(20.0) 20 (80.0) 5 (20.0)
55(20.0)
5(20.0)
(20.0) 2020 20
(80.0)
20 (80.0)
(80.0)
(80.0)
technical
technical b.b.
technical b.
Education
Education
Education andand
and training
training
training of=25)
ofof
staff
staff
staff
21 in (84.0)
inin
charge
charge
charge 4 (16.0) 2121
21(84.0)
(84.0)
(84.0) 44(16.0)
4(16.0)
(16.0)
-up costs e.reporting
reporting
e. reporting
Inestimable
e.e.
Inestimable
Inestimablestandards?
Inestimablestandards?
standards?
follow-up
follow-up
follow-up (n(n(n
follow-up =25)
=25)
costs
costs
costs
costs 8 (32.0) 17 (68.0) 8 (32.0)
88(32.0)
8(32.0)
(32.0) 1717 17
(68.0)
17 (68.0)
(68.0)
(68.0)
c. c.c.
Development
Development
Development ofofofa anew
a new
new policy
policy
policy
10 forfor
(40.0)
for
thethe
theuseuse
useofof
of
financial
financial
financial
15 (60.0)
data
data
data 1010
10(40.0)
(40.0)
(40.0) 1515
15 (60.0)
(60.0)
(60.0)
f.a.a.
f.Adjustment
a.f.
Adjustment
Adjustment
Guarantee
f. Guarantee
Guarantee
Guarantee ofofofofof
data
ofofexisting
existing
data
data existing
data
security
securityworkflow
workflow
security
securityworkflow and
and
21and conventions
conventions
conventions 4 (16.0)
(84.0) 22
21 22
2122
21(88.0)
(88.0)
(84.0)
21 (88.0)
(84.0)
(84.0)
(84.0) 43(16.0)
34(12.0)
43(12.0)
(12.0)
(16.0)
4(16.0)
(16.0)
d. d.d.
Missing
Missing
Missing
b.b.Education
b.Education
Education ITIT
ITexpertise
and expertise
andexpertise
andtraining
training
training ofofof
staff 5
staff
staff(20.0)
ininin
charge
charge
charge 20 (80.0) 215 5(20.0)
2121 5 (20.0)
(20.0)
(84.0)
(84.0)
(84.0) 2020
20 (80.0)
(80.0)
44(16.0) (80.0)
4(16.0)
(16.0)
up costs e. e.e.
Inestimable
Inestimable
Inestimable
c.c.Development
c.Development
Development follow-up
follow-up
follow-up
ofofofaanewanew costs
new costs
costs
policy
policy
policy8for(32.0)
forfor
the
thethe
useuse
use
ofofof 17
financial (68.0)
financial
financialdata
data
data 108 8(32.0)
1010 8 (32.0)
(32.0)
(40.0)
(40.0)
(40.0) 17
1517
17
1515(68.0)
(68.0)
(68.0)
(60.0)
(60.0)
(60.0)
f. f.Guarantee
d.d.f.Missing
d.Guarantee
Guarantee
Missing
Missing IT ofIT
IT ofof
data
data
data
expertise
expertise security
expertise security
security 21 (84.0) 4 (16.0) 2121
521
5(84.0)
(84.0)
(84.0)
(20.0)
5(20.0)
(20.0) 204420
20 (16.0)
4(80.0)
(16.0)
(16.0)
(80.0)(80.0)
e.e.Inestimable
e.Inestimable
Inestimable follow-up
follow-up
follow-up costs
costs
costs 88(32.0)
8(32.0)
(32.0) 171717(68.0)
(68.0)
(68.0)
f.f.Guarantee(Ownofdescription)
f.Guarantee
Guarantee ofof
data
data
data security
security
security (Own(Own
(Own
(Own description)
description)
description)
description) 212121(84.0)
(84.0)
(84.0) 44(16.0)
4(16.0)
(16.0)
(Own
(Own
(Own
description)
description)
description)
60 Reporting to Machines – Reporting Trends and XBRL Diffusion …
Table 6: Diffusion and adoption of XBRL: This table reports the frequencies regarding (1) the
spread of knowledge of XBRL among the respondents, (2) the self estimated level of
XBRL expertise among the respondents who know XBRL, and (3) the level of XBRL
Table
Table
Table adoption
5 Diffusion
5 Diffusion
5 Diffusion
andandwithin
adoption
and
adoptionthe
adoption
of of investigated
XBRL:
XBRL:
of XBRL:
This
This
table
This companies
table
reports
table
reports
reports
thethe knowing
frequencies
frequencies
the XBRL.
frequencies
regarding
regarding
regarding
(1)(1)thethe
(1)
spread
spread
the spread
ofof
knowledge
knowledge
of knowledge
ofof of
XBRL
XBRLXBRL
among
among among
thethe
respondents,
respondents,
the respondents,
(2)(2)
thethe
(2)
self
self
the
estimated
self
estimated
estimated
level
level
of
level
of
XBRL
XBRL
of XBRL
expertise
expertise
expertise
among
amongamong
thethe
respondents
respondents
the respondents
who
whoknow
who
knowXBRL,
know
XBRL,
XBRL,
and
and
(3)and
(3)
thethe
(Own
(3)
level
level
theof
description)
level
of
XBRL
XBRL
of XBRL
adoption
adoption
adoption
within
within
within
thethe
investigated
investigated
the investigated
companies
companies
companies
knowing
knowing
knowing
XBRL.
XBRL.XBRL.
Table
Table
Table55Diffusion
5Diffusion
Diffusionand
and
and
adoption
adoption
adoptionofofof
XBRL:
XBRL:
XBRL: This
This
This
table
table
table
reports
reports
reports
the
the
the
frequencies
frequencies
frequencies
regarding
regarding
regarding(1)
(1)
(1)
the
the
the
spread
spread
spread
ofofof
knowledge
knowledge
knowledge
ofofof
XBRL
XBRL
XBRL among
among
amongthe
the
the
respondents,
respondents,
respondents,
(2)
(2)
(2)
the
the
the
self
self
self
estimated
estimated
estimated level
level
level
ofofof
XBRL
XBRL
XBRL expertise
expertise
expertise
among
among
among the
the
the
respondents
respondents
respondentswho
who
whoknow
know
know
XBRL,
XBRL,
XBRL,
Question
Question
and
and
and Question
(3)
(3)
(3)
the
the
the
level
level
level
ofofof
XBRL
XBRL
XBRL adoption
adoption
adoptionwithin
within
within
the
thethe
investigated
investigated
investigatedcompanies
companies
companies knowing
knowing
knowing nXBRL.
(%)
nXBRL.
(%)
XBRL.n (%)
1. 1.
DoDo 1. you
youDo know know
you XBRL?
XBRL?
know XBRL? (n=25)
(n=25) (n=25)
Question
Question
Question1a.1a. Yes
Yes
1a. Yes n7n(%)
7n(%)
(%)
(28.00)
(28.00)
7 (28.00)
1.1.Do
1.DoDo
you1b.
you
you 1b.No
know
knowNo
1b.XBRL?
know No
XBRL?
XBRL? (n=25)
(n=25)
(n=25) 1818(72.00)
(72.00)
18 (72.00)
2. 2.
What
What
2. is
Whatis
your
1a.
1a. your
1a. isYes
Yes
Yeslevel
your
level
oflevel
of
XBRL
XBRL
of XBRL
expertise?
expertise?
expertise?
(n=7)
(n=7) (n=7) 77(28.00)
7(28.00)
(28.00)
2a.
1b.2a.
1b. High
1b.High
No
No2a.
NoHigh 018
18(0.00)
018 (0.00)
0 (0.00)
(72.00)
(72.00)
(72.00)
2.2.What
2.What
What2b. 2b.Middle
isisyour Middle
isyour2b.
your Middle
level
level
level
ofofof
XBRL
XBRL
XBRL expertise?
expertise?
expertise?(n=7)
(n=7)
(n=7) 1 (14.30)
1 (14.30)
1 (14.30)
2c.
2a.2c.
2a. Low
2a.Low
2c.
High
High
HighLow 50(71.40)
50(0.00)
(71.40)
5 (71.40)
0(0.00)
(0.00)
2d.
2b.2d.
2b. Non-existent
2b. Non-existent
2d.
Middle
Middle Non-existent
Middle 11(14.30)
11(14.30)
1(14.30)
1 (14.30)
(14.30)
(14.30)
3. 3.
ToTo what
3.what
To2c.extent
what
2c. extent
2c.
Low
Low extent
Lowhashas
XBRLXBRL
has XBRL
been
beeninstalled
been
installed
installed
in in
youryour
incompany?
your
company?
company?
(n=7)
(n=7)
(n=7) 55(71.40)
5(71.40)
(71.40)
3a.
2d.3a.
2d. We
2d.We3a.
already
already
We already
Non-existent
Non-existent
Non-existentuseuseXBRL
XBRL
use XBRL 11(14.30)
11(14.30)
1(14.30)
1 (14.30)
(14.30)
(14.30)
3.3.To
3.ToTo 3b.
what
what
what3b.We We
extent3b.
extentplan
extent plan
We
has toXBRL
has
hasplan
to
adopt
XBRLadopt
XBRLto been
XBRL
adopt
XBRL
been
been XBRL
within
within
installed
installedwithin
installedthe
ininthenext
your next
inyourthe
your 5company?
next
years
5 years
company? 5 years
company? (n=7)
(n=7)
(n=7) 2 (28.40)
2 (28.40)
2 (28.40)
3c.
3a.3c.
3a. We
3a.We
We
We3c.
have
We have
We no
already have
already no
alreadyplans
useplans
useno
use to
plans
XBRL
XBRLto
adopt
XBRLadopt
to XBRL
adopt
XBRL XBRL
forfor
thethe
for
time
time
thebeing
time
being
being 31(42.90)
31(14.30)
1(42.90)
3 (42.90)
(14.30)
(14.30)
3d.
3b.3d.
3b. We
3b.
WeWe
We3d.
We won’t
won’t
We
plan
plan
plan
to adopt
won’t
adopt
toadopt
to
adopt
adoptXBRL
XBRL
adopt
XBRL
XBRLXBRL
XBRL within
within
within the
thethe
next
next
next55years
5years
years 12(28.40)
2(14.30)
12(14.30) 1 (14.30)
(28.40)
(28.40)
3c.
3c.
3c.
We
We
We
have
have
have
no
nono
plans
plans
plans
totoadopt
toadopt
adopt
XBRL
XBRL
XBRL
for
for
for
the
the
the
time
time
time
being
being
being 33(42.90)
3(42.90)
(42.90)
3d.
3d.
3d.
We
We
We
won’t
won’t
won’t
adopt
adopt
adopt
XBRL
XBRL
XBRL 11(14.30)
1(14.30)
(14.30)
(Own
(Own
(Own
description)
description)
description)
Table 7: Reasons for and against the implementation of XBRL: This table displays the
Table
Table
Table
6 Reasons
6 Reasons
6frequencies
Reasons
forforand
and
foragainst
and
against
against
thethe
regarding (1) the(Own
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of of
reasonsdescription)
description)
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andtable displays
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(2) displays
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frequencies
the frequencies
against regarding
regarding
the regarding
(1)(1)
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reasons
reasons
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forforandand
for
of (2)and
(2)
reasons
XBRL reasons
(2) reasons
against
against
among against
thetheimplementation
implementation
the implementation
respondents ofof
who XBRL
XBRL
of XBRL
(1) among
knowamongamong
respondents
respondents
XBRL respondents
and whowho (1)
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(1)
know
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and
and
adopted hasand
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(n (n
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frequencies
XBRLregarding
regarding
regarding
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and
and
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(2)
(2)(2)
reasons
reasons
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against
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the
the
theimplementation
implementation
implementation ofofof
XBRL
XBRL
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among
among respondents
respondents
respondents who
who
who(1)
(1)
(1)
know
know
knowXBRL
XBRL
XBRL and
and
andhas
has
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already
already
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plan
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XBRL
plan
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(nXBRL
XBRL
XBRL
= 4).within
within
within
the
thethe
next
next
next
55years
5years
years(n(n(n
==3)
=3)3)
and
and
and(2)
(2)
(2)
know
know
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XBRL
XBRL and
and
and
have
have
have
no
nono
plans
plans
plans
totoadopt
toadopt
adopt
Question
Question
XBRL
XBRL Question
XBRL (n(n(n (Own
==4).
=4).4). description) n (%)
n (%) n (%)
1. 1.
What
What
1. were
What
were the
were
the
reasons
reasons
the reasons
forfor thethefor
implementation
implementation
the implementation ofofXBRL?
XBRL?
of XBRL?
(n(n=3)=3)
(n =3)
Question
Question
Question
1a.1a.
We We
1a.
deliberately
deliberately
We deliberately decided
decided decided
to to
adopt
adopt
to XBRL
adopt
XBRL XBRL 0n(0.00)
0n(%)
n(0.00)
(%)
(%)
0 (0.00)
1b.1b.
We We
1b.
werewere
Weforced
were
forced forced
to toadopt
adopt
to XBRL
adopt
XBRL XBRL 0 (0.00)
0 (0.00)
0 (0.00)
1.1.What
1.What
What
were
were
werethe
thethe
reasons
reasons
reasons for
forfor
the
thethe
implementation
implementation
implementation ofofof
XBRL?
XBRL?
XBRL? (n(n(n
=3)
=3)
=3)
1c.1c.
XBRL
XBRL
1c. XBRL
camecame in
came
in
thethe course
in course
the course
ofofa technical
a of
technical
a technical
upgrade
upgrade
upgrade 1 (25.00)
1 (25.00)
1 (25.00)
1a.
1a.
1a.
We
We Wedeliberately
deliberately
deliberately decided
decided
decided totoadopt
toadopt
adoptXBRL
XBRL
XBRL 00(0.00)
0(0.00)
(0.00)
1d.1d.
XBRL
XBRL
1d. XBRLwas was part
was
part newpart
new reporting
new
reporting
reporting
routines
routines
routines 1 (25.00)
1 (25.00)
1 (25.00)
1b.
1b.
1b.
WeWeWewere
were
were forced
forced
forced totoadopt
toadopt
adopt XBRL
XBRL
XBRL 00(0.00)
0(0.00)
(0.00)
1e.1e.
Misc.
Misc.
1e. reasons
Misc.
reasons reasons
forfor XBRLXBRL
for XBRLadoption
adoption
adoption 2 (50.00)
2 (50.00)
2 (50.00)
1c.
1c.
1c.
XBRL
XBRL
XBRL came
came
came ininthe
inthethe
course
course
course ofofof
aatechnical
atechnical
technical upgrade
upgrade
upgrade 11(25.00)
1(25.00)
(25.00)
2. 2.
What
What
2. were
What
were the
were
thereasons
reasons
the reasons
against
against against
thethe implementation
implementation
the implementation ofofXBRL?
XBRL?
of XBRL?
(n(n=4)
=4)
(n =4)
1d.
1d.
1d.
XBRL
XBRL
XBRL was
waswaspart
partpart
new
newnew reporting
reporting
reporting routines
routines
routines 11(25.00)
1(25.00)
(25.00)
2a.2a.
NoNo2a.
needneed
Nofor need
forXBRLXBRL
for XBRL 0 (0.00)
0 (0.00)
0 (0.00)
1e.
1e.
1e.
Misc.
Misc.
Misc. reasons
reasons
reasons for
forfor
XBRL
XBRL
XBRL adoption
adoption
adoption 22(50.00)
2(50.00)
(50.00)
2b.2b.
We We
2b.
use use
We other
other
use standards
other
standards
standards
(e.g.,
(e.g.,
Edifact,
(e.g.,
Edifact,
Edifact,
ebXML)
ebXML)ebXML) 0 (0.00)
0 (0.00)
0 (0.00)
2.2.What
2.What
What
were
were
werethe
thethe
reasons
reasons
reasons against
against
against the
thethe
implementation
implementation
implementation ofofof
XBRL?
XBRL?
XBRL? (n(n(n
=4)
=4)
=4)
2c.2c.
XBRL
XBRL
2c. XBRL
is isnono issue
isissue
no issue 4 (66.67)
4 (66.67)
4 (66.67)
2a.
2a.
2a.
No
No No
need
need
need for
forfor
XBRL
XBRL
XBRL 00(0.00)
0(0.00)
(0.00)
2d.2d.
Implementation
Implementation
2d. Implementation costs
costscosts 1 (16.67)
1 (16.67)
1 (16.67)
2b.
2b.
2b.
WeWeWeuse
useuseother
other
otherstandards
standards
standards (e.g.,
(e.g.,
(e.g.,
Edifact,
Edifact,
Edifact,ebXML)
ebXML)
ebXML) 00(0.00)
0(0.00)
(0.00)
2e.2e.
Immaturity
Immaturity
2e. Immaturity ofof thethe of
technology
technology
the technology 1 (16.67)
1 (16.67)
1 (16.67)
2c.
2c.
2c.
XBRL
XBRL
XBRL isisno
isnonoissue
issue
issue 44(66.67)
4(66.67)
(66.67)
2f.2f.
Missing
Missing
2f. Missing
expertise
expertise
expertise 0 (0.00)
0 (0.00)
0 (0.00)
2d.
2d.
2d.
Implementation
Implementation
Implementation costs
costs
costs 11(16.67)
1(16.67)
(16.67)
2g.2g.
Security
Security
2g. Security
issues
issues issues 0 (0.00)
0 (0.00)
0 (0.00)
2e.
2e.
2e.
Immaturity
Immaturity
Immaturity ofofofthe
thethe
technology
technology
technology 11(16.67)
1(16.67)
(16.67)
2h.2h.
Misc.
Misc.
2h. reasons
Misc.
reasonsreasons
against
against against
XBRLXBRL XBRL
adoption
adoption
adoption 0 (0.00)
0 (0.00)
0 (0.00)
2f.
2f.2f.
Missing
Missing
Missing expertise
expertise
expertise 00(0.00)
0(0.00)
(0.00)
2g.
2g.
2g.
Security
Security
Security issues
issues
issues 00(0.00)
0(0.00)
(0.00)
2h.
2h.2h. Misc.
Misc.
Misc. reasons
reasons
reasons against
against
against XBRL
XBRL XBRL adoption
adoption
adoption 00(0.00)
0(0.00)
(0.00)
(Own
(Own
(Own
description)
description)
description)
(Own
(Own
(Own
description)
description)
description)
62 Reporting to Machines – Reporting Trends and XBRL Diffusion …
Questions
Questions
Questions Know
Know
Knowand
and
andadopted
adopted
adoptedXBRL
XBRL
XBRL Know,
Know,
Know, butbut have
but
have
havenot
not
not
(yet)
(yet)
(yet) adopted
adopted
adopted XBRL
XBRL
XBRL
(n(n(n
= =3)
=3)3) ( n( (n=4)
n=4)
=4)
Yes
Yes
Yes No NoNo Yes
YesYes No No
No
1.1.What
1.What are
are
What arethe
the benefits
benefits
the benefitsofofofXBRL?
XBRL?
XBRL?
1a.
1a.
1a.
Reusability
Reusability
Reusabilityofofof
financial
financial
financial data
data
data 2 22 1 11 1 11 3 33
1b.
1b.
1b.
Comparability
Comparability
Comparability ofofof
financial
financial
financial data
data
data 1 11 2 22 2 22 2 22
1c.
1c.
1c.
Acceleration
Acceleration
Acceleration ofofof
data
data
data
processing
processing
processing 0 00 3 33 0 00 4 44
1d.
1d.
1d.
Higher
Higher
Higher
flexibility
flexibility
flexibilityand
and
andanalytical
analytical
analytical
capabilities
capabilities
capabilities 2 22 1 11 1 11 3 33
1e.
1e.
1e.
Improved
Improved
Improvedfindability
findability
findability ofofof
financial
financial
financial
data
data
data 1 11 2 22 1 11 3 33
1f.1f.
1f.
Improved
Improved
Improved data
data
data
portability
portability
portability between
between
betweenITITIT
systems
systems
systems 1 11 2 22 1 11 3 33
1g.
1g.
1g.
Improved
Improved
Improved cross-system
cross-system
cross-system integrity
integrity
integrity
ofofof
data
data
data 0 00 3 33 0 00 4 44
1h.
1h.
1h.
Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness ofofof
thethe
the
data
data
data
source
source
source 0 00 3 33 0 00 4 44
1i.1i.
1i.
Decrease
Decrease
Decreaseofofof
reporting
reporting
reporting costs
costs
costs 2 22 1 11 0 00 4 44
1j.1j.
1j.
Decrease
Decrease
Decreaseofofof
processing
processing
processing errors
errors
errors 2 22 1 11 1 11 3 33
1k.
1k.
1k.
Misc.
Misc.
Misc. 1 11 2 22 1 11 3 33
2.2.What
2.What
What
are
are
are
the
the
the
obstacles
obstacles
obstacles hindering
hindering
hindering the
the
the
adoption
adoption
adoption
ofofof
XBRL?
XBRL?
XBRL?
2a.
2a.
2a.
Additional
Additional
Additionaltraining
training
trainingforfor
for
employees
employees
employees 1 11 2 22 2 22 2 22
2b.
2b.
2b.
Implementation
Implementation
Implementation costs
costs
costs 2 22 1 11 3 33 1 11
2c.
2c.
2c.
Disruption
Disruption
Disruptionofofof
reporting
reporting
reporting routines
routines
routines 1 11 2 22 0 00 4 44
2d.
2d.
2d.
Costs
Costs
Costs
for
for
for
XBRL
XBRL
XBRL software
software
software 1 11 2 22 3 33 1 11
2e.
2e.
2e.
Complexity
Complexity
Complexity ofofof
standards
standards
standards 0 00 3 33 1 11 3 33
2f.2f.
2f.
Volatility
Volatility
Volatility
ofofof
standards
standards
standards 0 00 3 33 0 00 4 44
2g.
2g.
2g.
Missing
Missing
Missingsoftware
software
software tools
tools
tools 0 00 3 33 0 00 4 44
2h.
2h.
2h.
Security
Security
Security
issues
issues
issues 0 00 3 33 1 11 3 33
2i.2i.
2i.Misc.
Misc.
Misc. 2 22 1 11 2 22 2 22
(Own
(Own
(Own
description)
description)
description)
reached the tipping point toward the use of XBRL (Lester, 2007). That leaves the
impression that the discourse in the previous years failed to reach the Austrian
companies.
Another fact confirmed by the survey is that private initiatives to implement
XBRL hardly exist and can’t be expected. If new information technologies should
be adopted for more accurate, reliable and customized financial reporting, external
initiatives seem to be necessary to enhance the adoption of XBRL in private
companies.
Neglecting the demand for new reporting standards with respect to customized
financial information provided by new technical standards such as XBRL might
weaken a company’s position in the stock market and in the public perception.
The high share of international investors in the Austrian stock market might even
amplify the negative aspects on not adopting XBRL and a new reporting culture.
International investors compare reporting standards in an international context and
tend to prefer companies and stock markets that answer investors’ and stake-
holders’ demand for new financial reporting standards. However, reacting to these
new affordances means in the current environment a strategic advantage and could
strengthen the company’s position and enhance its value.
5.6 Acknowledgements
We would like to thank C.I.R.A. (Cercle Investor Relations Austria) in helping us
distributing the questionnaire among the publicly listed companies in Austria.
Dhole, S., Lobo, G. J., Mishra, S., & Pal, A. M. (2015). Effects of the SEC’s
XBRL mandate on financial reporting comparability. International
Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 19, 29-44. doi:10.1016
/j.accinf.2015.11.002
Dunne, T., Helliar, C., Lymer, A., & Mousa, R. (2013). Stakeholder engagement
in internet financial reporting: The diffusion of XBRL in the UK. The
British Accounting Review, 45(3), 167-182. doi:10.1016/j.bar.2013.06.
012
ERICA. (2010). XBRL in European CBSO. Document nº 6. Retrieved February
03, 2016, from https://www.nbb.be/doc/ba/xbrl/pub/2010_10_wgiii_
xbrl.pdf
Escobar-Rodriguez, T., & Gago-Rodriguez, S. (2012). We were the first to support
a major innovation. Research into the motivations of Spanisch pioneers
in XBRL. Revista de Contabilidad, 15(1), 91-108. Retrieved from
http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=359733642003
Garcia, R., & Gil, R. (2010). Linking XBRL Financial Data. In D. Wood (Ed.),
Linking Enterprise Data (pp. 103-125). Retrieved from http://link.
springer.com/10.1007/978-1-4419-7665-9_6
Gräning, A., Felden, C., & Piechocki, M. (2011). Status Quo and Potential of
XBRL for Business and Information Systems Engineering. The
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doi:10.1007/s11576-011-0282-2
Guilloux, V., Locke, J., & Lowe, A. (2013). Digital business reporting standards:
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ICAEW. (2011, January 25). The future of XBRL in Europe: Impetus, institutions
and interrelationships. Workshop on the future of XBRL in Europe.
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corporate/files/about%20icaew/what%20we%20do/thought%20leadersh
ip/the%20future%20of%20xbrl%20in%20europe%20final%20summary
%20for%20release.ashx
Kernan, K. (2008, October 01). XBRL Around the World. Retrieved March 10,
2016, from http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2008/oct/xbrl
aroundtheworld.html
Lester, W. F. (2007). XBRL: The New Language of Corporate Financial
Reporting. Business Communication Quarterly, 70(2), 226-231. doi:
10.1177/10805699070700020603
Liu, C., Wang, T., & Yao, L. J. (2014). XBRL’s impact on analyst forecast
behavior: An empirical study. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy,
33(1), 69-82. doi:10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2013.10.004
Kovarova-Simecek M., Pellegrini T. 65
Abstract: The public affairs activities of companies often have to do with gut
instincts. The communication experts think they know how to communicate most
effectively but until now there is little reliable data available about the politician´s
point of view. Do Austrian politicians still read printed newspapers or do they
focus on social media? Which communications channels do the politicians trust?
We asked the members of the Austrian parliament to examine their information
sources and media use habits. Out of this we draw conclusions for successful PR
work. In this context we show that print media is still the most effective media
type to indirectly reach politicians in Austria. Print media are by far the most
important information sources for Austrian´s politicians and they are assessed as
the most trustworthy. It was also surprising to see the high acceptance of corporate
communications activities in the political sector and that corporate communi-
cations experts are still far away from overloading politicians with content. Quite
the opposite, politicians seem to demand more information coming directly out of
enterprises. And it is inexplicable that there are still members of parliament who
do not receive any information from Austrian companies. It is time for them to
edit their distribution lists.
6.1 Introduction
The initial point of my research was the ever-lasting question for a Public Affairs
specialist: What is the most effective way to transmit my arguments to the most
important decision makers in politics? Which communication channels do they
use and trust? And, how do politicians judge the political communication activities
of companies in general?
Working for over a decade as Political Communications Manager for a large
stock-listed international company, I know that practitioners are often acting
according to their gut instincts and according to single responses to their work. I
experienced that in the end the broad field of political communication there was
16
Kufstein University of Applied Sciences/Austria, peter.schneckenleitner@fh-kufstein.ac.at
often a kind of blind flight with high hopes, but no specific knowledge about the
needs of its target groups.
With this paper I try to approach this topic scientifically. Supported by a group of
students of the University of Applied Sciences in Kufstein/Austria a survey was
started for all 183 Austrian parliamentarians in Vienna in December 2015.
Although we did not receive representative results (n=33), the findings and the
implications are worthy to be presented.
A high level of media concentration is one of the key characteristics of mass media
in Austria. Only a few newspapers dominate the press market. Some clear tenden-
cies for a further growth of tabloids are also seen critically (Vonbun & Schönbach,
2014; Magin, 2015). Experts still state a non-professional proximity between
media and politics both with print and electronic media. Commercialization,
greater significance of tabloid, and concentration do not contribute positively to
this development (Steinmaurer, 2012). These develop-ments especially have
influence on the political sector with some questionable effects. “(2001) there
occurred a merging of the print media which has been worrisome, as more than 60
per cent of the daily and weekly press, and 100 per cent of the production of
political magazines, are issued by this media conglomerate Media Print AG.”
(Thiele, 2009, p. 251). Thiele concludes: “The situation of the Austrian press gives
little cause for optimism.” (2009, p. 254).
Austria´s political situation is tightly connected with the media system and the
main characteristics are roughly the same: Only few players possess much power.
Over the last decades two dominant parties – the Social Democratic Party of
Austria (SPÖ) and the Austrian People´s Party (ÖVP) – shaped Austria´s politics.
Additionally, the system of ´social partnership´, including the Austrian Chamber
of Commerce, the Austrian Chamber of Labour, the Austrian Trade Union
Federation and the Austrian Chamber of Agriculture, shares a close relationship
with the governing parties. “The umbrella federations of the social partners wield
great influence as regard political opinion forming and decision making. Their
cooperation has thus often criticized as a “secondary government” (…).” (Köppl
& Wippersberg, 2014, pp. 32). During the legislative period of the Austrian
Freedom Party and the Austrian´s people´s party (2000-2006) a clear erosion of
the social partner´s influence became apparently (Michalowitz & Talos, 2007)
whereas “(…) these years can be considered as the first booming years of public
affairs and lobbying in Austria.” (Köppl & Wippersberg, 2014, p. 34). Today, after
celebrating 70 years of social partnership in Austria, the federations and chambers
still have significant influence in the political process, especially in times of
economic crises (Steiner, 2015).
Fact is that the Austrians widely accept the still predominant system of the social
partnership: Nearly all managers of chambers and federations receive positive
feedback from the Austrian population (OGM, 2014). For corporate communi-
cation activities it is essential to know the key players in a political process, to
know the stakeholders. In Austria these stakeholder groups are sometimes not only
the politicians themselves, but the social partners, too.
Political communicators in the corporate sector should know how to reach relevant
politicians. Only with this knowledge the most successful placement of their issues
and messages will succeed. Lobbying activities as an instrument of public affairs
Schneckenleitner P. 71
Our research roughly reflects the above presented results of media use now
referred to the members of the Austrian parliament. Print media are by far the most
important information source for Austrian´s politicians. 48 per cent ranked print
as very important, 23 per cent described it as rather important. Followed by Online
news, 38 per cent declared them as very important. It is interesting to see is that
information coming directly from companies to politicians is appreciated and
ranked high, too. 43 per cent of the politicians said that company sources are
important (23 per cent very important / 20 per cent rather important). Social
partners as information sources may not be ignored either. On the contrary the
importance of social media channels for gaining information is not proved.
Figure 9: We asked the members of the Austrian parliament: How important are following
information sources for being informed about the Austrian economy and its
companies?
(Own description)
Our survey reflects other data. From a politicians perspective the most reliable
media are print media. They are ranked way ahead of TV as most important for
the non-political part of Austria´s population. We divided the lobbying/public
affairs section into three parts: corporate representatives (information distributed
directly from companies), social partners (strictly spoken lobbyists but organized
in federations and chambers) and lobbying/public relations agencies (external
service providers). Looking closely at these three categories it becomes obvious
that corporate representatives (56 per cent) and social partners (53 per cent) are
highly trustworthy for politicians. They are ranked on the second and third place,
TV (34 per cent) and Wikipedia (16 per cent) follow. Our survey also gives strong
evidence of the disastrous image of external public affairs service providers and
agencies. It seems that the negative image is tightly connected with the term
lobbying and not with the activities per se. In the end corporate representatives,
social partners, and lobbyists want to achieve the same: their realization of
interests.
Figure 10: We asked the member of the Austrian parliament: Which information sources do
you trust?
(Own description)
74 How Politicians in Austria Obtain Information …
6.7 Implications
The collected data can give the inference that media relations is undisputedly
important for public affairs activities. Thus, it makes strategic sense that public
affairs specialists work in or are tightly connected to corporate communications
departments. Covering Austria´s traditional mass media with focus on print media
a high sphere of influence is given by PR activities. Besides that, print and TV are
still tightly connected to online media. The most important online portals like
orf.at, derstandard.at, oe24.at or krone.at are adjuncts of print and TV.
It was surprising to see the extent of acceptance of corporate communications
activities by politicians. Corporate communications experts are still far away from
overloading politicians with content. Quite the opposite, politicians seem to
demand more corporate information. It is inexplicable that there are still members
of parliament who do not receive any corporate information. In this context it is
important that the source of corporate information is (clearly associated with) the
Schneckenleitner P. 75
company itself. Our data show that the level of trust from politicians will strongly
be reduced when companies are communicating via external PR/PA/Lobbying
agencies. For the latter it is still a long way to build up a better image.
Austria´s social partnership system remains an important source for the flow of
information to the members of parliament. On the contrary social media do not
play a relevant role for being a valuable information source for politicians.
Nevertheless, recent studies show that social media channels are seen as important
platforms in political campaigns and self-presentation for politicians (Segaard,
2015; Broersma & Graham, 2012). So digital communication channels, especially
social media, are already important tool for reaching voters, seen in the latest
experiences during the Austrian presidential campaign. As an information source
for politicians social media channels are not as important as we assumed.
In terms of argumentation in political corporate communications it was interesting
to see that politicians prefer clear political demands from companies. The fear
from corporate communications specialists from patronizing their political coun-
terparts is baseless.
I know several public affairs and communication experts who claim that only
printed material in political communication is effective. Print is haptically, lasts
longer, and has better chances to be read. As our data show Austrian politicians
prefer digital information followed by oral information. On the one hand the
digital way of spreading information is cheap and fast for companies, on the other
hand digital information has a shorter life span, can be deleted easiest and is in
direct competition with (maybe) hundreds of other daily incoming messages. And
additionally in national parliaments often very strong spam filters prevent any kind
of direct corporate communication activities with politicians.
To sum up, this paper offers useful hints for more effective political communi-
cations activities of companies. Even if the sample was not as high as expected
some of the results were surprising. In the end more questions are open than
answered and it becomes clear: this field of research offers still a huge potential
for future scholars.
Broersma, M., & Graham, T. (2012). Social Media as Beat. Tweets as a news
source during the 2010 British and Dutch elections. Journalism Practice,
6(3), 403-419.
Burkart, R. (2002). Kommunikationswissenschaft. Vienna, Austria: Böhlau.
Esser, F., & Strömbäck, J. (Eds.). (2014). Mediatization of Politics. Under-
standing the Transformation of Western Democracies. Basingstoke,
United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
Köppl, P., & Wippersberg, J. (2014). The state of public affairs in Austria. Journal
of Public Affairs, 14(1), 31-43.
Livingstone, S. (2009). On the Mediation of Everything: ICA Presidential Address
2008. Journal of Communication, 59(1), 1-18.
Magin, M. (2015). Shades of Mediatization: Components of Media Logic in
German and Austrian Elite Newspapers (1949-2009). The International
Journal of Press/Politics 2015, 20(4), 415-437.
Mazzoleni, G., & Schulz, W. (1999). “Mediatization” of Politics: A Challenge for
Democracy? Political Communication, 16(3), 247-262.
Meyen, M., Thieroff, M., & Strenger, S. (2014). Mass Media Logic and the
Mediatization of Politics. Journalism Studies, 15(3), 271-288.
Michalowitz, I., & Talos, E. (2007). Österreichs Interessenpolitik auf neuen
Pfaden – zwischen Austrokorporatismus und Lobbying? Österreichische
Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft (ÖZP), 36(4), 369-388.
Oepav – Österreichische Public Affairs Vereinigung. (2016). Glossary. Retrieved
April 29, 2016, from http://www.oepav.at/en/glossar/
OGM. (2014). Vertrauen in die Spitzen der Sozialpartner im Juli 2014. Retrieved
April 29, 2016, from http://www.ogm.at/2014/?p=2913
OGM. (2015). Vertrauensindex politische Berichterstattung nach Medien-
gattungen. Retrieved April 29, 2016, from http://www.ogm.at/2015/
07/apaogm-vertrauensindex-politische-berichterstattung-nach-
mediengattungen/
Prva – Public Relations Verband Austria. (2016). Fields of activity. Retrieved
April 29, 2016, from http://prva.at/profession/fields-of-activity
Schulz, W. (2004). Reconstructing Mediatization as an Analytical Concept.
European Journal of Communication, 19(1), 87-101.
Segaard, S. B. (2015). Perceptions of Social Media. A Joint Area for Voters and
Politicians? Nordicom Review, 36(1), 65-78.
Steiner, J. (2015). The Austrian Way. 70 Years of Social Partnership in Austria.
Retrieved April 29, 2016, from http://www.austrianinformation.org/
winter-2015-16/the-austrian-way
Schneckenleitner P. 77
Abstract: This paper investigates the structure and the amount of profes-
sionalization of public relations in national sports governing bodies in Austria and
Germany. The empirical study uses the statutes and the websites of these
organizations as sources of data. The findings shows the similarities and the
differences between both countries and emphasizes the relevance of the organi-
zations size, the regulation in the statutes, and the Olympic status for the
professionalization of public relations of the national sports governing bodies.
17
Kufstein University of Applied Sciences/Austria, torsten.wojciechowski@fh-kufstein.ac.at
Persons who are “only” responsible for marketing alone were excluded from the
analysis.
The statutes were taken from the websites of the national sports governing bodies
or – if not available there – the management of these organizations was asked per
e-mail to send them to the researcher. At the end 119 statutes from national sports
governing bodies could be analyzed (Austria 57; Germany 62). The analysis of
the homepages included 126 websites from national sports governing bodies
(Austria 64; Germany 62). The difference between the numbers of statutes
compared to the analyzed homepages from Austrian organizations is a result of
the non-availability of some of the statutes from Austrian national sports
governing bodies.
7.4 Results
In this section the results concerning the regulations of public relations in the
statutes of the national sports governing bodies and the amount of employees in
the field of public relations are shown and analyzed in detail.
There is little difference between both countries: in Germany 57.7% of the national sports gov-
Onlyerning
in Austria oneregulations
bodies have can findinthe responsibility
their forto a42.4%
statutes compared specialized
in Austria.committee alone
This difference
(without defining
is statistically the chairman of this committee responsible).
insignificant.
70,0%
64,6%
60,0%
48,0%
50,0%
40,0%
30,0% 23,5%
20,0%
20,0%
12%
8,0% 5,9%
10,0% 2,9% 4,0% 4,0% 2,9%
0,0%
President Vice Volunteer Board Full-time Committee
President official Employee
Austria Germany
Fig. 1 Responsibility for public relations: a country comparison (N = 59; Chi2 = 0.042; Cramér’s V =
Figure 11: Responsibility for public relations: a country comparison (N = 59; Chi2 = 0.042;
0.54)
Cramér’s V = 0.54)
(Own description) (Own description)
In some cases we find the president responsible for the public relations task and
in very few cases the statutes allocate this responsibility to a full-time employee.
In most cases the volunteers responsible are integrated in the board of the national
sports governing body – which means that there is a good chance that public
relations is part of the organizations strategic decision making.
90,0% 80,7%
80,0%
70,0%
60,0%
50,0% 40,6%
39,1%
40,0%
30,0% 19,3%
20,0%
7,8% 10,9%
10,0%
0,0% 0,0%1,6% 0,0%
0,0%
yes no external internal no information
agency agency
full-time position PR
Austria Germany
Fig. 2 Public relations full-time employees (N = 126; Chi2 = 0.000; Cramér’s V = 0.47)
Figure 12: Public relations full-time employees (N = 126; Chi2 = 0.000; Cramér’s V = 0.47)
(Own description) (Own description)
These findings
These indicate
findings indicate lessless professionalization
professionalization of the communication/public
of the communication/public relations task in
relations task
Austrian in Austrian
national national
sports governing sports
bodies governing
compared bodies
to Germany. Thiscompared to Germany.
leads to the question of
Thishowleads
it cantobe the question
explained that theof howof itprofessionalization
amount can be explained thatin national
is different the amount
sports of
professionalization
governing bodies onisthedifferent
one side in
andnational
that there sports governing
are country bodies ononthe
specific differences the one
otherside
and that there are country specific differences on the other side.
side.
There areare
There several
severalindicators that
indicators that cancan be to
be used used to explain
explain the amountthe
of amount of the profes-
the professionalization
sionalization ofrelations
of the public the public
task inrelations task
the national in governing
sports the national sports
bodies. governing
The first of them isbodies.
the
The first of them is the overall professionalization of the organizations themselves.
overall professionalization of the organizations themselves. It is to be expected that a more
It is to be expected that a more professionalized organization will be more profes-
professionalized organization will be more professional in the public relations task. But the
sional in the public relations task. But the amount of professionalization of an
amount of professionalization
organization of an organization
is not easy to measure. Shouldis the
not easy to measure.
number Should
of full timetheemployees
number of be
full time employees be taken? This could be difficult because of the financing of these organi-
zations. Some of them get money from state authorities for coaching staff. Should the staff
financed by others be counted? And if yes, how can we identify them? Regarding these prob-
Wojciechowski T. 85
(Own description)
Another
When we indicator which
look onto the may
average help
size to sport
of the explain the professionalization
organizations of the we
in Austria and Germany public
find
relation task is the influence of the regulations in the statutes as presented above.
a huge difference – in Austria the mean size is 78,164 members and the median size is 8,923
As we could see in the vast majority of the cases where there is a regulation in the
statutes
members,the public the
in Germany relation taskis 369,814
mean size is allocated
membersto and
voluntary
the medianstaff.
size isThis can
52,067 mem-be
interpreted either as sign for a culture of volunteerism (Thiel, Meier, & Cachay,
bers. This means that on the average the German national sports governing bodies have 4.7
2006) or as a sign for the non-existence of a professional culture (Horch & Schütte,
times more members than the Austrian ones (based on the mean) and the median size of the
2002) – both hindering the professionalization of public relations. The empirical
findings as shown in Figure 13 show that for the overall sample of both countries
there is a strong relationship between regulations in the statutes of national sports
governing bodies and the employment of professional staff in the field of public
relations – nearly half of those organizations without regulations have employed
professional staff compared to nearly twenty percent of those organizations with
regulations. These findings indicate that regulations in the statutes about public
relations hinder the establishment of full-time employees in this field – or probably
it must be interpreted the other way around? Probably the national sports
governing bodies change their statutes and delete the voluntary responsibility for
this task when they begin to employ professional staff in this field. Some
individual cases give hints in the last direction. With the data of this study we
cannot define the causal direction of this relationship. What we see is a clear
indication that we find more professionally employed staff in this field when there
are no regulations in the statutes. And, what we see, too, is that in around 20% of
the organizations having regulations in their statutes which allocate the
responsibility to volunteer staff we find full-time employed staff in this field.
Looking at the voluntary responsibilities as shown in Figure 11 we find no
Wojciechowski T. 87
significant pattern. This finding leads to the question in which way the volunteer
and full-time staff collaborate in this field – a question that we cannot answer here.
90,0%
80,0% 76,5%
70,0%
60,0%
47,3% 47,3%
50,0%
40,0%
30,0%
19,6%
20,0%
10,0% 3,9% 3,6%
0,0% 1,8%
0,0%
yes no external agency internal agency
full-time position PR
Fig. 3 Relationship between regulation in the statutes and public relations full-time employee (N = 106;
Figure
Chi13:
2 Relationship
= 0.014; between
Cramér’s V = 0.32) regulation in the statutes and public relations full-time
employee (N = 106; Chi2 = 0.014; Cramér’s V = 0.32)
(Own description) (Own description)
90,0%
77,6%
80,0%
70,0%
60,0% 52,4%
50,0%
39,7%
40,0%
30,0% 22,4%
20,0%
10,0% 6,3%
0,0% 1,6% 0,0%
0,0%
yes no external agency internal agency
full-time position PR
Fig. 4 Relationship between Olympic status and public relations full-time employee (N = 112; Chi2 =
Figure 14:Cramér‘s
0.027; Relationship between Olympic status and public relations full-time employee
V = 0.29)
(N = 112; Chi2 = 0.027; Cramér‘s V = 0.29)
(Own description) (Own description)
7.5 5. Summary
Summaryand Perspectives
and Perspectives
The findings show some differences and some similarities between the two countries. What we
The findings show some differences and some similarities between the two
see is that in both countries nearly half of the national sports governing bodies have regulations
countries. What we see is that in both countries nearly half of the national sports
about public
governing relations
bodies in theirregulations
have statutes allocating this task
about mainlyrelations
public to voluntaryin
stafftheir
of different
statutes
allocating this
positions. task on
Focusing mainly
full-timetoemployment
voluntarywestaff of different
find differences positions.
between Austria andFocusing
Germany on
full-time
showing employment
that the nationalwesports
findgoverning
differences
bodiesbetween
in Germany Austria
are moreand Germany showing
professionalized in the
that the national
public relations sports governing
field than in Austria –bodies in be
which can Germany
explained are more
by the professionalized
different average size of in
the public relations field than in Austria – which can be explained by the different
the organizations in both countries.
average size of the organizations in both countries.
For the overall sample we can identify that larger organizations tend to be more professional-
For the
ized overall sample
than smaller we can identify
ones, organizations without that largerin organizations
regulations tendthe
the statutes concerning to public
be more
professionalized than smaller ones, organizations without regulations in the
relation task are more professionalized in this field than those having regulations and that Olym-
statutes concerning the public relation task are more professionalized in this field
pic sports governing bodies tend to be more professionalized in this field than non-Olympic
than those having regulations and that Olympic sports governing bodies tend to be
moreones.
professionalized in this field than non-Olympic ones.
The main questions that remain open after this exploratory research are what other reasons exist
The main questions that remain open after this exploratory research are what other
for the observed differences (e.g., differences in the organizational culture between national
reasons exist for the observed differences (e.g., differences in the organizational
culture between national sports governing bodies). With the data grounding this
study this cannot be answered. Another question is in which ways the internal
Wojciechowski T. 89
18
Macromedia University of Applied Sciences/Germany, g.wolfram@macromedia.de
19
The research project „The Moving Network” was created as a corporation between the
Macromedia University Berlin, the Berlin based association Board of Participation e.V.
and the Allianz Kulturstiftung. The name “BoP-Ambassadors” refers on the Board of
Participation (BoP) e.V.
leader. This method was chosen in order to avoid bias; such as overestimating the
leadership of an individual or obtaining intentionally falsified answers.
Operationally, multipliers or BOP-Ambassadors are people who upon self-
reflection feel empowered by their own abilities to teach certain topics, and are
individuals who are able to adapt well to a new cultural environment. His or her
role is to assist others during their process of personal transformation. The Moving
Network intends to trigger the motivation in designated ambassadors by providing
them a role within refugee communities. This is done through assigning different
tasks and encouraging values and ideals. According to the “purpose theory” by
Daniel Pink (2009), the performance of individuals can be enhanced by clarifying
the relevance and the importance of the tasks, which are undertaken for their
community or peers. Some ways in which this idea is encouraged is by providing
ambassadors the autonomy to choose the topics that are relevant to them and
others, as well as by providing support and materials needed to execute the
learning activities.
Beyond solving primary needs and taking the approach of solidarity, The Moving
Network aims to create an integration process for refugees through encouraging
active participation from individuals within the community. Through the sixty
interviews carried out, we have found that many refugees have the desire to work
as teachers during their time in refugee camps. Therefore, our main objective is to
facilitate their personal wishes and goals and motivate them to actively participate
in society, taking into account the roles they want to play. Furthermore, for a
correct implementation of the model, the ongoing research of the function of trust,
motivation and empowerment and the constant analysis of case studies of BOP
Ambassadors to monitor the results and outcome through methods such as
interviews, focus groups and observation are of great relevance.
advantages for both refugees and managers; for the former they can be interpreted
as an opportunity for:
- Expanding the Trust Circles and creating a new network based on the sharing
of the same learning goals and interests.
- Learning new things.
- Encouraging participation and integration.
- Fighting against depression through active involvement.
For the latter, these activities can benefit in terms of:
- Saving resources.
- Saving time by starting to prepare refugees for inclusion on a practical level.
- Increasing motivation.
- Achieving administrative processes within camps through cooperation.
- Generating good communication between managers, workers and refugees.
- Using resources efficiently within refugee camps.
The nature of those activities should always be related to cultural education, but
not in a strictly academic connotation since it would be possible to benefit from
various kinds of projects. Since all individuals come from different backgrounds
and levels of education, as well as expectations and goals, it would be impossible
to consistently propose the same uniform program. It is exactly by recognizing
this heterogeneity of talents, that managers should show their trust toward
refugees’ potentials, through the enhancement of single capabilities and by
treating them on an equal level. The role of multipliers is precisely to plan these
activities and guide other people in doing the same based on the different unique
skills each one presents. The BoP Ambassadors, who started collaborating with
The Moving Network project, are an example of how this cooperation can be
productive and of how the concept of multipliers can generate dynamic and
valuable insights for both sides. They showed disparate expertise, able to enrich
the participants as well as helping managers in the processes of training people
within the camps: from German courses to workshops for Gender diversity and
Women's rights, from Dancing lectures to Intercultural communication classes.
Of course, it would be naive to assert that everything can easily be managed and
that there will not be problems; some the BoP Ambassadors are facing obstacles
in the process of organization of the activities. It is, however, a future goal of the
project to investigate why these problems arise and in which way it would be
possible to improve the whole approach. It can be assumed that some problems
are related to cultural differences that can lead to misunderstandings; on the other
hand, it has been observed that often managers did not take the refugees’ proposals
seriously, by giving gratuitous justification like the impossibility to provide chairs,
for one instance. An improvement could be to present a more specific program,
Wolfram G., Sandrini M., Prado M. F. 97
especially when the proposals concern topics with cultural or political signifi-
cance, in order to give potential future and current managers a full overview of
how the workshops can, and will be organized.
9.1 Introduction
The origin of social media and finance platforms in the World Wide Web was
virtually simultaneously. The aim of Crowdfunding is to raise money for
investment through the use of social networks. Instead of raising money from a
small group of experienced investors, the idea of Crowdfunding is to raise
capital from a large amount (the crowd), where each individual makes a small
contribution. The investors in crowdfunding are also the multipliers that will help
to spread the project online and offline. Experts say that crowdfunding will
establish itself as a future type of business financing, since it is getting more
difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises, to obtain the necessary credits or
loans from banks (Grabs, Bannour, & Vogl, 2014).
Subsequently, the initial situation and the problem statement will be identified,
followed by the research goal and the concrete research questions. This is fol-
lowed by the explanation of the theoretical background and the methodological
approach.
20
Kufstein University of Applied Sciences/Austria
9.1.2 Theory
One of the main challenges of crowdfunding is the asymmetry of information
between donors and the initiator. It is based on the principal-agent-theory and
examines economic relations, in which a business partner has information
advantages over the other. The principal-agent-theory assumes that the principal
(client) and the agent (representative) are informed asymmetric, with the result
that the economic agents can be restricted in their decision-making (Pratt &
Zeckhauser, 1985). Crowdfunding is usually based on a considerable distance
between the parties and the initiators can penetrate the flow of information and
decide which data are disclosed. Asymmetric information can be crucial for a bad
contract, or even prevent the formation of a contract altogether (Schwienbacher &
Larralde, 2010). In well-known publications, which have already been mentioned
Amann C. 103
9.1.4 Methodology
At the beginning there will be given an overview of the basics and the different
types of Crowdfunding, followed by the description of a typical Crowdfunding
process. For the representation of an ideal Crowdfunding process, the project
“Liebe & Lose” was chosen to show the need for a variety of activities to achieve
a successful funding. This is followed by the description of already scientific
explored success factors, which were selected and placed in a relevant order for
this work. As a next step, the empirical research includes qualitative interviews
with experts and qualitative semi-structured interviews with project initiators.
When the results are obtained, the previously selected factors will be associated
with the research results and will be checked for validity. The aim should be also,
to derive additional tools for a successful financing of a Crowdfunding campaign.
In the end implications and concrete recommendations for practice are derived and
discussed, which can lead to a successful crowdfunding campaign.
9.2 Results
To sum up, it can be said, that the factors funding goal, campaign period, high-
quality campaign, geographic aspects, family and friends, pitch-video, story-
telling, rewards, transparency and the use of social networks have a significant
influence on the outcome and therefore also on the successful financing of a
Crowdfunding campaign. A frequently mentioned factor for a successful crowd-
funding campaign during the interviews with the experts is the importance of an
intensive preparation of the project. However, the influence of each factor in turn
104 Factors of the Successful Implementation of a Crowdfunding Campaign …
depends on other factors and it largely depends on their interaction with each
other. Other instruments are offline events, media coverage and accompanying
campaign marketing.
In case of the asymmetric information the initiators should be aware, that due to
the large distance, they must disclose any information concerning their project for
the prospective to win them as supporters. Since dealing with asymmetric
information is the responsibility of the initiator, it can affect the building of the
crowd and the success factors subsequently can be influenced. Forming a Crowd,
which feel confident and support the project, is the most critical element in order
to be more profitable with crowdfunding than with traditional forms of financing.
Crowdfunding as a form of financing is a very extensive and complex issue, which
is accompanied by numerous peculiarities and idiosyncrasies. Therefore, it has
great potential for further studies, especially because the development continues
and repeatedly creates new trends and preferences.
Pratt, J. W., & Zeckhauser, R. J. (1985). Principals and Agents: The Structure of
Business. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Schwienbacher, A., & Larralde, B. (2010). Crowdfunding of Entrepreneurial
Ventures. In D. Cumming (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Entre-
preneurial Finance (pp. 369-391). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford
University Press.
10 How Much Digitalization Can a Human Tolerate?
An Empirical Study of Causes and Effects of Technostress
Due to the Use of Smartphones
Lisa Fritz21
Abstract: This research studies the creators and outcomes of technostress due to
smartphone usage and how users cope with it. There is little research about the
negative consequences of smartphone usage, so at first, recent studies on overload
of information and communication systems will be presented and discussed. The
transactional model of stress by Lazarus serves as the theoretical basis of this
thesis to understand the origin of stress and especially of technostress. To examine
smartphone user behavior and user’s feelings regarding smartphones, eight semi-
structured interviews will be conducted. The results show that smartphones have
occupied an important place in our society and have become indispensable.
Mobile phones are constant companions and are used up to several hours a day.
Above all, this intensive use, the constant connectivity and the urge to multitask
are creating technostress. As a result of constantly checking the phone other
activities are interrupted. This leads to less concentration, productivity and overall
satisfaction. The subliminal use of the smartphone can even lead to dependency.
Furthermore, the frequent use causes interpersonal conflicts and can change one’s
social behavior. To reduce or to avoid technostress, the smartphone usage and/or
the interruptions need to be minimized.
10.1 Introduction
Digitalization has a huge impact on our lives. The rapid progress of Information
and Communication Technologies (ICT) is changing our way of living and
thinking. It has never been so easy to consume and share information and with
launching the smartphone, this has become independent of time and place. Almost
every question can be answered by a search engine, many needs are now covered
by apps and interpersonal interactions can be held in social networking sites. ICT
have become an important part of people’s lives and an indispensable part of
modern society. At this rapid pace of development, the question arises whether
humans can still follow this progress or if it leads to a discrepancy between
technological progress and humans’ uptake (Ogburn, 1969; Ellul, 1964). On the
21
Kufstein University of Applied Sciences/Austria
10.2 Technostress
So there are many shapes of overload due to the use of ICT. There is information
overload, communication overload, e-mail overload, system feature overload and
social networking services overload. Information overload occurs when a person
is confronted with more information than it can process with (Karr-Wisniewski &
Lu, 2010). But ICT provide more than just information. The term information is
always in context to knowledge. So Cho, Ramgolam, Schaefer, and Sandlin (2011)
talk about communication overload. With the spread of ICT, the acceptance of
informal, not informative and non-work related conversations via messengers or
mobile devices increased. If the complexity, frequency and/or ambiguity is higher
than a person wants or can cope with, it can lead to communication overload.
Especially in work life, knowledge workers have to deal with a lot of communi-
cation, in particular with e-mails. So researches, like Kammerer, Hetzenecker,
Sprenger, and Amberg (2012) have focused on the antecedents of e-mail overload.
Another specification of communication overload is social networking services
(SNS) overload. SNS provide a platform for individuals to express themselves and
to get in touch with friend, acquaintances and a variety of other people. But
because of the growing social needs, SNS can lead to physical and mental strain
(Lee, Son, & Kim, 2016).
Fritz L. 109
Due to the fact that a smartphone combines various parts of information and
communication technologies, it seemed wrong to focus on one of these overload
phenomena. So this research focuses on technostress. Wang, Shu, and Tu (2008)
define technostress as a reflection of anxiety, tension or concern that arises when
people use ICT. It can lead to emotional and psychological repulsion which
prevents people from using this technology. Tarafdar, Tu, and Ragu-Nathan
(2010) define technostress as a stress that arises when an individual is unable to
cope with computer usage. This excessive demand is a result of constant multi-
tasking, permanent connectivity, information overload, frequent feature changes,
continuous learning, work-related uncertainty and technical problems. Tarafdar,
Tu, Ragu-Nathan, and Ragu-Nathan (2011) found five conditions, which are
creating technostress: Techno-Invasion, Techno-Overload, Techno-Uncertainty,
Techno-Insecurity and Techno-Complexity. The excessive use of ICT and techno-
stress in professional life cause stressors and lead to work-home conflicts, work
overload and role ambiguity (Ayyagari et al., 2011). Salanova et al. (2013) name
technostrain and technoaddiction as consequences of technostress.
analysis of the interviews was conducted with the qualitative content analysis by
Mayring (2002, 2010).
10.5 Results
The results of this research and the answers to the research questions can be shown
in the following figure, which is based on the transactional model of stress by
Lazarus (Lazarus & Launier, 1981; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). The abbreviations
FOMO, FOBO and Nomophobie mean fear of missing out, fear of being offline
and No-Mobile-Phone-Phobia.
$%"!
!($"! !& $&#"!
$#&"!%!'!*#$%"!
$&$%&%
'"!!&$&"! '!&$$'#&"!%
'#$"'&(&* ''%
'%&%&"! %$($&!& "$&
#!!*&"!
% $&#"!
!&$#$%"!"!&% $&#"! '!%
"("$
"&"!"$%&#$"%
+ $&#"!,
Figure 15: Causes, outcomes and coping strategies of technostress due to the use of smartphones
(Own description)
Fritz L. 111
10.7 Conclusion
The study examined the causes and effects of technostress due to the use of
smartphones and the usage behavior. It appeared, that smartphones have a very
high status in modern society and have become indispensable. The mobile devices
are almost taken everywhere and used up to several hours daily. This intensive
use, the constant urge to multitask and the permanent interruptions have become
a big burden to users. Users can develop fears, real interactions are less and people
retreat into a world of illusions. The intensive use and the interruptions lead to a
reduction in productivity and also in satisfaction. It seems, that users are constantly
checking the screen.
Technostress can be called a dark side of smartphone use. This study represents
an attempt to understand the creators and outcomes of technostress and how
intensive the use of smartphones has become. It is believed, that the results of this
research can be used as a basis for further research in this area and as a thought-
provoking impulse for smartphone users and companies, using smartphones as a
working device.
112 How Much Digitalization Can a Human Tolerate?
22
Kufstein University of Applied Sciences/Austria
Influence of factors
• expertise
• involvement
• attitude toward brands
Perception of product
reviews
• credibility purchase intent
• usefulness
• persuasiveness
The assumed relationships are verified by using SPSS 23.0 and PROCESS 2.15.
The questionnaire used was based on valid scales. In the literature, reviews of
hotels, movies and books are most commonly used for study purposes (Floh et al.,
2013). These product categories are extended in the present paper. Therefore,
118 Customer Reviews: The Importance of Personal Factors …
extended in
electronic the present
products, paper. Therefore,
especially iPhoneselectronic products,
are selected especially
because iPhones
of one are selected
reason:
electronic products are often purchased online and customers rely on the rely on
because of one reason. Electronic products are often purchased online and customers
experience of other consumers, because electronic devices usually are very
the experience of other consumers because electronic devices usually are very complicated.
complicated (Park, Lee, & Han, 2007).
(Park, Lee, & Han, 2007).
In order to determine a relationship between the perception of product reviews and
purchase intent, it must be examined first of all which product reviews are
In order to determine a relationship between the perception of product reviews and purchase
perceived credible, useful or convincing in terms of valence. For this purpose, a
intent, was
pretest it must be examined
carried first
out with 84ofvolunteers
all which product reviews are of
the construction perceived
which credible,
is shownuseful or
below.
convincing in terms of valence. For this purpose, a pretest was carried out with 84 volunteers
For the construction
whose pretest the author of below.
is showed this paper created nine product reviews by herself
which differ in their valence as Table 10 shows. In general, the product reviews
were
For created following
the pretest theofrecommendations
the author of Mackiewicz
this paper created nine and by
product reviews Yeats (2014).
herself which differ in
their valence as Table 1 shows. In general, the product reviews were created by
Table 10: Construction of the Pretest
recommendations of Mackiewicz and Yeats (2014).
(Own description)
Table
The results of this pretest show 1: construction
that reviews whichof include
the pretest
positive and negative
aspects are perceived as credible, useful and persuasive. Therefore, these product
(own representation)
reviews are also used for the main study.
The
Theonline
resultsquestionnaire
of this pretest was
showcreated with which
that reviews the tool “SoSci
include Survey”
positive and sentaspects
and negative to are
students from FH Kufstein and University of Innsbruck. The survey period was
perceived as credible, useful and persuasive. Therefore, these product reviews are also used
from 22.3.2016 to 10.04.2016. At the end of the survey period 236 completed
for the main study.
questionnaires were gained, but 18 of those could not be of further consideration
The online questionnaire was created with the tool “SoSci Survey” and sent to students from
FH Kufstein and university of Innsbruck. The survey period was from 22.3.2016 to
Gahbauer M. 119
because the subjects had already participated in the pre-test and would influence
the research. Consequently, the data of 218 students could be analyzed.
11.5 Limitations
As already mentioned, this paper could not find a significant relationship between
involvement and the perception of product reviews. Probably this is due to the
product category. Consequently, it is recommended to test the influence of
involvement based on experience goods and not on search goods. Although some
studies like Lee, Rodgers, and Kim (2009) have used a student sample, these
results can not be transferred without further notice to the public. In the present
paper the author only used purchase intent and consequently no actual purchases
which would probably have led to different results as postulated by Schindler and
Bickart (2012).
According to the relevance of user-generated content as well as the ever-
increasing importance of eWOM, it is expected that product reviews will remain
a fascinating subject in the future. Despite the fact that involvement did not have
a moderating influence and the relationship between expertise and persuasiveness
was only marginally present, the paper shows some very interesting results
regarding consumer individuality and their perception of product reviews. The
new findings presented in this paper and the outstanding issues should encourage
researchers to investigate consumer characteristics further in order to present the
consumers with the most important product reviews for them.
Gahbauer M. 121
Gottschalk, S., & Mafael, A. (2014, September 19). Die digitale Herausforderung:
Wie gehen Konsumenten mit Online-Bewertungen um? Retrieved April
20, 2016, from http://www.srf.ch/content/download/5275986/71377626/
version/1/file/eWOM-Studie-FUBerlin_kjero+com-2014-09-19.pdf
Hansen, F. (1976). Psychological theories of consumer choice. Journal of
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and consequences of reading customer articulations on the internet.
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Jalilvand, M. R., & Samiei, N. (2012). The impact of electronic word of mouth on
a tourism destination choice. Testing the theory of planned behavior
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Jiménez, F. R., & Mendoza, N. A. (2013). Too popular to ignore: The influence
of online reviews on purchase intentions of search and experience
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Kim, E. E. K., Mattila, A. S., & Baloglu, S. (2011). Effects of gender and expertise
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Gahbauer M. 123
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12 The Impact of Web Design on Brand Perception
An Example: The Multi-Utility Brand IKB
Barbara Griessner23
12.1 Introduction
The Internet is continuously growing and also a primary source of information for
consumers. It allows consumers to interact and gain information about brands and
to compare offers and to get an idea about the identity and values of an
organization. The corporate website is an increasingly important communication
channel and contact point for target groups of a company and has the potential to
provide the identity of the corporate brand and influence its image (Schenkmann
& Jönsson, 2000).
Companies increasingly recognize the importance of a responsive, customer-
oriented web presence and invest in new online technologies in order to get the
attention of their target groups to gain competitiveness (Al-Qeisi, Dennis,
Alamanos, & Jayawardhena, 2014). Local power companies such as the
‘Innsbrucker Kommunalbetriebe AG’ (IKB) have to deal with stronger compe-
tition since the energy market has been liberalized in 2001 in Austria (Mader,
23
Kufstein University of Applied Sciences Austria
2002). This requires new profiling and differentiation strategies. Utility companies
such as the mentioned provider also try to strengthen customer loyalty and to
increase customer satisfaction in order to reduce the willingness of customers to
change provider (Hartmann & Ibáñez, 2007). The formation of strong brands is
receiving an increased attention by these companies as a strong brand can help to
gain and maintain loyalty (Kapferer, 2013). This is shown by current rebranding
efforts of companies such as the IKB and similar companies (Salzburg AG). Those
companies recognized that as part of the rebranding process, all communication
channels have to be considered within the process and put a special effort on the
relaunch of their corporate websites.
et al. (2014) investigated the performance of a website as a unit based on two cues,
comprehensibility (sense-making) and the degree of involvement (involvement)
of the user of the website. This master thesis is based on this approach and follows
a holistic and creative theoretical approach based on the Landscape Preference
Framework (LPF) of Kaplan and Kaplan (1989), in order to investigate the
association of web design and the perceived brand image.
As mentioned several authors already studied the influence of aesthetic web
design on the success of a website. By now the correlations between aesthetic
webdesign and its influence on brand perception have not received much attention
by academic research. Bolchini, Garzotto, and Sorce (2009) already showed that
an investigation of this relationship should be added to the current academic
discussions.
Brunner-Sperdin et al. (2014) examined the influence of aesthetic web design on
customer satisfaction and loyalty, and stress that trust in companies could be
another dependent variable and should be studied within further investigations.
They also highlight that personal traits of the consumers could be moderating the
impact of aesthetic webdesign on consumers’ reactions. Singh et al. (2005), and
Lin and Lee (2012) also suggested before that different user and customer groups
perceive websites in a different was.
The current research complements existing literature with an analysis of the
influence of web design on brand perception, trust and customer satisfaction.
Furthermore, it is examined if the belonging to a certain target group (private and
business customers) is moderating the perception.
- H1: If the design of the corporate website is liked, the corporate brand is
perceived in a more positive way.
- H2: Modern web design leads to more timely and modern perception of the
corporate brand.
Furthermore, the results of the interviews showed that the structural setup of the
website influences the perception of the scope of the services. A complete and
overseeable navigation facilitates the communication of a broad range of services
and makes the corporate brand seem more transparent to its customers:
- H3: The clearer the structure of a website, the more transparent the corporate
brand seems to be to its customers.
- H4: The clearer the structure of a website, the more reliable the corporate brand
seems to be to its customers.
Visual brand identity is reflected in the design of corporate websites as the
corporate design guidelines have to be considered. Colors have a strong impact on
how website design on the perception of the website (Hijikala, Minami, &
Nishida, 2002). The visual identity of the brand IKB was judged in a very positive
way by the interviewees. As a result, the website design and the elements of the
visual identity that were reflected on the relaunched website leaded to pleasure.
The results leaded to the following hypothesis:
- H5: The more positive the reaction to the visual identity of the brand, the more
positive the perception of the website design and brand.
12.7 Conclusion
This study aims in studying the impact of aesthetic web design on brand
perception of local multi-utility-providers such as the IKB. The majority of current
and past research of aesthetic web design is limited to the examination of online
shops or the influence of aesthetic design on the preference of the website or the
130 The Impact of Web Design on Brand Perception
Ha, Y., & Lennon, S. (2010). Online Visual Merchandising (VMD) Cues and
Consumer Pleasure and Arousal: Purchasing versus Browsing Situation.
Psychology & Marketing, 27(2), 141-165.
Harris, L. C., & Goode, M. M. (2010). Online Servicescapes, Trust, and Purchase
Intentions. Journal of Services Marketing, 24(3), 230-243.
Hartmann, P., & Ibáñez, V. A. (2007). Managing customer loyalty in liberalized
residential energy markets: The impact of energy branding. Energy
Policy, 35(4), 2661-2672.
Hijikala, Y., Minami, K., & Nishida, S. (2002). A Study of Imaginary Influence
of Colors and Fonts for Web Pages. In IEEE (Ed.), International
Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (pp. 223-228). San Diego,
CA: IEEE.
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015.pdf
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and Strategic Thinking (5th ed.). New Delhi, India: Kogan Page.
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perspective. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
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Preference Perspective. Information & Management, 46(1), 31-41.
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Loyalty: Brand Trust and Brand Affect as Mediators. International
Journal of Electronic Business Management, 10(4), 308-321.
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Milliseconds to Make a Good First Impression. Behaviour & Information
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Behaviour: Comparing Canadian and Chinese website visitors. Journal
of Business Research, 64(9), 958-965.
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on Brand Image in the Motor Vehicle and Mobile Telephone Industries.
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132 The Impact of Web Design on Brand Perception
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Web-Store Design on Consumers’ Emotion and Attitudes. Human–
computer Interaction, 27(3), 235-276.
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Behavior. Journal of Business Research, 58(12), 1632-1642.
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of Online Consumer Behavior: Assessing the role of gender. Journal of
Business Research, 63(9), 926-934.
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Pages. Behaviour & Information Technology, 19(5), 367-377.
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995-1000.
13 Fascination Neon Signs
Digital Experience Worlds in Public Space
Christina Haslwanter24
Abstract: Fascinating brands are very successful, achieve high customer loyalty
and are especially recession-resistant (Stüwe, 2003). Neon signs are the
appropriate means to emphasize brands. In this master thesis the phenomenon of
fascination will be regarded analytically. At the beginning of the 20th century the
audience was enthused again and again by technical achievements. The digital
media of the 21st century enables new ways of interaction and networking. In this
fusion of the public space with the virtual room new potentials occur for
companies to get the attention of the audience. This tension results in following
research question:
How can companies use illuminated advertising and digital displays in
combination with digital marketing to fascinate the audience?
To answer this question psychological determinants will be considered with
literature and scientific studies. Moreover, the topic light splits up in a prism of
the elements colour, attractiveness, attention, emotion and aesthetics. How these
individual factors are linked together and finally cause fascination will be under
examination. After a semiotic consideration of the term fascination different views
and theories will be used to show how the fascination can be used in marketing.
The research perspective of Schmid (2007), the „economy of fascination” is used
to regard the topic from a semiotic and action-theoretical perspective. Through the
changed role of the audience in interactive and participative systems new
opportunities arise, to evoke fascination. Different programs like interactive,
reactive and autoactive systems will be considered to show how the fascination
shifted in the last decades to virtual experience worlds in public space.
24
Kufstein University of Applied Sciences/Austria
fascination, especially under considering the topic from the research perspective
of Schmid (2007) the „economy of fascination”.
13.2 Method
The topic and the research question will be processed with the hermeneutic
method. In this proceeding the question will be discussed with existing theories,
reinterpreted and illustrated with practical examples. The topic fascination neon
signs will be regarded analytically to give companies an idea how they can use
light and digital media in public space in combination with digital marketing to
fascinate the audience.
Subquestion 2: Which structures can be used in the city as interface between the
media and the audience?
The structures as interface function have a special importance in this master thesis
because according to Kronhagel (2010) there is a critique of the digital media in
public space that they detach from used physical relations of concrete places to
catch the attention. Humans can develop and unfold themselves only in reliable
structured spaces. The discourse of the “economy of fascination” in this thesis
shows that digital marketing is a possibility for brands to connect with digital
media in public space. In this context Bürkner (1999) talks about a re-anchoring
process in times where a flood of information causes a complex world. The
audience activities interaction and participation belong to decisive characteristics
of digital media. Technical interfaces in the public space can connect the active
audience with the virtual space. By including the audience companies can achieve
an increased perception so that customers can identify with the brand and the
message (Daab, 2006). According to Thrift (2004), in this adventure area city the
accumulation of urban infrastructures can be defined as objects-in-relation.
Together with the media content and the characteristics of mediation of digital
displays they are the intermediary between the real and the virtual space (Calvillo,
2012). In these media structures the attention is medially bound or captivated. The
aim is to find new expressions within these structures (Kronhagel, 2010) to enable
an aesthetic way of interaction between human and machines to cause fascination.
The evocation of fascination with interactive media as interface is a duality of
structures that are organized recursively (Miebach, 2014). On one side the actor
136 Fascination Neon Signs
determines the interaction with the digital media and influences the aesthetic
experience. On the other side the programmed interface has a control function that
enables or restricts the aesthetic interaction. Within this process as action model it
decides in which way the audience is included and how the advertising comes into
effect. According to Porombka (2001), the term interaction between human and
machines is dissolved out of the action theoretical concept because there is a
difference between machine function and human action. How the consumer can
be led through the virtual room in public space will be further more discussed in
the thesis.
13.4 Results
The main results of this thesis focus on the research question:
How can companies use illuminated advertising and digital displays in
combination with digital marketing to fascinate the audience?
The evocation of the phenomenon of fascination appears more obvious at first
glance by conventional neon signs than with digital displays. The impression
arises from the trivial of the light, the colors and the messages. In digital marketing
the operating modes are not as obvious, the view goes through the media
(Waldenfels, 2004). In terms of a fascinating aesthetic the observer will be
transported by an interactive, digital display in a virtual experience world without
understanding the function of the technology (Giannetti, 2004). The practical
examples, which are not portrayed in this paper in detail, but in the full master
thesis show that the new fascination that companies can create with digital media
is not the guarantee of an aesthetic experience. It is the idea of what is possible
together with the community. The result of this thesis is that it is not the individual
that is fascinating but the rhythm of the society that can be expressed in numerous
stagings in public space. According to Struppek (2012) individualization and
location-independence destroy the old rhythm of the city and their social systems.
The internet as a system basing on openness that enables cooperative exchange
replaces the public space. This master thesis formulates a possible redefinition of
the phenomenon of fascination in public space. The new collective rhythm of the
internet that is composed out of individual actions and different needs of the user
can be transferred with light and digital media in the public space and become
visible.
Wurm, F., & Professional association of signage FVL. (Eds.). (2009). Signatures
of the night. The world of illuminated advertising. Stuttgart, Germany:
Avedition.
14 Intercultural Online Communication of
International Companies in High-Context
and Low-Context Cultures
Christina Kniewasser25
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether cultures are expressed
through websites of international companies, and how online communications
through websites have developed in recent years. Starting with a literature review,
three research questions are formulated. By use of qualitative content analysis,
based on the company McDonald’s, the research questions can be answered. The
findings confirm that international companies do communicate differently in
various cultures.
14.1 Introduction
Methods of communication vary from culture to culture. The topic of intercultural
communication plays a major role in business and with the increasing importance
of the internet, the importance of culture specific communication in webdesign
grows too.
The topic of this paper is how online communication - particularly visual - varies
in different cultures, how it has developed in recent years, and how cultural
awareness is expressed through web design. This will be demonstrated through an
analysis of the communication of McDonald’s.
There has been no prior examination of the communication of the same company
and website at different timeframes. The analysis examines the same company
more than 10 years after the previous study was undertaken. This fact can be seen
as a research gap.
14.2 Theory
As a basis of the empirical part certain theoretical aspects must be understood.
25
Kufstein University of Applied Sciences/Austria
14.2.1 Culture
Culture is a complex construct, with varying definitions and including different
aspects. As Hall (1959, p.43) said: “Culture is a word that has so many meaning
already that one more can do it no harm.”
In summary, culture is a shared, learnt and symbolic system of values, views, and
attitudes, which influences the perception and the mind of a person (Collazos &
Gil, 2011). Culture is the reason for the moral concept, the norms, the identity, the
beliefs, the worldview, and the language of an individual. Culture influences the
social environment, the relationship to other people, and shows people what is
good and what is bad (Yousefi, 2014).
Gudykunst and Kim (2003) say that communication is communication. No matter
whether it is between strangers or friends, the transmitting and interpretation of
intercultural communication is influenced by certain factors: cultural, socio
cultural, psycho-cultural and situational. The success of intercultural communi-
cation depends on the familiarity of the conversational partners with each other:
communication is more successful when both parties understand how the other
interprets and assimilates information.
The theories for the following qualitative content analysis are based on both
Edward T. Hall’s and Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Hall is the progenitor
of the term intercultural communication, and sees culture as communication and
communication as culture. He thinks culture is a form of communication, because
culture connects people (Hall, 1959). He classifies cultures as either high-context
or low-context, depending on several different factors (Müller & Gelbrich, 2014).
Hofstede defined several cultural dimensions based on a study undertaken within
the IBM company. He identified systematic differences in national cultures based
on five dimensions: Power Distance, Individualism / Collectivism, Masculinity /
Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Longterm Orientation / Shortterm
Orientation (Bolten, 2007).
The trend is towards a middle way – the glocalization. This means that marketing
is as global as possible but as local as necessary. A global framework is made, but
adapted from culture to culture (Bolten, 2007).
Over the last years, various authors (Marcus & Gould, 2000; Singh & Pereira,
2005; Usunier & Roulin, 2010; Calabrese, Capece, Di Pillo, & Martino, 2014)
investigated the possibility that the cultural dimensions of Hall and Hofstede can
be integrated through certain elements in websites, and therefore enable a cultural
adaption of the webdesign.
Studies show that customers display a more positive attitude and greater trust
towards websites adapted to their own culture and so by extension perceive the
companies behind those websites in a better light (Singh & Pereira, 2005).
14.4 Methodology
The method used for this topic is the qualitative content analysis adapted by
Mayring (2008). The results are compared with the results of Würtz’s analysis
from 2003. Würtz (2006) has already undertaken an analysis on McDonald’s, and
found that McDonald’s does adapt its websites in several ways. The comparison
makes it possible to discover if any differences have emerged since then.
With the qualitative content analysis communication like text, pictures, graphics,
illustrations and videos can be analyzed. The content analysis is a widely used
method in the field of media- and communication studies (Atteslander, 2010).
Particularly in the field of intercultural and cross-cultural communication content
analysis is a common method to determine whether cultural aspects or cultural
dimensions are expressed through websites (Calabrese et al., 2014; Kim & Kuljis,
2010; Singh & Matsuo, 2004; Singh, Zhao, & Hu, 2005; Usunier & Roulin, 2010).
The use of the qualitative content analysis is appropriate for the evaluation of
visual and electronical data. The fast pace of the internet can be a problem for the
documentation of the data, but this problem can be solved with screenshots or
videos (Lamnek, 2010).
144 Intercultural Online Communication of International Companies …
Mayring (2008) considers the most important aspect of the content analysis to be
the sequence of the method, which has no standard rules but must be defined in
advance. Therefore, this analysis is adapted to the material, the theories, and the
questions, and includes the following steps: definition of the material, analysis of
the situation, characterization of the material, direction of the analysis, theory-
driven differentiation of the question, determination of the technique of the
analysis, definition of the categories, analysis, preparation of the results.
Based on the theoretical findings of Hall and the categorizations of Würtz (2006),
the analysis includes the main categories High-Context and Low-Context
Cultures, as well as the subcategories animation, collectivistic and individualistic
values, persons alone or together with the product, transparency, linear and
parallel navigation, and the category other which has been added by the author.
14.5 Results
The results of the analysis show that online communication of international
companies in various cultures does differ.
McDonald’s online communication is culturally adapted but not as extensively as
expected of an international succesful company. The cultural dimensions of both
Hall and Hofstede can be found, but it can be assumed that these are created
intuitively and not deliberately. Some cultural dimensions correlate but do not
exclude one another.
Considering the development of the McDonald’s websites since 2003, it can be
determined that the way McDonald’s communicates online has slightly changed
in some respect and in some countries, but for the most part remained unchanged.
The following table shows an overview of the examined categories.
In terms of animation the websites dispense with background sound. There is also
a change regarding the people in connection with the products: fewer connections
between people and products are made today – they focus on either the product or
the person. The navigation shows some changes too: The High-Context Websites
open new browser windows on the same page now. Regarding the collectivism
and individualism as well as the transparency no changes could be determined.
There is a slight adaption of the examined Asian High-Context cultures to the
western Low-Context cultures.
Kniewasser C. 145
Table
11: Overview of the results
(Adapted from Würtz, 2006, p. 295)
2003 2016
2003 2016
Category Tendency Tendency Tendency Tendency
Category Tendency
High-Context Tendency
Low-Context Tendency
High-Context Tendency
Low-Context
High-Context Low-Context High-Context Low-Context
Animation High use of Low use of High use of Low use of
Animation High use
animation of Low use of
animation High use ofno
animation, Low use of
animation
animation
(especially animation
(effects for animation, no
sound animation
(especially
moving people) (effects
texts,…)for sound
moving people) texts,…)
Collectivistic / Collectivistic Individualistic Collectivistic Individualistic
Collectivistic
individualistic/ Collectivistic
values Individualistic
values Collectivistic
values Individualistic
values
individualistic
values values values values values
values
Persons alone Images of Images show Few people People without
Persons
or alone
together Imageswith
people of Images show
lifestyle, people Few people
with products, People without
products or with
or together
with the people
productwith lifestyle, people
with or without with
moreproducts, products
unbrandedor with
with the
product product with or without
products more
illustrations unbranded
products
product products illustrations products
Transparency Exploratory Clear and goal- Exploratory Clear and goal-
Transparency Exploratory
approach Clear and goal-
oriented Exploratory
approach Clear and goal-
oriented
approach oriented
approach approach oriented
approach
approach approach
Linear and Lots of menus, Few menus, browser Few menus,
Linear
paralleland Lots of menus,
new browser Few menus,
browser browser
windows open Few menus,
browser
parallel
navigation new browser
window opens browser
windows open windows open
on same page browser
windows open
navigation window
new pageopens windows
on open
same page on same page windows
on open
same page
new page on same page on same page
Other Lots of images Minimalistic
Other Lotsillustrations
and of images Minimalistic
design
and illustrations design
Michael Koch26
15.1 Introduction
Within the last five to ten years, new digital forms of learning and teaching have
evolved in the Internet. Universities all over the world produce videos, online
tutorials, and online courses and place them online. Today, these so-called
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are provided by the best universities in
the world (MIT, Harvard, Cambridge and so forth). With more and more MOOCs
inflating the internet, a substantial part of academic education can already be
covered online. More than that, MOOCs deliver large quantities of top-quality
data about the intelligence, talents, diligence, strengths, weaknesses, and problems
of learners.
In January 2013, journalist and triple Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman
wrote a much respected article in the New York Times about the way he thought
MOOCs would change the world. Friedman claimed that MOOCs had the
potential “to unlock a billion more brains to solve the world’s biggest problems”,
and that they were able to make us reimagine higher education such that everyone
could compile their own set of lectures from the best professors of the world,
26
Kufstein University of Applied Sciences/Austria
creating their very own learning path. The only thing students would have to pay
is the nominal fee for the certificates of completion (Friedman, 2013). Friedman
quoted MIT president Leo Rafael Reif, who said that a new world was unfolding
with MOOCs and that everyone would have to adapt. I wanted to find out in my
research whether this assumed vast academic metamorphosis was not just
happening in the minds of some writers and journalists and evaluate whether four
years later Friedman’s and Reif’s vision is about to come true. And if so, I wanted
to know if the phenomenon is also advancing outside the USA, particularly in
Germany and Austria.
enrolment among Internet users in the year 2013 from 16% in Finland to about
3% in the Austria (which scored second to last before the Czech Republic).
Based on a series of interviews with academic staff, Hollands and Tirthali (2014)
state that up to now most interviewees saw MOOCs as cost-ineffective. The
scholars also stated data gained from MOOCs was not used to improve courses.
Extending reach and access of the university was seen as the main motive for
developing MOOCs. An EADTU report from 2015 on institutional motivations
and strategies on MOOCs gathered more differentiated data and found that the
weight of the motives for the provision of MOOCs differed substantially between
the EU and the USA. While increasing the visibility of the institution prevailed
every-where, driving student recruitment was much more important to US
institutions than to European ones (Jansen & Schuwer, 2015).
15.3 Model
If the impact of MOOCs on academic education will come even close to Thomas
Friedman`s forecast, substantial parts of the German and Austrian University
system will be seriously jeopardized within the next ten to twenty years as more
and more students will prefer the flexibility of MOOCs delivered by academic
celebrities from Anglo-American top universities. Thus, in my thesis I asked the
question if the USA, in relation to Austria and Germany, dominates the MOOC
market in a potentially problematic way.
I approached the research question through supply analysis. Bauer (2001) argues
that problematic power structures on markets often derive from a combination of
high market shares and high product heterogeneity provided by one supplier.
Accordingly, I compared the current market shares of the USA, Germany, and
Austria by means of the quantity of MOOC supply within a given time-frame. The
differentiation of MOOC provision was analyzed through the analysis of MOOC
distribution in different academic fields. Moreover, I wanted to find out if there is
a strong market concentration within the respective countries. This was done
through an investigation of course provision per university. Although participating
in MOOCs is usually free, price politics is an important factor when it comes to
certificates. I therefore also scrutinized the price politics in the USA, Germany,
and Austria concerning MOOC accreditation. This data was used to discuss the
connection between market power and price level. My investigation covered only
courses with a starting date between March 15, 2016 and April 15, 2016.
I created the following research model leading from four independent variables to
two dependent variables.
152 Massive Open Online Courses and Big Data …
15.4 Method
I conducted my research through non-participating, indirect quantitative online
observation. For the validity of this method the exact characteristics of the
research object and the main units it belongs to have to be defined, the time-frame
and the geographic focus of the observation have to be specified, and the
operational procedure must be straightened. I therefore created a comprehensible
and traceable online observation system that followed clear regulations. The
MOOC had to have a fixed starting date, it had to be officially provided by a
university and the MOOC contents had to be accessible free of charge. The item
measured was the online-availability of a MOOC from a certain country within a
certain time period. The availability of one MOOC within the defined period of
time was counted as one data point. Moreover, the following attributes were added
Koch M. 153
to the data: the name of the MOOC, the providing university, the country the
university is located in, the MOOC platform, the academic field (I defined nine
different academic fields), the availability of a certificate, the price of available
certificates, and the duration of the course. As the size of the population differs
substantially in the three countries, MOOC provision was compared per million
inhabitants.
15.5 Findings
American Universities started 0.615 MOOCs per million people living in their
country. Austria launched 0.115 MOOCs per million and Germany 0.045.
Figure 18: Number of MOCCs from Austria, Germany and the USA per million inhabitants
offered from March 15, 2016 to April, 2016
(Own description)
On the basis of these numbers hypothesis one was verified. American universities
offered considerably more MOOCs per capita than Austrian and German ones.
Concerning academic disciplines, American courses covered all nine fields of
study with numbers ranging from 66 (business & economics) to 10 (health).
German courses were delivered in only two academic disciplines (business and
economics and computer science) and academic MOOCs in Austria only covered
the field of education. Therefore, hypothesis two could also be verified. The
product diversity of the American market outperforms the German and Austrian
markets by far. Concerning market concentration, it turned out that the five leading
universities provided 39% of all MOOCs, the remaining 61% were delivered by
154 Massive Open Online Courses and Big Data …
15.6 Conclusion
I have found out in this study that American universities and institutions almost
totally dominate the MOOC market in relation to Austria and Germany. The state
of adoption in the latter two countries is not satisfactory. Austrian MOOC
production is so small that we cannot talk about a MOOC market. With Iversity,
Germany has a well-functioning platform, but open course provision by German
universities is rather low. If middle European countries do not want to endanger
their self-determination of higher education, initiatives must be launched soon.
Christensen, G., Steinmetz, A., Alcorn, B., Bennett, A., Woods, D., & Emanuel,
E. J. (2013, November 6). The MOOC Phenomenon: Who Takes Massive
Open Online Courses and Why?. Retrieved February 18, 2016, from
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2350964
Dillahunt, T., Wang, Z., & Teasley, S. D. (2014). Democratizing Higher
Education: Exploring MOOC Use Among Those Who Cannot Afford a
Formal Education. The International Review of Research in Open and
Distance Learning, 15(5), 177-196.
Friedman, T. L. (2013, January 26). Revolution Hits the Universities. Retrieved
February 18, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/opinion
/sunday/friedman-revolution-hits-the-universities.html?_r=1
Hollands, F. M., & Tirthali, D. (2014). Why Do Institutions Offer MOOCs?
Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 18(3), 1-19.
Jansen, D., & Schuwer, S. (n.d.). Institutional MOOC strategies in Europe. Status
report based on a mapping survey. Retrieved March 27, 2016, from
http://www.eadtu.eu/home/policy-areas/open-education-and-
moocs/news/248-institutional-mooc-strategies-in-europe
Onah, D. (2014). Dropout Rates of Massive Open Online Courses: Behavioural
Patterns. In EDULEARN (Ed.), 6th International Conference on
Education and New Learning Technologies 2014 (pp. 5825-5834).
Valencia, Spain: IATED Academy.
Shah, D. (2015, December 21). By The Numbers: MOOCS in 2015. How has the
MOOC space grown this year? Get the facts, figures, and pie charts.
Retrieved March 24, 2016, from https://www.class-central.com/report/
moocs-2015-stats/
Xing, Y., Li, H., Kornhaber, M. L., Suen, H. K., Pursel, B., & Goins, D. D. (2015).
Examining the Relations among Student Motivation, Engagement, and
Retention in a MOOC: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach.
Global Education Review, 2(3), 23-33.
16 Consumer Ethnocentrism in the Online
Purchasing Process
Jennifer Kübel-Bertsch27
16.1 Introduction
According to Papadopoulos (1993), Sennett (1998) and other authors an
increasing importance of the product origin caused by the progressive glob-
alization and global capitalism can be observed since the turn of the millennium
(Ray & Anderson, 2000). Achrol and Kotler (2012) recognize a link between the
on-going regionalization shown by a return to local product purchases and post-
modern marketing approaches that postulate a general change of values of
Western societies. These values included awareness for sustainable purchasing,
environmental awareness and conservation and protection of resources (Achrol &
Kotler, 2012).
27
Kufstein University of Applied Sciences/Austria
The core objective of the present work is to evaluate the importance of the local
product origin in the online purchasing process based on the results of a survey in
the marketplace Austria. A key element is to clarify whether consumers prefer
products from their own region when purchasing online in spite of the in-
creasing globalization and if this preference can be measured through a differing
willingness to pay for those products. Online purchases offer the advan-
tage of a quick comparison of prices due to comparison portals (Peterson,
Balasubramanian, & Bronnenberg, 1997). Generally, the high competition leads
to tightly calculated prices by the suppliers. Degeratu, Rangaswamy, and Wu
(2000) refer to the high price sensitivity of consumers when purchasing online
compared to a lower price sensitivity when purchasing offline. On the other hand,
Degeratu et al. (2000) also refer to the importance of giving further product
information when offering products online as consumers are unable to prove
products physically. The products origin can be seen as a trustworthy signal
providing further product information. Therefore, it is to prove if the high price
sensitivity or the product origin do have a stronger impact on the decision making
process when purchasing online. The current master thesis proves this with
reference to the following research questions:
- To what extent can a preference for locally manufactured consumer goods in
the online purchasing process in the marketplace Austria be observed?
- Does the target group show a willingness to pay more for locally manufactured
products?
- Which particularities in terms of demographics or buying motives can be
observed?
For the current master thesis, the model by Ha-Brookshire and Yoon (2012) has
been adapted (see Figure 20) as Ha-Brookshire and Yoon (2012) declare the non-
measurability of buying motives for locally manufactured products as a gap in
their research. The adapted model not only takes demographic factors and the prior
knowledge (experience) with locally manufactured products into account, it
measures the influence of these factors on the willingness to pay more for those
products. Apart from that the influence of the consumer ethnocentrism is measured
and observed. Ethnocentrism refers to the belief in the superiority of ones’ own
nation (Keller & Sumner, 1911), where after ethnocentrism of consumers refers
to the conviction of the superiority of products manufactured in ones own nation
(Shimp & Sharma, 1987). It is assumed that for people with high consumer
ethnocentric values the benefits of locally produced products involve functional
aspects but also economic, moral and social considerations.
16.4 Method
The hypotheses based on the model in Figure 20 were investigated by studying
the online purchasing behavior of Austrian consumers. As a data collection
procedure an online survey was carried out. Respondents were asked to reveal
their attitudes towards locally manufactured products, their online purchasing
behavior of those products and their willingness to pay for a selection of
locally manufactured products. Furthermore, they had to provide demographic
information. A total of 185 people took part in the survey, of which 162
Kübel-Bertsch J. 161
16.5 Results
According to the results of the survey, 66 percent of all consumers pay attention
to the product origin when purchasing online. This proves that there is a preference
for locally manufactured products online. In general, the results show that people,
who rate the product origin positively, are frequently willing to pay more for
locally manufactured products.
A strong negative linearity is shown between the two factors price and product
origin. Extremely price sensitive consumers do pay less attention to the product
origin than less price sensitive consumers. Generally even price sensitive
consumers are willing to pay more for locally manufactured products. While they
are willing to pay up to seven percent more for those products, the average
willingness to pay more for locally manufactured products is 24 percent. Although
75 percent of all consumers specify the price to be more important than the product
origin when purchasing online, 74 percent of the consumers are willing to
purchase locally manufactured products even if they are slightly more expensive.
The wish for a healthy, sustainable and conscious lifestyle (Ray & Anderson,
2000) even if it is connected with a monetary disadvantage can be manifested for
the online purchasing process as well as for the purchasing process in general. The
desire for further local product offers is shown by consumers of all demographics.
The family situation does have a measurable impact on the perception of locally
manufactured products. Families with children more often buy local products than
families without children, however they do not show a higher willingness to pay.
Apart from the family situation no significant relationship between demographic
characteristics and the preference of locally manufactured products was observed
(see results of Ray & Anderson, 2000; Ueltschy, 1998; Bailey & Pineres, 1997).
A strong impact of the consumer ethnocentrism on the preference of and
willingness to pay more for locally manufactured products can be confirmed.
Furthermore, the results confirm that consumers who have had experience with
locally produced products plan to purchase more of those products in the future.
As for the motives of purchasing locally manufactured products consumers
mention the higher quality of those products followed by the economic reasons
like the preservation of local jobs and the support of the domestic economy. It can
be observed, that consumers with strong ethnocentric values and thus a
particularly positive evaluation of products from their own nation, show a higher
rating of the quality of locally manufactured products than consumers with low
ethnocentric values. In summary, the current master thesis clearly shows that the
162 Consumer Ethnocentrism in the Online Purchasing Process
divergence of global and regional interests does not exclude but that both interests
rather complement each other. 95 percent of the consumers take advantage of the
online purchasing process but two thirds of all consumers do prefer local to
international product offers even when purchasing online.
Abstract: With the particular lack of scientific data for the use and impact of
mobile applications in Austria, companies are forced to base decisions on the
implementation and design of mobile applications on primarily non-scientific
studies. Because of that, the purpose of this paper is not only to provide starting
points for future research but also to measure and analyze the media usage
behavior of consumers, to determine potential differences in the consumptions
behavior of recipients via apps.
17.1 Introduction
The progressive fragmentation of the media landscape leads to an unprecedented
quantity of media channels, recipients can use for consuming media content
(ARD-Forschungsdienst, 2006). The increasing number of media channels does
not only result in new potentials and obstacles for companies, but also in an
increasing degree of substitutability. Digital technologies are considered to be one
of the main causes of this ongoing change in the media industry. Content
nowadays won’t be shown once and then forgotten, it will be constantly clipped,
linked, rediscovered and built into new content (Thompson, 2009, as cited in
Doyle, 2010). This requires fundamental changes in the marketing planning
process. Therefore this paper is going to evaluate the importance of a cross-media
approach for planning marketing campaigns and furthermore providing user data,
allowing scientifically sound realizations of cross media campaigns.
28
Kufstein University of Applied Sciences/Austria
recipients, the “Technology Acceptance Model” makes factors evident that play
an essential role in the adaption of new technologies, such as apps (Yeou, 2016).
- H3: App-users believe, that they are more likely to interact with content than
website-users are.
17.4 Methodology
For gathering profound data, an “all-around” approach has been conducted.
Therefore, the results, presented in the following chapter consist of data from three
different methodologies:
(1) First of all an expert interview with the founder of “Die Tagespresse” has been
conducted. The aim of this interview was to identify reasons and obstacles for
companies for implementing a mobile application. While the interview is more of
a “bonus” to the actual data analysis, it allows for a more detailed view on the
topic and opens interesting starting points for future research as well insights for
companies.
(2) The actual focus of this paper lies in the analysis of the generated data about
the media consumption behavior of recipients. Based on data from the web-
analysis tool “Google Analytics”, the author examines potential differences in the
media usage behavior of recipients, whether they use a companies’ app or website
for consuming content. For answering the established hypothesis, four key
performance indicators have been analyzed:
- the average time, users spend reading articles via app or via browser
- the average number of articles read per visit
- the number of shares
- the number of participations in surveys
(3) For the third part, an online survey has been conducted, to see if consumers
are aware of their change in behavior using apps and thus preventing misinter-
pretations of the collected data in part II.
17.5 Results
Results shows, that there is a significant difference in the media consumption
behavior of recipients, consuming content via apps rather than on the website. An
analysis of the average time, users spend reading articles of “Die Tagespresse”
shows, that recipients spend much longer (93 percent longe) reading articles via
mobile applications than they do on the website. This could either be an indicator
that users consume content in apps more intensely or that they are simply
overwhelmed by a bad usability of the application. To avoid misinterpretations,
the online survey asked users how they perceive the apps usability. Because over
90 percent of the test persons stated that the app is “clear” and “easy to use”, it
168 The Influence of Apps on the Media Usage Behaviour of Recipients …
seems save to say, that users actually consume content via apps more intense than
they do on the website.
An entirely different trend can be seen, looking at the number of articles consumed
via apps. Recipients view fewer articles in apps, than they do on the website. While
the average user views 1.12 articles via app, the number increases to 2.06 articles
per visit. The more stationary the device used, the more articles are being read by
the consumers. The difference is still marginal. More interesting than the actual
number of articles consumed per visit, is the fact, that users have the impression
of consuming more articles in apps than they would on the website. This could
also be an indicator for a higher involvement of app users and therefore for a better
advertising impact of ads displayed in apps.
For the indicators “shares” and “participation in surveys”, no significant
difference can be identified. Still the results from the survey show a different
picture, than the “Google Analytics” data does. Based on the survey, participants
seem to be far less likely to share articles via apps than on the website. On the
other hand, app-users are far more likely to participate in surveys than they would
be on the website. This implies, that users differentiate between different kinds of
interactions, which should be considered when measuring the success of online
campaigns.
17.7 Conclusion
This Master’s thesis provides valuable data regarding the influence of apps on the
media consumption behavior of recipients. Not only does this thesis prove that
there is a difference in how recipients use apps but also does this “all-around”
approach deliver valuable starting points for future research. So do findings imply,
that users seem to consume content via apps with a higher involvement, than on
Leitner A. 169
the website, which results in a better advertising impact of ads displayed in mobile
applications. For platforms financed primarily through advertising, the results of
this thesis can be a valuable basis for justifying higher advertisement prices in
apps.
Abstract: There are more and more consumers who order products on the internet
without having a concrete purchase intention. Nevertheless, morally questionable
and opportunistic product returns still remain a relatively underexplored research
field. Due to the occurring negative consequences of increased product returns
both for online retailers and the nature, it is relevant to address the motivation and
attitude of the practicing consumers. Thus, the aim of the study is to find out what
overall reasons and attitudes there are for consumers to generally order products
on the internet with no purchase intention and if they make use of any justifications
regarding their behavior (with reference to the neutralization theory of Sykes and
Matza, 1957). As a research method, qualitative semi-structured interviews are
conducted with consumers who occasionally act the indicated way. The results
show that the consumers almost only refer to garments within their statements and
that the predominant reasons for exercising the behavior is the need to compare
various articles of clothing at home and the fact that the consumers commonly
assume beforehand that not all products are going to meet their demands and
expectations. Furthermore, they apply a range of justifications in order to dissolve
the cognitive dissonance that results from the discrepancy between their attitude
and the exerted behavior. In the end, three additional techniques of neutralization
could be proposed: Comparison with other people or circumstances, Downplaying
the negative consequences and Moderating own behavior.
18.1 Introduction
As the internet is increasingly becoming an area for trade, the electronic commerce
has been gaining more and more importance and seems to be an indispensable part
of the lives of today’s consumers (Heinemann, 2012). Furthermore, there are many
users nowadays who occasionally order products on the internet with no concrete
purchase intention (Keilmann, 2013; Hampe, 2014; Asdecker, 2016). Thus,
numerous online shoppers already take a potential return into account while
29
Kufstein University of Applied Sciences/Austria
ordering (Wachter, Vitell, Shelton, & Park, 2012; Pur, Stahl, Wittmann,
Wittmann, & Weinfurtner, 2013).
According to the right of withdrawal, every consumer in Austria has the right to
send any purchased item back within 14 days without giving any reasons
(Bundeskanzleramt Österreich, 2016). Therefore, customers have the possibility
to consciously exploit those regulations, which is referred to as opportunistic
behavior. Returns bring negative consequences with them, though. For the online
retailer, there is additional cost with reference to the transport and processing of
the returned goods. Both more employees and an operative return management
process are needed (Pur et al., 2013; Asdecker, 2016). Besides, product returns
have a negative impact on the environment regarding the emerging CO2-emissions
from transporting the respective goods.
While different thematic priorities concerning consumer ethics (e.g.,
Papaoikonomou, Ryan, & Ginieis, 2011; Gruber & Schlegelmilch, 2014), the
general reasons for product returns (e.g., Foscht, T., Ernstreiter, K., Maloles, C.,
Sinha, I., & Swoboda, B., 2013; Lee, 2015) and the impact of different return
policies on the consumer behavior (e.g., Ramanathan, 2011; Bower & Maxham,
2012; Powers & Jack, 2013) have been examined a lot so far, only a few
researchers have combined those areas and specifically addressed morally
questionable or unethical product returns in online shopping.
So far, most of the researchers have addressed themselves to the reasons of
morally questionable returns only with regard to the so-called deshopping (King,
Dennis, & Wright, 2008) or unethical retail disposition (Rosenbaum, Kuntze, &
Wooldridge, 2011) which is referred to consumers who order a good, use it and
send it back afterwards. But to the best of the knowledge and belief of the author,
other reasons (as well as attitudes and justifications) regarding morally question-
able, opportunistic returns have not been investigated so far. Thus, the aim is to
elicit a first tendency here. The author of this paper pursues the target to take a
closer look at this topic from the perspective of the practicing consumers. In detail,
it is about goods which are purchased for one self and which are not being returned
due to any defect.
This leads to the following research questions:
- Why do consumers order products on the internet with no concrete purchase
intention?
- What attitude do they have with reference to this morally questionable,
opportunistic behavior and what (if any) justifications do they utilize?
Lochner J. K. 173
18.2 Methodology
The study is all about inquiring the views of the involved subjects (Flick, Von
Kardorff, & Steinke, 2010) within a rather underexplored realm. Especially when
sensitive, morally questionable topics are the focus of a research, qualitative
interviews are suitable so that the subjects are given the opportunity to speak
openly about their behavior (Iacobucci & Churchill, 2006; Lee, 2015). In total, six
semi-structured interviews (Scheele & Groeben, 1988) are conducted with
consumers who occasionally order products while already knowing that they are
going to send them back after their delivery. With reference to the neutralization
theory, a qualitative methodology also seems to be appropriate (Papaoikonomou
et al., 2011; Rosenbaum et al., 2011). In order to analyze and interpret the gained
study results, a qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2008) is conducted.
18.3 Results
Results show that all of the interviewed consumers (almost) exclusively refer to
garments when talking about their questionable product returns (see Pesendorfer,
2012). Moreover, they place great importance on the haptic (see Abishek, Sinha,
& Vohra, 2013; Berg, 2015). Thus, the actual purchase decision is made after the
product has been delivered and not while ordering which implies that the
purchases are impulse purchases (Foscht & Swoboda, 2011) being driven by
emotions.
As for the reasons for ordering products while already knowing they are going to
be sent back to the retailer, five out of six respondents explain that they would like
to be able to compare products at home.
“I just ordered three pairs of shoes and already knew beforehand that I was going
to decide for only one pair at the end. […]” (5/2.47)
174 Morally Questionable, Opportunistic Product Returns
Lee (2015) also found out that one out of a few motives for sending goods back to
the retailer is to order more products than actually needed. Moreover, some
respondents talk about the fact that they usually assume they will not keep all of
the ordered clothes. Other reasons seem to be the desire of feeling joy and having
an exciting experience as well as the fact that a product is only needed once.
With reference to the shipping and return costs, almost all of the consumers make
sure they do not have to bear costs themselves. And some of them consider to only
buy products which will definitely be kept after the delivery when having to pay
for the delivery or return. Regarding the provided product information by the
online retailer, it becomes evident that the interviewed consumers mostly do not
trust the product pictures and thus need to view and feel the ordered articles in
reality. As for the effort for returning products, most of the interviewees do not
really think about it when sending items back to the sender. The paying options
are important for all of them since five out of six respondents always pay for
account when giving the possibility to do so. They want to make sure that they
only pay for the items which will be kept at the end. As far as the own friends are
concerned, the interviewees react totally differently. While no one generally
speaks with their friends about the behavior in question, some think that their
friends might potentially have an influence on their intended behavior and others
would simply not tell them anything about their actions in order not to have to
make any changes.
Most of the consumers usually do not think a lot about potential negative
consequences of their behavior regarding product returns. Nevertheless, they
sometimes reflect about the consequences for both the retailer and the nature and
start feeling bad for their behavior after rethinking it. They keep acting this way,
though, while making use of a range of justifications like the following:
“[…] It doesn’t really matter if I order one piece or more because the postman
has to come by anyway […]” (2/15.16)
“It is not the case that I order something of which I know that I am definitely going
to send it back again. I assume that I could actually need it […]”
(5/12.33)
“[…] Why should I keep it when someone else has already returned it? (1/16.14)
18.4 Discussion
Consumers who order products on the internet with no concrete purchase intention
act this way predominantly out of the reason that they want to compare products
at home and that they usually assume while ordering that not all the articles will
meet their demands and expectations. Additionally, some consumers have the
Lochner J. K. 175
desire of feeling joy and having an exciting experience while others only need a
product once which leads to a morally questionable return. Interestingly, all the
interviewees refer to garments when talking about their questionable behavior.
Moreover, having to pay for delivery and product return and the provided paying
options seem to have a potential influence on the intention to exercise the morally
questionable, opportunistic behavior in the future. Very detailed product
information and the effort for returning a good do not have any impact on the
intention. A potential influence of the own friends remains unresolved due to very
different statements.
Furthermore, the practicing consumers feel bad about their own behavior and
make use of a range of justifications. This implies that they try to dissolve the
cognitive dissonance that results from the discrepancy between their attitude and
the exerted behavior. In the end, they use the neutralization technique Condemning
the condemners (Sykes & Matza, 1957) by stating that the online retailer is
responsible for handling the occurring consequences, One-Time Usage Crime
(Rosenbaum et al., 2011) by stating that one product is only needed once and
(sensu lato) First-Time, Only-Time Crime (Rosenbaum et al., 2011) by stating that
the behavior is not being exercised often anymore. In the end, three additional
techniques of neutralization could be proposed: Comparison with other people or
circumstances, Downplaying the negative consequences and Moderating own
behavior.
Technique
Technique
Technique
Technique
Technique
Technique
Technique
Technique
Technique
Technique
Definition
Definition
Definition
Definition
Definition
Definition
Definition
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Operational Context
Operational Context
Operational Context
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Operational Context
Operational Context
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negative consequences
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sometimes even derive a
sometimes even derive a
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indicating that the
indicating that the
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indicating that the
indicating that the benefit from it.”
benefit from it.”
benefit from it.”
benefit from it.”
benefit from it.”
benefit from it.”
benefit from it.”
benefit from it.”
benefit from it.”
benefit from it.”
consequences are not as
consequences are not as
consequences are not as
consequences are not as
consequences are not as
consequences are not as
consequences are not as
consequences are not as
consequences are not as
consequences are not as
bad as expected.
bad as expected.
bad as expected.
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bad as expected.
bad as expected.
bad as expected.
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bad as expected.
bad as expected.
Moderating own
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“While ordering, I always
“While ordering, I always
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“While ordering, I always
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behavior
behavior
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behavior behavior one moderates or
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one moderates or hope not to have
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downplays his/her own
downplays his/her own
downplays his/her own
downplays his/her own
downplays his/her own
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downplays his/her own
downplays his/her own
downplays his/her own
downplays his/her own
to send it back.”
to send it back.”
to send it back.”
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to send it back.”
to send it back.”
to send it back.”
behavior.
behavior.
behavior.
behavior.
behavior.
behavior.
behavior.
behavior.
behavior. behavior.
Depiction
Depiction
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1:Depiction
Extended
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176 Morally Questionable, Opportunistic Product Returns
Papaoikonomou, E., Ryan, G., & Ginieis, M. (2011). Towards a Holistic Approach
of the Attitude Behaviour Gap in Ethical Consumer Behaviours:
Empirical Evidence from Spain. International Advances in Economic
Research, 17, 77-88.
Pesendorfer, K. (2012, December 13). Neueste Daten zum Stand der Offliner und
Onliner: Österreich im EU-Vergleich. Retrieved January 22, 2016, from
https://www.bka.gv.at/DocView.axd?CobId=49806
Powers, T. L., & Jack, E. P. (2013). The Influence of Cognitive Dissonance on
Retail Product Returns. Psychology & Marketing, 30(8), 724-735.
Pur, S., Stahl, E., Wittmann, M., Wittmann, G., & Weinfurtner S. (2013, January).
Retourenmanagement im Online-Handel – Das Beste daraus machen.
Retrieved January 22, 2016, from www.ibi.de/files/Retourenmanage
ment-im-Online-Handel_-_Das-Beste-daraus-machen.pdf
Ramanathan, R. (2011). An empirical analysis on the influence of risk on
relationships between handling of product returns and customer loyalty
in E-commerce. International Journal of Production Economics, 130,
255-261.
Rosenbaum, M. S., Kuntze, R., & Wooldridge, B. R. (2011). Understanding
Unethical Retail Disposition Practice and Restraint from the Consumer
Perspective. Psychology & Marketing, 28(1), 29-52.
Scheele, B., & Groeben, N. (1988). Dialog-Konsens-Methoden zur Rekon-
struktion subjektiver Theorien. Tübungen, Germany: Franke.
Sykes, G. M., & Matza, D. (1957). Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of
Delinquency. American Sociological Review, 22(6), 664-670.
Wachter, K., Vitell, S. J., Shelton, R. K., & Park, K. (2012). Exploring consumer
orientation toward returns: Unethical dimensions. Business Ethics: A
European Review, 21(1), 115-128.
19 Success Factors in Digital Communication of
Crowdfunding Projects of Social Entrepreneurs
in German Speaking Countries
Verena Stephan30
19.1 Introduction
Crowdfunding (CF) is becoming an increasingly used alternative to finance new
companies within Web 2.0 (Agrawal, Catalini, & Goldfarb, 2013; Cholakova &
Clarysse, 2015; Mollick, 2014; Ordanini, Miceli, Pizzetti, & Parasuraman, 2011).
CF is going to be more important in different areas. One of them is Social
Entrepreneurship (SE). This intends to create a social value and the increase of
social welfare (Austin, Stevenson, & Wei-Skillern, 2006). A balance of social and
economical interests is intended to be formed (Liu, Eng, & Takeda, 2015). Within
CF, entrepreneurs of the SE can use all channels of Web 2.0, such as Social Media
30
Kufstein University of Applied Sciences/Austria
In the literature review it became clear that there is broad agreement about the
likely success factors in CF. There are some success factors that can affect the
communication in CF in SE. The most important are marketing communication
(Burtch, Ghose, & Wattal, 2013; Liu et al., 2015; Smith et al., 2012), especially
used in form of direct communication within SM (Heinonen, 2011), networks
(Agrawal et al., 2013; Belleflamme et al., 2014; Beier & Wagner, 2015; Cassar,
2004; Mollick, 2014; Ryu & Kim, in press), frequency in communication through
updates or blogs (Beier & Wagner, 2015; Cordova, Dolci, & Gianfrate, 2015;
Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Moreno & Martinez, 2013; Stegbauer, 2011; Thies,
Wessel, & Benlian, 2014), building trust for reducing information asymmetries
(Agrawal et al., 2013; Austin et al., 2006; Cholakova & Clarysse, 2015; Lin,
Prabhala, & Viswanathan, 2013; Mair & Marti, 2006; Naskrent & Siebelt, 2011;
Herzenstein, Sonenshein, & Dholakia, 2011), storytelling (Allison, McKenny, &
Short, 2013; Frydrych, Bock, Kinder, & Koeck, 2014; Herzenstein et al., 2011;
Martens, Jennings, & Jennings, 2007; Ordanini et al., 2011;), attractive rewards
(Allison et al., 2013; Cholakova & Clarysse, 2015; Frydrych et al., 2014; Gerber
et al., 2012; Gerber & Hui, 2013; Ryu & Kim, 2016), quality (Martens et al., 2007;
Mollick, 2014), positive language, humor and human interest language (Allison,
Davis, Short, & Webb, 2015; Ryu & Kim, 2016; Vettin & Todt, 2004).
As some success factors could be identified by the literature review which are a
form of communication or may be affected by communication, it is the goal of this
empirical study to verify or falsify them for the field of SE and to recognize other
than the mentioned success factors. Agrawal et al. (2013) emphasize the need for
economic theories to explain and capture different aspects and forms of CF and
its underlying dynamics as well as the motivation of the backer. A study by Allison
et al. (2013) points out, that language, when it is formulated in an of the Warm
Glow Theory appropriate manner, considerably influences the financing of
microcredit. The Warm Glow Theory assumes that people help others to feel better
about themselves (Anderoni, 1990). With this, Allison et al. (2013) show in a field,
which is related to the CF of social projects, that communication or language can
have a positive effect in compliance of certain rules on the funding process and
can influence potential investors positively in their decision making process.
Those giving only from selfish motives are emotionally rather difficult to
influence and must be won with rational arguments and clear calculations. Persons
acting on the basis of warm glow or altruistic motives are more easily convinced
by storytelling or emotional factors. Gently, one should deal with the fact that
intrinsic motivation can be mitigated by foreign regulation and that the
demonstration of the profitability of the project motivates only selfish backer.
182 Success Factors in Digital Communication of Crowdfunding Projects …
19.4 Results
The results show that not only the diverse use of various communication channels
but more over the nature of the communication and the linguistic presentation of
the essential content can influence the success of a CF project. It turns out that the
communication of successful CF projects is clearly more structured in a way that
literature recommends than the communication of unsuccessful CF projects is.
Therefore, the most success factors for communication in CF can be confirmed
for the category Social Business on the platform Startnext. These are in detail
storytelling, emotionality, humor, attitude or positive language, building up
networks, involvement, regular communication viablogs or update tools and
signaling quality. Not directly confirmed can be Media Richness Theory and
videos as the strongest medium as well as the external network care. The most
important findings are:
- The use of storytelling, humor and emotion in videos have a positive effect on
the degree of the founder’s sympathy and project success.
- The more frequent and different contents are repeated, the more likely is the
project's success.
Stephan V. 183
- The more relationship-oriented and personal communication is, the more likely
is the project's success.
- A high level of information has a positive effect on project success.
- The stronger intrinsic motives are addressed, the more likely is the project's
success.
- The stronger the response of intrinsic and extrinsic motives are mixed in the
communication within a project, the less likely the success of the project is.
Allison, T., Davis, B., Short, J., & Webb, J. (2015). Crowdfunding in a Prosocial
Microlending Environment: Examining the Role of Intrinsic Versus
Extrinsic Cues. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 39(1), 9-26.
Allison, T., McKenny, A., & Short, J. (2013). The effect of entrepreneurial
rhetoric on microlending investment: An examination of the warm-glow
effect. Journal of Business Venturing, 28, 690-707.
Anderoni, J. (1990). Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory
of Warm-Glow Giving. The Economic Journal, 100(401), 464-477.
Austin, J., Stevenson, H., & Wei-Skillern, J. (2006). Social and Commercial
Entrepreneurship: Same, Different, or Both? Entrepreneurship Theory &
Practice, 30(1), 1-22.
Beaulieu, T., Sarker, S., & Sarker, S. (2015). A Conceptual Framework for
Understanding Crowdfunding. Communications of the Association for
Information Systems, 37(1), 1-31.
Beier, M. & Wagner, K. (2015). Crowdfunding Success: A Perspective from
Social Media and E-Commerce. In ICIS (Ed.), Thirty Sixth International
Conference on Information Systems, (pp. 1-22). Retrieved January 24,
2016, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286779944_Crow
dfunding_Success_A_Perspective_from_Social_Media_and_E-
Commerce
Belleflamme, P., Lambert, T., & Schwienbacher, A. (2014). Crowdfunding:
Tapping the right crowd. Journal of Business Venturing, 29(5), 585-609.
Belleflamme, P., Omrani, N., & Peitz, M. (2015). The economics of crowdfunding
platforms. Information Economics and Policy, 33, 11-28.
Burtch, G., Ghose, A., & Wattal, S. (2013). An Empirical Examination of the
Antecedents and Consequences of Contribution Patterns in Crowd-
Funded Markets. Information Systems Research, 24(3), 499-519.
Cassar, G. (2004). The financing of business start-ups. Journal of Business
Venturing, 19, 261-283.
Cholakova, M., & Clarysse, B. (2015). Does the Possibility to Make Equity
Investments in Crowdfunding Projects Crowd Out Reward-Based
Investments? Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 39(1), 145-172.
Collins, L., & Pierrakis, Y. (2012). The venture crowd: Crowdfunding equity
investment into business. Retrieved February 14, 2016, from http://www.
nesta.org.uk/sites/default/files /the_venture_crowd.pdf
Cordova, A., Dolci, J., & Gianfrate, G. (2015). The determinants of crowdfunding
success: Evidence from technology projects. Procedia – Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 181, 115-124.
Dacin, M., Dacin, P., & Tracey, P. (2011). Social Entrepreneurship: A Critique
and Future Directions. Organization Science, 22(5), 1203-1213.
Stephan V. 185
Thies, F., Wessel, M. & Benlian, A. (2014). Understanding the Dynamic Interplay
of Social Buzz and Contribution Behavior within and between Online
Platforms: Evidence from Crowdfunding. In ICIS (Ed.), Proceedings of
the 35th International Conference on Information Systems (pp. 1-18).
Retrieved March 10, 2016 from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ef94/73
055dd96e5d146c88ae3cc88d06e7adfd07.pdf
Vettin, J., & Todt, D. (2004). Laughter in Conversation: Features of Occurence
and Acoustic Structure. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 28(2), 93-115.
Wu, J., Sun, H., & Tan, Y. (2013). Social Media Research: A Review. Journal of
Systematic Science and System Engineering, 22(3), 257-282.
20 Marketing Aspects in the Game Design Process of
Free-To-Play Mobile Games
Felix Winter31
Abstract: Due to the shift from the Pay-to-Play business model to the Free-to-
Play business model, game publishers are facing new challenges. Free-to-Play
mobile games are free to download, thereby often played by millions of people.
Publishers earn money through the sale of virtual in-game goods and currencies
as part of the well-established Free-to-Play business model. However, only a
select few publishers make a profit using this business model, since only around
2 % of all players actually spend money here.
20.1 Introduction
This paper is based on the challenges which free-to-play mobile game publishers
are facing. According to developers, marketing is the biggest challenge of the free-
to-play business model (Smith, 2016). Visibility is a big problem, since daily over
500 new mobile games are published and developers have to invest a huge amount
of money to get new people to download the game. Those campaigns are cost
intense and publishers must spend several dollars per game install (Deloitte,
2016). Since only 2 % of the players spend money in free-to-play mobile games,
only a few publishers make a profit with free-to-play mobile games (Geet, 2013).
The biggest challenge of free-to-play game developers is marketing (Smith, 2016)
and how they can utilize marketing aspects in order to incentivize the purchase of
virtual goods and currencies and how to tie players to the game. The goal is that
the customer-lifetime-value exceeds the acquisition costs for new players
20.2 Method
On account of the brief research history of Free-to-Play mobile games, a literature
review was carried out in order to determine the marketing aspects studied thus
far. In the empirical part of this master thesis, the two top grossing mobile games
of the four top grossing categories have been examined with respect to the
marketing aspects identified in the literature. Each game was played 10 minutes
per day over a time period of 3 weeks
31
Kufstein University of Applied Sciences/Austria
goods. Hamari and Lehdonvirta (2010) found out, that virtual currency influences
the demand of virtual goods. Publishers are more flexible by using virtual
currencies, since they can offer virtual goods, which are not dividable. Bond
(2013) found out, that publishers also use dynamic pricing where according to
Kannan and Kopalle (2001) the price changes over time. In free-to-play this
happens due the game-design, where the price changes by player level. Pride and
Ferell (2014) focuses on psychological pricing strategies and adds, that because
of psychological pricing strategies, the price occurs more attractive to customers.
Hamari and Lehdonvirta (2010). Luton (2013) adds that special occasions, such
as Black Friday or Thanksgiving, can also drive virtual item sales in virtual worlds
and Hamari and Lehdonvirta (2010) continue that publishers can also invent their
own special occasions based on the fiction of the game. Boutin (2010) found out,
that artificial scarcity is another important aspect, which stimulates virtual item
sales. Kollewe and Keukert (2014) add that this happens due offer limitation, or
limitation
so of the
invent their ownstorage
specialmechanics. Hamari
occasions based on and Lehdonvirta
the fiction (2010)Boutin
of the game. found(2015)
out that
publishers create demand of virtual goods, by planned obsolescence where
found out, that artificial scarcity is another important aspect, which stimulates virtual virtual
goods
item disappear
sales. Koleweover time, or (2014)
and Keukert by usingaddthem. Boutin
that this (2010)
happens dueadds
offerthat this makes
limitation, or
virtual goods
limitation of theeven moremechanics.
storage desirable Hamari
and theandperceived usefulness
Lehdonvirta (2010)increases.
found outMrotz
that
(2013) found
publishers createout that push
demand notifications
of virtual goods, byare the best
planned way to drive
obsolescence wherecustomer
virtual
retention
goods in free-to-play
disappear over time, ormobile games
by using them.and Luton
Boutin (2013)
(2015) addsadds thatmakes
that this push vir-
noti-
tual goods should
fications even moreonlydesirable and if
be sent out, thethey
perceived
have ausefulness increases.
value for the player.Mrotz
Luton(2013)
(2013)
found out that
mentions thatpush
thenotifications
trigger forarepushthe best way to drive
notifications customer
should be retention
based onin player
free-
to-play mobileofgames
motivations and games.
playing Luton (2013)
Ungeraddsand that push(2011)
Novak notifications
found should onlygame
out, that be
sent out, if they have a value for the player. Luton (2013) mentions that
updates drive customer retention and Sunico (2016) adds that updates are also used the trigger for
push notifications
to modify should be
the economy ofbased on player motivations of playing games. Unger and
the game.
Novak (2011) found out, that game updates drive customer retention and Sunico
(2016) adds that updates are also used to modify the economy of the game.
20.6 Findings
The in the literature identified marketing aspects were used to analyze the two top
Findings
crossing
The in themobile games
literature of the marketing
identified four top crossing
aspects categories
were used on
to the Apple
analyze theApp
twoStore.
top
crossing mobile games of the four top crossing categories on the Apple App Store.
Table 13: The four top crossing categories and their top crossing mobile games on the Apple
Table 1: the four
App topincrossing
Store 2015 categories and their top crossing mobile games on the
Apple App (Adapted
Store in 2015 (Appannie,
from Appannie, 2016)
2016, n.p.)
The results indicate that the marketing aspects identified within the literature
also appear in the Free-to-Play mobile games analyzed. They also demonstrate
similarities in the marketing aspects of these games, most notably in terms of
pricing and virtual goods. The developers make use of waiting mechanics,
192 Marketing Aspects in the Game Design Process …
The results indicate that the marketing aspects identified within the literature also
appear in the Free-to-Play mobile games analyzed. They also demonstrate
similarities in the marketing aspects of these games, most notably in terms of
pricing and virtual goods. The developers make use of waiting mechanics, planned
obsolescence and artificial scarcity in order incentivize the purchase of virtual
goods.
Price tiers: $0,99 $1,99 $4,99 $8,99 $9,99 $14,99 $19,99 $20,99 $39,99 $49,99 $74,99 $99,99
Candy
$0,99 $4,99 $9,99 $14,99 $19,99 $20,99 $39,99 $74,99
Crush Saga
Candy
Crush Soda $0,99 $4,99 $8,99 $14,99 $19,99 $20,99 $39,99 $74,99
Saga
Clash of
$4,99 $9,99 $19,99 $49,99 $99,99
Clans
Game of
War - Fire $4,99 $9,99 $19,99 $49,99 $99,99
Age
Racing
$1,99 $4,99 $9,99 $19,99 $49,99 $99,99
Rivals
Real Racing
$1,99 $4,99 $9,99 $19,99 $49,99 $99,99
3
Madden
$4,99 $9,99 $19,99 $49,99 $99,99
NFL Mobile
8 Ball
$1,99 $4,99 $9,99 $19,99 $49,99 $99,99
Pool™
Felix Winter
20.7 Conclusion
University of Applied Sciences Kufstein - Tirol
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