Publikationen

Joint production is a term with a long history in economics, encompassing a variety of ubiquitous production types that usually generate both main products as well as desirable and undesirable byproducts. However, studies in economic history show that important phenomena subsumed under this term were largely ignored by the theories of general economics and of business economics in the twentieth century. Our systematic, narrative literature review based on the Web of Science analyses the extent to which this and other terms corresponding to such phenomena have been taken up by researchers since then. Whereas the number of papers on undesirable outputs has soared, especially in the past decade, the economic literature regarding joint production and harmless byproducts is much smaller and hardly growing. This is in stark contrast to their relevance in practice, recorded in the non-economic literature. Harmful byproducts result from coupled production, as a rule. However, this important manifestation of joint production is usually not distinguished from other specific types. In German-language literature, coupled production is defined as a kind of (truly) joint production in which an intended product cannot be manufactured without an additional type of output under consideration. Our review reveals a lack of clarity, precision, and consistency in the use of established terms and concepts in English-language literature, that may lead to insufficient external validity of widely accepted models. Moreover, one gets the impression that academic disciplines concerned with business or general economics focus too much on problems that are currently of economic interest, while neglecting other issues that may be marginal today but are likely to be of critical importance in the near future.

Accounting, life cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) are examples of various research areas that independently develop and apply diverse methodologies to evaluate performance. Though, many methods have in common that the results to be assessed are mainly determined by the inputs and outputs of the activities which are to be evaluated. Based on both production and decision theory, our comprehensive framework integrates and systematically distinguishes specific types of production-based performance assessment. It allows to examine and categorise the existing literature on such approaches. Our review focuses on sources which explicitly apply concepts or methods of multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA). We did not find any elaborated methodology that fully integrates MCDA with production theory. At least, a basic approach to multicriteria performance analysis, which generalises the methodology of data envelopment analysis, appears to be well-grounded on production theory. It was already presented in this journal in 2001 and has rarely been noticed in the literature until now. A short overview outlines its recent insights and main findings. A key finding is that a category mistake prevails among well-known methodologies of efficiency measurement like DEA. It may imply invalid empirical results because the inputs and outputs of production processes are confused with resulting impacts destroying or creating values (to be minimised or maximised, respectively). We conclude by defining open problems and by indicating prospective research directions.

In der aktuellen Diskussion um Alternativen zum privaten Fahrzeugbesitz spielen nachhaltige Mobilitätskonzepte wie Car- und Bikesharing-Systeme eine zentrale Rolle. Ihre Akzeptanz wird maßgeblich durch eine adäquate raum-zeitliche Verfügbarkeit der Fahrzeuge bestimmt. Daher stellt aus Anbietersicht die Fahrzeugverfügbarkeit das zentrale Planungsproblem dar. In der sozialwissenschaftlichen Forschung wird dies vor allem durch Erklärungs-und Entscheidungsmodelle zur Lösung von Managementaufgaben erfasst. Die Modelle fokussieren zumeist praxisnahe Teilaspekte der Fahrzeugverfügbarkeit, ohne das Planungsproblem in seiner Gesamtheit theoretisch zu untermauern. Daher wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit ein generisches Rahmenmodell entwickelt, durch das ö-Systeme umfassend produktionstheoretisch fundiert und mittels der allgemeinen Systemtheorie strukturiert beschrieben werden können.

Gebührensteigerungen und vor allem -differenzen bei der kommunalen Hausmüllentsorgung stehen seit mehreren Jahren im Fokus des öffentlichen Interesses. Die Bürger können die immensen Gebührenunterschiede bei gleichen Entsorgungsleistungen nicht nachvollziehen. Die Kommunen führen die Unterschiede zumeist auf verschiedene Rahmenbedingungen zurück und stehen Gebührenvergleichen kritisch gegenüber - nicht zuletzt, da ihnen häufig Ineffizienzen in der Leistungserbringung unterstellt werden. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird zum einen eine ganzheitliche Systematik der vielschichtigen Einflussfaktoren bzw. -strukturen auf die Hausmüllgebührenhöhe entwickelt. Zum anderen wird auf Basis einer deutschlandweiten Datenerhebung eine umfangreiche empirische Untersuchung durchgeführt.