Much attention has been devoted to the “first offer” in negotiation research. Rightly so, as strong empirical evidence shows that the first offer has a significant impact on the negotiated outcome and, therefore, is a highly relevant topic for negotiation scholars and practitioners. Scholars typically recommend making the first offer. However, in the field, we have observed an alternative opening tactic—asking for the best price that the counterpart is willing to accept. This question represents a real alternative to making the first offer by initiating the discussion of specific settlement proposals, provided the counterpart answers the query. Does it, however, lead the other side to make a better offer? How does the question impact the economic and relational outcomes of the negotiation? Is it advisable to use this tactic in negotiations? We investigated these questions based on a controlled laboratory experiment, in which 227 dyads of cellphone buyers and sellers negotiated synchronously via a text chat. We found that the best-price question has an impact on not only the first offer but also the negotiation outcome. When the buyers in our experiment asked the question, the results were not significantly different than those from negotiations in which they made the first offer. This effect was driven by the first offer in response to the question. Additionally, we found that the best-price question did not negatively impact the relational outcome. Moreover, the effect was reduced when list price information was available. These findings suggest rethinking the traditional view of the offer-counteroffer sequence and provide an alternative opening tactic to making the first offer in the context of high information asymmetry.

Despite being an alarming and widespread environmental issue, plastic pollution is still lacking an adequate response from the international community. The interconnection between (upstream) human activities and (downstream) environmental consequences has recently been recognized as a crucial element to consider for the prevention and minimization of plastic pollution. Production, consumption, and waste management have only recently begun to come into focus. Moreover, plastic pollution has long been framed as a marine issue. Over the last years, the role played by other ecosystems, such as freshwater ones, was widely underestimated. In this paper, we propose to analyze and discuss the relevant international legal framework from the perspective of the plastic life cycle. For each one of its stages – production and manufacturing, consumption, waste management and plastic pollution, we highlight opportunities and challenges offered by existing legal instruments. Then, in line with the efforts of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), we identify key aspects that could be covered by the upcoming ‘plastic treaty’. With a view to strengthening global plastics governance, we argue that the amendment of the legal instruments already in force will be as crucial as the adoption of a new international binding agreement.

This paper aims to systematically analyze and synthesize the existing research published on mental accounting and purchase decision processes by conducting a systematic literature review. Specifically, the paper aims to answer the question: "What are the effects of mental accounting on purchase decision processes?" Therefore, it identified 110 papers which contribute to achieving the research objective and which were selected using the same data collection, data analysis, and quality standards. After reviewing the identified publications, the paper finds that the existing literature can be structured along four main themes impacting purchase decision-making processes: (1) source of funds, (2) intended use of funds, (3) pricing, and (4) payments. The paper shows that for each of the four themes there are multiple mental accounting effects with an impact on for example willingness to pay, the experienced pain of paying or the ultimate purchase decision. Further, the paper identifies potential directions for future research in mental accounting, including the influence of product categories on mental accounting, flexibility in budget setting and its impact on mental accounting behavior, long-term effects of mental budgeting on financial wealth, integration-segregation behavior in the context of pricing, the role of consumer characteristics on mental accounting behavior, and the impact of increased financial transparency through technology on mental accounting.

Despite considerable interest from academics and management professionals in creating sustainable, competitive advantages through business model innovation (BMI), and highly-prominent BMI success stories, the contemporary understanding of how company-internal antecedents can enable systematic BMI remains limited. However, this specific knowledge is necessary if companies are to repeatedly exploit BMI's strategic and financial benefits. Therefore, this paper aims to reveal the internal antecedents by applying an in-depth qualitative research approach to the systematic BMI of all five German automotive manufacturers. The results show that systematic BMI is enabled through: 1) unified orientation; 2) dynamic orchestration; 3) flexible operations; 4) adjacent fields, which are underpinned by 16 distinct second-order themes. These findings significantly enhance the theoretical and managerial understanding of the enabling factors for BMI, and contribute unique empirical insights to the ongoing academic debate - particularly from the perspectives of dynamic capabilities and strategic agility.

The scale of freight forwarding to the hinterland becomes an issue from the perspective of both – transport policy and cost efficiency of service providers. This problem is sharply visible in areas where ports, depots, inland intermodal terminals, exporters and importers are located, and full and empty containers satisfying demand and supply are frequently distributed creating a lot of traffic. Therefore solutions meeting the challenges of sustainable transport, responding to climate change and regulation of CO2 emissions are in need. In this paper, a variant of a Mixed Fleet Heterogeneous Dial-a-Ride Problem is proposed for optimal routing of trucks carrying full and empty 20-foot and 40-foot containers, with multiple pick-ups and deliveries. Transportation is performed by alternatively fueled vehicles (AFVs) for environmental reasons which causes a constraint of a limited driving range and a need of refueling. The main objective is minimising the total distance subject to matching the empty container demand and supply, necessary refueling of the trucks, and service time windows.

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is a frequent operation in Germany and in 2017 a total of 191,272 interventions were carried out. These interventions are associated with high costs and involve complex clinical workflow organization and time-consuming instrument logistics. With this in mind, the aim of this study was to identify the economic potential of the instrument configuration in order to optimize the entire process in TKA. Changing the composition of the set of instruments used in the operating theater for TKA resulted in time and cost saving for the complete TKA procedure, including all personnel and off-shoot procedures. In addition, the operating time saved by the introduction of a patient-specific instrumentation set meant that the operating theater could be used for more or other surgical procedures, also generating additional revenue.

Research shows that many firms still make business critical decisions intuitively, despite clear evidence that analytics-based decision-making is likely more effective in creating corporate and social value. With the aim of providing actionable guidance to firms on how to accomplish the shift to analytics-based decision-making, this paper sheds light on the management factors that prove critical in this context. An in-depth single-site case study was conducted with a large publicly listed German manufacturing company. Building on 22 semi-structured interviews, this empirical study identifies six factors that play a critical role in establishing analytics-based decision-making: management behaviour, top management and strategy, analytics infrastructure, organisation and governance, HR management and development, and culture. This study forms the basis for further scientific research on the role of firm management in the transitional phase. Furthermore, it provides firm leaders with a systemised and practical framework to structure firm efforts to establish data-based decision making.

Business-to-consumer e-marketplaces are an important and fast-growing distribution channel. Nevertheless, there is a lack of literature that attempts to describe and classify business-to-consumer e-marketplaces and to analyze their role in the distribution channel. This article seeks to address this deficiency and to add clarity to our understanding of these two-sided platforms. A new innovative marketing functions concept is developed: the PILT framework. It consists of four main functions—product, information, logistics, and transaction—and ten subfunctions. Applying this framework reveals that business-to-consumer e-marketplaces are infomediaries, completely fulfilling only information functions. All other functions must be managed by the sellers themselves or outsourced to other intermediaries such as logistics companies or banks. A case study of Amazon and Walmart Marketplace is presented to further illustrate the PILT framework. It reveals that Amazon Marketplace fulfills more marketing functions than Walmart Marketplace, which may be an important success factor for B2C e-marketplaces.

The sharing economy is attracting increasing research attention. However, scholarly knowledge lacks understanding about the individuals who are the key players in this emerging phenomenon. This study uses an explorative approach to investigate the individual-level characteristics of sharing economy users and providers. We analyze a sample of 1170 respondents and reveal that socio-demographics (gender, age, and education), personality traits (Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Conscientiousness), and attitudes (interdependent self, materialism, sharing economy support, and perceived public value contributions) are significantly associated with people's activities in the sharing economy. Our results shed new lights into the academic debate about individual drivers of the sharing economy.

The diversity of top management teams is a topic of increasing scholarly and practical interest. lt is argued that globalisation requires international operating firms to staff their management teams with international and diverse members. We investigate the influence of institutional environments on gender and internationality diversity in boards to shed light on the question "Why do top management teams look the way they do?" Our sample includes top management team members of the largest stock listed firms in Ge1many and Poland. The sample consists of 60 firms and 852 individuals from 2019. Our findings suggest that the presence of non-natives and women on corporate boards and the international orientation of board members, in terms of education, work experience and directorships, are attributable to national institutional systems. While Germany · s top managers are becoming increasingly internationally diverse and have increasing gender diversification, the figures for Poland are also increasing, but on a much smaller scale. We argue that country-level institutions play an important role in shaping the diversity of corporate boards. Future research should place more emphasis on the external national environment when investigating board diversity.