In spite of Microsoft’s quasi monopoly position in the market for operating systems Linux has succeeded to become a serious competitor of Microsoft Windows. From an economic standpoint this fact raises some puzzles. In this paper we focus on the development and production of a complex team...

Software developed and produced in open source projects has become an important competitor in the software industry. Since it can be downloaded for free and no wages are paid to developers, the open source endeavor seems to rest on voluntary contributions by hobbyists. In the discussion of this...

Becoming famous and in the most favorable scenario winning the Nobel Prize is the dream of many young and ambitious economists. Yet, many young re-searchers are talented and only very few of them succeed to become famous in the course of their career. If we take talent for granted questions of...

OSS ist eine besondere Form der Softwareproduktion, die Leistungsbeiträge von oft freiwilligen und unbezahlten Beitragsleistern einbezieht. In der Literatur werden drei Gründe für diese freiwilligen Beitragsleistungen diskutiert, nämlich Spass am Programmieren, ein Gefühl der Verpflichtung...

Das open source entwickelte Betriebssystem Linux setzt den Quasi- Monopolisten Microsoft gefährlich unter Druck. Diese Entwicklung ist aus einer organisationsökonomischen Perspektive deswegen bemerkenswert, weil hinter Linux kein hierarchisches Unternehmen mit zentraler Steuerung und einem...

The advantage of specialisation in venture capital financing makes the presence of generalists perplexing. In order to understand their function, the authors investigate the knowledge resource bases of both generalists and specialists, the types of enterprises they select, and their...

The question why venture capitalists syndicate their deals has been attract-ing growing attention. The paper analyses how the motives of two types of venture capitalists do differ. Focusing on information costs it expects that venture capitalists with the standard basic know-how in founding and...

Venture capitalist are intermediaries with strong advantages in financing risky investments (Leland/Pyle 1977, Chan 1983, Diamond 1984; Bygrave 1988). Being specialized in one industry, venture capitalists can control risk at lower cost compared to other players in the market (e.g. banking houses)...

Obwohl die Bundesliga in dem potentiell attraktivsten europäischen Fussballmarkt operiert, ziehen ihre Klubs in der Champions League vor allem gegen die Konkurrenten aus der Premier League systematisch den Kürzeren. Weil Überinvestition gerade nicht durch eine Auflösung der betroffenen Klubs...

This paper outlines and compares the organizational structure of major sports leagues, explores the reasoning behind their formation, and derives implications for salary caps in European football. To understand why sports leagues have developed a specific organizational structure, one must take...