The Impact of ETF Investing

December 2021 until November 2022 (completed) FFF-Funding Project

Project Description

The research project at hand sets a focus on the comparison of sustainable ETF investment funds and its real world impact related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While financial performance is critical for investors and asset managers during the investment process and for its management, a variety of additional factors are identified as equally important to achieve in-vestments’ ultimate goals and optimize portfolio performance while having positive societal and environmental effects (GIIN, 2020, p. 5). As most investors are restrained from achieving SDG-related impact by individually designed investment products, ETFs could provide a standardized opportunity at low cost for institutional and individual investors. However, due to the unclear impact measurement standards across the industry, it is quite complicated to differentiate prod-ucts and create adequate benchmarks.
Hence, the main objective of the project is to investigate which criteria define sustainable ETFs and, further, assess the SDG-related impact ETFs currently deliver.

Participating Institutions

Chair in Business Administration, Banking and Financial Management / Project Lead

Project Participants

Prof. em. Dr. Marco J. Menichetti

- Principal Investigator

Professor Emeritus - Liechtenstein Business School

Principal Investigator

Dr. Hendrik Peer Kimmerle

- Project Collaborator

Project Collaborator

The experience, learning and development of owner-managers during their growth phases of their firms with particular reference to human capital management

January 2010 until November 2015 (completed) PhD-Thesis (kooperativ)

Project Description

The objectives of the doctoral thesis are to explore the owner-manager experiences and learning processes that contribute to the management of growth in small firms in the region of the Rhine Valley, with particular respect to HCM. Studies of regional development underpin a link between the development of a region and the available capital of knowledge (OECD 2005). However, there exists a gap how owner-managers of small firms align and multiply their human capital to develop the firm within a specific niche. The applied research methodology in this study is social constructivism to investigate the phenomenon under question. Social constructivism examines the relationship of reality by analysing the interaction between persons and organisations. The expected results will not only support the owner-managers of small firms but also provide valuable insights of the informal learning process at the workplace.

Participating Institutions

Van Riemsdijk Chair in Entrepreneurship / Doctoral instiution

Project Participants

Dr. Stefan Sohler

- PhD-Student

PhD-Student

Prof. em. Dr. Urs Baldegger

- Co-Supervisor

Co-Supervisor

Prof. Ged Watts

- Supervisor

Supervisor

Publications

Sohler, S. A. (2015). Owner-Manager Learnig in small Firms: A Study of technology-based Firms in the Rhine Valley Region. Glocestershire: University of Gloucestershire.
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The EUR/CHF Exchange Rate: Drivers, Forecasting, and Trading Strategies

September 2018 until August 2023 (completed) PhD-Thesis

Project Description

From the perspective of a relatively small and highly export-oriented Swiss economy, the level of exchange rates plays an important role for economic growth. The strong appreciation of the Swiss franc against the euro in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, when it almost reached parity on August 11, 2011, significantly threatened local exporters in Switzerland and Liechtenstein by limiting their competitiveness in relation to Switzerland's main trading partners. As a result, on September 6, 2011, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) introduced a minimum exchange rate of 1.20 Swiss francs per euro with a commitment to purchasing unlimited amounts of euro-denominated assets to maintain this rate, without specifying a time frame for this policy. In addition to foreign currency interventions and piling up substantial amounts of assets in foreign currency, the SNB has also adopted an approach of negative interest rates. The strict exchange rate floor was maintained until January 15, 2015, when the SNB dropped the policy as unexpectedly as it had been introduced in September 2011.

The objective of this paper-based dissertation is to analyze drivers of the EUR/CHF exchange rate using different methods, including Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, and to design trading strategies based on the empirical findings.

Keywords

Artificial Intelligence FX trading EUR/CHF exchange rate Foreign currency interventions

Participating Institutions

Chair in Finance / Doctoral instiution

Project Participants

Prof. Dr. Michael Hanke

- Supervisor

Professor - Finance Dean - Liechtenstein Business School

Supervisor

Dr. rer. oec. Piotr Kamil Kotlarz MSc

- PhD-Student

PhD-Student

Prof. Dr. Dietmar Maringer

- Co-Supervisor

Co-Supervisor

Publications

Kotlarz, P., Hanke, M., & Stöckl, S. (2023). Regime-dependent drivers of the EUR/CHF exchange rate. Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, 159(3), 1-18.
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The Emergence of Industrial Industry of Things Solutions

November 2021 until October 2023 (completed) FFF-Funding Project

Project Description

The rise and permeation of digital technologies, such as internet of things (IoT), cloud storage, and data analytics, offer a wide range of opportunities for organizations across industries. In the manufacturing industry the interconnectivity of machines, processes, and employees with the help of digital technologies, often referred to as industrial IoT (IIoT), offers significant potential for improved logistics and flexible as well as resource-efficient production.

Extant literature on IIoT has predominantly either taken a technological or business perspective. Only recently have information systems researchers started to explore the phenomenon from a sociotechnical perspective. One key assumption about the IIoT is that these increasingly intelligent systems can flexibly adopt to changes in their external environment and be extended to build increasingly complex networks of human and machine agents. We thus see the emergence of a new paradigm of organizing for IT system development replacing traditional notions of IT system development.

However, the processes underlying the development and emergence of IIoT systems have not been explored in considerable depth. IIoT systems are an important type of digital innovation, characterized by high levels of complexity and heterogeneity and build as ensembles of physical and digital components. Against this backdrop, this project aims to explore the phenomenon of IIoT emergence and to investigate the intertwining of technological and organizational change through the emergence of IIoT systems based on an exploratory case study.

keywords: Industrie 4.0, Digitale Innovationen, Technologischer und organisatorischer Wandel, Explorative Fallstudie

Relevance to Liechtenstein

Der industrielle Sektor bildet eine wichtige Säule der Liechtensteiner Wirtschaft. Durch unsere Forschung zur Entstehung komplexer Systeme der Industrie 4.0 können wir zu einem besseren Verständnis der Digitalisierung der industriellen Produktion beitragen. Basierend auf den gewonnenen Erkenntnissen können lokale Unternehmen das Potenzial der Industrie 4.0 für sich nutzen und so einen Wettbewerbsvorteil bewahren. Liechtenstein und die lokalen Unternehmen können somit von der Vermittlung der Forschungsergebnisse zur Entstehung und erfolgreichen Umsetzung komplexer Systeme der Industrie 4.0 profitieren.

Scientific, Economic and Societal Impact

Das Hauptziel unseres Forschungsprojekts ist es, die Entstehung komplexer Systeme der Industrie 4.0 zu beschreiben, dieses Phänomen in der Tiefe zu verstehen und Erklärungen zur Entwicklung und Entstehung dieser Systeme zu liefern. Ausserdem möchten wir mit unserem Projekt einen Beitrag zum Verständnis der Wechselbeziehungen zwischen potenziell konkurrierenden Softwareentwicklungsansätzen leisten, von denen jeder seine eigene Logik hat und die in modernen Organisationen interagieren. Aus praktischer Sicht können Organisationen von einem tiefgreifenden Verständnis dieser Prozesse profitieren, die der Entstehung komplexer Systeme der Industrie 4.0 zugrunde liegen und eine erfolgreiche Implementierung dieser Systeme ermöglichen.

Participating Institutions

Chair of Information Systems and Innovation / Project Lead

Project Participants

Katharina Drechsler MSc

- Project Manager

Project Manager

Prof. Dr. Stefan Seidel

- Project Collaborator

Project Collaborator

Publications

The contributions of mindfulness and/or self-leadership training programs to the meaningful potential development of future or current leaders in organizations and their employability, especially in the context of VUCA, PAID and digitalization

September 2019 (completed) Preproposal PhD-Thesis

Project Description

We increasingly live in a world dominated by VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) and by the digitalization. This leads to challenging situations for the involved stakeholders especially for (future) leaders, illuminate that additional skills and capabilities are needed in order to be successful despite the PAID reality (Pressured, Always-on, Information Overloaded, Distracted). In this context, mindfulness might be able to contribute in a valuable way whose already numerous proven positive effects are promising. There are also some similarities and complements to the topic of self-leadership. All in all it is not only about leadership effectiveness, the range is further, it is about the potential development of individuals in organizations and their employability. This leads to the following research question:
What kind of contributions could a mindfulness and/or self-leadership training program make to the meaningful potential development of current and future leaders in organizations and their employability, especially in the context of VUCA, PAID and digitalization?

Keywords

Leadership Self-leadership Mindfulness Employability VUCA

Project Participants

Prof. Dr. Marco Furtner MBA

- Supervisor

Professor - Entrepreneurship and Leadership Academic Director MSc EIL - Liechtenstein Business School

Supervisor

Mag. Elias Jehle CEMS MIM

- PhD-Student

PhD-Student

Text Mining for Curriculum Design for Multiple Information Systems Disciplines

October 2017 until September 2019 (completed) Erasmus

Project Description

Curriculum design concerns all universities in Europe. Traditionally, it is performed manually by academics with years of experience in the design process. Decisions about what content to include in a curriculum and what competences to teach are often made based on highly subjective impressions of individuals. These decisions are very rarely backed with solid quantitative measures. Furthermore, since curricula are designed by academics there is a high risk towards content that might be primarily of academic interest. Whereas curricula in many social science disciplines change only relatively slowly over time, curricula of technology focused disciplines such as information systems require frequent updates. Therefore, the demands of the market seeking graduates also change quickly. On the one hand the high-speed development of the field of information systems makes curriculum design extremely difficult, since it requires constant attention to the skills and competencies demanded by industry as well as being aware of current technology, tools and methods, but on the other hand, the discipline of data science itself, in particular text mining, offers new opportunities to support the curriculum design process.

There is an abundance of information available such as job ads from industry, curricula from various academic institutions that can only be handled through semi-automatic means due to the immense volume of information. The methodology that we will develop and make available to the public could therefore facilitate curriculum design in other disciplines across Europe as well. We hope that these state-of-the-art techniques employed for curriculum design might be of value for the local industry in Liechtenstein in other contexts.

Relevance to Liechtenstein

Vorsprung in der Lehre bildet die Grundlage fuer Vorsprung in der Industrie. Mit diesem Projekt wird nicht nur sichergestellt, dass die vermittelten Lehrinhalte aktuell sind, sondern es wird auch die Methodik diese zu eroieren verbessert.

Keywords

Text mining Curriculum design

Participating Institutions

Hilti Chair of Business Process Management / Project Lead Universität Münster / Partner National University of Ireland (NUI) / Partner

Project Participants

Dr. rer. oec. Joshua Peter Handali M.Sc.

- Project Collaborator

Project Collaborator

Prof. Dr. Johannes Schneider

- Principal Investigator

Professor - Artificial Intelligence and Data Science

Principal Investigator

Publications

Handali, J. P., Schneider, J., Dennehy, D., Hoffmeister, B., Conboy, K., & Becker, J. (2020). Industry demand for analytics: A longitudinal study. Paper presented at the 28th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), An Online AIS Conference.
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Testing International Asset Allocation

September 2007 until March 2008 (completed) KTT

Project Description

This empirical project summarizes our research effort on international stock portfolio diversification in asset management.
In practice we notice that investment advisors offer their clients internationally diversified portfolios with only minor attention for different reference currencies. Main object of this project: How would have been the structure for an internationally diversified stock portfolio for a European investor? As a result we can conclude in that exchange rate changes show a big influence on optimal portfolio structure for European investors.
In reality this is often neglected by many international asset advisors, who very often offer one internationally structured portfolio to investors from different currency regions.

Participating Institutions

Chair in Business Administration, Banking and Financial Management / Project Lead

Project Participants

Prof. em. Dr. Marco J. Menichetti

- Principal Investigator

Professor Emeritus - Liechtenstein Business School

Principal Investigator

Dr. Marcel Vaschauner MBA

- Project Collaborator

Project Collaborator

Technology Affordances for Creative Work

since January 2012 SNF Project

Project Description

...

Project Participants

Prof. Dr. Stefan Seidel

- Principal Investigator

Principal Investigator

Taxes and Corporate Risk Taking

September 2016 until August 2018 (completed) FFF-Funding Project

Project Description

In every investment decision the investor must weigh the advantage of a greater return against the disadvantage of a possible loss or risk. Previous findings from Domar and Musgrave (1944) show that a proportional tax with full loss offset increases risk taking. If taxation lowers the yield and the risk of every asset in the same proportion, the market risk-yield rate is unchanged and results in increased demand by investors for higher yielding and more risky assets.

The aim of this research project is to explore the impact of an allowance for corporate equity (ACE) on corporate risk taking. Although the advantages of an ACE are widely discussed in economic literature, relatively little attention has been paid to the interplay of ACE systems and corporate risk-taking.

Corporate risk-taking is fundamental to firm performance and survival. In this research project, we examine whether and how the combination of various tax systems, tax rates and loss-carry forward rules influences corporate risk-taking.

Relevance to Liechtenstein

As the research proposal aims on the economic impact of an ACE - which is a cornerstone of the Liechtenstein tax system - the research project provides knowledge for socially and economically relevant challenges through research achievements. The research project will be carried out in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Participating Institutions

Forschungsförderungsfonds der Universität Liechtenstein / Sponsor Chair for Tax Management and the Laws of Liechtenstein and International Taxation / Project Lead Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économiques (OECD) / Partner Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économiques (OECD) / Partner

Project Participants

Dr. Tanja Kirn

- Project Manager

Head - Center for Economics Assistant Professor - Liechtenstein Business School

Project Manager

Publications

Tax Transparency and Tax Aggressiveness

since February 2020 PhD-Thesis

Project Description

The cumulative dissertation will encompass three papers which analyses different aspects of tax transparency and tax aggressiveness. The first two papers are focusing on determinants and effects of corporate tax disclosure: In the first paper, incentives and disincentives of voluntary corporate tax disclosures are analyzed. The second research project scrutinizes the effects of tax-related disclosure on firms and their stakeholders, such as shareholders. The third paper shifts the focus to corporate tax aggressiveness. Thereby, the proposal by the OECD to reform the international corporate tax system through the implementation of a global minimum tax is analyzed as well.
The dissertation project intends to contribute to the ongoing debate on whether regulators should mandate more extensive tax transparency and anti-abuse provisions.