The implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) poses major challenges for manufacturing SMEs. This article identifies the barriers to the implementation of AI in manufacturing SMEs and compares the primary data from two qualitative studies conducted among Austrian and Argentinian SMEs. Qualitative content analysis is used to highlight differences and similarities. The results show that there are major similarities in both countries with regard to the lack of expertise, data quality issues, resource limitations and organiza¬tional framework conditions. Differences are particularly evident with regard to concerns about data security, acceptance of AI technology and the existing IT infrastructure. From a company perspective, it is apparent that training employees in this area is a major lever for leveraging the potential of AI. This measure can prevent further problems, such as the identification of use cases or a lack of data quality.

The benefits and application potentials of artificial intelligence in controlling are widely known.Contrary to expectations, an in-depth interview study of Austrian industrial companies shows that the use of AI in controlling is only just beginning.In order to make controllers fit in this area, in-depth knowledge channels are required.In addition, several other aspects need to be considered for implementation.This paper presents the results of a qualitative pilot study from Austria on the use of artificial intelligence in the controlling departments of Austrian industrial companies.

Sustainability is not only a moral compass for organizations of all kinds and shapes; increasingly it can be identified as social representation influencing social practices and behavior. Conceptually inspired by the idea of preferences, conventions, and moral convictions influencing individual behavior and an innovative concept of moral harmonization strategies, this paper introduces a theoretical framework for the conceptualization of moralization effects in sustainability communication in general and food choices in particular. The framework is linked to empirical data from an exploratory qualitative pilot study, in which we conducted guideline-based interviews with 25 international students to gather information on individual perceptions of food choices and eating behaviors. Interview data were analyzed using inductive category formation to explore what role sustainability plays on an individual level in terms of coming in as a value or norm and how much sustainability as a normative principle influences individual decision-making processes and behavior. Based on the results of the pilot study, we hypothesize that food is less “morally overloaded” than expected and sustainability is not a moral imperative related to specific eating behavior. In line with previous findings, our results confirmed that food choices and changes in meat consumption involve a multi-faceted and complex decision-making process, which among others may be heavily influenced by inherent social norms within a person's social network, including family, friends as well as important other peers. Thus, with this preliminary study, we critically challenge existing literature on the influence of sustainability as moral imperative guiding and influencing individual behavior, at least in the domain of food and eating behavior. To elaborate on our proposed framework, additional empirical research is needed from a cultural, sustainability, language, and communication perspective.

Der Beitrag berichtet über zentrale Ergebnisse der Evaluation des Programms des Landes Baden-Württemberg zur Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung an Schulen. Der Einsatz eines differenzierten Wirkmodells ermöglichte die Verschränkung einer summativen Evaluationskomponente zur Einschätzung des Programmerfolgs mit den formativen Analysen zur Qualität der Implementierung des Programms und deren Optimierung. Im Prä-post-Vergleich wurden zu drei Messzeitpunkten ca. 2.000 Schüler(innen), 1.700 Eltern und 235 Lehrkräfte befragt sowie Einzelinterviews und Fokusgruppen in einem qualitativ-quantitativen Methodenkonzept eingesetzt. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass in Folge von Präventionsmaßnahmen im Sinne des Wirkmodells eine Verbesserung des Klassenklimas und des Verbundenheitsgefühls der Schüler(innen) mit der Schule mit einer Reduktion von Gewalt einhergeht. Mit Hilfe des Wirkmodelles konnten auch genauere Analysen der Implementierungstreue des Programms durchgeführt sowie in der Praxis gut umsetzbare Optimierungsvorschläge abgeleitet werden. Das Wirkmodell wird bezüglich seines Einsatzes sowohl als Teil der Evaluationsmethodik als auch als Evaluationsprodukt diskutiert, das über seine Ausdifferenzierung im Laufe des Evaluationsprozesses entsteht.

A growing body of research has demonstrated that images of watchful eyes can promote prosocial behavior in a variety of settings. However, studies on the impact of eye cues on prosocial behavior in economic games yield ambiguous findings and thus provide no clear answer to the question whether these nudges have the potential to cause significant behavioral change. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms of watchful eyes remain unclear. We investigate whether cues of being watched positively affect prosocial behavior in the dictator game when a recipient is physically present. In a post-experimental questionnaire, we gathered additional information on attitudes towards trust and voluntary cooperation and on emotional responses to eye images. The weak effect observed in our study suggests that images of human eyes may increase cooperative behavior in the dictator game, providing support for the idea that the ‘watchful eyes effect’ is caused by a concern for avoiding bad reputation. Individual differences in attitudes towards trust and voluntary cooperation did not account for this effect. Furthermore, data from our post-experimental questionnaire provided mixed support for the theory that the watchful eyes effect may ultimately stem from higher levels of negative emotions related to the feeling of being watched caused by the exposure to human eye images. While we found no difference in the positive or negative affect schedule (PANAS) related to eye images and flowers after a long exposure during the experiment, participants in the control group associated lower levels of pleasure and a more dominant feeling (SAM) with the eye images after a short exposure to both stimuli. Referring to a relatively large variability of cooperativeness among participants in the eyes condition, we need to interpret the weak watchful eyes effect cautiously and conclude that eye cues do not make people more cooperative and prosocial across the board.

The article reports central findings from the evaluation of the State of Baden-Wurttem-berg program towards prevention and health promotion in schools. The employment of a theory-based evaluation model enabled the interrelation of the summative assessment of program success with the formative evaluation of implementation quality of the program and its optimization. In order to carry out the pre-post comparison, about 2000 students, 1.700 parents and 235 teachers were surveyed at three measurement time points and also individual interviews as well as focus group interviews were employed in a qualitative-quantitative methodological concept. Findings show, that preventative measures in the sense of the theory-based evaluation model result in an improvement of the classroom atmosphere and of the sense of belonging to school among students, accompanied by a reduction of violence. The theory-based evaluation model allowed for more detailed analyses of the implementation efficiency and for the deduction of suggestions for optimization that could be easily implemented in the field. The theory-based evaluation model is discussed in terms of its use both as part of the evaluation methodology itself and, furthermore, as a product of the evaluation, which emerges and is further differentiated in the process of evaluation.

Stress and negative emotions in teachers can lead to occupational burnout, poor performance in the classroom, and decreased job-satisfaction. Apart from having negative personal and physical effects for the individual teacher, teacher stress and burnout are also thought to have negative effects on the respective students and student achievement. As one potential source of teacher stress, procrastination has been speculated about. However, research on the phenomenology and prevalence of procrastination among teachers, as well as its relevance for their emotional and stress experiences, is very scarce. Further, most of the existing research on teacher procrastination used general self-report scales to obtain results. The present study therefore investigated the phenomenology of teacher procrastination as well as its links with emotional experiences and stress, using a qualitative approach. Twenty-seven male and female teachers from Germany were interviewed personally (Mean age = 35.7, SD = 9.64, Min = 25 years, Max = 67 years). Nine of those teachers reported to never needlessly delay an action concerning their profession or not to perceive their dilatory behavior as negative and stressful. Data from the remaining 16 teachers (Mean age = 35.06, SD = 7.01, Min = 26 years, Max = 48 years) were analyzed on the basis of qualitative content analysis by using deductive as well as inductive category application. Results revealed that these teachers procrastinate on an array of professional tasks, such as administrative and organizational tasks and correcting students' work. The results showed that teachers delayed these tasks for different reasons but mainly due to task aversiveness. Further, teachers reported experiencing mainly negative emotions when procrastinating and perceiving their procrastination behavior as moderately stressful, indicating that procrastination is a potential stressor in the teacher profession. Limitations of the study are discussed and directions for future research are proposed.

This paper investigates how Austrian undergraduate preservice student teachers evaluate (1) the importance of educational research for teachers in general and for themselves in particular and (2) the impact of different aspects of utility value of research evidence on educational practice. In order to achieve this, a theoretical framework proposing five aspects of utility value (Rossi & Freeman, 1993; Visscher & Coe, 2002; Weiss, 1979, 1998) was transferred to the pedagogical context and served as a basis for the development of an interview guideline and of content-analytical rules for qualitative text analysis. To answer the research questions, 30 guideline-based qualitative interviews with Austrian undergraduate preservice student teachers in their second or third year of study were analyzed using various techniques of Qualitative Content Analysis, in particular, inductive category formation and deductive category assignment (Mayring, 2014). Results of the analysis suggest that the interviewed undergraduate preservice student teachers tend to primarily refer to study-orientated topics (e.g. bachelor theses) when evaluating the importance of educational research for teachers and address the conceptual and instrumental value of research evidence for educational practice. The paper concludes with a critical discussion and derives implications for further research projects.

Zusammenfassung. Ziel: Im vorliegenden Paper werden Jugendliche, die wegen riskantem Alkoholkonsum im Krankenhaus behandelt und dort zur Teilnahme an einer psychosozialen Kurzintervention motiviert wurden, nach soziodemographischen Daten und Alkoholkonsum beschrieben sowie mit der Intervention erzielte Ergebnisse dargestellt. Methode: In einer explorativ-deskriptiven Prä-Post-Interventionsstudie wurden von 01. 01. 2010 bis 30. 06. 2012 insgesamt 175 Jugendliche in Kärnten erfasst. Für die Inanspruchnahmepopulation (n = 44) und Jugendliche ohne Teilnahmeeinwilligung wurden soziodemographische Merkmale, Daten zu Anlassfall und zur Akzeptanz der Intervention sowie zu erzielten Lern-Effekten analysiert. Ergebnisse: 131 der 175 Jugendlichen (75 %) lehnten die Teilnahme an der Intervention ab. Besondere psychosoziale Belastungsfaktoren weisen 12 der 44 Jugendlichen auf, die mit der Intervention begonnen haben. 21 KlientInnen haben die Intervention positiv abgeschlossen. Davon haben 15 seit dem Vorfall keinen Alkohol mehr konsumiert und 19 planen einen verantwortungsbewussteren Umgang mit Alkohol. Bis jetzt liegen keine Ergebnisse einer Kontrollgruppe vor. Schlussfolgerungen: Im Einklang mit bisherigen Forschungsergebnissen gehören die KlientInnen mehrheitlich zur Gruppe unerfahrener, das Risiko von Alkohol unterschätzender „Seltentrinker“. Die auch in anderen Studien beobachtete hohe Ablehnungsquote weist auf kaum vorhandenen Leidensdruck bei riskant Alkohol konsumierenden Jugendlichen hin.

Honor systems are a cheap and simple way for marketing low-price goods. These sale systems are dependent on the honesty of customers and can only tolerate a certain share of free-riders. In an experimental field study, we investigate a case where honesty has almost disappeared, namely an honor system for the sale of newspapers on weekends. In the chosen urban study area, only a minority of customers comply with payment norms. In this difficult setting, we tested the use of eye images and descriptive social norms as cues to improving payment morale over a period of 24 weeks. We find that interventions based on eye cues as well as normative appeals do not evoke a transition from low to high levels of honesty. However, our results suggest that such interventions might still have the potential to marginally increase mean payments and therefore be economically profitable for operators of large-scale honor systems.

Numerous research works indicate that the cycle of boom and crisis can be regarded as a natural element in financial market history. On the other hand, there is a rich discussion among practitioners and academics on the origins of the recent global economic and financial crisis, which led the world into the deepest and most severe downturn since the Great Depression in the 1930s. An explanation solely based on the collapse of the U.S. housing bubble and its effects seems far too short-sighted. In addition to economic elucidations and rationalizations, there are also behavioral and socioeconomic explanations, which take into account the powerful social and psychological forces at work in financial markets. This article approaches the discussion from a mass psychological perspective. Starting from the shortcomings of mainstream economic approaches in predicting market trends and their underlying trading behavior realistically, the paper elucidates postulated mechanisms behind mass phenomena and provides a concise review of literature on collective dynamics in financial markets. We then delineate previous research on the distinction between mass phenomena and attempt to transfer this theoretical framework to financial markets. Consequently the final section discusses directions for future research to extend the foundations of the theoretical frame of reference.