Kathrin Susanne Braunwarth

Value Orientation in Process Management

There is no doubt that at least since the 1990s process orientation has evolved into one of the central paradigms of organizational design. Since then, all process management subtasks have matured. Process management decisions, however, lack economic foundation. They are usually based on qualitative or technical criteria or on plausibility considerations that do not necessarily comply with typical objectives in a market economy. Consequently, design alternatives are hardly comparable and an integrated valuation of a company’s assets is impossible. The status quo is astonishing for several reasons: First, process management decisions usually imply investment projects with different risk/return positions and capital tie-up. Second, the need for designing processes according to their contribution to corporate objectives has been explicated repeatedly. Third, the paradigm of value-based management is an accepted theoretical framework from economic research that enables to consistently valuate the risk/return effects of decisions across functional areas, hierarchy levels, and asset classes. This suggests the hypothesis that process management in general as well as the goal orientation of process management decisions in particular have evolved almost independently of value-based management. In the paper at hand, this hypothesis is confirmed based on a sample of process management publications. We therefore explicate the research gap as regards value orientation in process management. In order to bridge the gap between value-based management and process-oriented organizational design, we transfer economically well-founded objective functions to process management decisions.

The EU Insurance Mediation Directive – Bureaucracy or Opportunity?

The insurance mediation directive of the EU contributes to the recent regulation of financial services markets in order to improve customer protection. Many financial services providers as well as insurance intermediaries fear expensive documentation overhead. In this paper, we argue that the documentation requirements offer a variety of chances. As neither the directive nor national law explicitly specify which customer data has to be collected, we analyse the propositions of respective associations. Moreover, we reason that overall data quality, i.e. completeness, correctness, currency, and consistency of customer data, will probably be influenced in a positive way. With this knowledge in mind, we finally present a set of scenarios from the field of customer relationship management such as advisory process and campaign management that undeniably benefit from a better documentation of customer data.

Studienfinanzierung in Deutschland: Potenziale und Risiken für Finanzdienstleister

ZusammenfassungVor dem Hintergrund aktueller Veränderungen des studentischen Marktes untersucht der vorliegende Beitrag Potenziale und Risiken, die sich für Finanzdienstleister bei der Gestaltung von Studienfinanzierungsprodukten ergeben. Hierbei zeigt eine Marktanalyse, die sowohl das Marktpotenzial und den Finanzbedarf der Studierenden betrachtet als auch die mit dem Markteintritt verbundenen Risiken untersucht, dass eine undifferenzierte Ansprache aller Studierenden hohe Risiken birgt und somit zu unattraktiven (und am Markt nicht wettbewerbsfähigen) Konditionen für Studienfinanzierungsprodukte führen würde. Vielmehr sollten innovative Produkte entwickelt werden, die alternative Wege zur Ansprache und Bindung der potenzialstarken studentischen Zielgruppe erlauben.SummaryBased on current developments in the German academic sector (especially governmental plans to implement tuition fees), this paper examines the opportunities and risks for financial service providers offering student loans. It comprises an extensive analysis of the German market for student loans, both in terms of volume and the specific financial needs of the students. Additionally, the risks which exist for financial service providers when entering the German market for student loan programs are investigated. The paper suggests that global loan programs aimed at all students are unlikely to be competitive. Instead, financial service providers should concentrate on developing innovative products targeted at defined market segments to ensure an early acquisition and retention of the highly attractive market segment of students.