Customers who pay for their purchases by card are less likely to remember the precise amount paid

The transparency of spending money depends on the mode of payment used: cash, single-function cards that offer only a payment function, or multifunctional cards which may also include bonus programmes, user identification or other functions. A recent study has shown that the recall accuracy associated with the act of paying is lower for both card formats than it is for cash transactions.

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Financial compensation: Handwritten messages & banknotes are better received

Money is money: so why should we care how it is given? A new study on complaint handling, recently published in the renowned Journal of Service Research, delivers fresh insights: People who complain react differently, depending on how the financial compensation is presented.

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Volunteering efforts encouraged by the company boost employees’ organisational commitment

Employees who volunteer are not only a boon for the image of the company: In cases where an organisation supports volunteering, it profits through increased organisational commitment. These are the key findings of a new study recently presented in the journal “Applied Psychology”.

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More (open) facts for everyone: Publication of the new open access journal “Journal of Mechanism and Institution Design”

Research conducted at state universities is mostly financed with public money: As such, knowledge is a public good and should therefore also be publically accessible. Tradition dictates that research results are published in scientific journals, which are of vital importance for the career paths of researchers. However, even today, these journals are usually published by large publishing houses, whose respective business models prescribe the raising of revenues from public libraries and academic institutions. This is the case even though almost all of the articles that come to be published are penned by researchers who are largely publically funded. What is more, to a significant extent, the selection and peer review process applied to the articles is also conducted by researchers who receive publically funded salaries. In most instances, the performance of these duties – generally considered to be part of the scope of reputable academic activities – goes unpaid. Meanwhile, over the past few years, the trend towards “open access” has steadily gained pace: Conventional journal contributions are either “bought out” from authors’ contracts and published in a publically accessible manner (green road), or articles appear in journals established specifically for this purpose, which are committed to the provision of open access (gold road). The first batch of open access journals following the “gold road” is now beginning to emerge in the economic sciences, among them the recently initiated “Journal of Mechanism and Institution Design”.

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