Webster University Vienna

About: Webster University Vienna is a education organization based out in Vienna, Austria. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Monetary policy & Cognition. The organization has 60 authors who have published 168 publications receiving 3182 citations.

Franchising in the Balkans: History, Status and Challenges

Abstract: Since the Balkans have not been covered with regards to franchising in any comprehensive fashion in the past, this study represents a first look at the topic in this part of the world and c...

The integration of emotional and symbolic components in multimodal communication.

Abstract: Human multimodal communication can be said to serve two main purposes: information transfer and social influence. In this paper, I argue that different components of multimodal signals play different roles in the processes of information transfer and social influence. Although the symbolic components of communication (e.g. verbal and denotative signals) are well suited to transfer conceptual information, emotional components (e.g. nonverbal signals that are difficult to manipulate voluntarily) likely take a function that is closer to social influence. I suggest that emotion should be considered a property of communicative signals, rather than an entity that is transferred as content by nonverbal signals. In this view, the effect of emotional processes on communication serve to change the quality of social signals to make them more efficient at producing responses in perceivers, whereas symbolic components increase the signals’ efficiency at interacting with the cognitive processes dedicated to the assessment of relevance. The interaction between symbolic and emotional components will be discussed in relation to the need for perceivers to evaluate the reliability of multimodal signals.

The Politics of Energy Security

Abstract: Energy security has long been a main driver of energy policies, but its meaning has been contested by policy makers and scholars. The concept incorporates both material and intersubjective aspects, finding different expressions in different contexts and attracting the interest of diverse social actors and academic communities. This chapter identifies, compares, and contrasts five major approaches for analyzing energy security rooted in different scholarly traditions. It argues that in order to facilitate a dialogue among these approaches as well as policy comparison and learning, it is useful to conceptualize energy security as “low vulnerability of vital energy systems.” This definition opens avenues for productive research, unpacking the interplay between material and intersubjective aspects of “vulnerability” and “vitality” of energy systems. Future research should investigate the role of material factors alongside power, values, and trust in defining energy security; explain the gap between energy securitization and action; and explore the interaction between energy security and other energy policy goals.

Pleasure, Pain, and Procrastination: Reflections on the Experience of Doing Memory-Work Research

Abstract: The focus of this article is the process of doing memory-work research. We tell the story of our experience of what it was like to use this approach. We were enthused to work collectively on a "discovery" project to explore a method with which we were unfamiliar. We hoped to build working relationships based on mutual respect and the desire to focus on methodology and its place in our psychological understanding. The empirical activities highlighted methodological and experiential challenges, which tested our adherence to the social constructionist premise of Haug's original description of memory work. Combined with practical difficulties of living across Europe, writing and analyzing the memories became contentious. We found ourselves having to address a number of tensions emanating from the work and our approach to it. We discuss some of these tensions alongside examples that illustrate the research process and the ways we negotiated the collective nature of the memory-work approach.

The Credit-Anstalt Crisis of 1931

Abstract: Austria played a prominent role in the worldwide events of 1931 as the largest bank in Central and Eastern Europe, the Viennese Credit-Anstalt, collapsed and led Europe into a financial panic that spread to other parts of the world. The events in Austria were pivotal to the economic developments of the 1930s, yet the literature about them has been sparse. In this book, Schubert analyses the crisis using theories of financial crises, identifies the causes of the crisis, examines the market's efficiency in predicting events, analyses how the crisis was transmitted to the real sector, and studies the behaviour of the Austrian as well as international authorities as lenders of last resort. His main conclusion is that even decades after the crisis, many of its lessons are still valid. Managerial and regulatory deficiencies led to the collapse of the bank; the subsequent currency crisis was not an irrational and unexplainable panic by a confused public, but rather a rational response to inconsistencies in policy; and the reactions of the largely unprepared authorities - in Austria as well as abroad - did not help to resolve the crisis quickly.