MTEC News Archive

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentary. A study by KOF Swiss Economic Institute has shown that a person with a recognisable migrant background from the Balkans, Africa or Asia has a 20% lower chance of being invited to an inter-view than a non-migrant applicant, even if they have exactly the same qualifications in terms of degrees, language skills and work experience.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentary. The widespread use of a particular cultivation method does not necessarily indicate success in terms of all ecosystem services, says Robert Finger, Professor of Agricultural Economics and Policy. Instead, food production, climate protection and biodiversity should be measured more clearly, and form the focus of our public policies.

Economists tend to prefer taxing investment income more heavily than earned income. This is a key finding of a recent expert survey by KOF Swiss Economic Institute and the NZZ.

Dr Isabel Martinez from KOF Swiss Economic Institute says that the top 0.01 percent of Swiss population holds about 10 percent of its wealth – twice as much as in the nineties.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentary. Workload adjustments are necessary with a four-day week, says Gudela Grote, Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology. Otherwise, employees would work to the same extent for less money. In other news, Dr Isabel Martinez from KOF says, that wealth is less equally distributed in Switzerland than in other countries.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentary. The Swiss economy proves to be resilient in crises, says Ursula Renold, Professor of Education Systems. Meanwhile, Professor Michael Ambühl and Dr Daniela Scherer from the Chair of Negotiation and Conflict Management propose a novel three-stage plan for new negotiations with the EU.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentary. The price of electricity is composed of various factors, including the cost for the right to emit CO2. Massimo Filippini, Professor of Energy and Public Economics explains how CO2 certificate markets reflect the 'polluter pays' principle and why electricity prices are increasing.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentary. Switzerland still lacks international guests. Starting from zero, every additional person has a high impact on growth, says Jan-Egbert Sturm, Director of the KOF Swiss Economic Institute. However, a sudden return of visitors from Asia and America is not expected – also in 2022.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentary. The unemployment rate in the hospitality industry is 7%. At the same time, many restaurants complain that they can hardly find enough staff. Daniel Kopp, labour specialist at the KOF Swiss Economic Institute, says this is because the labour market needs time to adjust to the rise in demand after the sudden easing of lockdown measures.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentary. 65 percent of respondents in the transport, logistics and security sectors think it will be very difficult for apprenticeship graduates to find jobs, says Ursula Renold, Professor of Education Systems. Apprenticeship graduates from the hotel and catering industries, which are currently looking for skilled workers, have better chances.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentary. If women want to work 90 instead of 100 percent, their chance to be hired decreases by 2 percent. For men, this decrease is 17 percent. Daniel Kopp from KOF Swiss Economic Institute attributes this divergence to gender stereotypes still prevailing in companies.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentary. A survey by the Chair of Education Systems and the apprenticeship platform Yousty shows that every second position in food production and construction was unfilled in May. In other news, Dr Isabel Martinez of KOF Swiss Economic Institute advocates for raising the retirement age for women to 65 along with equal pay.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentary. Strict climate policies slow down economic growth and income development – but only moderately, says Lucas Bretschger. Reaching climate goals therefore not necessarily reduces income and is less expensive than often assumed. In other news, Jan-Egbert Sturm sees Switzerland in a good financial position.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentary. After terminat-ing negotiations with the EU on the Framework Agreement, Switzerland has two options, says Dr Daniela Scherrer of D-MTEC’s Chair of Negotiation and Conflict Management. One is to mitigate consequences and possible sanctions enacted by the EU or second, to make an effort and take a stance as partner in solidarity with the EU.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentary. The Swiss can go on holiday in Switzerland again relatively quickly, says Jan-Egbert Sturm, Head of KOF Swiss Economic Institute. Europeans are not so far away either, but it will take a while until the distant markets such as China return to Swiss tourism.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentary. Continual learning has long been a part of computer science. Stefan Feuerriegel, Professor of Management Information Systems, sees potential to create advanced AI-based medical devices which continuously update on the basis of new data. This allows performance improvement, through personalisation and removal of errors.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentary. “It is not yet time to reduce debts and start saving,” says Jan-Egbert Sturm, Director of the KOF Swiss Economic Institute. “We have just been putting out a fire, so to speak, and while we are still extinguishing it, we don’t need to think about whether to turn down the water. At the moment, we still have to extinguish the fire.”

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Extreme weather poses increasing challenges to the agricultural sector. New insurance models based on satellite data may reduce the risk of drought for farmers, says Robert Finger, Professor of Agricultural Economics and Policy. Authorities could facilitate such models by giving all those involved better access to data sources.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Part-time jobs in construction are rare, although the family-friendly working model could tackle the shortage of skilled workers. According to Daniel Kopp of the KOF Swiss Economic Institute it depends on the will of companies to invest in processes and structures that make part-time work possible.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs underestimates the level of unemployment as young people often do not register at the employment office, says Michael Siegenthaler of the KOF Swiss Economic Institute. Since they are affected by the COVID-19 crisis more than others, it would be especially important to know the exact figures.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Swiss firms expect to hold final apprenticeship examinations in a regular fashion, finds a survey of the LehrstellenPuls project, co-managed by the Chair of Education Systems. The companies are worried about equal opportunities, since some apprentices need more time and help to catch up on what they have missed because of COVID-19.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Creativity in companies can suffer as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Brainstorming via Zoom doesn’t work as well as when people sit together. This means that a clear distinction must be made between meetings dealing with strategic and operational issues, says Georg von Krogh, Professor of Strategic Management and Innovation.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, business and the economy. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. You only learn and you only innovate if you expose yourself to uncertainty. Otherwise, everything remains routine, and you keep on doing what you’ve always done. So say Professor Gudela Grote and Senior Researcher Nadine Bienefeld of the Chair of Work and Organizational Psychology.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. In a collabo-ration across several universities and D-MTEC chairs, researchers investigated how effective digital coaching influences one’s character. They developed an app which provided 1500 study participants with suggestions to adopt certain behaviours, and over time shape their character traits.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Newly awarded Marie Curie Fellow Katharina Fellnhofer researches how intuition influences the success of entrepreneurial decision-making. Lucas Bretschger, Professor of Resource Economics, has drawn up fairness criteria for sharing CO2 emissions responsibility to keep the net-zero emission target within reach.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Corona continues to take its toll on the economy. Temporary workers and interns are often the ones who suffer in crises, says Michael Siegenthaler, specialist for labour markets at KOF Swiss Economic Institute. Ursula Renold, Professor of Education Systems, urges to take care of those who have just completed their apprenticeship.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Elgar Fleisch, Professor at the Chair of Information Management is one of the authors of a new book called "Die Digitale Pille" (The Digital Pill). He calls for faster networking of health data for which obligatory standards among all participants in the health system are decisive.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Corona is likely to reinforce existing inequalities in income, wealth, education and also with regard to gender, says Isabel Martinez of KOF Swiss Economic Institute. KOF also has lowered its forecast for GDP growth in 2021 from 3.2 to 2.1 percent.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Isabel Martinez of KOF, proposes investments whose overall contribution to future economic growth is higher than the interest they generate. Ursula Renold, Professor of Education Systems, states that weaker learners find it even more difficult to react flexibly and quickly when working from home.

The D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Researchers at the KOF Swiss Economic Institute have leveraged big data from recruitment platforms and machine learning to study hiring discrimination. They show that a foreign origin negatively impacts the chance of jobseekers to be contacted on job platforms.

The D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Self-control is decisive for how well you can work form home, says Petra Schmid, Professor of Organizational Behavior. To this end you need to find out what is good for you and adjust your working environment accordingly.

The D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Joel Persson, Jurriaan F. Parie and Stefan Feuerriegel from the Chair of Management and Information Systems find that the mid-March school closures in Switzerland reduced mobility by over 20% and consequently curbed coronavirus transmission.  

The D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Gudela Grote, Professor at the Chair of Work and Organisational Psychology, observes a vicious circle in social professions. As recognition and compensation is too low, people working in the social sector are encouraged to look for other jobs. If this happens, the burden on those who stay will be even greater.

The D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Logistics are pivotal for the efficacy of aid programmes. Bublu Thakur-Weigold, a researcher at the Chair of Logistics Management, examines the supply chains for medical products of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Based on a ten-year dataset the analysis aims at improving ICRC’s delivery of medical relief supplies.

The D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. 9% of Swiss apprentices did not receive any training at all in their companies during the shutdown, reports Ursula Renold, Professor of Education Systems. She urges the newly created Vocational Training Taskforce to think about how to support apprentices over the next six months.

The D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Lehrstellen-Puls, an apprenticeship platform co-developed by D-MTEC’s Chair of Education Systems, tracks an increase of 13 percent of applications for apprenticeship in Switzerland compared to last year. Especially the apprenticeships in the commercial sector are popular among the young applicants.

The D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Gudela Grote, Professor of the Chair of Work and Organizational Psychology, states that good relations between employers and staff allow for more flexible working in Switzerland than elsewhere, but there is room to improve.

The D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Yngve Abrahamsen, a researcher at the KOF Swiss Economic Institute, notes increased savings among Swiss people of up to 19% in total volume caused by a lack of spending opportunities. At the same time, his colleagues Heiner Mikosch and Florian Eckert report a rise in Swiss bankruptcies.

D-​MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-​MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Switzerland is well-suited to green its economy, however, production at scale remains a bottleneck, says Massimo Filippini. He is Professor of Energy and Public Economics and encourages the formation of green companies forming consortia to foster transformation towards both a greener economy and society.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. This week Gudela Grote, Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology, discusses the informal exchanges missing in the home office. Florian Hälg of KOF expects 30% fewer overnight stays during the coming winter season. Jan-Egbert Sturm, KOF Director, emphasises the necessity of restrictions affecting the food service industry.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. A study by J. Kerr, M. Nägelin and R. Weibel, doctoral students at the Chair of Technology Marketing, shows that interruptions to work lead to psychobiological stress. KOF Director Jan-Egbert Sturm questions the value of using pre-COVID-19 performance data to evaluate the eligibility of struggling companies for future state support.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. KOF Director Jan-Egbert Sturm warns that, while companies may wish COVID-19 restrictions to remain as relaxed as possible, this simply will not work.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Robert Finger, Professor of Agricultural Economics and Policy, proposes a holistic pesticide policy, that encompasses the various actors along the food value chain. Gudela Grote, Professor of Work and Organisational Psychology, shows with the Swiss HR Barometer that job satisfaction decreases with digitisation.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Researchers at the KOF Swiss Economic Institute detect a 7% unexplained gender wage gap among ETH alumni, this could, but does not have to be, a sign of gender pay discrimination. Hans Gersbach, Professor of Macroeconomics, proposes that the SNB should be more transparent by publishing minutes of management meetings.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Michael Ambühl, Professor of Negotiation and Conflict Management, discusses the similarities in the EU-relations of Switzerland and the UK. According to Heiner Mikosch, Head of Section International Forecasts at KOF, the high number of newly founded companies can be explained by a catch-up effect caused by the lockdown.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Ursula Renold, Professor of Education Systems, sees career starters losing out due to COVID-19; Hans Gersbach, Professor of Macroeconomics: Innovation and Policy, proposes the eFranc as a digital currency for Switzerland.

D-MTEC experts engage with issues that affect society, the economy and business. The D-MTEC Media Update provides links to recent articles, interviews and commentaries. Didier Sornette, Professor for Entrepreneurial Risks, advocates for a critical analysis of Swiss lockdown measures; Michael Siegenthaler, labour-market specialist at KOF, finds discouragement among potential job-seekers; KOF Director Jan-Egbert Sturm raises the idea of a tax on companies that have done well during the crisis.

D-MTEC experts address issues of society, economy, and business. The D-MTEC Media Update lists their recent articles, interviews, and commentaries. Petra Schmid, Professor for Organisational Behaviour, reproves the use of sociocracy as an instrument to lay off people. Michael Siegenthaler, Labour market specialist at KOF, talks about the worst labour market crisis in Switzerland since the 1970s.

D-MTEC experts address issues of society, economy, and business. The D-MTEC Media Update lists their recent articles, interviews, and commentaries. Andreas Beerli, KOF postdoctoral researcher, criticizes the SVP financed study on the free movement of persons (Personenfreizügigkeit). A pure time series comparison, as shown in the study, has no significance according to Beerli.

The luxury industry is not traditionally in the scope of supply chain management (SCM) research. In his Master’s thesis MSc MTEC graduate Alexander Lagrèze shed light on a field where conventional SCM strategies tend to fail and applied his insights to a real business case. With success: His work titled “Towards Supply Chain Agility in the Luxury Goods Industry – The Case of a Swiss Watch Manufacturer” was awarded the 2019 Ernst-Blickle Graduate Award by the SEW Eurodrive Foundation.

Eighteen international MSc MTEC students recently made a day trip to the 50th World Economic Forum in Davos – in cooperation with ETH Global, the programme aimed at providing first-hand impressions on how change can be effected in a world of growing challenges.

ETH Rector Sarah Springman has awarded three D-MTEC researchers the prestigious ETH Medal for their outstanding doctoral theses. Congratulations to all award winners!