ConPolicy Newsletter 2019 - 1

Dear Reader,

we hope that you have spent a wonderful Christmas and we wish you a successful and happy new year 2019!
In the new year we work on different exciting projects, about which we would like to inform you in our newsletter - e.g. our new joint project regarding green nudges in companies. Of course, we will continue to keep you up to date on developments and events regarding consumer policy.

In today's issue ConPolicy informs you about: 

■ News about ConPolicy
■ Consumer policy news
■ Recommended reading
■ Events

We wish you an exciting read!

Kind regards!

Your ConPolicy team

  News about ConPolicy

The significance of stakeholder engagement for corporate sustainability management
ConPolicy gives input presentation at Hugo Boss-employee event

When a company wants to act socially responsible in a credible manner, it has to engage with its (critical) stakeholders. Yet, companies can do much wrong in this regard.

Therefore, Hugo Boss invited ConPolicy-Director Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun to its employee event to talk about a range of questions: Why is stakeholder engagement important? What are the pitfalls and what are success factors? What developments should be taken into account in the near future? In the context of the event Prof. Thorun together with Andreas Streubig, Director Global Sustainability at Hugo Boss, also discussed the question what corporate responsibility means in the context of the digitalization process (i.e. corporate digital responsibility).

National Climate Initiative
ConPolicy starts joint project on green nudges in companies

With the National Climate Initiative (NKI), the German Federal Ministry of the Environment promotes innovative projects related to climate protection. In collaboration with Energie-Konsens from Bremen, the climate protection and energy consulting agency Heidelberg - Rhein-Neckar-Kreis (KliBa) and the Saxon Energy Agency (SAENA), ConPolicy will develop, implement, evaluate and scale nudges aimed at promoting climate-friendly behavior in companies over the next three years.

ConPolicy is responsible for two work packages:

  1. One work package will review the current state of research, compile a "nudge catalog" with suitable nudges, and create a process aid for autonomous development of nudges. These materials will then be used by companies during the pilot phase to develop green nudges in workshops.
  2. ConPolicy will evaluate the implemented nudges for the purpose of providing proof of efficacy of these interventions. 

In addition, the project aims at spreading in two selected model regions (Rhine-Neckar district and Saxony), as well as preparing materials for nationwide scaling. 

The NKI funding enables the development and introduction of nudges in a corporate context, testing their effectiveness and thereby expand the approach to a not extensively tested context (corporate climate protection).

Further information about the project can be found here.

ConPolicy joins WZB-Mercator Forum
Big Data for experimental policy consulting and policy making

Digitalization allows academic policy consulting and policy making in general to break new ground. Real-time data could be used by policy makers to pursue a more evidence-based policy. Additionally, the consequences of political actions could be understood faster and in more detail, especially with respect to different populations. However, these approaches are still at an early stage.

Therefore, the WZB-Mercator Forum 2018 discussed how these approaches could be deployed reasonably and which experiences from other countries could inform the application of Big Data for policy. ConPolicy contributed in two different ways: Firstly, ConPolicy-director, Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun, joined a panel discussion with Prof. Dr. Lucia Reisch (Copenhagen Business School) as well as Prof. Dr. Max von Grafenstein (Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG)) on whether and how Big Data could or should be used to influence consumers’ behavior. Secondly, Dr. Sara Elisa Kettner (ConPolicy) and Florian Irgmaier (Weizenbaum Institute) organized a workshop on the “conception of man” and values within digital behavioral policy and discussed with participants to what extent certain digital instruments to influence behavior are appropriate.

  Consumer policy news

Consumer protection
Warning about connected toys

The German Federal Network Agency advises consumers to be particularly careful when buying intelligent toys or connected gadgets during the Christmas… Read more

  Recommended reading

van Bavel, R. et al.
Using protection motivation theory in the design of nudges to improve online security behavior

The authors conducted an online experiment (n = 2024) on a representative sample of internet users in Germany, Sweden, Poland, Spain and the UK to… Read more

Matheu-García, S. et al.
Risk-based automated assessment and testing for the cybersecurity certification and labelling of IoT devices

Nowadays, security aspects represent one of the most significant barriers for the adoption of large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. In… Read more

Craglia, M. (Ed.)
Artificial Intelligence: A European perspective

We are only at the beginning of a rapid period of transformation of our economy and society due to the convergence of many digital technologies.… Read more

ACCC
Digital platforms inquiry

Digital platforms offer innovative and popular services to consumers that have, in many cases, revolutionized the way consumers communicate with each… Read more

Anheier, H., G. Krlev & G. Mildenberger
Social innovation [Open Access] – Comparative perspectives

This book investigates socio-economic impact. Since it is hard to establish causality and to measure social properties when investigating impact,… Read more

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info@conpolicy.de
www.conpolicy.de

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Director: Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun

 
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