news 2021

Research team from the University of Göttingen explores what guides Cameroonian milk producers' decision-making after a market disruption   When agricultural markets in the Global South are disrupted, what helps producers stay in business? In regions where work can be hard to find, educational attainment is low, and opportunities for economic diversification are often too few, it is essential to understand what helps smallholder producers maintain their livelihoods.

Study reveals missing data for scope 3 greenhouse gases Companies in the digital technology industry are significantly underreporting the greenhouse gas emissions arising along the value chain of their products. Across a sample of 56 major tech companies surveyed in a study by the Technical University of Munich (TUM), more than half of these emissions were excluded from self-reporting in 2019.

New research linking water and economic modelling shows that coordinated filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) increases economic benefits and resilience in the riparian countries. In the Nile Basin region, eleven African countries are economically dependent on the river, though differently.

Göttingen researchers investigate effect of non-human conversation partners in customer services   More and more companies are using chatbots in customer services. Due to advances in artificial intelligence and natural language processing, chatbots are often indistinguishable from humans when it comes to communication.

Research team explores potential for package delivery Cargo bikes could play a much bigger role in urban package delivery. This conclusion was reached in a study based on the cities of Munich and Regensburg, where around one seventh of delivery-related CO2 emissions could be reduced. The research team has developed a planning tool to help companies and municipalities identify the potential for cargo bikes in city districts.

The "Querdenken" ("Lateral thinking") demonstrations in November 2020 contributed to the heavy spread of the coronavirus within Germany. This is shown by a recent study by authors Dr Martin Lange from the Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim and Dr Monscheuer from the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at the HU.

Studies identify psychological factors in start-ups launched by researchers Successful start-ups emerging from the world of academic research are a rarity in Germany. A research project has now conducted the first-ever investigation into the psychological factors impacting the processes when scientists launch companies.

Researchers develop robust approach for detecting market manipulation Social media is increasingly used to spread fake news. The same problem can be found on the capital market - criminals spread fake news about companies in order to manipulate share prices. Researchers at the Universities of Göttingen and Frankfurt and the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana have developed an approach that can recognise such fake news, even when the news contents are repeatedly adapted.