Editorial

Recent Progress in the Development of the Journal of Business Economics

• Editorial status report

  During the peer review process, submitted manuscripts go through one more revision stages leading up to acceptance or rejection. Figure 1 summarizes the activity for the journal office between January 1st and December 31st of each year. The rejection rate for a year is calculated as the number of rejected manuscripts in this year compared to the total number of decisions in this year, which is defined here as the number of rejected manuscripts plus the number of accepted manuscripts.

  Fig. 1

  

  Editorial status summary 2015–2018

• Downloads in 2013–2018

  Downloads of full-text articles are a very good indicator of the interest of the scientific community on the paper of the journal and their content. This concerns in a positive way to two aspects simultaneously: the relevance of the topic as well as the quality of the articles. As can be seen by Fig. 2, we had already about 60,000 downloads in 2013, in the first year after “Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft” was transformed into the “Journal of Business Economics”. In 2018, the downloads have increased over 131.000.

  Fig. 2

  

  Successful full-text article downloads in 2013–2018

In addition, Table 1 gives an information about which articles, published in the year 2016–2018, have been downloaded most frequently in the year 2018.

Table 1 Top 10 full-text article requests 2018

1 Best paper award 2018

By decision of the editors of the Journal of Business Economics the Best Paper Award 2018 is given to Dirk Kiesewetter, Tobias Steigenberger and Matthias Stier for their contribution “Can formula apportionment really prevent multinational enterprises from profit shifting? The role of asset valuation, intragroup debt, and leases”, printed version in issue 9/2018. By this the editors like to prize a qualitatively outstanding publication the content of which enhances the decision oriented theory of business administration, contributes to its microeconomic foundation, and opens new possibilities in management. So, the paper is notably prominent. The editors and the publisher cordially congratulate the authors on this award.

The authors write in the abstract of their paper: “The European Commission has been supporting a transition from a system of separate accounting to formula apportionment. After its 2011 draft directive was rejected by the Council, the Commission presented two new draft directives in October 2016, one stipulating rules for a common tax base and another the terms for consolidation and apportionment. The aspired system of unitary taxation is considered more resistant to profit shifting and assumed to reduce compliance costs. However, there are also doubts about the extent, to which such a system will eradicate tax-planning activities of MNEs. Other concerns have arisen about the practical issue of enforcing uniform rules for asset valuation throughout the member states. We use a dynamic model of tax accounting based on neoclassical investment theory and effective tax rates to determine to what extent formula apportionment mitigates the efficiency of typical profit-shifting strategies. We focus on the roles of transfer pricing and intragroup debt financing (through loans and leases) under both separate accounting and formula apportionment. We also take into account a possible leeway for inconsistent valuation. Our results show that instead of eliminating tax planning strategies, the proposed system might simply induce a shift from manipulating reported profits to influencing the apportionment key. Inside the European Union, the CCCTB may be able to render thin capitalisation rules and transfer pricing documentation redundant. However, formula apportionment invites for new forms of tax planning. It is therefore essential to give credit to these new kinds of tax incentives when implementing a system of unitary taxation.”

Dirk Kiesewetter was born on April 26th, 1968, in Radolfzell am Bodensee. He has been holding the Chair for Accounting and Business Taxation at Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Würzburg, since 2008. From 2004 to 2007 he held a chair with the same denomination at Otto-von-Guericke-Universität, Magdeburg. He received his Venia Legendi in Business Adminstration (2004), his doctoral degree (1998), and his Diploma in Business Administration (1995), all from Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen. From 1998 to 2001 he has been working as a strategy consultant in Stuttgart. Kiesewetter is a founding member of arqus.info, and he has served the German Academic Association for Business Research, VHB e.V., in various functions, e.g. as head of its Business Taxation section (2015–2017). Kiesewetter’s research is mainly in the fields of tax design and tax reform, of tax effects on business decisions and on individual and employer-sponsored pension planning. His preferred research methods are theoretical modelling and experiments, and his research has mostly been published in peer-reviewed Journals.

Tobias Steigenberger was born on August 15th, 1985, in Stuttgart, Germany. Since 2011 he has been working in tax advisory in Stuttgart and Heidelberg. He was appointed a tax advisor in 2016. Steigenberger holds a Diploma degree in International Business Administration from Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen. During 2012 and 2013 he worked as an Assistant Professor at the University of Würzburg where he did some research on tax harmonization in the EU.

Matthias Stier was born on June 12th, 1988, in Ulm, Germany. His main field of research at the University of Würzburg has been European tax law, especially the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice on matters of direct taxation as well as its impact on tax planning activities and factor allocation within the single market. In 2018, his doctoral thesis on this subject has been accepted by the Würzburg Graduate School Law, Economics, and Society. Since obtaining his Bachelor’s degree (2010) and his Master’s degree (2012) from Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Würzburg, he has worked as a consultant for auditing and tax advisory in Würzburg. Stier was appointed as a tax advisor in 2019 after passing the state examination.

2 Best reviewer award 2018

Connected with giving away the Best Reviewer Award the editors and the publisher would like to thank all reviewers for their support to provide for best quality publications in the Journal of Business Economics. As representative for all reviewers of the last year Christoph J. Sextroh from the Tilburg University is given the Best Reviewer Award 2018. The editors and the publisher cordially congratulate him on this honour.

Christoph J. Sextroh (born 1984 in Westerstede/Germany) is Assistant Professor of Accounting at the Department of Accountancy at Tilburg University. Sextroh studied business administration at the University of Duisburg-Essen and the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH) before receiving a Ph.D. in accounting from the Center for Doctoral Studies in Business (CDSB) at the University of Mannheim Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences (GESS) in 2014. During his doctoral studies he was a visiting Ph.D. student at London Business School. Prior to his appointment at Tilburg University, Sextroh was a visiting research scholar at the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business.

Christoph J. Sextroh conducts research in empirical financial accounting with a focus on capital market communication (i.e., investor relations, financial intermediaries, information channels), investors’ information demand and processing, as well as the political economy of accounting regulation.