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Robert Andrei Buchmann
Andrea Polini
Björn Johansson
Dimitris Karagiannis (Eds.)

Perspectives in
Business Informatics
LNBIP 398

Research
19th International Conference
on Business Informatics Research, BIR 2020
Vienna, Austria, September 21–23, 2020
Proceedings

123
Lecture Notes
in Business Information Processing 398

Series Editors
Wil van der Aalst
RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
John Mylopoulos
University of Trento, Trento, Italy
Michael Rosemann
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
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Perspectives in
Business Informatics
Research
19th International Conference
on Business Informatics Research, BIR 2020
Vienna, Austria, September 21–23, 2020
Proceedings

123
Editors
Robert Andrei Buchmann Andrea Polini
Babeș-Bolyai University University of Camerino
Cluj Napoca, Romania Camerino, Italy
Björn Johansson Dimitris Karagiannis
Linköping University University of Vienna
Linköping, Sweden Vienna, Austria

ISSN 1865-1348 ISSN 1865-1356 (electronic)


Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing
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Preface

The 19th edition of the International Conference on Perspectives in Business


Informatics Research (BIR 2020) – initially set to take place at the University of
Vienna during September 2020 – was deterred, as many scientific events around the
globe, by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The conference – with its numerous satellite events (workshops, doctoral consor-
tium) – has always been a scientific networking hub, encouraging elaborated critical
discussion and providing knowledge exchange opportunities, therefore the organization
team decided to postpone BIR 2020 as part of an extended event to take place during
BIR 2021. The joint BIR 2020-2021 event will thus include presentations of both
years’ submissions, potentially expanding the BIR community and the range of dis-
cussed topics, while preserving the networking nature of the conference.
Although this volume will have been published prior to the extended event of 2021,
the peer-review process was applied as usual for submissions received during 2020,
leading to the selection of 14 papers based on a minimum of 3 reviews for each paper.
The acceptance rate was 29%, from a base of 48 submissions in total. The papers are
grouped by the following topics: Digital Transformation and Technology Acceptance,
Multi-perspective Enterprise Models and Frameworks, Supporting Information
Systems Development, Literature and Conceptual Analysis, Value Creation, and Value
Management.
Business Informatics is an established research area at the intersection of Business
Administration and Computer Science, subordinated to the Information Systems field.
Since 2000, when BIR was initiated in Rostock, Germany, the topics investigated by
this community have gained wide adoption and have stimulated a convergence of
business and technical views towards establishing novel methods for supporting
business decisions with the help of socio-technical systems. The teaching agenda of
Business Informatics is steadily spreading across Europe, with numerous study pro-
grams emerging under this name, typically inspired by the diversity of research topics
covered by this umbrella term, e.g., Enterprise Modeling, Business Process Manage-
ment, Information Systems Development, Decision Support Systems, and E-business.
The scientific community fostered around these topics is continuously expanding the
relevance of the BIR conference series, making it a prestigious European event that will
soon have its 20th edition, coalescing the presentation of papers selected from both the
2020 and 2021 submissions.
We express our gratitude to the BIR Steering Committee members who agreed to
have this edition managed by our team. In particular, we thank Prof. Marite Kirikova
and Prof. Kurt Sandkuhl for providing assistance during the difficult decision-making
process related to the pandemic.
We thank all the authors who submitted their work and the Program Committee
members who contributed reviews to the paper selection process. We also thank the
vi Preface

global community of the Open Models Laboratory (OMiLAB, www.omilab.org) for


contributing either submissions or reviews to the selection process of BIR 2020.
The technical support regarding the production of this volume was ensured by the
Springer team, lead by Ralf Gerstner and Christine Reiss, to whom we are thankful for
the continuous partnership with BIR.
Last but not least, we’d like to thank the Vienna organization team, lead by Victoria
Döller, for their hard work on managing the communication, website, and registration
process that made the publication of this volume possible.
We are looking forward to attending the presentations of the hereby selected works
during the extended event planned for 2021.

August 2020 Björn Johansson


Dimitris Karagiannis
Robert Andrei Buchmann
Andrea Polini
Organization

BIR 2020 is managed by an organization team affilitated to the University of Vienna,


Austria. The actual event was postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic situation during
2020 and this volume contains the pre-event selection of accepted papers.

General Chairs
Björn Johansson Lund University and Linköping, Sweden
Dimitris Karagiannis University of Vienna, Austria

Program and Publication Co-chairs


Robert Andrei Buchmann Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj Napoca, Romania
Andrea Polini University of Camerino, Italy

Local Organizing Chair


Victoria Döller University of Vienna, Austria

Steering Committee
Kurt Sandkuhl (Chair) Rostock University, Germany
Eduard Babkin State University of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Rimantas Butleris Kaunas Technical University, Lithuania
Sven Carlsson Lund University, Sweden
Peter Forbrig Rostock University, Germany
Björn Johansson Lund University and Linköping University, Sweden
Marite Kirikova Riga Technical University, Latvia
Andrzej Kobyliñski Warsaw School of Economics, Poland
Lina Nemuraite Kaunas Technical University, Lithuania
Jyrki Nummenmaa University of Tampere, Finland
Raimundas Matulevicius Tartu University, Estonia
Vaclav Repa University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic
Benkt Wangler University of Skövde, Sweden
Stanislaw Wrycza University of Gdansk, Poland

Program Committee
Gundars Alksnis Riga Technical University, Latvia
Bo Andersson Lund University, Sweden
Said Assar Institut Mines Telecom Business School, France
viii Organization

Eduard Babkin National Research University, Russia


Per Backlund University of Skövde, Sweden
Amelia Bădică University of Craiova, Romania
Peter Bellström Karlstad University, Sweden
Meral Binbasioglu Hofstra University, USA
Cătălin Boja Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania
Dominik Bork University of Vienna, Austria
Tomas Bruckner University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic
Robert Andrei Buchmann Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
Witold Chmielarz University of Warsaw, Poland
Michal Choras University of Science and Technology Bydgoszcz,
Poland
Chiara Di Francescomarino Bruno Kessler Foundation, Italy
Hans-Georg Fill Freiburg University, Switzerland
Peter Forbrig Rostock University, Germany
Ana-Maria Ghiran Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
Janis Grabis Riga Technical University, Latvia
Janis Grundspenkis Riga Technical University, Latvia
Knut Hinkelmann University of Applied Sciences Northwestern
Switzerland, Switzerland
Adrian Iftene Alexandru loan Cuza University, Romania
Emilio Insfran Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain
Amin Jalali Stockholm University, Sweden
Florian Johannsen University of Applied Sciences Schmalkalden,
Germany
Björn Johansson Lund University and Linköping, Sweden
Gustaf Juell-Skielse Stockholm University, Sweden
Dimitris Karagiannis University of Vienna, Austria
Christina Keller Jönköping University, Sweden
Sybren De Kinderen University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Marite Kirikova Riga Technical University, Latvia
Michael Lang NUI Galway, Ireland
Birger Lantow Rostock University, Germany
Michael Le Duc Mälardalen University, Sweden
Massimiliano De Leoni University of Padua, Italy
Ginta Majore Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Latvia
Raimundas Matulevicius University of Tartu, Estonia
Patrik Mikalef Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
Norway
Andrea Morichetta University of Camerino, Italy
Jens Myrup Pedersen Aalborg University, Denmark
Jacob Norbjerg Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Jyrki Nummenmaa University of Tampere, Finland
Cyril Onwubiko Research Series Ltd, UK
Malgorzata Pankowska University of Economics in Katowice, Poland
Victoria Paulsson Dublin City University, Ireland
Organization ix

Data Petcu West University of Timisoara, Romania


John Sören Pettersson Karlstad University, Sweden
Tomas Pitner Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Pierluigi Plebani Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy
Paul Pocatilu Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania
Andrea Polini University of Camerino, Italy
Dorina Rajanen University of Oulu, Finland
Barbara Re University of Camerino, Italy
Iris Reinhartz-Berger University of Haifa, Israel
Vaclav Repa University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic
Stefanie Rinderle-Ma University of Vienna, Austria
Ben Roelens Open University of the Netherlands, The Netherlands
Kurt Sandkuhl Rostock University, Germany
Rainer Schmidt Munich University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Manuel Serrano University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Gheorghe Cosmin Silaghi Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
Piotr Soja Krakow University of Economics, Poland
Janis Stirna Stockholm University, Sweden
Stefan Strecker University of Hagen, Germany
Frantisek Sudzina Aalborg University, Denmark
Ann Svensson University West, Sweden
Torben Tambo Aarhus University, Denmark
Filip Vencovsky University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic
Gianluigi Viscusi EPFL-CDM-CSI, Switzerland
Anna Wingkvist Linnaeus University, Sweden
Stanislaw Wrycza University of Gdansk, Poland
Jelena Zdravkovic University of Stockholm, Sweden
Alfred Zimmermann Reutlingen University, Germany
Wieslaw Wolny University of Economics in Katowice, Poland
Contents

Digital Transformation and Technology Acceptance

The Acceptance of Smart Home Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3


Christina Gross, Markus Siepermann, and Richard Lackes

Measuring the Barriers to the Digital Transformation in Management


Courses – A Mixed Methods Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Kristin Vogelsang, Henning Brink, and Sven Packmohr

Experiences of Applying the Second Step of the Digital Innovation


and Transformation Process in Zoological Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Johannes Wichmann, Matthias Wißotzki, and Patrick Góralski

Multi-perspective Enterprise Models and Frameworks

Cyber Security Resilience in Business Informatics: An Exploratory Paper . . . 53


Haralambos Mouratidis, Jelena Zdravkovic, and Janis Stirna

The Model for Continuous IT Solution Engineering for Supporting Legal


Entity Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Marite Kirikova, Zane Miltina, Arnis Stasko, Marina Pincuka,
Marina Jegermane, and Daiga Kiopa

Fields of Action to Advance the Digital Transformation of NPOs –


Development of a Framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Henning Brink, Sven Packmohr, and Kristin Vogelsang

Supporting Information Systems Development

Is Team Always Right: Producing Risk Aware Effort Estimates


in Agile Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Jānis Grabis, Vineta Minkēviča, Bohdan Haidabrus,
and Rolands Popovs

Design Decisions and Their Implications:


An Ontology Quality Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Achim Reiz and Kurt Sandkuhl

Service Dependency Graph Analysis in Microservice Architecture. . . . . . . . . 128


Edgars Gaidels and Marite Kirikova
xii Contents

Literature and Conceptual Analysis

Text Mining the Variety of Trends in the Field of Simulation


Modeling Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Mario Jadrić, Tea Mijač, and Maja Ćukušić

Service Quality Evaluation Using Text Mining: A Systematic


Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Filip Vencovský

Making Use of the Capability and Process Concepts – A Structured


Comparison Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Anders W. Tell and Martin Henkel

Value Creation and Value Management

Designing Causal Inference Systems for Value-Based Spare Parts Pricing:


An ADR Study at MAN Energy Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Tiemo Thiess and Oliver Müller

Organizational Change Toward IT-Supported Personal Advisory


in Incumbent Banks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Maik Dehnert

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221


Digital Transformation and Technology
Acceptance
The Acceptance of Smart Home Technology

Christina Gross(B) , Markus Siepermann , and Richard Lackes

TU Dortmund, Otto-Hahn-Str. 12, 44227 Dortmund, Germany


{christina.gross,markus.siepermann,
richard.lackes}@tu-dortmund.de

Abstract. The market for smart home technology (SHT) has increased rapidly
and is said to do so during the next years. In particular, comfort and security
features are the main focus of vendors. This paper aims to examine the different
influencing factors that have an impact on the adoption decision of consumers. For
this, a survey was conducted among 327 German consumers. Results show that
perceived security and comfort are significant influencing factors. In particular,
control functions play an important role. In contrast, neither usability of SHT
nor costs show a noteworthy impact on the adoption decision, although costs are
expected to be high.

Keywords: Smart home technology · Perceived security · Perceived comfort ·


Perceived costs · Technology acceptance model

1 Introduction

Advancing digitalization does not only comprise IT businesses: in private households,


digitalization and home automation are evolving trends. A recent representative survey
among German users found that half (46%) of the Germans use at least one smart
home application [1]. Otherwise almost one quarter (26%) refuses to use smart home
technology (SHT) [1]. Comparing these results to the results from a survey of 2016,
usage increased by more than 15% (29.4% to 46%). However, denial increased by about
5% points (20.4% to 26%) [2]. Forecasts for the year 2024 expect the SHT market
volume to be e 6,686 million. Therefore, growth in sales would be up 11.8% from today
(e 4.272 million in 2020) [3]. The number of smart homes is expected to increase from
7.8 million in 2020 to 10.7 million households in 2024 [3]. Although these numbers
seem to indicate a huge interest in SHT, they also mean that the share of smart homes
among all households in Germany just exceeds 25%.
In the context of a smart home, several terms are used simultaneously: smart living,
smart environment, home automation, domotics, intelligent home, or adaptive home, but
usually mean the same: “A smart home is a residence equipped with a high-tech network,
linking sensors and domestic devices, appliances, and features that can be remotely
monitored, accessed or controlled, and provide services that respond to the needs of
its inhabitants” [4]. It combines home automation with advanced security services and
energy management measures [4, 5]. With the help of smart home technology (SHT),

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020


R. A. Buchmann et al. (Eds.): BIR 2020, LNBIP 398, pp. 3–18, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61140-8_1
4 C. Gross et al.

households are able to analyze the condition and state of various parameters, anytime and
anywhere. In general, three different kinds of services can be realized: lifestyle support,
energy consumption and management, and security [4, 6].
Lifestyle support services aim to simplify people’s everyday lives with learning
devices that adapt to the habits of users (e.g. turning lights and heating on when present).
Additionally, they comprise entertainment services (e.g. voice-controlled music play-
ers) or ambient assisted-living, which provides monitoring tools to reduce the follow-up
risks of incidents for elderly people (e.g. sensors on the floor, which recognize falls).
Energy consumption and management services aim to reduce the total energy consump-
tion of users. This is done by synchronizing the state of different devices, like roller
shutters, heating, window opening etc. (e.g. Bosch smart home products). Security ser-
vices focus on safeguarding by surveilling the home, monitoring the closed state of doors
and windows, implementing different alarms, etc. (e.g. Magenta or Innogy smart home
products).
Recent years have brought a set of intelligent personal assistants, like Amazon Alexa,
Apple Siri, or Google Assistant, that aim to improve the comfort of users. These assistants
can serve as a central control unit for a smart home. While in 2019 about 3.25 billion
digital voice assistants were sold, the demand is set to double in 2022 [7]. The global
smart home security market is also expected to grow in the future [8]. In Germany, the
volume of home security technology will increase from the forecast of e 790 million
in 2020 to about e 1.3 billion e in 2024 [9]. The demand for security products is thus
immense. Therefore, this paper aims to reveal the factors that influence the adoption
of comfort and security in SHT. In this way, the following research questions will be
pursued:

RQ1: Which factors influence the adoption of smart home technology?


RQ2: What is the contribution of different security and comfort features to the adoption
of SHT?

To answer these questions, we conducted a survey among 327 consumers in Germany.


This survey focused on the comfort and security features of SHT, and incorporated a
cost perspective. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to utilize these
constructs together.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: in the next section, we briefly
give an overview of the related literature, and demonstrate the contribution of this paper.
The third section develops the research model, which serves as the basis for our survey,
and is analyzed in section four. The paper closes with a discussion of the results in
section five and points out implications and limitations in section six.

2 Literature Review
Although SHT and research regarding SHT applications exists since many years [10],
papers investigating the adoption behavior of consumers are still scarce. Apart from
specialized studies with a focus on the energy sector [11] or qualitative studies [4, 12],
only eight studies can be found which use multivariate statistics to analyze the relations
between different factors and the adoption of SHT (see Table 1).
The Acceptance of Smart Home Technology 5

Table 1. Related literature

Paper Objective Basic theory Sample Findings


Bao et al. (2014), Determinants of the TAM 310 Chinese Social influence and
[23] adoption of mobile compatibility
smart home directly influence
adoption, perceived
costs and perceived
technology security
risk have no
influence on adoption
Gaul and Ziefle Acceptance motives TAM 280 Germans High acceptance
(2009), [18] of eHealth among all age
technologies groups. Advantages
have a stronger
impact than
disadvantages
Hubert et al. (2019), Creating a TAM, DOI, 409 Germans & Perceived usefulness,
[6] comprehensive perceived risk Internationals compatibility, and
adoption model theory risk perception have
a strong influence on
use intention
Correct and concrete
communication of
benefits is essential.
Security risk is a
strong predictor for
the overall risk
Jin Noh and Seong Determinants of the Binary logit 600 Koreans Acceptance of infra
Kim (2010), [17] adoption of smart model services is mainly
home services affected by age,
self-employment,
and house property
Nguyen et al. Determinants of the UTAUT 304 Vietnamese Perceived value,
(2018), [19] adoption of smart perceived usefulness,
home devices trust, and social
influence are the
main determinants
for usage intention
Park et al. (2018), Determinants of the TAM 799 South Perceived usefulness,
[21] adoption of smart Koreans compatibility,
home services perceived
connectedness, and
perceived control are
the main influencing
factors. Costs,
enjoyment, and
reliability play only a
minor role
(continued)
6 C. Gross et al.

Table 1. (continued)

Paper Objective Basic theory Sample Findings


Shih (2013), [22] Determinants of the TAM, DOI 580 Taiwanese Usefulness and
adoption of smart compatibility are the
home services most influential
factors for attitude,
followed by interest,
observability, and
relative advantages.
Ease of use has no
direct impact on
attitude
Yang et al. (2017), Determinants of the TPB 216 South Subjective norm,
[20] adoption of smart Koreans perceived behavioral
home services control, and attitude
influence the usage
intention. Mobility,
interoperability,
privacy risk, and
trust in service
provider are the main
predictors for attitude

Most papers are based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) [13], which is
extended by additional constructs. Two papers are based on the successive model the
Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology [14, 15] and their predecessor, the
Theory of Planned Behavior [16]. The basic structure of the research models is therefore
mostly the same. There is only one paper, which is not based on structural equation
modeling, using a binary logit model which examines the impact of user characteristics
on the use of different SHT services [17].
The research application areas are various. Gaul and Ziefle (2009) focused on eHealth
technologies, in particular on a stent which needs to be implanted [18]. Therefore, their
results are difficult to generalize. Although the application area is sometimes labelled
differently, the other papers focus on what is commonly referred to as SHT. Some authors
[19, 20] focus on the adoption of smart home devices and the associated services, while
other autors [6, 21, 22] place an emphasis on the services provided by the manufacturer.
In Bao et al. (2014), the focus is on the remote control aspects of SHT, realized with the
help of smartphones [23].
The main goal of Hubert et al. (2019) was the creation of a new comprehensive adop-
tion model that combines aspects of the TAM and diffusion of innovations (DOI) [6, 24]
with risk aspects [25]. The usage of smart home technology was “only” the application
to test their model. In particular, they used a prototype system that mainly made use
of security services like automated alarms for fire, water leaks, or burglars, warnings
for severe weather conditions and reminders to close windows and doors. However, the
system did not provide home automation services like closing the window or providing
shade. The detailed advantages of home automation were thus not considered. In fact,
The Acceptance of Smart Home Technology 7

the latter point holds for all the papers. The advantages of a smart home were mostly
considered in general, but not discussed in detail within the questionnaires. Only Yang
et al. (2017) went into more detail, using separate constructs for automation and mobility
[20]. The enhanced security that is associated with SHT was considered [21, 23], but
again without going into detail about the factors that were most influential. Concerning
the risk associated with SHT three papers [6, 20, 23] focused on this aspect and others
investigated trust in SHT [19].
There are two publications which analyze the determinants for the adoption of SHT
among real users [17, 22]. All other studies, including this paper, focus on the self-
reported future usage intentions.
Unlike existing studies, this paper takes a different direction and places emphasis
more on the details of SHT benefits. In particular, the security and the comfort that SHT
are intended to enhance are the focus of our investigation. SHT provides different security
and comfort functions that may contribute to the adoption decision of consumers. Hence,
these different functions are analyzed separately, instead of in an aggregated view on
the advantages of SHT.

3 Research Model
The acceptance of an innovation can be seen as the willingness of people to approve it.
In general, three stages of acceptance can be distinguished [26]. In the first, people need
to be mentally prepared for the innovation, so that they are positive attuned towards its.
Then, if people are ready, the second step comprises the desire and intention to use it. If
this is strong enough, people will decide to use the innovation, which is the third stage of
acceptance. Obviously, acceptance of stages 1 and 2 can be strong among people, even
if they have never seen or tried the innovation. The permanent usage of stage 3 is only
possible if the innovation already exists [27].
The acceptance of an innovation depends on its characteristics, the characteristics
of the intended users, and their personal situations. The first determinant corresponds
to the usefulness of the innovation. The more people perceive the innovation as useful,
the more they are inclined to use it. The usage intention is highly correlated with the
educational and social backgrounds of the users. The higher the level of education, the
more easily the user spots the advantages that lead to acceptance. The more people in a
social environment accept the innovation the more likely another person will do so too
[14]. The widespread technology acceptance model [13, 28] incorporates these relations.
People’s usage is explained by their intention to use it, which in turn is influenced by
their attitude towards the innovation. People’s attitude is formed by their perception of
the innovation’s usefulness and ease of use, while the latter also influences its perceived
usefulness. The TAM is an approved model [29, 30], but is also criticized for its simplicity
[31]. However, it possesses a very high explanatory power [15, 32, 33]. Therefore, we
will also use the core of the TAM for our study. Though, as we want to learn about the
motivational aspects among users and non-users, we will not use the Actual System Use
construct. This is not really a restriction, as the behavioral intention to use an innovation
has been proven to be a very good predictor for later usage [14, 49]. As a result, we use
the constructs behavioral intention to use (BI), attitude (AT), perceived usefulness (PU)
as well as perceived ease of use (PEOU), and hypothesize:
8 C. Gross et al.

H 1 : Attitude positively influences the behavioral intention to use SHT.


H 2 : Perceived usefulness positively influences the behavioral intention to use SHT.
H 3 : Perceived usefulness positively influences the attitude towards SHT.
H 4 : Perceived ease of use positively influences the attitude towards SHT.
H 5 : Perceived ease of use positively influences the perceived usefulness of SHT.

There are various SHT applications that cannot be equalized. As mentioned above,
lifestyle support services, energy consumption and management services, and security
services are usually distinguished [4]. Lifestyle support services again comprise a set of
very different services, like entertainment or ambient assisted living. These services are
often targeted to certain specific groups like elderly people. Comfort and security are
said to be the most important reasons for using SHT [11, 12, 34]. For a comprehensive
overview and research examples, see [50]. This paper will therefore focus on services of
energy management and security services. We will use two additional constructs. Per-
ceived security (PS) is defined as the degree of improved security protection after using
SHT, e.g. simulated presence, remote surveillance, fire warning, or intrusion detection.
Perceived comfort (PF) is the degree of improved convenience from SHT. The comfort
could rise from home automation features in heating, ventilation and air conditioning
(HVAC), shading, and lighting. These services provide different advantages to their
users, and therefore improve the usefulness of SHT. We hypothesize:

H 6 : Perceived security positively influences the perceived usefulness of SHT.


H 7 : Perceived comfort positively influences the perceived usefulness of SHT.

SHT does not only provide benefits to users, but also bear several disadvantages. In
particular, the costs of the various devices for building a smart home may keep people
from buying SHT devices. There are initial installation costs, and (monthly) fees for the
services provided by the manufacturers. Only a few studies have investigated the costs
associated with SHT, and paint an ambiguous picture. While Bao et al. (2014) could not
confirm the influence of costs [23], Park et al. (2018) could find a slight impact on usage
intention [21]. We will also investigate the impact of perceived costs (PC) for SHT and
hypothesize that:

H 8 : Perceived costs negatively influence the behavioral intention to use SHT.

The resulting research model is depicted in Fig. 1.


To incorporate the different services into the model, all the constructs are measured
formatively, except for perceived ease of use and perceived costs. The different services
are then captured by the formative constructs’ items. A formative measurement bears
several advantages and disadvantages, we’ll explicate later.

4 Analysis
To test the research model, we conducted a survey between March and June 2018. The
questionnaire consisted of 28 questions for the model (cf. Table 2, measured in a 5-point
The Acceptance of Smart Home Technology 9

Perceived Costs

Perceived H6(+) H8(-)


Security
Perceived H2(+) Behavioral
Usefulness Intention to Use
H7(+)
Perceived
Comfort H5(+) H3(+) H1(+)

Perceived Ease
Perceived Attitude
Easeof
of Use
Use H4(+)

Technology Acceptance Model

Fig. 1. Research model

Likert-Scale) and nine demographic questions. It was open to every German speaking
person and therefore distributed online via Facebook and empirio. In addition, it was
shared by manufacturers of smart home technology, Gira and Emansio. To supplement
this process, a paper-based survey was done in the cities of Dortmund and Iserlohn.
In total 327 participants (52% females, 45% males, 3% not specified) answered the
questionnaire (71.3% online and 28.7% offline). 50.8% of the participants were between
20 and 29 years old, 4% were younger, 12.5% were in their thirties, 8.9% in their forties,
16.8% in their sixties, and 4.6% of the participants were older than sixty (2.4% not
specified). 20.8% had an income of under e 1,000. 14.4% had an income between e
1,000 and e 2,000, 11.6% between e 2,000 and e 3,000, 9.8% earned between e 3,000
and e 4,000 and 15.3% lived on more than e 4,000 (28.1 not specified). Most of the
participants (72.9%) had no experience with smart home technology.
All the observations have less than 15% missing values [35] so that no observation
had to be eliminated. With 327 samples, the sample size is beyond the sample size based
on the number of arrows pointing to the latent variable constructs recommended by Chin
for receiving stable results of the model estimation [36].
The considered structural equation model (SEM) consists of two elements: the mea-
surement model, which specifies the relationship between the constructs and their indi-
cators, and the structural model, in which the relations between the constructs will be
analyzed [36, 37]. For the evaluation of the theoretical SEM, we used Smart PLS software
Version 3.2.9 [38]. The software is based on the Partial Least Squares (PLS) algorithm,
and used for variance-based analysis [35]. In contrast to covariance-based alternatives,
such as LISREL, the sample size was not restricted, and it was not necessary to make
assumptions about the distribution. This approach was chosen over other approaches,
for a number of reasons.
First, this study is exploratory, meaning that the influences of perceived security,
perceived comfort, and perceived costs are not yet proven, and this research focuses on
predicting a model for SHT acceptance. Second, Smart PLS is suitable for smaller sets,
and does not require normal distribution, since it is a non-parametric method. Third,
10 C. Gross et al.

PLS-SEM is used to enhance the explanatory capacity of key target variables and their
relationships in complex behavior research [39].

4.1 Measurement Model

In addition to the PLS algorithm, a bootstrapping of 5,000 samples was used for the
determination of the significance of weights, loadings and path coefficients [35]. For
missing values, case-wise replacement was applied. The program was set to 300 maxi-
mum iterations for calculating the PLS results. To assure that the maximum number of
iterations is reached, the stop criterion is set to 10−7 .
Within the measurement model, two kinds of constructs can be distinguished: reflec-
tive and formative constructs [40]. Our model consists of two reflective constructs: PEOU
and PC, which implies that the construct affects the indicators. If there are poor results
for a single indicator, elimination is possible and the algorithm could be recalculated. Our
initial test results made no modification necessary; our loadings fit the model require-
ments. Moreover, our model uses five formative constructs PS, PF, PU, AT and BI. A
formative measurement means that (all) indicators affect the construct, elimination is
not possible. As a latent structure model, linkages between constructs are hypothesized,
not directly observed.
To examine the internal consistency for the reflective constructs, the convergence
criterion, the discriminant validity, the indicator reliability and the predictive validity
were examined [35, 41]. The results for the constructs PC (0.905) and PEOU (0.862)
were greater than 0.7, confirming the internal consistency [42, 43]. Furthermore, the
average variance extracted (AVE) exceeded the threshold of 0.5 (PC: 0.819, PF: 0.742),
so it can be concluded that the convergent validity was confirmed [44]. The square root
value of the AVE of each construct was greater than its correlation values with other

Table 2. Results of the research model

Construct Item Questionnaire item Loadings/Weights AVE/VIF


focus
Perceived securityF PS1 Time-controlled 0.440*** 1.368
(PS) automatic roller shutters
PS2 Simulated presence 0.245* 1.384
PS3 Fire detection, 0.040ns 1.559
emergency exit signals,
etc.
PS4 Panic switch functions, 0.226ns 1.791
e.g. Alarm etc.
PS5 Communicating with a 0.262* 1.527
door camera
PS6 Roller shutdown in case 0.209* 1.200
of a cullet
(continued)
The Acceptance of Smart Home Technology 11

Table 2. (continued)

Construct Item Questionnaire item Loadings/Weights AVE/VIF


focus
Perceived comfortF PF1 Automatic lighting 0.184** 1.209
(PF) PF2 Automatic heating 0.624*** 1.392
PF3 Humidity controllers 0.239** 1.364
PF4 Automatic roller shutter 0.365** 2.172
due to sun
PF5 Automatic roller shutter −0.063ns 2.285
(temperature)
Perceived ease of useR PEOU1 I would learn to use 0.955 0.742
(PEOU) SHT quickly
PEOU2 It is easy learning to use 0.757
SHT
Perceived usefulnessF PU1 SHT increases comfort 0.648*** 1.401
(PU) PU2 SHT saves energy 0.211* 1.990
PU3 SHT reduces costs 0.105ns 1.842
PU4 SHT is good for the −0.118ns 1.675
environment
PU5 SHT increases 0.414*** 1.285
security/safety
AttitudeF (AT) AT1 Heating, ventilation, AC 0.311** 1.511
(HVAC)
AT2 Lighting 0.330** 1.822
AT3 Providing shade 0.021ns 1.634
AT4 Smart security 0.608*** 1.275
Behavioral intention to BI1 Heating, ventilation, AC 0.086ns 1.652
useF (BI) (HVAC)
BI2 Lighting 0.369** 1.717
BI3 Providing shade 0.033ns 1.635
BI4 Smart security 0.711*** 1.390
Perceived costsR (PC) PC1 SHT causes a lot of 0.882 0.819
extra Costs for me
PC2 SHT is expensive 0.928
Significance of indicators: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, R = reflective, F = formative

constructs, confirming discriminant validity, according to Fornell and Larcker’s criterion


[44]. Moreover, the heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlations (HTMT) value between
12 C. Gross et al.

PEOU and PC was 0.063, and does not exceed the threshold of 0.9 [45]. It can be
concluded that discriminant validity has been established among all constructs.
The bootstrapping results for the outer loadings revealed the suitability and rele-
vance for the formative measurement model [46]. The composite reliability exceeded
the threshold of 0.7, and the AVE exceeded the minimum of 0.5, so the convergent validity
of the measurement model was proven. The significance of indicators was tested using
the p-value, which must be below the known thresholds (0.1, 0.05, 0.01). The vari-
ance inflation factors (VIFs) were lower than threshold of 5, confirming the absence of
multicollinearity problem [46].
First, the reflective constructs (PEOU, PC) were examined. The indicator reliability
is below 1% significance level for all reflective constructs (see Table 2). The conver-
gence criterion was also met, since the AVE for each construct was greater than 0.5, the
composite reliability (CRPEOU = 0.851, CRPC = 0.901) was above 0.7, and Cronbach’s
alpha (CAPEOU = 0.692, CAPC = 0.782) was almost above the critical level of 0.7.
As stated above, the square root value of the AVE of each construct was greater than
its correlation value with other constructs confirming discriminant validity according to
Fornell and Larcker’s criterion.
Table 3 shows that all loadings of the indicators were highest in the corresponding
construct. Thus, the reflective constructs differ sufficiently from each other. The predic-
tive validity was also fulfilled for each construct. Thus, a prediction of the constructs by
their indicators was obtained.

Table 3. Cross loadings

Item AT BI PF PC PEOU PS PU
PEOU1 0.168 0.122 0.126 −0.051 0.955 0.116 0.239
PEOU2 0.044 0.031 0.103 −0.022 0.757 0.031 0.129
PC1 0.076 0.129 0.073 −0.882 0.063 0.134 0.080
PC2 0.117 0.163 0.059 −0.928 0.002 0.196 0.121

For formative constructs, the outer weights of eight indicators (PS3, PS4, AT3, PF5,
BI1, BI3, PU3, PU4) were not significant. We conducted a significance test on the outer
loadings. Since the p-Values were significant (p = 0.000) and there was no evidence of
multicollinearity (VIF < 5), all indicators were sufficiently different and no indicator
had to be eliminated.

4.2 Structural Model

The standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) criterion was used to ensure the
absence of misspecification in the model. SRMR assesses the differences between the
actual correlation matrix (observed from the sample) and the expected one (predicted
by the model). SRMR value is saturated at 0.071 and estimated to be 0.087, which is
less than the threshold of 0.08 and indicates a good fit of the model [44]. The exogenous
The Acceptance of Smart Home Technology 13

variables moderate explain 43.2 to 47.3% (R2A = 0.473, R2BI = 0.33, R2PU = 0.432) of
the total variance in AT, BI, and PU.
A common method bias (CMB) test is essential, since endogenous and exogenous
variables are collected together using one questionnaire [39]. For PLS-SEM, CMB is
detected through a full collinearity assessment approach [47]. VIF values should be
lower than the 3.3 threshold [35, 47]. Our VIF values confirm that the model is free from
CMB. These results were confirmed by the Harman’s single factor test for reflective
constructs and Pearson’s correlations matrix for the formative indicators.
Figure 2 shows the hypotheses with their path coefficients, significance, and effect
sizes. For each construct, the R2 and the predictive relevance Q2 are provided.

Perceived Costs

H6(+): 0.361 H8(-): 0.090ns


Perceived f2 = 0.014ns
f2 = 0.157
Security
Perceived H2(+): 0.105ns Behavioral
f2 = 0.010ns
Usefulness Intention to Use
H7(+): 0.343 (R2 = 0.432, Q2 = 0.182) (R2 = 0.433, Q2 = 0.205)
f2 = 0.140
Perceived
Comfort H5(+): 0.147 H3(+): 0.691 H1(+): 0.565
f2 = 0.037ns f2 = 0.859 f2 = 0.296

Perceived Ease Attitude


Perceived H4(+): -0.013ns
Easeof
of Use
(R2 = 0.473, Q2 = 0.240)
Use 2 ns f = 0.000

Technology Acceptance Model

Fig. 2. Results of the research model

5 Discussion
This paper aimed to shed light on the extent to which security and comfort features of
SHT contribute to its adoption by consumers. For this, it is one of the first studies to
conceptualize PS and PF as formative constructs, and antecedents for the PU of SHT. As
our results show (see Table 4), both factors could be proven to be significant parameters
of the usefulness of SHT.
Looking at the beneficial factors of PS and PF, fire warnings which have been
part of several previous investigations [4, 6, 23] do not show a noteworthy impact in
our case. The reason for this may be that most people rarely face fires, and rate this
problem as low in importance. In particular, “overview over closed doors and windows”
and “heating control” found great acceptance and showed a high impact, in line with
previous research [10]. This is also underlined by the assessment of SHT for usefulness
and attitude. While providing shade, saving costs, and environmental advantages did not
play a role, comfort benefits and security were proven to have a great influence. The
picture for comfort and security is ambiguous. The impact of the security in all TAM
constructs is very high, while the assessment (about 60%) among people is quite low,
when compared to comfort (about 80%). A reason for this may be that younger people,
14 C. Gross et al.

Table 4. Overview of hypotheses and summary of results

Hypothesis Result
H1 : Attitude positively influences the behavioral intention to use SHT Supported
H2 : Perceived usefulness positively influences the behavioral intention to use Not supported
SHT
H3 : Perceived usefulness positively influences the attitude towards SHT Supported
H4 : Perceived ease of use positively influences the attitude towards SHT Not supported
H5 : Perceived ease of use positively influences the perceived usefulness of Supported
SHT
H6 : Perceived security positively influences the perceived usefulness of SHT Supported
H7 : Perceived comfort positively influences the perceived usefulness of SH Supported
H8 : Perceived costs negatively influence the behavioral intention to use SHT Not supported

who accounted for the majority of the participants, ascribe less importance to the security
aspect than elder people do. Therefore, while being of high significance, the acceptance
of security functions and usage intention of security SHT might be lower.
Another interesting result is that the costs have no impact on the usage intention
which contrasts with [21], but is in line with [23]. SHT is perceived as pricey (>55%
of the respondents agree or highly agree vs. <18% who disagree). About 70% agree
that SHT helps to save energy costs. However, this factor is not significant for the
assessment of usefulness. A possible explanation is that respondents are mainly younger
people and have a lower income. In fact, almost 21% had an income under e 1,000.
Thus, the acquisition of energy saving SHT is most probably out of reach for them, as
they additionally usually live in rented apartments where they cannot hardly install smart
heating. Higher investments in SHT might only be made by more wealthy, people who
might care less about the related costs.
Two of the common hypotheses of the core TAM (H2 and H4 ) could not be confirmed.
In addition, the effect size of H5 is quite low. That means that the usability of SHT seems
to play only a minor role for its adoption. One reason for this surprising result may be
that usability is a prerequisite for adoption processes today, and serves as hygiene factor
[48]. In this way, it is mandatory for an innovation to be easily usable and that the
absence of usability completely prohibits its adoption. Therefore, higher usability can
no longer foster the adoption process as people already expect high usability. Concerning
the impact of usefulness on usage intention, this shows that high usefulness does not
alone lead to innovation adoption. As SHT is perceived as pricey, the costs may play
a moderating role in this regard. Only if the costs are not perceived as high, a higher
usefulness will lead to a higher adoption rate. However, this effect was not examined in
this study, and requires further investigation.
The Acceptance of Smart Home Technology 15

6 Implications and Limitations


Several lessons can be learned from this study. Not surprisingly, different SHT features
require different target groups. While security and comfort functions are most popular,
the target groups are most probably not the same. Heating SHT mostly requires that
the living place belongs to the user, as they often require further interventions into
the heating system. These SHT are therefore more feasible for owners of real estate.
These target groups have more income at their disposal, and are therefore more prone
to higher investments. Such SHT can be more expensive, but it is necessary to clearly
communicate the advantages. Environmental concerns hardly play a role in purchase
decision. Instead, energy and cost savings should be emphasized. Cost savings showed
no significant impact and were assessed rather lowly. This could change if the cost saving
opportunities are more emphasized by SHT vendors. For comfort functions, lighting
plays an important role. About 78% of the respondents planned to use lighting SHT
in the near future. This part of SHT is affordable to people with lower incomes, and
should therefore not be overpriced. Instead, additional comfort functions for lighting
should be offered. This would help to draw people into the SHT universe who would
otherwise be deterred from the high costs of larger investments. While not investigated,
it is conceivable that once people learn the benefits of SHT, they might make further
investments in this technology. If vendors manage to convince younger generation to use
(cheaper) SHT, it is quite likely that they will stick to SHT or increase their investment
in the future. However, providing shade does not seem to be of great importance. Hence,
when promoting SHT for roller shutters, vendors should focus on other benefits other
than shade. The control of roller shutters is seen as useful in the context of storms and
window damage, when the property can be secured by shutting rollers automatically.
The core structure of the TAM has proven its predictive power and well-functioning
with regard to the adoption of innovations. In contrast to the common approach of
using the items in reflective constructs, we conceptualized five of the seven constructs
formatively. Although formative constructs need to be designed with care, the advantage
of our approach is that the influence of single items can be derived directly from the
model. As can be seen, this approach worked as intended. As a result, research should
think about employing formative constructs more often. This reduces the number of
similar-sounding questions and gives the opportunity to analyze more influencing factors,
as there is no need for one construct per influencing factor. For example, all the advantages
of an innovation can be polled in one construct.
As always, this paper bears a number of concerns and limitations. First of all, our
results are based mainly on the data from young people, and may therefore be not
representative for the whole German population. Society is aging, and this is why pre-
vious research looked at this group [12, 34]. Differently, young people are usually early
adopters of new technology, and the future consumers of SHT. Second, our sample con-
sists of only German people. The adoption behavior may vary in other countries, so that
cross-cultural studies should be rolled out. Third, we focused on future usage of SHT,
while 33.6% of the participants think that SHT will be widespread in five years. Thus,
future studies should focus on current use of SHT, instead of the behavioral intention
to use. Fourth, the relationship between perceived costs and behavioral intention to use
could not be proven satisfactorily. This could mean that costs are less important for
16 C. Gross et al.

adoption, but it could also indicate that there are different relationships between costs,
attitude, usefulness and use intention. Further investigations should focus on this topic
and analyze potential moderating or interactive effects.
In addition, future research should investigate our theoretical model over time. A
longitudinal study design could address cross-cultural differences in smart home accep-
tance. Furthermore, it would enable researchers to observe how relationships change.
Consequently, our study addresses a major call for research as new SHT arises. This new
technology might have new security and comfort features that need to be investigated
in the future. The proposed research model can be used as a baseline, but needs future
research to enrich the research field and prove whether findings are conferrable.

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Another random document with
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all say it; they say it every day, and it is the sole detail
upon which they all agree. There is some approach to agreement
upon another point: that there will be no revolution. … Nearly
every day some one explains to me that a revolution would not
succeed here. 'It couldn't, you know. Broadly speaking, all
the nations in the empire hate the government—but they all
hate each other too, and with devoted and enthusiastic
bitterness; no two of them can combine; the nation that rises
must rise alone; then the others would joyfully join the
government against her, and she would have just a fly's chance
against a combination of spiders. This government is entirely
independent. It can go its own road, and do as it pleases; it
has nothing to fear. In countries like England and America,
where there is one tongue and the public interests are common,
the government must take account of public opinion; but in
Austria-Hungary there are nineteen public opinions—one for
each state. No—two or three for each state, since there are
two or three nationalities in each. A government cannot
satisfy all these public opinions; it can only go through the
motions of trying. This government does that. It goes through
the motions, and they do not succeed; but that does not worry
the government much.' …

"The recent troubles have grown out of Count Badeni's


necessities. He could not carry on his government without a
majority vote in the House at his back, and in order to secure
it he had to make a trade of some sort. He made it with the
Czechs—the Bohemians. The terms were not easy for him: he must
pass a bill making the Czech tongue the official language in
Bohemia in place of the German. This created a storm. All the
Germans in Austria' were incensed. In numbers they form but a
fourth part of the empire's population, but they urge that the
country's public business should be conducted in one common
tongue, and that tongue a world language—which German is.
However, Badeni secured his majority. The German element was
apparently become helpless. The Czech deputies were exultant.
Then the music began. Badeni's voyage, instead of being
smooth, was disappointingly rough from the start. The
government must get the 'Ausgleich' through. It must not fail.
Badeni's majority was ready to carry it through; but the
minority was determined to obstruct it and delay it until the
obnoxious Czech-language measure should be shelved.

"The 'Ausgleich' is an Adjustment, Arrangement, Settlement,


which holds Austria and Hungary together [see above; also, in
volume 1, AUSTRIA: A. D. 1866-1867]. It dates from 1867, and
has to be renewed every ten years. It establishes the share
which Hungary must pay toward the expenses of the imperial
government. Hungary is a kingdom (the Emperor of Austria is
its King), and has its own parliament and governmental
machinery. But it has no foreign office, and it has no army—at
least its army is a part of the imperial army, is paid out of
the imperial treasury, and is under the control of the
imperial war office. The ten-year rearrangement was due a year
ago, but failed to connect. At least completely. A year's
compromise was arranged. A new arrangement must be effected
before the last day of this year. Otherwise the two countries
become separate entities. The Emperor would still be King of
Hungary—that is, King of an independent foreign country. There
would be Hungarian custom-houses on the Austrian frontier, and
there would be a Hungarian army and a Hungarian foreign
office. Both countries would be weakened by this, both would
suffer damage. The Opposition in the House, although in the
minority, had a good weapon to fight with in the pending
'Ausgleich.' If it could delay the 'Ausgleich' a few weeks,
the government would doubtless have to withdraw the hated
language bill or lose Hungary.

"The Opposition began its fight. Its arms were the Rules of
the House. It was soon manifest that by applying these Rules
ingeniously, it could make the majority helpless, and keep it
so as long as it pleased. It could shut off business every now
and then with a motion to adjourn. It could require the ayes
and noes on the motion, and use up thirty minutes on that
detail. It could call for the reading and verification of the
minutes of the preceding meeting, and use up half a day in
that way.
{40}
It could require that several of its members be entered upon
the list of permitted speakers previously to the opening of a
sitting; and as there is no time limit, further delays could
thus be accomplished. These were all lawful weapons, and the
men of the Opposition (technically called the Left) were
within their rights in using them. They used them to such dire
purpose that all parliamentary business was paralyzed. The
Right (the government side) could accomplish nothing. Then it
had a saving idea. This idea was a curious one. It was to have
the President and the Vice-Presidents of the parliament
trample the Rules under foot upon occasion! …

"And now took place that memorable sitting of the House which
broke two records. It lasted the best part of two days and a
night, surpassing by half an hour the longest sitting known to
the world's previous parliamentary history, and breaking the
long-speech record with Dr. Lecher's twelve-hour effort, the
longest flow of unbroken talk that ever came out of one mouth
since the world began. At 8.45, on the evening of the 28th of
October, when the House had been sitting a few minutes short
of ten hours, Dr. Lecher was granted the floor. … Then burst
out such another wild and frantic and deafening clamor as has
not been heard on this planet since the last time the
Comanches surprised a white settlement at midnight. Yells from
the Left, counter-yells from the Right, explosions of yells
from all sides at once, and all the air sawed and pawed and
clawed and cloven by a writhing confusion of gesturing arms
and hands. Out of the midst of this thunder and turmoil and
tempest rose Dr. Lecher, serene and collected, and the
providential length of him enabled his head to show out above
it. He began his twelve-hour speech. At any rate, his lips
could be seen to move, and that was evidence. On high sat the
President imploring order, with his long hands put together as
in prayer, and his lips visibly but not hearably speaking. At
intervals he grasped his bell and swung it up and down with
vigor, adding its keen clamor to the storm weltering there
below. Dr. Lecher went on with his pantomime speech,
contented, untroubled. … One of the interrupters who made
himself heard was a young fellow of slight build and neat
dress, who stood a little apart from the solid crowd and
leaned negligently, with folded arms and feet crossed, against
a desk. Trim and handsome; strong face and thin features;
black hair roughed up; parsimonious mustache; resonant great
voice, of good tone and pitch. It is Wolf, capable and
hospitable with sword and pistol. … Out of him came early this
thundering peal, audible above the storm:

"'I demand the floor. I wish to offer a motion.'

"In the sudden lull which followed, the President answered,


'Dr. Lecher has the floor.'

"Wolf. 'I move the close of the sitting!'

"President. 'Representative Lecher has the floor.'


[Stormy outburst from the Left—that is, the Opposition.]

"Wolf. 'I demand the floor for the introduction of a


formal motion. [Pause.] Mr. President, are you going to grant
it, or not? [Crash of approval from the Left.] I will keep on
demanding the floor till I get it.'

"President. 'I call Representative Wolf to order. Dr.


Lecher has the floor.' …

"'Which was true; and he was speaking, too, calmly, earnestly,


and argumentatively; and the official stenographers had left
their places and were at his elbows taking down his words, he
leaning and orating into their ears—a most curious and
interesting scene. … At this point a new and most effective
noisemaker was pressed into service. Each desk has an
extension, consisting of a removable board eighteen inches
long, six wide, and a half-inch thick. A member pulled one of
these out and began to belabor the top of his desk with it.
Instantly other members followed suit, and perhaps you can
imagine the result. Of all conceivable rackets it is the most
ear-splitting, intolerable, and altogether fiendish. … Wolf
went on with his noise and with his demands that he be granted
the floor, resting his board at intervals to discharge
criticisms and epithets at the Chair. … By-and-by he struck
the idea of beating out a tune with his board. Later he
decided to stop asking for the floor, and to confer it upon
himself. And so he and Dr. Lecher now spoke at the same time,
and mingled their speeches with the other noises, and nobody
heard either of them. Wolf rested himself now and then from
speech-making by reading, in his clarion voice, from a
pamphlet.

"I will explain that Dr. Lecher was not making a twelve-hour
speech for pastime, but for an important purpose. It was the
government's intention to push the 'Ausgleich' through its
preliminary stages in this one sitting (for which it was the
Order of the Day), and then by vote refer it to a select
committee. It was the Majority's scheme—as charged by the
Opposition—to drown debate upon the bill by pure noise—drown
it out and stop it. The debate being thus ended, the vote upon
the reference would follow—with victory for the government.
But into the government's calculations had not entered the
possibility of a single-barrelled speech which should occupy
the entire time-limit of the sitting, and also get itself
delivered in spite of all the noise. … In the English House an
obstructionist has held the floor with Bible-readings and
other outside matters; but Dr. Lecher could not have that
restful and recuperative privilege—he must confine himself
strictly to the subject before the House. More than once, when
the President could not hear him because of the general
tumult, he sent persons to listen and report as to whether the
orator was speaking to the subject or not.

"The subject was a peculiarly difficult one, and it would have


troubled any other deputy to stick to it three hours without
exhausting his ammunition, because it required a vast and
intimate knowledge—detailed and particularized knowledge—of
the commercial, railroading, financial, and international
banking relations existing between two great sovereignties,
Hungary and the Empire. But Dr. Lecher is President of the
Board of Trade of his city of Brünn, and was master of the
situation. … He went steadily on with his speech; and always
it was strong, virile, felicitous, and to the point. He was
earning applause, and this enabled his party to turn that fact
to account. Now and then they applauded him a couple of
minutes on a stretch, and during that time he could stop
speaking and rest his voice without having the floor taken
from him. …

{41}

"The Minority staid loyally by their champion. Some


distinguished deputies of the Majority staid by him too,
compelled thereto by admiration of his great performance. When
a man has been speaking eight hours, is it conceivable that he
can still be interesting, still fascinating? When Dr. Lecher had
been speaking eight hours he was still compactly surrounded by
friends who would not leave him and by foes (of all parties)
who could not; and all hung enchanted and wondering upon his
words, and all testified their admiration with constant and
cordial outbursts of applause. Surely this was a triumph
without precedent in history. …

"In consequence of Dr. Lecher's twelve-hour speech and the


other obstructions furnished by the Minority, the famous
thirty-three-hour sitting of the House accomplished nothing. …
Parliament was adjourned for a week—to let the members cool
off, perhaps—a sacrifice of precious time, for but two months
remained in which to carry the all-important 'Ausgleich' to a
consummation. …

"During the whole of November things went from bad to worse.


The all-important 'Ausgleich' remained hard aground, and could
not be sparred off. Badeni's government could not withdraw the
Language Ordinance and keep its majority, and the Opposition
could not be placated on easier terms. One night, while the
customary pandemonium was crashing and thundering along at its
best, a fight broke out. … On Thanksgiving day the sitting was
a history-making one. On that day the harried, bedeviled and
despairing government went insane. In order to free itself
from the thraldom of the Opposition it committed this
curiously juvenile crime: it moved an important change of the
Rules of the House, forbade debate upon the motion, put it to
a stand-up vote instead of ayes and noes, and then gravely
claimed that it had been adopted. … The House was already
standing up; had been standing for an hour; and before a third
of it had found out what the President had been saying, he had
proclaimed the adoption of the motion! And only a few heard
that. In fact, when that House is legislating you can't tell
it from artillery-practice. You will realize what a happy idea
it was to sidetrack the lawful ayes and noes and substitute a
stand-up vote by this fact: that a little later, when a
deputation of deputies waited upon the President and asked him
if he was actually willing to claim that that measure had been
passed, he answered, 'Yes—and unanimously.' …

"The 'Lex Falkenhayn,' thus strangely born, gave the President


power to suspend for three days any deputy who should continue
to be disorderly after being called to order twice, and it
also placed at his disposal such force as might be necessary
to make the suspension effective. So the House had a
sergeant-at-arms at last, and a more formidable one, as to
power, than any other legislature in Christendom had ever
possessed. The Lex Falkenhayn also gave the House itself
authority to suspend members for thirty days. On these terms
the 'Ausgleich' could be put through in an hour—apparently.
The Opposition would have to sit meek and quiet, and stop
obstructing, or be turned into the street, deputy after
deputy, leaving the Majority an unvexed field for its work.

"Certainly the thing looked well. … [But next day, when the
President attempted to open the session, a band of the
Socialist members made a sudden charge upon him, drove him and
the Vice President from the House, took possession of the
tribune, and brought even the semblance of legislative
proceedings to an end. Then a body of sixty policemen was
brought in to clear the House.] Some of the results of this
wild freak followed instantly. The Badeni government came down
with a crash; there was a popular outbreak or two in Vienna;
there were three or four days of furious rioting in Prague,
followed by the establishing there of martial law; the Jews
and Germans were harried and plundered, and their houses
destroyed; in other Bohemian towns there was rioting—in some
cases the Germans being the rioters, in others the Czechs—and
in all cases the Jew had to roast, no matter which side he was
on. We are well along in December now; the new
Minister-President has not been able to patch up a peace among
the warring factions of the parliament, therefore there is no
use in calling it together again for the present; public
opinion believes that parliamentary government and the
Constitution are actually threatened with extinction, and that
the permanency of the monarchy itself is a not absolutely
certain thing!

"Yes, the Lex Falkenhayn was a great invention, and did what
was claimed for it—it got the government out of the
frying-pan."

S. L. Clemens (Mark Twain),


Stirring Times in Austria
(Harper's Magazine, March, 1898).
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897 (December).
Imperial action.

On the last day of the year the Emperor closed the sittings of
the Austrian Reichsrath by proclamation and issued a rescript
continuing the "Ausgleich" provisionally for six months.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898.
Prolongation of factious disorders.
Paralysis of constitutional government.

Though scenes in the Austrian Chamber were not quite so


violent, perhaps, as they had become near the close of 1897,
the state of factious disorder continued much the same
throughout the year, and legislation was completely stopped.
The work of government could be carried on only by imperial
decrees. The ministry of Baron von Gautsch, which had
succeeded that of Count Badeni, attempted a compromise on the
language question in Bohemia by dividing the country into
three districts, according to the distribution of the several
races, in one of which German was to be the official tongue,
in another Czech, while both languages were to be used in the
third. But the Germans of the empire would accept no such
compromise. In March, Baron von Gautsch retired, and Count
Thun Hohenstein formed a Ministry made up to represent the
principal factions in the Reichsrath; but, the scheme brought
no peace. Nor did appeals by Count Thun, "in the name of
Austria," to the patriotism and the reason of all parties, to
suspend their warfare long enough for a little of the
necessary work of the state to be done, have any effect. The
turbulence in the legislature infected the whole community,
and especially, it would seem, the students in the schools,
whose disorder caused many lectures to be stopped. In Hungary,
too, there was an increase of violence in political agitation.
A party, led by the son of Louis Kossuth, struggled to improve
what seemed to be an opportunity for breaking the political
union of Hungary with Austria, and realizing the old ambition
for an independent Hungarian state.
{42}
The ministry of Baron Banffy had this party against him, as
well as that of the clericals, who resented the civil marriage
laws, and legislation came to a deadlock nearly as complete in
the Hungarian as in the Austrian Parliament. There, as well as
in Austria, the extension of the Ausgleich, provisionally for
another year, had to be imposed by imperial decree.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (April).


Withdrawal from the blockade of Crete and
the "Concert of Europe."

See (in this volume)


TURKEY: A. D. 1897-1899.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (June).


The Sugar Conference at Brussels.

See (in this volume)


SUGAR BOUNTIES.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (September).


Assassination of the Empress.
Jubilee of the Emperor's reign.

On the 10th of September, Elizabeth, Empress of Austria and


Queen of Hungary, was assassinated at Geneva by an Italian
anarchist, named Luigi Luccheni, who stabbed her with a small
stiletto, exceedingly thin and narrow in the blade. The
murderer rushed upon her and struck her, as she was walking,
with a single attendant, on the quay, towards a lake steamer
on which she intended to travel to Montreux. She fell, but
arose, with some assistance, and walked forward to the
steamer, evidently unaware that she had suffered worse than a
blow. On the steamer, however, she lost consciousness, and
then, for the first time, the wound was discovered. It had
been made by so fine a weapon that it showed little external
sign, and it is probable that the Empress felt little pain.
She lived nearly half an hour after the blow was struck. The
assassin attempted to escape, but was caught. As Swiss law
forbids capital punishment, he could be only condemned to
solitary confinement for life. This terrible tragedy came soon
after the festivities in Austria which had celebrated the
jubilee year of the Emperor Francis Joseph's reign. The
Emperor's marriage had been one of love: he had suffered many
afflictions in his later life; the state of his realm was such
as could hardly be contemplated without despair; men wondered
if he could bear this crowning sorrow and live. But he had the
undoubted affection of his subjects, much as they troubled him
with their miserably factious quarrels, and that consciousness
seems to have been his one support.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1899 (May-July).


Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)


PEACE CONFERENCE.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1899-1900.
Continued obstruction by the German parties in Austria.
Extensive secession of German Catholics from their
Church, and its significance.
Withdrawal of the Bohemian language decrees.
Obstruction taken up by the Czechs.

During most of the year the German parties in the Austrian


Reichsrath continued to make legislation impossible by
disorderly obstruction, with the avowed purpose of compelling
the government to withdraw the language decrees in Bohemia. A
still more significant demonstration of German feeling and
policy appeared, in a wide-spread and organized movement to
detach German Roman Catholics from their church, partly, it
would seem, as a proceeding of hostility to the Clerical
party, and partly as a means of recommending the Germans of
the Austrian states to the sympathy of the German Empire, and
smoothing the approach to an ultimate union of some of those
states with the Germanic federation. The agitation against the
Catholic Church is called "Los von Rom," and is said to have
had remarkable results. "Those acquainted with the situation
in Austria," says a writer in the "Quarterly Review," "do not
wonder that in various parts of the Empire there is a marked
tendency among the German Catholics to join Christian
communions separated from Rome. Many thousand Roman Catholics
have recently renounced their allegiance to the Holy See.
Further secessions are announced as about to take place. The
movement is especially strong in great centres like Eger,
Asch, and Saatz, but has made itself felt also in Carinthia,
and even in coast districts. This is a grave political fact,
for it is a marked indication of serious discontent, and a
sure sign that some arrangement under which certain districts
of Austria might be joined to Germany would not be unwelcome
to a section of the people."

Quarterly Review,
January, 1899.

In September the Austrian Ministry of Count Thun resigned, and


was succeeded by one formed under Count Clary-Aldingen. The
new premier withdrew the language decrees, which quieted the
German obstructionists, but provoked the Czechs to take up the
same rôle. Count Clary-Aldingen resigned in December, and a
provisional Ministry was formed under Dr. Wettek, which lasted
only until the 10th of January, 1900, when a new Cabinet was
formed by Dr. von Körber. In Hungary, Baron Banffy was driven
from power in February, 1899, by a state of things in the
Hungarian Parliament much like that in the Austrian. M.
Koloman Szell, who succeeded him, effected a compromise with
the opposition which enabled him to carry a measure extending
the Ausgleich to 1907. This brought one serious difficulty of
the situation to an end.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1899-1901.
Attitude towards impending revolt in Macedonia.

See (in this volume)


TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901;
and BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1900.
Military and naval expenditure.

See (in this volume)


WAR BUDGETS.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1900 (February).


Attempted pacification of German and Czech parties by a
Conciliation Board.

"On Monday last [February 5] the German and Czech Conciliation


Board met for the first time in Vienna, under the presidency of
the Austrian Premier, Dr. von Körber, and conferred for two
hours. … Dr. von Körber is at the head of what may be called a
'business' Ministry, composed largely of those who had filled
subordinate offices in previous Ministries. It was hoped,
perhaps, that, since the leading politicians with a political
'past' could apparently do nothing to bring about a
settlement, men with no past, but with a capacity for
business, and in no way committed on the racial question,
might do better in effecting a working arrangement. The
appointment of this Conciliation Board seemed a promising way
of attempting such a settlement. Dr. von Körber opened
Monday's proceedings with a strong appeal to both sides,
saying: 'Gentlemen, the Empire looks to you to restore its
happiness and tranquillity.' It cannot be said that the Empire
is likely to find its wishes fulfilled, for when the Board came
down to hard business, the old troubles instantly revealed
themselves.
{43}
The Premier recommended a committee for Bohemia of twenty-two
members, and one for Moravia of fifteen members, the two
sitting in joint session in certain cases. Dr. Engel then set
forth the historical claims of the Czechs, which immediately
called forth a demand from Dr. Funke, of the German party,
that German should be declared the official language
throughout Austria. Each speaker seems to have been supported
by his own party, and so no progress was made, and matters
remain in 'statu quo ante.' The singularly deficient
constitution of this Board makes against success, for it seems
that the German Nationalists and Anti-Semites have only one
delegate apiece, the Social Democrats were not invited at all,
while the extreme Germans and extreme Czechs, apparently
regarding the Board as a farce, declined to nominate delegates
to its sittings. … There is unhappily little reason for
believing that the Board of Conciliation will effect what the
Emperor himself has failed to accomplish."

Spectator (London),
February 10, 1900.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1900 (June-December).


Co-operation with the Powers in China.

See (in this volume)


CHINA.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1900 (September-December).


Warnings by the Emperor.
Clerical interference in politics.
The attitude of Hungary.
Economic decline of Austria.
Pessimistic views in Vienna.
The pending elections.

The Vienna correspondence of the "London Times" seems to be


the best source of information concerning the critical
conditions that are prevailing in the composite Empire, as the
Nineteenth Century closes, and the events by which those
conditions are from time to time revealed. The writer, whose
reports we shall quote, is evidently well placed for
observation, and well prepared for understanding what he sees.

In a dispatch of September 14, he notes the significance of a


reprimand which the Emperor had caused to be administered to
the Archbishop of Sarajevo, for interference in political
affairs:

"The chief of the Emperor's Cabinet called the Archbishop's


attention to newspaper reports of a speech made by him at the
close of the Catholic Congress recently held at Agram, in
which he was represented to have expressed the hope that
Bosnia would be incorporated with Croatia at the earliest
possible date. As that question was a purely political one and
foreign to the sacred vocation of the Archbishop, and as its
solution fell exclusively within the jurisdiction of certain
lay factors, and more especially within the Sovereign
prerogatives of his Majesty, the chief of the Cabinet was
instructed, in case the reports were correct, to communicate
to his Grace the serious warning and firm expectation of the
Emperor that his Grace would abstain in future, both in word
and deed, from interference in political questions. As was to
be expected, this sharp reprimand to an ecclesiastic of such
high position and repute has made a great sensation. It meets
with warm approval from the entire Hungarian Press. … There
is, on the other hand, bitter mortification in Clerical
circles. It is evidently felt that the warning to abstain from
politics may be of more than mere local and individual
significance."

In another dispatch on the same day the correspondent reported


a still more significant imperial utterance, this time from
the Emperor's own lips: "Yesterday the Emperor, who is
attending the manœuvres in Galicia, received the Polish
Parliamentary Deputation and, addressing their president,
informed him that the dissolution of the Reichsrath and the
coming elections were the last constitutional means which
would be employed by his Government. That implies that, if the
new Parliament will not work, the Constitution will be
suspended. … The dissolution of the Reichsrath takes place in
opposition to the wish of the moderate element of all parties,
who did their utmost to dissuade the Prime Minister from
taking such a drastic measure. The opinion of those who did
not approve of dissolution is that in the absence of a new
suffrage the next Parliament will prove more unruly than the
last. … Yesterday's Imperial warning requires no comment.
It means no more than it says—namely, an eventual suspension
of the Constitution. It does not point to any alternative
regime in case the Parliamentary system should break down.
Indeed, there is nothing to show that any such alternative has
been under the consideration of the Emperor and his Ministers. No
less an authority than Dr. Lueger, the Anti-Semitic
burgomaster of Vienna, has just expressed his opinion on the
subject to a local journalist in the following words:

'I am firmly convinced that nobody, not a single man in


Austria, including all statesmen and Parliamentary
politicians, has the faintest idea of how the situation will
develop.'"

A few days later (September 25) the "Times" correspondence


summarized an important speech by the Hungarian statesman,
Count Apponyi, to his constituents, in which the same forecast
of a political catastrophe in Austria was intimated. Count
Apponyi,—"after dwelling upon the importance of maintaining
the Ausgleich, remarked that affairs in Austria might take a
turn which would render its revision indispensable owing
either to a complete suspension of the constitutional system
in Austria, the maintenance of which was one of the conditions
of the arrangement of 1867, or such modifications thereof as
would make the existing form of union between the two
countries technically untenable or politically questionable.
In either case the revision could only confirm the
independence of Hungary. But even then Count Apponyi believed
that by fallowing the traditions of Francis Deák it would be
possible to harmonize the necessary revision with the
fundamental principles of the Dual Monarchy. It would,
however, be a great mistake to raise that question unless
forced to do so by circumstances. Count Apponyi went on to say
that the importance of Hungary, not only in the Monarchy but
throughout the civilized world, was enormously increased by
the fact that it secured the maintenance of Austria-Hungary,
threatened by the destructive influence of the Austrian chaos,
and thus constituted one of the principal guarantees of
European tranquillity. The peace-abiding nations recognized
that this service to the dynasty, the Monarchy, and the
European State system was only possible while the
constitutional independence and national unity of Hungary was
maintained. It was clear to every unprejudiced mind that
Hungarian national independence and unity was the backbone of
the Dual Monarchy and one of the most important guarantees of
European peace. But the imposing position attained by Hungary
through the European sanction of her national ideal would be
imperilled if they were of their own initiative to raise the
question of the union of the two countries and thus convert
the Austrian crisis into one affecting the whole Monarchy."

{44}

An article in the "Neue Freie Presse," of Vienna, on the


hostility of the Vatican to Austria and Hungary was partially
communicated in a despatch of October 11. The Vienna journal
ascribes this hostility in part to resentment engendered by
the alliance of Catholic Austria with Italy, and in part to
the Hungarian ecclesiastical laws.

See above: A. D. 1894-1895.


It remarked: "Never has clericalism been so influential in the
legislation and administration of this Empire. The most
powerful party is the one that takes its 'mot d'ordre' from
the Papal Nunciature. It guides the feudal nobility, it is the
thorn in the flesh of the German population, it has provoked a
20 years' reaction in Austria, and, unhindered and protected,
it scatters in Hungary that seed which has thriven so well in
this half of the Monarchy that nothing is done in Austria
without first considering what will be said about it in Rome."
A day or two later some evidence of a growing resentment in
Austria at the interference of the clergy in politics was
adduced: "Thus the Czech organ, inspired by the well-known
leader of the party, Dr. Stransky, states that a deputation of
tradespeople called on the editor and expressed great
indignation at the unprecedented manner in which the priests
were joining in electoral agitation. They added that they
'could no longer remain members of a Church whose clergy took
advantage of religious sentiment for political purposes.' The
Peasants' Electoral Association for Upper Austria has just
issued a manifesto in which the following occurs:—'We have for
more than 20 years invariably elected the candidates proposed by
the Clerical party. What has been done during that long period
for us peasants and small tradespeople? What have the Clerical
party and the Clerical members of Parliament done for us? How
have they rewarded our long fidelity? By treason. … We have
been imposed upon long enough. It is due to our self-respect
and honour to emancipate ourselves thoroughly from the
mamelukes put forward by the Clerical wirepullers. We must
show that we can get on without Clerical leadingstrings.'"

On the 26th of October the writer summarized a report that day


published by the Vienna Stock Exchange Committee, as
furnishing "fresh evidence of the disastrous effects of the
prolonged internal political crisis." "The report begins by
stating that the Vienna Stock Exchange, formerly the leading
and most important one in Europe, and which, in consequence of
the geographical situation of the town, was called upon to be
the centre of financial operations with the Near East, has for
years past been steadily declining. Every year the number of
those frequenting the Bourse diminishes, and there has been an
annual decrease in the amount of capital that has changed
hands. Of late years, and particularly within the last few
months, this has assumed such dimensions that it has become an
imperative duty for the competent authorities to investigate the
causes of the evil and to seek a remedy. It is recognized that
the deplorable domestic situation has largely contributed to
the decline of the Bourse. The deadlock in the Legislative
Assembly has occasioned stagnation in industry and commerce,
whereas outside the Monarchy there has been an unprecedented
development of trade. Further prejudice has been caused by
what is called in the report the anti-capitalist tendencies,
which represent all gains and profits to be ill-gotten. The
profession of merchant has been held up by unprincipled
demagogues as disreputable. The authorities are reproached
with having encouraged those tendencies by undue tolerance."

Early in November, the Vienna letters began accounts of the


electioneering campaign then opening, though elections for the
new House were not to take place until the following January:
"Every day," wrote the correspondent, "brings its contingent
of electoral manifestos, and all parties have already had
their say. Unfortunately, nothing could be less edifying. It
may be said of them all that they have profited little by
experience, and it is vain to search for any indication of a
conciliatory disposition among Czechs or Germans, Liberals or
Clericals. One and all are as uncompromising as ever, and
neither the leaders nor the rank and file are prepared to
reckon with the real exigencies of the situation, even to save
their own Parliamentary existence. The feudal nobility, who
stand aloof from Parliamentary strife, have alone lost nothing
of their position and influence. They disdainfully refuse to
take either the requirements of the State or the legitimate
wishes of the Crown into account. They are preparing in
alliance with Ultramontanism to hold their own against the
coming storm. Their action in the pending electrical campaign
is of an occult nature; their proceedings are seldom reported
by the newspapers, and when they meet it is by groups and
privately.

"The political speeches which have hitherto been delivered in


various parts of the country are bewildering. The Germans are
split up into several fractions, and even on the other side
there have been separate manifestos from the Young Czechs and
also from the Old Czechs, who have long ceased to play a part
in the Reichsrath. It is confusion worse confounded, in fact
complete chaos. The prospect of a rallying of the
heterogeneous and mutually antagonistic groups on the basis of
resistance to Hungarian exigencies, though possible, is not
yet at hand, whatever the future may reserve. … The words of
warning that came from the Crown as to this being the last
attempt that would be made to rule by constitutional methods
has clearly failed to produce that impression among
Parliamentary politicians which might justly have been
anticipated. Not even the most experienced and best informed
among the former members of the Reichsrath are disposed to
make any prophecy as to what will follow the dissolution of
the next Chamber."

{45}

In the following month, a significant speech in the Reichsrath


at Buda-Pesth, by the very able Hungarian Prime Minister, M.
Szell, WIIS reported. "He foreshadowed the possibility of a
situation in which Austria would not be able to fulfil the
conditions prescribed in the Ausgleich Act of 1867 with regard
to the manner of dealing with the affairs common to both halves
of the Monarchy. He himself had, however, made up his mind on
the subject, and was convinced that even in those
circumstances the Hungarians would by means of provisional
measures regulate the common affairs and interests of the two

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