Information Technology: Instrument and Object of Risk/Return Management Dissertation der Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Augsburg zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktors der Wirtschaftswissenschaften (Dr. rer. pol.) vorgelegt von Gilbert Stefan Fridgen Diplom-Kaufmann Univ., Bachelor of Science in Informatik und Electronic Commerce Augsburg, April 2010 Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Hans Ulrich Buhl Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Manfred Steiner Vorsitzender der mündlichen Prüfung: Prof. Dr. Marco C. Meier Datum der mündlichen Prüfung: 08.04.2010 We should willingly take risks in supporting new projects. The tendency is to play it safe when funding is low, but we need to remember that the greatest risks have the greatest payoffs. […] It is clear to me that under the right conditions, future technologies will be created that we cannot even imagine. Jerome Isaac Friedman, 1990 Physics Nobel Prize Laureate iv Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Included Papers I Introduction I.1 Objectives and Structure I.2 Motivation of the Addressed Research Questions I.3 References (Chapter I) II IT as an Instrument of Risk/Return Management II.1 An Economic Analysis of Service-Oriented Infrastructures for Risk/Return Management II.2 IT-Enabled Risk/Return Management: Service-Oriented Infrastructures vs. Dedicated Systems II.3 Using a Grid for Risk Management: Communication Complexity of Covariance Calculations II.