Refine
Document type
- Bachelor Thesis (13)
Has full text
- Yes (13) (remove)
Is part of the Bibliography
- No (13)
Keywords
- Attitude-behavior gap (2)
- Agility (1)
- Attitudinal ambivalence (1)
- Behavioral finance (1)
- Choice architecture (1)
- Consumer behavior (1)
- Corporate sustainability (1)
- Customer attitudes (1)
- Digital scent technology (1)
- Digitization (1)
Course of studies
- BMP - Business Management and Psychology (13) (remove)
A Descriptive Study on Customer Attitudes towards Green Branding in the Fashion Industry in Germany
(2021)
This paper attempts to provide an up-to-date representation and analysis of customers' attitudes towards green branding in the fashion industry and their willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainable and ethical clothing in Germany. Related literature strands are reviewed to understand how the fashion industry works, what green branding means, and how customer attitudes are shaped. After creating an attitude measurement model, an online questionnaire was designed and sent to Furtwangen University students, with 153 valid responses returned. The descriptive analysis sheds light on the three attitudinal components related to sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry. It is noted that customers do not hold a definite attitude. However, a tendency towards the positive end is ascertained. Significant gaps still exist in terms of knowledge and awareness of some commitment by fashion brands. Another huge factor influencing attitudes appears to be a lack of trust. The behavioral component showed that customers are trying to contribute through proper disposal and are willing to buy sustainable and ethical clothing more often. However, there is still some room for improvement in terms of customer education. Nevertheless, it is found that they are willing to accept an additional contribution for sustainable and ethical clothing. In general, it can be concluded that there is a foundation to improve the fashion industry towards more sustainability. However, all stakeholders, i.e., customers and fashion brands, as well as the government, need to work together to change the industry in the long run.
Sustainability, encompassing the economy, the environment, and society in equal parts, is an increasingly prominent topic that is gaining in importance and awareness due to the climate crisis and the resulting urgent need for action. It is essential to simultaneously focus on the global and on the local scale in order to create a paradigm shift. This study addresses the attitude-behavior gap of employees in the daily operations within companies and evaluates how nudges can be implemented to narrow this gap. A literature review was conducted to understand the separate topics of sustainability, the attitude-behavior gap, and nudging. Based on these three topics and their interrelation, exemplary nudges on habits and on infrastructure to be applied in a company and modified to its needs are developed. The method of implementation of nudges cannot be generalized because (1) attitudes and behavior and their interrelation are individual and influenceable factors and (2) the corporate context and how nudges are communicated impact the effectiveness of the interventions. Investing in internal sustainability practices in combination with indispensable external practices leads companies to a holistic, authentic, and successful approach towards becoming a sustainable business.
Keywords: Attitude-Behavior Gap, Nudging, Corporate sustainability
This thesis talks about the relation between investor sentiment, stock return and trading volume in the German stock market. Six Granger causality tests were performed in order to determine, whether one of the above mentioned factors is indicative of the others. The results imply that investor sentiment is indicative of both, stock return and trading volume in the specified time period. However, there is no further significant evidence for other relations among the variables. The results are mostly in line with the literature available on this topic and back up the importance of the concept of investor sentiment as investor sentiment delivers an attempt to explain why investors behave irrationally on the stock market. Hence, the factors influencing investor sentiment should be subject to further research in order to gain a broader understanding of the topic.
Differences in the perception and their effects on the implementation of organizational agility
(2021)
This thesis paper investigates the differences in organizational agility implementation and links practical approaches to complex theory. Several agile transformations have been studied to provide an overview of the common guidelines that foster agile working. In alignment with the ambivalence of agility, the results show that a symbiotic mixture of bottom- up and top-down features in the application is required. Especially in traditional organizations, where hierarchical structures prevail, the practical implementation requires the approval of managers and the active involvement of employees to be successful. Additionally, companies cannot apply a uniform approach to achieving agile but must alter practices to fit their specific needs. Consequently, this paper can be particularly beneficial to companies attempting an agile change.
Do Meat-Eating Consumers Use Organic Meat to Rationalize the Consumption of Conventional Meat?
(2021)
This thesis explores how meat-eating consumers may be able to rationalize the consumption of conventional meat by believing to substitute a certain amount of it for organic meat. The underlying rationale is that the positive associations elicited by the organic label and the favorable beliefs consumers have formed about organic meat enable them to use it as a moral license. Building on cognitive dissonance theory, this work specifically investigated whether (1) meat-eaters perceive organic meat better than vegetarians and (2) meat-eaters overestimate how much organic meat they consume. German meat-eating and vegetarian participants were recruited for a study (n=156) to answer these questions. The results show, first, that organic was generally rated as better than conventional meat on all dimensions surveyed, and to a greater extent by meat-eating than by vegetarian respondents. Second, meat-eating participants on average reported estimates of organic meat consumption that were significantly higher than the population mean, indicating that consumers may not eat as much organic meat as they believe. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that organic meat might be used to rationalize unsustainable food choices.
Der Frauenanteil in den Führungsetagen der deutschen Wirtschaft stagniert seit Jahren auf einem niedrigen Niveau und spiegelt nicht im Entferntesten den Anteil weiblicher Beschäftigter wider (vgl. Tonn 2016, S. 11). Vor allem im Top-Management sind Frauen deutlich unterrepräsentiert. Die Grundannahme dieser Bachelorarbeit besteht darin, dass Frauen grundsätzlich motiviert sind, Führung zu übernehmen und die gleichen Potentiale wie Männer besitzen. Um eine Führungsposition einzunehmen, müssen die Rahmenbedingungen passen. Aufgrund biologischer Unterschiede und der Sozialisation präferieren Frauen andere Rahmenbedingungen als Männer. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde die Frage untersucht, was sich aus Sicht der Frauen verändern müsste, damit sie ihr Potential entfalten können. Dazu wurden 50 weibliche Probandinnen aus unterschiedlichen Branchen befragt. Die systematische Betrachtung der Aussagen ergab im Wesentlichen folgende sieben Aspekte: Gestaltungsfreiheit, Unterstützung zu Beginn und in der Führungsposition, Vertrauen, eine gute Feedback- und Fehlerkultur, die Vereinbarkeit mit dem Privatleben, Menschlichkeit im Fokus und attraktive Anreize. Des Weiteren konnten durch die Ergebnisse Handlungsoptionen abgeleitet werden, um strukturelle und kulturelle Rahmenbedingungen zu gestalten, die talentierten und motivierten Frauen einen einfacheren Zugang zu mehr Führungsverantwortung verschaffen.
Prior research found extremeness aversion effects to be common and robust. Nevertheless, most research neglected the spatial arrangement's influence on a consumer's choice and placed the compromise option of a choice set simultaneously in the spatial middle. Following these findings, five bachelor theses were conducted to investigate both aspects by analyzing numerical and spatial choice architectures – their data comprised three online surveys and three field experiments. This study aimed to compare their findings and analyze their data sets to search for overarching effects. Therefore, we hypothesized that there is either information-format compatibility or a general tendency towards the spatial middle of a choice set. To research this hypothesis, we brought the data sets into a comparable format, analyzed our findings, and conducted t-tests to test for statistical significance. Even though the study could not find overarching effects across the data, it supports the notion that a choice set's spatial arrangement, like the numerical one, can influence consumer behavior. Furthermore, it led to valuable insights for future research approaches concerning expanding extremeness aversion into a spatial dimension.
This paper proposes to consider the influence of transparency in leadership styles on work performance and satisfaction. In an experimental setting, a pair of strangers were advised to solve a Sudoku in a digital environment under time pressure. With an induced hierarchy, the leader was able to view the task and the timer, whereas only the subordinate was enabled to actively edit the riddle. The treatment group was told to transparently communicate the intended leadership style during the preparation phase. The results indicate that transparency has a significant positive effect on the performance and the satisfaction of the teams. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that transparency may not be the direct cause of improved performance and satisfaction. Yet it might be crucial in establishing trust between the leader and subordinate, causing a positive effect on the two dependent variables. The paper is concluded by discussing limitations, practical implications and considerations for future research.
What happens in a situation in which an individual is given a quality task for no compensation while knowing that someone else receives a reward for the same effort? If a performance drop occurs, does the individual's fairness sensitivity play a dependent role? These questions are approached theoretically and experimentally within this thesis. As a foundation, the most critical insights from the psychological investigation of extrinsic rewards and its impact on intrinsic motivation and performance are reviewed. Furthermore, relevant findings regarding fairness are introduced from varying fields of research. The conducted double-blind experiment suggests with limited confidence that the higher an individual's fairness sensitivity in a situation of perceived unfair treatment, the lower the performance.
This research examines whether a company's popularity is a determining factor for its attractiveness among employees. For this purpose, two groups of subjects were asked to rate the attractiveness of an identical job advertisement. The only difference between the groups was that one group was led to believe that it was the job advertisement of a well-known company, whereas the other group was presented with the advertisement of a rather unknown, but in terms of activity and prestige comparable company. The results suggest that the familiarity of the company does indeed influence popularity to a significant degree. Implications of this finding are also further explored.