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Managing employee engagement in high-growth companies: The case of Red Hat in high-growth companies
(2017)
Purpose
This thesis aims to analyze employee engagement in high growth companies with the case of Red Hat.
Methodology
Primary research involved the gathering of a mix of qualitative data in the open- source IT company Red Hat in the United Kingdom. Both an interview and a focus group methodology was applied. Literature from the research fields of employee engagement was reviewed and integrated into the primary research design.
Findings
The findings showed that fast-growing companies encounter many challenges in the fields of employee impact and purpose, recruiting and retaining, career development, leadership and management, and organizational culture. Best practices on how to scale culture were worked out. The findings concluded that actionable solutions such as modifying the recruiting process for cultural fit and giving more autonomy to regional leaders and teams, can help cope with the challenges of employee engagement in a fast-paced environment.
Limitations and implications for further research
One of the main limitations of this study is the lack of literature available to link organizational growth and employee engagement. Contrasting more stable environments with change environments or using a larger sample size may potentially add to this field with further reliable and insightful findings. This issue may be re-investigated in the future as well, as the nature of change environments can affect the findings. Red Hat is a very people-focused company with a flat hierarchy. Thus, investigating this issue in more hierarchical companies could lead to different findings with different challenges and would further complete this research field.
Although sustainability reporting in China receives more attention in the past ten years, effective studies and literature of sustainability reporting are still in urgent need. A good sustainability reporting will provide stakeholders with needed information and guidance in the activities, and it also minimises the potential harm while creating economic, social and environmental values (Schaltegger & Wagner, 2006, 5). The main objectives of this research are not only to have an overall view of Chinese sustainability reporting situation but also to look into how Chinese companies will develop or what needs to be changed for a better development. To achieve this goal, sustainability reporting issued by top 10 manufacturing companies will be studied concerning GRI. During the analysis, the GRI Specific Standard Disclosures and Principle of Defining Report will be adopted to view how Chinese companies perform in sustainability reporting both in content and quality. Further, the possible elements of influencing companies development will be illustrated. Then make an attempt of what will future SR focus. The result obtained from the analysis is that Chinese sustainability reporting still have many problems in both quality and content. Most of them share the similar preference on how and what to disclose, such as focusing on resource saving. After making an explanation of what will affect future development of the companies in China, it is concluded that in the future the focus of SR will be concentrated on adoption of new energy, technology innovation, application of greener supply chain and consumption of green products.
The vegan trend has experienced continuous growth in recent years, influencing companies inside and outside of the market due to shifts in consumer behaviour. This thesis investigates the perceptible success factors for entry into the healthy vegan snacks market and delivers promising implementation strategies. To identify and understand the market situation, current food trends are identified and described and detailed insights into the terminology of healthy vegan snacks are given. Subsequently, qualitative interviews with established companies and dieticians are conducted to better understand current food trends and to determine the most relevant success factors. Based on the findings, the author provides concrete strategy recommendations for established companies and newcomers in the market segment. The findings of the study show that the healthy vegan snacks market is very attractive and therefore offers several strategic options for successful market entry. However, newcomers have to face several challenges that should be considered and ideally overcome when planning market entry. Most successful entrepreneurs truly identify with their products and represent the customer groups themselves, enabling them to optimally understand and apply customer needs.
The corporate culture of South Korea influences the profitability of Korean companies to a great extent. Traditional Korean values are based on Confucianism which emphasizes collectivism and hard work. This created a foundation on which successful companies emerged. However due to economic reasons Korean values are forced to change as it is questionable if Korean companies can remain profitable with the traditional culture within their systems. With the exposure to western culture Korean managers are trying to adopt beneficial methods that western companies have proven to be favorable. As a consequence Korea’s corporate culture is gradually changing while still retaining some of its unique features. As western companies seek to collaborate with or acquire Korean companies, culture clashes are inevitable. Despite the large differences between cultures it can be observed however, that with thoughtful management high synergies can be achieved in such collaborations and that Korean companies are becoming more and more competitive in the global market.
Due to fierce competition in the recent decades, focus on customer service is becoming increasingly important in all industries including grocery retail. The purpose of this study is to discover the different services offered by grocery stores in Egypt and Germany, to examine the reasons behind offering different services in the different countries and to learn the effect of the same services being offered in different countries.
The data was collected by conducting an online survey and then analyzed with reference to available literature. Findings and conclusions are presented in the form of lessons learned and suggestions for grocery stores in both countries to improve their consumer’s future shopping experience.
In an ever smaller and connected world, the need for instant access and communication is becoming more and more necessary. This is especially true in business, and no one understands this better than the people working at the Global Success Club. This is why they have decided to develop a mobile application specially catered to serve busy executives of innovative manufacturing companies, and help them find the right business partners for their next business venture or innovative collaboration. This thesis was written on the behalf of the Global Success Club to help them determine the optimal way to develop a mobile application that aims to connect innovative manufacturing companies in a global setting by looking at two research questions:
1. How to win B2B users/customers for a mobile application by focusing on smart user interface; and
2. Which method of marketing communication, direct marketing (emails & follow-up calls) or social media marketing, is more successful in winning over users in the internet affinitive US market.
This paper will accomplish its task by first looking over past research done by authors and researchers about how mobile applications are changing the way of the world and the way we communicate. The paper will also explore why businesses are now deciding to adopt new technologies to help them with business processes that were traditionally done offline. In order to answer the questions posed by this thesis, research was conducted on previous studies and what they have suggested pertaining to the research questions. Based on the research, hypotheses were made and those ideas implemented into the final plans by the company for the design and marketing communication strategy. Conclusions were made about the most effective user interface designs based on the hypotheses, and a study will be carried out at a later to judge their effectiveness. A study on the marketing strategy taken by the company was able to show that a more direct marketing message is optimal to win users and would be more effective if combined with wide spread and cost-effective online marketing.
This bachelor thesis is designed to develop a segmented sales approach using the target costing method. Herby it is important to note that this thesis is a practical one, on behalf of a German high-tech company. The assignment was to create feasible action points, which will later assist during the company's sales approach improvements.
The theoretical part of this thesis deals with the basics of product segmentation, process analysis and sales channel analysis. Afterwards, the theoretical background for the sales cost analysis, target costing method and sales scenarios is elaborated. The aim was to define major elements later applied in this thesis.
The second part of this thesis applies the theoretical knowledge established in the first chapter to the situation at the company. The results of the project show an importance to focus on one specific product, due to a high level of competition. Currently, the sales scenario consists of the direct and the indirect sales channel. As a consequence, sales costs are very high. The third chapter gives recommendations for each chapter. Results show the need for simplicity and less reporting as well as one maintained document archive system. The third part shows the importance of establishing an online channel. Furthermore, it is advised to establish one strategy for the sales channels and to communicate this to coordinate different sales channels effectively. The fourth and fifth parts deal with the sales cost and target costing recommendations, highlighting marketing and HR costs as the main cost driver. One solution to reduce the sales cost is to establish the online channel, saving travel costs and to reevaluate marketing activities. That way, the target of limiting the sales cost to 15% of the revenue could be met.
The aim of this piece of work is to elaborate a conceptual approach for supporting market development in Asia Pacific. It includes the investigation of relevant criteria for an objective analysis in terms of market attractiveness for eight markets. The first part of this research project describes the theoretical framework and concepts used in international market selection as well as international market development strategies. The second part of the study consists of defining relevant criteria in order to evaluate market attractiveness and competitive strength. In conjunction with this, the level of significance of each criterion is determined by the conception of an appropriate classification model. The results reveal that the levels of market attractiveness and competitive strength differ significantly in each market. Additionally, the country with the highest score in market attractiveness and competitive strength is being investigated in further depth with the aim to understand the market dynamics. The study then concentrates on determining strategic objectives and key performance indicators in order to improve the corporate’s strategy. Finally, research findings are discussed critically and several recommendations are formulated. To conclude the study, a conclusion is made followed by limitations and recommendations for further analysis.
This research paper is about Mobile Banking. Mobile banking is rapidly growing in emerging countries as compared to emerged countries. The research conducted here will help us to understand as to why mobile banking is so successful in emerging countries and the factors that contribute to its success, the regulations behind it and to see if the Technology Acceptance Mobile (TAM) theory can be proved or linked to the success of mobile banking in the countries used for analysis. The analysis was conducted using a qualitative research method of document analysis
Country risk affects cross-border investments significantly. Therefore, this paper aims to understand the concept of country risk and the available country risk assessments (models), by comparing and evaluating them. Secondly, the effectiveness of these assessments in predicting an economic downturn will be analysed. Lastly, this paper investigates the determinants behind the country risk models, using country credit ratings as a proxy.
The effectiveness analysis is based on the comparison of the credit ratings with the respective real GDP growth of Malaysia, Mexico, Japan and Portugal in a case study approach. Thereafter, Spearman’s rank order correlation coefficient analysis will be performed to investigate the determinants of the country risk models.
Results from the case study approach show that country risk assessments generally could not predict an impending economic slowdown. In addition, the correlation coefficient analysis illustrates that some variables have in general weak correlations to the credit ratings. For instance, the real GDP growth has mostly weak relationships with the ratings and tends to be statistically insignificant. On the other hand, lending and deposit interest rates have relatively strong correlations to the credit ratings and are significant at 0.01 level for some of the ratings. In addition, Mexico and Japan have the tendency to produce opposite results with the same set of indicators.
Even though investors should not rely on these country risk assessments to forecast a major crisis, the models could act as the basis of risk management. This is because these assessments do provide investors with some useful information.