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This paper reflects the topic of risk regarding an individual’s propensity to engage in risky behavior. Therefore, a survey was conducted among four different cultures to study cultural effects on risk-taking behavior. These contained Germany, France, China, and Latin America with a total sample size of 655. The applied questionnaire covered seven different domains regarding social, recreational, health/safety, ethical, investment, gambling, and business risk for which the participants had to assess the likelihood to engage in theoretical situations on a scale of 1 to 6. Significant cultural differences, as well as domain-specificity, could be confirmed using several one-way ANOVAs for the statistical evaluation. In this case, in comparison with the other cultures, Germany showed the highest risk propensity in the social domain, France for recreational and ethical risk, Latin America in the business as well as health/safety sector, and China in the investment and gambling domain.
This paper investigates the influence of manipulated attention on the perceived severity of financial risks. Participants undertake an online survey where they get exposed to images of various financial risk sources, while their attention is directed towards one of five available visual images of financial risk hazards.
Beforehand, they are instructed to remember and repeat the respective labeling of all pictures. It is ensured that the attended picture is randomly chosen, and the participants are aware of the corresponding names. Subsequently, participants are asked to rate the risk on four related characteristics.
Considering the responses of 292 people, only the numerical values indicate differences between attended and unattended risks, but the applied statistical measures provide no evidence for this hypothesis.
Young wine consumers are becoming increasingly important for the wine industry, but also represent a challenge for wine businesses as their consumer behavior and attitude towards wine differs from other generations. This relative new group of wine consumers shows a comparatively low level of wine knowledge, while focusing wine choice criteria rather on different attributes, namely wine bottle optics, including label and bottle optic in general. Being aware of wine consumers choice criteria and its implications is crucial for wine marketers to successfully attract their potential customers. The presented thesis uses grounded theory to determine how the choice criteria of wine bottle optic influences the choice criteria of taste, in Gen Z wine consumers. For this purpose, a group of ten Gen Z wine consumers took part in a qualitative experiment, including pre- and post-test interviews, to determine attitude and behavior of participants concerning the wine choice criteria of taste and wine bottle optic. The findings of the study suggest that the choice criteria of wine bottle optic can overrule the importance of the wines actual taste in the decision process of wines. Furthermore, insights into the participants awareness of their own choice criteria, the influence of cognitive dissonance on the topic, as well as general attitude towards wine, such as the low level of knowledge and the preference for wine consumption in social context, could be generated.
In times of demographic change, globalization, digitalization and change in the coming generations, human resources development with the qualification and further development of executives is becoming increasingly important. The company Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG has introduced the new management level of team leader for sales and administration since the beginning of 2021. In addition to the team leaders in sales and administration, there is an unofficial management level in logistics. The team leader level at Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG has already existed for several years but has received little attention in terms of development and qualification.
The topic of the paper deals with the importance of the qualification of managers on team leader level in the logistics of Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG. Thereby the work deals with the construct of leading, the manager in general and the development measures in a company. A deeper insight is given in this area into the various qualification programs of Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG.
The qualitative content analysis according to Mayring is applied for the question to be answered, whether the qualification of the managers on team leader level is attributed an importance and if so, how this is weighted. The results of the interviews indicate that the Würth company attaches great importance to the qualification of managers at team leader level, and thus a high significance. This is made clear by appropriate points, such as the influence on the employees by their shown behavior and actions. Furthermore, this is in direct connection with the leadership styles and leadership behavior, which can be influenced by the development and promotion of competencies.
The market for foods and beverages is one of the largest worldwide. Thus, there is a lot of interest in understanding and predicting consumer behavior. Two subjects that have gained attention recently in the food sector are perceived naturalness and high-tech eco-innovations like cultured meat. This work addresses how the preference for natural products and the inference of product attributes via perceived naturalness causes problems for novel technological food products. By reviewing existing literature following questions will be answered: (1) What do most people assume about the health, taste, sustainability, and safety of food products based on perceived naturalness? (2) How is the public acceptance of high-tech food eco-innovations influenced by a lack of perceived naturalness? (3) How can these challenges be addressed by food businesses? It will first be determined what natural means for customers and how it influences food choices in general. The main findings based on the currently available market research are consumers do not desire to consume any highly unnatural foods including technological eco-innovations and it might be more efficient in terms of sustainability gains and customer needs to commit resources to developing existing products or eco-innovations that are perceived to be natural.
Platforms are increasingly playing a more critical role in companies’ activities. The intense competition in the market and the global economic situation have promoted the transformation of traditional business models, making enterprises adopt digital transformation solutions (Ot, 2022).
Nowadays, there is an increasing amount of data generated on the internet and mobile apps, which have allowed the exponential growth of platforms, allowing value cocreation and enabling an ecosystem composition that has transformed the linear value chain into a platform business model (Şimşek, Öner, Kunday, & Olcayc, 2022).
The healthcare industry has experienced significant changes in recent years, driven by technological advances, increasing focus on cost-effectiveness and quality of healthcare services.
The use of technology and digital platforms to offer care and enhance patient experience is one of the main areas on which healthcare organizations focus. There is a high potential for telemedicine and remote patient monitoring to revolutionize healthcare services (Sjöström, Lars, & Eva, 2017).
The creation of integrated care models, which combine various health providers to give patients a better treatment and service, is another important topic of interest for healthcare organizations. Integrated care models can enhance patient outcomes, save healthcare costs, and boost patient satisfaction. Integrated healthcare models can also help in reducing healthcare system division and enhancing the coordination of care services for patients (Kodner & Spreeuwenberg, 2002).
Other digital initiatives such as data analytics and artificial intelligence are also emerging as a promising approach to improve healthcare services' quality and support decision-making in healthcare. These technologies can provide more accurate and timely information to healthcare providers and enable more effective and efficient care delivery. Medical service transformation is a cross-departmental and cross-level collaboration that demands the participation of the government, firms, consumers, and other participants (Hughes, Shaw, & Greenhalgh, 2020). The Healthcare system has shifted its service from supply management to value cocreation, rebuilding the social framework through technological change. This new business model approach gives openings to different members to cocreate and add value to current products and services (Leone, Schiavone, Appio, & Chiao, 2021).
Despite the benefits of introducing digitalization and a multi-level business model to the healthcare system, its application has needed to be faster because of multiple factors, such as information integration and the application of connectivity technologies and the telematic infrastructure. Additionally, the healthcare system represents a complex structure regulated by the government and dynamized by the interaction of individuals and service providers. Therefore, some other challenges represent the governmental laws and regulations, patient information privacy concerns, and stakeholders’ willingness to adopt the business model. (Viswanadham, 2021).
Therefore, this study aims to research the Status Quo of the Health Care Industry and to explore the opportunities and challenges of platform business models in the healthcare industry.
The results of this study can provide insights into the critical success factors that can help to drive the adoption and implementation of multilevel business models. It also can inform the decision-making strategies and healthcare initiatives adopted by different countries due to digitalization.
This thesis examines the effects of social interaction and the interaction channel on affective commitment. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a major increase in the implementation of remote working policies in organizations. This development has significantly reduced the quantity and quality of social interactions among employees. In an experimental setting, subjects were assigned a level of social interaction, either limited or extensive and an interaction channel, either offline or online. Participants were given a task in which they had to find as many words as possible ending on a specific letter. Affective commitment was measured as the time spent on the task as well as the number of words found. Afterwards, subjects received a questionnaire with statements about their perceived affective commitment for which they had to indicate their level of agreement. The results indicate that extensive social interaction has a significant positive effect on affective commitment. Although the findings of the experiment are not significant for the interaction channel, some of the survey results hint towards a possible positive effect of offline interaction on the subject’s perception of affective commitment. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that there may be a discrepancy between displayed and perceived affective commitment. Taking the study results and available literature into consideration, organizations should warrant in-person interaction whenever possible and provide enough time and space for short informal conversations among employees to increase levels of affective commitment.
The literature on feedback was reviewed with respect to its effectiveness. The argument was made that the effectiveness is determined by the recipient´s feedback orientation (openness to feedback). The factors were explored by answering three questions derived from the hypothesized feedback orientation theory from Trost (2020). The research indicated two factors that contribute to employee feedback orientation. The first factor is the feedback source who should have a coach leadership style. The second factor is the feedback environment which should have the element of learning and coaching.
Knowledge about consumer buying behavior is of high importance to
companies. Being able to accurately identify customers' willingness to pay
(WTP) helps to optimize one of a company's core goals - to make profit. The
objective of this study is to apply the implicit method NeuroPricing Online to an
example in the tourism sector in order to be able to determine the buying
behavior of consumers and their WTP more precisely. In a bottom-up data
mining approach, individual attitudes towards several price points for a given
product of the vacation resort "Weissenhäuser Strand" were determined by
means of reaction time measurement. We were then able to model curves with
price points per product and their corresponding individual response times per
product. The Feel-Good Price (FGP) as well as the Area under the curve (AUC)
of an individual provide information about a subject's WTP for a given product.
Using independent two-sample t-tests, we found that gender has an influence
on WTP for some products. In addition, we found a difference between subjects
who have previously visited the "Weissenhäuser Strand" and those who have
not for some products. AUC average is larger for those who have already visited
the resort than for those who have not. Furthermore, we examined the factors
age and personality traits for their effect on subjects' purchasing behavior.
However, none of these correlation analyses showed a significant relationship
with FGP or AUC. These results suggest that the "Weissenhäuser Strand"
should specifically advertise to different groups of people in order to increase
profits and skillfully apply the different WTP of some groups as a basis for
pricing. In addition, the study shows that the implicit method of response time
measurement is sufficient for investigations in purchasing behavior in general,
and that NeuroPricing Online has the potential to become a valuable tool for
sophisticated pricing in the future.
This thesis examines the potential for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the German apparel industry to enhance circular capabilities. Given the urgency of environmental issues in garment production, the thesis delves into the broader context of the textile and apparel industry, circularity principles, circular product design, as well as business and regulatory framework conditions. However, this transformation necessitates substantial innovation, which can be challenging, especially for SMEs facing resource constraints. A utility analysis-based tool to support SMEs' circularity journeys is introduced, by systematically evaluating textile fibers. This approach assists SMEs in optimizing material choices and complying with sustainability standards and reporting. To demonstrate its effectiveness, the tool is applied for HAKRO GmbH, a SME in the German apparel industry. The assessment results indicate prioritization of specific fiber choices, emphasize knowledge gaps, and spotlight opportunities for innovation and circularity. The tool's systematic approach enables SMEs like HAKRO GmbH to strategically select material options, streamline innovation efforts, and align with CE principles. Ultimately, this research contributes to advancing CE transitions within the apparel industry by offering insights into enhancing circular capabilities for SMEs and facilitating informed decision-making through a utility analysis-based approach.
Phenomena like talent shortage, war for talents, and demographic change – Organizations are facing many challenges and changes these days. To compete in a contested market space the issue of employer attractiveness is becoming increasingly important. It seems that prioritizing the provision of attractive working conditions becomes prominent, while the importance of locus of control is underestimated. The research question addressed in this study is: What are the effects of working conditions and locus of control on performance? For this
investigation, a quasi-experiment with a 2x2 factorial design was conducted. Participants were assigned to either an attractive or unattractive working condition while simultaneously experiencing internal or external locus of control. Subjects were asked to perform cognitive tasks and performance was measured by the total number of points reached.
The results of the study did not yield statistical significance. However, it was observed that the group experiencing unattractive working conditions and internal locus of control had the highest performance. When also considering relevant research literature that highlights the psychological importance of control, it is suggested to conduct further research in this area of
interest to gain a deeper understanding of the effects of control and their impact on various job outcomes like performance.
Year after year, global warming, and plastic output increase, and massive volumes of carbon dioxide (CO2) are being released into the atmosphere. Even though humans are aware of their environmental impact, they do struggle to change their behavior. But what is the reason for this?
The purpose of this thesis is to illuminate the factors that make it difficult for people to demonstrate pro-environmental behavior (PEB) and to form ideas from the field of nudging to assist in guiding humans to a better PEB. As a result, a meta-analysis was created from a multitude of papers on the issues of PEB and nudging. The proposals presented in this work serve as an impetus for future studies in the field of PEB nudging.
The present paper aims to identify role conflicts according to social role theory that leaders acting as managerial coach might be exposed to during their work. Therefore, several behavioral approaches that are characterizing for managerial are identified through literature assessment. These distinctive behavioral patterns are analyzed upon alternative reasonable expectations that role senders might have in regard of leadership.
Hereby this study can identify several potential sources of person-role conflict due to incongruencies between expectations of role senders and the actual leadership behavior of a managerial coach. As literature indicates that role conflicts have serious impacts on the effectiveness of leadership behavior, this study furthermore presents a guideline for organizations and managerial coaches on how to support the acceptance of coaching.
Understanding how consumers choose between alternatives and how they use the context in doing so is the aim of numerous consumer behaviour studies. The effect of extremeness aversion has been found to be a replicable phenomenon in this field. According to this context effect, alternatives with extreme numerical attributes are less likely to be chosen than the alternative with intermediate attributes in a choice set. A new research direction regarding extremeness aversion considers not only these numerical attributes of a choice set but also the implications of the spatial dimension. Therefore, it has been hypothesized that there could also be a preference for the spatial middle in a choice set. As the phenomenon of extremeness aversion corresponds with decision uncertainty, this research aimed to investigate numerical and spatial extremeness aversion in a product class of high uncertainty and complexity. Thus, consumer preferences regarding the product class of wine were analysed in different choice architectures. Interviews in a wine specialist store and an online survey were conducted with a total number of 924 participants. The study’s results are not consistent over both data collection methods. However, independently of each other, they support the notion that consumer choices may be partly influenced by a preference for the numerical middle option, as well as by a preference for the spatial middle option.
This thesis aims to explain corporate visions from a psychological perspective to examine its effects for the individual and the organization.
Therefore, the existing literature on the topic of vision and psychological theories has been reviewed. Psychological theories from cognitive, social, and positive psychology, as well as the psychology of emotion, have been applied to the topic of corporate vision.
Derived from complexity theory, visions can function as positive emotional attractors (PEA), which trigger various psychological processes. Visions activate the default mode network and lead to mental simulations, such as the simulation of a best possible self, which contribute to perceived meaning in life and lead to an increase in positive affect. Further, the PEA leads to adapting a promotion focus. Affective forecasting of the future serves as a motivator. Anticipated emotions can lead to the impact bias and emotional contagion, which are important for the communication of the corporate vision. From the perspective of social psychology, Schwartz’s theory of values and social identity theory can explain the effects of corporate visions. Growth-oriented values can trigger a promotion focus in the individual, therefore being motivating.
Social Identity theory further states, that if an organization’s values are similar to those of the individual, the individual can experience organizational identity.
This study examines the current human capital management software market with integrated people analytics module and their targeted type of human resource management. The study is guided by the research question: Does the current human capital management software with people analytics module market target their data usage towards hierarchical or agile type of human resource management? To answer the research question a content analysis of 12 websites of human capital management software providers with integrated people analytics module was conducted. The findings were evaluated based on a scale of 4 prototype approach.
The study revealed that the majority of human capital software providers aim their data usage towards hierarchical organizations. A large part of the examined companies run a mixed approach and try to aim their software towards both hierarchical and agile organizations with different tendencies. The findings of this study align with the literature and suggest to organizations seeking to implement a human capital management suite to choose the software that supports their human resource type and strategy the best.
There is a growing trend for multinational enterprises to send their expatriate employees on international assignments to achieve corporate development, human resource goals and to gain a competitive advantage in the global context. Therefore, the performance and productivity of international assignees play a major role for them and the organization. However, expatriate research has so far rarely taken into account the factors that do not directly relate to expatriate performance. Instead, research has focused on expatriate success and failure. However, the literature shows that neither can yet be clearly defined. Therefore, this study instead focuses on expatriate performance and productivity by placing special emphasis on literature gaps. Hence, in this study the importance of several factors is tested, namely: 1) overall international experience, 2) informal social networks, and 3) expatriate family. As this research aims to develop practical approaches to managing critical circumstances when relocating overseas, a link between theory and previous study findings has been established. To provide a point of departure for Global People Transitions GmbH, a special focus has been placed on organizational support and intercultural training. The data have been collected through guided expert interviews with six participants, three of them expatriates, two expatriate spouses, and one repatriate. The study results have found that the tested factors have an impact on expatriate adjustment and, consequently, on expatriate performance and productivity. In addition, several aspects to improve expatriate performance and productivity have been identified, such as providing organizational support or creating structures and routines. Lastly, it has become clear that research on international assignments is very elusive due to several underlying factors that influence the matter.
The world is constantly changing, and cosmetic companies need to adapt to these changes to survive. In particular, cosmetic companies should not underestimate changes in how customers value information from different sources because proper marketing can lead to increased sales. Therefore, this thesis aims to determine which information sources customers of Generation Y are using and how they weight the information from these different sources. A survey was conducted with people of Generation Y to answer the research question. The survey showed that the most frequently used and highest weighted sources for getting information are search engines, friends and family, and product ratings. Furthermore, the results indicate that information gathered from offline sources has a more significant impact on purchase behavior than information gathered from online sources. Potential customers using search engines are more likely to buy a product online. However, the price of a product does not influence how consumers weight the opinions of friends and family, and age does not impact the weighting of social media or the total number of sources a customer uses. To conclude, a company should not ignore the importance of offline information sources because the data shows that offline sources significantly impact buying behavior. They should also aim to have their online shop appear as one of the top search engine results because this will impact the likelihood that customers visit their websites and buy their products.
The well-substantiated “cheerleader effect” proposes that individuals in groups are perceived to be more attractive compared to when they are presented in isolation. With the aim of finding out whether this effect is applicable to additional dimensions of social perception, we investigated attractiveness, salary, vanity and intelligence judgements in two methodologically distinct experiments. We could not detect differences in ratings between the isolated and group presentations of individuals in a between-subjects design but found evidence supporting the existence of the cheerleader and the “banker effect” in the within-subjects design. Besides an increase in attractiveness, replicating the cheerleader effect, individuals were as well perceived to be earning higher salaries when surrounded by others, thus establishing the banker effect and further emphasising the actual impact of group context on trait judgements. The supplementary finding that both effects do not occur simultaneously within the same person creates new pathways for identifying their underlying causes and deriving possible explanations.
The sale of insurance policies through the payment of commissions to intermediaries, such as agents, is a common practice in the insurance sector. As a consequence of this compensation method, intermediaries must weigh-off between increasing their commission-based income and offering clients suitable low-priced policies. A novel business model seeks to address this issue by substituting this commission-fee-based approach with a subscription-based approach. Although a company already applies this business model with a minor customer base, there is a lack of information about whether and under which circumstances it can be financially profitable. To obtain transparency about the financial prospects of this business model, a corporate financial model was created, through which seven scenarios were modeled and financial key figures compared. Three scenarios simulate distribution via a direct sales channel through the company workforce, and four scenarios via an indirect sales channel consisting of external intermediaries. The comparison of the scenarios indicates that this commission- free business model can be profitable in the long term regardless of the sales channel selection. Yet the results show that distribution via the indirect channel can be perceived as more profitable. By optimizing processes in both channels and by adjusting the remuneration for intermediaries in the indirect channel, the financial prospects for all scenarios can be further increased.
This literature review-based study reveals that there are reasons for the acceptance of the effectiveness of equine-supported leadership trainings. Results show that people are able to transfer knowledge to a situation which is different from the learning situation (Baldwin & Ford, 1988). Additionally, this research deals with the assumption that empathy can be raised through the equine-facilitated trainings. This hypothesis is proven by the results of empathy improvement in autistic people during equine-assisted activities (Malcolm, Ecks and Pickersgill, 2018).
Forecasting demand is a mission-critical but non-trivial pursuit in strategic planning for any brand. However, long-established explicit pricing research methodologies suffer from well-described biases, thus posing a significant obstacle to accurate forecasting. One way to tackle this challenge is resorting to implicit measures inspired by paradigms from cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Hence, as carried out with NeuroPricing Online, implicit price research can help identify a consumer's Willingness to Pay (WTP) for a product or service. Consequently, the entire sample´s distribution of WTPs can be converted into a population model of demand vs price. A subsequent model of revenue has, to date, in marketing research, typically been based on indexed values, providing the user of the data with non-intuitive and rather abstract measures. Here, using the case of a Mineral Water bottler, we have integrated the demand model directly in a well-maintained digital controlling tool of said cooperation. Central figures such as gross sales and contribution margin were modelled based on realistic cost and market estimates. Thus, assuming the same conditions, the data leads to a fact-based and accurate prediction of the results of a price change. The insights allow the company to gain concrete insights into the context of its pricing strategy and, if necessary, reposition itself to achieve a competitive advantage. For instance, the pricing model integrated into the controlling tool allows for comparing various bottle types in terms of revenue and contribution margin. As such, the specific impact on the financial performance of, say, a revenue maximising or contribution margin maximising strategy can be predicted.
This paper aims to emphasize the significance of an effective break design in an
occupational context, with a specific focus on the implementation of phone-free work breaks. Through an experimental investigation, the potential impact of a mobile phone lockbox, intended to facilitate phone abstention during breaks, was examined. It is proposed that external control, imposed by the use of a lockbox, negatively influences performance due to a reduced sense of perceived control. Considering this, the experimental design sought to identify differences between three groups exposed to varying levels of external control during a work break. These differences were quantified using a memory recall assignment, which measured the performance change of each participant after the break. The results indicate that principles extending theories of perceived control must be considered. Contrary to the theory of perceived control, the group subjected to the highest degree of external control via a mobile phone lockbox exhibited the greatest performance improvement. Despite refraining from phone usage, the group allowed to keep the phone on the table but instructed not to use it demonstrated lower performance improvement, even compared to the group that used the phone during the break. The results indicate that further research on self-control as a limited resource is required.
Pricing decisions are some of the most important marketing considerations and require knowledge on the value that customers associate with a company’s offerings when optimizing revenues and product positioning in a market. However, measuring the customers’ willingness to pay (WTP) remains a challenging task, because numerous biases, psychological phenomena, and social norms cause distorted answers in methods that are commonly used to assess the WTP, which leads to misguiding data and false assumptions with regard to price-sales relationships. This study recognizes the importance of reliable and accurate data that adequately reflects the real market situation. In this context, controlling as a business function plays a major role, being the intersection between financial consideration and business functions such as marketing and sales, providing important data that is used as a foundation for strategic decision-making. Therefore, this study has the objective to investigate how implicit price research can support the planning of strategic decisions in the context of digitized controlling by implementing an online reaction time tool as an integrated module into a controlling software.
The present paper proposes to contribute to this topic by applying an experimental pricing research method – NeuroPricing® Online – using implicitly assessed reaction time data to investigate the subjects' unconscious willingness to pay in two distinct case studies in the mineral water market.
The results of the first case study indicate the existence of the willingness to pay a price premium for organically labeled water but suggest a strong dependence on the container type and the distinct price segment in which the water is offered. The second case study revealed that the perceived value of identical products of a brand could be considerably different between potential customers in established and new sales regions.
Our research contributes to a better understanding of consumers’ valuation and emphasizes the importance of implicit pricing research as a method to support digitized controlling as an interconnecting business function between financial considerations, consumer behavior, and strategic management.
This paper examines the effect of ownership on strategic reasoning in the classical p-beauty contest game. While much literature focused on cognitive ability as the foundation for higher-order strategic play, we investigate whether a more motivational perspective can serve as a foundation for strategic reasoning as well. This is to be induced via the endowment effect by combining two market simulations with a p-beauty contest game in three experimental sessions. We conclude that while an endowment effect does not have a significant influence on first-round behavior, there are indications that it can influence the learning of endowed players as early as round two of a repeated p-beauty contest game. We find that possible differences in the degree of commitment substantially affect strategic behavior. The analyses ultimately suggest that strategic behavior possibly could occur not only on a cognitive level but also on a motivational level, provided that the motivation is powerful enough.
This thesis deals with the marketing of today and its benefits for companies and universities. The focus is on the recruitment of students at universities through the business platform LinkedIn. The tools offered by LinkedIn will be presented and the purpose for which they are beneficial will be determined. Surveys are used to clarify questions about the use of social networks for different activities. In addition, it will be worked out why students choose a university and how LinkedIn fosters this. These findings are then translated into marketing measures for the HFU Business School in Villingen-Schwenningen.
The aim of this study is to understand the concept of Ethical Branding from the perspective of Generation Z. This umbrella question was divided into three research questions: 1. What constitutes an ethical brand for Generation Z, 2. What is Generation Z´s attitude towards ethical brands, and 3. How will the future of ethical brands look like? For this, ten individual online interviews with undergraduate students were conducted. Findings reveal that young people view Ethical Branding as an important personal issue. Members of Generation Z view an ethical brand as holding values such as fairness, honesty, integrity, and consideration at its core and consistently acting according to these values. This manifests itself in the fulfillment of environmental, social, legal, and economic responsibilities. Participants depict a largely positive outlook for ethical brands as society – in particular young consumers – becomes more aware of the importance of mindful and responsible consumption, challenging existing brands in the future. Companies should therefore focus on delivering what they promise and aligning all business activities if they want to be perceived by Generation Z as a truly ethical brand.
With the increasing popularity of the home office model and the limited exploration of associated stressors necessitate a comprehensive investigation of potential drawbacks. This thesis embarks on an investigation of how the home office paradigm can be leveraged to alleviate distress, nurture mental well-being. Specifically, it delves into an analysis of five prominent stressors inherent in the home office context, identifying effective strategies for mitigating each one adeptly. The data and research in this thesis are drawn from existing literature on the work concept. The findings underscore the substantial influence of these stressors on employees’ mental health and productivity. However, specific measures to mitigate these challenges are identified and thoroughly expounded upon. This research provides valuable insights into optimizing the home office environment and promoting the holistic well-being of employees.
The cheerleader effect describes the phenomenon, where pictures of faces are rated to be more attractive when presented as part of a group, than when presented in isolation. This study employs electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERP) to explore the origins of the cheerleader effect. We found significant ERP differences which suggest that the cheerleader effect is not caused by perceptual differences, but instead through social cues which distort the decision-making process that gives rise to subjects’ trait judgments.
Since the introduction of the concept of Emotional intelligence (EI), there has been affective turbulence in the past decades in the scientific community. The interest in the concept has been growing since the popularization of it in 1995 by Goleman (Goleman, 1995). It has been claimed to be a new way to success, as it was being linked to performance, job satisfaction, many other work-related constructs (Wong & Law, 2002; Bozionelos & Singh 2017; Miao et al., 2018; Prentice, 2016) and even health-related benefits (Goleman, 2020).
On the other side, the concept of Social Intelligence (SI), which was first introduced and used by Thorndike in 1920, has been around in the scientific community for quite some time as well. It is known for reducing conflict, creating collaborations and mobilizing people towards a common goal (Albrecht, 2005).
There has been a perplexing use of them in the field of research. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to examine conceptual issues as the similarities and differences between the two constructs and drawing a clear line between the two. A theoretical review has been conducted for independently understanding each concept. Different conceptual models have been analyzed for differences and similarities, in terms of definition, use, skill, problem-solving area, depth of the construct and aim of reasoning. The conceptual analysis shows there are some distinct differences. In addition to that, the results indicate that both concepts are multidimensional, overlapping and interdependent.
Games are characterized above all by the fact that players naturally show a very high willingness to play. By using Gamification, one attempts to transfer this high motivational potential to other contexts by integrating elements of a game in a non-playing situation.
This bachelor thesis deals with the research question of how Gamification can influence the motivation and performance of users. It discusses how a gamified system must be designed in order to get the best possible benefit. Furthermore, the risks of Gamification are named and measures to reduce these risks are mentioned.
The methodology used is a literature search in which Gamification and its components are first defined, followed by a definition of motivation and performance. Furthermore, typically used game elements are presented and their effects are explained. Gamification is categorized according to two different approaches, differentiating between various types of Gamification. In order to explain the motivational effect, various psychological motivation theories are presented. The focus is on the self-determination theory according to Deci and Ryan, where the fulfilment of the needs of competence, autonomy and social relatedness are crucial for the emergence and maintenance of motivation. This theory is also used to understand performance improvements.
By presenting practical experiments in which Gamification systems have been developed, it becomes apparent that Gamification can have positive effects on the motivation and performance of users, provided that the basic psychological needs mentioned above are addressed. However, negative effects and various risks that Gamification can entail were also identified. For example, the ability to work in a team, the self confidence of the users, and the quality of the work can suffer if Gamification is implemented incorrectly.
For future research, it is essential to focus more on the interaction of different game elements, to differentiate between the quantity and quality of the achieved results, and to observe the long-term effects of a gamified system.
Vision statements are one powerful tool in visionary leadership that have to be communicated regularly in order to create purpose for employees. In the past decades, it was underestimated to achieve a greater understanding for a collective sense of purpose that is equally understood by many employees to increase organizational performance and especially coordination of work. To examine the role of values and mental imagery within vision statements, the concepts are more closely elaborated to develop more certainty in creating the right vision. Additionally, an archival study from the medical sector is portrayed which included vision statements and other performance relevant data of 151 hospitals in the US. The researchers found evidence for a strong interaction and imagery effect when four or fewer values were used within vision statements. The interaction resulted in a higher performance and work coordination of the organization and therefore functions as evidence for a shared sense of purpose. Besides, many leaders rather provide conceptual visions and communicate several values that distort the effect of vision imagery and decrease a collective sense of purpose.
Successful employee retention remains one of the most critical issues in human resource management. Various retention strategies have been proposed, examined, and empirically tested for centuries to retain valued employees. This research proposes a psychological explanation on the effectiveness of so-called pay-to-quit incentives and hypothesizes that such anti-incentives might be more beneficial than traditional incentives with regards to employee retention. Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Prospect Theory, and Social Identity Theory help to illustrate the underlying psychological mechanisms of pay-to-quit incentives and their impact on choice, attitudes, cognitions, and behavior.
When translanguaging, individuals use and combine all their available language repertoires in order to increase comprehension. The use of different languages together
implies that there is no strict language separation. First studied in a school context, the primary purposes of this concept are the complete understanding of subject matter and the simultaneous development of additional languages. Recent studies in different business contexts show the concept’s transferability to other environments. This brings forth questions about, firstly, the implementation of translanguaging in a workplace and, secondly, the possible effects of translanguaging on interpersonal relationships in work teams. The focus of the analysis hereby lies on work teams with intellectual and creative
tasks. The transferability of International High School’s eight core principles, which are meant to improve students’ translanguaging skills, into a business context is discussed. The theoretical analysis results show that the eight principles are, in theory, all applicable
to creative and intellectual teams, but further challenges may arise. No definite answer is presented regarding the effect on interpersonal relationships; both positive and negative effects are possible. Results are all context-dependent, and further empirical research is needed to study the theoretical assumptions made in the present paper.
In recent years, several studies have reported inadequate financial capability. Studies in Germany have shown similar results. While there was no statewide initiative, learning offers were available. However, the financial capability level did not increase over time. As a possible reason, the Dunning-Kruger Effect was hypothesised. According to the Dunning-Kruger Effect, participants with low ability would simply lack the ability to realise their lack of ability. This study investigated the investment capability of participants in Germany and tested for a possible Dunning-Kruger Effect. The results have shown no evidence for a Dunning-Kruger Effect. The study’s results were supportive of literature critical on the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
This thesis refers to Western multinational corporations (MNCs) that expanded their business activities in China significantly within recent years. These organizations operate in highly complex cultural environments, based on the infinite number of teachings drawn from past dynasties. The culture scope is difficult to assess, which explains the limited research available. The thesis examines whether classic performance evaluation systems in German MNC’s operating in China prove to be efficient. Furthermore, reference is drawn to the influences of controversial discussions on performance appraisals in German headquarters, whereby it is examined if Western alternatives would be compatible within a Chinese setting. Underlying cultural concepts; Confucianism, face dynamics, etc., and their implications are studied due to their high impact on the regulation of social interactions between German expatriates and Chinese business leaders. As part of the research, qualitative expert interviews were conducted with expatriates in China originating from both German SME’s and corporations. The results showed that hierarchies largely dominate corporate culture, which is partly due to partisan influences on the organization. Traditional performance appraisal systems largely prove to work efficiently. Lateral collaboration is evaluated as close to non-existent. Praise is rarely expressed. Furthermore, Chinese leaders and cultural, political underpinnings consolidate companies within their strict hierarchy and largely prevent the introduction of agile approaches, therefore alternative approaches can only be partially implemented.
The aim of this research is to provide a holistic overview of the influences on the intention to invest in the context of behavioral finance. For this purpose, a model was created in which the effects of the theory of planned behavior, financial risk propen-sity, and the self-determination theory on the intention to invest were examined. With the help of nine hypotheses, the significance of the relations within the model, as well as a mediation effect were analyzed. In order to test these hypotheses, a quantitative survey querying the above-mentioned possible factors and further questions about the participants' investment behavior was created and sent to all students at Furtwangen University. Results showed that all relations within the model were significant and that especially attitudes and financial risk propensity had a pronounced influence on the intention to invest. However, several variables for self-determination theory had to be eliminated to guarantee validity and reliability of the model. The findings of this study enable financial institutions, such as banks, to actively influence and en-courage customers to invest or to purposefully develop new investment products to gain additional customers.