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Plastic packaging and its waste are known to have a negative impact on the environment and on human health. This study aims to determine effective government measures for the management of plastic packaging in Germany. Specifically, the effectiveness and acceptance of possible environmental incentive and restriction policies are analyzed based on the objectives of reduction, reuse, and recycling. Therefore, the policies of a plastic packaging tax, tax differentiation, bans, and concentration limits of chemical additives, as well as restrictions on packaging design, are investigated.
In order to examine the consumer acceptance of the policies, an online survey was conducted with 272 students. This study further contributed to the analysis of effectiveness as consumption effects were measured. Accordingly, the expected policy effectiveness was examined based on literature research and quantitative insights from the field study.
The results - which are only representative for German consumers with an academic background between 18 and 29 years of age - revealed that most respondents accepted the policies, although acceptance was higher for restriction policies than for incentives. Furthermore, problem awareness was found to slightly correlate with policy acceptance in most cases. In terms of expected policy effectiveness, several factors indicate effectiveness for all policies. However, multiple prerequisites for the achievement of policy effectiveness were identified, whereas the requirements for restrictions on chemical additives were most complex.
The objective of this paper is to build on well-established theories like extremeness aversion and extend those to a spatial context. Extremeness aversion occurs as disadvantages loom larger than advantages. Therefore decision-makers tend to avoid the extremes and choose the middle alternative, implying that a product that becomes the intermediate alternative becomes more attractive. However, a vast majority of literature seems to neglect spatial aspects. Therefore, we propose that positioning a product in the middle of a choice architecture will lead to a relative increase in likelihood of its being chosen. In a six-week field experiment in a retail market, we displayed three choice sets of different categories. Results are inconsistent with previous research, as there was no increase in choice for the product positioned in the middle of the choice architecture.
Concerns about China’s currency intervention strategy against the U.S. dollar and other major currencies have been raised by many members of congress for more than a decade. They view it as one of several distorting economic policies China is employing to gain an unfair advantage over their competitors. Assuming the RMB is a freely traded currency, they argue that China’s currency strategy is designed to lower the cost of exports and raise the cost of imports greatly.
Problem and Objective: How is China competing with the USA to become the economic world leader? This paper examines the interconnection among three major economic components in the Chinese economy through financial development, international trade, and economic growth.
Method: The research method involved the exploration of articles authored by economic scholars who have concluded that productivity increases significantly contribute to China’s rapid economic expansion. Numerous articles were retrieved from the website to explain how China is slowly becoming the world economic giant overtaking the United States.
Findings: Scholars expect to have significant economic growth in China, surpassing the individual European countries in terms of ranks and G.D.P. size. The entry of China into the W.T.O. depends on the successful completion of the multilateral phase of accession negotiations. Its membership will significantly impact the international trading systems for numerous reasons. First, the admission serves as a template for various transition economies looking to join the W.T.O due to the increasing demand that the Chinese have accepted within the bilateral phase, the W.T.O. admission negotiations deter the entry of various new members. Secondly, China has taken critical steps towards meeting some of its W.T.O. obligations and the steps that can complete the process that may disappoint some individuals within the organization. Due to the large volume of international trade, there is a risk that trade conflicts can overburden the capacity of the W.T.O. to settle disputes. Third, China has a critical role in shaping various multilateral trade negotiations agendas. The developing nation is also one of the top trading countries, and China is a forceful advocate within the next round for the interest of various developing nations.
Conclusion: US congress has long been concerned about China’s currency policies and economic growth. The RMB’s value versus the dollar has risen by 34 percent nominal and 42 percent actual since 2003. Another concern is China’s use of industrial policies to subsidize priority domestic firms while restricting foreign market access. China’s financial system could be severely undermined if the proportion of non-performing loans increases dramatically due to policies that promote significant gross fixed investment and are primarily backed by low-cost credit policies.
In the opinion of many observers, RMB value is undervalued because of Chinese government restrictions on its value.
The Bachelor Thesis examines the effects of the integration of environmental, social and governmental (ESG) criteria in equity funds on performance compared to conventional equity funds. For this purpose, a quantitative analysis is carried out which includes a detailed examination of 769 equity funds. The equity funds are divided into two different groups - ESG equity funds and conventional equity funds - and are analyzed for various financial ratios. The goal of the study is to illustrate the financial performance differences between ESG-focused equity funds and conventional equity funds and thus provide a scientific contribution to the academic debate on sustainable investments. Initially, the thesis delves into the central concepts of ESG, the historical development of investment funds, theoretical frameworks, and existing studies. The following analysis provides an insight into the relationship between ESG criteria and the performance of equity funds. It not only draws on two different ESG rating systems, but also provides a geographical breakdown. Although the work as a whole helps to develop a deeper understanding of sustainable investment and highlights potential implications for investors and the financial sector, the results of the analysis show that more research is needed in this area.
The dynamic and constantly changing global competitive environment requires the development of advanced technologies and new operating procedures for a company´s internal processes. Human Resource Management bears the responsibility of assisting the organization in overcoming these challenges and effectively reshaping its procedures. This bachelor's thesis investigates the detailed process of implementing a Global Job Catalogue (GJC) at a company. The purpose and goal of this study is to evaluate whether the implementation of a GJC offers advantages, using an automotive company as an example. It analyses the practical application of a GJC and its integration into the Human Resources Department. Furthermore, a focus on the challenges and benefits of the implementation and integration process will be provided, including the use of innovative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Skills Management. To achieve the stated goal, semi-structured interviews with HR personnel from the automotive company have been carried out. The results of the study identify the benefits of a comprehensive GJC for each stakeholder, such as increased transparency, efficiency, and consistency across the organization. However, it also highlights the challenges associated with the implementation process, including the strict timeframe and the simultaneous pursuance of multiple relevant project components. Based on these findings, recommendations for the use case are derived, and a thorough conclusion is provided.
In the contemporary business landscape characterized by global economic uncertainty and rapid technological advancements, companies face increasing complexity in meeting their innovation targets. To address this challenge, established firms are engaging in collaborative partnerships with external entities, particularly startups, to leverage their knowledge and capabilities to gain a competitive advantage. Despite the growing popularity of corporate-startup collaboration (CSC), there remains a noticeable gap in the literature regarding the analysis of the dynamics and key success factors that are relevant to enhancing the collaborative process between these asymmetric entities. This study aims to fill this research space by investigating the dynamics, motives, objectives, and challenges of CSC, with a specific focus on identifying the success factors crucial for achieving favorable outcomes. Drawing upon insights from eight expert managers using a mixed-method approach, the study highlights the significance of addressing internal barriers and prioritizing key success factors to ensure successful outcomes in CSC. The research methodology involves a literature review, a pre-stage questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews to gather comprehensive data. The researchers have synthesized the findings to enhance an existing Co-Canvas model in a way that it is specifically tailored for CSC, thereby offering managers a practical framework to effectively navigate the complexities of CSC. The findings of this research hold implications for scholars, corporate leaders, and entrepreneurs, enabling them to evaluate past collaboration initiatives, identify potential sources of errors, and devise strategies to enhance their collaboration performance. By shedding light on the dynamics and success factors of CSC, this study contributes to the existing body of knowledge and offers valuable insights for strategically enhancing collaboration performance. However, the study refrains from making broad generalizations of the model due to the small sample size of experts.
Can the different framing of price promotions decrease consumer value perception and their willingness to pay? Prior research provides evidence of differences in consumer perception of economically equivalent monetary and non-monetary price promotions. In detail, many research works suggest that non-monetary promotions positively affect consumer perception and are therefore preferred over monetary ones that are associated with a drop in quality. Results suggest that this biased consumer behavior is caused by the framing of the promotion, causing difference in cognitive processing and dissimilarities in perception of benefits and product quality. We put this theoretical foundation to the test on the Turkish consumer market of non-durable goods, in order to contrast effects on consumers of the economically equivalent formats ‘50% discount’ as a monetary and ‘buy-one-get-one-free’ as a non-monetary promotion. In particular, the focus was set on analyzing attractiveness perception of the two promotion types and the development of WTP pre- and post-promotion. To achieve this, the non-durable goods rice and antibacterial soap were selected as product stimuli to stage scenarios before, during and after a promotion period. Four sets of questionnaires were shared on social media and distributed to a total of 919 participants via randomization generator. The survey results put forward empirical validation of product-related decrease in value perception as a consequence of both promotion types, namely the ‘promotional effect’. Nevertheless, our data provide no evidence for the ‘framing effect’ in neither attractiveness perception nor post-promotional WTP. This paper aims to bridge the gap on empirical research of key theoretical implications of promotional impact on consumer behavior and to benefit domestic and foreign marketing managers conducting business operations on the Turkish market.
Zombie companies are widely discussed ever since the ‘lost decade’ in Japan. The prolonged recession was experienced for almost two decades and in great deal attributed to the zombie companies. The Eurozone is currently in recession and is experiencing a growing incidence of zombie companies. If this trend is not stopped but encouraged by the negative interest rates, there is a possibility for a prolonged recession or even secular stagnation. This study aims to examine the reasons for the emergence and existence of zombie companies in the past. It discusses the implications zombie companies had on the aggregate macroeconomic indicators. In discusses how zombie companies should be treated and whether they must inevitably be foreclosed. To determine the severity of the problem, it examines the incidence of zombie companies in selected industries in the Euro periphery countries based on their interest coverage ratio (ICR). The results show that there is no significant incidence in the selected markets. It concludes whether currently, the zombie companies are a real threat to the economy of the Eurozone. Furthermore, it suggests ways how the problem of zombie companies should be prevented and treated.
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.
The representation of female leaders in the STEM-field, especially the telecommunication industry, is rising in the 21st century. In contrast to men in leadership positions, there still exists an incongruity for female leaders, as the stereotypes associated with a leader correspond to those of a man. Therefore, women in leadership positions must decide between fulfilling their social role as being caring and warm, or to fulfil the leadership stereotype of being competent and dominant. To date, they cannot display their female side when in leadership positions, as the expectations one has about the ideal leader do not align with the emotional side of a woman.
The qualitative study is based on the classification of women and leaders in the Stereotype Content Model. The research is conducted in a telecommunication company. Therefor, employees of female leaders are interviewed about their perception of their leader. The findings of the research prove, that female leaders in the telecommunication industry are perceived against the female stereotypes. The findings show the female leaders are perceived rather male, meaning they are more competent than warm.
It is shown that female leaders must act against their social role, which has negative consequences for them. Consequences can be the avoidance of attempting to compete for certain roles, lower performance or social or economic punishment.
Globally operating stamping and hybrid parts manufacturer KRAMSKI and the FRANUHOFER IPA have developed a new prosthetic foot designed for developing countries. Although low-cost solutions in developing countries exist, these significantly lack functionality. The new prosthetic foot will be more expensive than most low-cost alternatives, which start from $ 5.00 for a simple SACH foot, but can be sold for a much lower price than most high-tech prosthetics imported from industrialized nations, which can cost more than $5,000. The purpose of the paper was to determine the market potential for the prosthetic foot, to monitor the competition and to create an overall marketing concept for distributing and promoting the product. Therefore market and competitor analyses were conducted. On base of the market and competitor research, strategies were formulated. As a last step, the marketing mix with its four elements was regarded and different distribution and promotional tools have been reviewed to propose marketing activities that could be undertaken by KRAMSKI. Since six different target countries in Asia and Latin America (India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) were chosen in agreement with KRAMSKI, the market potential for each of these countries was estimated. Two different approaches were used to estimate the market potential of each country. Following the first approach, the total market demand of all six countries added up to more than 5.6 million potential. The second approach added up to a total of 6.7 million potential customers for the target regions. The numbers revealed that 95 % of all lower limb amputees lived in India. Therefore India has been chosen as the target country for all further research in the paper. The monitoring of the market change revealed that prosthetic foot demand was going to increase over the next decades due to lost limbs through road traffic incidents and diabetes. Besides, by the year 2030 most of the world’s middle class (80 %) will be living in developing countries As a consequence, more people will be able to afford health care products such as prosthetic feet. It has been found out that customers in developing countries lay emphasis on either low cost or quality. As a second step, the competitive environment within the prosthetic foot sector in India has been analyzed. Although the Indian healthcare system is still underdeveloped, the sector offers future opportunities for the private sector. The biggest commercial manufacturers of prosthetic feet in India are Otto Bock, Endolite and Streifeneder-Collegepark. But also international and local NGOs, such as BMVSS (Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti) with the Jaipur Foot, distribute prosthetic feet. Most of the commercial products are significantly more expensive than the products distributed by NGOs. Most NGOs manufacture prosthesis by themselves in order to save costs and create jobs. Many amputees can receive the prostheses and service for free due to donations which finance the NGOs. The competitive suppliers either own fitting centers or distribute their products through local wholesalers. On base of the market, consumer segmentation has been conducted. The Indian population has been divided into different income levels. Rural aspirers and urban seekers could be seen as the most profitable target segments, but urban customers might be easiest to reach due to location. In a last step, the marketing mix for the prosthetic foot has been analyzed. The prosthetic foot should offer specific features to align with developing countries. The product needs to be priced according to company objectives, demand, cost and competition. Since KRAMSKI does not yet have the capabilities and resources to fit prosthetic feet, the company needs to distribute to the end-user through indirect distribution channels such as wholesalers, clinics and NGOs. Therefore an important activity for KRAMSKI is the acquisition of distribution channels. This can be approached through promotional tools such as personal selling, direct marketing, online marketing or the participation on trade fairs and exhibitions.
Crowdlending is a growing business model that originated from the new crowdfunding phenomenon. It consists of funding companies’ loans through joining money from many investors in exchange for regular payments. One important key value in this model is the speed of the credit approval and the investment choice. The upcoming crowdlending platforms facilitate their growth through the automation of those processes. This study explores the creation of a credit-scoring model for an entrepreneurial platform, in order to fulfill the necessity of quickly determining the risk and the characteristics of loan applications for SME companies. This study will also analyze the pricing loan strategy based on the risk of the operations. Finally, the thesis suggests a of the loans and concludes with a series of improvement measures for the model.
Background
The recent worldwide financial crisis that occurred in last quarters of 2007 up until mid 2009 was accompanied by the massive failure of many financial institutions and liquidity providers. Investment banks and other institutionalized financial investors were unsuccessful in producing any real returns for their clients. This drastic fail in all the other traditional investments led to the questioning of how well the hedge fund industry performed in this light based on their promise as absolute return producers regardless of the market environment. This paper seeks to analyse the performance of the Long/Short Equity Strategy in particular relative to the performance of the overall market.
Methods
Thorough examination and validation of numerous empirical studies which have already been carried out on the subject matter are brought to light through the analysis of available historical data of the returns posted by these funds during the crisis using generally accepted statistical funds’ assessment tools giving an adequate angel to the performance of Long-Short Equity hedge Funds especially at the heart of the financial crisis in the last quarters of 2007 to mid 2009.
Results
Equity Long/Short Hedge funds as every other strategy in they industry succeeded in 2008 in outperforming other traditional investment vehicles and the broad stock an bond markets although the failed in to produce the absolute returns promised to their investments. In 2009 they posted similar results to that of S&P 500 index with subsequent declines in 2010 and 2011 thus failing to period their returns where highly correlated with that of the overall market coined with negative skewness and high kutorsis.
Conclusion
Even though hedge funds succeeded in outperforming the market in the heart of the crisis, they failed to provides their investors with absolute returns and also the benefits which the provide in terms of diversification to reduce the exposure of their funds to market risk was limiting. The very high fees paid to them by investors was not justified by their performance.
On Consistency Viability and Admissibility in Constrained Ensemble and Hierarchical Control Systems
(2023)
Several control architectures, such as decentralized, distributed, and hierarchical control, have been elaborated over the past decades for controlling systems composed of a set of subsystems. However, computational complexity and constraint satisfaction are still challenging tasks. We present an approach to control an ensemble of similar heterogeneous systems with input and state constraints via an identical control input. This control input is globally admissible and computed based on an aggregated system that reflects the overall behavior of the ensemble. To limit the computational complexity of the control task, the aggregated system is designed such that its dimension is independent of the number of subsystems. To guarantee viability, i.e., state constraint satisfaction for all times, appropriate consistency conditions are derived based on invariant set theory. The presented approach is illustrated with a numerical example.
The current COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in a so called "people-crisis" changed the people work and forced businesses to re-locate teams to a virtual working environment.
Virtual and remote work became the only way for many firms to stay afloat, and it meant drastic and forced changes in the meaning of work for a large number of employees. Although this seemed to be impossible for many business organizations, the current reality proved the exact opposite. The pandemic put many teams on a test, which only the high-performers and the ones were ready to adapt, learn and grow could pass. Therefore, complex and well-developed organizations need effective team performance in order to survive. Even though technology makes collaboration possible in a virtual environment skills that make it successful. Employees who merely "perform their jobs" are no longer desired by many businesses. Instead, companies search for talent who own an agile mindset and have the required soft skills to work and adapt in a team.
The aim of this research is to provide general information on the importance of teamworking as well as to analyze the impact of the virtual working environment during COVID-19 crisis on the teamwork.
The Syrian Refugee Crisis in Germany has been lately a constant research topic in many fields; politics, economics, cultural, social and safety aspects etc. popping up in all the news worldwide. Everybody is concerned about it and tackling it from a different point of view. Some believe that it a mutual benefit to both the country (Germany) and the refugees. As Germany benefits a lot form the cheap labor of migrant workers in the different industries. Specially the fast growing industries like the rural ones. Others fear that they will weaken the German culture and economy. And that they are burdens on the national people and will cause many problems.
In this paper two aspects of the challenges facing the Syrian refugees in Germany are discussed: the first is their integration and acculturation with the German society and the second is the challenges facing the refugees in entering the German labor market and case studies of Syrian entrepreneurs who developed their own family businesses in Germany are presented. The interviews were held with Syrian refugees in the state of Baden-Württemberg in 2015/2016 in Arabic language. The groups that were interviewed were in Villingen-Schwenningen and Stuttgart. An analysis of the cases presented along with the findings of the surveys and interviews are presented and finally some recommendations are suggested.
Life insurance penetration rate in Malaysia has been stagnant in the past few years although a few InsurTech companies set up in Malaysia recently. Prior researches on InsurTech fail to clarify the gap of the target customers’ and the insurance experts’ opinions on how to enhance the customer experience in online life insurance with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI). To address this, a model is recommended based on the literature review on similar articles and survey results conducted on both target customers and insurance experts. The recommended model has four main components: official website by InsurTech companies collaborated with traditional life insurers, customer support, customer service and customer engagement.
With the advent of a worldwide internationalization and globalization companies around the globe have been looking to increase their market shares abroad (K Aiginger, H Handler, 2017).
For the German automotive industry in particular and therefore the German tool industry respectively, the Chinese market has become a very lucrative and important marketplace in recent years (A Fraß, 2016).
This thesis is presenting a case study for the German family-run business Hufschmied Zerspanungssysteme GmbH. It is meant as a foundation and guideline for any future business endeavors in the Chinese market for Hufschmied Zerspanungssysteme GmbH. This thesis consequently examines the current market situation for the tool industry in China and analyses Hufschmied´s competitiveness of its current product portfolio.
The German machine tool industry is supplying different branches in China, for this case study a closer look at the aviation industry and automotive industry will be taken.
The Chinese market has been exhibiting a large growth over the last few years, but current events such as the implementation of tariffs (UN, 2020) and the recent outbreak of the Covid-19 Virus (SM Iacus et al., 2020) might mitigate the attractiveness of the market. Without a doubt there are both Challenges and Opportunities for the German machine tool industry in the Chinese market.
Accordingly, the thesis will with the combination of empirical research data and a market analysis of the Chinese market draw a conclusion to which degree the Chinese market offers challenges and opportunities for the German machine tool industry. Additionally, a PEST-Analysis of the Chinese market will provide further insights regarding the market situation in the target market.
This thesis will employ qualitative research methods, the needed data is going to be acquired from primary and secondary sources. As for primary sources, observations and interviews will be used, secondary sources will consist of articles as well as related literature.
Globalisation has significantly shaped the way international organisations operate nowadays. The increased connectivity is continuously raising the number of global virtual teams, connecting employees across borders for project work. With cultural diversity, geographic dispersion and virtuality increasing the complexity of collaboration, the leadership of virtual teams constitutes a critical challenge. Consequently, the topic of leadership and its behavioural implications is progressively gaining businesses’ attention. However, due to limited research in this field, this thesis aims at identifying whether and how leadership behaviour affects virtual team collaboration, specifically between German leaders and Chinese team members.
After outlining behavioural characteristics of virtual leaders as presented by literature, the empirical research focuses on expert interviews with German virtual leaders. Here, a specific focus is put on their perceptions of their Chinese teams, the emerging challenges, their behaviours and the creation of a new virtual culture.
The results show the importance of leadership behaviour in this setting. They emphasise the effect it has on the virtual team members and provide recommendations with regards to behavioural adaptation to master this challenge.
This thesis examines causes and effects of El Salvador’s transition to official dollarization conducted in 2001. The document analyzes preliminary and final impacts in the real, financial, fiscal, and external sectors of the country, and it also provides an economic and social perspective on how these effects have caused little effect on Salvadoran society. Several authors remark official dollarization might have positive effects on countries with macroeconomic disorders such as high inflation rates and drastic exchange rate variations. After more than 20 years of adoption of the U.S. dollar, official dollarization does not appear to have affected positively life of Salvadoran citizens but rather has prevented governments from using monetary policy to apply irresponsible economic policies and has also helped to prevent high inflation rates. To take advantage of the benefits official dollarization can offer, it is highly recommendable for El Salvador to implement transformative social and economic investments and policies that boost human development and economic competitiveness.
Fluid delivery
(2022)
Abrasive tools
(2021)
Abrasives
(2021)
Workpiece surface roughness
(2022)
Mechanisms of tool wear
(2022)
Grinding tool conditioning
(2022)
Optimizing the grinding process through reduction of the loading of grinding tool by infiltration
(2015)
Purpose: The goal of this paper is to develop a technology acceptance model for digital anamnesis and explore the factors that influence individual adoption behavior.
Methods: Through a literature review we identified important factors that influence acceptance. We then conduct an empirical study among patients with 115 respondents. Subsequently, we test the model using partial least squares path modelling.
Results: We found that performance expectancy, social influence, and trust are the most have significant influence on behavioral intention. A group comparison reveals significant differences between young and old patients. The model explained 57.5 % of the variance of behavioral intention.
Conclusions: This study helps us understand the key determinants of patient acceptance behavior, and enables us to give advice to businesses in the early stages of development.
The growth of Islamic banking is evident from its presence in over 60 countries and the establishment of Islamic branches by major conventional banks. Despite its small share in global financial assets, there is extensive literature examining the performance of Islamic banks. Some researchers claim that Islamic finance is imitating conventional banks and it has therefore become necessary to understand the business model of Islamic banks. This bachelor thesis reviews theoretical and empirical literature to identify differences between Islamic and conventional banks. The objective is to examine the stability of Islamic banking by comparing performance indicators on capitalization, stability, profitability and efficiency. The results indicate that competitive pressure leads Islamic banks to deviate from their principles which promote profit and loss sharing (PLS). The preference for PLS lies within the fact that profit is earned on actual performance. Deposits in Islamic banking may also be structured according to PLS and it is observed that Islamic banks distribute profits even if they earned a loss to prevent withdrawal. Although Islamic banks tend to be better capitalized and more profitable than conventional banks, the data on their stability and liquidity are inconclusive. Data gathered on efficiency indicate that Islamic banks are more profit efficient while conventional banks are more cost efficient. Islamic banks seem to spend more on remuneration and training which positively impacts managerial competence. The limitation of this paper is that the reviewed empirical studies are based on different sample sets. In addition, Islamic banks might not pursue the same practice everywhere as Shariah law is based on interpretation. This leads to differences in what is considered Shariah-compliant and therefore reduces the comparison’s reliability.
This paper analyzes the importance of recommender systems for B2C e-Commerce businesses, using extensive literature review as well as a consumer survey. Readers will gain a basic understanding on how the technology behind the recommendation works, how competitiveness in e-Commerce can be defined and what the consumer perspective on recommender systems is. The paper will ultimately provide valuable insights into how recommender systems can create a major competitive advantage for online retailers and why an online-shop without a recommender engine will struggle to stay or become competitive.
High voltage insulation properties of DLC-Parylene multilayer films for microsurgery instruments
(2016)
Starting from the direct exchange of goods and services to the first traces of money almost 3,000 years ago to contactless payments with our smartphones and bank cards in the 21st century. Along the way we have recorded a lot of innovation in the field of payments like the invention of the credit card in the 1940s or the implementation of a debit system for debit cards in the 1980s.
Each of those innovations was greeted with skepticism at the time of their introduction. The concerns of the people are understandable since the innovation in this field touches a very important topic to most humans: money.
At first people did not trust physical money when they did not exchange goods and services directly anymore since it did not feel like it is a fair exchange. Then people were not believing that plastic cards will one day substitute cash. Now people are pessimistic about contactless payment methods that don’t even require those plastic cards anymore.
Yet experts agree on the idea that the future of payment is contactless.
In my thesis I am focusing one of the technologies used for contactless payments called NFC.
The goal of this thesis is to give an overview over the usage, chances, risks and the competitors of this contactless technology, highlight the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and answer the following question based on empirical data:
“Is NFC the best method to handle contactless payments?”
This thesis aims to investigate the presence of herding behaviour in the German DAX40 market during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Herding behaviour is a phenomenon in behavioural finance where investors ignore their own information and base their decisions on fellow market participants. This behaviour most often presents during times of high market volatility. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a critical effect on the German financial markets, making it an appropriate time period to detect herding behaviour among investors of the DAX40.To begin this investigation, a literature review is used to build a good understanding of the causes and effects of herding behaviour. The literature review also presents some of the most influential models which aim to explain herding behaviour in financial markets. This is followed by using the methodology of the Cross-sectional standard deviation (CSSD) and the cross-sectional absolute deviation (CSAD), two empirical models to detect herding in financial markets. For the investigation, daily stock data of the DAX40 performance index and the DAX40 companies was collected for two years surrounding the pandemic's beginning in March 2020. No significant evidence of herding was detected in the DAX40 market during the sampling period of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design and fabrication of a novel 4D-printed customized hand orthosis to treat cerebral palsy
(2024)
The onset of COVID– 19 has accelerated digital trends facilitating the rise of social media and the financial technology industry. Especially in the private equity sector, investors are increasing their online presence and marketers need to define a tactical social media plan to improve its integrated marketing communications and facilitate lead generation.
The objective of this thesis is to develop a social media marketing proposal and action plan for the fintech company: Moonfare GmbH. The aim is to identify the most suitable content marketing, social networks and techniques to power sales growth, brand awareness and community engagement through its current social media channels.
In order to develop a deeper understanding, the literature review presents different digital marketing frameworks applied to social media marketing. Moreover, a careful study of the fintech private equity industry is developed through a Porter’s 5 forces model alongside an explanation of the case of Moonfare through a blue ocean canvas.
For the research, secondary data and internal desk research were performed including, statistical insights directly gathered from the company. The study was further designed with an internal and external situation analysis, concluding with a SWOT model and the establishment of objectives through a SMART goals framework. The final action plan is presented in an OGSM model.
Commissioning rules for optimal velocity controller damping of servo axes using elimination methods
(2015)