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The interest in topics such as the environment, health and sustainability has increased dramatically in recent years, due to concerns about global warming and demographic change, giving way to the concept of “green branding”.
This bachelor thesis proposes the application of a green branding strategy in order to position Irish agri-food products in the German grocery retail market, and explores its potential effectiveness and current relevance. Firstly, this work intends to offer an overall understanding of the characteristics and implications of a green branding strategy. Secondly, it analyses the connection with Ireland as a country of origin for agri-food products, by putting forward the different arguments for its suitability for the respective products. Finally, the key learnings regarding the successful implementation of a green branding strategy are discussed, based on a real-life best-practice case.
This research employed previous academic and trade literature to develop a theoretical foundation for understanding the concept of green branding in a marketing context. Various forms of industry, consumer and retail insights were used to identify the extent of demand for green brands in Germany and to analyse strength and weaknesses of the Irish agri-food industry in this regard.
An expert interview with the Marketing Manager for Kerrygold in Germany was conducted to uncover points arising from the best-practice application of a green branding strategy.
The findings indicate that there is significant theoretical and practical evidence to suggest that the application of a green branding would be an effective positioning strategy for Irish agri-food in the German consumer market.
Sales promotion are commonly used tool by marketers to manipulate consumer toward a certain offer or product. Attractiveness of a promotion can increase the demand of the promoted product. Monetary and non-monetary are considers the two main types of sales promotions. Monetary sales promotion, also known as price promotion, will provide immediate price discount upon purchase, for example 50% discount. Non-monetary sales promotions or premium promotion, on the other hand, usually grant consumer an extra free product or additional service for free. Previous studies also demonstrated that different sales promotion affect consumer behavior differently. Consumers’ value perception can be influenced by several factors. For instance, marketers use specific “phrase” such as “value pack” to influence consumer price perception. Rationally, consumers’ value perception should remain unchanged regardless of the phrases use to describe the promotion with same discount value. In this study, we examine the impact two sales promotion those are “50% discount” and “buy one get one free” on value perception of Thais consumers. These two deals have equal economic value but perceived differently by consumer. We aim to answer the question “does two different deals with the same value impact value perception of the same product differently?” In order to obtain logical answer, two set of questionnaires were send out to observe the maximum price which consumer willing to pay for “instant noodles” and “soy protein powder”. Unfortunately, the result from our survey were not significant enough for us to derive a concrete conclusion. We also discuss about potential cause of the unexpected result and interpret our result for better understanding. Even without a significant finding, this paper address that different sales promotions impact consumer in various ways supported by other literatures and also self-assumption.
Industry 4.0, a term coined at Hannover Messe in Germany in 2011, is believed to be the next disruptive force, driving human progress and innovation. The advent of technologies, such as the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Big Data, and new Mobile Technologies, fuel this disruption. To enable Industry 4.0, mankind is dependent on technological infrastructure, provided by companies, operating in the semiconductor industry. Over the last years, these companies have increased their profits and their stocks are currently trading near all-time highs. Yet, uncertainty created by the disruption of Industry 4.0, the growing influence of China on the semiconductor market, economic insecurities created by political uncertainties, like the 2020 US Presidential election, and the risk and implications of a second global wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, make the equity valuation of leading and established companies in the semiconductor industry exceptionally challenging. This paper examines, how different equity valuation methods compare under said circumstances and shows sophisticated valuation methods must be used to limit valuation error. Further, this paper gives an estimation of the possible ranges of value and suggests the industry may currently be overvalued.
The impact of store atmosphere elements on the purchase behaviour and emotions of customers has an important significance in modern marketing. How to design and conceptualize a store atmosphere in such a way that it provides an unforgettable experience for the customer and entices him or her to arouse an interest in the store environment is one of the most fundamental concerns merchants and marketers must ask and think through these days – likewise, the role of culture in connection with store atmosphere is necessary to understand. The goal of this paper is to answer the question on how behavioural and emotional responses to store atmospheric elements such as visual, aural, olfactory, tactile, social, exterior design, interior design and layout & design differ across individualist and collectivist cultures. A cross-cultural analysis between Germans and non-Germans is made in respect to the posed question. A quantitative online survey was conducted, in which a total of 99 valid participants took part, of which 57 were Germans and 42 were non-Germans. This research extended the study of Barros et al. (2019) and added two more separate store atmospheric elements which are the general exterior design and the general interior design. The data was then analyzed, and the findings were ultimately presented. The findings showed that overall store atmosphere elements have similar emotional and behavioural effects on individualist and collectivist cultures with the exception of the general exterior design element, where a significant difference was found. This paper gives a comprehensive overview on the importance of store atmospheric elements in retail and the comparison between Germany which acts as a country that scored relatively high on the Individualism dimension of Hofstede’s national culture model and the countries Turkey, Russia, Portugal, Albania, Bosnia, Romania, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Iraq which serve as a union of cultures that performed high on the Collectivism dimension. Additional research on the topic needs to be done on how culture affects shopper’s emotional and behavioural responses.
Digitalization is one of the global megatrends of the 21st century. With the increase of mobile technology, constant connectivity, and data analytics, organizations are forced to become more digital to keep up with the increasingly digital world.
This research addresses the changing role of leadership due to digitalization. It examines factors which need to be considered when driving digital transformation in organizations as well as leadership competencies necessary in the digital age. Finally, the research addresses the resistance to digital transformation in organizations.
To investigate how leadership is affected by digitalization, qualitative research is carried out. The research is based on published secondary data.
The findings of this research suggest the growing importance of leadership in the digital age. Leadership needs to approach digitalization actively, thus driving digital transformation in organizations to stay competitive in the increasingly digital world. Further, the research suggests six leadership competencies which are essential in times of digital transformation and identifies two leadership roles which have arisen in recent years due to digitalization. Finally, the research proposes ways to overcome resistance to digital transformation.
A Descriptive Study on Customer Attitudes towards Green Branding in the Fashion Industry in Germany
(2021)
This paper attempts to provide an up-to-date representation and analysis of customers' attitudes towards green branding in the fashion industry and their willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainable and ethical clothing in Germany. Related literature strands are reviewed to understand how the fashion industry works, what green branding means, and how customer attitudes are shaped. After creating an attitude measurement model, an online questionnaire was designed and sent to Furtwangen University students, with 153 valid responses returned. The descriptive analysis sheds light on the three attitudinal components related to sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry. It is noted that customers do not hold a definite attitude. However, a tendency towards the positive end is ascertained. Significant gaps still exist in terms of knowledge and awareness of some commitment by fashion brands. Another huge factor influencing attitudes appears to be a lack of trust. The behavioral component showed that customers are trying to contribute through proper disposal and are willing to buy sustainable and ethical clothing more often. However, there is still some room for improvement in terms of customer education. Nevertheless, it is found that they are willing to accept an additional contribution for sustainable and ethical clothing. In general, it can be concluded that there is a foundation to improve the fashion industry towards more sustainability. However, all stakeholders, i.e., customers and fashion brands, as well as the government, need to work together to change the industry in the long run.
The real-world possibilities for blockchain applications are endless, yet few real-world use cases exist in early 2018 beyond cryptocurrency. Among the many newly initiated and emerging proposals for applications of this unique technology, the area of vehicle emissions provides an opportunity to bring the advantages of cryptography and decentralized databases to the collection and storage of scientific research data. The reporting of vehicle emissions has been a publicly acknowledged area of deceit and scandal, while the cornerstones of blockchain are transparency and consensus. There is, perhaps, a way for this newly expanding technology to provide a disruption to the automotive industry by efficiently and reliably reporting vehicle emissions.
This paper seeks to analyze: the capabilities of an emerging technology when applied to an existing older technology and its utilized environment as well as propose a system for efficiently and reliably collecting and reporting internal combustion engine based vehicle emissions data using blockchain; also, finally, theorize the impact of such a system on the automotive industry.
By combining multiple technologies which already exist in practice, as well as some which are expected to be massively implemented in the near future, it is theoretically possible to establish a blockchain based system for not only recording emissions from every participating vehicle, but also electronically executing a check against local emissions restrictions via smart contracts defined by geo-locational range and GPS referencing. The data can be processed and stored in a way that protects the identity and location history of the driver by assigning responsibility of compliance to the identity of the vehicle. The network can be protected from malicious actors by way of an emissions application specific protocol which involves unique GPS data.
While the short run effects of such a system may be met with pushback from the automotive industry because of increased regulation and impact on sales of internal combustion engine vehicle inventory, the long run effects parallel and may even supplement the future effects of the global trends which make the system possible.
When scaling, startups face managerial challenges and a downfall in innovation. A growing team and the resulting increased communication and organizational complexity bring issues previously not existing. Accountability Systems can assist startups overcome the mentioned issues and maintain their essence of innovation, vital for their success.
This paper discusses the relevance and benefits of implementing formal managerial systems in a growing startup. By mapping out the interdependence of culture, innovation and growth, it is demonstrated how Accountability Systems can support the preservation of an innovative culture when scaling a startup.
In a time when innovation is often disregarded due to a focus on process efficiency, Accountability Systems can provide a valuable tool for managing transition. This thesis serves as a general evaluation of Accountability Systems and their benefits. It is important to note that this paper is not intended to serve as a directly adaptable guide for startups.
This study is aimed at valuing two companies in the IT services industry with different valuation approaches. Therefore, the preconditions for an accurate and meaningful business value as well as the procedure, strengths and limitations of these approaches are examined. Additionally, the accuracy of the results is determined through comparison of valuation estimates with their corresponding stock prices occurring within the three months following the business valuations.
Furthermore, it is examined if one valuation approach is superior in terms of accuracy. Finally, to verify the quality and explanatory power of the valuation results, they are compared with the outcomes of the study on the information content of equity analyst reports by Paul Asquith, Michael B. Mikhail and Andrea S. Au. The results of the business valuations show that within the three-month period, no price target was exactly achieved by the corresponding stock prices.
Furthermore, no valuation approach could be determined that is significantly more accurate than the others. It can be concluded that despite some limitations in the explanatory power of the valuations, the average percentage approximations of Mastercard’s and Visa’s stock prices to target prices were only slightly below those of the comparative study. In view of the fact that the research capacities and experience behind these business valuations are significantly lower than those of the top analysts in the comparative study, the results are considered consistent with the outcomes of the study on the information content of equity analyst reports.
An analysis of the inter-rater reliability of ESG ratings within the consumer staples industry
(2020)
The aim of this study is to gain further insights into whether ESG ratings of the same firms from different rating agencies differ. To this end, this study examines and compares in particular the ratings of the providers Bloomberg, Sustainalytics and MSCI for companies in the consumer staples industry. The study comes to the conclusion that there are in some cases significant differences between these three providers in terms of the respective ESG ratings. Furthermore, a company-size bias is shown for Bloomberg and Sustainalytics ESG ratings. It appears that these agencies rate companies with a large market capitalization better than firms with a lower market value. These large discrepancies in ESG ratings of companies within the consumer staples industry and individual rating problems, such as the company-size bias, mean that today's ESG ratings tend to be not reliable and not valid. The study shows that ESG ratings will have to change a lot in the near future in order to contribute positively to the investment selection of socially responsible investors.
Sustainability, encompassing the economy, the environment, and society in equal parts, is an increasingly prominent topic that is gaining in importance and awareness due to the climate crisis and the resulting urgent need for action. It is essential to simultaneously focus on the global and on the local scale in order to create a paradigm shift. This study addresses the attitude-behavior gap of employees in the daily operations within companies and evaluates how nudges can be implemented to narrow this gap. A literature review was conducted to understand the separate topics of sustainability, the attitude-behavior gap, and nudging. Based on these three topics and their interrelation, exemplary nudges on habits and on infrastructure to be applied in a company and modified to its needs are developed. The method of implementation of nudges cannot be generalized because (1) attitudes and behavior and their interrelation are individual and influenceable factors and (2) the corporate context and how nudges are communicated impact the effectiveness of the interventions. Investing in internal sustainability practices in combination with indispensable external practices leads companies to a holistic, authentic, and successful approach towards becoming a sustainable business.
Keywords: Attitude-Behavior Gap, Nudging, Corporate sustainability
An average investor trying to allocate his wealth among multiple assets ideally has nearly infinite possibilities to do so. However, asset allocation strategies try to facilitate this process. Nevertheless, no consensus exists on which strategy is ideal and yields the best performance. Therefore, this paper aims to determine an ideal asset allocation strategy for an average investor by comparing two asset allocation strategies.
The focus is on comparing the practical application of Markowitz’s Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), a sophisticated asset allocation strategy, with an equally weighted asset allocation, namely the 1/N strategy. The past performance of these two strategies is compared with the help of a calculation example based on historical data. The quantitative analysis covers three time periods of different lengths between 1991 and 2022. Also, the strategies are applied to portfolios with different amounts of assets during these periods. Although the existing literature is very controversial concerning the performance of the two strategies, this research shows a clear result. Compared to the 1/N strategy, this study’s findings show an outperformance of the MPT strategy during every period and each portfolio combination. However, the difference in performance regarding return and risk is minimal in most scenarios and would not significantly affect an average investor who invests over a long-term horizon.
This thesis talks about the relation between investor sentiment, stock return and trading volume in the German stock market. Six Granger causality tests were performed in order to determine, whether one of the above mentioned factors is indicative of the others. The results imply that investor sentiment is indicative of both, stock return and trading volume in the specified time period. However, there is no further significant evidence for other relations among the variables. The results are mostly in line with the literature available on this topic and back up the importance of the concept of investor sentiment as investor sentiment delivers an attempt to explain why investors behave irrationally on the stock market. Hence, the factors influencing investor sentiment should be subject to further research in order to gain a broader understanding of the topic.
Jährlich sterben etwa 3.000 Menschen bei Verkehrsunfällen in Deutschland. Trotz technischen Fortschrittes der Fahrzeuge und steigender Sicherheit im Straßenverkehr nimmt die Anzahl an Verkehrstoten nur minimal ab. Im Vergleich zu 1950 hat die Zahl an zugelassenen PKW in Deutschland deutlich zugenommen. Um die Anzahl der Todesfälle zu verringern, wurde durch die Europäische Union das 112-eCall Notrufsystem für alle PKW und leichten Nutzfahrzeugen mit einer vollen Typenzulassung ab dem 31.03.2018 verpflichtend eingeführt. Öffentliche Notrufleitstellen sowie der ADAC klagen über häufige Probleme mit dem eCall System. Fahrzeughersteller und andere Firmen dürfen auch ein eigenes eCall Angebot anbieten, wenn gewisse Bedingungen erfüllt sind. Bei Verkehrsunfällen ist eine schnelle Rettung und Transport in ein geeignetes Traumazentrum maßgeblich dafür verantwortlich, welche Überlebenschancen die verletzte Person hat. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, die verschiedenen eCall Arten anhand von Leitstellendaten zu untersuchen und zu ermitteln, wie viele dieser Einsätze in den Leitstellen eingegangen sind. Es sollen außerdem die Qualität und die Unterschiede der beiden Systeme in einer örtlichen Analyse ermittelt werden.
This paper analyses five different Cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Dogecoin and Litecoin, and studies their impact on traditional financial portfolios under different allocation strategies. The allocation strategies under consideration in this paper are the modern portfolio theory according to Markowitz, an extension of it such as the tangency portfolio, and the equally weighted portfolio. Further, this study explores the effect on the efficient frontier when Cryptocurrencies are added to the efficient portfolios. In addition to that, the paper aims to examine whether the mean – variance portfolio optimization according to Markowitz outperforms the naïve and tangency portfolio strategy. The portfolio performance is evaluated based on the Sharpe ratio. The quantitative analysis of this paper covers the time period from 2017 to 2022, in total five years. In accordance with the existing literature on portfolio optimization with Cryptocurrencies, the study reveals that besides some issues related with Cryptocurrencies such as cybercrime and a lack of regulations, Cryptocurrencies can be beneficial for portfolio diversification with traditional financial assets. Referring to the portfolio strategies, the study highlights that the optimal mean – variance portfolio and tangency portfolio do not differ significantly in terms of Sharpe ratio. However, both strategies outperform equally weighted portfolios.
The following study examines the influence selected variables have on the price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin by utilizing a multiple linear regression model. Data of 267 observations for each variable during a five-year period from 13 August 2016 to 1 October 2021 are analyzed. The results present empirical evidence on the relationship of Bitcoin and external determinants such as traditional financial assets, in particular the stock market, the bond market, domestic currencies, the real estate market, gold, and the popularity of Bitcoin, represented by a Google Trends analysis. The findings imply that only the stock market and the real estate market proxies significantly influence the price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
New developments in decentralized ledger technologies may have a huge impact on how we perceive and use money now and in the future. Most notably, it has led to the development of cryptocurrencies and a variation thereof –stablecoins. This thesis discusses the potential impact of Proof of Work based cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin on the money market and the central bank’s ability to maintain control over the money supply. The IS-LM model is used to evaluate the effects of a private-issued digital currency. However, due to the characteristics of POW based cryptocurrencies, their impact on the money market is neglectable. In contrast, private-issued stablecoins of large international businesses with the potential of gaining enough users to overcome hindering network effects may pose a serious threat to the financial system, if there is no regulation on their usage.
As a response to this development and combined with the phenomenon of a declining cash usage in many countries, central banks have started to conduct research in their own digital currency, namely central bank digital currency (CBDC). Countries such as Sweden or The Bahamas have already started with the implementation of trial phases of their respective CBDC. However, design choices of the country’s digital currency differ due to financial, geographical, and cultural circumstances, among others. Nevertheless, many countries have utilized decentralized ledger technologies as the underlying technology for CBDC, showing its promising potential for further research and future developments.
Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, den Einfluss von Apps und virtuellen Welten auf die Akzeptanz und die Motivation von Läufern zu ermitteln. Dafür wird der Begriff der Motivation anhand von Motivationsmodellen erklärt und auf den Laufsport angewendet. Durch den praktischen Teil der Arbeit, wurde mittels einer Studie herausgefunden wie Probanden auf virtuelle Welten während einer Laufeinheit auf einem Laufband reagieren und diese bewerten. Die Grundlage und Idee des Themas dieser Bachelorarbeit, war unter anderem eine virtuelle Laufapp. 2009 gab es an der Hochschule Furtwangen die Projektgruppe „Virtual Marathon“. Unter der Leitung von Prof. Dr. Dittler, war das Ziel des Projektes eine virtuelle Welt für den Laufsport zu erschaffen. Dafür filmte die Gruppe verschiedene Laufstrecken ab und projizierte diese Videos anschließend auf eine Leinwand, vor welcher ein Laufband installiert wurde. Heutige Apps nutzen dieselbe Technik, nur auf aktuellerem Stand und mit einer Vielzahl von mehr Strecken.
In dieser Bachelorarbeit wird die Bedrohungslage durch den Einsatz von frei erhältlichen Drohnen zur Beeinträchtigung der Informationssicherheit von Organisationen umfassend untersucht. Unter Verwendung einer Kombination aus Literaturanalyse, Experteninterviews und Fallstudie wird die Vielfalt der Bedrohungen und die Machbarkeit von Drohnenunterstützte Angriffen auf die Informationssicherheit detailliert beleuchtet. Dabei zeigt sich, dass Drohnen eine reale und vielschichtige Gefahr darstellen. Die Einschätzung der Eintrittswahrscheinlichkeit solcher Angriffe ist aufgrund der dynamischen Entwicklung der Drohnentechnologie und der Vielfalt der Anwendungsmöglichkeiten komplex. Diese Arbeit betont die Notwendigkeit für Organisationen, effektive Abwehrstrategien zu entwickeln, und weist auf die Wichtigkeit weiterer Forschung in diesem Bereich hin, um den Herausforderungen der technologischen Entwicklungen und der sich ständig ändernden Bedrohungslandschaft gerecht zu werden.
After the Second World War and especially in the early 70s a new phenomenon arose – today widely known as globalization. It eliminated barriers and thus increased international competition. Companies such as Siemens, General Electrics and Procter & Gamble were forced to act globally in order to stay competitive and therefore they had to redefine their businesses in a strategic and internationally oriented manner. As one of a company’s most essential departments, human resources was tremendously forced to adapt to the changed business environment. Language skills, cultural awareness and global mobility were only a few new requirements in human resources.
Early in the beginning of globalization, large companies recognized the opportunity to outsource specific departments with the goal of cost-saving and resource bundling. Manufacturing was and still is a predestined department to make use of outsourcing, whereas the situation for other departments including IT, procurement and human resources is more complex. The main fear is losing control to the outsourcing partner. Main departments with a strategic importance for the overall success are therefore only conditionally suitable for outsourcing. Companies need to ask themselves, how much control over their human capital they are willing to sacrifice for saving costs and staying competitive. With the purpose to evade this conflict of objectives, companies seek for a hybrid model, which allowed them maintaining control and cutting costs at the same time.
In the early 70s, first companies found the solution in the Shared Service Center model, which then rapidly spread throughout a number of countries and industries. Human Resources Shared Service Centers can be defined as a hybrid model, combining advantages and avoiding disadvantages of outsourcing and decentralization of Human Resources. The Shared Service Center model is expected to lower costs, improve efficiency and service quality, and enable organizations to better focus on core functions. Although the strategy seems only having advantages, there are many aspects to consider in the pre-implementation phase. Moving to the Shared Service Center model represents an immense strategic project, including high risk, costs and impact on the overall success. For this reason, the project needs to be well planned, designed, implemented, monitored
and evaluated from the right people, at the right time and at the right place. Any small mistakes made during the project might have an unpredictable and irreversible impact and prevent the company from benefiting of the Shared Service Center model or might even force the organization to stop the project completely. Before deciding to implement Shared Service Centers, companies need to accept that there is neither guarantee for success nor a universally valid success strategy. Best and worst practices will be discovered during the transition at the earliest and a success evaluation can only happen in the post-transition phase. Although the Shared Service Center model is not a recent trend as it found first-time application many decades ago, the topic remains relevant as many companies still hesitate implementing this risky strategy. Some organizations succeeded, others failed and returned to their old approach while some are currently in the transition phase.
Before deciding to move to the Shared Service Center model, one of the top pharma company’s was facing the same issues as other companies on such a scale. The management increasingly felt the pressure to offer the same or an even better service quality at a lower price. Changing the strategy and implementing Shared Service Centers across the globe was seen as the most promising solution. The large pharma company with employees of many nationalities worldwide offers a huge variety of cultures, which can be seen as a chance, but also as an obstacle on the way to a successful Shared Service Center implementation. Primarily, the company has to consider that the project might not work in the same pace, quality and method for all countries. Finding best practices for all countries is a desirable goal, yet not easy to achieve.
With information on corporate ethical behavior now more accessible than ever, consumers have become increasingly socially and environmentally aware, which has translated into a growing demand for ethically made products. For ethically minded consumers, certification labels such as fair trade or organic are simple indicators of whether a product meets their ethical standards. For companies that wish to become certified, which is a lengthy and sometimes expensive process, there are several pertinent questions to consider, such as how much customers really value particular labels and whether multiple labels yield significant added competitive benefits. One should also consider how best to collect this information, because simply asking customers via surveys isn’t guaranteed to return results that actually reflect or predict real-life behavior (Carrington et al. 2010). For this paper, we collected information on consumers’ willingness to pay for products with the organic and fair trade labels (both individually and in combination) using two different methods: a traditional questionnaire and a reaction-time based electronic research method designed to reveal subconscious value perceptions. The factors involved were product type and number of labels. We found little evidence to suggest that additional ethical labels significantly increase willingness to pay.
The purpose of this paper has been to find out if the reengineering project at Daimler Trucks has been successful. In order to eloquently do so, the field of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) has been researched with regard to performance measurement. The theoretical part of the thesis concluded with choosing one methodology out of the findings.
The second part is about the consequences of Daimler AG top management’s decision, reacting to changes in business environment, to restructure the Finance organization of all its divisions. Daimler Trucks used that change which included office relocation of the accountants to where their controlling colleagues have been seated and the newly gained local proximity to execute the project Integration Accounting & Controlling (IAC). The goal has been to reengineer the closing process by eliminating redundancies and defining clear responsibilities.
The third part of the thesis is presenting the result of measuring process performance before and after reengineering according to the derived research methodology of part 1. Quantitative as well as qualitative evaluation shows an increase in efficiency and effectiveness. A conducted online survey, asking all involved employees, aligns with this result and names key success factors such as communication and transparency. Despite the undeniable success of IAC, maintaining a continuous improvement process is recommended.
The goal of this thesis is to give an overview of the carbon footprint of the commercial aviation industry and to introduce measures to mitigate emissions. This will be done by taking the German Lufthansa Group as an example.
In the first part, relevant theoretical background information will be given. It will be shown that the commercial aviation industry is subject to steady and relatively strong growth. Even though the global share of GHG emissions caused by air traffic is currently relatively low, it is projected to increase in accordance with overall industry growth.
In the second part, measures taken by the aviation industry to reduce its emissions are presented using the example of Lufthansa. The measures that are taken are various, reaching from fleet renewal over infrastructural improvements such as airspace management to alternative fuels. It is also shown that the efficiency of an airline depends on different things and hence leads to different performances in the industry.
Even though the reduction of emissions is typically related with a reduction of costs for the aviation industry, the progress in some areas is still relatively slow.
Islamic banking is the new trend emergent within the modern-day banking industry, yet minimal literature is written about it. Most of the literary content today is regarding conventional banking, especially in non-Muslim countries and continents, Europe and U.S. included. Lack of literature is a threat to the operationalization of both modes of banking, due to lack of information and market analysis data. One of the fields where minimal literature coverage exists is market regulation – which is basically information as to how these two types of banking are regulated according to legislative structures. In light of this literature gap, this study emerges to explore the market regulative structure of both Islamic and conventional banks. The methodology to collect primary data is through interviews of selected players in both Islamic and conventional banks, such as bank managers, consultants, and personnel in the IT and finance department. The results of the interviews demonstrate that Islamic banks are faced with shortage of market regulation structures while conventional banks, on the other hand, are overwhelmed with over-regulation. The study provides several feasible solutions for these challenges.
Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit gibt einen Überblick darüber, inwiefern die gängigen Nachhaltigkeitslabels in Deutschland eine Hilfe für den nachhaltigen Konsumenten sind.
Dazu wurden 8 handelsübliche Labels miteinander verglichen. Das Hauptproblem der Labels war die fehlende Glaubwürdigkeit, aufgrund von fehlender Transparenz. In einem zweiten Schritt wurde ermittelt ob, und wenn ja, um wieviel sich die persönliche Zahlungsbereitschaft auch tatsächlich erhöht. Festgestellt wurde, durch Auswertung diverse Studien, dass sich die persönliche Zahlungsbereitschaft durchaus steigern lässt. Dazu muss die Preisbildung allerdings transparent nachvollziehbar sein. Es lässt sich sagen, dass sich die Zahlungsbereitschaft um ein Fünftel steigern lässt. Durch die Auswertung diverser Studien wurden Barrieren ermittelt, welche einen nachhaltigen Konsum erschweren. Auf Grundlage dieser Barrieren, wurden Handlungsempfehlungen entwickelt, durch die diese Barrieren überwindet werden könnten. Besonders interessant ist diese Arbeit für diejenigen, die den nachhaltigen Konsum fördern möchten. Dazu gehören die Initiatoren der bisherigen Labels, sowohl als auch zukünftige Initiatoren.
Cultural considerations for Germans working with Japanese in virtual teams for project management
(2019)
In today’s globalized and multinational working world, being part of a team that uses technology in order to cross distance, time zones and even organizations, a so-called virtual team is becoming increasingly common. While extensive research on this topic is available, most of the current research is very theoretical and only in part useful for a member of a virtual team in order to enhance performance. A clear guideline on how to effectively work in an intercultural virtual team is not existent at this point.
This research, aims to produce a clear guideline for Germans working in virtual teams with Japanese in the style of the Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide. Identifying the key challenges of virtual teams and the specific cultural differences of Germans and Japanese, based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions model are the starting point for this research. Due to the specificity and the novelty of this research a grounded theory approach has been taken and in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 Japanese employees, who regularly work in virtual teams with Germans. Grounded in the experiences and challenges of the participants, the findings help construct a guideline for Germans working with Japanese in virtual teams.
Results are structured according to 4 of the key challenges virtual teams face: trust, communication, leadership and technology/knowledge sharing. The guideline addresses the different communication styles of Japanese and Germans, differences in hierarchical thinking as well as the more collectivistic point of view of many Japanese. The guideline, that has been produced, is intended as a quick guide including recommendations for Germans to enhance their virtual team work with Japanese.
Private equity investors acquire companies, aim to increase the company’s corporate value and thus aim at selling the respective company at a profit after some time. To increase the value of their portfolio companies, private equity investors employ three main value creation strategies. Financial leverage, multiple expansion, and operational value creation. There has been a significant shift in importance between these three value drivers. While in the 1980s more than 50% of value creation was achieved by leveraging equity with the help of debt capital, this value driver only accounted for 15% in the 2010s. Instead, the value driver operational value creation has gained significantly in importance. It alone accounted for 55% of total value creation in the 2010s, more than financial leverage and multiple expansion combined. The aim of this thesis is to answer the question which operational value creation levers private equity investors use to increase the value of their portfolio companies during the holding phase. In addition, the thesis deals with the question of operational value creation drivers of the future. These are derived based on prevailing megatrends of the future. Research on the operational value drivers used by private equity investors revealed that these drivers can be assigned to three main aspects.
These aspects are, on the one hand, financial aspects, where private equity investors take measures to improve working capital. Moreover, within the framework of financial aspects private equity investors influence the cost structure as well as the cost of capital and the capital structure. Furthermore, private equity investors assert influence on the governance structures of their portfolio companies. For the aspect of governance, measures such as replacement of management/change of management structure, monitoring and controlling as well as incentive systems were identified to increase the value of the company. Another identified aspect for value creation are strategic aspects. In terms of strategic aspects, private equity investors use the levers of mergers and acquisitions, organic expansion, outsourcing/insourcing as well as product and pricing strategies.
The research on the value creation levers that private equity investors will have to apply in the future in order to ensure value creation of their portfolio companies is based on the megatrends of digitalization, demographic change and sustainability. The research revealed the implementation of digitalization measures, employee, and talent management as well as the implementation of ESG criteria.
This thesis has structurally outlined value drivers that contribute to value creation in private equity investments. The research also showed that value creation levers taken can directly and indirectly influence the value of the portfolio company. Value drivers II with a direct effect on the change in equity value affect either revenue, margin or net debt, while the indirect value drivers affect the valuation multiple.
In a worldwide accessible marketplace with numerous competitors who try to beat prices and quality of services and products, it is vital for online businesses to strive for strategies to be able to survive in a competitive environment and to sustain growth. The company Usbstick-Producer has gained numerous customers in the German market, but nevertheless competes against many businesses which offer similar products to similar prices. Therefore, it is highly important to defend gained market share. Appropriate strategies and investments are necessary to implement in order to attract and retain customers.
The bachelor thesis aims to explore the nature of customer retention and to give the company Usbstick-Producer recommendations regarding possible improvements and customer retention strategies for the German market. The company’s goal is to retain more customers and to ensure customer satisfaction in order to guarantee profitability for the business.
In order to attain the objective of the thesis, a multi-method approach is being used. A literature review is carried out in order to develop a comprehensive analysis and theoretical framework on the topic of customer retention and related concepts. An internal and external analysis are conducted which help to understand the key drivers and most important influencing factors for the business using the PEST analysis, Porter’s five forces analysis and SWOT analysis.
Qualitative research is utilised in order to investigate the practical aspects of the topic in direct relation to the company. Valuable insights and expert opinions as well as experiences are collected during expert interviews in order to develop appropriate strategic recommendations.
The research concludes with strategic recommendations for the company Usbstick-Producer using the collected and analysed data of the literature review and expert interviews. In the conclusion, possible further research topics are assessed and limitations of the research are discussed.
Funding is the key to success for a start-up. Since start-ups are often operating in innovative industries, they rarely receive loans from traditional debt lenders such as banks. However, start-ups do have the option of acquiring money for company growth through equity financing. One possibility for this is venture capital. In this scope, Germany is significantly behind the United States of America due to various aspects. This problem shows the relevance of the topic and justifies the critical examination of this subject. This work aims to analyze the German venture capital market, its development over the last 20 years, its advantages on the one hand and its disadvantages on the other hand as well as its future perspectives. Beyond that, the differences between the German and the American venture capital market and its success factors are presented. To answer all research questions, a broad literature review in combi-nation with several conducted expert interviews, which are evaluated on the principle of the qualitative content analysis according to Mayring, is applied. The results of the analysis indicate that there are mainly three fields that are crucial for a successful venture capital market: Political actions, attitudes of the society, and the economic situation. Within these fields, some aspects of Germany are considered worse than in the U.S. In the United States of America politics often intervenes to create better conditions for investments via venture capital. Besides, the risk affinity of society in the U.S. is a major advantage compared to the risk-averse society in Germany. This is complemented by a pronounced start-up mentality in the U.S. and the positive attitude of society towards the failure of a new start-up. In Germany, the opposite can be found in both aspects. Nevertheless, the German venture capital market has developed positively in recent years and has some advantages, such as a wide range of government grants for start-ups and the opportunity for investors to earn high returns on the initial investment. All experts that were interviewed are very confident that venture capital in Germany will continue to develop positively. They identified the reasons for this evolution in an increasing number of start-ups and better skills among the founders, which increases a start-ups' chances of success. For this reason, the experts forecast rising yield expectations, as well as an increasing number of venture capital providers, and venture capital takers. This research also indicates that the volumes of venture capital funds will rise, and the COVID-19-pandemic will accelerate the development of venture capital in Germany. The results of the research clearly show that despite some weaknesses, the German venture capital market has been on a good path for several years, and that there is a high probability that the growth will continue in the future.
Diese Interventionsstudie untersucht die Auswirkungen eines Outdoor-Wildwassertrainings auf die Fähigkeiten des strategischen Planen und Denkens von Studenten an der Hochschule Furtwangen. Bei diesem Outdoor-Training handelt es sich um eine Wahlpflichtfach-Veranstaltung, die unter dem Titel „White Water Management – learning Management in a new way“ angeboten wird. Die Veranstaltung stellt eine Methode dar, in welcher die theoretischen Inhalte zum strategischen Planen und Denken den Studenten vorgestellt und im Anschluss auf dem Wasser in einem Kajak praktisch erprobt werden. Um einen Lernerfolg beurteilen zu können, wurden sowohl teilnehmende Studenten an dem Training sowie eine Kontrollgruppe, nicht-teilnehmenden Studenten, mittels eines standardisierten Fragebogens zu einem Zeitpunkt vor und nach dem Training befragt. Die Auswertungen der Daten zeigten größere subjektiv eingeschätzte Lernerfolge seitens der teilnehmenden Studenten im Vergleich zur Kontrollgruppe.
Die Frage ob das Elektroauto mittelfristig den Verbrenner in Deutschland ablösen wird beschäftigt momentan Politik und Medien. Aktuell stellen Elektroautos trotz staatlicher Förderung noch ein Nischenprodukt am deutschen Pkw-Markt dar. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht innerhalb einer ausführlichen Marktanalyse von Sekundärdaten ob und gegebenenfalls wann Elektroautos in Deutschland den Massenmarkt ansprechen werden. Hierzu wird der deutsche Pkw-Markt mithilfe von Modellen der Diffusionsforschung untersucht. Ziel der Diffusionsforschung ist es, die Verbreitung einer Innovation am Markt im Zeitverlauf zu beschreiben und zu erklären. Es wird dabei herausgearbeitet: welche Käufer Elektroautos momentan ansprechen, welche Faktoren erfüllt sein müssen, dass sich Elektroautos am Massenmarkt in Deutschland durchsetzen können und welche Faktoren den Verlauf der Verbreitung von Elektroautos in Deutsch¬land in Zukunft beeinflussen werden. Aus Basis der gewonnen Erkenntnisse wird schließlich eine Prognose zur zukünftigen Verbreitung von Elektroautos in Deutschland erstellt.
Mit dem Fitnessboom in Deutschland profitiert auch die Nahrungsergänzungsmittelindustrie. Auf Social-Media-Kanälen wie Instagram wird immer sichtbarer wie Influencer der Fitnessbranche mit Produktplatzierungen für Nahrungsergänzungsmittel werben. Diese Arbeit untersucht das neue Marketingphänomen des Influencer Marketings bezogen auf die Nahrungsergänzungsmittelindustrie der Fitnessbranche in Deutschland. Für die Untersuchung wurde eine persönliche Befragung von Fitnessstudiobesuchern durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, dass das Influencer Marketing eine Rolle für den Erfolg von Herstellern der Nahrungsergänzungsmittelindustrie haben kann und diese neue Marketingdisziplin voller Potenzial steckt.
Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es zu erforschen inwiefern Führungskräfte den gesundheitlichen Zustand ihrer Mitarbeiter beeinflussen können. Macht falsche Führung krank? Wie kann man gesunde Führung umsetzen und warum ist das wichtig? Hierbei wird negativer Stress am Arbeitsplatz als Hauptfaktor für Burnout und psychische Erkrankungen näher analysiert. Traditionelles Führungsverhalten wird kritisch betrachtet und begründet folglich wichtige Ansätze gesundheitsförderlichen Führens. Die Bedeutung gesunder Führung und der Einfluss des direkten Vorgesetzten auf die eigene Zufriedenheit werden anhand aktueller Studien gezeigt. Gesundheitsmaßnahmen der leitenden Organisation und Personalentwicklung bilden zusätzlich wichtige Komponenten.
Jene Erwartungen, die heutzutage an die Führungspositionen gestellt sind, werden im weiteren Verlauf der Thesis hinterfragt. Welche Herausforderungen entstehen für Führungskräfte und Geschäftsleitung? Die Bedeutung von Führungskompetenzen und Führungskräfteentwicklung nimmt seit Jahren zu.
Als praktisches Beispiel dafür wurden zu den Forschungsfragen Interviews mit der jeweiligen Leitung des betrieblichen Gesundheitsmanagements zweier Unternehmen aus der Region Südschwarzwald geführt. Die qualitative Befragung ergab einen eindeutigen Bedarf an psychischem Gesundheitsmanagement. Die Rolle von Führungskräften wird in beiden Fällen als höchst bedeutend angesehen und in der Studienanalyse näher erläutert.
Differences in the perception and their effects on the implementation of organizational agility
(2021)
This thesis paper investigates the differences in organizational agility implementation and links practical approaches to complex theory. Several agile transformations have been studied to provide an overview of the common guidelines that foster agile working. In alignment with the ambivalence of agility, the results show that a symbiotic mixture of bottom- up and top-down features in the application is required. Especially in traditional organizations, where hierarchical structures prevail, the practical implementation requires the approval of managers and the active involvement of employees to be successful. Additionally, companies cannot apply a uniform approach to achieving agile but must alter practices to fit their specific needs. Consequently, this paper can be particularly beneficial to companies attempting an agile change.
Die Arbeit Digitale Markenentwicklung - Analyse des Markenauftritts der Bundeswehr anhand des identitätsbasierten Markenführungskonzepts beschäftigt sich mit der Bundeswehr als Markenkonstrukt. Als theoretische Grundlage dient das identitätsbasierte Markenführungskonzept von F.-R. Esch. Hierzu gilt es außerdem zu untersuchen, inwieweit sich Online-, Hybrid- und Offlinemarken voneinander abgrenzen und wie sich das identitätsbasierte Markenführungskonzept zu diesen verhält. Ziel ist es, die Marke Bundeswehr mit der Markenidentitätstheorie anhand eines ausgewählten Kanals praktisch zu beschreiben, sowie dessen Ergebnisse in Beziehung zur Theorie zu stellen. Kern des Ziels ist es auch festzustellen, wo die Bundeswehr der Theorie folgt und wo sie davon abweicht, woraus sich weiterführende Handlungsempfehlungen ergeben können.
The topic of traditional fashion retailers fighting for their position against growing e-commerce suppliers has been omnipresent in recent years. Therefore, it is important to understand what possibilities modern technology and innovation has to offer, and how these innovative technologies can be leveraged to achieve traditional brick-and-mortar-retailer’s goal of staying relevant and competitive.
The objective of this thesis is to examine and compare the effectiveness of different in-store digitalization concepts and technologies in retail organisations, analyzing different challenges such as the practical implementation in stores, customer adoption and acceptance factors in context of socio-demographic, and measuring the success of the concepts. Also, the current situation will be explored to see what is already being done today and where there is more potential using different approaches and technologies. For this purpose, a variety of studies, papers and other literature will be analyzed and put into context with the research topic.
Concluding the thesis, we find that all technologies and its practical applications affect relevant variables in different models such as TAM, the convenience/social presence model, and the customer decision-making process. Besides that, the socio-demographic variables geography, age and gender all influence adoption and readiness towards technology to a certain extent. Finally, we give examples on how the technologies can influence classic fashion retail KPIs.
Do Meat-Eating Consumers Use Organic Meat to Rationalize the Consumption of Conventional Meat?
(2021)
This thesis explores how meat-eating consumers may be able to rationalize the consumption of conventional meat by believing to substitute a certain amount of it for organic meat. The underlying rationale is that the positive associations elicited by the organic label and the favorable beliefs consumers have formed about organic meat enable them to use it as a moral license. Building on cognitive dissonance theory, this work specifically investigated whether (1) meat-eaters perceive organic meat better than vegetarians and (2) meat-eaters overestimate how much organic meat they consume. German meat-eating and vegetarian participants were recruited for a study (n=156) to answer these questions. The results show, first, that organic was generally rated as better than conventional meat on all dimensions surveyed, and to a greater extent by meat-eating than by vegetarian respondents. Second, meat-eating participants on average reported estimates of organic meat consumption that were significantly higher than the population mean, indicating that consumers may not eat as much organic meat as they believe. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that organic meat might be used to rationalize unsustainable food choices.
Agri-Photovoltaics is a novel renewable energy technology. Amid rising climate change concerns, integrated photovoltaic systems are gaining in importance. Problems such as the increasing scarcity of land and the sealing of fertile soils are becoming more and more serious. Land consumption is often at the expense of agriculture. Farmers are struggling to cope with the ever more difficult conditions due to the effects of climate change. Therefore, the world must increasingly deal with dual use of land. However, especially in Germany the technology of agri-photovoltaics is not yet very advanced. The objective of this thesis is to identify the potential of this technology for the energy transition in Germany. Furthermore, the economic potential for regional farmers in Germany will be elaborated based on an investment appraisal of a vertical agri-photovoltaic system. The application possibilities of agri-photovoltaics are versatile. The work shows that already today farmers in Germany can diversify their income by investing in an agri-photovoltaic system. The costs are higher than for ordinary ground mounted systems, however the land can still be used for agricultural purposes. The investment calculation is carried out in different scenarios. Particularly, the remuneration per kWh as well as the discount factor are decisive for a positive net present value project. The results of this work show that the potential of agri photovoltaics is high for both the energy transition in Germany and the economic benefits for regional farmers. For an increasing expansion of the technology, more precise legislation and appropriate subsidies for agri-photovoltaics are needed.
Currently, the technology is insufficiently covered in German legislation, which needs to be addressed.
This thesis proposes the adoption of renewable energies as a means to foster economicdiversification in oil and gas dependent rentier states. Surprisingly, oil and gas endowment does not always imply wealth and prosperity, mirroring the on-going debate whether natural resource dependent countries are blessed or cursed by their resource abundance.
This thesis seeks to bridge this gap by focussing on rentier states and the question whether rentier states are cursed or blessed. Based on the example of Oman, the proposed approach will be closely assessed. Additionally, the Sultanate’s challenges stemming from natural resource dependence and its preparedness for a post-oil era will be investigated.
Moreover, this thesis will analyze whether a paradigm shift in Oman’s energy sector can mitigate prevailing challenges and support the country’s economic diversification.
These three research questions will be answered through surveying and analyzing literature and data pertinent to the research topic. Findings indicate that rentier states tend to be more vulnerable to the resource curse and the impending fossil fuel depletion as it could cause public outcry and political and economic turmoil. Oman as a rentier state faces a grim post-oil era, fueled by many challenges, including dwindling oil and financial reserves, productivity losses driven by labor market distortions and rapid population growth.
Finally, findings suggest that the combination of economic and energy diversification can have strong positive effects on the Omani economy, such as freeing oil and gas reserves for export revenues, job creation, and private sector strengthening. However, Oman’s renewable energy industry is still in its infancy and faces various challenges, ranging from absent policies and adequate financing to heavily subsidized fossil fuels. As of now, the proposed approach is overly ambitious as the installed renewable energy capacity is too low to create significant employment opportunities or to free oil and gas for export purposes. However, heightened volatilities and economic shocks in recent years were eyeopening for the Omani government and have resulted in stronger efforts to enforce economic development plans. Similarly, the political transition after the death of Sultan Qaboos injected new impetus into Oman’s economy, which will facilitate the diversification of economic bases.
Durch den vorherrschenden Fachkräftemangel im Gesundheitswesen wird es für Kliniken zunehmend schwerer, qualifiziertes Personal zu finden. Damit sie wettbewerbsfähig bleiben, müssen diese Einrichtungen deshalb Strategien finden, um Personal zu gewinnen und es langfristig an das Unternehmen zu binden. Wichtiger Bestandteil muss es deshalb sein, neue Mitarbeiter effizient und nachhaltig in das Unternehmen zu integrieren.
Diese explorative Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit den Erfolgskriterien nachhaltiger Integration und damit, in welchen Bereichen es Potenzial zur Verbesserung gibt. Das Ziel der Arbeit liegt darin, die Wichtigkeit der nachhaltigen Integration neuer Mitarbeiter aufzuzeigen, sowie auf den Vorteil hinzuweisen, an dieser Stelle zu investieren.
Um einen Einblick in die Integrationsprozesse der Krankenhäuser zu bekommen, wurde im Rahmen der vorliegenden Bachelorarbeit eine Onlinebefragung erstellt und daraufhin Tiefeninterviews geführt, um somit sowohl die Perspektive der Mitarbeiter, wie auch die der Führungsebene zum Thema zu beleuchten. Auf die Datenerhebung aufbauend wurden Handlungsempfehlungen abgeleitet, die es Kliniken erleichtern sollen, neue Mitarbeiter optimal zu integrieren.
Die Resultate der empirischen Forschung belegen, dass die Integration neuer Mitarbeiter in manchen Bereichen bereits gut funktioniert, es aber dennoch Handlungsbedarf besteht. In einigen Einrichtung gibt es bereits Integrationskonzepte, leider mangelt es aber oft an der Umsetzung. Hinzu kommt, dass die zwei wichtigsten Ressourcen - Personal und Zeit - knapp sind.
Einfluss des Klimawandels auf die deutsche Weinindustrie - Zukunftsanalyse für die deutschen Winzer
(2022)
Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit gibt einen Überblick über die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels auf die deutsche Weinindustrie. Das Ziel war es, die zukünftigen Risiken wie auch Chancen für die deutschen Winzer zu ermitteln und anhand der Ergebnisse Handlungsempfehlungen für die zukünftige Weinindustrie zu entwickeln. Um die Forschungsfragen zu beantworten, wurde eine Szenario- Analyse durchgeführt, welche sich an den deutschen Winzern orientiert. Dabei wurden die Einflüsse betrachtet und anhand dieser wurden unterschiedliche Zukunftsprojektionen erstellt. Die Szenario-Analyse zeigte, dass die deutsche Weinindustrie bei den aktuellen Entwicklungen des Klimawandels deutlich als Gewinner hervorgeht. Dennoch müssen Winzer und andere Akteure der Wein- industrie heute bereits wichtige Entscheidungen treffen und sich den Bedingun- gen anpassen um in der Zukunft die entstehen Chancen nutzen zu können.
Die Biografie- und Erinnerungspflege stellt eine Behandlungsform für die unheilbare Demenzerkrankung dar. Hierbei wird versucht durch Aktivitäten, welche einen Bezug zu der Vergangenheit des Menschen mit Demenz haben, Erinnerungen auszulösen. Dies hilft der an Demenz erkrankten Person ihr Identitätsgefühl zu festigen.
Im Rahmen dieser Bachelorarbeit wurde eine innovative Anwendung entwickelt, welche interaktive und multimediale Bilder für die Biografie- und Erinnerungspflege bereitstellt. Mit diesen Bildern kann der Mensch mit Demenz interagieren, indem er auf einzelne Objekte drückt und daraufhin ein thematisch passendes Medium präsentiert wird. Die interaktiven Bilder werden automatisch, mittels Machine Learning, erstellt. Des Weiteren wurde ein Recommender System implementiert, welches basierend auf den Präferenzen des Menschen mit Demenz, Inhalte für eine Biografie- und Erinnerungspflegesitzung vorschlägt.
Diese Bachelorarbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Erstellung eines strategischen Marketingkonzepts für das B-to-B IT-Serviceproviderunternehmen agilTech Information Technologies GmbH. Durch mangelnde strategische Ausrichtung und die vorherrschende Projektarbeit als Individualsoftware entwickler und IT-Berater, sah sich das Unternehmen bisher einem großen Absatzrisiko und einer volatilen Nachfrage ausgesetzt. So hat sich das Unternehmen opportunistisch am Markt bewegt, keine konkreten Unternehmensziele definiert und konzeptlose Marketingmaßnahmen ohne Zielgruppenbestimmung durchgeführt. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist somit die Entwicklung eines strategischen Marketingkonzepts, um agilTech wettbewerbsfähig am Markt zu positionieren, mehr Projektanfragen zu generieren und so ein strategisches Unternehmenswachstum im fragmentierten Individualsoftwaremarkt zu ermöglichen. Der Lösungsansatz dieser Arbeit basiert auf Taylor’s (2015) strategischem Marketingplanungsprozess, der sich in die Phasen Ziele und Marktanalysen, Strategieentwicklung und operatives Marketing einteilen lässt. Als Ergebnis entstand eine Marketingstrategie, Servicemarketing Mix-Maßnahmen und Kommunikationsmittel wurden identifiziert sowie Handlungsvorschläge unterbreitet. Für die Organisation und Implementierung der Servicemarketing Mix-Maßnahmen wurde ein detaillierter Plan erstellt, für die Marketing-Kontrolle je Servicemarketing Mix-Maßnahme mehrere Key Performance Indicators definiert und Messinstrumente vorgestellt. Damit das erarbeitete, strategische Marketingkonzept positive Resultate erzielen kann, ist jedoch Top Management Support in Form von Engagement sowie zeitliches und finanzielles Investment notwendig.
Organized, competitive computer gaming, also referred to as eSports, are emerging sports within the sports entertainment industry. The industry generated almost 700 million U.S. Dollar in revenue and leading eSport titles attract millions of viewers to their events. This study aims to explore eSport live broadcasts of four leading titles and their appeal to be used as a communication media for marketers. It adopted secondary data from academic and scientific studies, journals and books from the fields of eSports, business and sports management to examine commercials, product placements, sponsorships and celebrity endorsements in regards of their applicability and effectiveness within eSports. Quantitative research in form of a survey among eSports viewership was carried out to gather data on viewership consumption patterns and perceptions towards said communication instruments and their effectiveness.
Findings suggest that the effectiveness of commercials rely on the timing shown during broadcasts. Product placements can be applied in many ways and show high effectiveness in terms of brand recognition in any form. Celebrity endorsements are highly ambiguous in terms of their applicability and effectiveness.
University-Industry Collaboration (UIC) is considered by academics and industry as a vital factor that has the power to both positively and negatively impact the open innovation (OI). To contribute to the literature and to identify challenges as well as to conceptualize some recommendations to help industries, this thesis raised a question:
what are the challenges of UIC and what recommendations can be made to solve the challenges. The main research objective was to recognize the determinants of UIC challenges. An empirical study was conducted in order to give an answer to the research questions and to meet the research objective. This research explicitly focused on students/interns and internships to analyze and to discover the challenges and solutions since students or internships are the least researched area in the field of UIC research. Participants were personally contacted with the survey link that was created online to conduct explorative research with the help of close-ended (quantitative) and open-ended (qualitative) questions. The results reveal that there are numerous challenges students face during the internship and thus these most likely hinder the successful UIC and ultimately successful OI. According to the results obtained from both quantitative and qualitative sections obvious and major challenges lie in innovation mediators ‘organizational culture’. From the quantitative result perspective only, major challenges are in the area of absorptive capacity and supervisors' support, internalization, and trust. Similarly, from the qualitative results perspective only, major challenges are bad crisis management, communication, and hierarchical structure.
Prior research on choice in context demonstrated extremeness aversion to be very effective on consumers’ purchasing behaviour. However, it seems that previous studies have neglected to investigate the impact of the spatial arrangements of choice architectures on consumers purchasing behaviour. Based on indications of prior research, we pursued to demonstrate in this study that consumers who are uncertain regarding their
preferences tend to search for alternatives in the middle of a choice architecture. Therefore, we hypothesized that an alternative, positioned in the middle of a choice architecture, will present a relatively higher choice share. To research this hypothesis we conducted an online survey mainly in Central Europe, which involved a total number of
901 respondents at the age between 15 and 95. The study’s results demonstrate that the decision making of the majority of the participants is heavily influenced by a choice architecture’s spatial arrangement. It became evident that the choice share of one
alternative was higher when presented in the middle of a choice architecture than when presented in the periphery.
Der SmartCrawler ist ein auf Java basierendes Programm, das von dem Unternehmen PAMA Technologies GmbH verwendet wird, um Bilder aus dem Internet zu laden. Diese Bilder werden im Anschluss daran benutzt, um bestimmte Personen oder Gegenstände wiederzuerkennen. Beim Herunterladen der Bilder, kommt es zu verschiedenen Fehlern, deren Ursache untersucht wurde. Daraufhin sind die Fehlerursachen benannt und der Zusammenhang erklärt worden. Die beschriebenen Fehler beim Herunterladen der Bilder, müssen behoben werden, um ein Modell zur Wiedererkennung bestmöglich zu trainieren.
In meiner Arbeit sollen der SmartCrawler-Prozess verbessert und Tools für weitere Aufgabenfelder untersucht sowie getestet werden. Ziel ist, Fehlerquellen des SmartCrawler zu identifizieren und mit geeigneten Vorschlägen zu beheben. Im Anschluss werden verschiedene Technologien in Bezug auf Gesichtserkennung, Bildbeschreibung und Machine-Learning- Tools getestet. Sie werden anhand von Beispielen zur Einsatzmöglichkeit von Gesichtserkennung und Bildbeschreibung dargestellt. Im Verlauf der Arbeit wird auch das Machine-Learning-Tool vorgestellt und exemplarisch hinterlegt. Da es sich hier um eine praktische Arbeit handelt, werden verschiedene Tools auf ihre Leistungen getestet und bewertet. Als Ergebnis wird dem Leser ein resultierender Workflow präsentiert. Der Workflow enthält den SmartCrawler-Prozess und das anschließende Training eines Modells mit CNTK.
Ein weiteres Ziel ist, dem Leser Möglichkeiten zu bieten, auf dieser Arbeit aufzubauen. Es soll für den Leser möglich sein, die richtige Anwendung für seine Bedürfnisse zu finden und eventuell eigene Projekte auf Basis dieser Arbeit zu erstellen. Weiterhin kann auch der Einsatz von CNTK vom Leser in eigenen Bereichen geprüft werden.
The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to find out whether there are indicators that point out a convergence of nonprofit and for-profit businesses. Therefore, various business concepts and the money markets of for-and nonprofit businesses are analyzed by implementing a qualitative content analysis. The results show that most of the concepts and both money markets show clear features of for- and nonprofit businesses. In conclusion, indicators of convergence could be identified.
Der Frauenanteil in den Führungsetagen der deutschen Wirtschaft stagniert seit Jahren auf einem niedrigen Niveau und spiegelt nicht im Entferntesten den Anteil weiblicher Beschäftigter wider (vgl. Tonn 2016, S. 11). Vor allem im Top-Management sind Frauen deutlich unterrepräsentiert. Die Grundannahme dieser Bachelorarbeit besteht darin, dass Frauen grundsätzlich motiviert sind, Führung zu übernehmen und die gleichen Potentiale wie Männer besitzen. Um eine Führungsposition einzunehmen, müssen die Rahmenbedingungen passen. Aufgrund biologischer Unterschiede und der Sozialisation präferieren Frauen andere Rahmenbedingungen als Männer. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde die Frage untersucht, was sich aus Sicht der Frauen verändern müsste, damit sie ihr Potential entfalten können. Dazu wurden 50 weibliche Probandinnen aus unterschiedlichen Branchen befragt. Die systematische Betrachtung der Aussagen ergab im Wesentlichen folgende sieben Aspekte: Gestaltungsfreiheit, Unterstützung zu Beginn und in der Führungsposition, Vertrauen, eine gute Feedback- und Fehlerkultur, die Vereinbarkeit mit dem Privatleben, Menschlichkeit im Fokus und attraktive Anreize. Des Weiteren konnten durch die Ergebnisse Handlungsoptionen abgeleitet werden, um strukturelle und kulturelle Rahmenbedingungen zu gestalten, die talentierten und motivierten Frauen einen einfacheren Zugang zu mehr Führungsverantwortung verschaffen.
Freiwillige Selbstverpflichtungen sind Vereinbarungen, die aus freiem Willen eingegangen werden und dem Gemeinwohl dienen sollen. Dabei wird die These aufgestellt, dass Unternehmen bei freiwilligen Selbstverpflichtungen nicht die gesellschaftliche Verantwortung im Vordergrund sehen, sondern mit ihrem freiwilligen Engagement ökonomische Interessen verfolgen. Dieses Spannungsfeld von Verantwortung gegenüber der Gesellschaft und wirtschaftlichen Belangen eines Unternehmens wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit kritisch untersucht. Vor allem die Analyse der intrinsischen und extrinsischen Motivation der Unternehmen, sowie die Vorteile freiwilliger Selbstverpflichtungen gegenüber gesetzlichen Regelungen, sollen Aufschluss darüber geben, warum Unternehmen derartige Vereinbarungen eingehen. Um diese Problematik empirisch zu untersuchen, wurden Experteninterviews mit der Lebensmittelbranche geführt. Diese Interviews bestätigen, dass Unternehmen besonders aus der extrinsischen Motivation eines ökonomischen Nutzens, freiwillige Selbstverpflichtungen eingehen.
Climate change is one of the most challenging topics to the world and has been subject to international negotiations for more than 25 years, one of the main players being the USA.
Game theory, on the other hand, is a popular tool from economics, frequently used to analyze strategic situations such as international negotiations. Together, the insights from these topics can help understand why the USA’s president Donald Trump has announced to quit the Paris Agreement and which consequences this might have for the US, other countries and for the future of international climate change negotiations. In order to assess the different implications, this thesis gives some theoretical background and presents game theoretic findings on climate change negotiations. It will be found that, from a game theoretic point of view, different reasons might have caused the USA to take this decision and that there is a chance that a withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement could have some effect on the future of climate protection. However, a precise assessment would require further research on the topic.
Digitalization has made business virtual. As the current workforce is slowly adapting to it, the “digital natives” come into play.
We all know, that Millennials have a different approach to media and virtuality. They are practically born with it. But how would they perform if they had to use virtual media in a professional setting? Does the experience and the technology surrounded upbringing give them a clear advantage? Or will they struggle with this entirely new dimension of communication the same way older generations do? This Thesis focusses on the challenges of virtual teams, predominantly in cross cultural situations. But especially on how Millennials tackle virtual teams in a global setting, if they did not have extensive prior preparation.
The first part tries to identify the theoretical background of this paper – the classical challenges of cross-cultural communication in virtual teams but also the willingness of Millennials to use digital work tools for their future.
The main segment then introduces data and observations collected on the GVT project - a pilot project from the Hochschule Furtwangen University, where students from Spain, Finland and Germany took part in a simulation of virtual teamwork. In groups, these students had to develop a project about Erasmus at their university – but purely virtual to experience physical borders in teams.
A pre-survey and a post survey have been carried out on this group to analyze and investigate how perception and reality differ. Furthermore, the participants left testemonials and many virtual meetings were monitored.
This Thesis will conclude with chapter 3 to show if Millennials have a valid advantage in working with virtual teams. It will also show the necessity to train young people and change our education to a more digital approach, as business will inevitably become increasingly virtual.
Many entrepreneurs are still conducting business today according to the principle "the purpose of business is business". The focus here is primarily placed on the corporation’s profits while human relations within the enterprise are almost completely ignored. Humanity and business are, after all, seen as two mutually exclusive concepts. However, results of studies undertaken by well-known research institutes, such as Gallup, indicate this management style to be inefficient for businesses in the long run as the resulting low emotional bond of employees with their companies generates high costs for organizations.
For this reason, the present paper examines the extent to which humanity and business are really two mutually exclusive ideas and provides an answer to the research question of whether taking a human approach in a business is a crucial factor for its success. In addition, the possible effects resulting through the integration of humanity in business are analyzed.
To provide an answer to the research question, the currently most recent working challenges in organizations as well as their corresponding demands were first worked out. Subsequently, the human being - with a specific focus on human emotions and emotional needs – was closer examined due to its significance in the company. Finally, the possible effects achieved by taking a human approach in a business were presented on the basis of two already human-oriented corporations. All researches were predominantly based on primary sources as well as on the results of a self-conducted qualitative interview.
The results of all investigations clearly suggest that taking a human approach in an organization is a decisive factor for its success. In addition, it was established that human interactions even help enterprises in achieving astonishingly quick and long-lasting financial successes.
It is therefore plain that it is necessary for companies pursuing the goal to be successful in the long-term to break free from the common principle of "the purpose of business is business" and instead be more open to new forms of management, such as "Humanity and Business".
Prior research found extremeness aversion effects to be common and robust. Nevertheless, most research neglected the spatial arrangement's influence on a consumer's choice and placed the compromise option of a choice set simultaneously in the spatial middle. Following these findings, five bachelor theses were conducted to investigate both aspects by analyzing numerical and spatial choice architectures – their data comprised three online surveys and three field experiments. This study aimed to compare their findings and analyze their data sets to search for overarching effects. Therefore, we hypothesized that there is either information-format compatibility or a general tendency towards the spatial middle of a choice set. To research this hypothesis, we brought the data sets into a comparable format, analyzed our findings, and conducted t-tests to test for statistical significance. Even though the study could not find overarching effects across the data, it supports the notion that a choice set's spatial arrangement, like the numerical one, can influence consumer behavior. Furthermore, it led to valuable insights for future research approaches concerning expanding extremeness aversion into a spatial dimension.
Der moderne Kühlschrank von heute hat viele Funktionen, die einige Jahre zuvor unvorstellbar waren. Die modernen Kühlschränke können sich selbst regulieren, sich selbst reinigen und können die Kühlluft gleichmäßig verteilen. Eine Innovation entsprang vom Unternehmen Samsung und seinem Modell T9000. Ein Kühlschrank, der mit dem Internet verbunden wird und somit das Leben von früher auf den Kopf stellt. Es besitzt ein Display mit dem alle Geräte im Haushalt gesteuert werden können. Die Voraussetzung ist jedoch, alle Geräte müssen mit dem Internet verbunden und auch steuerbar sein. Was der moderne Kühlschrank bis heute jedoch nicht kann, ist die Unterstützung der Menschen beim Einkaufen.
Das Schreiben von Einkaufslisten und der ständige Überblick was im Kühlschrank oder Speiseschrank ver-blieben ist und welche Produkte bereits konsumiert wurden, fällt vielen schwer oder ist einfach nur lästig. Beim Einkaufen werden benötigte Produkte vergessen und jene Produkte, die nicht benötigt werden, werden einge-kauft. Das Führen von Einkaufslisten ist nervenzerreißend, da die Listen bis zum Einkauf gefüllt sind, jedoch beim Einkaufen entweder Zuhause oder im Auto vergessen werden. Dabei würde eine automatische Listenführung das Leben von vielen Menschen erleichtern. Die Einkaufsliste muss nicht mehr geführt werden. Sie aktualisiert sich selbst, wenn ein Produkt nicht mehr vorhanden ist und wird von dem Einkäufer aktualisiert, wenn das fehlende Produkt eingekauft worden ist.
Die vorliegende Thesis behandelt die Thematik „Java Programmierung im Bereich Internet of Things - Ver-wendung eines Raspberry Pi zur Erstellung von digitalen Einkaufslisten - Kann mit Hilfe eines Raspberry Pi das Einkaufen revolutioniert werden?“. Dabei wird in Kombination eines Raspberry Pi und einem Barcode-Scanner ein System entwickelt, das digitale Einkaufslisten erstellt und die Pflege der Produkte über das Internet ermög-licht.
Das Ziel dieser Bachelorthesis ist es, ein System zu entwickeln, das den Benutzer beim Einkaufen unter-stützt und das Kaufen von falschen oder unnötigen Produkten vermeidet. Dabei wird aus der Kombination eines Raspberry Pi und einem Barcode-Scanner eine Produktverwaltungskomponente erstellt, die die verbrauchten Produkte einscannt und dabei automatisch eine Einkaufsliste erstellt, die die benötigten Produkte beinhaltet.
Die vorliegende Arbeit gibt industriellen Entscheidern, Softwareentwicklern, Geräteherstellern und Standardisierungsgremien einen Überblick über die Problematiken bei der Entwicklung plattformübergreifender Anwendungen zum Abruf, zur Visualisierung und zur Modifizierung heterogener Informationen von unterschiedlichen Geräten über standardisierte Kommunikationstechnologien unter mit Einbezug etablierter Geräteintegrationstechnologien. Zum Aufzeigen der Problematiken wurden exemplarisch die Technologien Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture für den standardisierten Kommunikationsaustausch und Field Device Tool als etablierte Geräteintegrationstechnologie zur Umsetzung der prototypischen Implementierung verwendet. Die wichtigsten Erkenntnisse dieser Arbeit sind neben der Notwendigkeit eines auf plattformübergreifenden Plattformen lauffähigen Toolkits, die Erfordernis zur dynamischen Visualisierung der Daten asymmetrischen Typs, die aufgrund der Informationstypenvielfalt des Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture Standards bestehen. Weiterhin zeigen die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit die Möglichkeit zur Integration etablierter Geräteintegrationsstandards, sofern diese Integration von den Standardisierungsgremien der etablierten Technologien korrekt realisiert wurde.
Die vorliegende Bachelor-Arbeit beschreibt die Konzeption und prototypische Entwicklung einer Web-Applikation für kollaboratives Schreiben fiktiver Texte im Rollenspiel-Stil. Sie klärt dabei die Frage, wie eine Web-Applikation für kollaboratives Schreiben fiktiver Texte im Rollenspiel-Stil funktions-technisch und software-technisch umgesetzt werden kann. Die Applikation soll sowohl sequentielles als auch reagierendes kollaboratives Schreiben unterstützen.
Der Prototyp dieser Applikation wurde mittels Requirements Engineering entwickelt. Bei der Analyse wurden funktionale und nicht-funktionale Anforderungen über die Definitionen für Rollenspiele (J. Arjoranta, 2011) und kollaboratives Schreiben (Paul Benjamin Lowry, Aaron Curtis und Michelle René Lowry, 2004) aufgestellt. Anschließend wurde ein Funktionsumfang der Grundfunktionen und Erweiterungen erarbeitet. Zudem wurden vorhandene und aktuell verwendete Applikationen für kollaboratives Schreiben und Schreibrollenspiele auf ihren Funktionsumfang analysiert. Durch den Vergleich der Funktionsumfänge wurde so herausgestellt, dass eine Applikation für kollaboratives Schreiben fiktiver Texte benötigt wird.
Im praktischen Teil der Thesis wurden Entwurfsmuster für die Web-Applikation er-stellt. Dazu wurden Use-Case-Diagramme und -Beschreibungen angefertigt. Außerdem wurden Sequenzdiagramme der technischen Abläufe der einzelnen Use-Cases beschrieben.
Implementiert wurde die Web-Applikation ausgehend von der Anforderungsanalyse mit einem RESTful Web-Service und Web-Client. Der Web-Service basiert auf Java Spring und einer relationalen Datenbank. Der Web-Client wurde auf Basis von JavaScript, Backbone.js, jQuery, HTML 5 und CSS 3 entwickelt.
Der vorläufige Prototyp wurde auf Basis einer qualitativen und quantitativen Umfrage evaluiert. Auf Grundlage der Evaluationsergebnisse wurde der Prototyp angepasst. Ergebnis der Arbeit ist ein evaluierter und verbesserter Prototyp für kollaboratives Schreiben fiktiver Texte im Rollenspiel-Stil.
Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit gibt praktische Übungsvorschläge zum Thema Lean Production. Dabei werden zu den Bereichen Wertstrom, Standard, Wertstromanalyse, Wertstromdesign und Rüsten jeweils eine praktische Übung vorgestellt, das Ergebnis erläutert und die Relevanz für Studenten und die Industrie analysiert. Die Übungen simulieren reale Abläufe und Situationen, wie zum Beispiel durch eine Produktionsnachbildung mit einfachsten Mitteln in Form von Legosteinen. Ziel ist es, fertige Trainingsmodule zur Anwendungen in Workshops oder Vorlesungen für Lehrende bereitzustellen. Auf spielerische Art und Weise werden theoretische Inhalte vermittelt und können zu schnellerem Festigen und Verstehen der Theorie beitragen. Die Übungsteilnehmer erarbeiten sich eigenständig Lösungsvorschläge in allen oben genannten Bereichen zum Thema Lean Production.
Das vornehmlich visuell erscheinende Web und seine Inhalte stellen, sofern Web Accessability, die ausnahmslose Barrierefreiheit im Web, nicht priorisiert wird, für Blinde und Sehbehinderte Hürden dar und schließt sie von bedeutenden Inhalten des Webs aus.
In dieser Bachelorthesis soll verdeutlicht werden, dass Maßnahmen für Web Accessability jeglichen Nutzergruppen ausschließlich Vorteile darbieten und ohne außergewöhnliche Aufwände umzusetzen sind.
Um dies zu erreichen, werden Handlungsempfehlungen von Analysen der Ist-Zustände verschiedener Typen von Online Medien, theoretischen Konzepten zur Einhaltung von Web Accessability sowie eigenen Erhebungen abgeleitet.
Zudem wurden Gespräche mit betroffenen Nutzern im Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverein Südbaden e.V. geführt, um Einblicke in die Thematik zu erlangen, welche durch bloße Theorie und Analysen nicht in vollem Umfang ersichtlich sind.
Die Handlungsempfehlungen in der vorliegenden Bachelorarbeit stellen einen Leitfaden explizit für die Entwicklung von Online-Shops dar, um sehbehinderten und blinden Nutzern die für sie noch nicht vollends erreichbare Welt des e-Commerce adäquat zu erschließen.
Hierbei werden vor allem die notwendigsten Maßnahmen zum Abbau der folgenreichsten Barrieren für blinde und sehbehinderte Nutzer im Web herausgehoben: inhaltlich äquivalente Beschreibungen zu Grafiken, Bildern und Formularen, die Gliederung der Webseiten in Abschnitte sowie technische Maßnahmen zur Navigation der Webseite über Bildschirmleseprogramme.
Als rechtliche und ethische Grundlagen zu den in dieser Thesis erarbeiteten Empfehlungen werden allen voran die Barrierefreie-Informationstechnik-Verordnung (BITV) sowie die Web Content Accessability Guidelines der W3C (WCAG 2.0) herangezogen.
This paper proposes to consider the influence of transparency in leadership styles on work performance and satisfaction. In an experimental setting, a pair of strangers were advised to solve a Sudoku in a digital environment under time pressure. With an induced hierarchy, the leader was able to view the task and the timer, whereas only the subordinate was enabled to actively edit the riddle. The treatment group was told to transparently communicate the intended leadership style during the preparation phase. The results indicate that transparency has a significant positive effect on the performance and the satisfaction of the teams. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that transparency may not be the direct cause of improved performance and satisfaction. Yet it might be crucial in establishing trust between the leader and subordinate, causing a positive effect on the two dependent variables. The paper is concluded by discussing limitations, practical implications and considerations for future research.
Many articles claim that the structure of a self-organizing team achieves the highest level of agility. Therefore, this paper examines the assumption about the agility of self-organizing teams. This is done through a qualitative secondary research which answers the following questions:
1. What are the required attributes for a workforce to be agile?
2. What are the characteristics and attributes of self-organizing teams?
3. Do self-organizing teams fulfill the requirements of an agile workforce? If yes, how?
Through literature reviews the requirements that make a workforce agile and the characteristics of self-organizing teams are observed. It is considered that if the characteristics (which makes up the structure) of self-organizing teams fulfill the requirements of an agile workforce, this claim is then believed to be valid.
The results of such an examination shows that an agile workforce needs to be empowered, capable and competent, adaptive and flexible, team oriented, cooperative and collaborative and continuously given feedback and trained. Similarly, the observed characteristics of self-organizing teams describe them to be autonomous, communicative and collaborative, redundant and reconfigurable, cross-functional, team oriented and capable of learning.
Through an analysis of the findings, it is confirmed that self-organizing teams fulfill the basic requirements of an agile workforce. Therefore, self-organizing teams are considered to be agile. Finally, companies that seek agility are advised to adopt the structure of self-organizing teams.
The topic of simplicity has drastically increased in branding in recent years, as it allows companies to conquer a competitive world dominated by growth and complexity. There are studies explaining the benefits and power of simplicity in business in general. Nevertheless, simplicity is a field that has not been explored extensively for single industries.
The bachelor thesis attempts to investigate the critical importance and power of simplicity in the customer journey of the car rental business and to provide an overview of possible improvements for the customer experience on the example of car rental company Hertz. Secondary data adopted from academic books, academic journals, study reports and press articles are used to develop a comprehensive analysis and a theoretical framework on the topic of customer experience, customer loyalty in connection with simplicity. The car rental company Hertz and its customer journey are being investigated through the lens of simplicity. Qualitative and quantitative research is adapted to cover insufficient information on Hertz and to uncover the pain points in Hertz’s customer journey. An expert interview with a Hertz executive is conducted to gather first-hand insights on Hertz's viewpoint of simplification and to what extent the company aims to use simplicity as a tool for its customer journey. A succeeding customer survey is executed to gain a better understanding of Hertz customers' perceptions and towards Hertz and to collect a broader picture of Hertz's customer journey. The conclusion drawn is used to derive possible simplification enhancements for Hertz in order to achieve various desired business results. A critical assessment for future research on the topic and limiting conditions are discussed in the conclusion.
In dieser Arbeit soll eine Motorsteuerung für einen 3-Phasen-Asynchronmotor mit Kurzschlussläufer realisiert werden. Dabei soll der Motor in einem Gleichstromnetzwerk mit einer Spannung von 325V betrieben werden. Drehzahl und Drehrichtung des Motors sollen variabel sein. Der Motor wird dabei bei konstantem Lastdrehmoment betrieben. Des Weiteren soll die Steuerung eine Drehzahl des Motors von bis zu 25000 1/min ermöglichen.
Die Arbeit behandelt dabei einführend die Funktionsweise des Asynchronmotors und leitet ein mathematisches Modell ab, das anschließend für die Erstellung des Steueralgorithmus verwendet wird. Bei der Realisierung der Schaltung wird u.a. die Problematik mit parasitären Induktivitäten und der Umgang mit motorinduzierten Spannungsspitzen behandelt. Realisiert wird die Motorsteuerung als Umrichterschaltung. Dabei finden ausschließlich N-Kanal-MOSFETs Verwendung. Für die Ansteuerung der MOSFETs kommen Gate-Treiber-ICs mit Bootstrap-Kondensatoren zum Einsatz. Angesteuert wird der Motor über einen STM32-Board. Der implementierte Steueralgorithmus realisiert dabei eine Grundfrequenztaktung. Über diesen Aufbau der Motorsteuerung können die Anforderungen erfüllt werden.
Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von Online-Händlern im Multi-Channel-Handel – Ein analytischer Ansatz
(2017)
Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit reinen Online-Händlern, die den stationären Handel als weiteren Vertriebskanal nutzen und somit im Multi-Channel-Handel tätig sind. Durch die Ausbreitung des Internets im Jahre 1990 hat sich der Handel grundlegend verändert. Eine neue Vertriebsmöglichkeit ist entstanden, die viele Vorteile mit sich bringt. Vor allem Start-Up Unternehmen haben begonnen im Online-Handel Produkte und Dienstleistungen anzubieten. Diese Chance auf mehr Umsatz haben auch stationäre Händler erkannt. Vermehrt haben sie ihre Betriebsform um Online-Shops erweitert und operieren somit im Multi-Channel-Handel. Bis heute ist Online-Shopping der schnellst wachsende Bereich der Internetnutzung, wohingegen die Umsatzzahlen im stationären Handel stagnieren. Kritiker des stationären Handels plädieren sogar zur gänzlichen Ablösung stationärer Ladenlokale durch den Online-Handel. Im Widerspruch zu dieser Kritik steht jedoch die Tatsache, dass unter anderem die erfolgreichsten Online-Pure-Player seit diesem Jahr stationäre Ladenlokale eröffnen. Demnach ist der stationäre Handel für den Konsumenten nicht gänzlich durch den Online-Handel zu ersetzen, anderenfalls weiteten Online-Pure-Player ihre Tätigkeiten nicht in den stationären Handel aus. Das Handeln erfolgreicher Unternehmen ist immer vom Kunden aus getrieben. Auch in der vorliegenden Arbeit liegt der Fokus auf dem Konsumenten. Es werden mit Hilfe der neusten Erkenntnisse des Konsumentenverhaltens, Potenziale für Online-Pure-Player im Multi-Channel-Handel erörtert. Zudem wird analysiert inwieweit soziale Determinanten, welche im Online-Handel nur passiv wahrgenommen werden können, für den Konsumenten beim Kauf von Relevanz sind. Abschließend werden die Chancen und Risiken von Online-Pure-Playern im Multi-Channel-Handel gegenübergestellt.
Die bisherige Forschung zu nachhaltigen und sozial verantwortlichen Investitionen konnte finanzielle, nichtfinanzielle und soziale Einflussfaktoren für die Investitionsentscheidung nachweisen. Ziel dieser Arbeit war die Identifikation der wichtigsten Motiven und Barrieren, die junge Menschen in Deutschland beim Investieren wahrnehmen. Dafür wurde eine Umfrage mit 354 Teilnehmern, die zwischen 18 und 25 Jahre alt waren, durchgeführt. Es wurden Daten zu neun Motiven und elf Barrieren erhoben. Entgegen der Annahme, dass nichtfinanzielle Motive überwiegen, zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass junge Menschen vor allem an einen Trend von nachhaltigen und sozial verantwortlichen Geldanlagen glauben und davon profitieren möchten. Junge Menschen sind demnach vom Wachstum des Marktes überzeugt. Als wichtigste Barriere wurde Informationsdefizite der Anleger angenommen. Die Erkenntnisse aus der Studie zeigen jedoch, dass für junge Menschen die Intransparenz der Anlagen die relevanteste Barriere darstellt. Unternehmen, Anbieter und regulierende Marktteilnehmer sollten, um das Wachstum des Marktes zu fördern, Maßnahmen einleiten, die diese Barriere abbaut.
This paper aims to create a foundation for further, in-depth research of the topic Indigenous entrepreneurship in Colombia and other countries, as well as to facilitate the analysis of obstacles in Indigenous businesses. To answer the research question, seven experts are interviewed using semi-structured interview guides based on several deductive categories. The findings are then analysed through a thematic content analysis before they are presented and discussed.
The results show that there are various inter-connected obstacles impeding more success of Indigenous businesses in Colombia, which are not sufficiently studied and addressed. The most important obstacles are corruption and marginalization, as well as resulting conditions like a lack of infrastructure and education. This study emphasizes the importance of, and encourages the realization of further,
profound research regarding this and related topics.
What happens in a situation in which an individual is given a quality task for no compensation while knowing that someone else receives a reward for the same effort? If a performance drop occurs, does the individual's fairness sensitivity play a dependent role? These questions are approached theoretically and experimentally within this thesis. As a foundation, the most critical insights from the psychological investigation of extrinsic rewards and its impact on intrinsic motivation and performance are reviewed. Furthermore, relevant findings regarding fairness are introduced from varying fields of research. The conducted double-blind experiment suggests with limited confidence that the higher an individual's fairness sensitivity in a situation of perceived unfair treatment, the lower the performance.
Die vorliegende Bachelor-Thesis beschäftigt sich mit der Täuschung auf maschinellem Lernen basierender Schadsoftwareerkennung unter realitätsnahen Bedingungen.
Neben der detaillierten Betrachtung des Forschungsgegenstandes werden hierfür, die vom aktuellen Forschungsstand hervorgebrachten Angriffe, hinsichtlich des Effektivitätskriteriums der Über- tragbarkeit auf zum Angriffszeitpunkt unbekannte Modelle, evaluiert und ein speziell für diese Bedingungen konzipierter, iterativer Ensemble-Ansatz zur Generierung von übertragbaren Adversarial Examples vorgestellt.
Die aus den Untersuchungen stammenden Ergebnissen zeigen, dass die Leistung herkömmlicher Verfahren, unter wirklichkeitsnahen Bedingungen oder im Einsatz gegen kommerzielle Produkte, stark abnimmt. Weitere Erkenntnisse der Forschung umfassen den Ausschluss eines linearen Zusammenhanges zwischen verfügbarem Wissen und Evasionserfolg, die Steigerung der Übertragbarkeit durch Zunahme der Ensemblegröße sowie die Einsatzfähigkeit der entwickelten Methodik gegen kommerzielle Antivirus Produkte.
Die Inhalte der vorliegenden Thesis verfolgen dabei einen rein edukatorischen Ansatz, der durch das Aufdecken von sicherheitsrelevanten Schwachstellen als Handlungsimpuls für Betreiber kommerzieller Antivirus-Lösungen dienen und nicht zum Begehen von Straftaten animieren soll.
Cybersecurity threads are a huge problem for all sizes of businesses. The traditional way of protecting valuable resources in the IT-Industry is a perimeter based security strategy. To ensure proper access rights for resources, firewalls, and other network-based inspection tools were used. The current move to the cloud undermines classic security strategies by blurring borders. The Zero Trust approach does not rely on edges and borders to ensure network security. Instead, all connections have to be verified and authenticated individually. In this thesis, a zero trust security model in a heterogeneous open source environment was verified. The three main observations were:
A zero trust architecture is possible, but the implementation is difficult. Half of the issues discovered must be covered by organisational measures. The tools available to cover technical measures are not developed enough. This is expected to change in the near future, as varoius companies already identified this issue.
This research examines whether a company's popularity is a determining factor for its attractiveness among employees. For this purpose, two groups of subjects were asked to rate the attractiveness of an identical job advertisement. The only difference between the groups was that one group was led to believe that it was the job advertisement of a well-known company, whereas the other group was presented with the advertisement of a rather unknown, but in terms of activity and prestige comparable company. The results suggest that the familiarity of the company does indeed influence popularity to a significant degree. Implications of this finding are also further explored.
As the business environment is constantly changing, development in the leadership area is also needed. What works just fine a few years ago cannot longer be used as effective leadership skills. Therefore this thesis deals with the changing requirements for future leader focusing on coaching as a leadership instrument.
Purpose – To empirically examine the impact of a set of influencing factors on B-to-B sales call success from a buyer, salesperson and neuroscientific perspective
Design/methodology/approach – A literature review was conducted to find potential non-economic influencing factors and a set of hypotheses was generated. Subsequently, findings were verified through an expert interview. Then two surveys examining the buyer and sales perspective were carried out and hypotheses were tested. Lastly, results were aimed to be explained from a neuroscientific perspective.
Findings – The results show that trust, emotion and empathy are positively correlated to sales call success. However, communication, listening skills, empathy, appearance and personality variables were on average still perceived as somewhat important for sales call success by both survey groups. Neuroscientific literature could provide insights into the effects of trust, emotion, appearance and extroversion on sales call outcome.
Research limitations – The sample size permits only a general analysis and conclusions. Buyers participating in the survey tended to evaluate sales calls as rather successful, leading to an underrepresentation of “unsuccessful” sales calls in the data set. Neuroscientific literature provided insights but could not fully explain the suggested model.
Practical implications – Emotional and non-economic factors including trust, positive emotion and empathy should be part of a successful sales methodology so that the effects of these factors are considered to improve the outcome of sales calls
Die Distributed-Ledger-Technology, die Blockchain und Smart Contracts sind derzeit eines der am meisten diskutierten Themen in der Bankenbranche. Es wird viel erforscht im Hinblick auf Potentiale, Anwendungsgebiete und Risiken bezüglich der Nutzung dieser Technologien. Diese Arbeit soll eine Übersicht über den aktuellen Stand in der Branche geben und welche Chancen sich hier-durch ergeben könnten. Auch wird analysiert, welche Auswirkungen Smart Contracts auf die Branche haben könnten. Auch schon deren Entwicklung stellt die Branche vor neue Herausforderungen im Bezug auf Prozesse in der Bank, in der Kollaboration mit Partnern und mit Kunden.
This paper aims to evaluate the European Green Bond market's current state by analyzing the issuer countries, types, and sectors. Moreover, the impact of regulatory developments in the last two years on the market is analyzed. As a basis for discussion, both literature review and qualitative research in the form of a semi-structured interview were conducted. The interviews were held with four market experts to gain insight into the actual market's reaction to the EU Green Bond Standard and the upcoming EU Taxonomy. In detail, the following questions are answered: What is the current state of the European Green Bond Market? How many bonds are currently issued in Europe and in which countries? Which entities are the most active issuers, and to which sectors do they belong? What are the current developments with regards to regulations? How might upcoming regulations affect the market actors? The European green bond market made up 45% of the global market in 2019, dominated by Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, and Italy. The market is still in its growth phase, with the amount issued nearly doubling each year. With the introduction of an EU Green Bond Standard, detailed standardization and framework is established. It will help issuers to overcome market barriers such as the risk of greenwashing and helps in identifying eligible projects. However, with the alignment of the EU GBS, an entity has to align with the extensive EU Taxonomy as well, which represents entry barriers to else willing corporations. Whether an activity counts as green or not based on thresholds is defined by the classification of economic activities. The thresholds are heavily discussed in the market as either too high and excluding whole sectors from the market or too low and not ambitious enough. The alignment with the EU GBS and thus with the EU Taxonomy is connected to various efforts. Nonetheless, it offers a great chance for the market by emphasizing the need for climate action. Through this, a strong green market can emerge and hopefully impacts the world positively.
The main goal of the study is to analyze students’ buying intention towards e-learning program by developing a structural model of e-learning acceptance by the students and analyzing perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitudes, subjective norms, motivations and buying intentions according to the developed model.
Die Entwicklung zu Industrie 4.0 stellt neue Herausforderungen an alle Bereiche eines Unternehmens. Gerade dem Supply Chain Management werden neue Anforderungen gestellt, um bei der globalen Vernetzung der Supply Chains nicht den Anschluss zu verlieren. Die Vernetzung zu cyber-physischen Systemen erzeugt große Menge an Daten, Big Data, aus denen die richtigen Informationen gewonnen werden sollten. Industrie 4.0 wird auch Einfluss auf den Arbeitsalltag, die Organisation und die Mitarbeiter nehmen. Den enormen Potenzialen stehen Risiken und hohe Investitionen entgegen. Vor allem das Thema Datensicherheit spielt gerade in Deutschland, eine wichtige Rolle. Neue Technologien, wie die Blockchain, stehen noch am Anfang der Entwicklung, werden aber schnell Einfluss auf das industrielle Umfeld und somit auch auf das Supply Chain Management nehmen.
This bachelor thesis aims at pointing out the importance of sustainability in the apparel industry. Furthermore it contains tools which help companies to implement, improve and monitor social and ecological behaviour within the supply chain of the apparel industry.
The three tools examined are the following:
- conducting audits at the suppliers’ production facilities, - obtaining certifications and - recycling of used textiles.
They mainly refer to improving the suppliers’ ability to act in a sustainable way. The third tool, recycling, aims at building a cycle of resources. After a theoretical presentation, the companies Hess Natur Textilien GmbH and Hennes & Mauritz AG are analysed regarding to their sustainability strategies in their supply chains. Hessnatur is seen as pioneer in the market for natural textiles and H&M is offering low-price clothing.
The results show, that the apparel industry is highly affected by unsustainable behaviour. Manufacturing clothes is labour-intensive, it is consuming many resources and therefore has consequences for people and the environment.
Audits and certification proved to be important tools for implementing sustainability in supply chains. Both companies use them, but they have different approaches. The idea of sustainability is characteristic for the whole business policy of Hessnatur, while H&M added this concept to its existing policy some years ago. Due to those different starting points, Hessnatur was able to build closer relationships with their suppliers than H&M. To sum up, there is not one perfect strategy for sustainability, but every company has to engage in increasing sustainability within the supply chain according to individual circumstances and to the firm’s individual character.
As banks have to close branches in the current low-interest environment and as customers show an increasing preference for online channels, existing channels of branch-centric banks no longer can guarantee to suffice the needs of the omni-channel consumer. Online consultation through video chat, called video banking, is a possible solution for these issues. In order to keep marketing activities effective and cost-efficient, it is of interest for the banking sector to define a socio-demographic target group for video banking.
Thus, the objective of this thesis is to find socio-demographic characteristics which influence the willingness to use video banking. The characteristics deemed as plausible predictors are then tested for their suitability as such through bivariate and multivariate analysis of an empirical study conducted among U.S. bank customers with internet access. The goal of the multivariate analysis is to find the regression model that best predicts the willingness to use video banking. Depending on the outcome, recommendations will be made about the definition of a target group for video banking.
Beherrscht man die Suchmaschinen, so beherrscht man auch den Online-Markt.
Wie man im Allgemeinen Suchmaschinen-Optimierung betreibt, beschreiben bereits viele verlässliche und fundierte Quellen. Eine oft ungeklärte Fragestellung bleibt jedoch: Wie betreibt man Suchmaschinen-Optimierung für einen Online-Shop, der international und mehrsprachig vertreten ist? In dieser Thesis möchte ich auf die Besonderheiten eingehen, die man bei einer erfolgreichen und langfristigen Suchmaschinen-Optimierung im internationalen Kontext beachten sollte. Als Hauptquelle möchte ich hierbei die offiziellen Angaben seitens Google und einiger Experten vorstellen und analysieren.
Ein Problem welches beispielsweise entsteht, wenn mehrere URLs zu gleichen Inhalten führen, ist der sog. Duplicate Content. Ein weiteres Problemfeld der Online-Anbieter liegt bei der Keyword-Kannibalisierung. Gemeint ist jene Situation, dass verschiedene Produkte eines Online-Shops mit weiteren ähnlichen Produkten desselben Anbieters (beispielsweise ein USB-Stick in verschiedenen Farb- und Kapazitäts-Ausführungen) bei Suchmaschinen untereinander konkurrieren.
Diese Thesis geht zum einen hauptsächlich darauf ein, wie man Duplicate Content und Keyword-Kannibalisierung bei internationalen und gleich- sowie mehrsprachigen Online-Shops und Webseiten vermeidet. Ein weiterer Kernpunkt dieser Thesis ist es, ein Domainkonzept und eine Content-Strategie zu entwickeln, die für einen Erfolg von internationalen Webauftritten unabdingbar sind. Ziel dieser Thesis ist es SEO-Maßnahmen zu erarbeiten, die das Ranking aller internationalen Ableger eines internationalen Online-Shops gleichermaßen, zeitgleich und langfristig verbessert.
Pro-environmental attitude is, on many occasions, a weak indicator for pro-environmental behavior. Personal interests interfere with the human desire to follow normative goals during the decision-making process, which may result in the unpleasant state of attitudinal ambivalence. The more balanced two contrary attitudes are, the higher is the chance for external persuasion as it may decrease the internal ambivalent conflict. However, moral informational interventions seem not to cause the desired behavioral change but may instead increase the sense of resignation and guilt. This paper aims to set focus on the attitude-behavior relationship in the concrete example of plastic-packed food and how post-decisional evaluations vary when either individual (hedonic or gain goal) or collective motives (normative goal) are being followed. Measured indications for actual disengagement or attitude adaption are relatively weak but felt ambivalence in the case of immoral decisions could be demonstrated in the form of response times. Practical conclusions that may facilitate pro-environmental behavior are being presented at the end of the work.
In 2013 China's President Xi Jinping announced a new project. In his vision, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) creates and opens trade routes between China and western countries, mostly the Middle East, Central Asia, Afrika, and Europe, via maritime and land routes. These trade corridors should establish and improve trade relationships often by high investments in the infrastructure.
The motivation behind the initiative is manifold. On the one hand, China wants to become more independent from the Western industrialized countries by building a new economic system. On the other hand, it wants to consolidate and expand its geopolitical influence.
China's state-owned banks have been the largest investors in the Belt and Road Initiative so far, but China has also been able to attract major EU countries such as Germany, France, the UK, and others to jointly establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and invest in BRI projects through it.
Although German companies are hoping to participate in the Belt and Road because they expect significant economic benefits, the German government is refraining from concluding an agreement with China for the time being. The EU is somewhat skeptical about the initiative, but no sanctions or interventions have been taken from its side so far. Yet, the EU is split, and countries such as Greece or Italy have already signed an agreement with China and thus received financial support for their infrastructure.
This bachelor thesis explains the Belt and Road Initiative in detail, tries to highlight the motives behind it and illustrates the impact the Belt and Road Initiative has on Germany and the EU and which implications this has for the German economy.
This thesis aims to ascertain whether the concept of job sharing might be a solution for organizations to adapt their company values to meet the changing principles of society. The shift in demands results from the younger generations seeking different values in their free time, which also influences the demands at work. The disbalance between organizational and individual values leads to employee dissatisfaction and increasing turnover rates. The part-time concept of job sharing is on the rise regarding new work opportunities. Therefore, subtopics including flexibility, work-life balance, gender balance, and diversity in the workforce are positively encouraged through job sharing. The data and research in this thesis are obtained from existing literature on the work concept. Most previous research has focused on the influences on individuals and less on multiple levels within a company. The findings of this paper state that job sharing can significantly impact the value shift of a company in many different facets. Nevertheless, the concept also provides a large number of requirements on several levels which need to be adjusted to benefit from the concept.
Due to technical advances, multisensory technologies have gained traction in the research and development of many industries. With the launch of virtual and augmented reality systems, the potential for these technologies increased even further. The senses of vision and hearing have long been integrated into current products, leading to the assumption that olfactory stimuli are likely to be included soon to stimulate the sense of smell.
With this trend, the issue of implementation into current digital products and services arises, as odors currently cannot be captured in one place and released in another on a large scale. Therefore, this thesis deals with the nature of smell from a cognitive psychological and technological viewpoint. We show why it makes sense to stimulate the sense of smell in multisensory experiences and present early and current technical standards. In addition to this, we conducted expert interviews enabling us to provide insights into the digital scent and olfaction industry. Among other aspects, our results suggest that there are fundamental challenges that developers have to overcome and that a successful implementation depends on the business application.
Growing environmental awareness, especially among young generations, is reflected in the willingness to accept price premiums for sustainable and recyclable products. In recent years, marketers have focused on reinforcing consumers’ attention and interest in green goods by increasing the effectiveness of various sustainability information on product packaging.
In this thesis, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) investigated the effect of visual and verbal recycling claims on product packaging upon the willingness to pay (WTP). Although findings showed no changes in WTP related to a visual claim, the presence of a verbal claim positively impacted the WTP in two of four cases. Further, significant interactions between the two factors were detected. The results suggest that students considered an imagery seal irrelevant during product evaluation, whilst communicating recycling information with a textual message or with a conjunction of both claims showed a tendency to improve price-value perception. However, results for the verbal and interaction effects showed variations across products. Therefore, one may not draw unequivocal assumptions from the findings of this study without research replication on a larger scale.
Global warming provokes our climate and the world how we know it today to change severely. The production of food together with its consumption is responsible for 19-29% of world’s greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities and further rises are
expected. As a response to this phenomenon, the assessment of a product’s carbon footprint has awaken huge interest with the purpose of controlling food’s environmental impact during its life-cycle. In order to involve individuals in the target of reducing harmful emissions, besides governmental and business efforts, CO2 labels have been developed to communicate a product’s carbon footprint and enabling consumers to make more climate-friendly purchase decisions. However, it has been shown that a successful
implementation of CO2 labels on grocery products still confronts barriers from the consumer side.
For a better understanding of the meaning of mentioned labels, this thesis deepens the theoretical backgrounds of greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint related to the food industry. In a second step, the acceptance and effectiveness of carbon labels on
groceries will be analysed critically by using contextual literature reviews and a case study on German purchase behaviour.
This research identifies positive and negative influence factors by examining the effectiveness of digital video advertising. The objective is to discover ways of leveraging
these factors successfully through an extensive literature review. As this ad format has developed into a staple in most brands' media strategy, it is valuable to drive
understanding of effective implementation forward. Three brands that utilize digital video advertising are selected for an analysis of their recently published ads. This analysis is supported by a suggested model that was developed based on advertising literature to assess ad effectiveness. Results show that the perceived intrusiveness of an ad and the consequential ad avoidance behaviours in consumers represent a hindrance to ad effectiveness. In contrast, elements used in an advertisement that increase its value facilitated ad effectiveness. Credibility, entertainment and informativeness are ad value contributors and impact ad recall, the gateway to positive marketing outcomes such as purchasing decisions. The circumstances under which consumers are exposed to digital video advertisements play a role in if the ad message can effectively be conveyed.
While negative influence factors have their detriment, they can still be counteracted and leveraged. Advertisers and ad-supported video streaming sites like YouTube can find
ways to broadcast ads without significantly impeding the user experience and, in doing so, secure the continued profitability of this promotion format that depends on users
watching ads.
In the light of incremental environmental degradation, social awareness and resource depletion along with high and volatile resource prices, food packaging manufacturers in Germany increasingly perceive pressure towards the implementation of circular business models. However, there does not exist any data neither about the current deployment of circular business models nor about the active efforts dedicated by manufacturers in the German food packaging industry while in many cases there is lacking expertise of how to implement circular business models. This thesis is going to close this gap by conducting a systematic observation of 41 food packaging manufacturers’ product portfolio and company policy in order to identify the current state of deployment and active efforts dedicated to the implementation. Moreover, the most applicable measures will be analysed in order to capture the level of circularity in the focal industry, while providing a step-by-step guidance of how to implement circular business models. There was found that the German food packaging industry is characterised by an open-loop approach since manufacturers focus on circular inputs but neglect the reuse and recycling of packaging materials. Besides, there could be identified six highly applicable metrics, which measure a range of different fundamental aspects of the circular economy. Finally, there was found that the process of implementing circular business models can be structured into four phases, whereas a set of key enablers permits food packaging manufacturers to overcome certain barriers and facilitates the implementation of circular business models. The conclusion was drawn that food packaging manufacturers in Germany still show noticeable potential for enhancement in order to increase circularity, especially by launching circular product designs, the reuse of certain types of food packaging and implementing a more holistic approach of circular business models.
Many companies are struggling with the decision of whether they should invest resources in the new app TikTok to communicate and develop their employer brand. Therefore, this thesis addresses, the question: Should German companies invest in TikTok as an employer branding tool? As this topic is not well researched yet, this work is based on individual opinions of HR professionals and opinions on the internet. There is no scientific verification of the accuracy of the statements made in this paper.
To answer this question, interviews with 14 German HR experts have been conducted. Afterwards, the interviews have been summarized and evaluated. The results show that the answer to the research question depends on several factors.
TikTok is considered as a suitable tool if the company’s DNA correspond to that of the application and if enough personal resources are available. Also, if the target group and their needs match the young audience and if the company has already gained experiences on social media. Furthermore, the uploaded content should be authentic and involve motivated representatives of the target group (age 16 to 24). The company must give those employees full support, trust and freedom. Nevertheless, they should also invest in their training and let them know what is desired. The content on TikTok should be informative, short, in the language of the audience and the company should act as an adviser. Employer branding content should be published infrequently and only once a community has been built. The app should be understood as an awareness channel and it should not be expected to bring many applicants immediately. Firms should weigh the positive and negative sides and use the above factors to decide whether TikTok fits their own company.
The success of TikTok can be explained, for example, due to the dopamine release when watching videos on social media and the complex algorithm behind the app, which filters only relevant videos for the individual preferences of each user. Moreover, other hormones such as adrenalin and oxytocin are released, as well. The variety of sounds available and the possibility to share the content with other social media platforms, could also lead to a high popularity of the app. The short videos are favorable for the short attention span of social media users and not often being interrupted by any comments or advertisements makes watching TikTok videos fun.
Based on the history of office design, the changing technological environment and current business challenges, the physical workplace is an important aspect of the employee experience. The aesthetics of the work environment are one aspect that influences well-being and satisfaction on many different levels. This thesis provides a holistic and comprehensive perspective on the topic, including important influential factors from several scientific disciplines.
Two main dimensions of influence on the employee experience are considered. The direct- affective dimension deals with findings mostly from environmental psychology and neuroscience, which includes the impact of internal environmental quality and other psychological effects. Despite not always being consciously recognized, aesthetics and sensual perception have strong implications for the psychological well-being of organizational members.
The indirect-cognitive dimension deals with the work environment as an expression of organizational culture and the resulting implications of aesthetic considerations and the related symbolic and functional dimensions of the physical work environment. Common organizational artifacts and themes are explored as examples of the influence of aesthetic considerations for workplace design.
Next to the employee perspective, the managerial perspective and important implications, restrictions and issues for organizations in the creation and operation of workspaces are also considered.
Empirical research has been conducted to evaluate the application of aesthetic considerations and related issues in practice. Four expert interviews provide insight into the perspective of workplace design professionals on the aesthetics and related aspects of design, implementation processes and employee experience.
The aesthetic dimension of workplace design is often not actively considered by organizational members and management, but the research conducted in this work provides far-reaching evidence for the potential benefits of more considerate design choices for the aesthetics and beauty in the workplace. Using measures on both the direct and indirect levels of influence, the well-being and satisfaction of employees can be increased, and the attitudes and feelings held towards the organization can be improved. The importance of the interrelated fields of organizational culture and cultural change is explored. In addition, practical recommendations for the optimization of the aesthetical dimension of workplace design are offered at the conclusion of this work.
In two experiments, this empirical research examines consumers’ willingness to pay and the likelihood of purchase decisions by thoroughly investigating the neural, behavioral, and psychological properties of packaging design. A general theory is tested by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a NeuroPricing online survey on consumer behavior using the example product Tassimo. Hypotheses are tested with 592 German consumers who evaluated the packaging of Tassimo coffee. A closer look at the neural data from the brain imaging experiment shows that uncertainty can arise among consumers with regard to sustainable packaging and this can have a negative impact on the purchase decision and willingness to pay. The results from both experiments show that it is not possible to make a holistic statement as to which sustainable or enjoyment-focused packaging design increases the likelihood of a purchase decision or the willingness to pay. Implications for future packaging design research and underlying complexities with sustainable packaging are discussed.
The Revive Turbo Cleaner is a cleaning fluid which removes carbon deposits from inside petrol or diesel engine systems. It is distributed internationally through wholesalers and sales agents to workshops and private car owners. After the acquisition of Revive Automotive Solutions Ltd by Bartec Auto ID Ltd in summer 2016, the new owners decided to further develop the brand and to move into the promising German automotive aftermarket, as the Cleaner had shown good sales figures in the home market UK and in a number of international markets. This paper examines environmental factors influencing the German marketplace, analyses Revive’s actual customer segments including consumers and business clients, provides profiles of its competitors and substituting technologies, regards the characteristics of the specific industry and defines the product’s qualities in order to draw a conclusion on the appropriate Marketing Mix to employ for the German market. In advance to the analytical work, the paper critically considers the range of theoretical frameworks used for the analysis, namely PESTEL, Porter’s Five Forces Analysis, the SWOT Analysis and the Marketing Mix in order to define and update original concepts as wells as adapt them to the research requirements.
The thesis introduces a case study research presenting the transfer pricing problem of a selected MNE. Hereby, the researcher derives an appropriate method for the case and concludes with a comparison of theory and practice. The theoretical part of the thesis evaluates existing transfer pricing methods as explained by the OECD, Germany and the USA. The second part is about the choice of the research methodology, case study research and expert interview.
The third part first introduces the case study, analyzes a theoretical framework of the transfer pricing process and evaluates the existing transfer pricing methods, which allows for the derivation of the most appropriate transfer pricing method for the case. The fourth part concludes the research by applying the derived transfer pricing method, the Cost Plus Method, to the particular case study. By combining theoretical and practical approaches, a solution to the problem is determined.
Im Rahmen dieser Bachelorarbeit wird untersucht, ob kulturelle Faktoren einen Einfluss auf das Verhältnis zwischen in Deutschland lebenden türkischstämmigen Anwälten und Mandanten haben. Hierzu wird die ethnische Identität von Deutsch-Türken im Zusammenhang mit Generationsunterschieden untersucht. Zudem werden Akkulturationsmodelle, Kommunikationstheorien sowie Ziele und Möglichkeiten des ethnischen Marketings definiert.
Durch Anwendung qualitativer und quantitativer Forschungsmethoden werden jeweils aus Anwalts- und Mandantensicht die ethnische Identität sowie die für die Präferenz eines türkischstämmigen Anwalts relevanten Faktoren einzelner Einwanderergenerationen ermittelt.
Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Anwalts-Mandanten-Beziehung stark von kulturellen Aspekten beeinflusst wird und dass Änderungen im anwaltlichen Ethno-Marketing notwendig sind, da diese nicht von türkischstämmigen Mandanten wahrgenommen werden.
Hubert Burda Media ist ein international agierendes Medienunternehmen, das unter anderem in den Segmenten Woman, Luxury Lifestyle, Living und Food aktiv ist. Das Unternehmen befindet sich auf Expansionskurs und ist dabei bestrebt, neben dem Ausbau weiterer Geschäftsfelder (z.B. Digital), sein Wachstumspotenzial durch Internationalisierungsaktivitäten bestehender Zeitschriftentitel in anderen Märkten auszuschöpfen.
Die Koch- und Genusszeitschrift SAVEURS wird vom Burda Verlag Editions Hubert Burda Media in Paris publiziert und wurde bereits in Russland und Deutschland lanciert. Nach der Einführung der Zeitschrift auf anderen Märkten außerhalb des Heimatmarktes, soll das Potential für eine erfolgreiche Einführung auf dem brasilianischen Markt untersucht werden.
Vergleich maschineller Lernalgorithmen in Anwendung auf die 3D-Gestenerkennung per Leap Motion
(2017)
Die Gestensteuerung ermöglicht eine intuitive sowie natürliche Interaktion zwischen Mensch und Maschine. Um die Bewegungen des Nutzers im dreidimensionalen Raum erkennen und klassifizieren zu können, sind Sensoren nötig, deren Signale es gilt zu verarbeiten. Diese Verarbeitung geschieht mittlerweile überwiegend durch Algorithmen des maschinellen Lernens, welche mit Hilfe von eingelernten Daten selbstständig Vorhersagen über neue Eingabesignale treffen können.
In dieser Arbeit werden die Eigenschaften und die damit zusammenhängende Erkennungsgenauigkeit solcher Algorithmen untersucht und verglichen. Dabei sollen die Support Vector Machine und das neuronale Netz berücksichtigt werden, welche mit Hilfe der Open Source Bibliotheken TensorFlow und scikit-learn implementiert wurden. Als Untersuchungsgegenstand dienen die Positionskoordinaten von insgesamt 350 dynamischen Gesten. Diese wurden mit dem Tiefenensor Leap Motion mittels einer eigens entwickelten Software aufgezeichnet und entsprechend vorverarbeitet. Auf diese Software, sowie den Prozess der Datensammlung, der Vorverarbeitung und letztendlich der Klassifizierung wird in der Arbeit ausführlicher eingegangen.
Die durchgeführten Tests zeigen, dass beide Algorithmen in der Lage waren eine Erkennungsgenauigkeit von bis zu 93,40% zu erreichen. Die Support Vector Machine schnitt durchschnittlich mit 87,15%, gegenüber dem neuronalen Netz mit 80,47%, besser ab.
Zur Stabilisierung der Konjunktur im Zuge der Covid-19-Krise hat die Bundesregierung Deutschlands mit der vom 01. Juli bis 31. Dezember 2020 eingeführten temporären Mehrwertsteuersenkung auf ein noch neuartiges konjunkturpolitisches Instrument zurückgegriffen. Dieses ist zentraler Teil eines mit 130 Milliarden dotierten Konjunkturpakets.
Ziel dieser Arbeit ist, die Wirksamkeit zentraler Elemente der Konjunkturpolitik anhand der damit verbundenen Anforderungen zu untersuchen und die Mehrwertsteuersenkung in diesem Kontext auf ihre Eignung zur Konjunkturstimulierung zu überprüfen. Zur empirischen Untersuchung wurden Experteninterviews mit Wirtschaftswissenschaftlern und betroffenen Verbänden durchgeführt. Die ersten richtungsweisenden Erkenntnisse aus den Interviews, Praxisbeispielen und bestehender Theorie zeigen, dass die Mehrwertsteuersenkung zwar zeitnah und temporär umgesetzt werden konnte, jedoch als wenig zielgerichtet und effektiv zu bewerten ist. Der von der Bundesregierung erhoffte Konjunktureffekt ist als gering zu beurteilen und kam Krisengewinnern stärker zu Gute als besonders betroffenen Branchen. Im Kontext der pandemiebedingten Krise wird zudem die grundsätzliche Wirksamkeit nachfrageorientierter Maßnahmen sowie die praktische Handhabung und zeitliche Koordinierung der Mehrwertsteuersenkung kritisch hinterfragt.