Refine
Year of publication
- 2015 (136) (remove)
Document type
- Bachelor Thesis (136) (remove)
Is part of the Bibliography
- No (136)
Keywords
- China (3)
- Fachkräftemangel (3)
- Marketing (3)
- Strategy (3)
- Willkommenskultur (3)
- Automobilindustrie (2)
- Change Management (2)
- Demographischer Wandel (2)
- Employer Branding (2)
- Generation Y (2)
Course of studies
The aim of this bachelor thesis is to provide ZF Friedrichshafen AG with a flexible Human Resource concept for the successful handling of future joint venture projects in China. In order that future JV are planned and conducted successfully, a structured HR approach built on a combination of ZF experience and academic evidence has been developed. It points out cultural differences, creates awareness of potential organizational issues and gives advice. This thesis draws upon various academic resources which are expanded through ZF knowledge. For this, eight expert interviews with China experienced ZF managers were held.
This blueprint covers several of the HR issues that arise when setting up new joint ventures in China. By shedding light upon success factors a necessary flexibility when dealing with different partner firms is provided. After a theoretical outset and a brief introduction of ZF Friedrichshafen and ZF Passau this thesis peaks in the HR blueprint for joint ventures in China. Worth notable factors in setting up the structure, when recruiting and inheriting staff from the joint venture partner as well as considerations of the new Labor Contract Law and for policies and practices allow an understanding of what Human Resource issues can be anticipated in Chinese joint ventures. These then can be planned adequately for.
The results of this work offer a strategical Human Resource framework on how to best approach a next joint venture project in China. A broad range of HR issues have been analyzed and the most critical for joint venture success found implementation in the blueprint. Arranging a working organizational structure with a Chinese partner and implementing uniform policies and practices while considering cultural factors as well as complying with the legal requirements of the Peoples Republic of China is a task which is not easily carried out. Yet while setting up joint ventures in China already is a complex project, the partnering with a Chinese state owned enterprise is a challenge that requires special attention by HR professionals. The blueprint gives insights and guidance for stated issues.
Werte gewinnen zunehmende Bedeutsamkeit in der heutigen Gesellschaft. Auch in Unternehmen sind sie nicht mehr wegzudenken. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden die Herausforderungen und Probleme, die bei der Einführung von Unternehmenswerten auftreten können, aufgedeckt. Dafür werden im ersten Teil der Arbeit drei Methoden zur Einführung eines Wertemanagementsystems ausgewertet und kritisch hinterfragt. Der zweite Teil der Arbeit konzentriert sich auf Interviews, die mit 20 Probanden der Michelfelder Gruppe durchgeführt wurden. Unter den Probanden befanden sich Mitarbeiter und Teamleiter. Die Studie wurde entwickelt um herauszufinden, welche Einstellung die Angestellten zu den Werten haben und inwieweit diese in der Praxis umgesetzt werden. Nach theoretischen Erkenntnissen hätte man die Werte anders einführen müssen, schaut man sich jedoch die Ergebnisse der Interviews an, kann man sagen, dass die genutzte Methode die richtige war.
In the time of a globalizing economy where the costs of production and the closeness to customers, due to transportation cost, become more and more important. More and more medium-sized companies seek for the advantages of production facilities abroad either to cut cost and stay competitive or to follow other companies using their products. For several years Freilacke has been active in the Russian Federation via a subsidiary company (sales office in Moscow). This paper will analyze chances and risks for a possible production facility inside Russia. After tremendous changes in the situation in Ukraine, the production location Russian Federation has lost a bit of attractiveness. Nevertheless Russia is largest country in the world and with more than 146.3 million inhabitants on the ninth rank due to population worldwide and therefore remains an interesting destination. Follow-up analysis and numbers will show that even if the western world will close the borders to east Eurasia, the domestic market bares a high potential and attractiveness for investors.
Recent work has pointed out the importance of social media for various components of a firm’s marketing communication strategy. However despite the clear movement to use social media as a marketing tool in general, the topic has captured little attention in academic literature, while limited research in general has closely examined online social media channels in the international content. To address this research gap the primary aim of this paper is to assess whether and to what extent international companies do adjust their marketing activities to the UK market. With the main focus on companies Facebook profiles this research paper focuses on the marketing efforts of the top 5 Facebook brands according to their number of followers from August 2014 to September 2015.
This paper elaborates the effectiveness of marketing channels for startups in all stages of their startup lifecycle. The focus here is put on startups operating in the German market. In general, nine out of 10 businesses fail within their first three years of operations. Even though there seem to exist numerous “how-to” guides and advices on how to run a startup, there are none giving a reasonable answer on customer acquisition strategies and on the effectiveness of channels startups may consider for their survival. Finding out common best practices for marketing should prevent the high failure rate that the market for startups undergoes. By investigating latest research findings and conducting expert interviews, this paper recommends best practices for a successful customer acquisition strategy and shows valuable insights based on an analysis of real startup cases. The results of the analyses reveal that a successful customer acquisition strategy does not depend on one marketing channel but rather on an interaction between all marketing channels providing overall consistency in communication. Furthermore, the stage of the startup is of utmost importance as the focus on different channels changes depending on its stage. This paper should not serve as a guide but rather as an inspiration for future marketing strategies considered by startups in their early stage.
Numerous, if not all, companies are faced with the very same challenge: To train their employees and to qualify them regarding ever new topics. But whilst enterprises are already cooperating in other business areas for quite some time, they do not (yet) share training materials treating the same topical areas. This thesis approaches this issue and thereby takes the first step in developing research on cross-company Content Sharing. This means the sharing of training materials between businesses. More specifically, the paper examines the question how the success of such a cooperation can be measured, to which extent success is likely to be achieved and how it can be developed. The work’s basis is formed by the scientific knowledge on inter-organizational cooperations and on learning objects. Starting from this point in-depth literature analysis and expert interviews were carried out. This resulted in the creation of the Evaluation-Criteria Framework for Content Sharing Cooperations. This model consists of four categories that group together ten evaluation criteria, 33 sub-criteria and 76 examination
elements. Subsequently the model was applied to a collaboration between Robert Bosch GmbH and DEKRA S.E., aiming at the joint development of training documents. To examine this inter-organizational relation a case study research was carried out. For this end various qualitative (interview, participant observation) and quantitative (questionnaire, cost calculation) methods. Seven out of then criteria were identified as fulfilled. The saving of five working days’ time as well as participant’s satisfaction can be emphasized. An unambiguous statement regarding costs, however, cannot be made. Finally, identified problems suggest that a thorough definition of target groups and their needs and requirements are of utmost importance for content sharing cooperations. The same holds for establishing the role of a (ideally company-independent) coordinator. In conclusion it can be recognized, that the Evaluation-Criteria Framework constitutes a reality-tested model which is also suitable for future research; like, for example, additional case studies to confirm validity of the second insight gained in this paper: Sharing training contents seems to be a promising approach for companies operating within the
knowledge society.
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.
This document presents an investigation about the carbon footprint certification and the main three different standards that help during the reduction process of CO2 emissions. A summary of the certification bodies and the certificates it provided in this paper, including an evaluation of the differences and explanation of the standards. Moreover, since the beginning of globalization and the industrial development happened, the environment has been suffering several changes. Some of those changes made a notable difference in the climate and in the pollution of the planet. The result of the situation was the popular Global Warming process. Global warming is cause by the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere; these gases capture the radiation coming from the sun and raise the world temperature. For improving the situation in a more sustainable way and reducing the environmental impact of the carbon footprint the next standards were developed: (1) ISO standards, (2) PAS 2050 and (3) GHG Protocol. Many companies, governments and civil societies apply the carbon footprint measurement and reduction process for achieving a more sustainable future and having positive repercussions. Being environmentally friendly has created many different ways of lowering the GHG emissions and the pollution in the environment. One of the methods is the carbon footprint certification and the creation of different standards for guidance and audit. On one hand these methods create excellent results, but on the other there is still a high percentage of people, countries and organizations which do not help with the reduction of the carbon footprint or any other problem the environment faces. For this reason making the society aware of the possibility to change the situation is of great importance.
This paper analyzes the importance of recommender systems for B2C e-Commerce businesses, using extensive literature review as well as a consumer survey. Readers will gain a basic understanding on how the technology behind the recommendation works, how competitiveness in e-Commerce can be defined and what the consumer perspective on recommender systems is. The paper will ultimately provide valuable insights into how recommender systems can create a major competitive advantage for online retailers and why an online-shop without a recommender engine will struggle to stay or become competitive.
Economic Valuation of Investments in Tangible Fixed Assets of BASF Asia Pacific: Methodology Review
(2015)
The objective of this thesis is to review and evaluate the valuation methodology for investments into fixed tangible assets methodology applied at BASF East Asia Regional Headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region to develop recommendations based on current research. The net present value, adjusted net present value and economic value added approaches are analyzed as well as other key performance indicators, real option analysis and methods of integrating volatility into the valuation criteria. A shift from the currently utilized basic net present value model is suggested as the static nature of the model can oversimplify or exclude many factors relevant to accurate investment valuations. Ultimately, the net present value should be split up to highlight areas of value creation, real options should be integrated into standard methodology and project cash flow volatility should be considered in the process. The latter can be integrated by use of Monte Carlo simulations, which can be re-run at relevant decision tree nods to show volatility differences throughout the projects timeline. These values can then, either via twin-security, market correlation or internally determined scales be integrated into the discount rate, thus effectively adjusting for project specific risk.
The German-French personnel consultancy Rheinbrücke Consulting intended to gain a deeper knowledge of the German market for personnel consulting. Due to the lack
of comprehensive literature, expert interviews were conducted in the framework of this thesis in order to analyse the structure of the German market for personnel consulting how it is changing and to derive consequences for the positioning of Rheinbrücke Consulting today and in the future. The result is that the German market for personnel consulting is opaque and that a lot of companies from sole entrepreneurs to personnel consulting concerns supply a lot of services that vary considerably in their quality. Potential clients prefer to employ recommended personnel consultancies that are specialised and supply performance-based billing. They aim for long term business partnerships with personnel consultancies wherefore the author recommends to Rheinbrücke Consulting to follow up in their strategy work with the key subjects networking, relationship between customer and personnel consultancy, specialisation and remuneration.
Diese Arbeit beschreibt die Erstellung und Umsetzung der Sanierung der Klinik für Biokinematik. Sie beschäftigt sich mit der Frage was die Klinik ist, was ihre Besonderheiten darstellen, wie sie entstanden ist und warum sie in Schieflage geraten ist. Daraus werden Schlussfolgerungen gezogen und in eine Umstrukturierungskonzept eingebunden, welches das Ziel hat die Klinik wieder voll in Familienhände zurück zu führen und wieder wirtschaftlich nachhaltig rentabel zu machen.
Jobsharing in Management
(2015)
According to a recent German law companies are obliged to increase the proportion of female managers in strategic significant departments because women are nationally and even globally underrepresented in management. Simply raising their share, however, won’t solve the more profound problem. Part of the thesis is the consideration of reasons to the current situation. Mentioned reasons are the management framework conditions and social norms. Furthermore the working model jobsharing in management will be presented as method that realizes a sustainable change in gender diversity. There are already companies which started projects for gender diversity management in order to acknowledge gender disparity and deal with it. A fact referring to social norms is that women still struggle more between their professional career and family than men do. Besides, society pushes women into their classical roles as home keeper. Studies prove that the main reason for women to quit their job is more time for their family. Another fact referring the management framework conditions is that managers often have to work more than 100 percent based on average working time. Jobsharing in management, later on called leadsharing, may enable qualified women not to choose either a management position or their family. Hence, companies may save experienced executives. In this time flexible working model two mangers own the same position and share their job related responsibilities. The characteristics of leadsharing as well as its benefits and challenges will be introduced in relation to eight reports of experienced leadsharers. Leadsharing has proven to be possible and successful but it’s anyway negatively associated with huge effort in communication, dependency within the leadsharing team and infeasibility in management. Thus, the most important requirement for leadsharing is a receptive cooperating company and the perfect partner who can be trusted. The German start-up Tandemploy is specialized on matching jobsharing interested employees and companies. Today’s technologies and circumstances on the shrinking specialists and executive staff market may also support a jobsharing popularity. For companies which are against stagnation and honestly promote gender equality the adoption of leadsharing is apparently a chance to ensure sustainable gender parity in management.
Challenges and opportunities in building an Eastern European Brand: the Polish fashion market
(2015)
An insight on how domestic eastern European brands can go global The aim of the thesis is to find out how local eastern European brands can grow into international brands. There are already many global brands existing in the current world market. Most of these global brands are from developed countries. There are, however, brands from other countries which have great products. Eastern Europe, for example, has many products that are interesting, are of high quality but unknown to the world. For this reason the author would like to take Polish alcohol industry as an example. He will then look into the challenges and possible solutions of a domestic eastern European brand going global. The thesis first examines 4 big Polish liquor companies that start off unknown to the world. Through the implementation of a series of marketing and brand strategies they are able to become global players. Their product positioning are being looked into, and their marketing campaigns are being analyzed. The challenges that these brands faced before are summarized and possible strategies in coping with them are being suggested.
Generationenmanagement - Maßnahmen zur Motivation Mitarbeiter aller Generationene un Unternehmen
(2015)
Das wohl aktuellste und brisanteste Thema in den Personalabteilungen deutscher Unternehmen und der Politik ist der demografische Wandel und seine Auswirkungen auf die Arbeitswelt in der Zukunft.
Die gesamte Bevölkerung in Deutschland wird zunehmend altern und die Altersstruktur wir sich von Grund auf ändern mit Trend zu einer alten Gesellschaft. Auch steigen in der Zukunft die Anforderungen an Arbeitnehmer mit zunehmender Geschwindigkeit, während gleichzeitig allerdings kein Anstieg der qualifizierten Arbeitskräfte zu erwarten ist. Dies stellt Unternehmen vor ganz neue Herausforderungen, die es mit innovativen Maßnahmen zu bewältigen gilt.
Dazu gehört zum Beispiel die Frage, welche Folgen der demografische Wandel auf die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der entsprechenden Unternehmen hat. Schließlich werden die bisherigen, traditionellen Führungsstile in deutschen Unternehmen kaum mehr effektiv funktionieren können, durch eine zunehmend größer werdende altersspezifische Kluft innerhalb der Unternehmen. Heutzutage arbeiten in einem Unternehmen bis zu fünf unterschiedliche Generationen Seite an Seite. Jede davon hat andere Erwartungen an den Arbeitgeber, Ansichten, Prägungen sowie Werte. Die vorliegende Arbeit setzt an diesem Punkt an und beleuchtet die unterschiedlichen Auswirkungen des demografischen Wandels, die unterschiedlichen Generationen sowie die Maßnahmen, die ein Unternehmen im Personalmanagement einbringen könnte, um sich an die Bedingungen des demografischen Wandels anzupassen. Ziel ist es, einen Führungsstil zu entwickeln, der mehrere Generationen zusammen effektiv führen kann und vor allem zu motivieren.
The purpose of this paper is a conceptualization of the identification and motivational methods for top distributors in the Chinese market for frequency converters. An examination of the market size, participants and segments is provided. Further the benefits for the manufacturer and distributor that occurring from a partnership are elaborated on and the term top distributor is defined.
Based on marketing channel literature a conclusive multidimensional model for the top distributor selection has been developed. The basic dimensions for distributor selection were determined as Sales/Market, Product/Service and Risk/Uncertainty factors. Those dimensions are supplemented by the China specific factors Guanxi and Human Capital. With special focus been given on the aspects that businesses might encounter when operating in China the reginal factors in distributor evaluation are also being discussed.
IN order to determine the value of different rewards two surveys were conducted. For the identification of the most valuable motivators a rewards portfolio was developed and applied on the data gathered in this surveys. The rewards portfolio was based on the portfolio analysis first developed by the Boston Consulting Group. The rewards determined as most valuable from both the manufacturers and distributor sides were “additional marketing and customer acquisition support”, “extended payment terms” and “market intelligence from manufacturer”. An explanation for the importance of those rewards is additionally provided.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the development process of renewable energy sector in Bulgaria and how far it is at the moment. Another aim was to find out the issues that exist in this field, as well as possible forecasts for the future.
The research was based on different literature sources and primary research techniques like interviews, which succeeded to answer the proposal questions. The key challenges Bulgaria is faced with were also identified through provided industry analysis and detailed outlook of the available renewables in Bulgaria.
The analyses of the thesis indicate the main issues that appear in the current legislative and administrative structure. Furthermore, the investigation found that there is a lack of liberalization of the market, which leads to confusion in the whole business picture of Bulgaria.
This research contributes for better understanding the potential of the renewables in Bulgaria although the non-availability of great political conditions as well as the pure issues in the social and economic growth. The results provide also suggestions for making better policies and finding more partners due to the fact that sustainable future is better for all of us.
In cooperation with the Customer Relationship Management and Communication department at Volkswagen AG the thesis “The future of Service Marketing in the automotive industry” was written. The sales part of After Sales is relatively small compared to the total turnover, but it is the biggest part of benefits of a car manufacturer. This is just one reason why After Sales has such a big relevance in the automotive industry. This thesis defines After Sales and Service Marketing, gives reasons for the importance of After Sales and details how to attract the right customer groups in the context of After Sales. Additionally, it is discussed how customer needs are best addressed and fulfilled, and what kind of new Service Marketing tools could help Volkswagen to exploit the full market potential of its after sales division. The data on which this paper is based was drawn from various company-internal and external sources. The most important company-external data sources were articles about the after sales practices of other car manufacturers and companies of completely different industries. With regards to internal sources, this paper is based on internal best practices and data collected in an expert workshop regarding the internal visions that are shaping the future of Service Marketing. The given data was qualitatively analysed and resulted in a collection of potential Service Marketing tools for the international Brand Volkswagen Cars markets. The most important findings are new digital communication tools, new customer relationship tools and point of sales tools.
Especially in the past years, the Internet of Things and strategic alliances between different companies have become increasingly important. While previous research has mainly focused on the purpose of alliance failures and the success of partnerships in general, this paper introduces a standardized partner evaluation tool for connected products and digital services to prevent poor candidate selection. Based on an extensive literature study, this work analyzes the core industry of the home appliances manufacturer BSH Hausgeräte GmbH with a particular focus on the Internet of Things. Through the conduction of expert interviews, literary findings about strategic alliances are verified. Additionally, the interviews support the optimization of the decision instrument and prove its relevance and suitability. Further, the paper aims at identifying whether the home appliance manufacturer lacks knowledge in selecting suitable partners for digital services and whether such a tool will improve the speed and preciseness of the decision-making process in the future. Lastly, future research questions are discussed. This study confirms that rating partners by standardized criteria is especially beneficial to support the selection decision in front of other stakeholders. The results of this work significantly contribute and add value to the Corporate Digital Transition Department at BSH Hausgeräte GmbH. In particular, managers with the responsibility to evaluate potential partners to extend the digital services portfolio of BSH’s smart home solution will benefit from this paper.
According to the United Nations, more than 70% of the world trade is carried out by the multinational companies which represent nearly 250% increase in the last four decades. This also represents the extended number of inter-company transactions such as transfer of money as well as transfer of goods and services from parent company to daughter company and vice versa. This issue of transfer of goods and more specifically transfer of money – as in transfer of profits – gave rise to debates in ‘Transfer Pricing’ in the international context. The companies use number of complex business models such as the Principal Company model as their supply chain network and move profits between different entities and create the tax advantages on basis of corporate tax rates in the different tax jurisdictions by allocating all the sales and profits to the principal company. The entities in high-tax jurisdictions, however, perform business activities on contractual basis and remunerated on cost plus mark-up by the principal company. This results several tax saving benefits for the group as a whole.
Under this behavior of the MNCs, the finance ministers of G20 and the authorities in OECD developed a 15 Action Plan under Base Erosion and Profit Sharing (hereafter “BEPS”) Agenda to develop ways to avoid tax evasions by the multinational corporations in the high-tax jurisdictions. The Action 7 of BEPS Agenda – artificial avoidance of Permanent Establishment status – was introduced for the change of wordings in the Article 5 of the OECD Model Tax Convention which explains the definition of a Permanent Establishment. By doing so, the contractual entities in high-tax jurisdictions, performing business activities on behalf of their cross-border parent in a low-tax jurisdiction, will be given a status of a PE and the sales and profits generated by these entities will be allocated to them and subjected to be taxed accordingly in a high-tax jurisdiction.
The analysis of the profit distribution and taxation of the contractual entities of the cross-border principal company in Germany is conducted by the author in this piece of research and shows the effect on the taxation of a company if the Action 7 of BEPS Agenda carries forward as a local legislation in the OECD countries.
Der Begriff Wissensmanagement bietet eine Fülle an unterschiedlichen Definitionen, Interpretationen, Auffassungen und Sichtweisen. Hierbei wird der Schwerpunkt oft auf ITgestützte Systeme gelegt und nicht auf den Menschen als Hauptwissensträger. Auch der Bedeutung der Wissensverteilung innerhalb des Unternehmens wird nicht ausreichend Beachtung geschenkt. Aus diesen Gründen legt die vorliegende Arbeit das Hauptaugenmerk auf die Wissensverteilung und den Mensch als Wissensträger im
Unternehmen. Im Rahmen der Ausarbeitung werden unterschiedliche Sichtweisen zum Thema Wissen und Wissensmanagement vorgestellt und anerkannte Modelle
beschrieben. Weiter liefert die Arbeit einen Überblick an Methoden und softwaretechnischen Unterstützung, die auf die Wissensverteilung abzielen. Fallbeispiele
zeigen, wie Wissensmanagement schon erfolgreich umgesetzt wurde aber auch wie die Umsetzung in Unternehmen scheiterte. Im Anschluss wird mit Hilfe von empirischen
Studien ein Vergleich zwischen den theoretischen Ansätzen und der Praxis gezogen.
Auf Grund der gewonnenen Erkenntnisse schließt die Arbeit mit einer Empfehlung für Unternehmen ab.
City branding
(2015)
The subject of this Bachelor thesis is based on place branding. The goal is to show its evolution since its creation until today and to analyze its importance nowadays. Our work focus mainly on four aspects of place branding, namely sense of place, identity of a place, stakeholders and communication. Sense of place helps to create meanings and attachment to the place. Identity of a place is mostly created by the different people living there and is very important to build a successful brand. Stakeholders are fundamental to place branding and it is very important to recognize the right groups of stakeholders to involve in the branding process, especially local people. Communication is a big part of place branding and has to be managed in an adapted way. The growing evolution of online branding has to be taken into account and managed closely. Word of mouth is a very efficient and powerful way of communication and it should not be neglected when creating a city brand. All these elements are being studied through the example of Strasbourg’s city branding, “Strasbourg, the Europtimist”. We see that the city is ignoring some of the elements mentioned above and could improve its city branding by applying these aspects more carefully. The Bachelor thesis then analyses the success of one of Strasbourg’s sub-brands: “Strasbourg, Capital of Christmas”. Through its analysis, we demonstrate that the key success factors of this event are based on the involvement of the right groups of stakeholders, a strong identity of place, the creation of meanings to the place and a powerful word of mouth. Recommendations are then made to improve the branding of “Strasbourg, the Europtimist”, based on the successful branding of “Strasbourg, Capital of Christmas”.
This bachelor thesis aims at elaborating a relationship between corporate sabbatical programs and their impact on employee retention by taking the dimension of flexible working as mediating tool. The trend towards offering multiple ways of flexible working is growing as employees are demanding workplaces that encourage work-life balance. Sabbaticals are one type of flexible working arrangements regarding the continuity of work. Flexible working is becoming more and more commonly used by organisations with the goal to increase their recruitment attractiveness and their (employee) retention capability for “high potentials”. A relationship between sabbaticals and employee retention could be hypothesised in two theories. First, the component Flexible Working with the example of sabbaticals was added to the employee lifetime value (ELV) model. The ELV model describes an approach to employee retention, recognising the employee as an internal customer of the organisation. With applying the ELV model, an indirect relationship between sabbaticals and retention could be developed. Second, the retention impact of sabbaticals was implied by transferring the retention effects of flexible working in general on sabbatical leaves directly. The retention effects were measured in the dimensions of job embeddedness and organisational commitment. Both theories are able to design a relationship between the two variables, directly and indirectly, but always considering and linking flexible working to the concepts.
The 21st century has been marked by the first ever social environment encompassing four distinct generations: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials. These cohorts grew up in different times, shaped by various political, technological and social events, which carved their character, mentality and perceptions in a contrasting manner. The results have been a clash of ambitions, opinions and personalities that has been prominent in both the private and the professional life. The university and in particular the Business School of the Hochschule Furtwangen University is a place where cross-generational members collide and experience the differences first-hand. In addition, it is the last frontier before the students and their respective careers as professionals. Thus, it is equally relevant to be explored as a potential ground zero for misunderstandings and conflicts as any other social environment. For these reasons, the thesis focuses on analyzing the three predominant generations of Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials and identifying the key characteristics that differentiate them, which would provide a better understanding behind their actions and behavior. In addition, the findings aim at bringing relevance of the analysis to the university in question and improve the generational interactions and collaborations. In the end, it has been concluded that the generational gap exists and its influence is strongly present. Furthermore, it has been established that there is a lack of awareness on campus regarding the issue and more measures should be taken into consideration. Therefore, a number of recommendations have been made, the goal of which are to improve the environment and tighten the gap as much as possible.
In the pursue of findings, the thesis includes a primary research in the form of a questionnaire, distributed to the students and faculty staff, as well as a secondary research, encompassing literature review and relevant topics.
Living in times when the Internet and Social Media is changing customer’s behavior, Customer Relationship Managers face the question how to deal with those changes and how to optimize their strategy to remain attractive for the customers. The behavior of people is changing immensely as customers do not prefer to be influenced by companies which are pushing products and brands to them. The force and pressure of customers towards brands is rising steadily, since they expect them to actively engage with them and to offer high quality information rather than a brand who is trying to make the purchase decision for the customer. These times, ordinary customers turn into active influencer who could reach a huge number of people and potential customers and therefore influence their purchase decision. Therefore understanding the current customer behavior and the way how, when and why they make a purchase and what could influence their decision is crucial to businesses. Consequently, businesses have to start managing the complete Customer Decision Journey of each target group and customer. On this account, this Thesis will cover each step of the Customer Decision Journey – Formulation, Pre-Purchase, Purchase, and Post-Purchase - and its influence factors. Thus the key success factors will be indicated, afterwards the Thesis will continue with the concept of corporate Online Shops and Multichannel Retailing and two Case Studies will finish this paper. After a secondary research, findings show that the participation of a certain generation and culture, as well as product reviews on the Internet and Social Media peers are influencing the Customer Decision Journey tremendously. Thus, Online Shops are playing an important role in the first two stages of the Customer Journey and the second Case Study shows the importance of the post-purchase stage. On the one hand side, all those new channels that are influencing and changing the customer and his/her behavior could be a big challenge for businesses. But on the other hand, businesses could start to modify their strategy and approach towards its customers, make use of new possibilities the Internet is offering and start creating a positive, memorable and shareable customer experience.
Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Rolle von Selbstgefälligkeit im Change Management. Dabei wird der Frage nachgegangen, wie sich Selbstgefälligkeit in Organisationen äußert und welchen Einfluss sie auf die erfolgreiche Gestaltung von Veränderungsprozessen hat. Außerdem werden Maßnahmen zum Umgang mit bzw. zur Reduktion von Selbstgefälligkeit näher beleuchtet. Ziel der Arbeit ist zu klären, ob Selbstgefälligkeit der Grund für die in der untersuchten Organisation beobachtete Wandelträgheit ist. Damit geht einher, einen Weg zu finden, wie die Existenz von Selbstgefälligkeit unter den Organisationsmitgliedern identifiziert werden kann, um dann mögliche Folgemaßnahmen ableiten zu können. Die Grundannahme basiert auf dem Acht-Stufen-Modell von John P. Kotter, der Selbstgefälligkeit als zentrales Hindernis in der Schaffung eines ausreichend hohen Dringlichkeitsgefühls für den Wandel sieht. Die entwickelte Vorgehensweise zur praktischen Anwendung der Theorie basiert auf den von Kotter genannten Ursachen von Selbstgefälligkeit. Hierzu werden verschiedene Instrumente gewählt, mit denen das Unternehmen auf diese Faktoren untersucht werden kann. Dazu zählen ein selbsterstellter Fragebogen zur Befragung der Führungskräfte, die Durchführung von Gruppenworkshops mit Mitarbeitern und die Analyse verschiedenster betriebswirtschaftlicher Themen wie die Strategie des Unternehmens, das Produktportfolio sowie Projektstatusberichte auf diese Symptome hin. Auch die Ergebnisse einer Kundenbefragung werden in die Untersuchung mit einbezogen. Damit wird eine umfassende und ganzheitliche Untersuchung des Unternehmens auf die Ausprägung von Selbstgefälligkeit gewährleistet. Im Ergebnis wird deutlich, dass viele der Selbstgefälligkeit verursachenden Faktoren erfüllt sind und eine deutliche Tendenz zur Selbstgefälligkeit innerhalb der Organisation besteht. Allerdings zeigen die Untersuchungsergebnisse ebenso, dass neben Selbstgefälligkeit auch weitere Faktoren existent sind, die ein Hindernis in der Gestaltung des Wandels darstellen. Fehlende Ressourcen in Form von Geld, Zeit und qualifiziertem Personal sowie die mangelnde Erfahrung und damit einhergehende unzureichende Fähigkeit im Bereich des Change Managements können dazu führen, dass keine konzentrierte Veränderungsbemühung angestellt wird, obwohl ein Gespür für die Dringlichkeit einer Veränderung stellenweise empfunden wird. Die Aufstellung der Hypothese, dass nicht nur Selbstgefälligkeit den Wandel behindert, sondern auch andere Aspekte eine Rolle spielen, muss in den Folgemaßnahmen berücksichtigt werden. Daraus resultiert die Erkenntnis, dass die stringente Anwendung der von Kotter vorgeschlagenen Strategie zum Abbau von Selbstgefälligkeit und damit zur Erhöhung des Dringlichkeitsgefühls im Fall der untersuchten Organisation hinterfragt werden muss. Im Rahmen der Arbeit werden alternative Handlungsmaßnahmen vorgeschlagen, die die Befähigung zum Change stärker berücksichtigen. Es wird die Anwendung einer Kombination aus Kotters Theorie und ergänzenden bzw. sogar widersprüchlichen Maßnahmen in Betracht gezogen, um die Wandelträgheit zu überwinden und eine Veränderungsprozess in Gang setzen zu können.
Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass es im Change Management keine allgemeingültige Vorgehensweise gibt, die auf jedes Veränderungsprojekt angewandt werden kann, sondern dass jedes Unternehmen seine eigene Strategie entwickeln muss, um in der Gestaltung des Wandels erfolgreich zu sein.
Die Arbeit liefert insofern einen Mehrwert zur bereits existierenden Literatur, als dass sie eine Vorgehensweise zur Anwendung der von Kotter aufgestellten Theorie liefert. Das Unternehmens profitiert von den Ergebnissen der Arbeit, weil dadurch festgestellt wurde, dass Ansätze von Selbstgefälligkeit vorhanden sind und damit ein – wenn auch nicht der einzige – Grund für die Wandelträgheit ist. Indem weitere Hypothesen über alternative Hindernisse aufgestellt werden und vorgeschlagen wird, wie damit umgegangen werden kann, gibt die Arbeit wertvolle Empfehlungen für zukünftige Maßnahmen.
Despite the growth the luxury industry has experienced in recent years, marketers are increasingly facing the emergence of a younger luxury consumer that has different values, priorities, and attitudes. Since these consumers are soon to replace the current luxury clientele as the primary luxury consumer due to their size and purchasing power, successful luxury brands have changed their strategies in order to stay relevant. Being faced with a considerable decrease in brand loyalty, a deeper understanding of the drivers of brand loyalty among this clientele is of utmost importance. Whereas loyalty has often simply been defined as repeat behavior of purchasing one single brand, the literature suggests a more complex definition, which emphasizes the importance of a favorable attitude toward the brand in order for a consumer to be considered truly loyal. Since this attitudinal part of brand loyalty does not necessarily presuppose actual brand usage, Gaggenau as a luxury appliance brand needs to find ways to attract and establish a pre-purchase bond with these consumers even before they have reached their peak buying power, which will create the basis for enduring brand loyalty.
This thesis was set out to explore the complex process of loyalty creation in view of a different luxury consumer, which is increasingly gaining strategic importance. Focus of this thesis was to provide the luxury appliance brand Gaggenau with advice on how to create the basis for enduring brand loyalty among young Generation Y consumers. As a basis for the analysis, the term “luxury” including its different facets and the role aspirations play in the consumption motives for luxury goods has been investigated. This was followed by an examination of the important role of a new type of luxury consumer, characterized by different traits and attitudes. These consumers are likely members of the Generation Y cohort. Due to decreasing loyalty levels, particular emphasis has been put on understanding how to establish an enduring customer-brand relationship. For this, the formation of loyalty, including different degrees and types of loyalty, has been thoroughly investigated. The importance of truly knowing the consumer’s values, desires, and preferences in the creation of brand commitment or in other words the attitudinal part of loyalty as an ultimate milestone to creating enduring brand loyalty, has also been pointed out. Therefore, the next step was to understand Generation Y consumers. The investigation has mainly focused on the opportunities for creating aspiration or an emotional bond with the consumer at the early stage of the consumer journey. Then, the specific challenges Gaggenau is facing with regard to this new luxury consumer and due to the difficulty of reconciling its status as luxury and appliance brand have been presented. The insights gained throughout this dissertation have then been summarized in a recommended course of action. Finally, based on the development of a Weighted Average Scoring Model for potential Gaggenau consumers, a selection of specific touch points has been evaluated on their effectiveness of creating the basis for enduring brand loyalty at the early stages of the consumer journey.
Trotz gesetzlicher Frauenquoten in unterschiedlichen Ländern sind Frauen in den Boards der verschiedenen Unternehmen unterrepräsentiert. Aus diesem Grund wird in dieser Arbeit ermittelt, wie sich die Frauenquote auf Frauen, Boards und Unternehmen auswirkt. Dabei wird untersucht wie die Quote die Beförderung von Frauen, den Frauenanteil im Board, das Humankapital, die Board-Charakteristiken, die Zusammenarbeit im Board, die Unternehmensform, den Firmenwert, die Unternehmensperformance, die Strategie und das Ansehen der Firma sowie den Führungsstil beeinflusst. In diesem Zusammenhang wird auch analysiert, welche Rolle Sanktionen dabei spielen. Zur Ermittlung der Ergebnisse wurden verschiedene wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen und Studien aus den Datenbanken Business Source Premier (via EBSCO Host) und Science Direct, sowie Google Scholar verwendet. Es wurde ermittelt, dass die Änderung der Unternehmensform durch Sanktionen begünstigt wird, genauso der Frauenanteil im Board, was das Erreichen der kritischen Masse wahrscheinlich macht. Dadurch beeinflussen weibliche Board-Mitglieder Humankapital, Zusammenarbeit im Board, Führungsstil und Reputation des Unternehmens positiv. Jedoch üben Frauen nur in wirtschaftlich guten Zeiten Einfluss auf die Unternehmensstrategie aus, denn in Krisenzeiten reagiert das Board mit altbewährten Verhaltensweisen und weibliche Board-Mitglieder verlieren dadurch ihren Einfluss. Die Quotenregelung erhöht die Aufstiegschancen der Frauen. Jedoch verändern neue weibliche Board-Mitglieder die Board-Charakteristiken, was sich negativ auf den Firmenwert auswirkt. Es konnten keine eindeutigen Ergebnisse in Bezug auf die Unternehmensperformance ermittelt werden.
Aufgrund steigender finanzieller Notlagen in der europäischen Fußballindustrie, stehen Fußballvereine erstmals vor der Herausforderung sowohl ihre ursprünglichen Ziele in der Nutzenmaximierung des sportlichen Leistungsvermögens zu bewahren, als auch Mindestkriterien in finanzieller Hinsicht zu gewährleisten. Ausgangspunkt dieser Bachelorarbeit ist die Analyse der langfristigen Tragfähigkeit der europäischen Fußballvereine. Im zweiten Kapitel werden Maßnahmen untersucht, anhand derer die Risiken der Geschäftstätigkeit abgekoppelt werden können. Ein besonderes Augenmerk sei der revolutionären Financial Fairplay Regelung gewidmet, auf welche die Akteure der Fußballindustrie angewiesen sind, neuartige Konzepte zu entwickeln, die ihnen ermöglichen, schwarze Zahlen zu schreiben und in sportlicher Hinsicht wettbewerbsfähig zu bleiben.
Due to the “War for Talents”, personal development in companies has become of utmost importance in recent years. In order to acquire high potentials, enterprises have to think about the essential reasons candidates take into consideration when choosing an employer and why an employee should stay with a company. This paper investigates the way personal development works in incubated startup companies. Nowadays, startups face challenges such as rapid growth, a dynamic organizational structure and the special needs of their employees. Therefore, it is likely that the functioning of personal development in startups differs heavily from how it works in established companies. Instead of off-the-job activities, startups rather focus on implementing a learning-culture, which stimulates individual growth. Based on qualitative expert interviews, this paper proves that personal development in startups is implicit and happens automatically.
The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between the level of Chief Executive Officers’ incentive compensation and subsequent share price performance for the 80 biggest stock listed German companies between 2005 and 2014. The performance proxies are geometric monthly returns, as well as risk-adjusted geometric returns using the Sharpe Ratio. Additionally t-statistics for quintile portfolio returns have been calculated. The results are mixed, indicating that there might in fact not be a relationship between incentive compensation and share price performance at all for this sample. Consequently this study finds that average monthly returns for firms with incentive pay-outs are strongly correlated to the returns for firms without incentive payouts and that the samples do not differ significantly . A relationship between the level of incentive compensation and the level of future share price performance can also not be
determined with absolute certainty. However there are indications that would support a negative relationship between the two, as average monthly returns decrease over longer time horizons. The Sharpe Ratio analysis finds mixed evidence on this question while the t-statistics indicate that there are no significant differences between 94% of the formed quintile portfolios.
Aufbau eines Controllings für den Bereich Forschung und Entwicklung für die Firma Bruker Optik GmbH
(2015)
Der Bereich Forschung und Entwicklung trägt sehr stark zur Wettbewerbsfähigkeit eines Unternehmens bei. Heutzutage werden die F&E-Aufgaben jedoch immer komplexer, weshalb die Kosten in diesem Bereich kontinuierlich ansteigen und ein verlässliches F&E-Controlling somit unentbehrlich ist. Bei der Bruker Optik GmbH soll ein solches F&E-Controlling zur langfristigen Erfolgssicherung aufgebaut werden. Die vorliegende Arbeit wurde in erster Linie mit der
Absicht verfasst, diesem Unternehmen mit fachlichem Wissen sowie praktischen Handlungsvorschlägen, während der Verbesserung bzw. der Stärkung des Unternehmenscontrollings beiseite zu stehen. Genauer gesagt trägt diese Arbeit einen erheblichen Teil zum Aufbau eines Bereichscontrollings für Forschung
und Entwicklung bei, da die Tätigkeiten des Controllings in diesem Unternehmen zur Zeit noch auf Gesamtunternehmensebene basieren und auf Bereichsebene nur wenig detailliert sind. Die kaum vorhandene Transparenz der F&E-Kosten und die somit entstehende Schwierigkeit für die einzelnen Entwicklungsleiter ihre Abteilung effizient leiten zu können, stellen das Hauptproblemfeld des Controllings dar, bei dem es wichtige theoretische und praktische Lücken zu schließen gilt. Auch die F&E-Projektleiter benötigen zuverlässige Informationen auf Kostenträgerebene, um den Überblick über bereits verbrauchte Ressourcen und das Restbudget der Projekte behalten zu können. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden für diese praktischen Probleme Lösungskonzepte vorgestellt, die dann später die Basis für das neue F&E-Controlling der Bruker Optik GmbH darstellen sollen. Eine empirische Untersuchung sowie Befragungen bzw. Interviews mit Führungskräften im Entwicklungsbereich des Unternehmens unterstützen den Aufbau des Bereichscontrollings dabei erheblich.
Aufgrund der Komplexität der Aktivitäten im F&E-Bereich, berücksichtigt das aufgebaute F&E-Controlling neben der Projekt- und Abteilungsebene, ebenfalls die Ebene der Produktlinien. Die zu entwickelnden Tools im Rahmen der Forschungsarbeit werden in dem Programm „Microsoft Excel“ bearbeitet und dargestellt, wobei die Basis- Daten hauptsächlich aus dem Unternehmens-SAP stammen.
Strategic Performance Management with the Balanced Scorecard in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
(2015)
Although the Balanced Scorecard, designed by Kaplan and Norton in 1992, seems to be established as accepted performance measurement and management tool, a minority of small and medium-sized enterprises were recognised using it. Thus, further investigation of this minority was seen as interesting. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to demonstrate and examine possible drivers and challenges within small and medium-sized enterprises using a Balanced Scorecard and additionally provide areas of improvement for the analysed company, tecnotron. In order to reach this, a company study was conducted, clustering around three types of data collection, including the analysis of company documents, information obtained from general managers, and semi-structured personal interviews with six key persons of the middle management. This enabled to create a holistic view of the current practices used at tecnotron and revealing possible issues with regard to their performance measurement framework and system. The results of the study demonstrated that quality certification norms are supportive approaches and can be seen as drivers to succeed in developing and using a Balanced Scorecard in small and medium-sized enterprises. Moreover, the study results primarily indicated challenges regarding the selection of measures and the movement towards a strategically linked Balanced Scorecard with the perception as strategic management tool. For tecnotron it was recommended that the consideration of establishing linkages among their objectives, with the help of a strategy map, could be advantageous for their future development.
Global Sourcing - ,,von der Theorie in die Praxis'' - Analyse alternativer Beschaffungsmärkte
(2015)
Steigender Wettbewerbsdruck im Zuge der Globalisierung zwingt Unternehmen dazu, sich noch stärker von der Konkurrenz abzuheben. Wesentlicher Erfolgsfaktor ist neben dem Absatz innovativer Produkte auch zunehmend die Beschaffung der erforderlichen Komponenten zur Herstellung dieser Produkte. In diesem Zusammenhang hat sich in den letzten Jahren der Begriff Global Sourcing in der Beschaffungsabteilung von Unternehmen etabliert. Dabei geht es um die Ausweitung der Beschaffungsaktivitäten auf weltweite Anbietermärkte. Andere Länder können durch unterschiedliche Bedingungen bestimmte Produkte zu besseren Konditionen anbieten als der Heimatmarkt. Um von diesen Vorteilen profitieren zu können muss überprüft werden, ob Alternativen auf internationalen Märkten bestehen und ob diese nachhaltig genutzt werden können. Der Inhalt der vorliegenden Bachelor-Thesis stellt die Analyse internationaler Beschaffungsmärkte dar. Das Unternehmen ARBURG GmbH + Co KG hat diese Potenziale erkannt und ist bestrebt, diese weiter voranzutreiben. Das Ergebnis dieser Arbeit liefert neue Erkenntnisse bezüglich internationaler Lieferantensuche, - bewertung und -auswahl. Dabei wurde überprüft, ob für bestimmte Produktgruppen alternative Lieferanten identifiziert werden können, die ihre Produkte zu besseren Konditionen als bisherige Lieferanten anbieten. Die Ergebnisse wurden als erfolgsversprechend eingestuft, lassen Schlüsse für weitere Beschaffungsaktivitäten zu und können in eine ganzheitliche Strategieableitung des Unternehmens integriert werden. Ausgewählte Methoden und Konzepte wurden dabei angewendet, um eine nachvollziehbare und zukünftig anwendbare Vorgehensweise zu etablieren.
Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung der Eurozone vor und nach der Finanzmarktkrise sowie die institutionellen Konstruktionen die mit der Eurozone einhergehen. Die Arbeit ist in zwei Zeitfenster aufgeteilt: einmal von 2002 bis 2007 vor der Finanzmarktkrise und von 2008 bis 2014 nach der Krise. Es wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwiefern die Umsetzung der Währungsunion und das Auftreten der Finanzmarktkrise die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung der Mitgliedstaaten in der Eurozone beeinflusst hat. Dafür werden die Mitgliedstaaten in Süd- und Nordstaaten unterteilt. Die Fragestellungen werden auf der Grundlage verschiedener Datenbanken von der Europäischen Union wissenschaftlich analysiert. Wissenschaftliche Texte stellen eine ergänzende Informationsquelle dar. Im Ergebnis wird deutlich, dass sich die Eurozone, allen voran die Südstaaten, noch nicht von der letzten Finanzmarktkrise erholt hat. Nicht nur die Wirtschaftskrise macht der Eurozone zu schaffen. Vielmehr sind es institutionelle Fehlkonstruktionen in den Verträgen, die das Projekt Eurozone und Europa gefährden. Durch Nichteinhaltung selbst aufgesetzter Regelungen sowie ständige Änderungen sämtliche Verträge, hat das Projekt, ein gemeinsames Europa durch einen gemeinsamen Währungsraum
zu schaffen, an Glaubhaftigkeit verloren.
Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit verfolgt zwei Ziele. Zum einen wird die Art der Vermarktung und die Konzeption einer Summer School, sowie deren praktische Umsetzung vorgestellt. Zum anderen wird eine Entscheidungsgrundlage geschaffen, auf deren Basis die Entscheidung getroffen werden soll, ob die Einführung einer Summer School durchgeführt wird oder nicht. Der Grundlagenteil dieser Arbeit befasst sich mit Kooperationen, Social Media Marketing, sowie mit dem Event-Planungs-Prozess Hierbei werden die Aufgaben der Kooperationspartner und die Nutzungsmöglichkeiten von drei online Marketingkanälen vorgestellt. Anhand eines Prozessmodels wird auf die Budget-, Personal- und Logistikplanung eingegangen. Den zweiten Teil der Arbeit bildet die praktische Umsetzung und stellt zunächst den Projektplan dar. Daraufhin wird detailliert auf zentrale Aspekte des Projektes und seiner Durchführung eingegangen. Abgeschlossen wird dieser Teil mit der Seminarplanung, welche den Ablauf der Veranstaltung zeigt und einen Speiseplan, sowie die Einkaufs- und Packliste enthält.
Change management is a very diverse subject which can be found and applied in every department of a big company. One area, where it often could be found is Business Process Management (BPM). BPM links the company’s goals, and also eases the day-to-day workload of the people, and increases the performance of the company by implementing technologies. These technologies range from something really simple to really big-scaled, e.g. a new operational platform. However, when something like that is undertaken change management methodology has to be applied. Since BPM is implementing a new technology in that field, change management methodology has to be applied, IT change management. The theoretical part of this research paper identifies the possible IT change management model. Examples mentioned include BPR, STS and PROGRESS that could be applied in a big scale project. This is the first set of challenges that has to be resolved. The second set of challenges that was identified is namely what role the IT consultant is going to assume - an Expert role, Pair of Hands role or a Collaborative role. Thirdly, it has be seen in theory what are the pre-requests for an IT change management project or a possible check list that has to be taken into account when undergoing an IT change project. The second part of the paper evaluates how the challenges, identified in the theoretical part, are observed in practice. In particular, if they have been experienced in the past or also after Platform B was being implemented in Organization A. The information provided in this research paper is based on primary research with seven interviews of people from Organization A, one survey amongst a particular group in Organization A, and secondary research incorporates literature review on relevant points and also corporate documents of Organization A.
Traditional costing methods apply overhead costs of indirect areas to products or production areas based on predetermined overhead rates. Many years ago when the direct costs were high and indirect costs were low any inaccuracy in the charging of overhead costs to products was not significant.
Nowadays, the traditional costing method for overhead costs is not suitable for complex manufacturing environment, where goods are produced by smaller customized batches which leads to high proportion of overhead activities – such as quality control – which are not related to the production volume.
In this bachelor thesis the author discusses about this relevant problem relating to the department “quality assurance in procurement” of the Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.
The bachelor thesis contains theoretical basics of the meaning of quality, as well as the principles of quality management systems. The theoretical basics of the activity-based costing are also discussed. Moreover it is important to say that the overhead costs of the “quality assurance in procurement” are reflecting at the same time quality costs. In this way the importance of a cooperation between the controlling department and the quality management in relation to managing quality costs are also displayed.
The second part of the bachelor thesis deals with the practical application. To provide a basis, initially, the company, the department “quality assurance in procurement” and the current cost accounting system are displayed. Afterwards all steps to develop a new allocation method by the help of an activity-based costing system are showed and described. Finally, in a short version a key figure model for non-conformity costs is worked out.
Participating in a Winter School offers to stay abroad for a short period of time while extending ones knowledge in an international environment. Introducing a Winter School by a higher-education-institution increases its international presence. Thus the concept of a Winter School serves the constantly growing demand of internationalization. In the present thesis it was examined whether and under which circumstances it is possible to realize a Winter School of the Hochschule Furtwangen University. Using the qualitative research approach, activities to be carried-out, necessary resources and possible risks were identified. Insights of service marketing formed an important basis. Besides, a desk study on competition provided additional findings. From this, the concept for an HFU Winter School was developed and implications for marketing were derived.
It was found that it is possible to implement an HFU Winter School under certain circumstances. Competitive ability and the existence of a sufficiently high demand are fundamental aspects. Besides, compliance with the elaborated concept components, existence of sufficient staff as well as the implementation of a given course management are essential. Cooperation in the fields of organization, human resources, marketing and finance additionally has a positive effect on a realization.
Telearbeit, also das Arbeiten von zu Hause aus oder von jeden anderen beliebigen Ort abseits des herkömmlichen Arbeitsplatzes im Unternehmen, ist ein flexibles Arbeitsmodell das sich seit der Jahrtausendwende weltweit sehr stark verbreitet hat. Dies liegt vor allem an der rasanten Entwicklung der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie und der immer besseren Netzabdeckung. Wichtige Faktoren sind aber auch die teilweise veränderten Wertevorstellungen der Generationen X und Y. Die traditionelle Arbeitszeit von 8-17 Uhr wird immer unattraktiver, vielmehr möchten Arbeitnehmer über die Souveränität verfügen den Zeitpunkt und die Lage ihrer Arbeit weitestgehend selber bestimmen um somit ihr Privat- und Berufsleben besser miteinander vereinen zu können. Bezeichnet dafür ist das Ergebnis einer Umfrage: Jeder zweite Deutsche würde gelegentlich außerhalb des Büros arbeiten wenn er die Möglichkeit dazu bekäme. Weltweit hegten diesen Wunsch sogar 63% der Befragten. Viele Unternehmen bieten bereits verschiedene Telearbeitsmodelle an, eine Vielzahl von Experten hält dies aber immer noch für zu wenig. Die vorliegende Arbeit zeigt, dass Telearbeit unter bestimmten Voraussetzungen zu einer win-win-Situation für alle Beteiligten wird. Je nach Unternehmensgröße können Einsparungen in Millionenhöhe auf Grund sinkender Betriebskosten und steigender Produktivität erzielt werden. Mitarbeiter sind motivierter und empfinden weniger Stress was sich positiv auf die Gesundheit auswirken kann. Sogar Verkehrsnetze können durch Telearbeit entlastet und der Ausstoß von C02-Emissionen verringert werden. Jedoch sind viele Tätigkeiten schlichtweg nicht in Telearbeit umsetzbar. Betroffen sind vor allem der Einzelhandel sowie handwerkliche und produzierende Gewerbe. Auch nicht jeder Arbeitnehmer ist für Telearbeit geeignet. Je höher der Bildungsgrad und je komplexer die Aufgabe desto größer ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit jene Aufgaben außerhalb des Büros erledigen zu können. Die wichtigsten Faktoren für eine erfolgreiche Umsetzung von Telearbeitsprogrammen sind aber in erster Linie die Vorgesetzten. Vertrauen in die Fähigkeiten und die Selbständigkeit der Mitarbeiter und die damit verbundene Bereitschaft direkte Kontrolle abzugeben
This thesis deals with the investigation of internationally operating project teams, using the automotive division of the cooperation partner and topic initiator Marquardt Group. The overall research question examines which skills in terms of emotions, culture and know how are required from program managers as a result of globalization. Background information about globalization, project management and the company itself is provided as a first step. In order to get an overview, qualitative expert interviews are conducted with program managers, their superiors, disciplinary supervisors and team members. The interview process serves to gain a stronger knowledge of the weaknesses in project management within the Marquardt Group. The results reveal clear problems, particularly in the analyzed subject areas processes, intercultural competence and communication.
Further information concentrating on intercultural competence and its potential training measures, as well as communication in so-called virtual teams due to the lacking face-to-face communication is given, followed by recommendations for improvements for the analyzed fields with weak points. It can be concluded that globalization and the consequent internationalization have a major impact on project teams requiring especially the advancement of professional, the related methodological, as well as leadership and social competences of program managers.
The Light Commercial Vehicle is a small vehicle, of up to 6 tons, mainly used for small business in the transportation of good or for personal purposes. LCV market is not well known and yet to be considered as a potential business, especially for Commercial Vehicles Business Unit which belongs to the Interior division of Continental Automotive. Some neighboring segments within Interior division have some participation in the market; however, it is not considered as a main priority for either of them. There is no proper focus on analyzing its potential and find the right strategy to tackle it. Due to some sort of pressure to grow Continental’s businesses, Commercial Vehicles BU, represented by Vehicle Electronics segment, has come up with the intention of finding how to approach this new business opportunity in the face of other neighboring segments of the same division also getting into this broad opportunity. There is also a need to establish a right internal communication process and its impact upon a concrete choice of product to enter this new business. Finally, to establish if LCV market is a promising opportunity, in particular for Commercial Vehicle Business Unit. This research is highly beneficial for Continental Automotive, in special for Commercial Vehicle Business Unit since it helps to understand its current situation in the market at different regions levels. Business Unit is able to find right approach for the LCV market together with a suitable sales strategy for each region and a concrete choice of products at a competitive price level with the results, discussion and recommendation of this research. In other words, to get new businesses for future sales growth. Continental Automotive was founded in Hannover in 1871. Nowadays, it is one of the German Automotive Supplier leaders of the automotive market worldwide. The company has presence in 50 countries and sales of €34.5 billion and mainly supplies tires, brake systems, chassis components, vehicle electronics and powertrain controls. Vehicle Electronics segment, part of Commercial Vehicles segment, is the direct responsible for this LCV market. The segment specialist in electronic solutions in six fields of applications such as Commercial Vehicles, Bus, Agriculture, Construction, 2-Wheeler and Marine business. The Light Commercial Vehicle is consider as an important part of the fleet of vehicles and for a number of years now have been taking a constantly increasing share of the transport services, both in Germany and Europe” (BASt, DEKRA, UDV, & VDA, 2013, p. 5). The potential market for this kind of vehicle stands on BRIC countries, mainly India and China. Although Brazil is considered as the most mature and stable of the BRIC by (Barclay, 2010), still is hard to forecast due to economic volatility and changing regulation, indicates (Roland Berger, 2014). The market development in Russia is hard to anticipates, points out (Barclay, 2010) due to its crisis and political issues. “India is expected to return stronger growth” (Roland Berger, 2014) owning the fastest production growth from the other three. For (Roland Berger, 2014) China will be the global volume driver in automotive, remaining by far the largest of the market. The methodology held in this study is based on an exploratory research; using qualitative data which has been collected thought secondary and primary data. This research work starts with the introduction, following by chapter one which includes the problem background, problem statement, research questions and objectives, purpose and significance of the study and finally limitations. The second chapter continues with the review of related literature and studies. It explains the Light Commercial Vehicle characteristics, segmentation production and demand. Besides, it describes the company’s history, SWOT analysis, structure segments and portfolio. It also gives an overview of the trends in the automotive industry, OEMs, suppliers and BRIC opportunities. Chapter three informs about the methodology used together with the data collection and target group. Chapter four focus on developing all findings. Finally chapter five explains the discussion and recommendations of this study.
In times of globalization Country Images and Country of Origin Effects have increasingly gained importance.
More informed consumers are able to purchase goods from around the globe and are no longer restricted to buying only goods produced in one’s home country. This has led to a rise in competition in the international market place, not only in the fashion industry. Managers are increasingly concerned with how brand’s Country of Origin is perceived and what effects it might have to relocate production to a developing country. While previous research was mainly focused on cross-sector investigations and studies of countries in Europe and North America, this paper’s focus was put on the perception of German consumers in regards to the countries New Zealand, Australia and China. The overall question to be answered in this study is “how do German fashion customers perceive the labels “Made in China”, “Made in New Zealand” and “Designed in Australia” and how do these perceptions affect the buying decision and price sensitivity? The results of this paper add value to the Australian brand Unreal Fur and the New Zealand brand PIA NAERA. It analyses their situations in the marketplace and gives suggestions of which marketing methods can be used in order to guide the customer’s perceptions and help support a positive image.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine leadership trends in France and Germany. It is examined whether leadership in both France and Germany is going to become participative in the near future due to increasing internationalization and due to the emergence of a new leadership generation in France and Germany with different expectations and behaviors, namely
Millennials.
Design/methodology/approach – This thesis comprises three major parts: First, leadership career paths in France and Germany are compared. Second, French and German management cultures are compared and their likelihood of convergence examined. Third, a closer look is taken at inter- as well as intra-generational differences with particular focus on Generation Y/ Millennials – the new leadership generation. Their differences and similarities in comparison with older generations as well as across national cultures are presented and discussed.
Findings – The analysis shows that outstanding leadership in both France and Germany seems to be participative. Further, French and German Millennials tend to be more open towards participative leadership than older generations. Nevertheless, participative leadership is more likely to be practiced in Germany than in France. French top managers still share very distinct national career path patterns, providing an elitist reputation and certain privileges. This often leads to rather non-participative, but authoritarian command-and-control based leadership
practices in France.
Research limitations/implications – Limitations of this thesis include the enormous scope of the topic - not everything could be covered in depth. Further, the up-to-date nature of the data used must be questioned - the incredible speed of change in today’s business world makes even recent research studies outdated within a short period of time.
Originality/value – French and German top management career paths as well as French and German management practices have been examined individually as well as comparatively in countless studies. However, different than probably any research study so far, this thesis also
includes inter- generational as well as intra-generational differences and similarities in France and Germany in order to reveal future trends. All in all, this thesis provides a broad outline of leadership trends in France and Germany and points out where further research must be carried out in more depth.
The bachelor thesis “ international Markenführung in China- Wie kann man eine Marke auf dem Wachstumsmarkt China stärken?” was created in collaboration with the company GF Automotive in Schaffhausen and covers he topic of branding in China. Considering the growth strategy of GF, especially for the Chinese market, this thesis should answer the question to what extent the branding strategy needs to be adapted to Chinese culture in order to be successful and which actions need to be taken to strengthen the brand awareness. As brands are an important asset which can generate value and differentiate form competitors it is important to develop a strong brand identity which can successfully be applied to the highly competitors it is important to develop a strong brand identity which can successfully be applied to the highly competitive Chinese market.
Following a short introduction into the theory of branding and its relevance for the Chinese market there will firstly be undertaken and examination of the Chinese automotive market. In the next step the current brand appearance, its values and goals will be analyzed with respect to the Chinese market. Within the scope of the online survey there will take place an evaluation of the current brand loyalty of the employees of GF Automotive in China. As the theory is closely related to the identity- based brand management, the first step of all brand activities is to strengthen the brand internally and create a common understanding. Therefore, the results of this survey are important for the further investigations of this thesis. In addition, the expert interviews should examine the findings of the theoretical research and give further insights into the practices of branding in China. Marketing experts report about their experience and point out what needs to be taken into account for a successful brand strategy in China. As a conclusion, this research should identify problem areas, which need to be improved to successfully strengthen the brand GF in China. Thereupon will be developed recommendations for actions which need to be taken by GF. The thesis shows, that in order to strengthen the brand in China it is very important to partly adapt to the Chinese circumstances. The heterogeneity of the two countries, China and Swiss, makes it impossible to simply apply a standardized branding. The culture, the language, etc. require an adaption of the branding in order to successfully reach the Chinese audience. Therefore the transnational brand strategy turns out to be the most successful for GF Automotive in China. It covers both, standardization and adaptation.
Today Outdoor-Trainings are an element in the modern world of work which increases steadily. It is about an activity-oriented method where vital key skills are developed. Outdoor-Trainings are particularly used as a learning method for management qualifications and teambuilding skills. During Outdoor-Settings participants are learning key skills by action and experience. Nevertheless Outdoor-Trainings are controversially discussed. Purpose of the present thesis is the elective “White Water Principles of Management“ of Hochschule Furtwangen University. Management skills are a learning target taught during an excursion by kayaking on a white water river. There are just a few empirical studies regarding effectiveness and efficiency of Outdoor-Trainings. This is why the following study is analysing the outcome and effectiveness of “White Water Training” for management education. Moreover the elaboration explores the coherence between the characteristics of the students and their management skills. The method used for data collection is a questionnaire where probands indicate their level of agreement towards their management skills on a rating scale. The present study consists of a quasi-experimental design where test persons are classified in an experimental and a control group by criteria of participation or non-participation. This means that people are not randomly assigned to a group. Data are collected two points in time, before and after the measure respectively the workshop. The purpose of the study is to find out whether the experimental group changed more than the control group. The effect of the workshop is measured by the difference in the amount of change between the experimental and the control group.
After evaluating the collected data the study shows that the experimental group respectively the group which participated in the elective, changed clearly more than the control group. Regarding the coherence analysis a connection between business studies and the outcome of the study can be clearly observed. Students of business studies achieved the highest outcomes compared to students of other fields of studies. Moreover it was discovered that students who already had done an apprenticeship had higher levels of agreement before the measure as their colleagues without apprenticeships.
Gegenstand der hier vorgestellten Bachelorarbeit ist das Konsumentenverhalten der Automobilkäufer. Die einzelnen Faktoren, die einen Einfluss auf das Konsumentenverhalten haben, werden hierfür analysiert. Auf Geschlechterunterschiede wird dabei weit möglichst eingegangen. Der Untersuchungsschwerpunkt wird auf die Beeinflussungsfaktoren der Informationssuche von den Individuen vor einem Autokauf gelegt. Als Unterstützung wird eine empirische Studie in Form einer Umfrage an Studenten und Absolventen gesendet. Zu diesem Zweck wird die Nutzung von persönlichen und unpersönlichen Informationsquellen, im Zusammenhang mit subjektivem und objektivem Wissen untersucht. Zusätzlich wird der Wert der persönlichen Erfahrungen der Konsumenten hinterfragt. Es konnte festgestellt werden, dass signifikante Unterschiede bezüglich der persönlichen, aber nicht der unpersönlichen Informationsquellen bestehen. Außerdem ergab die Umfrage, dass die weiblichen Probanden ihr subjektives Wissen deutlich geringer einschätzen, als die männlichen Teilnehmer.
Mögliche Implikationen und Zukunftsaussichten für die Automobilindustrie werden diskutiert.
This paper examines the role of Latin America and the Caribbean as a trading partner of Germany with regard to Brazil and Mexico. To analyse the position of those two countries and the region as a whole, the following research questions will be answered:
What kind of historic connections have Latin America and the European Union have in common?
How is the trade development structure between Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe as well as Germany and Brazil/Mexico respectively?
How attractive is the Brazilian and Mexican market for the German economy?
What kinds of conditions promote and hinder the trade integration with Germany? It is also important to mention that this research is based on the analysis of different secondary data collection mainly extracted from the databases of the Deutsche Bundesbank, the European Commission, the OECD and the IMF. First, we find out that the beginnings of historic connections between Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union go back as far as the 15th century. However, the relationship was mainly strengthened towards the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century as, for instance, several agreements between these regions were adopted. Secondly, we can observe developments of the trade structure between Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe. That clearly shows that there was a massive increase in the flow of commodities as in the mutual direct outward investments in those last years. The same goes for the trade structure between Germany and Brazil respectively Mexico. It is important to note that the countries play a subordinate role for Germany in the international comparison. However, comparing Latin America and the Caribbean, Brazil is the most important trading partner for Germany followed by Mexico. Thirdly, against the background of the PEST analysis, the two Latin American countries achieve similar results. The core strengths of both countries lie in the socio-cultural conditions whereas the deteriorating economic conditions pose a weak point. In addition to that, it has to be mentioned that the Brazilian market is more attractive than the Mexican one. However, with regard to the (expected) economic growth and the opinions of several other authors the prognoses of Mexico are more positive than for Brazil. Consequently it is doubtful whether Brazil will be able to defend its position in the future.
The aim of this thesis is twofold: 1. to find out how intercultural collaboration between the German and French employees at MBtech and AKKA Technologies, a corporation which recently acquired MBtech, works and 2. to identify conditions under which such collaboration can function smoothly. In order to answer these questions, an extensive literature review as well as an empirical study in the form of interviews have been carried out. The consulted literature comprises English, German and French works. The empirical study is a qualitative method searching to understand the topic in more detail. Interviews were conducted with German and French employees of MBtech and AKKA Technologies living in France and Germany. Globalization and in particular the intense business interconnection between France and Germany, the two economically strongest forces in Europe at present, make intercultural research in this field a topic of interest and importance. The need for permanently constructive collaboration is fuelled by the fact that numerous intercultural collaborations between MBtech and AKKA Technologies are taking place over a long period of time.
The research question how intercultural collaboration works at MBtech and AKKA Technologies could only be answered to some extent due to the little representativeness of the qualitative method of interviewing. However, the insights obtained indicate that it works reasonably well. While many statements allow the conclusion that differing views on the German and the French side lead to difficulties, many other statements show that in spite of these differences, intercultural collaboration is on a good and growing level. Based on the findings gained for answering the research question under which conditions intercultural collaboration can function smoothly, a number of concrete recommendations were issued. Being related mainly to enhanced communication and mutual understanding, these recommendations aim at equipping MBtech and Akka Technologies well to face the future.
In today's society tourism plays a far more significant role and acquires more and more people. Particularly Asian destinations have risen in their notoriety. In the past 30 years Vietnam has increasingly become popular as a destination for tourists from all over the world but also especially for European tourists. The aim of this dissertation is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of Vietnam, to determine the risks and to illustrate what future developments are to be expected. The tourist market analysis is to demonstrate which potential Vietnam has for Europeans. The selection of European tourists refers to the English, French and German tourist group, as those are important visitors for Vietnam. Here, their travel behavior is compared in order to achieve a comprehensive overview of European tourists. In addition, the competitive position of Vietnam is compared to the selected countries Cambodia and Thailand by using a strengths-and weaknesses analysis. In the empirical part of the work, 8 interviews were conducted with two travel specialists in the selected countries, which will enhance this work. Both the study as well as the interviews with the experts shows that the travel destination Vietnam has not yet exhausted its potential and that there are further development opportunities for tourism, especially the cultural aspects of the country holds a sustainable development opportunity. Problems prevail at the alarming pollution, especially in the tourist areas, the sustainable development of the country and the weak infrastructure. Furthermore, the future developments of exchange rates in Europe will have a significant impact on the further development of Vietnam. In addition, the government is hoping to increase the number of visitors by the abolition of the visa in several countries in Europe.
The thesis is about how an outsourcing process could be implemented at the company Kendrion in a bottleneck situation. The aim of this work is to develop a framework for outsourcing to effectively minimize a bottleneck in the production. Core issues are an analysis of the product roster and a cost calculation of possible outsourcing. In the theoretical part books and scientific articles are evaluated. In the practical part the theory is applied and experts are asked for their opinions.
Based on literature research a specific procedure with five phases is created for Kendrion. With the analysis of the product roster and current situation important information can be gathered. This makes it possible to find out how many parts each machine is producing. The turning plant produces mainly low volume series. Over 1,200 different parts were turned in the last two years. The focus for the outsourcing is the machine group G200 and the machine TNK-28. This decision is based on the amount of backlog days of the machine groups. After several analysis a list of articles which could be outsourced is produced. One such analysis is transaction cost economics. This range of selected parts is enough to eliminate the bottleneck. For the outsourcing the full cost accounting is recommended. In the calculation, depreciation is included to make future and necessary investments visible. After a cost comparison of five parts, one article of the G200 is outsourced. The costs difference between the TNK-28 and the external offers are too high. After further analysis, the result is that the TNK-28 is a very economic machine for Kendrion. The recommendation is to keep these parts in house.
The analysis of product roster should be done once a year. Furthermore, analyses should be carried out for the other machine groups.
Mit der vorliegenden Bachelorarbeit soll die Auslegung des Druckausgleichselements, das in einem Radarsensor der Firma Continental verbaut ist, untersucht werden. Durch Höhenänderungen entstehen Druckdifferenzen zwischen der Umgebung und dem Sensor. Wird diese Druckdifferenz nicht vollständig über das Druckausgleichselement ausgeglichen, kann durch einen Unterdruck Wasser über die Kabelschnittstelle in den Sensor angesaugt werden. Dadurch kann es zu einem Kurzschluss oder zu Fehlfunktionen beim Radarsensor kommen. Eine spezielle Messvorrichtung wurde konstruiert, um eine Passfahrt zu simulieren. Hierfür wurde ein Umgebungsdruck in einem Behälter erzeugt, und darin wurde der Innendruck des Sensors gemessen. Ein entsprechendes Berechnungsmodell wurde zusätzlich erstellt, um die Druckdifferenz im Sensor zu berechnen. Zusätzlich wurde die Durchlässigkeit der Kabelschnittstelle untersucht. Durch das Berechnungsmodell und verschiedene Messungen kann ausgeschlossen werden, dass bei einer Passfahrt Wasser über die Kabelschnittstelle in den Sensor gesaugt wird. Ein Gasaustausch an der Kabelschnittstelle kann jedoch nicht ausgeschlossen werden.
Background
The recent worldwide financial crisis that occurred in last quarters of 2007 up until mid 2009 was accompanied by the massive failure of many financial institutions and liquidity providers. Investment banks and other institutionalized financial investors were unsuccessful in producing any real returns for their clients. This drastic fail in all the other traditional investments led to the questioning of how well the hedge fund industry performed in this light based on their promise as absolute return producers regardless of the market environment. This paper seeks to analyse the performance of the Long/Short Equity Strategy in particular relative to the performance of the overall market.
Methods
Thorough examination and validation of numerous empirical studies which have already been carried out on the subject matter are brought to light through the analysis of available historical data of the returns posted by these funds during the crisis using generally accepted statistical funds’ assessment tools giving an adequate angel to the performance of Long-Short Equity hedge Funds especially at the heart of the financial crisis in the last quarters of 2007 to mid 2009.
Results
Equity Long/Short Hedge funds as every other strategy in they industry succeeded in 2008 in outperforming other traditional investment vehicles and the broad stock an bond markets although the failed in to produce the absolute returns promised to their investments. In 2009 they posted similar results to that of S&P 500 index with subsequent declines in 2010 and 2011 thus failing to period their returns where highly correlated with that of the overall market coined with negative skewness and high kutorsis.
Conclusion
Even though hedge funds succeeded in outperforming the market in the heart of the crisis, they failed to provides their investors with absolute returns and also the benefits which the provide in terms of diversification to reduce the exposure of their funds to market risk was limiting. The very high fees paid to them by investors was not justified by their performance.
Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich hauptsächlich mit zwei Themen: die Steigerung der Komplexität eines Bauteils und Wirtschaftlichkeitsberechnungen. Nachdem der Stand der Technik von Leichtbau im Allgemeinen und Faserverbundkunststoffen erläutert wurde, wird das neu entwickelte Pull-Press Verfahren erklärt. Mittels dieses Herstellprozesses können komplexe Sandwichbauteile produziert werden. Ziel dieser Thesis ist es, das Pull-Press Verfahren dahingehend zu optimieren, dass möglichst komplexe Verbundbauteile hergestellt werden können. Bevor über mehrere Komplexitätsstufen hinweg die zu testenden Bauteil-Geometrien definiert werden, wird ein Anforderungsprofil erstellt. Es folgen Werkzeugkonzepte für die Herstellung der Bauteile. Des Weiteren geht es in dieser Arbeit um die Wirtschaftlichkeit dieses Verfahrens. Es werden die Herstellkosten für ein Beispielteil mit Rohacell-Kern mit denen des RTM-Verfahrens verglichen. Hier wird auf die Aspekte Materialkosten und Bauteilgewicht, die Investitionskosten sowie die prozessunabhängigen und prozessabhängigen Werte eingegangen.
Das äußere Erscheinungsbild eines Fahrzeugs beeinflusst die Kaufentscheidung des Kunden. Hierbei ist das Spalt- und Passungsbild ein wichtiges Qualitätsmerkmal. Durch den Anstieg der Anforderungen in der Automobilbranche und die stetige Medienpräsenz wird dieser Aspekt immer bedeutender. Das Frontend eines Fahrzeugs ist aus zahlreichen Bauteilen zusammengesetzt. Sie bilden eine lange Toleranzkette, die im Spalt- und Passungsbild sichtbar wird. In der aktuellen Entwicklung bei der Ford Werke GmbH, sollen die Spaltmaße im Frontend optimiert werden. Hierfür werden zunächst alle Beitragsleister der Toleranzkette in diesem Bereich ausfindig gemacht und in all ihren Aspekten detailliert untersucht. Diese Untersuchung erstreckt sich von den Fertigungsverfahren der Bauteile bis hin zu ihrem Einbau in das Fahrzeug. Im Anschluss wird eine interne und externe Benchmarking Studie durchgeführt um ähnliche Designmerkmale gegenüberzustellen und Fügeprozesse nachvollziehen zu können. Mit Hilfe der gewonnenen Erkenntnisse werden am Ende der Arbeit Optimierungsmöglichkeiten vorgestellt. Diese werden unter den Aspekten Kosten und Nutzen verglichen, um eine sinnvolle Entscheidung treffen zu können.
Modulare wandlungsfähige Produktionsanlagen bieten auch kleinen und mittelständischen Unternehmen gute Chancen, in einem zunehmend turbulenten Umfeld langfristig zu bestehen. Um die Verfügbarkeit modularer Produktionstechnik für die Mikrotechnikbranche zu erhöhen, muss der Entwicklungsaufwand für Prozessmodule reduziert und die Zeit vom ersten Entwurf eines Prozessmoduls bis zu dessen Einsatz in der Produktion deutlich verkürzt werden. Darum stellt diese Arbeit eine Methode vor, welche die technische und wirtschaftliche Bewertung von Prozessmodulen für Mikromontageanlagen bereits während der Entwicklungsphase ermöglicht. Die Bewertungsmethode für Prozessmodule in modularen Mikromontageanlagen vereint etablierte Bewertungsverfahren mit den besonderen Anforderungen der Mikromontage und fügt sich nahtlos in das schon bestehende Baukastensystem für Prozessmodule ein. Ausgehend von den Kriterien Zeit, Qualität, Präzision und Kosten schafft das kombinierte Bewertungsverfahren die Möglichkeit zum einfachen und schnellen Vergleich verschiedener Lösungsalternativen. Somit bietet es eine fundierte Entscheidungsgrundlage für die gezielte Auswahl und Zusammenstellung von Prozessmodulen zu einer modularen Produktionsanlage für eine bestimmte Mikromontageaufgabe. Ein standardisiertes Testverfahren zur Erfassung und Auswertung technischer Bewertungsdaten sowie ein Werkzeug zur vereinfachten wirtschaftlichen Bewertung ergänzen das kombinierte Bewertungsverfahren. Die Bewertung eines beispielhaften Anwendungsfalls evaluiert die Bewertungsmethode und fördert das Verständnis für die richtige Anwendung der vorgestellten Verfahren und Werkzeuge.
Die Abschlussarbeit beinhaltete nicht nur die Implementierung des Shopfloor Management sondern auch die sorgfältige Analyse davon und den dazugehörigen Lean Methoden. Shopfloor Management bedeutet führen, kommunizieren und steuern am Ort der Wertschöpfung. Jeder Prozess besteht aus Wertschöpfung und Verschwendung und mittels der Lean Prinzipien die auch im Shopfloor Management angewandt werden, soll die Verschwendung vermieden werden. Durch eine transparente Visualisierung der aktuellen und wichtigen Kennzahlen direkt am Ort wird eine Akzeptanz bei den Mitarbeitern geschaffen. Diese neue Unternehmensführung sieht vor, eine offene Fehlerkultur zu entwickeln und die Fehler nachhaltig zu vermeiden. Es wurde die Wichtigkeit einer regelmäßigen Kommunikation erläutert, in denen die Themen und Probleme angesprochen werden. In dieser Arbeit wurden die Lean Prinzipien herausgearbeitet und ein Shopfloor Board entwickelt mit dem gestartet wurde. Zudem wurden die Mitarbeiter auf die Einführung vorbereitet und geschult. Die Mitarbeiter sollen durch das Shopfloor Management gezielt in den Verbesserungsprozess einbezogen werden und eine Eigenverantwortlichkeit entwickeln. Der optimale Zustand sieht vor, dass durch dieses System jeder Mitarbeiter die Ziele des Unternehmens kennt und durch die tägliche Revision der Kennzahlen, nachhaltige Poblemlösungsmethoden angewandt werden um die Ziele zu erreichen.
Der bekannteste Weg Gewinn in einem Produktionsunternehmen zu erzielen liegt daran, Herstellkosten zu senken und gleichzeitig hochwertige und innovative Produkte auf den Markt zu bringen. Die J. Schmalz GmbH, die weltweit führender Anbieter von Vakuum-Technologie in der Automatisierungs-, Handhabungs- und Aufspanntechnik ist, ist ständig auf der Suche nach Innovation und Verbesserung um die Qualität seiner Produkte zu steigern. Dies hat die Schmalz GmbH zu folgenden Gedanken und Fragen gebracht; wie könnten bestehende Komponenten der Firma J. Schmalz GmbH optimiert und vor allem die Effizienz von Saugern gesteigert werden? Der Schwerpunkt unserer Arbeit wird somit aus diesen beiden Fragen bestehen.
Um diese Fragen zu beantworten werden wir erstmal in dem Stand der Technik einen Fokus auf die Effizienz und die Sicherheit von Sauggreifer bei dem Transport von Werkstücken von einem Punkt zu einem anderen raussuchen. Danach werden die verschiedenen Lösungen, die wir für unser Problem gewählt haben, präsentiert. Der dritte Teil wird aus den Versuchen (Durchführung und Auswertungen) bestehen. Zum Schluss kommt das Fazit, um das Ergebnis unserer Arbeit zu zeigen.
Die Hochschule Furtwangen University sieht für das 7. Semester des Studiengangs International Engineering anlässlich des Abschlusses des Bachelor of Science eine Anfertigung einer wissenschaftlichen Arbeit durch den Studenten vor. Dabei soll der Student mit dem Erlernten aus der Technik und der Wirtschaft während der gesamten Studienphase in einer Thematik mögliche Problemstellungen und relevante Lösungsansätze erkennen und ausarbeiten. Know-how-Transfer ist in der heutigen Welt ein wesentlicher Bestandteil für jedes Unternehmen auf internationaler Ebene. Kooperationen mit ausländischen Partnern, aber auch firmeninterne Expansionen ins Ausland sind der Schlüssel zur Unternehmensstabilisierung. Dabei gelten als Voraussetzung für eine erfolgreiche Transferrealisierung die sprachlichen Kenntnisse und kulturelles Verständnis des jeweiligen Landes. Student Yang Yu hat sich dieser Thematik in seiner Abschlussarbeit "Pad Clip - Know-how-Transfer im Rahmen eines Produktverlagerungsprozesses am Beispiel der Baumann GmbH" gewidmet. Dabei konnte er den kompletten Projektverlauf in einem deutschen Unternehmen, von der Materialbeschaffung bis hin zum Transferprozess nach China begleiten. Die dabei entstandene Problematik wurde analysiert und optimiert. Die herausgearbeiteten Optimierungsvorschläge können zukünftig für deutsche Berufstätige in China als Leitfaden zur Orientierung dienen.
Im Rahmen dieser Bachelorarbeit wird der MQB Powerpack Induktionserwärmungsprozess der ZF Lenksysteme GmbH analysiert. Bei diesem Prozess wird ein Aluminium-Druckguss Motorgehäuse an der Fügefläche induktiv erwärmt, damit ein Steuergerät eingeschrumpft werden kann. Dieser Fügeprozess wird über die Fügekraft und den Fügeweg überwacht und gesteuert. Zwischen den beiden Bauteilen befindet sich ein O-Ring, der für die Dichtheit des Motorinnenraums sorgt. Dieser O-Ring darf einer Temperatur von über 250° C nicht ausgesetzt werden, da er sonst seine Funktion verliert. Im Rahmen dieses Projektes wird die Datenrückverfolgung mithilfe eines zu implementierenden Messsystems erweitert, wobei das System nicht nur eine Überschreitung der kritischen Temperatur vermeiden, sondern auch Informationen für eine Ist-Zustandsanalyse liefern soll. Der Prozess entstand aus der Historie, deswegen müssen die Parameter überprüft sowie Potentiale zur Effizienzsteigerung in Bezug auf Qualität und Taktzeit im Rahmen der Prozessentwicklung ermittelt werden.
Der Autor stellt in dieser Arbeit einen Referenzprozess dar, der die wichtigen Faktoren für die Implementierung der Quality Gate Systematik in ein Unternehmen detailliert betrachtet. Um die Zielführung der Quality Gate Systematik zu gewährleisten, stellt der Autor eine genaue Vorgehensweise für die Erstellung einer Quality Gate Checkliste bereit. Der Referenzprozess orientiert sich an bereits vorhandenen Quality Gate Systematiken. Er nutzt die Erkenntnisse dieser Vorgehensweisen, um eine detaillierte Beschreibung der wichtigsten Bausteine bereitzustellen. Die Erstellung der Quality Gate Checkliste steht dabei unter dem zentralen Punkt der Identifikation der zielführenden Checklisteninhalte. Zur Unterstützung dieses Vorgangs stellt der Autor verschiedene Analyse Methoden bereit, die eine zielführende und aussagekräftige Festlegung des Checklisteninhalts gewährleisten sollen.
Diese Bachelor-Thesis beinhaltet die Erarbeitung und Untersuchung zur technologischen Modernisierung einer 15 Jahre alten Hydraulikpresse mit integriertem Schweißsystem. Die Presse dient der Herstellung und Instandsetzung von supraleitenden Magneten für den Large Hadron Collider am CERN. Die technische Herausforderung bezieht sich wesentlich auf die Erneuerung des Regelungs- und Hydrauliksystems. Die zugrundeliegende Ursache liegt nicht nur in der zukünftigen Generation supraleitender Magneten, sondern auch in der Modernisierung des Schweißprozesses. Nach intensiver Einarbeitung in den Aufbau und Funktion der Presse werden Modernisierungsmöglichkeiten erarbeitet und diskutiert. Die Ergebnisse der Analyse dienen vorwiegend der technischen Ausschreibung zur Angebotseinholung. Die Untersuchungen haben gezeigt, dass für eine robuste Regelung der Hydraulik und Schweißtechnik ein separierter Ansatz zur Regelung erforderlich ist. Die Einbindung individueller, regelungstechnischer Lösungen vermeidet Schnittstellen und verbessert die Abbildung des Gesamtprozesses im Regelungssystem. Die Studie der derzeit eingesetzten Benutzeroberfläche zur Regelung wird als Basis für eine mögliche Verbesserung vorgestellt. Schwachstellen werden diskutiert und erarbeitete Verbesserungen erläutert. Die Bedienoberfläche der Hydraulikregelung wird infolgedessen neu entworfen und Lösungen zur Anpassung an verschiedene Magnetlängen implementiert. Dem Hydrauliksystem werden demnach die Druckregelung einzelner Hydraulikzylinder sowie eine metrologische Bestimmung der Durchbiegung des Hauptträgers ermöglicht. Die Durchbiegung der Trägerenden kann hierbei regelungstechnisch minimiert werden. Die statische Abschätzung der verbleibenden Durchbiegung in Abhängigkeit der Magnetlängen wird in der Arbeit beschrieben. Der letzte Teil der Arbeit behandelt die Thematik des obsoleten Schweißsystems und stellt die Umrüstung auf WIG-Kaltdrahtschweißen vor. Das WIG Verfahren erlaubt eine hinreichend große Vorspannung der supraleitenden Spulen und minimiert die Schweißfehler. Basierend auf der Studie wird somit die effiziente Erarbeitung der Marktstudie und der darauf folgenden Angebotsausschreibung ermöglicht.
Der steigende Kosten- und Wettbewerbsdruck stellt Unternehmen immer wieder vor neue Herausforderungen bei der Entwicklung und Gestaltung von Produkten. Die Ausweitung der Lean-Philosophie auf die Produktentwicklung bietet ein enormes Potenzial, um in der Produktion anfallende Verschwendung bereits während der Entwicklung zu reduzieren. In dieser wissenschaftlichen Arbeit wird ein Modell entwickelt, durch welches der Wirkzusammenhang zwischen einzelnen Produktgestaltungsrichtlinien und die in der Produktion anfallende Verschwendung bewertet werden kann. Der Fokus dieser Bewertung liegt vor Allem auf den Ursachen, die zu Verschwendung führen.
In der vorliegenden Bachelorarbeit wird der Vertriebsprozess des externen Bahnmotorenvertriebs der MAN Truck & Bus AG im Werk Nürnberg analysiert. Die Optimierung erfolgt im Vergleich mit einem zweiten Prozess, dem Busvertrieb der MAN Truck & Bus AG in München und der in Büchern beschriebenen Theorie. Ziel der Thesis ist das Erkennen von Optimierungspotentialen, die sich im Vergleich zeigen. Die Theorie wurde mittels Fachbücher zum Thema Vertrieb erarbeitet. Diese stellen den theoretischen Hintergrund zur Praxis dar und sollen erste Einblicke in das Thema ermöglichen. Bei der Aufnahme der Prozesse wurde viel praktisch gearbeitet. Die Anweisungen des Unternehmens wurden als allgemeine Grundlage angesehen. Basierend auf den Experteninterviews und den Dokumenten aus dem Alltagsgeschäft, konnte der eigentliche Prozessablauf der beiden Standorte aufgenommen werden. Nach der Erfassung der Theorie und beider Vorgehensweisen stellten sich nach detaillierter Analyse einige Optimierungspotentiale dar. Würden diese umgesetzt werden, könnten sie zu einem effizienteren Prozessablauf führen und somit die Arbeit erleichtern.
In recent years the Green Bond market has shown a tremendous growth. It would be interesting to see where the motivation of the issuing companies comes from. One theory is that they expect to have a lower credit spread in this new market segment then in the normal bond market. It is the goal of this paper to analyse if this is the case or not. To do such an analyse it is necessary to find a connection between sustainability and classical capital market theories. Due to a lack of common understanding and measurability of sustainability this is not easy to do. Nowadays it is not possible to give a price for social benefit and as a result it is also not seen in the credit spread.
One can see major changes in the business industry, self-fulfillment is not anymore a state to achieve just through material rewards like a high salary but a human reward like recognition for the work employees did, especially in the western countries like Germany or the United States where a high amount of people have enough wealth already. Businesses need to understand the importance of the emotional engagement of their employees at work. The Gallup Institute, one of the leading researching Institutes about employee engagement found out in their research that employees are not emotionally engaged to wards their working place. Here are results for the year 2013: The disengagement of employees causes damages to the whole economy with the amount of 98,5 billion euros to 118,4 billion euros. The low emotional engagement in 2013 was 67% of all employees in the company. 16% of the company is highly engaged but in the same time 17% of the employees are working with no emotional engagement. The thesis “the art of happiness in business” will research throughout the literature of leadership and corporate culture as a key to increase the employee engagement in German companies. To be happy in a company is more than just earning money and leaving the company, employees need to be connected to the working place with their heart and mind. There is a new era coming the “generation happiness” which wants more than money. In a decade where happiness beats money, they want to work in beautiful environments where they can contribute to something bigger than themselves, they want to be happy and reaching their full potential will be a result.
To round up the thesis scientifically “the art of happiness in business” will develop from the existing theory about leadership and corporate culture a 21st century theoretical model as a scientific response to the changes in the industry, who one can find throughout this work. As an outlook the thesis will serve as the scientific foundation for future projects with experienced entrepreneurs to develop practical models increasing the employee engagement for companies.
This study has two major purposes: (1) to investigate the effects of the introduction of energy labels on the consumers’ purchase decision when buying an extractor hood and (2) to identify which other criteria have an impact on this decision. The research is conducted with particular reference to Miele & Cie. KG with the aim of adjusting its product management in accordance with consumers’ demands. During the last years the European Union has revised the energy labels for domestic appliances which had been introduced in 1992 and has established additional labels concerning a wider range of goods. Since 01 January 2015 this energy label is also mandatory for extractor hoods. Thus Miele & Cie. KG - as a manufacturer of hoods - is highly interested in doing research on the development of consumers’ preferences regarding the purchase of an extractor hood. In a first step the thesis provides an overview of its purpose and background before establishing the basis for the research in a second step. This includes basic principles of market research as well as the characteristics of the market for hoods and the concept of energy labels. In the following the thesis describes the product area of hoods and the implementation of the regulations concerning the energy label at Miele & Cie KG. A detailed central section explains the research which has been conducted in the context of this thesis. The empirical part of this study draws on a research carried out in Germany in November and December 2014. Data for this research were collected among twenty consumers and six dealers selling household appliances from Miele. The author of the thesis conducted face-to-face interviews on the basis of an interview guide which was developed beforehand. Finally the results of these interviews are presented, compared and summarized to enable the development of a recommended course of action for the product management of hoods at Miele & Cie. KG. The results of the research reveal that the most important purchase criteria regarding an extractor hood are an attractive visual appearance of the hood, the performance of the fan, the quality of the active charcoal and grease filters, the acoustic power level, a satisfactory lighting and a simple cleaning of the appliance. This study indicates that the energy label is of secondary importance regarding the purchase decision of a hood. The average energy consumption of a hood is relatively low in comparison to other household appliances. Therefore the energy saving potential for consumers is limited in this area. As a consequence the performance of a hood is a lot more important to consumers than its energy efficiency expressed by the label. Based on the results of this research, it can be concluded that the necessary modifications in the product development by virtue of the establishment of energy labels for hoods are quite small. Taken as a whole, the objectives of the product development of hoods at Miele & Cie. KG correspond to the consumers’ demands.
Das Phänomen „demographischer Wandel“ rückt immer mehr ins Zentrum öffentlicher Diskussion. Mit seinen unterschiedlichen Facetten prägt es Wirtschafts- und Arbeitswelt. Geringe Geburtenraten und steigende Lebenserwartungen führen zu einer dramatischen Veränderung der Altersverteilung. Dies hat, unter anderem zur Folge, dass immer mehr Erwerbstätige in den Ruhestand wechseln und ihre Know-how mitnehmen. Dies stellt Unternehmen vor Herausforderungen, da qualifizierte Fachkräfte nur schwer zu finden sind. Unternehmen werden zum Umdenken und aktiven Handeln aufgefordert. So könnten nicht oder schlecht genutzte Ressourcen wie zum Beispiel Rentner eingebunden werden um dem demographischen Wandel entgegenzuwirken. Die vorliegende Bachelorthesis beschäftigt sich daher mit der Weiterbeschäftigung im Rentenalter. Ziel ist es zu klären, ob die Bereitschaft für eine Erwerbstätigkeit im Rentenalter überhaupt besteht, welche Motive ein Rolle spielen und welche Rahmenbedingungen vorhanden sein müssen. Auf der Basis von aktueller Fachliteratur und einer Befragung älterer Personen ab 55 Jahren, werden diese Fragen in sechs Kapiteln diskutiert. Nach einer kurzen Einleitung wird in Kapitel zwei der demographische Wandel und dessen Herausforderungen für die Arbeitswelt erläutert. Kompetenzen Älterer und Ruheständler so wie betriebswirtschaftliche Effekte werden in Kapitel drei aufgeführt. Kapitel vier beschreibt die Voraussetzungen und Rahmenbedingungen für die Beschäftigung von Ruheständler. Eine Illustration der Befunde der empirischen Untersuchung erfolgt in Kapitel fünf. Die Ergebnisse der Untersuchung zeigen eine deutliche Leistungsfähigkeit und auch eine Bereitschaft für die Weiterbeschäftigung im Rentenalter. Zu den wichtigsten Motiven gehören Spaß an der Arbeit, Kontakt mit Menschen, Fit bleiben und Wissen weitergeben. Um die Potenziale dieser Bevölkerungsgruppe in vollem Umfang nutzen zu könne müssen bestimmte Voraussetzungen erfüllt und Rahmenbedingungen vorhanden sein. Hier besteht noch auf verschiedenen Ebenen Handlungsbedarf.
Abstract. Over the last years the German economy perceives the ongoing demographic change which is the reason for a lower offer of skilled workers. A war for talents is declared and recruiters try to meet this challenge. Especially small and medium sized companies notice the lack of qualified applicants that is why these firms should transform into an “employer of choice”. In order to become more attractive for workers, they should invest in marketing strategies to differ from the employer competitors. The theme of the scientific work deals with the development of a human resources marketing plan. The aim is to increase the brand awareness of the pharmaceutical mid-sized company the “BIPSO GmbH”. Evolving a strong employer brand which is in line with the business strategy is the center of gravity. All HR-Marketing activities are aligned to the brand “BIPSO”. In the course of the strategic process, internal and external analyses support the definition of personnel marketing measures. The methods and knowledge have been transferred to the BIPSO GmbH and checked for their applicability. The theories of “how workers choose an employer” or the analysis presented by Simon Sinek conduce to obtain a better understanding of the external target group and the strengths and weaknesses of the company. The interface between Human resources and marketing could be detected by the mutual influence of the employer brand and the product brand. Overlaps are noticeable in the strategic steps of marketing such as the positioning with the help of the EVP (= Employee Value Proposition) or the segmentation of the target groups. To address the audience via their preferred media channels and recruitment channels, an empirical research was performed. Expert interviews with the target group helped to gain insights in their media habits or the identification with the company. The results determine how the communication policy for the BIPSO GmbH should be configured. The outcome shows the need to invest in the linkage of print and online channels. In order to differentiate BIPSO from the competition, the firm should emphasize its origin as an independent family with an ethically valuable product. This unique feature is integrated into all activities. The emotional component is complemented by the rational employers offer such as the performance of the collective agreement of chemistry. In addition to the external measures internal activities were focused, which should lead to a better working environment, because "true beauty comes from the inside." Nevertheless, the human resources marketing concept is not a long-term solution for the demographic development and the lack of skilled labor. However, it can increase the level of awareness and attract the interest of candidates so that companies like the BIPSO GmbH can benefit in hiring new collaborators.
Mobile internet and smartphones have experienced a strong growth in the past years.
Teenagers and increasingly younger children consume the mobile internet via mobile end devices, especially smartphones. Such technical innovations are commonly
accompanied by social changes that affect societal as well as individual behaviours.
For this reason, the question of how mobile internet influences and changes children’s behaviour arises. Therefore, the topic being treated in this thesis is about
“Marketing to children: Do smartphones change children’s behaviour? – An approach to children’s consumer behaviour and the ethical perspective of the economy.” The objective is to find out whether children’s behaviour is changed by mobile internet and smartphones and which marketing opportunities arise due to these changes as well as observing which marketing practices are conducted. Firstly, general consumer behaviour, its theories and tendencies as well as the consumer behaviour of children is studied. Following that, the examination of the ethical perspective of the economy including general ethics and theories are treated and marketing ethics as well as answers to ethical issues that arise in business are scrutinised. Basic facts of marketing aimed at children practiced by the media as well as the neurological perspective and ethics of marketing directly to children is investigated. To get more
evidence of changes in children’s behaviour due to mobile internet and smartphones a practical experiment in the sports field is conducted to find out whether
smartphones lead to a lack of concentration during training.
As a result, the literature review confirms that mobile internet and smartphones lead to social changes and to changes in children’s behaviour such as variances in their
communicative, consummative and social behaviour which present new opportunities for modern mobile marketing practices. The hypotheses of the experiment that
smartphones lead to a lack of concentration could not be validated. Relating to the measurements, concentration under smartphone presence was higher than without it.
From an ethical perspective it is critical to use (mobile) marketing opportunities for targeting children as their brains are still in development and they are not able to
identify the intentions of marketing.
Die in letzter Zeit immer häufiger aufkommende Kritik am Wachstumsparadigma lässt
die Frage nach dem Verhalten von Unternehmen weitestgehend offen. Erste Lösungsansätze und ein Großteil der Diskussionen finden hauptsächlich auf
makroökonomischer Ebene statt. Wie aber können sich Unternehmen verhalten, wenn volkswirtschaftliches und unternehmerisches Wachstum begrenzt wird? Welche Form
von betriebswirtschaftlichem Wachstum würde sich unter den geänderten Rahmenbedingungen anbieten? Die Antwort auf diese Frage bleibt in den meisten Fällen, sowohl in Literatur als auch Politik gänzlich unbeantwortet.
Die folgende Ausarbeitung „Kritische Betrachtung wachstumsneutrale Unternehmen und Analyse alternativer Wachstumsformen am Beispiel kleiner und mittelständischer
Unternehmen“ soll eine erste Hilfestellung zur Beantwortung dieser Fragen bieten.
Hierfür wurden – aus verschiedenen Branchen kommend - fünf kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen in Deutschland ausgesucht. Diese wurden zum Teil aus
bereits vorhandenen Studien adaptiert und teilweise in Eigenrecherche als „wachstumsneutral“ definiert. Um die Frage nach wachstumsneutralen Wirtschaften besser beantworten zu können, wurden die einzelnen Unternehmensstrategien auf die jeweiligen, Faktoren der Wachstumsneutralität hin genauer analysiert und zusätzlich
versucht, die Motivation der Unternehmensleitung auszumachen. Diese fünf Unternehmen lassen bereits jetzt die möglichen alternativen Entwicklungswege für ein
ökologisch und ökonomisch sinnvolles Wachstum erkennen. Ergänzend dazu wurden neben den gängigen Wachstumsindikatoren der Betriebswirtschaftslehre noch
weitere, so genannte „qualitative Kennziffern“ beschrieben.
Zusätzlich zum betriebswirtschaftlichen Hauptteil soll mit Hilfe eines kurzen Exkurses in die Volkswirtschaft zum Bruttoinlandsprodukt und Wohlstand erweiternde
Kennziffern vorgestellt werden, welche die Entwicklung von Unternehmen positiv beeinflussen könnten. Hierfür wurde auf die bereits erwähnten, für die volkswirtschaftliche Diskussion vorhandenen Wirtschaftsmodelle zurückgegriffen und diese ausführlicher vorgestellt.
Nachhaltigkeit und die Berichterstattung über Nachhaltigkeitsaspekte nehmen bei Unternehmen eine immer größer werdende Rolle ein. Bereits im Jahre 2011 veröffentlichte Puma die erste eigens entwickelte ökologische Gewinn- und Verlustrechnung, in der die Auswirkungen auf die Natur durch die Geschäftstätigkeit von Puma gemessen und monetisiert wurden. Im Jahr 2016 plant der Mutterkonzern der Puma SE Kering eine konzernübergreifende Einführung der ökologischen Gewinn- und Verlustrechnung. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Vorgehensweise der Monetisierung von Umweltauswirkungen am Beispiel der Treibhausgasemissionen. Zur Monetarisierung der Auswirkung durch eine Tonne CO2 wird von Puma das bereits etablierte Konzept der sozialen Kosten von Kohlenstoff verwendet. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, die Herleitung der sozialen Kosten von Kohlenstoff auf Basis von aktueller Fachliteratur zu untersuchen und die Anwendungen des Konzeptes sowie die Vorgehensweise durch Puma zu analysieren. Anhand der Kriterien Validität, Wirtschaftlichkeit, Transparenz und Übertagbarkeit wird die Vorgehensweise von Puma bewertet. Auf Basis der Erkenntnisse werden Handlungsempfehlungen für den Mutterkonzern Kering abgeleitet. Aus der Analyse geht hervor, dass das Konzept der sozialen Kohlenstoffkosten nur bedingt für die Anwendung aus der Unternehmensperspektive geeignet ist. Die durch Puma verwendete Datenbasis und der Prozess der Übertragung von Studienergebnissen weisen Ungenauigkeiten und unplausibel Annahmen auf. Aus Gründen der Wirtschaftlichkeit stehen deshalb die Verbesserung der Datenbasis und der Übertragungsmethode sowie eine transparentere Darstellung der Annahmen und Ergebnisse im Mittelpunkt der Handlungsempfehlungen.
In der vorliegenden Abschlussarbeit wird das Thema „Potenziale und Hemmnisse grenzüberschreitenden Recruitings: Wie kann die EMS Systemgastronomie KG durch diese Potenziale und Hemmnisse das Recruiting in Frankreich effizienter nutzen?“
Als Mitarbeiterin im Personalwesen zweier Unternehmen, die McDonald’s-Restaurants sowohl in Deutschland als auch in Frankreich betreiben, sah ich mich mit Problematiken konfrontiert, die offensichtlich auf den Unterschieden zwischen Deutschland und Frankreich beruhen, sowohl in kultureller als auch in rechtlichen Fragen.
Die EMS Systemgastronomie KG, für die ich während der Erstellung dieser Arbeit im französischen Recruiting tätig bin, hat keinerlei Erfahrungen mit der Personalarbeit in Frankreich und hier konnte ich mit meinen Kenntnissen aus den Praktika bereits einige Fragen klären.
Diese Arbeit soll nun die zukünftige Personalarbeit im grenzüberschreitenden Recruiting insofern vereinfachen, dass auch Mitarbeiter, die im französischen Ausland bislang keine Erfahrungen sammeln konnten, diese Arbeit problemlos und rasch erledigen können.
Als Quellen dienten mir neben der Fachliteratur und Informationen, die ich von den verschiedenen Arbeitskollegen aus Frankreich und Deutschland erhielt, auch meine eigenen Erfahrungen und Kenntnisse, die ich aus der Personalarbeit beider Firmen mitnehmen konnte.
Die zu beachtenden Problematiken liegen nicht nur in der unterschiedlichen Höhe des französischen und deutschen Mindestlohnes, sondern reichen über dies auch in kulturelle Themen und arbeitsrechtliche Punkte hinaus.
Mit dieser Arbeit können die wichtigsten Punkte schnell erfasst und für die Zukunft vermieden bzw. erörtert werden.
Modern online marketing strategies, techniques and problems - based on product ''Weddings in Bali''
(2015)
The purpose of this Bachelor-Thesis is to analyze the current situation of the company The Seven Agency in regards to the efficiency of currently used online marketing
channels to promote the website www.baliwedding.org in the international market. The conclusions were made based on results of a questionnaire which has been sent to
current and former clients of the company. Another part of this work contains research about how the company can achieve optimal results with using appropriate channels.
Both, the results of the Situation- and Target-Analysis have been compared to each other and were completed with a summary of the effectively and not effectively used
channels and a recommendation based on secondary data and literature study in order to achieve targeted results has been given.
The Bachelor-Thesis has been written in cooperation with The Seven Agency, located in Bali, Indonesia.
Nowadays companies operate highly international. Therefore intercultural projects correspondently increase. So far there is a lack of literature about the influences of culture on project management, especially when the project is about a worldwide process standardization.
The present Bachelor Thesis starts at this point and analyzes the international project IVR2020 at the company MAN Truck & Bus by means of a written survey.
As the process was developed in the German headquarters the basic assumption was that the more different a country is compared to Germany the more challenges will occur.
Here it was concentrated on the influencing aspect of culture.
Therefor the cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede were considered and a cumulated difference in the form of a number was derived for each country. Those were brought into correlation to the occurring challenges that were determined by a written survey of the project managers and sales managers that are already far enough in the process to give reliable answers.
The correlation analysis leaded to the result that none of the formulated hypotheses could be confirmed. However there where relatively strong negative correlation that indeed
disproved the hypotheses but leaded to the assumption that there might be correlations between the single cultural dimensions and the different facets of challenges. This turned out to be correct for some of the cultural dimensions.
Resulting from these correlations cautious predictions for the countries in which the IVR2020 process will follow in near future were made.
Furthermore the concrete problem fields for MAN Truck & Bus and their causes were evaluated. Based on the findings in literature and the analysis of the written survey recommendations for future similar projects were deviated.
The growing complexity, speed and multitude of information prevalent in today’s knowledge era entail both challenges and chances for established and emerging enterprises. In order to keep pace with time and changing trends in the market, a growing number of organizations already exploit the advantages of network effects through the deployment of enterprise collaboration platforms (Thompson 2014, Leibhammer and Weber 2008, Arns 2013, Kane et al. 2014, Kiron et al. 2013b). Previously, research has mainly focused on technological aspects of the implementation process, dealt with scenarios about how to use those platforms, explained the functionalities of enterprise social networks and elaborated on the acceptance of social
business platforms. Even though the topic of social business has been previously examined, no tangible empirical studies have been undertaken which deal with the research questions of this thesis. The objective of this paper is to investigate the reasons for enterprise collaboration platform implementations, the essential prerequisites as well as the role of executives in this context in general terms. With the help of qualitative expert interviews, the empirical study aims at finding whether the hypotheses (based on the theoretical part of the thesis) find application in corporate practice or not. The following recommendations serve as guidelines for companies that are either at the beginning of the implementation phase or struggle on the journey they have already begun. The output of this paper highlights that organizations make use of social platforms to enhance cross-functional collaboration and communication, to facilitate knowledge sharing, to drive innovation, speed and efficiency and to ameliorate customer satisfaction as well as employee engagement. Furthermore, setting objectives, communicating in advance of the implementation, initiating changes in management, preparing for cultural change, appointing community managers and finding the suitable technology are among the most important prerequisites for implementing an enterprise collaboration platform.
The outcome moreover evinces that the role of executives in a social business includes six contrasting dimensions: the producer, the distributor, the recipient, the adviser and orchestrator, the architect and the analyst. Finally, the cross-sectional study based on non-experimental, qualitative research methods yielded that 60% of the theoretical findings have been confirmed in corporate practice. Solely 13% have been refuted.1 The succeeding eight recommendations depict the overall outcome of this thesis.
Situation
Due to the changes of the labour market, especially the lack of qualified personnel, the new generation and the war for talent, it is more difficult to attract employees. Particularly medium-sized companies are affected. Every enterprise has to present itself as an excellent employer. Additionally, companies should include and use current recruiting opportunities.
Aim of the thesis
The aim is to develop a target group oriented recruitment process with a social media campaign for the bielomatik Leuze GmbH + Co. KG. Besides this, the career website needs an update and optimization.
Approach and result
Through a current situation analysis in the HR department, an intended situation analysis could be done. This includes first suggested solutions and detailed approaches. The HR department received a completed concept for the career website optimization, target group oriented recruitment and image creation.
Erarbeiten eines einheitlichen Vergütungssystems für die ausländischen Standorte der IMS Gear GmbH
(2015)
Due to globalization more and more companies open up subsidiairies across national boundaries. To struggle with high growth, customer focus and personnel exchange those companies ask themselves whether it is necessary to develop corporate processes and standards across borders or not. IMS Gear, a medium-sized company, headquartered in Donaueschingen with subsidiaries in China, USA and Mexico wants to optimize its excisting compensation system regarding standardization. The purpose of this thesis is to check whether an international standardized compensation system at IMS Gear GmbH is reasonable or in which extent elements of the German compensation structure could be applied in the foreign locations. By researching compensation systems, the internationalization strategy of the company and its current status as well as analyzing cultural and legal differences at the locations this thesis provides a discussion about advantages and disadvantages of global standards and local differentiations. As a result this thesis concludes that IMS Gear is a multinational company which acts in some points global but is still not on a level where global standards in all sectors are meaningful and accepted by all locations. Therefore some recommendations are given which show further steps the company should take to improve the current situation.
Considering the ever-increasing government debts of industrial countries as well as missing financial resources of emerging and developing countries, the international press outdoes themselves with headlines on the subject tax, tax evasion, tax dodging and tax shifting. International corporations like Amazon, Apple, Google, Ikea or Starbucks are obviously able to shift their profits legally across the world in order to deliberately save tax payments. The arising tax loss out of such activities in Europe is estimated to be around one trillion Euro, while in Germany it is estimated to be around 160 billion euros. In order to counteract this phenomenon states as well as the OECD are developing concepts, practices and actions to combat tax shifting of corporations on an international base. The true objective is, to pay taxes where the actual added value creation takes place.
This bachelor thesis considers the general representation of this subject and provides a deeper look on the different parties involved in tax shifting operations as well as on their respective motifs. Basic constructions of techniques are outlined and shown. By assumption models it can be determined that in Non-Tax haven countries tax shifting leads to a substantial economic loss, whereas for countries considered as tax havens this characteristic does not necessarily lead to a greater economic growth in the country. Further it is illustrated to which extent companies are able to establish a competitive advantage over other companies through tax shifting methods. Additionally it becomes obvious that the use of tax havens is finally leading to a closure of gaps in the law within the different tax systems and consequently it will lead to an increased tax justice in the long run.
HR Wachstumsstrategie bei P3
(2015)
The primary purpose of this thesis is to investigate and evaluate the current candidate experience of applicants and new employees at P3 Systems, in order to derive recommendations for the ongoing recruiting and onboarding processes. Therefore, the section on the candidate journey from the moment of the first direct contact, namely the face-to-face interview, up to and including the first 90 days in the company, has been highlighted. The latter will be referred to as onboarding phase. P3 Systems is one of 12 subsidiaries of the internationally operating P3 Group. Since 2006, it has specialized in automatic and manual testing of electric and electronic systems and their components. Due to the continuous increase in the number of employees, as well as the expectation of further growth, revising the current procedures is desirable to ensure future competitiveness. Data for this study was gathered with the help of theoretical models provided by findings in the customer experience management field, as well as from various surveys carried out over the last year. Using these insights, a first draft implementing a candidate experience management within the named company, has been drawn up. Furthermore, two internal surveys have been conducted to explore the candidates’ perspectives. These focused especially on the key touchpoints for P3Systems along the candidate journey. For this objective, 62 applicants, who already had participated in a face-to-face interview, but had not yet been informed about the outcome, were selected. They were invited to fill out an online questionnaire dealing with the experiences within the context of those interviews. Concurrently, 64 employees of P3 Systems were asked to share their impressions regarding their onboarding program. The results revealed areas of potential optimization, e.g. concerning the time - to - respond to candidates, the content design of the interviews, and the social and professional integration of new employees. Towards the end of this thesis, recommended courses of actions were suggested to improve the current candidate experience. In conclusion, the boundaries and shortcomings of this thesis were indicated.
Die nachfolgende Arbeit befasst sich mit der Ausarbeitung eines Marketingkonzeptes für das Start-up Unternehmen THE EARTHBAG, mit Ausrichtung auf den deutschen Markt.
Die Bedeutung der Arbeit liegt in der Etablierung des jungen Unternehmens auf dem deutschen Markt sowie in der Steigerung des Verkaufs. Um diese Ziele zu erreichen, wird das Unternehmen in einer internen Situationsanalyse und dessen Konkurrenten in einer externen Marktanalyse untersucht. Weitere Informationen werden im Rahmen einer Online-Umfrage gesammelt. Anschließend wird eine Marketingstrategie anhand aller ausgewerteten Ergebnisse abgeleitet, welche mit Hilfe konkreter Maßnahmen imple-mentiert werden soll. Ein Mangel an Markterfahrung sowie eine finanzielle Einschränkung stellen Herausforderungen für diese Arbeit dar. Dennoch wird mit entsprechender Fachliteratur zum Thema Marketing sowie internen Informationen von THE EARTHBAG ein Marketingkonzept erarbeitet.
Longevity in the globalised marketplace depends on the ability to remain competitive. Various definitions of economic competitiveness exist: this report compiles them, discusses the methodologies used to measure economic competitiveness and compares the results obtained when these various systems are applied to the country of France. Thereafter, examinations of aspects such as the development of gross domestic product, trade performance, price competitiveness, productivity and employment will be conducted with the aim of providing answers to the following questions: does France really experience a competitiveness problem? If so, what are potential causes of this competitiveness? Is there a particular domain in which France experiences greater difficulties than in others? Comparisons are constantly drawn to countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and China, where possible. First of all, France's GDP development is described in combination with a discussion of whether or not GDP (per capita) serves as a measure of the performance level of an economy. Then, the country's trade performance is closely examined. Aspects such as France's export market shares and its trade products and partners are investigated. Thereafter, focus is placed on price competitiveness. Analysis of the real effective exchange rate based on consumer price indices, the inflation rate and the nominal effective exchange rate is conducted before the aspects of labour costs and productivity are treated. A breakdown of France's GDP and GDP per capita growth rates, as well as unit labour costs are explored in detail. As the last component of the examination, focus is placed on the subject of employment. The findings of this report suggest that France suffers from a competitiveness problem which presents itself mainly in the field of employment which has a knock-on effect on the labour market. The findings of this report mainly confirm the findings of the literature. Proposed measures in order to resolve France's competitiveness problem target the minimum wage, the elderly workforce, labour market regulations and labour taxes. It is argued that implementation of the suggested measures could eventually improve France's level of productivity and the other issues examined.
This bachelor thesis is about the current topic welcome culture in Germany. The focus of this work is on foreign skilled employees (both foreign employees with a local contract and Impats) and on companies. However, it also contains a current insight into the welcome culture in politics and society. On the one hand, the research question is to find out what instruments and procedures company can use for an effective integration of their international employees. These instruments cover both internal methods as well as the social integration outside the company. On the other hand, the research question is about the needs and challenges foreign skilled employees have to face with. The theory mainly includes Human Resources instruments, for example the topics “global assignments” or “onboarding” are investigated in detail. The second part is an empirical
study based on qualitative interviews with eight companies and an online questionnaire for the foreign skilled employees. As the interviews were mainly realized in large German companies, the welcome culture and employee retention is already a current topic. Results show that the companies use similar or different instruments for integrating their foreign staff. However, there are slight differences, especially in helping the employees with the social integration. The second questionnaire focused on the needs and desires of the employees from abroad showed that they are satisfied with the help offered by the company. Most of the migrants would like to extend their stay in Germany.
Etablierung einer Willkommenskultur für griechische Pflegekräfte am Beispiel der BruderhausDiakonie
(2015)
Situation | Currently, there is a big lack of qualified labour in Germany. The recruitment of foreign workers and employees with a migratory background, which are still not employed, was identified as a solution for this problem. However, several companies still have a problem with this solution and they still see a lot of challenges. In Germany the word „welcome culture“ already exist, which describes minimization of barriers for immigrants and support for their integration. Now, they also like to use this strategy for companies. That’s why they like to develop different strategies to support, structure and simplify the integration process. Aim | The aim is to develop a recommended course of actions for the BruderhausDiakonie, based on interviews with people with migratory background, the analysis of the Greek culture and on several best practice examples as well as existing theories. This should be realized by taking care of the resources and request of the company. Concept | The main part of the welcome culture concept is made of practices which can be used individually to support recruiting processes for employees from abroad and employees with migratory background as well as for on-boarding-process of new employees. This concept considers internal and external conditions. Result | The result was an establishment of actions and the identifications of significant internal and external conditions, which companies have to face when they set the concept into practice. The concept has to be tested first by considering the identified metrics. Additionally it is recommended to implement the metrics into the Balanced Scorecard of the company. The shown practices should be set into practice in each department. The process of establishing a welcome culture should be seen as a long lasting learning-process and organizational development for which some responsible should be named.
“Is it feasible to use flexible benefits as a possible employee retention tool? A survey about the possibilities of a value-oriented flexible benefits system as a method for innovative employee retention on the example of the organisation EVOMOTIV GmbH”
Being an engineering company, the current changes in the labour market caused by a lack of qualified experts, have had quite an effect on the employee retention of the organisation EVOMOTIV GmbH. Therefore the aim of this thesis is to develop a value-oriented flexible benefits system which can support the organisation to improve employee retention. This flexible benefits scheme enables employees to choose between various benefits, which are provided by the employer. First this thesis elaborates the theoretical framework of the conducted empirical study. Therefore employee retention, value-oriented human resource management and value-oriented incentive system are explained. As a result, the information collected through the theoretical study illustrates that there is a growing demand for a value-oriented flexible benefits scheme. The second part of the thesis examines the present state of the organisation EVOMOTIV GmbH and presents the results of the company data analysis. The aim is to identify the influences on increasing turnover of staff and employee satisfaction. From these results, it can be concluded that the main cause of the turnover is the business model used by the company and that the employee satisfaction has been increasing yearly. To develop such a value-oriented flexible benefits scheme, an empirical study was conducted together with the employees of the EVOMOTIV GmbH. The study consisted of questionnaires in combination with a workshop. The aim was to establish contents for the flexible benefits scheme based on of the values and needs of the employees. The questionnaires were used to gain more information on the present state. The result of this thesis is a new flexible benefits system, which is based on the needs and values of the employees in the EVOMOTIV GmbH. Moreover the thesis demonstrates that the system supports the improvement of employee retention, yet its efficiency is limited through the effect of the business model. To measure the efficiency and to keep the system up-to-date with future employee values, a long-term survey is recommended by the author.
Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Einsatz von Web Analytics und Social Media Analytics zur Gewinnung primärer Marktforschungsdaten. Als Instrumente der Beobachtung von Inhalten des Internets sowie des Web 2.0 verzichten diese auf die direkte Befragung von Zielgruppen. Stattdessen basieren Web Analytics und Social Media Analytics auf der Analyse von Konversationen und Verhaltensmustern innerhalb einer virtuellen Welt. Im Laufe dieser Arbeit soll festgestellt werden, ob und inwieweit sich die Repräsentativität der durch Beobachtung des Internets gewonnenen Erkenntnisse von den durch direkte Befragungen ermittelten Ergebnissen unterscheidet. Dazu wird der Autor zunächst basierend auf einer umfangreichen Literaturrecherche grundlegende
Begriffe der Umfrageforschung, datenbasierten Marktforschung sowie des Web 2.0 definieren. Zusätzlich erhält der Leser einen Überblick über Methoden und Funktionen von Web Analytics sowie Social Media Analytics, die anschließend im praktischen Teil dieser Arbeit eingesetzt werden. In diesem werden mit Web Analytics und Social Media Analytics ermittelte Kennzahlen für Marken unterschiedlicher Produktkategorien in einen direkten Vergleich mit den Ergebnisses einer im Rahmen dieser Arbeit
durchgeführten Online-Befragung gesetzt. Basierend auf den im praktischen Teil dieser Arbeit gewonnenen Erkenntnisse erhält der Leser abschließend Handlungsempfehlungen zum Umgang mit Social Media als Marktforschungsinstrument.
Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es ein Marketingkonzept für die Einführung einer International Summer School der Hochschule Furtwangen University auszuarbeiten.
Dafür wurden eine Marktanalyse sowie eine Marktforschung vorgenommen. Im Rahmen der Marktanalyse wurden die Daten von 36 Summer Schools im Bereich Business-Management erfasst und analysiert, woraufhin eine genauere Untersuchung der ausgemachten Hauptkonkurrenten durchgeführt wurde. Die Marktforschung erfolgte in Form einer Online-Befragung, bei der 94 internationale Studenten hinsichtlich ihrer Anforderungen an eine International Summer School befragt wurden. Auf Basis der Erkenntnisse wurden Strategien zur Erreichung der Oberziele sowie Maßnahmen zur erfolgreichen Implementierung definiert. Da eine Übertragung des traditionellen güterbezogenen Marketings aufgrund der besonderen Merkmale von Bildungsleistungen nicht möglich ist, wurde die Arbeit unter einem dienstleistungsorientierten Ansatz erstellt.
The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate how different types of reward motivate employees and to show that the degree of motivation of a reward differs from one organi-sational culture to the other and from one person to the other. Furthermore, it makes recommendations which reward components could be used, and which rewards should not be used in certain cultures. In the first part, several motivation theories like the content theories of motivation and the process theories are discussed. These explain the different approaches to determine what motivates people. The thesis then provides an overview of the various extrinsic and intrinsic rewards and illustrates how different reward components influence the motivation of employees. It is highlighted why it is necessary to focus on the total rewards package, rather than on single rewards. In addition, the thesis clarifies how to evaluate reward packages in order to ensure they are effective. The last part deals with culture and exemplifies how rewards need to be adapted to different cultures. Here, the thesis draws mainly on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory.
In conclusion, the thesis argues that it is crucial that a company uses an effective re-wards package which meets the needs of as many individuals within the company as possible. The thesis hopes to provide all people dealing with Human Resources useful insights into Total Rewards, and thus make a contribution to improving the way re-wards packages are set within organisations.
Today more than the half of the world population live in cities which is 3.3 billion people. By 2050 it is estimated that almost 5 billion people will live in cities. By 2025 there will be 447 mega-cities in the world. Due to this development there is an increasing competition among cities. The purpose of this paper is to describe the different approaches, processes and methods which are needed to turn a place into a destination. First of all the theory of place branding will be described which includes the specification of a place which leads to the theory of place-making.
The next chapter describes what a destination is and from which perspectives you can look at a destination. Depending on the target group, expectations of a destination can be different. To improve a destination it is necessary to know the main elements of a destination as well as attributes which will give memorable experiences to the visitor of a destination.
To get a destination campaign started, several challenges need to be taken like building relations with cooperation partners or securing preservation of architecture and sustainability. This research paper will show you the first steps which need to be done to get a successful start of a destination campaign, as well as important elements of creative place-making and what is important to consider when starting the creative place-making process. After the establishment of a place-making project there are seven steps to follow which are accomplished inside this thesis.
To improve a place there exist different place-making models. For example there is the Business Improvement District model or a government driven model and the Town Centre Management model which have different approaches of turning a place into a destination. To show examples of place-making concepts in the world you will find three Case studies. One about Detroit and the other about New York. The last one will show you a current example of Dún Laoghaire, Ireland. This project started in April 2014 with a Business Improvement District.
The objective of this paper is to examine the return and risk performance of 155 equity mutual funds that provide exposure to the BRIC-Countries and eleven corresponding exchange-tradedfunds from January 2009 until December 2014. The performance proxies are mean returns and risk-adjusted returns using Sharpe Ratio and Jensen’s Alpha. In addition to that, Tracking Errors for the exchange-traded-funds have been calculated. Further benchmarks for comparison are the following indices of Morgan Stanley Inc.: MSCI World, MSCI Emerging Markets, MSCI BRIC and the corresponding MSCI Country Index. The results show that all funds, equity mutual funds and exchange-traded-funds, could realize positive mean returns, whereas the returns of the exchange-traded-funds are lower than those of the equity mutual funds. Nevertheless, none of the funds could realize a Sharpe Ratio higher than one, which would implicate that the return has compensated for the risk. The results of Jensen’s Alpha suggests that 80% of the equity mutual funds were able to add value, as indicated by their positive alpha. Only two out of eleven exchange-traded-funds could generate a positive alpha. This result is controversial to the results of other studies, where only some or none of the examined funds have been able to add value.
Recently, the behavior of customers is changing significantly. Instead of visiting one specific channel of a company to make a purchase, customers are using several channels of different suppliers before making a final purchase. They are switching between these suppliers constantly with the aim of comparing product details and prices to find the best offer. Customers are combining the advantages of the different channels, offered by different suppliers. However, in order to increase customer loyalty and value, companies have to find a way to bond customers to their brand. A multi-channel strategy is trying to build long term customer relationships and to increase customer loyalty. By integrating the different channels, instead of running each channel individually, companies can create an additional value for customers. The channel integration is initiated by offering multichannel services, which are connecting online and offline channels to merge them together. These services should lead to an increase of customer satisfaction, build loyalty, and create a long-term customer relationship. Schiesser has recognized this trend in customer behavior and the need to implement a multi-channel strategy. Yet, as the distribution channels of Schiesser are not working with common enterprise resource planning systems, information systems and cash register systems, it would be highly expensive and time consuming to create an integrated multi-channel system. The absence of a CRM-System and the resulting lack of information about the customer journey of Schiesser consumers are further serious obstacles in the way of realizing a multi-channel strategy. However, Schiesser faces the alternative of implanting a hybrid multi-channel system, which combines various channels loosely without being based on common systems. Both, the integrated and the hybrid multichannel system are accompanied by advantages and disadvantages for the Schiesser AG. Considering the current situation and the high costs of an integrated multi-channel system, a hybrid multi-channel system appears to be the appropriate choice for Schiesser. This system allows Schiesser to offer services like “Return to Web/Retail”, “Click and Collect”, “Pick up at Retail” and “QR-Code Scans” without investing in common used systems. These services can be offered by adapting internal organizational processes and by training staff in retail stores. This relatively low investment of time and money enables Schiesser to provide a unique selling proposition for their customers, build a relationship and increase customer value. If Schiesser wants to stay competitive, the introduction of a multichannel strategy is essential, as direct competitors like Lascana and Hunkemöller have already implemented multi-channel strategies.
Today’s globalized world is situated in a difficult stage of egoism and inequality. The unfair distribution of income leads to a huge amount of people around the world who are suffering from poverty and the spread of deadly infections while others steadily increase their wealth. The coexistence of wealth and poverty becomes particularly obvious in the transnational business operations of multinational enterprises which import raw materials from resource-rich countries or locate production plants in countries with a low level of education and income. Using the example of South Africa, this paper shows the impact that history can have on a country’s economic, social and political situation and the reasons for the need of a collaboration of companies, government and society to solve the country’s problems. By establishing a subsidiary at a specific location, a company starts to bear responsibility for the local community. People often refer to this correlation as Corporate Social Responsibility. This paper clarifies the concept and extent of Corporate Social Responsibility by explaining some well-established definitions and theories. The practical part of the paper consists of a comparison between the activities of multinational enterprises in industrialized and developing countries. Concerning their social responsibility, companies in industrialized countries tend to focus on the avoidance of environmental pollution, sustainable utilization of resources and prevention of the discrimination of minorities in the labor market. In South Africa the most important and necessary fields of activity are the rapid spread of HIV due to insufficient medical care, steadily increasing social inequality, deficient level of education and the lack of possibilities of professional development. The last section of the paper compares the activities of different industrial sectors regarding Corporate Social Responsibility using the example of selected companies which operate in South Africa.
Shopping-trolleys being available, in working order and ready to use are the three decisive characteristics of successful shopping-trolley-management and accordingly concern the functional areas procurement, maintenance, cleaning (and ultimately disposal). This bachelor-thesis has been written in cooperation with Kaufland and describes the processes and costs of the shopping-trolley-management of Kaufland in the above named areas. Kaufland is a trading firm, which has been founded in Germany, has business operations in Central- and Eastern-Europe and is known especially for its self-service-stores named „Kaufland“. In these stores, with a retail area between 2000-12.000 m², customers can choose from a product range of up to 60.000 goods of the food- and non-food-area. The strategic coordination of the shopping-trolley-management is located in the department Branch-Equipment of the functional area Procurement International, which is responsible for product development, purchasing and standardization of the objects used to equip a store. The thesis is divided into two parts: At first the processes and costs of the shopping-trolley-management of Kaufland in Germany and in the KMO-countries (Kaufland Central- and Eastern-Europe) are presented. To record the processes and costs, face-to-face- and telephone-interviews were conducted and data were gathered in inquiry forms by mail. The results can be reviewed in written process descriptions and the completed inquiry forms. This section of the thesis is based on the theories of life-cycle-costing and concludes with a presentation of the „Best Practices“ of processes and the calculation of the life-cycle-costs of the Kaufland shopping-trolley-stock. The life-cycle-costs are calculated in the form of nominal- and present-values (discounted-values) taking into account the most important life cycle phases (procurement, maintenance, cleaning and disposal).
Next a leasing- and service-offer for the Kaufland shopping-trolley-stock, created by the Wanzl Metallwarenfabrik GmbH in cooperation with the Deutschen Leasing, is presented. The leasing part is viewed as an alternative to the current way of procuring shopping-trolleys, the service part is compared with the current service-processes and -costs of the shopping-trolleys. This section of the thesis is based on the leasing-, procurement-theory and economic efficiency calculations and concludes with an assessment of the given offer as well as a compilation and assessment of possible leasing-contract-alternatives. The used and given information originate from the literature reviewed, face-to-face- and telephone-interviews with the contact persons at the Wanzl Metallwarenfabrik GmbH and the Deutschen Leasing. The results show that the given leasing- and service-offer is not connected to process improvements and cost savings by Kaufland and should not be accepted, however the application of the described „Best Practices“ in all countries as well as the development of a new, flexible leasing-offer, taking into account the information about processes and costs obtained in this thesis, might very well be economically favorable.
The primary purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of how factors influence sport sponsorship, especially in football. In order to fulfill this purpose the thesis identifies, describes and tries to explain sponsorship in general as a non-classical communication instrument, the selection of sponsorship objects, companies´ objectives of sport sponsorship activities. In addition, the thesis considers companies´ planning process of sport sponsorship and finally, an identification of several factors, which may have an impact on sport sponsorship. Two examples of application of a company in the telecommunication industry and of a company in the automobile industry are pointed out, where the aspects of sponsorship of the German Fußball Bundesliga respectively the German national team, are studied. The paper makes use of studies which shows how respondents remembered sponsorship activities. It is possible to conclude from the thesis that many factors will have an effect on sport sponsorship. The paper demonstrates that image, memorizing, duration and the fit between sponsor and event or sponsor and sponsee are relevant criteria. Finally, the thesis summarizes the results and outlines of the possible future of football sponsorship.
This bachelor thesis deals with the topic of a better design for the process of Recruiting of a mid-sized company (WERMA). It should answer the question whether these requirements can be met by the introduction of a digital applicant management system. The goal is to prove whether such a system increases the efficiency and / or effectiveness and how this effect occurs. The question will be discussed with the help of specialist literature, a review of the current candidate process and an employee survey at WERMA. The providers of the digital applicant management systems are consulted likewise for more information. The result shows that it is quite possible to increase the efficiency and effectiveness in Recruitment with the introduction of such a system. The previous processes can be accelerated or they disappear. It emerged clearly that the efficiency is more important for WERMA than effectiveness. The main reason is that the core processes of Recruiting will still be the same. The system helps to operate them faster.
Analyse der Berufsgruppe Architekten zur Ermittlung einer zielgruppengerechten Kommunikation für einen Baustoffhersteller
Analysis of the occupational group of architects to determine a communication appropriate to the target audience for a building materials manufacturer
This thesis deals with the specialties of addressing the occupational group of architects in Germany. It examines their role and approach in the process of buying building material with the aim of finding out a suitable way for a building materials manufacturer to communicate with the target audience. For this purpose a secondary analysis of architects is carried out and replenished with a primary data acquisition.
After analyzing the work, role and way of obtaining information of the architect the theory of corporate communication is explained. This chapter shows the requirements and possibilities and examines the features of communication for a business-to-business company. Following the primary data acquisition in the form of expert interviews is carried out. In conclusion the outcome of the secondary and primary research is merged, which allows the derivation of a recommended course of action.
The results show that architects have a powerful role in the buying center and therefore a tremendous influence on the buying process of building materials. However it emerges to be difficult to address the target audience, since they communicate in a passive way. Furthermore the study identifies that architects are artists and builders in one person. This is why it is important to them that their projects do not only look good but are also functional. Another result is that architects often do not feel respected as experts, although they have a wide specialized knowledge. Moreover the research shows that the target audience has to face new challenges with every project, which is why they are always searching for new inspiration and ideas. Finally it emerges that architects feel a special enthusiasm for their occupation and work as well as architecture in general.
From the insights gained it could be derived that the appropriate way to communicate with architects is in two phases. On the first stage the attention of the target audience needs to be won in the right moment, which is why the manufacturer has to show a steady presence. In the second phase the company has to provide all information needed to the architect. In conclusion of this thesis it is highly recommended for building materials manufacturers to address architects in an appropriate way because in the long run it will improve the market position of the company.
This Bachelor thesis deals with drawing up a new marketing concept for the Villingen Institute of Public Health and the subsequent implementation of one part of the concept. The institute offers further education in the field of Public Health. The aim of the thesis is to find marketing activities which will increase the publicity of the institute and help to canvass a sufficient number of participants for its different courses. Initially, the term ‚Public Health’, the institute as well as the concept of Blended-Learning and services marketing are presented. Afterwards, there were some analyses conducted. The internal factors like marketing measures taken before, strengths and weaknesses of the institute, just as the external factors like the market environment and the competition, are evaluated. Due to a large number of other providers, it is Difficult to survive against one’s competitors. Therefore, the Villingen Institute of Public Health should try to stand out from them, emphasizing its university status as well as the practical phases and the flexibility of its courses. Having a really low marketing budget (over 500 €), the VIPH should use principally onlinemarketing measures, as they are often lower-cost or even for free and are able to reach a large amount of interested persons. On the basis of the mentioned findings, there was a marketing concept developed. After determining the target groups and the positioning within the market, a marketing-mix was made, consisting of the 7Ps of services marketing (product, price, place, promotion, person, physical evidence, process). By means of direct marketing via e-mail, post or phone, some target groups can be reached directly. Supporting web-marketing measures can help to get better-known and to be perceived by more people. Public relations to local or regional media can increase the publicity for the institute. During this work, it has been decided to produce an image-film and to write an entry in Wikipedia, the internet encyclopedia, which should represent the implementation part. Finally, the planning and the realization as well as the first results of the implementation measures are presented.
Die vorliegende Thesis zeigt auf, wie sich die deutsche Kurier-, Express- und Paketbranche (KEP) unter dem Einfluss des bis in die heutige Zeit stark wachsenden E-Commerce verändert hat. Die Entwicklung dieser Branche erstreckt sich vom Brief- und Paketmonopol der Deutschen Bundespost bis hin zur Privatisierung der Deutschen Post AG. Parallel dazu veränderte sich auch die Wirtschaft im Laufe der 90er Jahre durch neue Entwicklungen in der IT-Branche. Seit der letzten Jahrhundertwende hat das Vertriebsmedium Internet kontinuierlich an Relevanz gewonnen, revolutionierte den Warenhandel und digitalisierte viele Branchen des heutigen Einzelhandels.
Besondere Auswirkungen hatte der Aufstieg des Internets auf die KEP-Branche. Infolge der Implementierung von Onlineshops und des Rückgangs des lokalen Einzelhandels, stieg das Paketvolumen im letzten Jahrzehnt aufgrund des damit veränderten Kaufverhaltens und der Digitalisierung des gesamten Warenhandels mit weiterhin wachsender Tendenz deutlich an. Im Laufe dieser Thesis soll daher sowohl die heutige KEP-Branche im Rahmen einer Umwelt- und Wettbewerbsanalyse näher untersucht und analysiert werden als auch der Faktor E-Commerce genauer unter die Lupe genommen werden, um die maßgeblichen Entwicklungen und Innovationen aufzuzeigen. Nach einer kurzen Vorstellung der angewandten Analysewerkzeuge werden die Entwicklungen innerhalb der Branche näher betrachtet. Anschließend erfolgt die Umweltanalyse unter Anwendung von Michael Porters Fünf-Kräfte-Modell und einer PESTLE Analyse sowie die Wettbewerbsanalyse, die sich einer Benchmark Analyse bedient. Eine SWOT Analyse soll die Stärken und Schwächen sowie die Chancen und Risiken der KEP-Branche identifizieren. Abschließend soll eine Prognose Aufschluss über die voraussichtlichen Entwicklungen der Branche, die von vielen externen und internen Faktoren bestimmt wird, sowie des ECommerce geben. Vor allem der große Preisdruck und der Bedarf nach kundenfreundlichen Innovationen sorgt für eine hohe Rivalität innerhalb der Branche. Das E-Commerce agiert dabei als maßgeblicher Wachstumsmotor, der die Branche vor allem durch den enormen Zuwachs im Privatkundenbereich (B2C) weiter antreibt.
Problem: The thesis is about Marketing options for Sharklet retrofit at Airbus. Sharklets are wingtip devices which cut down on aerodynamic drag by reducing the vortices that are formed at the wingtips of any aircraft during flight.1 Airbus is looking for new Marketing options to increase sales of Sharklets. Market research findings from various fields will be highlighted and the relevance for Sharklet retrofit will be reviewed. The leading question during the thesis will be: How should Airbus continue to market Sharklets?
Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to describe which Sales and Marketing strategy Airbus uses at the moment and to find out where the weak points of the actual strategy are. Furthermore it will be analyzed what the actual brand image and brand communication of Airbus Sharklets is and whether it is in line with the desired brand identity. The thesis evaluates in which way Branding, Neuromarketing and Customer Journey Mapping can contribute to a better Marketing and Sales strategy.
Conclusion: Airbus should continue to market Sharklets by starting with a Customer Journey Map and figuring out what the customer is really looking for and how Airbus can react to the customers’ expectations. Sharklets should be marketed as wingtip devices that are environmentally friendly, fuel-saving and modern by guaranteeing that the Marketing material is consistent. Sharklets should be marketed not only on a rational basis. Emotional Marketing can be used to improve the brand image and the customer’s associations with the product. A mix of rational and emotional Marketing would be the best for Airbus to try how the customer reacts to emotional Marketing first. Last but not least Airbus should use the opportunity to better inform passengers about Sharklets and to provide input for In-flight-magazines to position the company itself and the customer as environmentally friendly and modern.