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Latin America has become a potential market in the lately years. Brazil has a potential market, being the fifth largest country in terms of population; moreover, the Brazilian economy has grown over the past years with the increasing middle class consumers. Mexico, on the other hand, with its strategic position and as a bridge for the whole American continent and having the most free trade agreements in the world is definitively an attractive investment destination. The main objective of this research is to study what type of entry modes should German companies in the high- tech industry and automotive industry use in Latin American market. As part of the research there has been a study of the internationalization theories, the entry modes and the factors that might affect the entry mode. Besides, the author has approached which characteristics do the Latin American market has and which opportunities may German Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises benefit from. Furthermore, this research incorporates some case analysis from German companies who already entered into this region, as a result there would be a analysis in order to see which patterns those companies have followed.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study and understand the theoretical model of New Product Design and Development Process and New Product Development Process followed by Automobile Manufacturing Companies in order to understand the similarities and differences between the theoretical model and practical process of New Product Development.
Key Concepts
The main concepts reviewed in the paper are theoretical “Stage – Gate model” of New Product Design and Development, New Product Development Process followed in automobile industry, role of various departments in the New Product Development Process.
Methodology
The methodology used to review the concepts exposed in this paper was theoretical research.
Conclusion
Generic product development process as described by Ulriche & Eppinger sets up overall framework of the product development process but it does not describe the micro-level activities of the new product development process. Whereas the practical process of new product development works out on very micro-level details of the task and activities in new product development process.
Generic product development process is a simple framework and hence it is common for any organisation, but actual process of new product design and development is worked out to the very detail level according to functions in an organisation and hence it changes from product to product and organisation to organisation.
Improving conditions for economic growth in Colombia, Investment opportunity in Infrastructure
(2015)
The purpose of this thesis is to get a clear understanding of the situation of transport infrastructure of Colombia. Examine the reasons and the current situation of the country´s background that explains the delay in infrastructure development and the poor quality of the transport networks, being able to find objective arguments to suggest certain type of investment for the coming years that will help to improve the conditions for economic growth. The research goes deep in to the evolution of the country and the role of transport infrastructure in Colombia, highlighting the most important facts and types, to get an overall understanding of the actual situation. The objective is to identify which is the line of investment that will best fit the country´s development in the time where globalization and free trade agreements take active part of Colombia´s growth in the last years, however threatening the industries pushing them to a more efficient and productive environment. On the basis of the results of this research, it can be concluded that Colombia needs heavy investments in the future years to try closing the breach left behind decades of inefficient policies and strategies. The involvement of the private sector in transport infrastructure projects is necessary to fund the type of investments that the country needs. Furthermore, there has to be continuity in the actual concession programs for the road network plus a big investment to bring back the railroad network into an efficient long lengths transport for both passengers and products.
Purpose: This study investigates the role that entrepreneurial talents play, and the influence of such
talents in firms’ success and raising funds through crowd-funding platforms as well. It discusses and analyses which talents are needed by entrepreneurs in order to place them in the best position to attract funds from these platforms. Further, the study attempts to create a bridge between entrepreneurial talent and crowdfunding, hence acting as one of the contributors towards the entrepreneur’s business success. Design/Approach/Methodology: This topic is a novel idea and it aims at examining whether or not entrepreneurial talents, as influencing factors should be taken into account when raising funds from crowdfunding platforms. This paper includes two main parts: theoretical and practical. In the final part, this paper provides lessons learnt. Originality/Value: This thesis will add value to research in the field of crowdfunding and its operation especially when entrepreneur funding is considered. Additionally, the hypothesis that forms the basis of this thesis, advocates for a new mode of sourcing for funds from crowdfunding platforms. This new approach is premised on the idea that the entrepreneurial talent can be a significant influencing factor for successfully raising funds from crowdfunding platforms. The analysis of the case studies will reveal an appropriate pattern of the talents needed and associating factors that will help entrepreneurs become successful in obtaining funds for their business
ventures, when they elect to use crowdfunding as their financing method. Practical implications: There are four practical implications to this paper. The first, is that entrepreneurs who intend to seize the huge opportunities offered by the crowdfunding platforms should place emphasis on convincing the participants in the platforms of their talents rather than placing too much focus on perfect business plan. Secondly, the platform participants should deviate from the traditional approach of WHAT to invest in, to a new approach of WHOM/WHO to invest in. Thirdly, from the perspective of the relatively new crowdfunding industry, this paper proposes for the creation of talent-based crowdfunding platforms as opposed to the project-based ones that are currently operating. Finally, the paper encourages the academic researcher to pursue ideas and new applications in the crowdfunding industry.
This thesis is based upon an interest in the field of neuromarketing and a desire to depict which is the most advisable strategy to implement in a situation, where there is a potential introduction of a methodology coming from that field in a new / foreign market. Special emphasis is put on the market entry strategy (modes of entry and marketing strategy).
At the beginning of the thesis, there is a brief inspection of the neuromarketing field according to the nowadays situation that lead to the creation of a methodology, which is called neuromerchandising®. This methodology is the competitive advantage of a German consultant company called neuromerchandisinggroup GmbH&Co.KG. With this patented methodology, this consultant company provides strategic solutions to numerous companies mainly in the field of retail.
The main purpose of the thesis is to define which are the decisions to be made while introducing this methodology to a foreign country and in particular to Greece, in order to improve the Greek retail situation.
This thesis provides an analysis of the tools necessary to speculate whether Greece is the appropriate country to introduce this methodology. After this analysis, the thesis provides solutions of the potential market entry strategy putting emphasis on the marketing strategy of introducing this methodology.
Internal documentation of this company, market reports and analyses are used to provide a professional framework of the dynamic capabilities in the venture of introducing this methodology to Greece.
With the ever increasing global competitive business environment, capturing new lucrative markets has taken the forefront for Multinational Entities (MNE’s). In the recent past, emerging countries have gained prominence as a focal growth destination for many MNEs. Despite the business opportunities that they offer, they still remain complex markets in which to do business. Consequently, for the MNEs that have made entry into these markets, adequate growth strategies designed to include sets of activities that deliver a unique mix of value to the organization are imperative.1 This therefore calls for such organisations to adapt their existing growth strategies in emerging markets to various demands. This is in order to maximise performance through well-orchestrated growth agendas that work in concert with the overall corporate strategy. Nevertheless, for overall success, businesses are becoming more aware that operational and control failures can be extremely costly.2 This is because growth comes with increased risks hence a need for new solutions to mitigate and manage the risks. Consequently, the discipline of compliance which is designed to mitigate risks through adherence of; legal requirements, internal and external policies is no longer a second-thought function that requires action down the road. Corporate leaders now recognize that it is important for business expansion and the protection of shareholder value.3 In these markets, compliance related issues have proved to be difficult hurdles for many organisations and they are widely viewed high risk compliance markets. 4 Despite this, many MNEs that venture into such markets fail to integrate their growth strategies and compliance programmes/strategies.
This paper explores the hypothesis that for organisations to optimise performance, their compliance programmes/strategies should work in concert with their broader strategic goals, e.g. growth. This thesis aims to show how the two can be integrated by using Rolls-Royce Power Systems’ AG (RRPS) growth strategy in China and its compliance programme as a case study. The hypothesis is that, if successfully integrated, RRPS can maximise its growth performance in China. Secondly the study seeks to provide a flexible check list or template that RRPS can adapt in its future Integrated Sales Road Maps (ISRMs) in other targeted countries or regions.
Unfortunately, even in these years of high innovations in society, many countries still have gaps in basic needs such as energy supply. Many people live off-the-grid (OTG) referring to not being connected to the main or national electrical grid since they live scattered or in remote location or simple because it is unaffordable. On the other hand, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the use of fossil energy increased in the 8 firsts years of the 2000 decade, and half of the energy use in the last decade was accounted to coal. This type of energy source is proven to be harmful for the environment contributing to global warming. New methods of energy storage have been created mainly in developed countries. For example, the photovoltaic (PV) lamps as the main product of a German company that fulfill needs in sustainable and renewable energy resources. However, developing countries may also need to look for practical solutions and the private sector can help. The financing of renewable alternatives is imperative to increase progress and, in these sense, private sector can help. For instance, increasing systems using solar energy for rural communities and promotion of affordable and efficient PV products such as portable eco-friendly solar lamps that replace the kerosene lamps, fan plus lamps, water filters and icemakers among others are helpful in OTG communities and need to be supply. Entrepreneurs that focus in fulfill this gap in society creates value and make a change in the countries. The importance of increase electronic appliances (energy-efficient) and “smart” applications (home area networks and energy storage devices) is undeniable for progress in developing countries and better energy use all over the world Solar energy provides products that not only help people but also maintains a balance between nature and habitants.
Market entry strategy for German mittelstand medical device
companies into the Indian market.
(2015)
German medical devices companies are at the forefront of technology when it comes to innovation and R&D. Most of the European medical device manufacturing companies are located in Germany and the number of patents filed by these companies shows the amount of innovation in the industry. A majority of these medical devices are exported within the European Union countries. Economic slowdown combined with market saturation and increased competition makes Europe a very competitive market for these companies. Indian on the other hand is one of the fasted growing economies in the world. The Indian medical device sector is relatively an untapped markets for innovative medical devices. There are tremendous market opportunities due to the fact that local manufacturing base for medical devices are underdeveloped
and often neglected. Most of the local Indian manufactures are engaged in producing basic medical devices and mostly into medical disposables and supplies. Around 70% of the medical devise sold in India are imported products. There is a huge demand and supply gap that is not being filled by the local manufacturers. India offers the perfect new market opportunity for German medical companies looking to venture into emerging new markets. There is abundant supplied of skilled manpower, with wages lower than that of the neighbouring China. India also has a rapidly growing middle class with increasing purchasing power. However, the regulations in the Indian medical device industry are not very clear and transparent. The Indian bureaucratic system is rampant with corruption and red tapes that needs to be tackled and navigated skilfully. A Germany company looking to enter the Indian market needs to understand that nothing in India can be implemented by a text book style entry strategy. In this thesis, we will analyse few of the most suitable entry strategies for German medical device companies with the advantages and disadvantages of each entry mode. We will also analyse the process of doing business in India, which requires an understanding of various aspect of the Indian culture and business relationship building in India. Further, we will analyse the current market scenario with a brief analyse of the local manufacturers currently in the market along with some information on foreign players in the market. Will also interview 5 experts from the medical field and look into few real case studies.
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.
Reverse Mentoring
(2015)
The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to give a detailed description of how Reverse Mentoring is applied in practice. Reverse Mentoring is the mentoring of a senior executive person in a company by a younger employee in topics like Web 2.0 and new technologies. Considering current trends like the demographic change, the multi-generational workforce, the digital transformation and the current demands on knowledge management, it becomes obvious that a new form of learning is required for an organization to stay competitive. Nine people that have experienced Reverse Mentoring in their company served as subjects for a study to further investigate about the practical application of Reverse Mentoring. The study was carried out via telephone interviews. The subjects responded to questions regarding the implementation of the program, the formal structure of the programs, the procedure of matching tandem partners, the characteristics of the program’s participants, the challenges they experienced, the positive and negative experiences and the factors they consider vital for a successful implementation. In a next stage the main aspects of the study’s results were compared to findings in literature in order to verify their generalizability and to develop those findings further in theory. The thesis concludes that Reverse Mentoring can be a tool that helps companies to face current trends, and the reader gets a detailed view on how Reverse Mentoring can be applied in a company.
Mitarbeiterzufriedenheit in internationalen After-Sales Organisationen am Beispiel der Daimler AG
(2015)
Leading from the thesis that customer satisfaction depends on the level of employee satisfaction, the following work provides an analysis of different criteria which contribute to the satisfaction of employees. Furthermore, the demand for homogeneously designed concepts at Daimler AG provides a basis for the following question:
Is there a common denominator for employee satisfaction in the worldwide After-Sales Organisation of Daimler AG, considering cultural and organisational differences?
Based on selected literature the concept of employee satisfaction in international After-Sales organisations is discussed by linking the term of employee satisfaction to employee motivation and intercultural differences.
The centre of this work is an international employee survey which consists of a comparison of nine employee satisfaction criteria, implying that the interviewee has to decide which criterion contributes more to his employee satisfaction.
The different survey results of each nationality are discussed and compared regarding the differently weighted satisfaction criteria. There is no criterion which is commonly ranked to be most important among all three nationalities. The criterion which is ranked either on the first or on the second place in all three nationalities is the “income” of an employee, the second most important criterion is “working climate”. Linking these results to a model of interdependencies, it is revealed that “working climate” is the criterion which most influences the other criteria and can furthermore be easily influenced. As “working climate” is not only the second most important criterion to influence employee satisfaction, but is also the most influencing and influenced criterion, it can be said that “working climate” requires the most attention on behalf of the employer to increase general employee satisfaction.
The statement of this work is that there is no single criterion which accomplishes overall employee satisfaction but there are a few criteria which contribute more to the employees’ satisfaction than other criteria do.
The title for this thesis “An Economic Analysis of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)” has been selected due to its topicality and its explosiveness. The stimulus to write this paper originates in the wish to get a deeper insight into the topic, which has been treated majorly under exclusion of the public, and to be able to make a clear statement whether to support or to oppose the partnership. In order to answer this final question, it is also tested whether results from former agreements like NAFTA or Mercosur can serve as a guideline to what can be expected of TTIP. Additionally, the paper aims at making a final statement about the implications of the partnership for the future. To do this, the present paper covers two main subjects. First, it provides an overview of the history of free trade, the different forms of agreements, as well as an insight into the experiences made with NAFTA and Mercosur. This first part is concluded with an estimation of the results and motivations of and for free trade agreements, as well as a transition to the second main subject by naming the impacts of the findings for the planned TTIP treaty. Secondly, after providing a broad overview of TTIP by giving an insight into the definition and the process of formation of the partnership, the benefits and concerns of the deal are revealed. This part is followed by a broad study of ten indicators, which outline the real effects of TTIP on the economy, by distinguishing between three different scenarios. The thesis is concluded by presenting the findings from the former analysis. Although NAFTA and Mercosur do not provide applicable experiences, they still serve as points of orientation and suggest that free trade should be supported. Thus, the planned partnership should also be agreed upon in order to go with the pace of time and to stay competitive. If this is the case, TTIP will be a leading example in the future, motivating more nations to either join the partnership or to form ones by themselves.
This thesis focuses on the development of a business plan for a planed nonprofit organization for single mothers located in Mexico.
It contains on the one hand a theoretical explanation of the most important differences between the nonprofit sector and profit driven sectors. On the other hand it provides an empirical study about the target group and the competition of the planned organization. Therefore the method used for this work is a combination of a theoretical as well as an empirical approach, which provides a wider view on the issue. Based on this obtained data from these researches, the business plan is developed.
During the work it is found that there is a big demand for the planned organization from its target group. In addition there is little competition in this specific sector and the business plan shows a good feasibility of the project as well as growth opportunity of this specific nonprofit organization.
The present thesis on "recruiting skilled employees in the field of apprenticeship for SMEs in the crafts using the example of best practice companies" consists of a theoretical and a practical part.
In theory the terms “crafts” and “small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)” are defined. The current situation of recruiting skilled employees in the field of apprenticeship is also explained in more detail. It can be seen that the number of new vocational training contracts decreases progressively. For the most part the reason for this is the failure of merging companies and young people. Furthermore the concept of “best practice” is discussed. The practical part consists of a description of the institution “Chamber of Crafts Karlsruhe” in general and particularly in relation to the topic of apprenticeship. The Chamber represents the interests and concerns of the craft, advises and assists the member companies in different areas especially in the search and placement of apprentices. Companies are examined, which set a good example for the recruitment of apprentices. Based on interviews with 21 “best practice craft enterprises” (17 SMEs, 4 larger companies) different ways of acquisition of apprentices are demonstrated. For each company, the recruiting measures used are represented by percentage depending on the success rate of the obtained apprentices. As a result, the applications for the acquisition of apprentices of SMEs and larger companies are summarized and compared. The aim of the thesis is that the craft industry, be it SMEs or larger businesses, learn and benefit from each other. They should get an overview of what other companies do for the acquisition of apprentices and how they adapt and expand their recruitment activities to the situation of labor shortages in the area of apprenticeship.
With the ED/2013/6 the IASB and the FASB issued an exposure draft that proposes a departure from the current leasing model. The risk-and-reward approach shall be replaced by the asset-and –liabilityapproach.
The thesis examines the impact of this reform on the basis of a case study on the GFT Group. The thesis shall provide an overview of the existing and future lease accounting and examined the effects on the consolidated balance sheet through a simulated application of accounting rules set out in the exposure draft, followed by quantification by the use of selected financial ratios. Result of this work is an insignificant change in most financial ratios. Substantial amendments have been found regarding the leverage ratio. The results are scrutinized with information from the simulation and the current state of discussion. Furthermore, suggestions and advice regarding the findings are given to the GFT Group.
Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht auf der Basis einer umfassenden B2B-Kundenanalyse, wie sich ein erster Marktsegmentierungsansatz bezüglich der gewerblichen Kunden von E-Mobility aus Sicht des Automobilhandels ausgestalten könnte und welche strategischen Implikationen sich daraus für die Kommunikation mit dem Zielmarkt ergeben. Basierend auf diesen Erkenntnissen, wird in einem weiteren Schritt analysiert, welche B2B-Geschäftsmodelle sich besonders für dieses Kundensegment eignen. Die Gesamtheit der Erkenntnisse werden abschließend zur Konzeption eigener B2B-Geschäftsmodellideen genutzt, welche sich aufgrund einer umfassenden Wirtschaftlichkeitsberechnung als besonders attraktiv sowohl für den Zielmarkt als auch für den Automobilhandel erweisen.
Diese Bachelor-Thesis befasst sich mit der Analyse des aktuellen Konsolidierungsprozesses bei der Hectronic-Gruppe, der Identifizierung der Problemstellen sowie möglichen Lösungsansätzen zu dessen Optimierung und Standardisierung im Rahmen des Konzernabschlusses.
Dabei werden zuerst wichtige Begriffe, Gesetzesgrundlagen in der Schweiz sowie Konsolidierungsmethoden und Trends, die für ein Grundverständnis der Thematik notwendig sind, erklärt. Anschließend wird der Konsolidierungsprozess analysiert und die Problematik Excel als Tool zur Durchführung der Konsolidierung aufgegriffen. Des Weiteren werden anhand der Fachliteratur, aktueller Studien und Trends drei Optimierungsvorschläge entwickelt: der Wechsel des Rechnungslegungs-Standards von OR zu Swiss GAAP FER, der Einsatz einer Software-Lösung und das Outsourcing des Konsolidierungsprozesses.
Die Software-Auswahl fand anhand einer Nutzwertanalyse statt, die mit Hilfe von Experteninterviews und eines Fragebogens durchgeführt wurde. Dabei schnitt die Software-Lösung der LucaNet AG am besten ab. Das Outsourcing, das anhand von Fragebögen (=E-Mails BPO-Anbieter) evaluiert wurde, bietet sich weniger für die Hectronic-Gruppe an, da sich zeigte, dass die Alternative auf lange Sicht gesehen teurer ist und es sich als schwierig erwiesen hat, einen geeigneten Outsourcing-Anbieter zu finden.
Nach der Gegenüberstellung der Alternativen mit ihren jeweiligen Vor- und Nachteilen sowie der Kosten wird der Hectronic-Gruppe empfohlen, den Rechnungslegungs-Standard von OR zu Swiss GAAP FER zu wechseln sowie den Einsatz einer Software-Lösung dem Outsourcing vorzuziehen.
The Bachelor Thesis is about the efficiency of adidas’ sport sponsoring efforts at the Football World Cup 2014 – measured on the basis of digital marketing successes. This study has two major purposes: Firstly, to find out whether adidas was able to reach its pre-defined goals on digital platforms and secondly, to compare the digital effects of an official sponsor (adidas) with a on-official sponsor/ambush-marketer (Nike)showing that the extra costs were well invested. The author suggests that mbushmarketers - although they don’t have the official right to use the World Cup as their advertising rostrum - are also able to benefit from the World Cup itself and from starting some World Cup-related campaigns in social platforms, but not to the same extent as official sponsors. The thesis is divided into two parts - the theoretical part, that gives a theoretical background to the main topic and the practical part that analyses the two main questions of the empirical study. The analysis shows that adidas’ sport sponsoring efforts in social platforms were highly successful regarding the fact that they were able to achieve seven out of ten pre-defined goals. With regards to the three (pretty ambitious) goals that weren’t reached, the author further gives improvement proposals with precise ideas about what needs to be done in order to achieve them in the future. In the next step the author gives an overview of the privilegues that official sponsors of the World Cup possess in contrast to ambush-marketers and outlines the major differences. The comparison of the performance of an official sponsor with an ambushmarketer in digital platforms shows that most of the time indeed the official sponsor achieved higher effects than the ambush-marketer. But since there are also some other factors besides being an official or non-official sponsor that have an impact on the marketing effects of a company (like for example the success of the sponsored team, the degree of popularity of adidas/Nike and its testimonials etc.) the author also provides a critical acclaim about the findings of the thesis. Since adidas performed so well on digital platforms and achieved or even exceeded almost all of their pre-defined goals it can be concluded that sport sponsoring in social media platforms is a very potent and effective marketing method. Also the ambushmarketer Nike achieved some effects on digital platforms but not to the same extent as the official sponsor adidas.
The purpose of this study is to research the impact of enterprise social software on performance management in order to explain the statement of this thesis: performance management can benefit from social software. The thesis first defines the emergent collaborative performance management and enterprise social software systems against the background of the need for ‘modernized’ Human Resource systems. Then, interviews were conducted in order to determine the critical success factors of implementing enterprise social software into business systems and processes. Finally, the derived critical success factors are discussed and compared to different assumptions that are made in literature about the impact of enterprise social software on performance management.
It was concluded that performance management can benefit from enterprise social software, but under specific conditions such as rules and policies. Organizations that embrace new technologies and use enterprise social software in compliance with their objectives, strategies and policies can enjoy increased productivity and a collaborative business culture with highly engaged employees.
The aim of this Bachelor Thesis is to analyze the child safety lock offered by Samsung, which is one of the latest inventions on the market for Smartphones. It will be discussed if its abilities are a solution for ethical problems, which come along with Mobile Marketing on children. Furthermore it will be identified if the child safety lock, as a product, keeps the promises Samsung made to the consumers. Smartphones are gaining greater importance in today’s society and are not only used by adults, but by a great amount of children. A smartphone gives kids the possibility to enter the internet without barriers. They have access to all the offered websites and programs the internet contains, which opens up a lot of dangers. Marketing on children is getting more intensive, because children play a more important role in the buying decisions of their families than they did in the past. There are plenty of studies where children´s perception of advertisement was analyzed. A relationship between their perception of advertisement and the development of their cognitive thinking was detected. The more distinctive the cognitive thinking is, the better is their perception of advertisement.
Advertisement and other marketing methods can influence and manipulate children, without them realizing it. Due to that there a discussions on ethical level about the fairness of confronting children with contents they can´t understand because of their stage of development. Notably mobile marketing describes a lot of dangers for children owing to its availability on a Smartphone 24/7.
The two most important laws regarding media protection for children is the “Jugendschutzgesetz” (JuSchG), which is administrated by the German government and the “Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag”, which is in hands of the 16 federal states in Germany. The opinion of experts in the field of media education, as well as the opinion of parents and teachers about the mentioned topics is essential to bring different stakeholders into the account. This paper contains several empirical research methods which discuss these opinions. Key words: Marketing and Ethics, Smartphones, Marketing aimed on children, Mobile Marketing, Media Protection for children
Content of this bachelor thesis is to portray the status quo in Germany´s discussion about its welcoming culture and its lack of qualified workers. Government actions as well as efforts from companies are shown in this paper. Two surveys were conducted about the welcoming culture in Germany and German companies. The first survey was asking companies about their need of qualified workers as well as an already might existing welcoming culture. The second survey was sent to qualified immigrants who came through projects to Germany, to find out how they perceived the efforts for a welcoming culture in Germany. The results of the whole research are summed up in the last part of the thesis with a critical eflection. The surveys were conducted with the support of Synergie Personal GmbH Deutschland, as well as with the help of the companies that participated in the projects of the Fachkräfteallianz Gewinnerregion.
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the fairly recent Basel III regulations, and to find out if they have impacts on the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises. Therefore, the theoretical impacts on financial institutions and on small and medium-sized enterprises would be analysed and compared to the real development. Basel III is an advancement to Basel I and II and contains stricter capital and liquidity requirement regulations for financial institutions, as well as a leverage ratio. The purpose is to create a financial sector, which would be more resistant against crises. Because the liquidity requirements and the leverage ratio are not, or only partly introduced yet, the thesis focuses more on the capital requirements. These requirements, demand banks to deposit a higher percentage of equity for each credit operation, depending on the risk. It is expected that financial institutions will face an excess need of capital to fulfil the requirements. On the one hand, banks could increase their equity, which hypothetically could lead to higher capital costs as well as an increase of credit costs. That would in turn result in worse credit terms for SMEs. On the other hand, banks could reduce their risk-weighted assets to lower the need for new capital. That could minimize the capacity of the credit business and lead to difficulties for SMEs in obtaining a loan. An empirical study, based on a theoretical simulation, came to the result that there will be a slight worsening of the credit terms and the credit supply for SMEs. Regarding to the question “if the new capital requirements are appropriate for SME-loans”, it shows that there is no increase of risk in that segment. Therefore, the capital requirements should be adjusted for these kind of loans. The theoretical impacts of the liquidity requirements and the leverage ratio are also expected to affect the loans for SMEs, which are the second important financing instrument. To compare and analyse the theoretical impacts to the real development, latest empirical studies were used to get a picture of the current situation. It shows that the group of financial institutions that are relevant for SME-loans have a moderate increase in their equity basis and almost no decrease of their risk-weighted assets. Theoretically, that should lead to worse credit terms and no change in the credit supply. While analysing the realised external funds made in recent years, it is affirmed that there is no decline in the credit supply. Regarding the increased capital basis, there is no worsening in the credit terms perceived in the reality. The favourable key interest rate could be the reason for that, because it compensates the increased capital cost. Hence, Basel III does not represents a threat to the mid-sized sector in average. However, it can be stated that, the smaller the enterprises are, the more difficult it is to get a loan and the worse the conditions are.
Diese Arbeit behandelt die Thematik der Kundenzufriedenheit, welche in Forschung und Praxis auf Grund ihres hohen Einflusses auf den Unternehmenserfolg nach wie vor an Bedeutung gewinnt. Anhand des Beispiels der SCOPE Messestrategie GmbH, Veranstalter der HORIZON Messe für Studium und Abiturientenausbildung, wird die
Vorgehensweise bei der Durchführung einer Kundenzufriedenheitsanalyse im Messewesen dargelegt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Analyse zeigen, welchen Dienstleistungseigenschaften einer Bildungsmesse besondere Bedeutung beizumessen ist und wie man auf Basis dieser Erkenntnisse eine Steigerung der Ausstellerzufriedenheit bewirken kann.
This bachelor thesis is about a Business Plan in form of a Business Model for a healthcare and mediation company for Germany and Switzerland.It basically asks the question how can vale for the customer, the placed employees and the company be created, maintained and increased. The purpose of this assignment is to analyze the existent HR Industry market and position the Company in a profitable niche in order to achieve a strategically important growth into other fields. The present work consists of five parts.In the following first part the HR Industry and its market potential are explained. Secondly the Business Model is explained theoretically and then applied to CarePers. In the third part the Philippines are analyzed culturally and the effects are used on an elaborated business adaptation. In the fourth part mayor basic strategy concepts are introduced and applied to CarePers. The fifth part concludes the work.
Several interviews have taken place with the company’s founder and the company’s COO. Extensive analysis of the market has been done by revising several official statistics. Based on theoretical aspects presented and explained a practical realization and adaptation of the academic content has been done
In the last few years no other innovation has been able to influence the marketing environment like neuromarketing, the new science of consumer behaviour, which combines neuroscientific techniques with marketing in order to understand brain functions in terms of marketing activities. This combination helps to improve the understanding of the influence of emotions and senses on decision-making and buying-behaviour. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential and limitations of neuromarketing, by taking a close look into published data, conducted studies and expert opinions concerning this new field of science. The published data retrieved from studies using brain-imaging techniques found that emotions and human senses influence every second in human beings’ perception and that consumers are not able to decide completely economically. Nevertheless, further research is recommended in order to gain a deeper understanding of the human brain and how it conducts
decision-making processes. Additionally, consumer neuroscience has high potential to become a commonly used technique, which sustainably supports traditional
market research. Neuromarketing seems to become a promising technique to provide consumers with desired products, services, web shops and advertising
design.
In recent times, China’s role in the clothing industry has been threatened. China’s ability to compete on a cost basis is diminishing and urges the country to find a new means of competition. The aim of this study is to assess China’s future role in the industry with special regards to European apparel manufactures. This is done by taking a closer look at several factors that have an impact on the industry. The analysis of published data, conducted studies and expert opinions brought to light how the government is actively involved in the pursue of maintaining China’s leading role in the textile and clothing industries as these are important contributors to China’s economic well-being. Two strategies have been emphasized. Firstly, the upgrading of the industry as a means of differentiation that allows China’s clothing industry to compete on other factors than costs. Secondly, the boost of China’s domestic market in order to mitigate against the risk arising from the volatility of markets and increased need for speed in the industry. While China’s role is undoubtedly changing, it seems like the country has found opportunities to maintain an important position in the future of the clothing industry.
A few years ago Porsche AG defined its “Strategy 2018”, to be followed by all subsidiaries worldwide. This includes ambitious sales and financial targets, which only can be fulfilled if Porsche becomes more efficient. One of Porsche’s core measures to reach the set targets is the development of its global dealer network. Currently, the subsidiary Porsche Middle East and Africa, responsible for the future growth in the Middle East, India and Africa, lacks this efficiency. A defined process for the set up of a new dealership in this region is not existent and tasks as well as responsibilities are not transparent among the task force.
This thesis was used to analyze the set up process of Porsche Middle East and Africa and to define an overall concept. Based on relevant literature, conducted interviews and gathered information, the required activities to successfully establish a new dealership have been identified and finally an all-encompassing concept have been created. The three stakeholders of a dealer set up, the parent company, its regional and its local presence served as informants.
The proposed concept provides Porsche Middle East and Africa and the new investors with a detailed guideline during the whole process and permits a smooth and punctual dealer set up and opening. The process integration takes Porsche Middle East and Africa a major step forward on its way to Porsche’s ‘Strategy 2018’.
This research study will analyze the flourish and outcomes of the sharing economy nowadays. The sharing economy has raised controversy in our society, rising significant importance on ecological and economic matters, thus it is imperative to evaluate its total effects. It is intended to discover the issues of the sharing economy model and its impacts towards sustainability and economic development. Who is being benefited by the sharing economy? A broad and deep analysis and breakdown of the structure involved by the sharing economy was made in order to clarify the overall positive and negative effects of such a model. Upon the examination of the influences and drivers of the sharing economy concerning the economy, society and ecology, awareness and insights of sustainable and economic enhancements are built. A distinctive perspective of the sharing economy is obtained based on evaluations of the relevant evidence collected.
The following thesis aims at analyzing the development of media in travel planning and the role of Google.
The theoretical part of this thesis deals with the media used and their evolution and impact in travel planning. Due to tools like Google Maps, Google Hotel Finder and Google Flight Search the company has enormous opportunities to step further into the online travel market. If the European Parliament does not restrain Googles power, it is likely to extend its current position as an uncontested market leader in search engine marketing even further, leading to a monopoly in online travel planning. The vast impact of Google in travel planning is tested and proven by the advertising spending of the Danish holiday house portal Cofman A/S and a survey among newsletter subscribers of this company in the practical part.
This thesis deals with the first evaluation of an entry program for the specialist career path,using the example of the ‘Graduate Specialist Program’ of the cooperation partner and topic initiator Bosch Rexroth AG. The overall research question examines whether the ‘Graduate Specialist Program’ comes out to be a success story to compete in the ‘War for talent’ and to what extent it contributes to fill high level expert positions. Background information about Graduate Programs and the Expert Career is therefore provided as a first step. In order to get an overview and detect any conspicuity, a quantitative data analysis is used which expresses the program’s development in figures. The focus hereby lies with the former candidates’ wage development as success indicator and the parallel existing program for the
management career, namely the ‘Junior Managers Program’, is used for a comparison. Qualitative interviews with former ‘Graduate Specialist Program’ participants and current mentors are conducted, inquiring the atisfaction with the program execution and its relationship with the subsequent career. Moreover, their opinion on the feasibility of an expert career in general and related to their department is inquired. The results state a clear satisfaction with the program, yet requires minor changes in the program elements. Generally, the concept of a graduate program tailored for future specialist is supported, even though the majority of the program respondents strive for a career in management in the long-run. It is named in this context that limits in career prospects can lead participants to switch to the management career. It can be concluded that the ‘Graduate Specialist Program’ is a success story as graduates are attracted for specialist tasks in the short to medium term. To conclude, the program’s major impact as a general recruitment instrument to compete on the labor market for junior staff in general outweighs the intention of training young talents for a career as high level experts in the long run. Thus, its characteristics relate more to the category of Generalist Graduate Programs.
In this thesis, the author researches the topic of global Scotch whisky marketing strategies and adapted strategies for the emerging markets in Asia, using the example of Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal. Scotch whisky has become a truly international spirit, with a growing demand coming from the emerging markets of Asia. The multinational players in the Scotch whisky industry soon recognized the need to adapt their marketing strategies for the Asian markets in order to gain a foothold and survive in the highly competitive spirit market. The two leading multinational Scotch whisky producers are Diageo and Pernod Ricard. They both successfully market two blended Scotch whisky brands globally, Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal. Their current global marketing strategies for these brands are based on six key elements, which are Innovative Packaging, Responsibility/Consideration of Social Aspects/Care about Society, Strategic Sponsorships/Partnerships, Celebrity Branding, Digital Marketing/ Social Media Engagement, and Experiential Marketing /Physical Spaces. The marketing actions of Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal in Asian markets have four elements in common, which can be seen as key success factors for a successful marketing strategy in Asian markets: tell sophisticated Brand Stories in an authentic, inspiring and emotional connecting way; use Digital Content and interactive platforms, like Social Media, to engage with Asian consumers; create rich brand experiences with Physical Spaces, and use the power of Influencers to inspire and communicate brand content.
Challenges in a multi-country and multinational project environment within a matrix organization
(2015)
Comau S.p.A. -Powertrain- (PWT) mainly manages its projects on a multinational level. In the past, several issues were identified some of which can be attributed to the complexity of a matrix organizational structure. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to investigate whether PWT project teams are still experiencing certain issues while working in multi-country projects and to develop certain proposals for improvement by analysing the possible causes. For this purpose a survey was conducted among project participants to identify the present issues and to discover the reasons for their occurrence. In addition, an analysis of cultural differences was performed also based on secondary data to examine the influences of cultural differences on employees’ perceptions. The results of the analysis indicated that some of the project teams are still facing certain issues while collaborating across regions and functions. Therefore, the importance of a better communication of certain defined roles was identified. In addition, an increasing awareness of the Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) as a tool for also obtaining the overall agreement of project responsibilities and as team building measure was recognized as important. Moreover, to obtain new insights into present issues from the perspectives of the project teams and for further research purpose, the execution of a workshop including all survey participants was stated as potentially worthwhile.
In recent years the field of internal audit has gained tremendous importance. This was promoted by massive frauds, management scandals and bankruptcies identified at companies like Enron, Lehman Brothers and Cendant Corporation or by individuals like Bernard Madoff. The recent financial crisis, which has caused multi-billion dollars of economic damage worldwide contrib-uted as well. As a consequence governments passed new draft legislations, tightened up regula-tions of the financial market and implemented global standards to reduce financial risks – con-siderably those concerning the future. At the same time a shift in awareness at the management and boardroom level in institutes, companies and organizations alike took place and corporate governance was given a higher appraisal. Nowadays it is necessary, even vital for the above mentioned to be aware of corporate objectives and their social and environmental impact (Pickett, 2003). In this context, internal audit (IA) has undergone a magnificent boost of attention, representing a key function within the organization by reviewing, analyzing, monitoring and improving its pro-cesses and operations. However, in order to keep up with constantly increasing standards and company guidelines to meet the expectations of the management, and more important, those of the stakeholders as well as to reduce costs, new methods needed to be developed and implemented accordingly. One of these methods, which in fact has long been there, but still ekes out a marginal existence in Germany, is the control self-assessment (CSA).
The investments’ dynamics in the Fintech industry represent a great opportunity for many Fintech entrepreneurs that use technology to drive down operating cost and build products that match the digital needs of the millennial customers.
They challenge the status quo of the existing players in the industry, but it is a bigger challenge for the new entrants in to acquire customers and compete for a
market share because of the high acquisition cost and lack of historical data for optimization.
This thesis seeks to explore the digital channels used for customer acquisition and to make an analysis about the cost of the channels, targeting capabilities,
effectiveness and the effort required to set up and optimize the digital channels.
This paper also seeks to improve our current understanding of which factors influence the acceptance of fintech technology, are relevant to consider in the
context of the fintech industry, using TAM as the theoretical foundation and internet banking technology as the closest example of fintech products.
Mergers and Acquisitions are powerful tools for companies worldwide and it has been implemented since many years. However, in a time of globalisation M&A is even more important than ever. There are several reasons for companies to perform Mergers and Acquisitions, such as strategically, political or to prevent bankruptcy (Rosenbaum & Pearl, 2013). However, M&A’s are more often a failure than successes, due to the wrong reasons of a Merger and Acquisition or because of the wrong implementation of such (Bloomberg, 2013).
This study aims to give an insight of how to implement a Merger and Acquisition and what is important to be successful. Therefore, a comparative equation between the cases of Daimler and Chrysler and Exxon and Mobil is conducted to get real life data about a very successful case, here Exxon/Mobil and a very unsuccessful case, here Daimler/Chrysler. These results will show which tools companies should care more and less about, to implement a successful Merger and Acquisition.
Thus, the study will define what a Merger and Acquisition is and how to implement such. Furthermore, it will be carved out how to define a success or failure, which is very critical to the outcome of an evaluation. After the equation of the two cases the question will be dissolved if there is a clear answer on a strict path to follow for a successful merger or acquisition, or is there no formula for a successful M&A.
The aim of this research is to analysis the economics situations in China, especially in Tianjin TEDA and Shanghai those two special economic areas in China, to see what kind of opportunities they may bring to the mid-size European companies which would like to have business in these two regions, and also to see what kind of disadvantages that are not befit for having business in those two areas. The research has analysis the economic situations in China to show the overall national economic status and situations in the in the recent years.
Tianjin and Shanghai are different with each other in the economic style; some statistics has shown the differences of economic characteristics in Tianjin and Shanghai. Companies in different industry areas have been classified both in Tianjin and Shanghai.
The topic of my thesis is “Internationalization process of Hi-Tech mobile crane to the emerging Indian Subcontinent markets e.g. Bangladesh: The case study of KramerKran GmbH”. The whole approach is based on KramerKran GmbH, a small crane service providing company which is located in Löffingen, Southern Germany. This study explores two specific research questions such as how KramerKran can enter to this attractive Indian Subcontinent especially into the Bangladeshi market and understand the degree of opportunity whether it is a good attempt to enter into this market or not. Here, Bangladesh is taken as an example of Indian subcontinent because it is one of the high growth emerging economies in this region and many business opportunities have yet been unexplored that might be attractive for German automotive companies (SMEs).
In today’s globalization era, markets are becoming very competitive. It is difficult for many companies only to rely on the local or domestic market, no matters whether it is a big corporation or a small and medium sized enterprise (SMEs). In order to maintain a positive and sustainable business growth, internationalization plays a vital role nowadays, especially for small and medium sized enterprises in which emerging markets are very attractive from many aspects. Therefore, it can be said that, this topic is very much relevant with KramerKran’s further business development approach and crucial for doing business in a sustainable manner.
In order to answer the research questions, the whole study is divided into seven chapters and very undamental points are e.g. theoretical framework, company present situation, empirical research, findings, recommendation and conclusion. The theoretical framework provides a general idea about the necessity of being global as well as various modes of international market entry. Company present situation and empirical research describes KramerKran’s position in the present market and the market situation of Bangladesh respectively. Empirical research has been conducted throughout expert interview, company data, personal observation and expert article and so on. Based on theory, company data and empirical research a two-step international market entry model has been recommended.
The possibility of applying psychological negotiation methods at the purchasing department ABW2 of the Robert Bosch GmbH was investigated by undertaking extensive literature review and conducting qualitative expert interviews. Additionally, negotiation models and literature from the criminalistics context were analyzed in order to find opportunities to convert successful methods in this field into the business setting. The psychological methods are based on scientific knowledge about personality, emotions and human perception. Several similarities with forensic psychological methods could be identified, which demonstrated the feasibility of adapting methods, such as rapport-building, de-escalation and communication techniques, to business negotiations. Experiments previously undertaken by other authors have shown the potential benefits and improved negotiation outcomes that can be derived by implementing these techniques in negotiations. However, a limitation factor for translating these results directly to the Robert Bosch GmbH is the setting of these experiments. No real life results exist today to the author’s knowledge. Further limitations, areas for future research, and practical implications are discussed.
This paper elaborates on key success factors for German negotiators in business negotiations with the Chinese. By reviewing latest research findings, conducting qualitative interviews and developing case studies, this research paper suggests that key success factors in negotiations with the Chinese are in transition. Therefore, this paper highlights the most essential changes in China’s negotiation style and environment, deriving from political, social and economic changes, and the related implications for German negotiators’ key success factors in 2015. Case studies serve as illustration of key success factors. Managerial implications and research limitations are discussed.
Fast Fashion industry is a great example of a market with similar products and similar target groups of customers where marketing plays a key role in the competition for market share. In the era of Web 2.0. and Social Media boom businesses are facing a rise in customers’ forces and its pressure by influencing corporate communications and marketing campaigns. Ordinary people turn to influentials who reach broad consumer audiences and often have an impact on the decision-making-processes. In this way, brands are less protected by PR and advertising tools, as well as more vulnerable. Therefore, understanding the current communication environment and in particular how, when, where and who interferes with corporate image is important from managerial point of view and what strategy to be deployed. For these reasons, the thesis focuses on multichannel marketing in order to provide an understanding of how businesses have been connecting to
people and then it continues with exploration of social media and the blogosphere as ways consumers have been complicating and influencing channels. In the end, it has been concluded that Social Media and the phenomenon of Blogosphere has led to the appearance of new self-made opinion leaders who tend to influence consumer behavior and respectively company’s reputation and brands’ image. On the other hand, it has been observed this can be positive for businesses since it provides relatively useful market information which could be helpful for marketing and communications managers by enabling them to observe their target groups in a more efficient ways. In the pursue of findings, the thesis includes primary research with two interviews with a bloggers and a fashion brand affiliate person, and secondary research covering literature review on relevant topics.
In a fast-paced change and development of the work environment, organizations are faced with the need to adapt efficient and proactively on a continuous basis. Correspondingly it is important for companies to readjust their tools, requirements and processes. Performance appraisal is not an exception. Moreover it is an important part of an organization’s performance management system that assures an integer alignment of the employees’ activities and performances with the company’s strategy and goals. It is a tool, which directly addresses companies’ most important and susceptible to change resources - it’s employees and strategy. Therefore the scope of this paper was to analyze whether the traditionally used performance appraisal system of the present, would work and fit under the challenges and changes of the future of work trends. First, the paper focuses on the analysis of the future of work environment. There are initially researched the forces that will influence future organizations and then the impact on organizations is described. The above mentioned were followed by the analysis of the currently perceived drawbacks of performance appraisal as from studies and researches done by experts in the domain. The analysis points out the most important features referred to as being of a tremendous impact on the success and result of the tool. These faults of the traditional approach would be then compared with the main trends determining future of work, and as a result of the study is the determination whether the tool would perform better in the future organizational setting or worse depending on how the criteria concluded as being most influential would co-work. In conclusion it was observed that performance appraisal as such would still be an important tool in the future organization as it’s commonly perceived scope would gain in importance. However, the approach and implementation would have to be drastically reconsidered. As most of it’s currently perceived drawbacks would be in an even more devastating conflict in the upcoming time of business and employment. It refers to it’s form, owner, customer and implantation, all of these would need an radical transformation.
Over the past years, operating conditions of German retail banks have been significantly altered by increased regulation, digitalization and new competitors. Consequently, numerous market participants have begun supplementing or replacing traditional processes with technology-based ones. Wüstenrot Bank AG Pfandbriefbank (WBP), a midsize financial corporation located in Ludwigsburg, Germany, is a primary example for this development. Notwithstanding all reforms, WBP suspects that many of its online products are unprofitable, yet has been unable to perform accurate measurements. Research shows that this is by far no exception and that in spite of digitalization’s proven impact in other industries there are very few empirical studies comparing traditional and technology-based processes in retail banking. This paper aims at filling this gap by determining the present efficiency of technology-based processes at WBP and their potential for aiding optimizations in the field. The paper uses process costing for evaluating present profitability, a methodology proven in manufacturing and other service industries yet relatively new to banking, and thus also sets a methodological recedent. For this method processes are first modeled using the ARIS concept of Scheer (1990); following Cooper and Kaplan (1988) and Horváth and Mayer (1995) costs are then determined for individual process steps based on their resource consumption and finally aggregated into the entire process. In a second step the present
situation serves as basis for simulating hypothetical scenarios used for assessing the effectiveness and impact of technology on further optimizations.
The research finds that in the case of daily money, a typical online product, neither WBP’s traditional nor its technology-based processes are profitable in the first year after account generation. In fact, losses are so extensive it is likely the product is generally unprofitable. In addition, the analysis finds that, contrary to the initial hypothesis, technology-based processes are even less efficient than traditional ones. Through subsequent simulations it becomes clear, however, that rather than digitalization all together, it is the insufficient degree of use of technology that causes costs to be so high. Therefore, optimization potential is much higher for technology-based than for traditional processes. Consequently, the paper recommends further increasing the use of digital technologies and finds process costing to be the ideal tool for capturing the best of digitalization both within WBP and in the industry.
Business includes interactions both in societal and organizational dimension. And interactions are done through communication. Communication is not just about sharing ideas through words. Communication is anyway a complex phenomenon. However in the age of the global business, where culture has become the core and with that more complex and therefore is neglected more than before. Besides, cultural aspects seem not to have given enough importance, in spite of doing business internationally, where culture plays an essential role. Thus global business, in form of overseas, offshoring, outsourcing, franchising, expatriates, investment etc. is a game where international entrepreneurship, intercultural challenges, culture, communication and results, leading either to successful and effective cooperation or disputes and conflicts, have a main role. Hence, this thesis, Intercultural challenges for international Entrepreneurs in Nepal and guidelines, instruments and recommendations for solving them, is all about how to combine these elements and deploy strategies by entrepreneurs from Germanic Europe while doing business in Nepal, considering the cultural differences of both cultures. Consequently the aim of this thesis is to provide with essential components concerning cultural differences that should be considered seriously while doing business in Nepal. A research conducted through questionnaire to obtain results in order to identify the most important cultural differences in terms of dimensions facilitated to develop strategies. To get to the recommendations, as the end part of this thesis, first some basic terminologies and concepts will be conceptualized. After, deeper concepts regarding the role of communication and language will be provided to reach the research part. Once, some concepts are explained in research part, results and findings will be illustrated before reaching to recommendations and conclusion. To conclude, strategies in this thesis are presented in form of recommendations and instruments according to the results, which show that there are few differences in some cultural dimensions and there are huge differences in some cultural dimensions, to foster cross-cultural cooperation without conflicts and disputes.
The topic of change management gained significant importance within recent years. Through the internationalization of markets, became relevant to consider factors such as intercultural management and communication. Often managers are not able to control and coordinate these projects in an adequate manner.
One of the main reasons is the c different mindsets, expectations, ideas and working styles. During the planning and execution of change projects there is much focus on the strategy and the lead project teams. Nevertheless, employ because the foreign workforce as a whole consists of many different people from various
countries and cultures. Ensuring that a change can successfully be applied at all locations is a major task and failing in managing those varieties can lead to failure of the entire change. The regional management is often faced with inadequate decisions or poor communication by the headquarters. Additionally, even more than normal mid able to work with decisions they do not understand or support required to follow instructions from the other side of the world requires various skills. The purpose of this research is to identify the requirements of good communication a
management in regional offices in this context and to analyze how a well defined scope of responsibilities can lead an international change project to success.
Globally operating stamping and hybrid parts manufacturer KRAMSKI and the FRANUHOFER IPA have developed a new prosthetic foot designed for developing countries. Although low-cost solutions in developing countries exist, these significantly lack functionality. The new prosthetic foot will be more expensive than most low-cost alternatives, which start from $ 5.00 for a simple SACH foot, but can be sold for a much lower price than most high-tech prosthetics imported from industrialized nations, which can cost more than $5,000. The purpose of the paper was to determine the market potential for the prosthetic foot, to monitor the competition and to create an overall marketing concept for distributing and promoting the product. Therefore market and competitor analyses were conducted. On base of the market and competitor research, strategies were formulated. As a last step, the marketing mix with its four elements was regarded and different distribution and promotional tools have been reviewed to propose marketing activities that could be undertaken by KRAMSKI. Since six different target countries in Asia and Latin America (India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) were chosen in agreement with KRAMSKI, the market potential for each of these countries was estimated. Two different approaches were used to estimate the market potential of each country. Following the first approach, the total market demand of all six countries added up to more than 5.6 million potential. The second approach added up to a total of 6.7 million potential customers for the target regions. The numbers revealed that 95 % of all lower limb amputees lived in India. Therefore India has been chosen as the target country for all further research in the paper. The monitoring of the market change revealed that prosthetic foot demand was going to increase over the next decades due to lost limbs through road traffic incidents and diabetes. Besides, by the year 2030 most of the world’s middle class (80 %) will be living in developing countries As a consequence, more people will be able to afford health care products such as prosthetic feet. It has been found out that customers in developing countries lay emphasis on either low cost or quality. As a second step, the competitive environment within the prosthetic foot sector in India has been analyzed. Although the Indian healthcare system is still underdeveloped, the sector offers future opportunities for the private sector. The biggest commercial manufacturers of prosthetic feet in India are Otto Bock, Endolite and Streifeneder-Collegepark. But also international and local NGOs, such as BMVSS (Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti) with the Jaipur Foot, distribute prosthetic feet. Most of the commercial products are significantly more expensive than the products distributed by NGOs. Most NGOs manufacture prosthesis by themselves in order to save costs and create jobs. Many amputees can receive the prostheses and service for free due to donations which finance the NGOs. The competitive suppliers either own fitting centers or distribute their products through local wholesalers. On base of the market, consumer segmentation has been conducted. The Indian population has been divided into different income levels. Rural aspirers and urban seekers could be seen as the most profitable target segments, but urban customers might be easiest to reach due to location. In a last step, the marketing mix for the prosthetic foot has been analyzed. The prosthetic foot should offer specific features to align with developing countries. The product needs to be priced according to company objectives, demand, cost and competition. Since KRAMSKI does not yet have the capabilities and resources to fit prosthetic feet, the company needs to distribute to the end-user through indirect distribution channels such as wholesalers, clinics and NGOs. Therefore an important activity for KRAMSKI is the acquisition of distribution channels. This can be approached through promotional tools such as personal selling, direct marketing, online marketing or the participation on trade fairs and exhibitions.