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The influence of gluten free diet on the enteric nervous system and intestinal microbiota of mice
(2017)
The end of performance appraisal: a practitioners' guide to alternatives in agile organisations
(2017)
A Long Swim for Science
(2017)
Nowadays international businesses are exposed to a constant change of regulations, regularly altering organisational structures and the pressure to continuously improve efficiency to stay competitive. It is no longer a secret for international companies that the ability to adapt, is a key success factor in managing globally connected processes. Facing this challenge, MTU Friedrichshafen, one of the leading manufacturer of diesel engines in the world, set a target of optimising core processes of License Management due to the fast growing number of international projects and related international regulations. This optimisation can be achieved by analysing weak points at all stages of the working processes and developing standardised approaches throughout the partner management cycle. The main purpose of this thesis, therefore, is to analyse and standardise core processes of the MTU License Management with a completely new approach in steering international projects.
After spending ten months at the MTU License Management Department, including mandatory six months internship, I was involved in different working procedures in a form of “internal job rotation” in order to have clear understanding over main processes at License Management. With all this knowledge in mind, a deep research about core processes has been conducted and individual improvement measures for each process were defined. These improvement measures are in line with the Global Strategy Program “Shaping Our Future 2018” that has been determined by Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG, MTU’s holding company. Also, during the research, it was obvious that combining several processes into one core tool was a major challenge. After brainstorming through various ideas with internal IT experts, a standardised approach by using Microsoft SharePoint has been identified as an effective way to enhance various processes.
Only with the proper implementation of the recommended optimisation process and continuous improvement, global organisations will succeed in responding to the increasing pace of changes in the business environment.
Rising globalization and digitization resulted in crises for the fashion industry. High competition and the interconnectedness of the consumers rule the market and put it under pressure. Owing to the growing power consumers possess, the requirements towards the fashion players are increasing. Customer experience is frequently discussed these days by academics as well as practitioners and emphasized as a competitive advantage. Yet, it is difficult to measure and to track its consequences.
Since customer experience is elusive and no industry specific measurement scale is defined, at first this work aims to identify relevant touch points of customer experience in the fashion industry by dint of a focused interview. The further objective of this paper is to enhance the comprehension of the touch points’ effects or rather the relationship of customer experience with brand loyalty. This is approached by a questionnaire based on the preceding qualitative analysis and the resulting model. This model defines the customer experience touch points as the independent variables while brand loyalty is examined as the dependent variable. The conducted linear regression analysis reveals a moderate effect of customer experience on brand loyalty and the touch points concerning the products as most relevant in this relationship. Additionally, the digitization aspect is addressed by the examination of the relationship in the offline and online channels separately. With respect to this, the present study recognizes that the extent of the customer experience’s impact on brand loyalty and the significant touch points vary across channels to a certain degree.
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the impact of Intelligent Automation on individuals, organizations and economy and how organizations can adapt. Within the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the use of new technologies is on the rise and rapidly developing and the world is becoming more and more digital.
Organizations in financial services like banks and insurance companies are reevaluating their processes, however, automation has not been applied yet and their back office processes still contain a huge amount of paper and many repetitive tasks, which make the processes inefficient. In processes like this, there is a huge potential for Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence, which allow organizations to automate end-to-end processes with humans only handling exceptions and doing small configurations. The results are higher quality and speed at lower cost.
Despite the fact that the implementation of Intelligent Automation can be done fast and simple, companies have to involve the right people, analyze which processes are actually automatable and follow necessary steps in the implementation process in order to successfully implement Intelligent Automation.
In the era of digitalisation, mobile devices are supporting us throughout the day, in any situation, at any place and any time. We purchase goods and services through our phones, communicate with others and can get information about anything we want. The mobile technology is the fastest growing industry the world has ever seen. Mobile technology is the most influential driver of current social and economic change. Therefore mobile marketing is already a major factor in today’s marketing mix. Nevertheless adaption of mobile marketing progresses differently in different parts of the world. China took on a leading role in mobile marketing without many people outside China noticing. The purpose of this paper is to examine and display the major differences between China and Europe when it comes to mobile marketing. Especially, I will focus on WeChat, a relatively new communication application in China that has shaped mobile marketing significantly since 2011, the year of its launch.
However, due to significant differences in market scale, market complexity and adoption of technology in Europe and China it is important for European companies to understand the potential power of WeChat if they want to do successful business in China. Therefore I will give a comprehensive overview on how to use WeChat for business. Additionally I will connect the mobile marketing aspect with Chinese language learning. Chinese language learning represents a global current trend and is building a bridge between China and Europe both culturally and economically. For this paper I conducted practical research in a Chinese language school under European management in Beijing/China. This way I was able to gain first-hand insight in the obstacles a European company faces when it comes to WeChat mobile marketing in China. This paper will cover the theoretical foundation of mobile marketing and will connect it with real recommendations for successful WeChat mobile marketing.
Digital Sales Excellence: Systematic implementation of new technologies in sales force management
(2017)
An analytical force and surface roughness model for cylindrical grinding of brittle materials
(2017)
Creating Interactive Experiences together with People with Dementia – an Inclusive Design Story
(2017)
Activating People with Dementia using Natural User Interface interaction on a Surface Computer
(2017)
The dimenSion concept - approaching service prototyping from a multi-aspect description perspective
(2017)
An analytical force and surface roughness model for cylindrical grinding of brittle materials
(2017)
Material removal mechanism in ultrasonic-assisted grinding of Al2O3 by single-grain scratch test
(2017)
Testing applications for SmartHome environments is quite complicated, since a real environment is not accessible or the conditions are not controllable during development time. The need to set up the whole hardware environment, increase the complexity of these systems enormously. Therefore, it is helpful to simulate the SmartHome hardware components and environment conditions (e.g. rain, heat, etc.). This paper contains an approach to improve the test and demonstration process of Internet of Things scenarios. A prototype (ScnSim: Scenario Simulator) was developed to set up scenarios. The user of the ScnSim can create her/his own scenario using items (sensors/actuators) and rules, which control the sensors and actors building the IoT enviornment. This simulator is supposed to support the user testing IoT applications or configurations of SmartHome platforms like openHAB. In addition, the ScnSim is supposed to help demonstrating showcases, for example, often demonstrated on a trade fair or as a proof of concept for a customer.
Background: In the recent past, the discrepancy between blood supply and future demand may have been overestimated. Nevertheless, as medical progress develops rapidly, it will be essential to permanently monitor ongoing demographic changes in the donor population and re-evaluate retention and recruiting strategies. Thus, it was the aim of the current study to compare first time donor (FTD) characteristics and their return rates, whole blood donations in total and annual donation frequencies 2010 versus 2015/2016. Furthermore, we evaluated whether over the same observation period, medical reasons for deferral underwent a change (2010 versus 2015).
Methods: The return probability of FTD within 12 months was analysed in 2010 and 2015 with respect to successful donation versus deferral and, furthermore, FTD age was determined. Total number of whole blood (WB) donations were investigated and age distribution was compared 2010 versus 2013 versus 2016. WB donation frequencies were calculated with respect to age and gender in 2010 and 2016. In a second analysis, medical reasons for deferral were differentiated into 14 categories and a possible impact of time (2010 versus 2015) on the respective percentage was studied.
Results: We observed a significant decline of the FTD return rate from 42.5% to 38.8% in successful donors while the rate remained unchanged in deferred FTD. At the same time the mean FTD age decreased from 29.1 ± 11.6 to 28.5 ± 11.7 years in 2016. Analysis of total WB donations revealed an increase of donations from donors ≥ 60 years, a constant percentage from donors < 30 years but a declining proportion of donors from 30-59 years of age from 2010 to 2013 to 2016. In parallel, annual mean WB donation frequencies decreased over time. Deferrals due to travel history increased significantly from 2010 to 2015 both in FTD and repeat donors (RD).
Conclusion: There is a detectable ongoing demographic change as well as a change of medical deferral reasons in our WB donor population. Our data prove a need for a re-evaluation of retention and recruitment strategies since previous marketing campaigns seem to have neglected the age group 30-59 years. This must be addressed in further studies as this age group will be highly relevant for assuring future blood supplies since donor recruitment from adolescents will be limited due to declining birth rates. Furthermore, deferral due to travel history is increasing significantly. Thus we will require further studies on the possible impact on donor retention.
Pricing
(2017)
The advertising industry has strongly changed over the past years. Obviously, the coming of digital media has created networking between consumers and revolutionized traditional marketing toward companies building lasting relationship with potential customers and thereby generating an exponential growth in exposure and influence still called viral marketing. Despite the fact that viral marketing is an old topic, its relevancy in the business area is quite recent. However, little research is devoted to the adoption and internal usage of social media in SMEs, which are of high social and economic importance. Findings of numerous researches on this topic have been constructed on the B2C market. For this reasons, the aim of this study seeks to address the gap in knowledge regarding the use of social media in the B2B SMEs in Germany.
Underperforming employees are quickly put into the low performer category and rash decisions and actions need to be taken. Managers “just want the problem to go away” and human resources must find a solution – transfer, change of contract, disciplinary actions are often the only choices. But it doesn’t need to always end in escalation. Early identification and communication is the first step towards a solution and a win-win situation for all parties involved. Followed by a thorough cause analysis and a matched action plan the foundation for improvement is laid. Raising awareness of plausible causes, the right actions to be taken and empowerment of the management level are the next steps towards a performance improvement oriented culture. Focusing on how to improve low performance is a corrective measure, taking actions and measures to prevent low performance to arise, like implementing a holistic performance management system, is the more effective and easier way.
Corporate Culture is more and more becoming an important factor to be competitive in the constantly changing environment. Technology as well as generation (in this case generation Y/millennials) and organizational structures are influencing the organizational performance and culture. The shift from hierarchical to networked structured organizations has an impact on the collaboration within and outside the company. Organizations need to find new ways to transmit theirs corporate culture, reach their employees and support collaboration.
Enterprise 2.0 tools are one of the newest tools of this century. Facebook and other social media platforms are already celebrating great success. So why shouldn’t it be able to reach this success in terms of internal use of social tools? And how does Enterprise 2.0 tools influence others aspects of the organizations which may as well have an impact on the corporate culture?
Digitalization is invading every aspect of our lives and modern technologies are at the helm of much disruptive change in all spheres of life. Hailed as the 4th industrial revolution every company has a mind to understand the implications of the Industry 4.0 suit of technologies and their multiple innovative applications for its operations. In this paper, we explore how the industry 4.0 transformation might affect Small and Medium sized
enterprises in Germany over a 15-year horizon. We focus on SMEs because they play a significant role in ensuring the prosperity of Germany as a global industrial and economic
powerhouse. We develop alternative pictures of the possible futures using the foresight technique of Scenario planning in which the factors that shape the business environment
SMEs and indeed all companies operate in are identified and used to build the most plausible alternative realities. The outcome is four distinct scenarios that reflect the possible growth trajectories regarding the impending transformation for SMEs.
Incentive Europe Premiums Concepts & Licensing (IEPC) is a Dutch company that specializes in the sales and distribution of premiums and promotional products. Its goal is to support companies all over Europe in terms of boosting sales numbers, increasing brand awareness or attracting new clients. In order to achieve these goals Incentive Europe has a number of assets to assist this endeavour; namely an in-office design department, over a decade of experience and a good relationship with several sourcing and production sites in China, headquarters in Amsterdam and Shenzhen (China) and a dedicated team of regional account managers.
Currently Incentive Europe Premiums Concepts & Licensing is active in several different markets within different business segments. The company has put its main focus in producing branded USB sticks and power banks and is quite successful in this regard in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain and Italy but now the company is aiming higher.
IEPC is already active in the segments of premiums and merchandising and are presently facing the challenge of entering the German premium market in the best way possible. The competition in the German market is unexplored and Incentive Europe has to find a way to gain traction in the premium market.
For this reason, this bachelor thesis is related to the German market of premiums and merchandising in order to discover and explore entry strategies and analyse the possible options.
Presently a lot of emphasis has been put on the need for brick-and-mortar stores to reinvent themselves, in light of increasing competition. Therefore, the topic of shopping experience has recently received special attention by retailers, as they increasingly endeavor to create pleasant store environments. Several studies have shown, that a positive shopping experience results in increased customer satisfaction, store loyalty and thus long-term success of a company.
While new technologies are on the rise, they have so far not been fully exploited in retail stores, neither extensively researched in the context of shopping experience.
Therefore, this bachelor thesis aims to provide a general understanding on the construct of shopping experience and explores how certain phases of the customer journey can be complemented by in-store technologies. Moreover, it provides valuable insights on the capabilities and limitations of in-store technologies. Particularly, RFID equipped tablet computers, as an in-store technology for fashion retailers, are researched in-depth.
Secondary data retrieved from academic journals, academic books, press articles and study reports are used to provide an overall understanding on the construct of shopping experience, certain customer journey phases, technologies in retail stores and on the changed buying behavior caused by digitalization.
Primary research is conducted to research RFID equipped tablet computers as a in-store technology for fashion retailers. It identifies which shopping experience determinants should be targeted, when considering the implementation of in-store technology in a fashion retail store. Moreover useful information regarding the perception towards chosen tablet functions are highlighted.
Findings are discussed with reference to available literature. Conclusions are drawn and presented as implications for fashion retailers.
In this paper, different factors influencing the perceived data security (PDS) of online shoppers are analyzed. For this purpose, the authors first conduct a literature review and later analyze the results of an empirical study, by applying a regression analyses. Based on the findings of this research, the paper identified the frequency of gathering information on the topic of data security and the experience of being hacked as factors with a significant negative impact on PDS. In addition, a well perceived benefit and, in special cases, an e-Commerce business’ brand can positively influence PDS of customers. In conclusion, the paper delivers insights into the perceptions of data security and delivers some suggestions on how a company could improve the PDS of their customers.
Differences in respiratory mechanics estimation with respect to manoeuvres and mathematical models
(2017)
The start of the financial crisis in 2007 and the collapse of Lehman Brothers the end of 2008 led to a severe global economic crisis. To counter the negative shocks of the crisis, central banks pushed their conventional monetary policy tools to their limits. As policy rates reached their zero lower bound and no further stimulation of the economy was possible through the standard operating framework, additional measures were needed to improve the overall situation of dislocated financial markets and liquidity shortages. Therefore, central banks in advanced economies implemented unconventional monetary policy measures called quantitative easing (QE). Quantitative easing mainly works through an expansion of a central bank’s balance sheets and is aimed to reach a desired inflation target of 2%. This thesis examines detailed introduction, procedures, risks, and exit strategy of QE. The focus of this thesis is on design and operation of QE conducted by the Bank of Japan, the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the European Central Bank and on their achieved results regarding interest rates and broader economic effects. In addition, evidence for the effectiveness is analyzed with help of an event study. Key findings of this thesis demonstrate that by means of QE, positive development on economic indicators can be recorded but it also has limited impacts. If central banks conduct their stimulus for too long, it creates risks, and, for this reason, an appropriate exit strategy is required to avoid ineffectiveness of the monetary policy. To date, no country has completed their exit and, therefore, the future will illustrate the final consequences of QE.
The goal of this thesis is to give an overview of the carbon footprint of the commercial aviation industry and to introduce measures to mitigate emissions. This will be done by taking the German Lufthansa Group as an example.
In the first part, relevant theoretical background information will be given. It will be shown that the commercial aviation industry is subject to steady and relatively strong growth. Even though the global share of GHG emissions caused by air traffic is currently relatively low, it is projected to increase in accordance with overall industry growth.
In the second part, measures taken by the aviation industry to reduce its emissions are presented using the example of Lufthansa. The measures that are taken are various, reaching from fleet renewal over infrastructural improvements such as airspace management to alternative fuels. It is also shown that the efficiency of an airline depends on different things and hence leads to different performances in the industry.
Even though the reduction of emissions is typically related with a reduction of costs for the aviation industry, the progress in some areas is still relatively slow.
Climate change is one of the most challenging topics to the world and has been subject to international negotiations for more than 25 years, one of the main players being the USA.
Game theory, on the other hand, is a popular tool from economics, frequently used to analyze strategic situations such as international negotiations. Together, the insights from these topics can help understand why the USA’s president Donald Trump has announced to quit the Paris Agreement and which consequences this might have for the US, other countries and for the future of international climate change negotiations. In order to assess the different implications, this thesis gives some theoretical background and presents game theoretic findings on climate change negotiations. It will be found that, from a game theoretic point of view, different reasons might have caused the USA to take this decision and that there is a chance that a withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement could have some effect on the future of climate protection. However, a precise assessment would require further research on the topic.
The goal of this thesis was to create a sustainable and global training concept for the department Industrialization of the Marquardt Group. For that reason qualitative interviews with global Industrialization employees were conducted to get an overview of the current training situation in all Marquardt subsidiaries. The interviews showed that the employees in the subsidiaries lack a local contact person and support regarding questions arising after the training. Therefore a literature research on learning transfer and global training concepts was performed leading to a focus on the factor trainer of the Baldwin & Ford (1988) model. The proposal includes a restructuring of the headquarter-subsidiary relationship with local trainers for each subsidiary who train the local employees and thereby support the learning transfer.
“The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit” – Milton Friedman.
There has always been, across the history, a human side, an ideology, that people follow with the hope of finding justice and equity in the world. This concept has always been adapting to the culture, time, and situation it faces. In our actual economic system, this concept is known as social responsibility, and to adapt to the market necessities it has evolved to corporate social responsibility, but apparently, when the people want to see results this is not enough.
The markets are expanding, we live in a world where everything and everyone are connected, there is no more privacy, and therefore, no place to hide. Companies need to be honest with the information they share and should follow the international rules for environmental and social protection and development. People are demanding better quality, more innovation, and eco-friendly and socially responsible company. The people verify many factors before acquiring any product, starting with the quality, the suppliers, the factories conditions, the employee’s satisfaction levels, and the corporate responsibility of the company.
The central topic of this thesis is the so called “corporate volunteering” a concept that brings together the business necessities and ties them together with the social responsibility. In this concept, the company participates actively and directly to enhance the social and environmental situation, using their resources, and their human capital. There are many advantages of implementing the corporate volunteering, but also many factors to consider while changing the corporate culture, and transmitting values.
The idea of this text is to present the corporate volunteering as a new concept, highly efficient for the companies and communities, while analyzing its changes, objectives, implementations, benefits and challenges to face while implementing the corporate volunteering.
In response to the global financial crisis, some of the major central banks in the world have implemented so-called unconventional monetary policy tools, in particular Quantitative Easing. These tools were aimed to improve conditions in financial markets, to provide liquidity and later on, in response to the European sovereign debt crisis, also to stimulate the economies. At the height of the European sovereign debt crisis Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, said that “…the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro” on 26 July 2012. How much will it take? What could be the negative side effects? And in particular, what are the implications for financial stability? These questions become increasingly important, as the balance between benefits and costs of such tools tends to worsen the longer QE is in place.
This paper wants to answer whether QE could have negative impacts on financial stability and if so, whether it could lead to another episode of financial instability, i.e. a financial crisis. First, it will explain what monetary policy is, which goals it has and what the conventional and unconventional monetary policy tools are, that central banks can use, e.g. QE. The next part will explain what financial stability is and which factors can lead to a financial crisis by using the most recent episode, the global recession.
This thesis will mainly focus on the negative impacts, the QE programme of the European Central Bank has on financial markets and the banking sector. Only in the analysis of the financial markets, it will make an exception and also include the programmes of the Bank of England, Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve. The analysis of the financial markets will include results of other research papers, studies and journal articles as well as a self-conducted event study, by analyzing QE announcements and their impact on bond yields and stock indices. The analysis of the banking sector will focus on financial stability indicators, their response to QE announcements and their development in the time QE was implemented incorporating results found by other researchers. In the final part, all results found here will be brought together to answer whether or not QE negatively affects financial stability.
Changes are constantly accelerating. A major issue that companies are dealing with is how to communicate those changes in a way that is efficient and effective and therefore successful. Traditional models such as the ones by Lewin, Bridges or Kotter are reaching their limits due to the orientation on fixed vision, goals and processes. The time has come to change the way change is managed. New organizational structures are therefore required. An example of a new model to deal with the speed of change is agile management. Agility provides a platform for better communication, including the quantity and quality aspect. IMS Gear, an automotive supplier located in South Germany, is currently in the stage of a transition. Agile mindsets are anchored in their vision and strategy, yet the implementation of agile frameworks is still improvable. The PEP project is a first step into the direction of ensuring the future of the company despite all external and internal changes. Therefore, based on a model by Audi AG consultant Gergs, improvement approaches are developed.
This Bachelor Thesis aims to review previous studies in the broad field of M&A. It assesses whether M&A activities are beneficial for shareholders in terms of their returns. Effects on shareholder wealth, both in the short- and long-run, will be evaluated within this thesis. For this purpose, a large data set covering a time horizon of 64 years starting in 1950 until 2014 is used in the short-run. The long-run period involves 81 years lasting from 1929 to 2010. After an overall comparison, taking into account all takeover deals, a more detailed analysis of the announcement effects of M&As considering several different takeover characteristics will be executed. In the short-run, returns for bidder, target and combined firms’ shareholders are considered. For long-run shareholders’ wealth, data only for bidder firms will be evaluated.
The results show that shareholders of target, bidder and combined firms earn significantly positive returns upon the announcement of M&As. Most gains however accrue to target firms’ shareholders. Long-run returns to bidder firms’ shareholders seem to be negative across all three event windows. The longer the event windows, the more negative returns to shareholders. The results also demonstrate that takeover characteristics can significantly influence shareholder wealth.
Furthermore, this thesis aims to address following research questions: (1) what drives M&A activity and what are the individual motives for M&A decisions? And (2) how do several takeover characteristics impact the outcome of M&As?
Analysis of the evolution of banking sector stability in Europe since the global financial crisis
(2017)
The period of the global financial crisis followed by the sovereign debt crisis represents the strongest period of recession in Europe since the Great Depression in 1929. The response by regulators and politics were extensive regulatory reforms that influence the banking sector massively. This thesis has the purpose to describe how banking sector stability can be defined, why regulation is necessary in the banking sector and to shed light on the complicated system of the resulting regulatory institutions in Europe by means of a qualitative literature research. In addition, this thesis evaluates the effectiveness of the current regulatory reforms and the current state of banking sector stability on the basis of a quantitative analysis of risk indicators with respect to the newly introduced regulations. It can be concluded that the regulatory reforms are an improvement in stability enhancement with potential for more improvement, however. Individual banks’ stability has also improved, whereas stability in the whole banking sector cannot be considered as much greater.
Creating successful teams after an M&A is challenging enough when employees share the same location and the same cultural background, but when the team consists of people coming from different cultures and is working in different locations, social distance can cause misunderstandings, distrust and miscommunication which makes successful M&As even more challenging. After the acquisition of Letrika in Slovenia and Kokusan Denki in Japan, the workforce within MAHLEs mechatronic division became highly diverse. On the one hand, this diversification is regarded as added value, but on the other hand it bears numerous challenges in day-to day business.
This thesis aims to outline cultural differences between Japan, Slovenia and Germany that affect collaboration within this division. Using literature research and an online questionnaire, the author intends to compare theoretical concepts with actual data collected at MAHLE Mechatronics. The questionnaire also includes multiple open questions that allow examining the current situation and supports the findings with real-life examples.
The first part focuses on the theoretical framework for this thesis. In chapter two an understanding for the concept of culture is given. Different models and explanations provide fundamental knowledge to grasp the construct of culture. Chapter 2.1. depicts the Lewis model, a model developed in 1996 categorizing cultures into three groups. In chapter 2.2., the paper continues with the GLOBE model which forms the basis of the empirical research conducted at MAHLE. Afterwards, culture specific characteristics of Japan, Germany and Slovenia are portrayed and compared in order to predict possible clashes that might emerge in work-related encounters (chapter 3). The illustration of the concept of intercultural competence, a skill to manage, understand, decode and interpret behaviors and mindsets of people from different cultures, will conclude the first part of this thesis (chapter 4).
Chapter five describes the methodology used in this paper. The findings of this study are presented in chapter six and are followed by the discussion and reflection (chapter 7). The paper concludes with an analysis and interpretation (chapter 7.1.), recommendations for future action (chapter 7.2.) and limitations of the study (chapter 7.3.) highlighting the main findings of the study and emphasizing the development of intercultural competence at MAHLEs mechatronic division.
In 2008 a white paper called “Bitcoin: A Peer-To-Peer Electronic Cash System” was published by Satoshi Nakamoto. This paper describes an electronic payment system that succeeds where many have failed before. The system is called Bitcoin and it deals with the double spending problem. Also, it is a peer-to-peer decentralized system meaning that it works separately from any government or any financial institution. Bitcoin relies on cryptographic proof-of-work blocks any chance of protocol disruption. Satoshi Nakamoto called Bitcoin an electronic payment system but the public now calls it a cryptocurrency because of its similarities to a currency.
Many pessimists thought that Bitcoin could never be successful and that this technology will not have any value in the future. Despite that, a considerable amount of people believe in the possibilities of cryptocurrencies and in the possible developments that this futuristic technology could inspire, especially in the financial service sector.
This purpose of this thesis is to investigate cryptocurrencies and the financial service industry in order to examine the challenges and opportunities that cryptocurrencies deliver. Section I of the paper will look into cryptocurrencies and their mechanism. Afterwards, an analysis of whether cryptocurrencies are actual currency will be given. The next section of the thesis will cover government regulations on cryptocurrencies. Then, the paper will analyze public perception and why it is important. Section II of this thesis evaluates the current financial service system and the potential benefits of the blockchain. Central banks and moral hazards in the finance sector are examined afterwards. Then, analysis on inflation and wealth is provided. After that, a summary of the advantages and drawbacks of both the cryptocurrency system and the traditional finance service system are given, followed by a section that estimates the utilities and effects of cryptocurrencies in the future. Finally, a conclusion is derived.
Managing employee engagement in high-growth companies: The case of Red Hat in high-growth companies
(2017)
Purpose
This thesis aims to analyze employee engagement in high growth companies with the case of Red Hat.
Methodology
Primary research involved the gathering of a mix of qualitative data in the open- source IT company Red Hat in the United Kingdom. Both an interview and a focus group methodology was applied. Literature from the research fields of employee engagement was reviewed and integrated into the primary research design.
Findings
The findings showed that fast-growing companies encounter many challenges in the fields of employee impact and purpose, recruiting and retaining, career development, leadership and management, and organizational culture. Best practices on how to scale culture were worked out. The findings concluded that actionable solutions such as modifying the recruiting process for cultural fit and giving more autonomy to regional leaders and teams, can help cope with the challenges of employee engagement in a fast-paced environment.
Limitations and implications for further research
One of the main limitations of this study is the lack of literature available to link organizational growth and employee engagement. Contrasting more stable environments with change environments or using a larger sample size may potentially add to this field with further reliable and insightful findings. This issue may be re-investigated in the future as well, as the nature of change environments can affect the findings. Red Hat is a very people-focused company with a flat hierarchy. Thus, investigating this issue in more hierarchical companies could lead to different findings with different challenges and would further complete this research field.
Although sustainability reporting in China receives more attention in the past ten years, effective studies and literature of sustainability reporting are still in urgent need. A good sustainability reporting will provide stakeholders with needed information and guidance in the activities, and it also minimises the potential harm while creating economic, social and environmental values (Schaltegger & Wagner, 2006, 5). The main objectives of this research are not only to have an overall view of Chinese sustainability reporting situation but also to look into how Chinese companies will develop or what needs to be changed for a better development. To achieve this goal, sustainability reporting issued by top 10 manufacturing companies will be studied concerning GRI. During the analysis, the GRI Specific Standard Disclosures and Principle of Defining Report will be adopted to view how Chinese companies perform in sustainability reporting both in content and quality. Further, the possible elements of influencing companies development will be illustrated. Then make an attempt of what will future SR focus. The result obtained from the analysis is that Chinese sustainability reporting still have many problems in both quality and content. Most of them share the similar preference on how and what to disclose, such as focusing on resource saving. After making an explanation of what will affect future development of the companies in China, it is concluded that in the future the focus of SR will be concentrated on adoption of new energy, technology innovation, application of greener supply chain and consumption of green products.
The concept of Job Crafting was developed by Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane E. Dutton in 2001. It describes job alterations initiated by employees that can occur in three different ways: Task crafting, relational crafting and cognitive crafting. The aim of Job Crafting is the better alignment of employee needs and preferences to the job demands and rewards.
In this bachelor thesis, the concept of Job Crafting will be explained and will be put into the context of similar concepts. Both, positive and negative outcomes of Job Crafting behaviour will be explained and opposed. The outcomes can have the form of increased motivation, performance and person-job fit which are intended by the Job Crafting behaviour. But misalignments of Job Crafting with organisational goals and negative impacts on colleagues on the negative side can also occur and need to be considered. The bachelor thesis also illustrates important motivators for Job Crafting and the most important aspects that play a role in Job Crafting behaviour. In the end, the thesis provides an outlook of Job Crafting based on the information that was evaluated. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to provide an insight into the concept of Job Crafting and to inform about the recent state of research on the topic.
Job Crafting is considered to be a rather positive employee behaviour that mostly results in better outcomes for employees than before Job Crafting actions. As organisation in the current economic state need to be adaptive in order to stay competitive, Job Crafting offers a solution for organisations to provide their employees with enough freedom to stay flexible. Job Crafting is not to be considered as a substitute for common Job design but rather as a complement to it that can be used by employees to further enhance their behaviour and performance. Managers should be aware of its existence and even foster it into a direction that benefits the organisation.
HomeMade, a Dutch producer of business-to-customer baking mixes established in 2004, belongs since July 2014 to the internationally operating company Royal Smilde bv with their business unit Smilde Bakery bv which is an industrial bakery for the business-to-business market. One of the countries HomeMade can introduce its products to is Germany as the mother company Smilde Bakery has a sales subsidiary in this country with an own sales force of which HomeMade can make use. One main research question and six underlying sub-questions are addressed in the research work. The main question is about “What marketing strategy should HomeMade adopt for their market introduction in Germany?” and the sub-questions are used to answer the main question by looking at macro-environmental factors, the performance of potential competitors, the market attractiveness, the characteristics of possible customers in Germany, the distribution channels available and the current performance of HomeMade on the Dutch market. To answer these questions, primary research (qualitative interviews and a survey) and secondary research (literature and desk) have been conducted. Each chapter of the research work is designed to answer one sub-question to make conclusions about the suitable marketing strategy of HomeMade in Germany. The strategy will be derived in the final part of the research work by comparing the identified strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities and threats of all sub-questions and giving recommendations and plans for implementation as well as a cost estimation for the chosen marketing strategy of HomeMade’s market introduction to Germany.
Mobile diagnostics – or mobile health in general – is highly appealing, not only for clinicians, but also for patients. It implies empowerment, in particular of those who are really in need, such as inhabitants of less developed regions within the world who have limited access to healthcare. It also implies simplification: Easy data management – a continuous flow of information. Therefore, development of miniaturized and highly integrated diagnostic systems allowing near patient “instant” diagnostics gain a lot of momentum since more than a decade. However, system integration requires time and a significant amount of investment. In addition, there is strong competition on resources from other emergent technologies, such as next generation sequencing which made the collection of e.g. human genome data less expensive and much faster. A more severe challenge is that mobile diagnostics require a change in healthcare management, e.g. towards integrated practice units. This, in turn, requires implementation of adequate reimbursement, standards of interoperability, training of staff, quality control. In 2010, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) launched the grant initiative Mobile Diagnostic Systems (MD, 2011─2015) as part of its high-tech strategy. MD aimed at generating knowledge on how microsystem technologies fit into German healthcare environments. On the basis of interviews with multidisciplinary MD actors, this thesis evaluated retrospectively how the publicly funded innovation network managed to overcome pre-defined external barriers of diffusion, including technology, regulatory affairs and market access. Retrospectives reveal internal barriers involving knowledge and technology transfer, negatively influencing generation of innovation. In particular, financing still represents a high hurdle for biotech innovators in Germany: Larger firms look predominately for market-ready or in-market technologies rather than prototypes and venture capitalists are rare or extremely risk-averse. Another important finding was, that actors involved were highly focused on individual work packages. This risks of not seeing the whole environment embedding MD. Consequently, potential opportunities may be missed, e.g. synergies with relatively close (DIALOC) or more distant initiatives (Global Health Delivery Project-based discussion rounds). This could be partly due to the fact that publicly funded networking activities provide less freedom-to-operate because of pre-defined milestones. In addition, further development of actors with respect to role playing (e.g. boundary spanning or innovation selling) is often not included in such “innovation packages”, but can help to maneuver change. Internal barriers need to be addressed first before targeting the major remaining external hurdle: Reimbursement. Although the latter was covered within MD, standardization of technology evaluation is still an unmet need which strongly influences the willingness-to-implement novel mobile diagnostics. Thus, the value added is to be demonstrated to justify adequate reimbursement. Achieving this goal can be successful, when innovation networking finds its path towards a common vision, e.g. towards value-based integrated healthcare. Pathfinding and visioning can be facilitated by process promoter with excellent network management capabilities. In addition, such a promoter could help to further develop engagement, openness and commitment of collaborators. Therefore, transfer of MD activities to established “top” networks or clusters is recommended for securing valuable knowledge generated. In this environment, an important next step – globalization of MD for ensuring future return on investment – could be triggered as well.
Since MD innovation was found to involve both product and service innovation, maneuvering change is particularly challenging for small and medium sized enterprises. These could benefit from engagement in innovation networking. Findings of this case study can help all direct and indirect actors in the field of MD innovation or in other high complex environments to reconsider pathfinding as well as role playing in networking.
Beginning in the mid 2007’s the US financial market started to slide into the “worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the early 1930’s” (Thakor, 2015: p.156). The domino effect of several events and occasions were leading first to a countrywide recession in the USA then later spreading globally. In the following this term paper will deal with the main causes and effects of 2008 financial crisis. Unlike other topics in literature there is no consensus about the question of guilt in this sense. Among economists there are different approaches to explain the main causes of the financial crisis.
Free trade agreements are a constantly discussed issue within economies and between relations within the whole world. Every economy is currently dealing with a lot of free trade agreements influencing their economic situation. All over the world, there are currently over 225 free trade agreements in circulation
For the last hundred years an increasing number of women pushed into male dominated employment but today women still claim to face gender specific inequalities on many levels (Torre 2014). This shift to recruit more nontraditional work force once was generated by a mismatch of labor market demand and labor market supply as well as the economic pressure to be cost efficient. Nowadays it can be observed that employers are more sensitive to society valuation but still they are not able to prevent inequalities caused by sex distinction (Reskin 1993).
Nowadays Islamic banking is relatively unknown in the Western world, but Islam has around 1,57 billion believers worldwide and is the second largest religion in the world. The number of Muslims is constantly increasing over the years. Not only for Muslims, but also for all other people this system provides a new and different way of banking.