Refine
Year of publication
- 2019 (279) (remove)
Document type
- Article (peer-reviewed) (85)
- Conference Proceeding (74)
- Bachelor Thesis (73)
- Part of a Book (13)
- Other (11)
- Contribution to a Periodical (6)
- Report (6)
- Book (4)
- Doctoral Thesis (4)
- Master's Thesis (3)
Language
- English (279) (remove)
Keywords
- Online-Ressource (7)
- Electrical impedance tomography (5)
- Posterpräsentation (5)
- Industry 4.0 (4)
- Leadership (4)
- Anxiety (3)
- Communication (3)
- Cortisol (3)
- Germany (3)
- Global mobility (3)
Course of studies
Despite the growing interest of the media, businesses and consumers in recent years, cryptocurrencies have not reached widespread adoption to date. Research on the factors that induce consumers to use this new technology or that prevent them from using it is scarce. Therefore, this thesis aims at identifying factors that influence consumer adoption of cryptocurrencies. First, a research model based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was developed and extended by the factors perceived risk and perceived trust. Then, primary data was collected by conducting a survey on consumers’ perception of cryptocurrencies. The hypotheses were tested through a multiple regression analysis and perceived usefulness was found to have the strongest impact on consumers’ intention to use cryptocurrencies, followed by perceived trust. Furthermore, gender has proven to have an effect on the intention to use cryptocurrencies, with male consumers being more likely to use cryptocurrencies.
With the fourth industrial revolution, advanced technological products play a key role in the development of all countries around the world. In recent years, there has been a drastic increase in the demand for high-tech merchandises in ASEAN nations. The purpose of this thesis is to identify the trends, opportunities and challenges that German high-tech producers may come across when they want to enter ASEAN markets. In addition to that recommendations on some strategies that could be used by German enterprise (SMEs) to ease entry into this market shall be discussed. The research analysis secondary data from TrendEconomy to determine the trade trends of German high-tech goods in ASEAN area, and then to implement SWOT and five Porter’s force analysis to identify the potential ASEAN markets. The result of this research is that Vietnam is seen as an attractive market for German high-tech products such as aerospace, computer-office machine, pharmaceuticals, scientific instruments and chemistry. Furthermore, Philippines is a potential place for German computer-office machine and electronics-telecommunications, Singapore is a good destination for scientific instruments and armament. In addition to that, Thailand and Malaysia are ideal nations for pharmaceuticals and machinery, respectively.
Time – Made in Germany
(2019)
The growth of Islamic banking is evident from its presence in over 60 countries and the establishment of Islamic branches by major conventional banks. Despite its small share in global financial assets, there is extensive literature examining the performance of Islamic banks. Some researchers claim that Islamic finance is imitating conventional banks and it has therefore become necessary to understand the business model of Islamic banks. This bachelor thesis reviews theoretical and empirical literature to identify differences between Islamic and conventional banks. The objective is to examine the stability of Islamic banking by comparing performance indicators on capitalization, stability, profitability and efficiency. The results indicate that competitive pressure leads Islamic banks to deviate from their principles which promote profit and loss sharing (PLS). The preference for PLS lies within the fact that profit is earned on actual performance. Deposits in Islamic banking may also be structured according to PLS and it is observed that Islamic banks distribute profits even if they earned a loss to prevent withdrawal. Although Islamic banks tend to be better capitalized and more profitable than conventional banks, the data on their stability and liquidity are inconclusive. Data gathered on efficiency indicate that Islamic banks are more profit efficient while conventional banks are more cost efficient. Islamic banks seem to spend more on remuneration and training which positively impacts managerial competence. The limitation of this paper is that the reviewed empirical studies are based on different sample sets. In addition, Islamic banks might not pursue the same practice everywhere as Shariah law is based on interpretation. This leads to differences in what is considered Shariah-compliant and therefore reduces the comparison’s reliability.
The aim of this paper is to explore factors driving and affecting motivation of workers for participating in Crowdsourcing platforms and propose adequate incentive mechanisms. A general definition what mainly motivates crowd workers, poses a difficult task, as it depends on a diversity of opportunities and challenges, which entail Crowdsourcing systems. Although they represent a common notion for the majority of crowd workers, these opportunities and challenges do not have the same effect on their motivation, as crowd workers are in different situations and differ in their influenceability. Thus, creating incentive mechanisms for such a heterogeneous pool of people with different backgrounds, holding different reasons and motivations concerning their participation at Crowdsourcing platforms represents a major challenge. In any case, incentives should meet the needs of the increasing number of remote workers in order to motivate them participating in Crowdsourcing platforms and contribute with quality work. This in return will ensure the sustainability of the Crowdsourcing system.
The present bachelor dissertation deals with the increasing popularity and attractiveness of fitness studios in the German market, the resulting competition and the possibility to differentiate oneself by adapting various marketing measures. The classical marketing mix and its existing instruments are explained in detail, and the possibility to use them in the area of sport and explicit fitness is reviewed. The effectiveness and application of the instruments are then explained using the example of McFIT, which has become the current market leader through their successful use. A competition analysis comparing McFIT and two competitors in the German market helps to identify existing strengths and weaknesses and compare the companies.
Sales promotional tools are of significant importance in attracting potential customers and retaining current customers. We can already have access to many studies in examining and comparing the causes and effects that different sales promotional strategies could bring to various aspects, such as, sales, brand name and brand loyalty. Several researches have also explained the irrational buying decisions and behaviors consumers have when they are given framed promotional message. Researches have shown that, in many cases, consumers tend to go for a free offer (bonus pack) instead of a discount offer although the economic value is equal. It is also shown by previous studies from students of Hochschule Furtwangen University have concluded that in Germany, for non-durable goods, consumer’s willingness to pay is higher with BOGOF offer then that of discount’s. They have also conclude that the effects that promotional tools could bring are long term by designing the survey with situation that the promotion has expired. It is known that BOGOF is preferred over discount, but how good is BOGOF compared to when there is no promotion given? And are there any changes in consumer’s perception towards product’s quality with different promotion applied? This study will be focusing on two promotional strategies: discount and BOGOF in the non-durable goods industry in Europe and in China. There will be a Baseline Test and an A/B survey. A total of 1061 participants were randomly selected to participate in an online survey. The questions of the Baseline Test are under a situation with no promotion, while A survey’s questions are under a situation of ended discount and B surveys are under a finished BOGOF offer. The survey results indicated that, both in Europe and China, the willingness to pay for non-durable products in BOGOF offer is higher than that of the discounts, while the baselines are close with the result of discounts. This study has the potential to contribute to academics and marketers in the non-durable goods industry as it consolidates previous findings and provides insights of the relationship between baseline and promotional tools.
Promotional offers play a significant role in order to obtain and retain new and existing customers. There are already many researches comparing the performance and effectiveness of sales strategies during the promotional period. Results reveal that the framing of the saving message influences consumers’ perception of the price which in turn leads to an uncommon purchase decision. Even though the offers are mostly economically equivalent, people have preferences depending on the pricing practice. Data from previous researches shows that in many cases bonus packs are generally more preferred than a discount. Most commonly applied in-store strategies in Germany are price discount and buy one get one free. Will the value perception for BOGOF still be higher than price discount after the promotion expires? This study will specifically focus on BOGOF and price discount in the consumer nondurable goods industry. A total of 450 randomly selected people participated in the A/B survey. The A survey focusses on questions relating to price discount whereas the B survey includes questions regarding BOGOF. In both surveys, the promotion is no longer valid. The survey data reveals that the willingness to pay for consumer nondurable goods during the post-promotion phase is higher when promoting with BOGOF rather than with price discount. This research has the potential to form a crucial answer for academics and marketers in the consumer nondurable goods industry as it provides insight of the long-term influence of promotion on consumer psychology.
How value is perceived has a large influence on the purchase decisions of customers. Previous studies have focused mainly on the value perception of customers, but which role does the value perception of a seller play and what impact does it have on a sales conversation? Is the value of a product or service perceived equally by the seller and the customer or is there a significant difference?
In this research we will specifically focus on the tourism industry and find out how sellers and customers perceive the value of a package holiday. A total of 50 sellers and 100 customers participated in our survey and the results show, that there is a significant difference in the perceived value of the offered package holiday between sellers and customers. The sellers tend to perceive value lower than the customers and in addition, the sellers’ value perception is characterized by a lower variability. Furthermore, when it comes to estimating how the other side perceives value, our results show the opposite of what the respondents expected.
This research has the potential to provide an insight into the mind of the sales person and lead to a better understanding of sales psychology.
Based on the history of office design, the changing technological environment and current business challenges, the physical workplace is an important aspect of the employee experience. The aesthetics of the work environment are one aspect that influences well-being and satisfaction on many different levels. This thesis provides a holistic and comprehensive perspective on the topic, including important influential factors from several scientific disciplines.
Two main dimensions of influence on the employee experience are considered. The direct- affective dimension deals with findings mostly from environmental psychology and neuroscience, which includes the impact of internal environmental quality and other psychological effects. Despite not always being consciously recognized, aesthetics and sensual perception have strong implications for the psychological well-being of organizational members.
The indirect-cognitive dimension deals with the work environment as an expression of organizational culture and the resulting implications of aesthetic considerations and the related symbolic and functional dimensions of the physical work environment. Common organizational artifacts and themes are explored as examples of the influence of aesthetic considerations for workplace design.
Next to the employee perspective, the managerial perspective and important implications, restrictions and issues for organizations in the creation and operation of workspaces are also considered.
Empirical research has been conducted to evaluate the application of aesthetic considerations and related issues in practice. Four expert interviews provide insight into the perspective of workplace design professionals on the aesthetics and related aspects of design, implementation processes and employee experience.
The aesthetic dimension of workplace design is often not actively considered by organizational members and management, but the research conducted in this work provides far-reaching evidence for the potential benefits of more considerate design choices for the aesthetics and beauty in the workplace. Using measures on both the direct and indirect levels of influence, the well-being and satisfaction of employees can be increased, and the attitudes and feelings held towards the organization can be improved. The importance of the interrelated fields of organizational culture and cultural change is explored. In addition, practical recommendations for the optimization of the aesthetical dimension of workplace design are offered at the conclusion of this work.
Digital transformation and globalization have become so prominent in today's life, that companies have to innovate in order to stay on the markets continuously. Thousands of new digital solutions are developed and launched daily, making it hard for the big slow corporation to catch up. In order to gain a competitive advantage, many corporates opened up to external sources of innovation such as suppliers, consumers, and startups.
This research focuses on showing how corporates and startups can mutually benefit from collaboration and particularly in the DACH region of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. To highlight the importance of the strategic partnership, the research also includes a short analysis of the main cultural differences between startups and corporates, an economic overview of the region and the characteristics of a collaboration between startups and corporates.
To investigate the topic, qualitative research based on published secondary data has been carried out.
The impact of Social Media Marketing on consumer decision-making process in the tourism industry
(2019)
Decisions are defining our daily lives. Consumers are making decisions frequently. Since new technologies appeared, and globalization is rising, people are facing new challenges and are confronted with more decisions to make than it was two decades earlier.
Decisions are made in every industry. Likewise, it is in tourism.
The tourism industry is booming, and the necessity of the internet required more than ever. Simultaneously tourism industry is faced with a new consumer who is creating, commenting, sharing, liking and posting content. Hence, it is more complex to analyze and understand this form of consumer. Changing position from an offline to an online member of the internet have had a huge impact on consumers’ behavior. Adaptation of Social Media Marketing to the new consumers tend to be more difficult than it was earlier. Consumers are getting more communicative dispose of a wider range of information, as the internet became a tool to interact and communicate. It is now more important that the tourism industry acts in a successful and sustainable way to improve its Social Media performance and adapt communication processes to be able to influence decisionmaking and direct consumer to their touristic supply.
At this academic work, firstly, it is identified the term “tourism” to analyze the decisionmaking process adapted to the tourism industry. Moreover, critical phases, which can be strongly influenced by Social Media Marketing are defined, based on theoretical research.
Moreover, a model is going to be designed, which describes adequate Social Media applications which are influencing consumers’ decision-making process. This is based on a quantitative research in form of a questionnaire. The resulting model is proved and discussed later approached by a qualitative research, which will be designed as an expert discussion.
With the rise of the “Quiet Revolution” in the past years, introversion has gained significant importance on an international scale. Especially in individualistic cultures being an introvert does not fit the “Extrovert Ideal” and can lead to unpleasant situations in daily life. Introversion is a personality trait that can mainly be defined by the way a person gains its energy. While introverts gain energy in more quiet environments, the opposite is the case for extraverts. This bachelor thesis intends not only to capture the perception of introversion in the German speaking world, but the main focus is on the impact of introversion in the application process, specifically the reaction of introverts to certain personal characteristics mentioned in job advertisements. As the collected data of an online survey shows, introverts react differently to job advertisements that require characteristics involving a high degree of social interaction. While many introverts know that characteristics like the ability to communicate or work in a team appear in a high number of job advertisements for a variety of different jobs, they would apply to these positions, but given other options, they would rather choose less socially engaging positions. When communication skills are required, slightly more than half of the participants would not apply to the position. Lastly, the perception of introversion from an introvert’s view is mixed. While roughly 75% of the participants feel like introverts are more likely to be disadvantaged in the application process and slightly more than 50% replied that they would prefer to be extraverted, the other half responded that they prefer to stay the way they are, some people mentioning that they wish their skills would be appreciated more.
This essay takes a fresh look at the interactions between Germany and its halal food market by evoking the facts, challenges, and opportunities of a norm that sets the limit between lawful and unlawful. Moreover, following the steps of various conducted research papers that analyzed the halal food market in different ethnic societies, this study aims to find out some of the significant success factors within the halal supply chain management in a German business context.
The effective, long-term management of natural resource wealth represents a big challenge for extractive countries like the Republic of Chile. The blessing of commodity abundance is accompanied by a phenomenon referred to as the resource curse. The implied limited economic growth and the general tendency towards opaque, exclusive and corrupt dynamics present in the extractive business foster the necessity for a strong transparency framework.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has dedicated its efforts to this problem and has established an international standard for data availability and civil society participation along the extractive value chain. Analyzing the effectiveness and suitability of this approach for the achievement of greater transparency in the Chilean mineral resource management, it will be found that the EITI represents the appropriate basis for enhancing commodity governance. However, it will turn out that Chile’s individual motivation and consistency are vital for the initiative’s success.
This thesis provides a general assessment of the subject. Further research would be required in order to provide a precise evaluation.
Due to changes in the labour market, the share of atypical employment in Germany has risen substantially. This has implications on the old-age provision of the persons concerned, since the German pension framework has been primarily developed for persons under standard employment. The analysis shows that the statutory pension insurance discriminates against the self employed, since their entry into the system is only provided in an atypical manner. Marginally and part time employed often fail to accumulate entitlements and thus their risk of old-age poverty is high. Moreover, the quantitative assessment of the statutory pension framework unveils that independent retirement planning is in conflict with the statutory basic income provision as it undermines individual efforts. In the light of a changing work environment and the rise of the digital economy, future trends are posing challenge on the German system. Those require reforms, in order to ensure a higher accessibility of more flexible employment forms into the statutory pension insurance as well as other types of state-subsidised retirement plans.
Global warming provokes our climate and the world how we know it today to change severely. The production of food together with its consumption is responsible for 19-29% of world’s greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities and further rises are
expected. As a response to this phenomenon, the assessment of a product’s carbon footprint has awaken huge interest with the purpose of controlling food’s environmental impact during its life-cycle. In order to involve individuals in the target of reducing harmful emissions, besides governmental and business efforts, CO2 labels have been developed to communicate a product’s carbon footprint and enabling consumers to make more climate-friendly purchase decisions. However, it has been shown that a successful
implementation of CO2 labels on grocery products still confronts barriers from the consumer side.
For a better understanding of the meaning of mentioned labels, this thesis deepens the theoretical backgrounds of greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint related to the food industry. In a second step, the acceptance and effectiveness of carbon labels on
groceries will be analysed critically by using contextual literature reviews and a case study on German purchase behaviour.
Digitalization is one of the major challenges for companies today. Well-established “traditional” companies have to adapt and develop new business models to stay competitive. Digitalization, connected services and alternative drive technologies are identified as key trends in the automotive industry. New competitors from different industry segments, e.g. IT industry, enter the automotive industry. Therefore, the automotive industry faces new challenges due to digitalization. These challenges are identified in the scope of this thesis. One major is a transformation of the classic sales process of a vehicle. Mercedes-Benz Special Trucks developed a new certified partner program. Bodybuilders, who are working with the model series Econic, can apply for the partner status.
Furthermore, Mercedes-Benz Special Trucks will launch a product information platform. Bodybuilders have the opportunity to market themselves and their products on the platform. Therefore, this thesis aims to identify the theoretical factors of the success of a digital platform and to transfer these factors to the automotive industry. Qualitative research methods were conducted to examine the practical relevance of these factors. By analyzing already existing platforms in the automotive industry, it turned out that many industry-specific success factors are already implemented. Thereby a series of recommendations for actions, regarding the design and optimization of the EconicPartner Portal, were derived.
Many articles claim that the successful management of organizational change is from utmost importance to ensure the survival and prosperity of the company in the fast moving and ever-changing business environment. There are various techniques, models and theories that were created to help companies to cope with organizational change.
This thesis aims to conduct secondary research to answer the following research questions:
1. Are change management models still relevant in the 21st century concerning their applicability and expected outcome?
2. How can the Change Management models be compared?
3. What role does leadership play in organizational change management?
Therefore, the following eight change management models are considered:
• Lewin’s Change Model
• ADKAR Model
• Kotter’s 8-Step Model
• Kübler-Ross Change Curve
• McKinsey’s 7s Model
• Nudge Theory
• Bridges Transition Model
• The Satir change management model
It can be concluded that the eight change management models are still relevant in the 21st century but the implementation must be well planned and precisely organized and implemented in a faster pace than in the past. The models can be divided into two categories - organizational and individual change management theories. Through an analysis of the findings it can be stated that good leadership of the ongoing organizational change is indispensable. There is no doubt in the fact that change management needs to be well managed but in order to be well comprehended by the employees and sustained, effective leadership is necessary. It can be summarized that effective leadership of organizational
3
change needs to combine the intellectual, spiritual, emotional and behavioral dimension with a strong focus on vision, values, corporate culture, strategy, empowerment of the employees, motivation as well as inspiration.
We are constantly surrounded by internationalization in both our professional and private lives. It is assumed that recent graduates, especially from international study programs, have a broad horizon regarding our world and that they put a lot of emphasis on living and working internationally. Besides a review of relevant literature, the author conducted qualitative interviews with international graduates to research if that assumption was true. He focused on global mobility, which was perceived to play a vital role when linking internationalization and the attractiveness of an employer. The findings from the interviews showed that aspects of internationalization such as the opportunity to work abroad or in an international environment were arguably the most important to them.
The purpose of this thesis is to give readers an understanding about internationalization and its relevant factors, the role of global mobility and how it can be used to increase a company’s attractiveness as an employer.
The Bill, Please! Households' Real Returns on Financial Assets Since the Introduction of the Euro
(2019)
Resulting from the rapid technological advancement in the field of artificial intelligence and its implementation in the business world, intelligent systems are gradually adopted in recruitment. As this development is fast evolving and recent, there is comparatively little research about artificial intelligence in conjunction with recruitment. Hence, this thesis aims at exploring the effects of intelligent algorithms on the recruitment process and the biases involved.To investigate the topic, existing literature was analysed and primary research in form of expert interviews was conducted.The thesis describes the current state of implementation, effects on recruiters and bias as well as potential drawbacks. Overall, it was identified that artificial intelligence cannot prevent bias in personnel selection.The findings imply the need to further research the topic, particularly the implications of algorithmic bias.
Due to an increasing talent shortage, many organizations have started professionalizing their corporate approach on talent in recent years, as the contribution of talent to future corporate success is considered to be critical (cf. Michaels, Handfield-Jones & Axelrod 2001).
This thesis will explicitly address and discuss questions and problems regarding talent identification. The identification of talent in a corporate environment is of strategic significance in order to function as a solid foundation regarding matters such as succession planning and strategic staffing as well as talent and competency development as part of a strategy-driven approach on talent management.
By conducting numerous interviews regarding the current talent review process at KARL STORZ SE & Co. KG with key stakeholders, central problems have been identified and will be discussed throughout this thesis in a constructive and problem-oriented manner. Furthermore, results and findings of active participation in talent reviews as well as analysis of talent review-related data will be used as a basis for potential solution approaches.
The main findings include a lack of strategic alignment of the process with the corporate strategy, insufficient feedback and process-related transparency from the process owner as well as an imbalance of the cost-benefit ratio.
Entrepreneurship is being characterized by innovation and change. An entrepreneurial mindset possesses the ability to simplify business operation processes and consumer products as well as improving service features. Furthermore, entrepreneurship does not only result in economic growth and prosperity, it also accelerates and promotes research and development.
The economy as well as individuals benefit from such innovative inventiveness. Many governmental departments recognize the positive and advantageous effects and therefore want to support and stimulate entrepreneurial activities right from the outset. Therefore, governmental authorities introduced a numerous of different funding pro-grams in recent years, specifically designed for young entrepreneurs.
To enhance start-up activities and to increase the overall entrepreneurial spirit in Ger-many, universities need to expand their educational framework by one component, namely the Third Mission. Hence, universities are not only responsible to promote ed-ucation and research, but also to create an entrepreneurial culture as well as anchoring it in the educational system. The objective is to support and expedite entrepreneurship from its very beginning.
This paper aims to analyze current entrepreneurial business activities, specifically at German universities. Moreover, key success factors, for instance, state subsidy pro-grams as well as business cooperation’s will be presented and analyzed. Hence, the essential objective of this paper is to find appropriate and successful entrepreneurial approaches which are feasible at the Hochschule Furtwangen University.
The phenomenon of social innovation is becoming an increasingly important topic with an increasing number of people implementing different types of social innovation projects. So far, little research has been carried out to understand the structure of the projects and the characteristics of the entrepreneurs and initiators behind. This study aims to close this gap by analyzing 80 social innovation projects in the fields of housing, poverty, immigration and environment as well as by examining 117 founders behind these projects. The main results suggest that the projects are clustered around the metropolitan areas of Berlin, Munich and Stuttgart and tend to be founded relatively recently. No clear tendencies and distinctive characteristics in terms of financing and organization could be observed. The social entrepreneurs tend to be of a younger age and most notably, an overwhelming majority are academics holding at least a bachelor’s degree and even more frequently a master’s degree. Generally, some field-specific differences could as well be observed, such as more engineers being active in the field of environment and more individuals with a social sciences background being active in the poverty sector. However, the findings of this study should not be generalized to the entire social innovation scene in Germany and to all its social entrepreneurs.
Smart Condition Monitoring for Industry 4.0 Manufacturing Processes: An Ontology-Based Approach
(2019)
The awareness of fintech has been on the rise, as more banks participate in technological changes, new unconventional companies and start-ups begin to offer fintech solutions to the public, and an increase in fintech exhibitions and fairs can be observed all around the world. Below is a figure obtained from Google Trends, which illustrates the trend of Google searches related to fintech the past 5 years. As Google is known to be one of the most frequently used search engine around the world, the trend depicted will accurately reflect the awareness in fintech.
With reference to Figure 1, a value of 0 indicates that there is insufficient information regarding searches for fintech and a value of 100 indicates the maximum peak popularity for fintech. Therefore, Figure 1 represents the growing attention of fintech since 2015. The ‘note’ in Figure 1 represents an improvement made on Google Trends to collect search results.
Fintech is most known for its disruptive and unconventional impacts it brings to the traditional banking industry. (World Economic Forum, 2017) In light of fintech, the perception of banking today has changed drastically as compared to the past. As opposed to traditional banking that was once the monopoly of the industry, banks these days are following the trend of moving towards digitalisation, in order to remain competitive. (Williams-Grut, 2015) (World Economic Forum, 2018)
Attention for fintech amongst the public, investors and governments grew rapidly since 2014. (Arner) The graph below indicates a flourishing expectation in the fintech investments. (Statista, 2015) From the year 2008 to the year 2020, the value of fintech investments all around the world is projected to grow to a USD$46 billion industry. A market analysis that was done by Deloitte also suggests the same growing trend. (Deloitte, 2015)
Numbers in Figure 2 represent the total value of fintech investments across all segments of fintech. In general, fintech is divided into 4 segments: payments, financing, asset management and others. (Gregor Dorfleitner, 2017) However, there are variations from publications to publications. An industry report conducted by Statista found that digital payments segment in fintech was the largest in 2017, with a global transaction value (TAV) of US$2753.70 billion. (Statista, 2018) Following digital payments was alternative lending, followed by personal finance and lastly alternative financing.
As part of the thesis, an expert survey was conducted. Professionals who are currently working in the fintech industry, in addition, expressed most positivity and expectations in the payment sector of the fintech industry. Moreover, results gathered from another survey participated by members of the public also indicated the most interest in payment/personal banking. Approximately 50% of all responses collected indicated “Yes” for payment/personal banking services. Due to this uprising expectations of the payments sector by experts in fintech, this thesis aims to focus on the payment sector in fintech and to predict trends as accurately as possible. The integration of fintech initiatives into payments has brought about new areas of studies, in terms of business models, types of services, customers as well as the security of data. (Salmony, 2014) Therefore, this thesis aims to address these areas, as well as to offer suggestions to counter threats faced by payments in the fintech industry.
This thesis will be based heavily on business to customers (B2C) fintech products and services. It will consist of an extensive literature review and empirical research on reliable sources of information. Data used in this thesis will be from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data is collected through two surveys. The survey was divided into two target groups- first for the mass market and second only for senior professionals in the fintech industry. The purpose of the first public survey is to understand the preferences and needs of the mass market. The second expert survey was done to understand the strategy of two highly successful fintech company and their future expectations from a professional’s perspective. The experts are current professionals from Murex and Allianz Technology. As for secondary data, it is obtained from credible sources, such as government websites and industrial analysis reports. As certain names and keywords vary from sources to sources, they will be classified accordingly, as accurately and closely as possible. The information used in this thesis is further explained under “Methodology”. Primary data collected and secondary data gathered will be compared with each other to verify their accuracy.
The first chapter of this thesis gives an introduction to the fintech industry. The second chapter will analyse the digital payment environment. This includes the SWOT, PESTEL analyses and advantages and disadvantages. In the third chapter, it will discuss the digital payment industry today. The fourth chapter will be related to primary data findings through surveys and a comparison with secondary data gathered. Future predictions will be covered in chapter five. In chapter six, challenges and suggestions will be discussed to help fintech companies to overcome challenges and remain competitive. Finally, a conclusion will be in chapter seven.
The topic of sexism in advertising has attracted the attention of many scholars for more than four decades now. It is 2019, and the topic remains current and open to debate.
This study explores the relationship between sexism in advertising and society’s views on the roles of men and women on the basis of German dwellers. The investigation has been conducted based on significant theories and current examples and reinforced with empirical data collected from a survey. The results showed that most of the participants surveyed thought that men and women were not being accurately pictured in advertising. In addition, those who have cataloged an ad as sexist disagreed with that content reflecting their opinion about the roles that men and women play within society. Moreover, it was observed that factors like age and occupation have an influence on both the recognition of sexism in advertising and the conception on gender roles.
Semi-rigid ring-shaped electrode dielectric electroactive polymer membrane as buckling actuator
(2019)
This paper explores the different techniques used by search engine optimizers to increase a website ́s ranking, thus visibility. The author focuses on modern methods from the areas of On-Page and Off-Page SEO. Findings, gathered through a literature review, conclude that SEO has become a more complex process, as search engines algorithm have advanced; transforming from a pure technical optimization to a more user-oriented optimization. Furthermore, the paper identifies several areas that a webmaster can use to collect data to monitor a website ́s performance. In addition, insights into what the data can have for a meaning, are given. The paper finales with a brief overview of various ways to monetize a website.
Purpose – To empirically examine the impact of a set of influencing factors on B-to-B sales call success from a buyer, salesperson and neuroscientific perspective
Design/methodology/approach – A literature review was conducted to find potential non-economic influencing factors and a set of hypotheses was generated. Subsequently, findings were verified through an expert interview. Then two surveys examining the buyer and sales perspective were carried out and hypotheses were tested. Lastly, results were aimed to be explained from a neuroscientific perspective.
Findings – The results show that trust, emotion and empathy are positively correlated to sales call success. However, communication, listening skills, empathy, appearance and personality variables were on average still perceived as somewhat important for sales call success by both survey groups. Neuroscientific literature could provide insights into the effects of trust, emotion, appearance and extroversion on sales call outcome.
Research limitations – The sample size permits only a general analysis and conclusions. Buyers participating in the survey tended to evaluate sales calls as rather successful, leading to an underrepresentation of “unsuccessful” sales calls in the data set. Neuroscientific literature provided insights but could not fully explain the suggested model.
Practical implications – Emotional and non-economic factors including trust, positive emotion and empathy should be part of a successful sales methodology so that the effects of these factors are considered to improve the outcome of sales calls
Ensuring data quality is central to the digital transformation in industry. Business processes such as predictive maintenance or condition monitoring can be implemented or improved based on the available data. In order to guarantee high data quality, a single data validation system are usually used to validate the production data for further use. However, using a single system allows an attacker only to perform one successful attack to corrupt the whole system. We present a new approach in which a data validation system using multiple different validators minimizes the probability of success for the attacker. The validators are arranged in clusters based on their properties. For a validation process, a challenge is given that specifies which validators should perform the current validation. Validation results from other validators are dropped. This ensures that even for more than half of the validators being corrupted anomalies can be detected during the validation process.
Die Leitfrage der Bachelorarbeit lautet: „Wie reagieren Zulieferer von Verbrennungs-motorkomponenten auf die Veränderung der Automobilbranche durch den Trend der Elektrifizierung von Fahrzeugen?“. Aus dieser Leitfrage ergeben sich die folgenden Key Research Questions: „Was ist die Veränderung der Automobilbranche durch den Trend der Elektrifizierung von Fahrzeugen?“, „Wer sind die Zulieferer von Verbrennungsmotor-komponenten?“ und „Wie sind die untersuchten Unternehmen hinsichtlich externem Handlungsbedarf, internem Handlungsbedarf und Richtungsänderung zu bewerten?“. Durch die Beantwortung der Leitfrage und der Key Research Questions werden Beratungspotentiale identifiziert. Außerdem werden Zulieferer von Verbrennungsmotoren identifiziert, deren strategische Reaktion bereits Erfolg zeigt. Diese können bei einer Beratung als Benchmark dienen.
Programmatic Advertising has been proven to cause privacy concerns amongst its recipients. Various research points out the fact that heavy use of data for personalized advertisements can have a disturbing and scaring effect on the users. This thesis takes a closer look on the privacy concerns of users and whether these concerns are connected to a lack of awareness about the topic Programmatic Advertising.
Since there is a big research gap about this topic, it was essential to collect primary data. For this matter, a combination of qualitative and quantitative data-gathering has been utilized.
The outcome of this research has helped to come up with managerial implications that provide advertisers with a deeper understanding about the users’ privacy concerns and whether these are linked to a lack of awareness and knowledge about Programmatic Advertising.
Proactive Error Prevention in Manufacturing Based on an Adaptable Machine Learning Environment
(2019)
Predictive Virtual Patient Modelling of Mechanical Ventilation: Impact of Recruitment Function
(2019)
Due to the global increase in temperature, China has been dealing with severely increasing ecological disasters. The Chinese government has therefore increased its environmental protection measures in the past 15 years. This thesis delivers descriptive results of these measures, taken from the last three five-year plans as issued by the Chinese government. This is being done by applying the expected results of these measures into a so-called integrated assessment model. Furthermore, this thesis elaborates how integrated assessment models can be used in order to assess policies, such as these employed by the government of the PRC in order to compute their overall socio-economic impact on factors like welfare-maximization and technological advancement. This is rounded out by exploring the possibility of creating a holistic assessment model that combines the potential of backstop- and abatement technologies with a global or regionally disaggregated assessment model.