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Voice Driven Type Design
(2015)
Market entry strategy for German mittelstand medical device
companies into the Indian market.
(2015)
German medical devices companies are at the forefront of technology when it comes to innovation and R&D. Most of the European medical device manufacturing companies are located in Germany and the number of patents filed by these companies shows the amount of innovation in the industry. A majority of these medical devices are exported within the European Union countries. Economic slowdown combined with market saturation and increased competition makes Europe a very competitive market for these companies. Indian on the other hand is one of the fasted growing economies in the world. The Indian medical device sector is relatively an untapped markets for innovative medical devices. There are tremendous market opportunities due to the fact that local manufacturing base for medical devices are underdeveloped
and often neglected. Most of the local Indian manufactures are engaged in producing basic medical devices and mostly into medical disposables and supplies. Around 70% of the medical devise sold in India are imported products. There is a huge demand and supply gap that is not being filled by the local manufacturers. India offers the perfect new market opportunity for German medical companies looking to venture into emerging new markets. There is abundant supplied of skilled manpower, with wages lower than that of the neighbouring China. India also has a rapidly growing middle class with increasing purchasing power. However, the regulations in the Indian medical device industry are not very clear and transparent. The Indian bureaucratic system is rampant with corruption and red tapes that needs to be tackled and navigated skilfully. A Germany company looking to enter the Indian market needs to understand that nothing in India can be implemented by a text book style entry strategy. In this thesis, we will analyse few of the most suitable entry strategies for German medical device companies with the advantages and disadvantages of each entry mode. We will also analyse the process of doing business in India, which requires an understanding of various aspect of the Indian culture and business relationship building in India. Further, we will analyse the current market scenario with a brief analyse of the local manufacturers currently in the market along with some information on foreign players in the market. Will also interview 5 experts from the medical field and look into few real case studies.
With the ever increasing global competitive business environment, capturing new lucrative markets has taken the forefront for Multinational Entities (MNE’s). In the recent past, emerging countries have gained prominence as a focal growth destination for many MNEs. Despite the business opportunities that they offer, they still remain complex markets in which to do business. Consequently, for the MNEs that have made entry into these markets, adequate growth strategies designed to include sets of activities that deliver a unique mix of value to the organization are imperative.1 This therefore calls for such organisations to adapt their existing growth strategies in emerging markets to various demands. This is in order to maximise performance through well-orchestrated growth agendas that work in concert with the overall corporate strategy. Nevertheless, for overall success, businesses are becoming more aware that operational and control failures can be extremely costly.2 This is because growth comes with increased risks hence a need for new solutions to mitigate and manage the risks. Consequently, the discipline of compliance which is designed to mitigate risks through adherence of; legal requirements, internal and external policies is no longer a second-thought function that requires action down the road. Corporate leaders now recognize that it is important for business expansion and the protection of shareholder value.3 In these markets, compliance related issues have proved to be difficult hurdles for many organisations and they are widely viewed high risk compliance markets. 4 Despite this, many MNEs that venture into such markets fail to integrate their growth strategies and compliance programmes/strategies.
This paper explores the hypothesis that for organisations to optimise performance, their compliance programmes/strategies should work in concert with their broader strategic goals, e.g. growth. This thesis aims to show how the two can be integrated by using Rolls-Royce Power Systems’ AG (RRPS) growth strategy in China and its compliance programme as a case study. The hypothesis is that, if successfully integrated, RRPS can maximise its growth performance in China. Secondly the study seeks to provide a flexible check list or template that RRPS can adapt in its future Integrated Sales Road Maps (ISRMs) in other targeted countries or regions.
Purpose: This study investigates the role that entrepreneurial talents play, and the influence of such
talents in firms’ success and raising funds through crowd-funding platforms as well. It discusses and analyses which talents are needed by entrepreneurs in order to place them in the best position to attract funds from these platforms. Further, the study attempts to create a bridge between entrepreneurial talent and crowdfunding, hence acting as one of the contributors towards the entrepreneur’s business success. Design/Approach/Methodology: This topic is a novel idea and it aims at examining whether or not entrepreneurial talents, as influencing factors should be taken into account when raising funds from crowdfunding platforms. This paper includes two main parts: theoretical and practical. In the final part, this paper provides lessons learnt. Originality/Value: This thesis will add value to research in the field of crowdfunding and its operation especially when entrepreneur funding is considered. Additionally, the hypothesis that forms the basis of this thesis, advocates for a new mode of sourcing for funds from crowdfunding platforms. This new approach is premised on the idea that the entrepreneurial talent can be a significant influencing factor for successfully raising funds from crowdfunding platforms. The analysis of the case studies will reveal an appropriate pattern of the talents needed and associating factors that will help entrepreneurs become successful in obtaining funds for their business
ventures, when they elect to use crowdfunding as their financing method. Practical implications: There are four practical implications to this paper. The first, is that entrepreneurs who intend to seize the huge opportunities offered by the crowdfunding platforms should place emphasis on convincing the participants in the platforms of their talents rather than placing too much focus on perfect business plan. Secondly, the platform participants should deviate from the traditional approach of WHAT to invest in, to a new approach of WHOM/WHO to invest in. Thirdly, from the perspective of the relatively new crowdfunding industry, this paper proposes for the creation of talent-based crowdfunding platforms as opposed to the project-based ones that are currently operating. Finally, the paper encourages the academic researcher to pursue ideas and new applications in the crowdfunding industry.
This thesis is based upon an interest in the field of neuromarketing and a desire to depict which is the most advisable strategy to implement in a situation, where there is a potential introduction of a methodology coming from that field in a new / foreign market. Special emphasis is put on the market entry strategy (modes of entry and marketing strategy).
At the beginning of the thesis, there is a brief inspection of the neuromarketing field according to the nowadays situation that lead to the creation of a methodology, which is called neuromerchandising®. This methodology is the competitive advantage of a German consultant company called neuromerchandisinggroup GmbH&Co.KG. With this patented methodology, this consultant company provides strategic solutions to numerous companies mainly in the field of retail.
The main purpose of the thesis is to define which are the decisions to be made while introducing this methodology to a foreign country and in particular to Greece, in order to improve the Greek retail situation.
This thesis provides an analysis of the tools necessary to speculate whether Greece is the appropriate country to introduce this methodology. After this analysis, the thesis provides solutions of the potential market entry strategy putting emphasis on the marketing strategy of introducing this methodology.
Internal documentation of this company, market reports and analyses are used to provide a professional framework of the dynamic capabilities in the venture of introducing this methodology to Greece.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study and understand the theoretical model of New Product Design and Development Process and New Product Development Process followed by Automobile Manufacturing Companies in order to understand the similarities and differences between the theoretical model and practical process of New Product Development.
Key Concepts
The main concepts reviewed in the paper are theoretical “Stage – Gate model” of New Product Design and Development, New Product Development Process followed in automobile industry, role of various departments in the New Product Development Process.
Methodology
The methodology used to review the concepts exposed in this paper was theoretical research.
Conclusion
Generic product development process as described by Ulriche & Eppinger sets up overall framework of the product development process but it does not describe the micro-level activities of the new product development process. Whereas the practical process of new product development works out on very micro-level details of the task and activities in new product development process.
Generic product development process is a simple framework and hence it is common for any organisation, but actual process of new product design and development is worked out to the very detail level according to functions in an organisation and hence it changes from product to product and organisation to organisation.
Clinical Research is expanding into an international and more regulated environment, specifically its quality management. Pharmaceuticals and Research Organizations are investing significant amounts of money as well as the regulatory agencies. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are improving and developing regulations and meetings to standardize globally these practices. Therefore this Thesis integrates and extends the FDA and EMA recommendation of implementing “Risk based quality management” in Clinical Research protocol execution with a multisource point of view and the proposal of adding a Risk Management Report as an output, which will work also as an input for future protocols implementation. Diverse articles and regulations related with Quality Management and Clinical Research Processes were reviewed to work as a base for the analysis of this thesis. Risk Based Quality Management is the actual trend and newly implemented process to improve quality in clinical research. The goal of this Thesis is to combine the different actual factors, methods and regulations in order to expand Risk Based Quality Management and reach a better degree in quality and standardization. The question therefore is whether this redesigned Risk Based Quality Management process can really be incorporated with the actual practices, and if it is possible to adopt it in Clinical Research.
Latin America has become a potential market in the lately years. Brazil has a potential market, being the fifth largest country in terms of population; moreover, the Brazilian economy has grown over the past years with the increasing middle class consumers. Mexico, on the other hand, with its strategic position and as a bridge for the whole American continent and having the most free trade agreements in the world is definitively an attractive investment destination. The main objective of this research is to study what type of entry modes should German companies in the high- tech industry and automotive industry use in Latin American market. As part of the research there has been a study of the internationalization theories, the entry modes and the factors that might affect the entry mode. Besides, the author has approached which characteristics do the Latin American market has and which opportunities may German Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises benefit from. Furthermore, this research incorporates some case analysis from German companies who already entered into this region, as a result there would be a analysis in order to see which patterns those companies have followed.
Background
The recent worldwide financial crisis that occurred in last quarters of 2007 up until mid 2009 was accompanied by the massive failure of many financial institutions and liquidity providers. Investment banks and other institutionalized financial investors were unsuccessful in producing any real returns for their clients. This drastic fail in all the other traditional investments led to the questioning of how well the hedge fund industry performed in this light based on their promise as absolute return producers regardless of the market environment. This paper seeks to analyse the performance of the Long/Short Equity Strategy in particular relative to the performance of the overall market.
Methods
Thorough examination and validation of numerous empirical studies which have already been carried out on the subject matter are brought to light through the analysis of available historical data of the returns posted by these funds during the crisis using generally accepted statistical funds’ assessment tools giving an adequate angel to the performance of Long-Short Equity hedge Funds especially at the heart of the financial crisis in the last quarters of 2007 to mid 2009.
Results
Equity Long/Short Hedge funds as every other strategy in they industry succeeded in 2008 in outperforming other traditional investment vehicles and the broad stock an bond markets although the failed in to produce the absolute returns promised to their investments. In 2009 they posted similar results to that of S&P 500 index with subsequent declines in 2010 and 2011 thus failing to period their returns where highly correlated with that of the overall market coined with negative skewness and high kutorsis.
Conclusion
Even though hedge funds succeeded in outperforming the market in the heart of the crisis, they failed to provides their investors with absolute returns and also the benefits which the provide in terms of diversification to reduce the exposure of their funds to market risk was limiting. The very high fees paid to them by investors was not justified by their performance.
This bachelor thesis is about a Business Plan in form of a Business Model for a healthcare and mediation company for Germany and Switzerland.It basically asks the question how can vale for the customer, the placed employees and the company be created, maintained and increased. The purpose of this assignment is to analyze the existent HR Industry market and position the Company in a profitable niche in order to achieve a strategically important growth into other fields. The present work consists of five parts.In the following first part the HR Industry and its market potential are explained. Secondly the Business Model is explained theoretically and then applied to CarePers. In the third part the Philippines are analyzed culturally and the effects are used on an elaborated business adaptation. In the fourth part mayor basic strategy concepts are introduced and applied to CarePers. The fifth part concludes the work.
Several interviews have taken place with the company’s founder and the company’s COO. Extensive analysis of the market has been done by revising several official statistics. Based on theoretical aspects presented and explained a practical realization and adaptation of the academic content has been done
The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate how different types of reward motivate employees and to show that the degree of motivation of a reward differs from one organi-sational culture to the other and from one person to the other. Furthermore, it makes recommendations which reward components could be used, and which rewards should not be used in certain cultures. In the first part, several motivation theories like the content theories of motivation and the process theories are discussed. These explain the different approaches to determine what motivates people. The thesis then provides an overview of the various extrinsic and intrinsic rewards and illustrates how different reward components influence the motivation of employees. It is highlighted why it is necessary to focus on the total rewards package, rather than on single rewards. In addition, the thesis clarifies how to evaluate reward packages in order to ensure they are effective. The last part deals with culture and exemplifies how rewards need to be adapted to different cultures. Here, the thesis draws mainly on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory.
In conclusion, the thesis argues that it is crucial that a company uses an effective re-wards package which meets the needs of as many individuals within the company as possible. The thesis hopes to provide all people dealing with Human Resources useful insights into Total Rewards, and thus make a contribution to improving the way re-wards packages are set within organisations.
Problem: The thesis is about Marketing options for Sharklet retrofit at Airbus. Sharklets are wingtip devices which cut down on aerodynamic drag by reducing the vortices that are formed at the wingtips of any aircraft during flight.1 Airbus is looking for new Marketing options to increase sales of Sharklets. Market research findings from various fields will be highlighted and the relevance for Sharklet retrofit will be reviewed. The leading question during the thesis will be: How should Airbus continue to market Sharklets?
Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to describe which Sales and Marketing strategy Airbus uses at the moment and to find out where the weak points of the actual strategy are. Furthermore it will be analyzed what the actual brand image and brand communication of Airbus Sharklets is and whether it is in line with the desired brand identity. The thesis evaluates in which way Branding, Neuromarketing and Customer Journey Mapping can contribute to a better Marketing and Sales strategy.
Conclusion: Airbus should continue to market Sharklets by starting with a Customer Journey Map and figuring out what the customer is really looking for and how Airbus can react to the customers’ expectations. Sharklets should be marketed as wingtip devices that are environmentally friendly, fuel-saving and modern by guaranteeing that the Marketing material is consistent. Sharklets should be marketed not only on a rational basis. Emotional Marketing can be used to improve the brand image and the customer’s associations with the product. A mix of rational and emotional Marketing would be the best for Airbus to try how the customer reacts to emotional Marketing first. Last but not least Airbus should use the opportunity to better inform passengers about Sharklets and to provide input for In-flight-magazines to position the company itself and the customer as environmentally friendly and modern.
Fast Fashion industry is a great example of a market with similar products and similar target groups of customers where marketing plays a key role in the competition for market share. In the era of Web 2.0. and Social Media boom businesses are facing a rise in customers’ forces and its pressure by influencing corporate communications and marketing campaigns. Ordinary people turn to influentials who reach broad consumer audiences and often have an impact on the decision-making-processes. In this way, brands are less protected by PR and advertising tools, as well as more vulnerable. Therefore, understanding the current communication environment and in particular how, when, where and who interferes with corporate image is important from managerial point of view and what strategy to be deployed. For these reasons, the thesis focuses on multichannel marketing in order to provide an understanding of how businesses have been connecting to
people and then it continues with exploration of social media and the blogosphere as ways consumers have been complicating and influencing channels. In the end, it has been concluded that Social Media and the phenomenon of Blogosphere has led to the appearance of new self-made opinion leaders who tend to influence consumer behavior and respectively company’s reputation and brands’ image. On the other hand, it has been observed this can be positive for businesses since it provides relatively useful market information which could be helpful for marketing and communications managers by enabling them to observe their target groups in a more efficient ways. In the pursue of findings, the thesis includes primary research with two interviews with a bloggers and a fashion brand affiliate person, and secondary research covering literature review on relevant topics.
The possibility of applying psychological negotiation methods at the purchasing department ABW2 of the Robert Bosch GmbH was investigated by undertaking extensive literature review and conducting qualitative expert interviews. Additionally, negotiation models and literature from the criminalistics context were analyzed in order to find opportunities to convert successful methods in this field into the business setting. The psychological methods are based on scientific knowledge about personality, emotions and human perception. Several similarities with forensic psychological methods could be identified, which demonstrated the feasibility of adapting methods, such as rapport-building, de-escalation and communication techniques, to business negotiations. Experiments previously undertaken by other authors have shown the potential benefits and improved negotiation outcomes that can be derived by implementing these techniques in negotiations. However, a limitation factor for translating these results directly to the Robert Bosch GmbH is the setting of these experiments. No real life results exist today to the author’s knowledge. Further limitations, areas for future research, and practical implications are discussed.
This paper elaborates on key success factors for German negotiators in business negotiations with the Chinese. By reviewing latest research findings, conducting qualitative interviews and developing case studies, this research paper suggests that key success factors in negotiations with the Chinese are in transition. Therefore, this paper highlights the most essential changes in China’s negotiation style and environment, deriving from political, social and economic changes, and the related implications for German negotiators’ key success factors in 2015. Case studies serve as illustration of key success factors. Managerial implications and research limitations are discussed.
The topic of my thesis is “Internationalization process of Hi-Tech mobile crane to the emerging Indian Subcontinent markets e.g. Bangladesh: The case study of KramerKran GmbH”. The whole approach is based on KramerKran GmbH, a small crane service providing company which is located in Löffingen, Southern Germany. This study explores two specific research questions such as how KramerKran can enter to this attractive Indian Subcontinent especially into the Bangladeshi market and understand the degree of opportunity whether it is a good attempt to enter into this market or not. Here, Bangladesh is taken as an example of Indian subcontinent because it is one of the high growth emerging economies in this region and many business opportunities have yet been unexplored that might be attractive for German automotive companies (SMEs).
In today’s globalization era, markets are becoming very competitive. It is difficult for many companies only to rely on the local or domestic market, no matters whether it is a big corporation or a small and medium sized enterprise (SMEs). In order to maintain a positive and sustainable business growth, internationalization plays a vital role nowadays, especially for small and medium sized enterprises in which emerging markets are very attractive from many aspects. Therefore, it can be said that, this topic is very much relevant with KramerKran’s further business development approach and crucial for doing business in a sustainable manner.
In order to answer the research questions, the whole study is divided into seven chapters and very undamental points are e.g. theoretical framework, company present situation, empirical research, findings, recommendation and conclusion. The theoretical framework provides a general idea about the necessity of being global as well as various modes of international market entry. Company present situation and empirical research describes KramerKran’s position in the present market and the market situation of Bangladesh respectively. Empirical research has been conducted throughout expert interview, company data, personal observation and expert article and so on. Based on theory, company data and empirical research a two-step international market entry model has been recommended.
Mergers and Acquisitions are powerful tools for companies worldwide and it has been implemented since many years. However, in a time of globalisation M&A is even more important than ever. There are several reasons for companies to perform Mergers and Acquisitions, such as strategically, political or to prevent bankruptcy (Rosenbaum & Pearl, 2013). However, M&A’s are more often a failure than successes, due to the wrong reasons of a Merger and Acquisition or because of the wrong implementation of such (Bloomberg, 2013).
This study aims to give an insight of how to implement a Merger and Acquisition and what is important to be successful. Therefore, a comparative equation between the cases of Daimler and Chrysler and Exxon and Mobil is conducted to get real life data about a very successful case, here Exxon/Mobil and a very unsuccessful case, here Daimler/Chrysler. These results will show which tools companies should care more and less about, to implement a successful Merger and Acquisition.
Thus, the study will define what a Merger and Acquisition is and how to implement such. Furthermore, it will be carved out how to define a success or failure, which is very critical to the outcome of an evaluation. After the equation of the two cases the question will be dissolved if there is a clear answer on a strict path to follow for a successful merger or acquisition, or is there no formula for a successful M&A.
The aim of this research is to analysis the economics situations in China, especially in Tianjin TEDA and Shanghai those two special economic areas in China, to see what kind of opportunities they may bring to the mid-size European companies which would like to have business in these two regions, and also to see what kind of disadvantages that are not befit for having business in those two areas. The research has analysis the economic situations in China to show the overall national economic status and situations in the in the recent years.
Tianjin and Shanghai are different with each other in the economic style; some statistics has shown the differences of economic characteristics in Tianjin and Shanghai. Companies in different industry areas have been classified both in Tianjin and Shanghai.
In recent years the field of internal audit has gained tremendous importance. This was promoted by massive frauds, management scandals and bankruptcies identified at companies like Enron, Lehman Brothers and Cendant Corporation or by individuals like Bernard Madoff. The recent financial crisis, which has caused multi-billion dollars of economic damage worldwide contrib-uted as well. As a consequence governments passed new draft legislations, tightened up regula-tions of the financial market and implemented global standards to reduce financial risks – con-siderably those concerning the future. At the same time a shift in awareness at the management and boardroom level in institutes, companies and organizations alike took place and corporate governance was given a higher appraisal. Nowadays it is necessary, even vital for the above mentioned to be aware of corporate objectives and their social and environmental impact (Pickett, 2003). In this context, internal audit (IA) has undergone a magnificent boost of attention, representing a key function within the organization by reviewing, analyzing, monitoring and improving its pro-cesses and operations. However, in order to keep up with constantly increasing standards and company guidelines to meet the expectations of the management, and more important, those of the stakeholders as well as to reduce costs, new methods needed to be developed and implemented accordingly. One of these methods, which in fact has long been there, but still ekes out a marginal existence in Germany, is the control self-assessment (CSA).
Modern online marketing strategies, techniques and problems - based on product ''Weddings in Bali''
(2015)
The purpose of this Bachelor-Thesis is to analyze the current situation of the company The Seven Agency in regards to the efficiency of currently used online marketing
channels to promote the website www.baliwedding.org in the international market. The conclusions were made based on results of a questionnaire which has been sent to
current and former clients of the company. Another part of this work contains research about how the company can achieve optimal results with using appropriate channels.
Both, the results of the Situation- and Target-Analysis have been compared to each other and were completed with a summary of the effectively and not effectively used
channels and a recommendation based on secondary data and literature study in order to achieve targeted results has been given.
The Bachelor-Thesis has been written in cooperation with The Seven Agency, located in Bali, Indonesia.
Nowadays companies operate highly international. Therefore intercultural projects correspondently increase. So far there is a lack of literature about the influences of culture on project management, especially when the project is about a worldwide process standardization.
The present Bachelor Thesis starts at this point and analyzes the international project IVR2020 at the company MAN Truck & Bus by means of a written survey.
As the process was developed in the German headquarters the basic assumption was that the more different a country is compared to Germany the more challenges will occur.
Here it was concentrated on the influencing aspect of culture.
Therefor the cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede were considered and a cumulated difference in the form of a number was derived for each country. Those were brought into correlation to the occurring challenges that were determined by a written survey of the project managers and sales managers that are already far enough in the process to give reliable answers.
The correlation analysis leaded to the result that none of the formulated hypotheses could be confirmed. However there where relatively strong negative correlation that indeed
disproved the hypotheses but leaded to the assumption that there might be correlations between the single cultural dimensions and the different facets of challenges. This turned out to be correct for some of the cultural dimensions.
Resulting from these correlations cautious predictions for the countries in which the IVR2020 process will follow in near future were made.
Furthermore the concrete problem fields for MAN Truck & Bus and their causes were evaluated. Based on the findings in literature and the analysis of the written survey recommendations for future similar projects were deviated.
Der steigende Kosten- und Wettbewerbsdruck stellt Unternehmen immer wieder vor neue Herausforderungen bei der Entwicklung und Gestaltung von Produkten. Die Ausweitung der Lean-Philosophie auf die Produktentwicklung bietet ein enormes Potenzial, um in der Produktion anfallende Verschwendung bereits während der Entwicklung zu reduzieren. In dieser wissenschaftlichen Arbeit wird ein Modell entwickelt, durch welches der Wirkzusammenhang zwischen einzelnen Produktgestaltungsrichtlinien und die in der Produktion anfallende Verschwendung bewertet werden kann. Der Fokus dieser Bewertung liegt vor Allem auf den Ursachen, die zu Verschwendung führen.
Diese Bachelor-Thesis beinhaltet die Erarbeitung und Untersuchung zur technologischen Modernisierung einer 15 Jahre alten Hydraulikpresse mit integriertem Schweißsystem. Die Presse dient der Herstellung und Instandsetzung von supraleitenden Magneten für den Large Hadron Collider am CERN. Die technische Herausforderung bezieht sich wesentlich auf die Erneuerung des Regelungs- und Hydrauliksystems. Die zugrundeliegende Ursache liegt nicht nur in der zukünftigen Generation supraleitender Magneten, sondern auch in der Modernisierung des Schweißprozesses. Nach intensiver Einarbeitung in den Aufbau und Funktion der Presse werden Modernisierungsmöglichkeiten erarbeitet und diskutiert. Die Ergebnisse der Analyse dienen vorwiegend der technischen Ausschreibung zur Angebotseinholung. Die Untersuchungen haben gezeigt, dass für eine robuste Regelung der Hydraulik und Schweißtechnik ein separierter Ansatz zur Regelung erforderlich ist. Die Einbindung individueller, regelungstechnischer Lösungen vermeidet Schnittstellen und verbessert die Abbildung des Gesamtprozesses im Regelungssystem. Die Studie der derzeit eingesetzten Benutzeroberfläche zur Regelung wird als Basis für eine mögliche Verbesserung vorgestellt. Schwachstellen werden diskutiert und erarbeitete Verbesserungen erläutert. Die Bedienoberfläche der Hydraulikregelung wird infolgedessen neu entworfen und Lösungen zur Anpassung an verschiedene Magnetlängen implementiert. Dem Hydrauliksystem werden demnach die Druckregelung einzelner Hydraulikzylinder sowie eine metrologische Bestimmung der Durchbiegung des Hauptträgers ermöglicht. Die Durchbiegung der Trägerenden kann hierbei regelungstechnisch minimiert werden. Die statische Abschätzung der verbleibenden Durchbiegung in Abhängigkeit der Magnetlängen wird in der Arbeit beschrieben. Der letzte Teil der Arbeit behandelt die Thematik des obsoleten Schweißsystems und stellt die Umrüstung auf WIG-Kaltdrahtschweißen vor. Das WIG Verfahren erlaubt eine hinreichend große Vorspannung der supraleitenden Spulen und minimiert die Schweißfehler. Basierend auf der Studie wird somit die effiziente Erarbeitung der Marktstudie und der darauf folgenden Angebotsausschreibung ermöglicht.
Benefits of setting up a Machine tool production plant in Slovakia as an alternative to India
(2015)
The topic of change management gained significant importance within recent years. Through the internationalization of markets, became relevant to consider factors such as intercultural management and communication. Often managers are not able to control and coordinate these projects in an adequate manner.
One of the main reasons is the c different mindsets, expectations, ideas and working styles. During the planning and execution of change projects there is much focus on the strategy and the lead project teams. Nevertheless, employ because the foreign workforce as a whole consists of many different people from various
countries and cultures. Ensuring that a change can successfully be applied at all locations is a major task and failing in managing those varieties can lead to failure of the entire change. The regional management is often faced with inadequate decisions or poor communication by the headquarters. Additionally, even more than normal mid able to work with decisions they do not understand or support required to follow instructions from the other side of the world requires various skills. The purpose of this research is to identify the requirements of good communication a
management in regional offices in this context and to analyze how a well defined scope of responsibilities can lead an international change project to success.
Over the past years, operating conditions of German retail banks have been significantly altered by increased regulation, digitalization and new competitors. Consequently, numerous market participants have begun supplementing or replacing traditional processes with technology-based ones. Wüstenrot Bank AG Pfandbriefbank (WBP), a midsize financial corporation located in Ludwigsburg, Germany, is a primary example for this development. Notwithstanding all reforms, WBP suspects that many of its online products are unprofitable, yet has been unable to perform accurate measurements. Research shows that this is by far no exception and that in spite of digitalization’s proven impact in other industries there are very few empirical studies comparing traditional and technology-based processes in retail banking. This paper aims at filling this gap by determining the present efficiency of technology-based processes at WBP and their potential for aiding optimizations in the field. The paper uses process costing for evaluating present profitability, a methodology proven in manufacturing and other service industries yet relatively new to banking, and thus also sets a methodological recedent. For this method processes are first modeled using the ARIS concept of Scheer (1990); following Cooper and Kaplan (1988) and Horváth and Mayer (1995) costs are then determined for individual process steps based on their resource consumption and finally aggregated into the entire process. In a second step the present
situation serves as basis for simulating hypothetical scenarios used for assessing the effectiveness and impact of technology on further optimizations.
The research finds that in the case of daily money, a typical online product, neither WBP’s traditional nor its technology-based processes are profitable in the first year after account generation. In fact, losses are so extensive it is likely the product is generally unprofitable. In addition, the analysis finds that, contrary to the initial hypothesis, technology-based processes are even less efficient than traditional ones. Through subsequent simulations it becomes clear, however, that rather than digitalization all together, it is the insufficient degree of use of technology that causes costs to be so high. Therefore, optimization potential is much higher for technology-based than for traditional processes. Consequently, the paper recommends further increasing the use of digital technologies and finds process costing to be the ideal tool for capturing the best of digitalization both within WBP and in the industry.
The study seeks for empirical evidence supporting the presence of weak form ans semi-strong form efficiency on the Vietnamese stock market. The sample includes the daily closing value of VN-index from 9th April 2009 to 3rd of December 2014. The results from both parametric and non-parametric tests provide the evidence, which implies the weak form efficiency in the Vietnamese stock market during the recent period from 4th June 2012 to 3rd December 2014. This period is used for testing the semi-strong form efficiency on the Vietnamese stock market. The results from event study do not support the semi-strong form efficiency in the Vietnamese stock market. The empirical evidence shows a delayed reaction of nine pharmaceutical companies' stock prices toward the earnings, dividend, insider trading and regulatory announcements. The findings in this paper are crucial for investors, analysts, academicians, regulators and the development of the Vietnamese stock market.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) among internet companies increased rapidly during the last decade which was caused by the growing competition and changing consumer preferences. Many startup companies enter the market offering hit products and getting millions of users in a short period of time. Due to such quick success established internet players like Google, Twitter and Facebook tend to acquire these startups instead of developing their own R&D. Internet acquisitions are very risky and imply high premiums, therefore, their impact on the innovation performance is quite unclear in the short- and long-term perspective. There is a variety of factors that can affect the innovation performance of both acquiring and acquired companies after the M&A transaction. This thesis is aimed to analyse the impact of M&A on the innovation performance of internet companies taking into account recent acquisitions among social networking players. A case study about Facebook's acquisition of Instagram occurred in 2012 presents the main application for the thesis. Qualitative data for the research is taken from the articles that contain opinions of the industry experts which are then critically assessed using the main scientific concepts about M&A and innovation performance.
The aim of this thesis is to identify and investigate the meaning of customers’ expectations in the IT-industry explained by the example of introducing a new product and to develop a strategy how expectations can be managed in the IT-industry.
The first part of the thesis deals with the reasons and the general framework for the research and defines objectives and scope of the thesis.
In the second part, results of the literature and theories about expectations are presented. These show what previous research has found out and give an overview about different types of expectations and corresponding effects. The flowing part constitutes the case study as research instrument and how it can be used to generate results. With the help of a case study of a specific example of the IT-industry the meaning of expectations regarding new products will be highlighted. Additionally, it gives_a basis to develop a strategy to manage expectations in the IT-industry.
Afterwards the results of the literature review and the case study are combined into a usable strategy to manage expectations of new products in the IT-industry. The thesis illustrates the necessary steps of the strategy and gives an assessment of the results.
In conclusion, the thesis argues that expectation management is an essential step of influencing innovation to optimize business and gives instruction to identify, manage and influence customer’s expectations. Besides, this thesis addresses industries which are faced with the challenge of expectation management and offers an initial research about expectation management in the IT-industry. Furthermore, this thesis intends to provide a basic research to show the importance of expectation management and inspire following research.
Nowadays, big sport events such as Olympic Games are not only an exciting carnival for sports enthusiasts, but also a good opportunity for the host country/city to accelerate its economic development. After more than 40 years of development, Computable General Equilibrium has been proved to be a very powerful tool to analyze the impact of big sports events on host country/city. In this paper, 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will be used as the target case to study the impact on the economy. A Supply model and a demand model will be established according to CGE theory to describe the case. This paper is not focused on the detail but the whole picture of Beijing’s economy by analyzing the industrial structure changes under the influences of hosting the Olympic. Beijing’s industrial structure development will also be analyzed in this paper.
Due to the great cultural distance between Germany and Thailand, German leaders who work in Thailand may encounter several intercultural concerns. In order to effectively lead Thai employees, these leaders may need to behave differently from what they used to do in their home country in some aspects. Thus, this study examines the changing perception of leadership due to the effect of Thai culture form German managers who are working in German organizations in Thailand.
GLOBE project and its culturally endorsed leadership theory were the key literature explored in this study. To attain the outcomes, both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. Twenty-three questionnaires were collected from German expatriate managers in German organizations in Thailand. While two in-depth interview were acquired from Thai employees who worked closely with German superiors.
The results confirm German managers greatly value inspirational and trustworthy attributes as well as avoid being tyrannical, tender and provocateur in order to work in German-Thai boundary. The leadership styles such as Charismatic/Value-Based or Transformational and Team-Oriented leadership also suit German leaders to work in Thai culture.
The investments’ dynamics in the Fintech industry represent a great opportunity for many Fintech entrepreneurs that use technology to drive down operating cost and build products that match the digital needs of the millennial customers.
They challenge the status quo of the existing players in the industry, but it is a bigger challenge for the new entrants in to acquire customers and compete for a
market share because of the high acquisition cost and lack of historical data for optimization.
This thesis seeks to explore the digital channels used for customer acquisition and to make an analysis about the cost of the channels, targeting capabilities,
effectiveness and the effort required to set up and optimize the digital channels.
This paper also seeks to improve our current understanding of which factors influence the acceptance of fintech technology, are relevant to consider in the
context of the fintech industry, using TAM as the theoretical foundation and internet banking technology as the closest example of fintech products.
In this thesis, the author researches the topic of global Scotch whisky marketing strategies and adapted strategies for the emerging markets in Asia, using the example of Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal. Scotch whisky has become a truly international spirit, with a growing demand coming from the emerging markets of Asia. The multinational players in the Scotch whisky industry soon recognized the need to adapt their marketing strategies for the Asian markets in order to gain a foothold and survive in the highly competitive spirit market. The two leading multinational Scotch whisky producers are Diageo and Pernod Ricard. They both successfully market two blended Scotch whisky brands globally, Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal. Their current global marketing strategies for these brands are based on six key elements, which are Innovative Packaging, Responsibility/Consideration of Social Aspects/Care about Society, Strategic Sponsorships/Partnerships, Celebrity Branding, Digital Marketing/ Social Media Engagement, and Experiential Marketing /Physical Spaces. The marketing actions of Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal in Asian markets have four elements in common, which can be seen as key success factors for a successful marketing strategy in Asian markets: tell sophisticated Brand Stories in an authentic, inspiring and emotional connecting way; use Digital Content and interactive platforms, like Social Media, to engage with Asian consumers; create rich brand experiences with Physical Spaces, and use the power of Influencers to inspire and communicate brand content.
Challenges in a multi-country and multinational project environment within a matrix organization
(2015)
Comau S.p.A. -Powertrain- (PWT) mainly manages its projects on a multinational level. In the past, several issues were identified some of which can be attributed to the complexity of a matrix organizational structure. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to investigate whether PWT project teams are still experiencing certain issues while working in multi-country projects and to develop certain proposals for improvement by analysing the possible causes. For this purpose a survey was conducted among project participants to identify the present issues and to discover the reasons for their occurrence. In addition, an analysis of cultural differences was performed also based on secondary data to examine the influences of cultural differences on employees’ perceptions. The results of the analysis indicated that some of the project teams are still facing certain issues while collaborating across regions and functions. Therefore, the importance of a better communication of certain defined roles was identified. In addition, an increasing awareness of the Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) as a tool for also obtaining the overall agreement of project responsibilities and as team building measure was recognized as important. Moreover, to obtain new insights into present issues from the perspectives of the project teams and for further research purpose, the execution of a workshop including all survey participants was stated as potentially worthwhile.
The following thesis aims at analyzing the development of media in travel planning and the role of Google.
The theoretical part of this thesis deals with the media used and their evolution and impact in travel planning. Due to tools like Google Maps, Google Hotel Finder and Google Flight Search the company has enormous opportunities to step further into the online travel market. If the European Parliament does not restrain Googles power, it is likely to extend its current position as an uncontested market leader in search engine marketing even further, leading to a monopoly in online travel planning. The vast impact of Google in travel planning is tested and proven by the advertising spending of the Danish holiday house portal Cofman A/S and a survey among newsletter subscribers of this company in the practical part.
A few years ago Porsche AG defined its “Strategy 2018”, to be followed by all subsidiaries worldwide. This includes ambitious sales and financial targets, which only can be fulfilled if Porsche becomes more efficient. One of Porsche’s core measures to reach the set targets is the development of its global dealer network. Currently, the subsidiary Porsche Middle East and Africa, responsible for the future growth in the Middle East, India and Africa, lacks this efficiency. A defined process for the set up of a new dealership in this region is not existent and tasks as well as responsibilities are not transparent among the task force.
This thesis was used to analyze the set up process of Porsche Middle East and Africa and to define an overall concept. Based on relevant literature, conducted interviews and gathered information, the required activities to successfully establish a new dealership have been identified and finally an all-encompassing concept have been created. The three stakeholders of a dealer set up, the parent company, its regional and its local presence served as informants.
The proposed concept provides Porsche Middle East and Africa and the new investors with a detailed guideline during the whole process and permits a smooth and punctual dealer set up and opening. The process integration takes Porsche Middle East and Africa a major step forward on its way to Porsche’s ‘Strategy 2018’.
In the last few years no other innovation has been able to influence the marketing environment like neuromarketing, the new science of consumer behaviour, which combines neuroscientific techniques with marketing in order to understand brain functions in terms of marketing activities. This combination helps to improve the understanding of the influence of emotions and senses on decision-making and buying-behaviour. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential and limitations of neuromarketing, by taking a close look into published data, conducted studies and expert opinions concerning this new field of science. The published data retrieved from studies using brain-imaging techniques found that emotions and human senses influence every second in human beings’ perception and that consumers are not able to decide completely economically. Nevertheless, further research is recommended in order to gain a deeper understanding of the human brain and how it conducts
decision-making processes. Additionally, consumer neuroscience has high potential to become a commonly used technique, which sustainably supports traditional
market research. Neuromarketing seems to become a promising technique to provide consumers with desired products, services, web shops and advertising
design.
In recent times, China’s role in the clothing industry has been threatened. China’s ability to compete on a cost basis is diminishing and urges the country to find a new means of competition. The aim of this study is to assess China’s future role in the industry with special regards to European apparel manufactures. This is done by taking a closer look at several factors that have an impact on the industry. The analysis of published data, conducted studies and expert opinions brought to light how the government is actively involved in the pursue of maintaining China’s leading role in the textile and clothing industries as these are important contributors to China’s economic well-being. Two strategies have been emphasized. Firstly, the upgrading of the industry as a means of differentiation that allows China’s clothing industry to compete on other factors than costs. Secondly, the boost of China’s domestic market in order to mitigate against the risk arising from the volatility of markets and increased need for speed in the industry. While China’s role is undoubtedly changing, it seems like the country has found opportunities to maintain an important position in the future of the clothing industry.
In recent years the Green Bond market has shown a tremendous growth. It would be interesting to see where the motivation of the issuing companies comes from. One theory is that they expect to have a lower credit spread in this new market segment then in the normal bond market. It is the goal of this paper to analyse if this is the case or not. To do such an analyse it is necessary to find a connection between sustainability and classical capital market theories. Due to a lack of common understanding and measurability of sustainability this is not easy to do. Nowadays it is not possible to give a price for social benefit and as a result it is also not seen in the credit spread.
One can see major changes in the business industry, self-fulfillment is not anymore a state to achieve just through material rewards like a high salary but a human reward like recognition for the work employees did, especially in the western countries like Germany or the United States where a high amount of people have enough wealth already. Businesses need to understand the importance of the emotional engagement of their employees at work. The Gallup Institute, one of the leading researching Institutes about employee engagement found out in their research that employees are not emotionally engaged to wards their working place. Here are results for the year 2013: The disengagement of employees causes damages to the whole economy with the amount of 98,5 billion euros to 118,4 billion euros. The low emotional engagement in 2013 was 67% of all employees in the company. 16% of the company is highly engaged but in the same time 17% of the employees are working with no emotional engagement. The thesis “the art of happiness in business” will research throughout the literature of leadership and corporate culture as a key to increase the employee engagement in German companies. To be happy in a company is more than just earning money and leaving the company, employees need to be connected to the working place with their heart and mind. There is a new era coming the “generation happiness” which wants more than money. In a decade where happiness beats money, they want to work in beautiful environments where they can contribute to something bigger than themselves, they want to be happy and reaching their full potential will be a result.
To round up the thesis scientifically “the art of happiness in business” will develop from the existing theory about leadership and corporate culture a 21st century theoretical model as a scientific response to the changes in the industry, who one can find throughout this work. As an outlook the thesis will serve as the scientific foundation for future projects with experienced entrepreneurs to develop practical models increasing the employee engagement for companies.
In times of globalization Country Images and Country of Origin Effects have increasingly gained importance.
More informed consumers are able to purchase goods from around the globe and are no longer restricted to buying only goods produced in one’s home country. This has led to a rise in competition in the international market place, not only in the fashion industry. Managers are increasingly concerned with how brand’s Country of Origin is perceived and what effects it might have to relocate production to a developing country. While previous research was mainly focused on cross-sector investigations and studies of countries in Europe and North America, this paper’s focus was put on the perception of German consumers in regards to the countries New Zealand, Australia and China. The overall question to be answered in this study is “how do German fashion customers perceive the labels “Made in China”, “Made in New Zealand” and “Designed in Australia” and how do these perceptions affect the buying decision and price sensitivity? The results of this paper add value to the Australian brand Unreal Fur and the New Zealand brand PIA NAERA. It analyses their situations in the marketplace and gives suggestions of which marketing methods can be used in order to guide the customer’s perceptions and help support a positive image.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine leadership trends in France and Germany. It is examined whether leadership in both France and Germany is going to become participative in the near future due to increasing internationalization and due to the emergence of a new leadership generation in France and Germany with different expectations and behaviors, namely
Millennials.
Design/methodology/approach – This thesis comprises three major parts: First, leadership career paths in France and Germany are compared. Second, French and German management cultures are compared and their likelihood of convergence examined. Third, a closer look is taken at inter- as well as intra-generational differences with particular focus on Generation Y/ Millennials – the new leadership generation. Their differences and similarities in comparison with older generations as well as across national cultures are presented and discussed.
Findings – The analysis shows that outstanding leadership in both France and Germany seems to be participative. Further, French and German Millennials tend to be more open towards participative leadership than older generations. Nevertheless, participative leadership is more likely to be practiced in Germany than in France. French top managers still share very distinct national career path patterns, providing an elitist reputation and certain privileges. This often leads to rather non-participative, but authoritarian command-and-control based leadership
practices in France.
Research limitations/implications – Limitations of this thesis include the enormous scope of the topic - not everything could be covered in depth. Further, the up-to-date nature of the data used must be questioned - the incredible speed of change in today’s business world makes even recent research studies outdated within a short period of time.
Originality/value – French and German top management career paths as well as French and German management practices have been examined individually as well as comparatively in countless studies. However, different than probably any research study so far, this thesis also
includes inter- generational as well as intra-generational differences and similarities in France and Germany in order to reveal future trends. All in all, this thesis provides a broad outline of leadership trends in France and Germany and points out where further research must be carried out in more depth.
This thesis deals with the investigation of internationally operating project teams, using the automotive division of the cooperation partner and topic initiator Marquardt Group. The overall research question examines which skills in terms of emotions, culture and know how are required from program managers as a result of globalization. Background information about globalization, project management and the company itself is provided as a first step. In order to get an overview, qualitative expert interviews are conducted with program managers, their superiors, disciplinary supervisors and team members. The interview process serves to gain a stronger knowledge of the weaknesses in project management within the Marquardt Group. The results reveal clear problems, particularly in the analyzed subject areas processes, intercultural competence and communication.
Further information concentrating on intercultural competence and its potential training measures, as well as communication in so-called virtual teams due to the lacking face-to-face communication is given, followed by recommendations for improvements for the analyzed fields with weak points. It can be concluded that globalization and the consequent internationalization have a major impact on project teams requiring especially the advancement of professional, the related methodological, as well as leadership and social competences of program managers.
The Light Commercial Vehicle is a small vehicle, of up to 6 tons, mainly used for small business in the transportation of good or for personal purposes. LCV market is not well known and yet to be considered as a potential business, especially for Commercial Vehicles Business Unit which belongs to the Interior division of Continental Automotive. Some neighboring segments within Interior division have some participation in the market; however, it is not considered as a main priority for either of them. There is no proper focus on analyzing its potential and find the right strategy to tackle it. Due to some sort of pressure to grow Continental’s businesses, Commercial Vehicles BU, represented by Vehicle Electronics segment, has come up with the intention of finding how to approach this new business opportunity in the face of other neighboring segments of the same division also getting into this broad opportunity. There is also a need to establish a right internal communication process and its impact upon a concrete choice of product to enter this new business. Finally, to establish if LCV market is a promising opportunity, in particular for Commercial Vehicle Business Unit. This research is highly beneficial for Continental Automotive, in special for Commercial Vehicle Business Unit since it helps to understand its current situation in the market at different regions levels. Business Unit is able to find right approach for the LCV market together with a suitable sales strategy for each region and a concrete choice of products at a competitive price level with the results, discussion and recommendation of this research. In other words, to get new businesses for future sales growth. Continental Automotive was founded in Hannover in 1871. Nowadays, it is one of the German Automotive Supplier leaders of the automotive market worldwide. The company has presence in 50 countries and sales of €34.5 billion and mainly supplies tires, brake systems, chassis components, vehicle electronics and powertrain controls. Vehicle Electronics segment, part of Commercial Vehicles segment, is the direct responsible for this LCV market. The segment specialist in electronic solutions in six fields of applications such as Commercial Vehicles, Bus, Agriculture, Construction, 2-Wheeler and Marine business. The Light Commercial Vehicle is consider as an important part of the fleet of vehicles and for a number of years now have been taking a constantly increasing share of the transport services, both in Germany and Europe” (BASt, DEKRA, UDV, & VDA, 2013, p. 5). The potential market for this kind of vehicle stands on BRIC countries, mainly India and China. Although Brazil is considered as the most mature and stable of the BRIC by (Barclay, 2010), still is hard to forecast due to economic volatility and changing regulation, indicates (Roland Berger, 2014). The market development in Russia is hard to anticipates, points out (Barclay, 2010) due to its crisis and political issues. “India is expected to return stronger growth” (Roland Berger, 2014) owning the fastest production growth from the other three. For (Roland Berger, 2014) China will be the global volume driver in automotive, remaining by far the largest of the market. The methodology held in this study is based on an exploratory research; using qualitative data which has been collected thought secondary and primary data. This research work starts with the introduction, following by chapter one which includes the problem background, problem statement, research questions and objectives, purpose and significance of the study and finally limitations. The second chapter continues with the review of related literature and studies. It explains the Light Commercial Vehicle characteristics, segmentation production and demand. Besides, it describes the company’s history, SWOT analysis, structure segments and portfolio. It also gives an overview of the trends in the automotive industry, OEMs, suppliers and BRIC opportunities. Chapter three informs about the methodology used together with the data collection and target group. Chapter four focus on developing all findings. Finally chapter five explains the discussion and recommendations of this study.
Strategic Performance Management with the Balanced Scorecard in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
(2015)
Although the Balanced Scorecard, designed by Kaplan and Norton in 1992, seems to be established as accepted performance measurement and management tool, a minority of small and medium-sized enterprises were recognised using it. Thus, further investigation of this minority was seen as interesting. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to demonstrate and examine possible drivers and challenges within small and medium-sized enterprises using a Balanced Scorecard and additionally provide areas of improvement for the analysed company, tecnotron. In order to reach this, a company study was conducted, clustering around three types of data collection, including the analysis of company documents, information obtained from general managers, and semi-structured personal interviews with six key persons of the middle management. This enabled to create a holistic view of the current practices used at tecnotron and revealing possible issues with regard to their performance measurement framework and system. The results of the study demonstrated that quality certification norms are supportive approaches and can be seen as drivers to succeed in developing and using a Balanced Scorecard in small and medium-sized enterprises. Moreover, the study results primarily indicated challenges regarding the selection of measures and the movement towards a strategically linked Balanced Scorecard with the perception as strategic management tool. For tecnotron it was recommended that the consideration of establishing linkages among their objectives, with the help of a strategy map, could be advantageous for their future development.
The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between the level of Chief Executive Officers’ incentive compensation and subsequent share price performance for the 80 biggest stock listed German companies between 2005 and 2014. The performance proxies are geometric monthly returns, as well as risk-adjusted geometric returns using the Sharpe Ratio. Additionally t-statistics for quintile portfolio returns have been calculated. The results are mixed, indicating that there might in fact not be a relationship between incentive compensation and share price performance at all for this sample. Consequently this study finds that average monthly returns for firms with incentive pay-outs are strongly correlated to the returns for firms without incentive payouts and that the samples do not differ significantly . A relationship between the level of incentive compensation and the level of future share price performance can also not be
determined with absolute certainty. However there are indications that would support a negative relationship between the two, as average monthly returns decrease over longer time horizons. The Sharpe Ratio analysis finds mixed evidence on this question while the t-statistics indicate that there are no significant differences between 94% of the formed quintile portfolios.
Despite the growth the luxury industry has experienced in recent years, marketers are increasingly facing the emergence of a younger luxury consumer that has different values, priorities, and attitudes. Since these consumers are soon to replace the current luxury clientele as the primary luxury consumer due to their size and purchasing power, successful luxury brands have changed their strategies in order to stay relevant. Being faced with a considerable decrease in brand loyalty, a deeper understanding of the drivers of brand loyalty among this clientele is of utmost importance. Whereas loyalty has often simply been defined as repeat behavior of purchasing one single brand, the literature suggests a more complex definition, which emphasizes the importance of a favorable attitude toward the brand in order for a consumer to be considered truly loyal. Since this attitudinal part of brand loyalty does not necessarily presuppose actual brand usage, Gaggenau as a luxury appliance brand needs to find ways to attract and establish a pre-purchase bond with these consumers even before they have reached their peak buying power, which will create the basis for enduring brand loyalty.
This thesis was set out to explore the complex process of loyalty creation in view of a different luxury consumer, which is increasingly gaining strategic importance. Focus of this thesis was to provide the luxury appliance brand Gaggenau with advice on how to create the basis for enduring brand loyalty among young Generation Y consumers. As a basis for the analysis, the term “luxury” including its different facets and the role aspirations play in the consumption motives for luxury goods has been investigated. This was followed by an examination of the important role of a new type of luxury consumer, characterized by different traits and attitudes. These consumers are likely members of the Generation Y cohort. Due to decreasing loyalty levels, particular emphasis has been put on understanding how to establish an enduring customer-brand relationship. For this, the formation of loyalty, including different degrees and types of loyalty, has been thoroughly investigated. The importance of truly knowing the consumer’s values, desires, and preferences in the creation of brand commitment or in other words the attitudinal part of loyalty as an ultimate milestone to creating enduring brand loyalty, has also been pointed out. Therefore, the next step was to understand Generation Y consumers. The investigation has mainly focused on the opportunities for creating aspiration or an emotional bond with the consumer at the early stage of the consumer journey. Then, the specific challenges Gaggenau is facing with regard to this new luxury consumer and due to the difficulty of reconciling its status as luxury and appliance brand have been presented. The insights gained throughout this dissertation have then been summarized in a recommended course of action. Finally, based on the development of a Weighted Average Scoring Model for potential Gaggenau consumers, a selection of specific touch points has been evaluated on their effectiveness of creating the basis for enduring brand loyalty at the early stages of the consumer journey.
Living in times when the Internet and Social Media is changing customer’s behavior, Customer Relationship Managers face the question how to deal with those changes and how to optimize their strategy to remain attractive for the customers. The behavior of people is changing immensely as customers do not prefer to be influenced by companies which are pushing products and brands to them. The force and pressure of customers towards brands is rising steadily, since they expect them to actively engage with them and to offer high quality information rather than a brand who is trying to make the purchase decision for the customer. These times, ordinary customers turn into active influencer who could reach a huge number of people and potential customers and therefore influence their purchase decision. Therefore understanding the current customer behavior and the way how, when and why they make a purchase and what could influence their decision is crucial to businesses. Consequently, businesses have to start managing the complete Customer Decision Journey of each target group and customer. On this account, this Thesis will cover each step of the Customer Decision Journey – Formulation, Pre-Purchase, Purchase, and Post-Purchase - and its influence factors. Thus the key success factors will be indicated, afterwards the Thesis will continue with the concept of corporate Online Shops and Multichannel Retailing and two Case Studies will finish this paper. After a secondary research, findings show that the participation of a certain generation and culture, as well as product reviews on the Internet and Social Media peers are influencing the Customer Decision Journey tremendously. Thus, Online Shops are playing an important role in the first two stages of the Customer Journey and the second Case Study shows the importance of the post-purchase stage. On the one hand side, all those new channels that are influencing and changing the customer and his/her behavior could be a big challenge for businesses. But on the other hand, businesses could start to modify their strategy and approach towards its customers, make use of new possibilities the Internet is offering and start creating a positive, memorable and shareable customer experience.
The 21st century has been marked by the first ever social environment encompassing four distinct generations: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials. These cohorts grew up in different times, shaped by various political, technological and social events, which carved their character, mentality and perceptions in a contrasting manner. The results have been a clash of ambitions, opinions and personalities that has been prominent in both the private and the professional life. The university and in particular the Business School of the Hochschule Furtwangen University is a place where cross-generational members collide and experience the differences first-hand. In addition, it is the last frontier before the students and their respective careers as professionals. Thus, it is equally relevant to be explored as a potential ground zero for misunderstandings and conflicts as any other social environment. For these reasons, the thesis focuses on analyzing the three predominant generations of Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials and identifying the key characteristics that differentiate them, which would provide a better understanding behind their actions and behavior. In addition, the findings aim at bringing relevance of the analysis to the university in question and improve the generational interactions and collaborations. In the end, it has been concluded that the generational gap exists and its influence is strongly present. Furthermore, it has been established that there is a lack of awareness on campus regarding the issue and more measures should be taken into consideration. Therefore, a number of recommendations have been made, the goal of which are to improve the environment and tighten the gap as much as possible.
In the pursue of findings, the thesis includes a primary research in the form of a questionnaire, distributed to the students and faculty staff, as well as a secondary research, encompassing literature review and relevant topics.
City branding
(2015)
The subject of this Bachelor thesis is based on place branding. The goal is to show its evolution since its creation until today and to analyze its importance nowadays. Our work focus mainly on four aspects of place branding, namely sense of place, identity of a place, stakeholders and communication. Sense of place helps to create meanings and attachment to the place. Identity of a place is mostly created by the different people living there and is very important to build a successful brand. Stakeholders are fundamental to place branding and it is very important to recognize the right groups of stakeholders to involve in the branding process, especially local people. Communication is a big part of place branding and has to be managed in an adapted way. The growing evolution of online branding has to be taken into account and managed closely. Word of mouth is a very efficient and powerful way of communication and it should not be neglected when creating a city brand. All these elements are being studied through the example of Strasbourg’s city branding, “Strasbourg, the Europtimist”. We see that the city is ignoring some of the elements mentioned above and could improve its city branding by applying these aspects more carefully. The Bachelor thesis then analyses the success of one of Strasbourg’s sub-brands: “Strasbourg, Capital of Christmas”. Through its analysis, we demonstrate that the key success factors of this event are based on the involvement of the right groups of stakeholders, a strong identity of place, the creation of meanings to the place and a powerful word of mouth. Recommendations are then made to improve the branding of “Strasbourg, the Europtimist”, based on the successful branding of “Strasbourg, Capital of Christmas”.
Especially in the past years, the Internet of Things and strategic alliances between different companies have become increasingly important. While previous research has mainly focused on the purpose of alliance failures and the success of partnerships in general, this paper introduces a standardized partner evaluation tool for connected products and digital services to prevent poor candidate selection. Based on an extensive literature study, this work analyzes the core industry of the home appliances manufacturer BSH Hausgeräte GmbH with a particular focus on the Internet of Things. Through the conduction of expert interviews, literary findings about strategic alliances are verified. Additionally, the interviews support the optimization of the decision instrument and prove its relevance and suitability. Further, the paper aims at identifying whether the home appliance manufacturer lacks knowledge in selecting suitable partners for digital services and whether such a tool will improve the speed and preciseness of the decision-making process in the future. Lastly, future research questions are discussed. This study confirms that rating partners by standardized criteria is especially beneficial to support the selection decision in front of other stakeholders. The results of this work significantly contribute and add value to the Corporate Digital Transition Department at BSH Hausgeräte GmbH. In particular, managers with the responsibility to evaluate potential partners to extend the digital services portfolio of BSH’s smart home solution will benefit from this paper.
According to the United Nations, more than 70% of the world trade is carried out by the multinational companies which represent nearly 250% increase in the last four decades. This also represents the extended number of inter-company transactions such as transfer of money as well as transfer of goods and services from parent company to daughter company and vice versa. This issue of transfer of goods and more specifically transfer of money – as in transfer of profits – gave rise to debates in ‘Transfer Pricing’ in the international context. The companies use number of complex business models such as the Principal Company model as their supply chain network and move profits between different entities and create the tax advantages on basis of corporate tax rates in the different tax jurisdictions by allocating all the sales and profits to the principal company. The entities in high-tax jurisdictions, however, perform business activities on contractual basis and remunerated on cost plus mark-up by the principal company. This results several tax saving benefits for the group as a whole.
Under this behavior of the MNCs, the finance ministers of G20 and the authorities in OECD developed a 15 Action Plan under Base Erosion and Profit Sharing (hereafter “BEPS”) Agenda to develop ways to avoid tax evasions by the multinational corporations in the high-tax jurisdictions. The Action 7 of BEPS Agenda – artificial avoidance of Permanent Establishment status – was introduced for the change of wordings in the Article 5 of the OECD Model Tax Convention which explains the definition of a Permanent Establishment. By doing so, the contractual entities in high-tax jurisdictions, performing business activities on behalf of their cross-border parent in a low-tax jurisdiction, will be given a status of a PE and the sales and profits generated by these entities will be allocated to them and subjected to be taxed accordingly in a high-tax jurisdiction.
The analysis of the profit distribution and taxation of the contractual entities of the cross-border principal company in Germany is conducted by the author in this piece of research and shows the effect on the taxation of a company if the Action 7 of BEPS Agenda carries forward as a local legislation in the OECD countries.
The purpose of this paper is a conceptualization of the identification and motivational methods for top distributors in the Chinese market for frequency converters. An examination of the market size, participants and segments is provided. Further the benefits for the manufacturer and distributor that occurring from a partnership are elaborated on and the term top distributor is defined.
Based on marketing channel literature a conclusive multidimensional model for the top distributor selection has been developed. The basic dimensions for distributor selection were determined as Sales/Market, Product/Service and Risk/Uncertainty factors. Those dimensions are supplemented by the China specific factors Guanxi and Human Capital. With special focus been given on the aspects that businesses might encounter when operating in China the reginal factors in distributor evaluation are also being discussed.
IN order to determine the value of different rewards two surveys were conducted. For the identification of the most valuable motivators a rewards portfolio was developed and applied on the data gathered in this surveys. The rewards portfolio was based on the portfolio analysis first developed by the Boston Consulting Group. The rewards determined as most valuable from both the manufacturers and distributor sides were “additional marketing and customer acquisition support”, “extended payment terms” and “market intelligence from manufacturer”. An explanation for the importance of those rewards is additionally provided.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the development process of renewable energy sector in Bulgaria and how far it is at the moment. Another aim was to find out the issues that exist in this field, as well as possible forecasts for the future.
The research was based on different literature sources and primary research techniques like interviews, which succeeded to answer the proposal questions. The key challenges Bulgaria is faced with were also identified through provided industry analysis and detailed outlook of the available renewables in Bulgaria.
The analyses of the thesis indicate the main issues that appear in the current legislative and administrative structure. Furthermore, the investigation found that there is a lack of liberalization of the market, which leads to confusion in the whole business picture of Bulgaria.
This research contributes for better understanding the potential of the renewables in Bulgaria although the non-availability of great political conditions as well as the pure issues in the social and economic growth. The results provide also suggestions for making better policies and finding more partners due to the fact that sustainable future is better for all of us.
Challenges and opportunities in building an Eastern European Brand: the Polish fashion market
(2015)
An insight on how domestic eastern European brands can go global The aim of the thesis is to find out how local eastern European brands can grow into international brands. There are already many global brands existing in the current world market. Most of these global brands are from developed countries. There are, however, brands from other countries which have great products. Eastern Europe, for example, has many products that are interesting, are of high quality but unknown to the world. For this reason the author would like to take Polish alcohol industry as an example. He will then look into the challenges and possible solutions of a domestic eastern European brand going global. The thesis first examines 4 big Polish liquor companies that start off unknown to the world. Through the implementation of a series of marketing and brand strategies they are able to become global players. Their product positioning are being looked into, and their marketing campaigns are being analyzed. The challenges that these brands faced before are summarized and possible strategies in coping with them are being suggested.
Economic Valuation of Investments in Tangible Fixed Assets of BASF Asia Pacific: Methodology Review
(2015)
The objective of this thesis is to review and evaluate the valuation methodology for investments into fixed tangible assets methodology applied at BASF East Asia Regional Headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region to develop recommendations based on current research. The net present value, adjusted net present value and economic value added approaches are analyzed as well as other key performance indicators, real option analysis and methods of integrating volatility into the valuation criteria. A shift from the currently utilized basic net present value model is suggested as the static nature of the model can oversimplify or exclude many factors relevant to accurate investment valuations. Ultimately, the net present value should be split up to highlight areas of value creation, real options should be integrated into standard methodology and project cash flow volatility should be considered in the process. The latter can be integrated by use of Monte Carlo simulations, which can be re-run at relevant decision tree nods to show volatility differences throughout the projects timeline. These values can then, either via twin-security, market correlation or internally determined scales be integrated into the discount rate, thus effectively adjusting for project specific risk.
This paper analyzes the importance of recommender systems for B2C e-Commerce businesses, using extensive literature review as well as a consumer survey. Readers will gain a basic understanding on how the technology behind the recommendation works, how competitiveness in e-Commerce can be defined and what the consumer perspective on recommender systems is. The paper will ultimately provide valuable insights into how recommender systems can create a major competitive advantage for online retailers and why an online-shop without a recommender engine will struggle to stay or become competitive.
Formatization Unleashed
(2015)
Recent work has pointed out the importance of social media for various components of a firm’s marketing communication strategy. However despite the clear movement to use social media as a marketing tool in general, the topic has captured little attention in academic literature, while limited research in general has closely examined online social media channels in the international content. To address this research gap the primary aim of this paper is to assess whether and to what extent international companies do adjust their marketing activities to the UK market. With the main focus on companies Facebook profiles this research paper focuses on the marketing efforts of the top 5 Facebook brands according to their number of followers from August 2014 to September 2015.
Commissioning rules for optimal velocity controller damping of servo axes using elimination methods
(2015)
SIM in Light of Big Data
(2015)