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Year after year, global warming, and plastic output increase, and massive volumes of carbon dioxide (CO2) are being released into the atmosphere. Even though humans are aware of their environmental impact, they do struggle to change their behavior. But what is the reason for this?
The purpose of this thesis is to illuminate the factors that make it difficult for people to demonstrate pro-environmental behavior (PEB) and to form ideas from the field of nudging to assist in guiding humans to a better PEB. As a result, a meta-analysis was created from a multitude of papers on the issues of PEB and nudging. The proposals presented in this work serve as an impetus for future studies in the field of PEB nudging.
Frugality has become a prerequisite for success in a low-resource environment, a reality exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. When it comes to consumer needs, the priorities affordability and functionality are increasingly coming into focus. This study examines how frugal products are performing in developed markets, whether they meet consumer needs, and ultimately if there is a demand for these products.
The aim of this paper is to assess the status of Frugal Innovation (FI) in developed markets, using Germany as an example, and thus consumer behavior, in order to better evaluate the current status and related potentials based on this. The link between FI and environmental and social sustainability can be traced back to and limited to the minimal use of resources. Against the backdrop of the current economic and political situation, these factors represent one of the most significant competitive advantages of today.
This multi-method experiment helps to understand the consumer behavior towards frugal products as well as the opinions and attitude towards it. As a result, it can be said that there is interest in innovation in general as well as FI. The respective buying decisions were balanced, what means that frugal products do not necessarily outperform non-frugal ones, but they are in strong competition. It can be concluded that there will be an increasing demand for frugal products in developed markets such as Germany, especially for certain product categories.
This thesis aims to ascertain whether the concept of job sharing might be a solution for organizations to adapt their company values to meet the changing principles of society. The shift in demands results from the younger generations seeking different values in their free time, which also influences the demands at work. The disbalance between organizational and individual values leads to employee dissatisfaction and increasing turnover rates. The part-time concept of job sharing is on the rise regarding new work opportunities. Therefore, subtopics including flexibility, work-life balance, gender balance, and diversity in the workforce are positively encouraged through job sharing. The data and research in this thesis are obtained from existing literature on the work concept. Most previous research has focused on the influences on individuals and less on multiple levels within a company. The findings of this paper state that job sharing can significantly impact the value shift of a company in many different facets. Nevertheless, the concept also provides a large number of requirements on several levels which need to be adjusted to benefit from the concept.
Since the occurrence of cybercrime rises every year, it has become increasingly important for companies to further secure their data and important information. It is not enough to just secure the data inside of the company, by now companies must go one step further.
This thesis focuses on a way to develop tools and methods to determine whether company data is secure in the hands of third-parties as well. To do so it is important to understand what different methods are available and reliable enough for the everyday usage.
The aim of this thesis is to present an evidence-based methodology to identify third-party risks. To achieve this goal, an analysis of international standards of technology knowledge is conducted. The market is searched for already existing service providers with the intend to find already existing information and templates on the topic. By conducting interviews information and expert knowledge is gathered.
The analysis and interviews contribute to the development of a generalized questionnaire which can be used to evaluate third-party risks. A generalized questionnaire that is fit for every third-party working with company data, that can be adjusted if necessary.
The term quiet quitting was discussed on social media platforms, but also in a lot of business-related articles. Hence, because of the novelty of this concept, there are hardly specific empirical studies on this concept. In the following thesis an empirical study is done and analysed to answer the research ques-tions if there is any coherence between the concept of quiet quitting and af-fected generations. But beforehand, the term quiet quitting will be defined, as there is not an official definition yet. Furthermore, the issues for the economic environment and companies presented. After this, possible reasons and causes for quiet quitters are collected.
This paper analyses five different Cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Dogecoin and Litecoin, and studies their impact on traditional financial portfolios under different allocation strategies. The allocation strategies under consideration in this paper are the modern portfolio theory according to Markowitz, an extension of it such as the tangency portfolio, and the equally weighted portfolio. Further, this study explores the effect on the efficient frontier when Cryptocurrencies are added to the efficient portfolios. In addition to that, the paper aims to examine whether the mean – variance portfolio optimization according to Markowitz outperforms the naïve and tangency portfolio strategy. The portfolio performance is evaluated based on the Sharpe ratio. The quantitative analysis of this paper covers the time period from 2017 to 2022, in total five years. In accordance with the existing literature on portfolio optimization with Cryptocurrencies, the study reveals that besides some issues related with Cryptocurrencies such as cybercrime and a lack of regulations, Cryptocurrencies can be beneficial for portfolio diversification with traditional financial assets. Referring to the portfolio strategies, the study highlights that the optimal mean – variance portfolio and tangency portfolio do not differ significantly in terms of Sharpe ratio. However, both strategies outperform equally weighted portfolios.
Analysing attention convolutional neural network for surgical tool localisation: a feasibility study
(2022)
The present thesis performs an actuarial work that intends to understand the premiums, expenses, and claims, including the reserves considered the most important technical variables in an insurance company. The company is located in Colombia and the work will be performed in 2 branches: Compliance and Liability.
The objective of the thesis has been set as to define and measure a claim ratio after remarking a lack of an indicator that describes the 3 most important technical variables altogether in the company. It has also defined to assess the current methodology that calculates the reserves for the claims occurred but currently unknown by the insurance company under the premise that there is a very low level of observed claims in the history of the company in both branches.
All the methodologies defined, assessed, and performed in this thesis have been compared to other methodologies implemented in journals, research papers and articles to align the conclusions and take the best practices from actuarial works previously done. They all also considered to keep homogeneous results that was considered as a very important achievement even by other sources.
A new methodology has been defined to calculate expenses related to administration, the ones used in the reserves and the ones related to claims. The new expenses level was used in 2021 and an impact of a tremendous increase in premiums was observed the same year as a reaction of the decrease in policy prices.
The conclusions derived from the work was to continue with the current methodology to calculate the incurred but not reported claims reserve according to the instability seen in the Chain-Ladder methodology until more homogeneous result could be seen that yield to a higher level of credibility.
Finally, among many possible claim ratios defined, a paid claim ratio has been considered. It includes the whole variables inside the premiums of the company and the most important variables inside the claims that were the claims paid and the proportional and non-proportional reinsurance effect.
Cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular as an investment object due to the underlying promising blockchain technology, a growing number of use cases and especially because of their recent enormous price increases. As a young and emerging asset class, cryptocurrencies also face investors with several challenges and uncertainties.
This thesis investigates the impact of adding cryptocurrencies to diversified portfolios and whether cryptocurrencies can be a reasonable portfolio addition for investors. For this purpose, based on Harry Markowitz's Portfolio Selection Theory, a statistical analysis of portfolios with and without cryptocurrencies and different degrees of diversification was conducted for a 5-year-period. The portfolios were analysed in terms of return, risk and correlations and the efficient portfolio allocations as well as efficient frontiers were determined for different return and risk scenarios, both with and without the use of short sales.
The results of the statistical analysis showed that cryptocurrencies have significantly higher returns but also higher levels of volatility and risk than traditional asset classes. Although cryptocurrencies show less strong positive correlations with other traditional assets, they nevertheless correlate positively with the representatives of the traditional asset classes examined, which is why cryptocurrencies are only suitable to a limited extent as a means of risk diversification. Cryptocurrencies can be an attractive portfolio diversification but only for investors who are willing to accept higher risks for higher returns as the addition of cryptocurrencies significantly increases both the return potential and the risk of portfolios. Therefore, the higher an investor's expected portfolio returns and risk appetite, the higher should be the portion of cryptocurrencies in his portfolio.
Gefügeanalyse metallischer Werkstoffe: Mit der passenden Präparation optimale Ergebnisse erzielen
(2022)
University-Industry Collaboration (UIC) is considered by academics and industry as a vital factor that has the power to both positively and negatively impact the open innovation (OI). To contribute to the literature and to identify challenges as well as to conceptualize some recommendations to help industries, this thesis raised a question:
what are the challenges of UIC and what recommendations can be made to solve the challenges. The main research objective was to recognize the determinants of UIC challenges. An empirical study was conducted in order to give an answer to the research questions and to meet the research objective. This research explicitly focused on students/interns and internships to analyze and to discover the challenges and solutions since students or internships are the least researched area in the field of UIC research. Participants were personally contacted with the survey link that was created online to conduct explorative research with the help of close-ended (quantitative) and open-ended (qualitative) questions. The results reveal that there are numerous challenges students face during the internship and thus these most likely hinder the successful UIC and ultimately successful OI. According to the results obtained from both quantitative and qualitative sections obvious and major challenges lie in innovation mediators ‘organizational culture’. From the quantitative result perspective only, major challenges are in the area of absorptive capacity and supervisors' support, internalization, and trust. Similarly, from the qualitative results perspective only, major challenges are bad crisis management, communication, and hierarchical structure.
Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Thema: „Work-Life-Balance im Rahmen der COVID-19 Pandemie“. Ziel der Arbeit ist es zu überprüfen, ob es infolge der COVID-19 Pandemie eine Verschiebung der Work-Life-Balance zu einer Work-Life-Imbalance gibt. Zur Unterstützung der Beantwortung wurden folgende Forschungsfragen gestellt: Welche Auswirkungen hat die COVID-19 Pandemie auf die Work-Life-Balance der beiden Geschlechter? Welche Effekte hat die COVID-19 Pandemie auf die Work-Life-Balance von Beschäftigten, die eine Familie haben, im Vergleich zu Beschäftigten, die allein leben, und im Vergleich zu Beschäftigten, die mit einem Partner zusammenleben aber kinderlos sind?
Die durchgeführte Sekundäranalyse zeigte, dass es insbesondere bei Müttern eine Beeinträchtigung der Work-Life-Balance gibt, da sie häufig unter einer Doppelbelastung leiden, die sich infolge der Pandemie noch einmal verstärkt hat.
Industrie 4.0 ist eine aktuelle Entwicklung in wirtschaftlichen Prozessen, die in den letzten Jahren mit zahlreichen Chancen für Unternehmen in Verbindung gebracht wurde. Industrie 4.0 meint die voranschreitende Digitalisierung in der Arbeitswelt hin zu einer Integration der digitalen und physischen Welt in Echtzeit. Die erfolgreiche Umsetzung von Industrie 4.0 stellt Unternehmen vor die Herausforderung eines Veränderungsprozesses. Solche Veränderungsprozesse können in ihrem Verlauf auf Widerstand stoßen beziehungsweise diesen auslösen. Widerstand hat dabei das Potenzial, ein Veränderungsprojekt zum Scheitern zu bringen, aber auch, eine Veränderung zu einer sinnvollen und effektiven Umsetzung zu führen. Für eine erfolgreiche Gestaltung von Industrie 4.0 ist es daher eine relevante Frage, welche Aspekte dieser Entwicklung Widerstand auslösen können und worin dieser Widerstand konkret begründet liegt. Das Wissen über die Ursachen von Widerstand ist der erste Schritt für einen gelungenen Veränderungsprozess, der möglichen Widerständen vorbeugt oder diese konstruktiv einbindet. Neben einer situationsspezifischen Analyse einer Industrie-4.0-Umsetzung in einem Unternehmen, die mögliche Widerstandstrigger identifiziert, bewegen sich die wesentlichen Lösungsansätze für ein effektives Management von Widerstand in den Bereichen Partizipation und Qualifizierung. Diese Thesis bietet eine Grundlage für eine solche situationsspezifische Analyse, indem sie einen ausführlichen Überblick über die kontrovers diskutierten Auswirkungen von Industrie 4.0 gibt, die verschiedenen Formen und Ursachen von Widerstand erläutert und diese auf den Kontext Industrie 4.0 anwendet.
To achieve sustainable development, appropriate individual consumer behavior is required. However, the increasing statements expressing the intention to buy green products by consumers are reflected in only a fraction of actual purchases. This paper presents a literature review on the attitude-behavior gap phenomenon, focusing on the controversial role of green marketing in promoting sustainable consumption and its influence on the gap between intentions and behaviors.
The attitude-behavior gap is attributable to various situational and internal factors, with the prevailing price sensitivity and routine purchase behavior for low-involvement products playing a critical role in the fast-moving consumer goods industry. Counteracting these factors with the help of a green marketing approach that encompasses internal, strategic, and tactical marketing orientations was examined in this work. While it has been found that creating credibility and transparency through a holistic marketing orientation and targeting the origins of the attitude-behavior gap with the respective green marketing tools can positively contribute to its narrowing, divergent green marketing strategies can lead to the opposite. Greenwashing as a strategy to give companies a greener image without adapting their business activities accordingly leads to a negative impact on the attitude-behavior gap.
On the basis of this analysis, the study found that according to the way a company employs green marketing strategies, it may either widen or narrow the gap.
The market for foods and beverages is one of the largest worldwide. Thus, there is a lot of interest in understanding and predicting consumer behavior. Two subjects that have gained attention recently in the food sector are perceived naturalness and high-tech eco-innovations like cultured meat. This work addresses how the preference for natural products and the inference of product attributes via perceived naturalness causes problems for novel technological food products. By reviewing existing literature following questions will be answered: (1) What do most people assume about the health, taste, sustainability, and safety of food products based on perceived naturalness? (2) How is the public acceptance of high-tech food eco-innovations influenced by a lack of perceived naturalness? (3) How can these challenges be addressed by food businesses? It will first be determined what natural means for customers and how it influences food choices in general. The main findings based on the currently available market research are consumers do not desire to consume any highly unnatural foods including technological eco-innovations and it might be more efficient in terms of sustainability gains and customer needs to commit resources to developing existing products or eco-innovations that are perceived to be natural.
With the growth of the Internet, several sectors of the economy are evolving. Retail companies are no exception. There are new challenges for brick-and-mortar retailers. Such as the increase of alternatives and the decreasing number of salespeople in retail.
The work examines the digitalization of the consultation at the point of sale, in order to give the program "POS Advisor", which functions as a digital advisor well-founded recommendations for action. It is concluded that retailers must use the advantages such as touch & feel to their advantage and use digital in-store technologies to optimize and extend the customer journey in order to be more successful. The design of the POS Advisor should consider the demands of consumers in each target group as well as those of the product. However, it can generally be said that live chat with an advisor should be considered, and the waiting time should be kept as short as possible. Likewise, additional features should be considered that can offer consumers further advantages, such as a payment option directly through their phone.
International agierende Unternehmen müssen sich im Tagesgeschäft immer häufiger
mit dem Entsendemanagement auseinandersetzen. Diese Arbeit stellt die steuer- sowie sozialversicherungsrechtlichen Anforderungen dar, welche im Rahmen der Vorbereitung einer Mitarbeiterentsendung aufkommen und als große Herausforderung gelten, da verschiedene Rechtsgrundlagen in Betracht gezogen werden
müssen. Zudem besteht in allen Ländern eine Meldepflicht, welche auf dem jeweiligen
nationalen Recht basiert. Auf Grundlage dieser Rechtsvorschriften werden Ansätze vorgestellt, um den Entsendeprozess so effizient wie möglich zu gestalten und um entstehende Risiken bei Nichterfüllung der Voraussetzungen zu minimieren. Eine standardisierte Abwicklung und Auslagerung von Teilprozessen im unternehmensinternen Entsendeprozess können zur Reduzierung des administrativen Aufwandes
beitragen sowie einen Überblick über alle Teilbereiche geben. Dabei hilft eine transparente Kommunikation, um Missverständnisse bei Entsandten zu vermeiden.
The shortage of skilled workers is an increasingly common problem in the German labor market, affecting many companies. To counter the problem of the labor shortage, one of the measures to be taken is to actively recruit skilled workers from abroad. The resulting cultural diversity in companies must be coordinated and managed. Diversity management is a tool that companies can use to manage diversity in their workforce.
The aim of this paper is to determine in which respect diversity management can counteract the shortage of skilled labor by recruiting foreign professionals. To this end, the following research question is posed: To what extent can diversity management in companies, in the sense of targeted recruitment and employment of foreign skilled workers, contribute to effectively countering the steadily increasing labor shortage in Germany?
A qualitative study supports the answer to the research question by providing insights into the practical application and significance of diversity management in a number of sample companies.
From the study, it became apparent that the shortage of skilled workers and the employee recruitment are important reasons for introducing diversity management into companies. It also showed that there can be other benefits to a culturally diverse company beyond attracting new skilled workers. However, there is some discrepancy between the aforementioned aspect of attracting employees through diversity management and the confirmation that diversity management has helped to give greater consideration to foreign professionals when filling vacancies.
Generation Z born between 1995 and 2010 has a growing influence on the markets and businesses need to adapt their marketing strategies to meet the needs and expectations of said generation and therefore influence their brand perception, preferably positively. Consequently, it is essential to understand Generation Z, their values, characteristics and behavior.
The goal of this thesis is to answer how the modern marketing strategy cause-related marketing influences the brand perception of Generation Z. Thus, the following research questions are being posed: “How does cause-related marketing influence Generation Z’s brand perception in Germany?” and “How can cause-related marketing influence Generation Z’s brand perception in Germany positively?”.
To answer the research questions a quantitative study regarding brand perception was conducted. More specifically a survey was run to measure the brand perception of Generation Z regarding the practice of cause-related marketing. The respondents had to indicate how much they agree or disagree with statements about brands practicing cause-related marketing posed on a 5-level Likert scale to measure their brand perception.
The results of the study indicate that the perception of Generation Z gets influenced by the practice of cause-related marketing. Moreover, Generation Z’s brand perception gets influenced positively. This effect can be augmented if companies pay attention to the specific values, characteristics and behavior of Generation Z and choose their message, collaboration partners and causes accordingly. Additionally, Generation Z’s brand perception can be influenced positively if cause-related marketing is practiced originally, especially via suitable communication tools.
Further studies concerning cause-related marketing influencing Generation Z’s brand perception in other countries or how specific brands or industries are affected could be conducted. Additionally, studies focusing on the negative impacts of cause-related marketing could be performed.
Plastic packaging and its waste are known to have a negative impact on the environment and on human health. This study aims to determine effective government measures for the management of plastic packaging in Germany. Specifically, the effectiveness and acceptance of possible environmental incentive and restriction policies are analyzed based on the objectives of reduction, reuse, and recycling. Therefore, the policies of a plastic packaging tax, tax differentiation, bans, and concentration limits of chemical additives, as well as restrictions on packaging design, are investigated.
In order to examine the consumer acceptance of the policies, an online survey was conducted with 272 students. This study further contributed to the analysis of effectiveness as consumption effects were measured. Accordingly, the expected policy effectiveness was examined based on literature research and quantitative insights from the field study.
The results - which are only representative for German consumers with an academic background between 18 and 29 years of age - revealed that most respondents accepted the policies, although acceptance was higher for restriction policies than for incentives. Furthermore, problem awareness was found to slightly correlate with policy acceptance in most cases. In terms of expected policy effectiveness, several factors indicate effectiveness for all policies. However, multiple prerequisites for the achievement of policy effectiveness were identified, whereas the requirements for restrictions on chemical additives were most complex.
In der heutigen Wirtschaftslage ist es für Unternehmen zunehmend wichtig sich aufgrund von einem zunehmend gesättigten Markt und steigendem Wettbewerb klar zu positionieren. Eine Grundlage für das strategische Marketing kann zum Beispiel durch ein Marketingkonzept geschaffen werden. Es dient als Leitfaden für weitere unternehmerische Marketingaktivitäten. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden die Grundlagen für ein Marketingkonzept analysiert und aufgezeigt, mit dem Fokus auf der Kommunikationspolitik. Für die Ausarbeitung wird beispielhaft ein Produkt des kroatischen Unternehmens Terra Marascae d.o.o. verwendet. Die Kommunikationspolitik ist auf den unternehmenseigenen Online-Shop sowie die Gewinnung von Neukunden ausgerichtet. Die Informationen werden anhand des AIDA-Modells gewonnen. Auf dieser Grundlage kann die Kommunikationspolitik des Marketingkonzepts weiterführend abgeleitet werden. Dazu wird in Interviews sowie theoriegeleiteter Konzeption konkret ausfindig gemacht, welche Informationen für den Kunden und dessen Kaufprozess relevant sind. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, dass es wesentlich ist, die Besonderheiten der Produkte in der Kommunikationspolitik klar zu kommunizieren.
Durch die negativen Auswirkungen der Produktion und des Konsums von herkömmlichem Fleisch auf Umwelt und Gesundheit entsteht eine zunehmende Nachfrage nach Alternativprodukten. Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit beschäftigt sich mit diesen Alternativen zu Fleisch und beantwortet die Forschungsfrage: Welche Chancen und Risiken bestehen für Unternehmen im Markt für pflanzliche Fleischalternativen und In-vitro-Fleisch? Dazu werden die Erkenntnisse aus der aktuellen wissenschaftlichen Literatur zu diesen Themenbereichen dargestellt und hinsichtlich der Forschungsfrage kritisch analysiert. Die Analyse der Literatur zeigt, dass der Markt für Fleischalternativen weiteres Wachstumspotential und wirtschaftlichen Chancen für Unternehmen bietet, dort jedoch auch forschungs- und produktionstechnische sowie rechtliche Risiken bestehen und die Akzeptanz dieser Produkte in der Bevölkerung noch zu gering ausfällt. Unternehmen müssen deshalb weiter an ihren Produkten forschen. Zukünftig sollten weitere Forschungsarbeiten beispielsweise den Wasser- und Energiebedarf von In-vitro-Fleisch genauer untersuchen, um festzustellen, ob dieses wirklich weniger negative Auswirkungen auf das Ökosystem der Erde hat als herkömmliches Fleisch und ob es deshalb als umweltfreundliche Fleischalternative vermarktet und wirtschaftlich produziert werden kann.
When enterprises decide to expand operations to new foreign markets, they are encountered with the crucial decision of how to implement their marketing strategy in each market without losing consistency across their global brand image. This thesis will focus especially on the impact culture has on this decision and on its implementation. To do so, a qualitative analysis in form of expert interviews was performed in six multinational companies across different industries. Marketing managers from the headquarters were questioned about the implementation of their global marketing strategy in their local markets. The findings give new insights for managers in terms of future adaptations for efficient communication of marketing strategy across the multinational company.
The two strategic options standardisation and adaptation are examined in the literature to set a foundation to later discuss culture’s influence on this decision. Furthermore, a cultural framework will be given and the communication structure of the two main parties of a multinational company will be reviewed in the existing literature.
Abstract
The large-scale impact of the climate change on all regions and industries of the world underlines the need for action in the logistics sector. Despite literature in this field has matured fast since the last 5 years, it neglects the consideration of digital tools or measures to introduce sustainability in the sector. Consequently, precise recommendations on how to manage digital disruptions in order to reach sustainability goals in Logistics are lacking.
The objective of this thesis is to develop those recommendations and to facilitate their implementation for practitioners in the truck container transportation sector. To do so, the impact as well as the evolution of digitalization must be determined. Besides, factors for managing digital change successfully and measuring their impact in this sector shall be ascertained. Finally, a holistic framework to support the implementation process for becoming more sustainable by using digitalization should be presented.
A single-case study at the Logistics Start-Up “driveMybox” intends to fill the identified gap in knowledge. Particularly, it is studied how the organization manages to use digital tools to offer CO2-neutral truck container transports on their platform. Thereby, the different approaches are being looked at. Besides, data is gathered through qualitative interviews and other internal documents.
The first outcome of the thesis is an overview that illustrates the role of digitalization in Logistics. It increases the awareness of the digital impact and helps practitioners to take useful actions. Furthermore, a clear set of success factors to forward sustainability in the transportation sector was developed. Finally, a holistic result depicts which steps can lead to a more sustainable transportation process. Summarising, the thesis contributes to extant literature by combining digitalization with approaches to sustainability. The given recommendations consider the particularities of Start-Ups and support practitioners in this field with valuable guidelines and a holistic framework.
As businesses advance toward globalization, their supply chains have expanded. Globalization has brought together varied marketplaces, but it also has consequences. The most significant of these impacts is environmental damage. As organizations and customers are becoming growingly aware of the extent of the damage, organizations are transitioning towards greener practices. However, the long, complex supply chains make visibility and transparency in the chain, particularly beyond the first tier of suppliers difficult. Managing companies at a global scale become complex due to differences in interests and difficulty in managing information, material, and financial flow that require rigorous validation and management from external participants. This is where Blockchain Technology has immense potential. Blockchain is a new, ground-breaking technology with applications primarily in the financial sector. This thesis is exploratory by necessity, as it is an early work on blockchain's influence on green supply chain management. The study employs the funnel technique, which begins with a broad and general perspective before moving on to more particular aspects of the subject. A framework is designed based on a thorough assessment of the literature and real-world applications of blockchain technology. The findings show that incorporating blockchain into supply chain management can potentially increase understanding of the supply chain's hidden layers and aid in the transformation of the existing supply chain to a green supply chain.
The sharing economy is a global phenomenon and an alternative consumption model based on granting access to owned surplus of resources to strangers through web-based platforms in exchange for money or for free. While this model quickly gained popularity in the transactions between individuals (C2C or P2P) and between individuals and companies (B2C), the potential of sharing between enterprises (B2B) is yet to be harnessed. Among the positive consequences the sharing economy claims to deliver, such as increased efficiency, waste-cut, and community-building, sustainability is the fundamental consequence this paper will focus on. Specifically, this thesis aims to determine if the sharing economy in the B2B market is a sustainable business model for the future. The obtained results show that, while the sharing economy in B2B, especially in small to medium-size companies, has the potential to bring more efficiency and sustainability for the future, this seems not to be the case in the present. This is the result of several external limitations, especially in the field of technology, legality and in society, but also of internal factors, such as conceptual and empirical unclearness that occasionally even lead to business misconduct and abuse of the positive connotation of the sharing economy model.
The Impact of Using Sustainability Labels in Advertisements of Fashion Brands on Social Media
(2022)
This thesis investigates the impact of sustainability labels in advertisements of fashion brands on social media. It aims to answering the following research questions: Do consumers search for more information on sustainability labels? Do sustainability labels impact credibility? Do sustainability labels impact purchase decisions? To answer the research questions an online survey with 202 participants was conducted. The empirical study revealed that consumers tend to search for less additional information when a sustainability label is displayed in an advertisement on social media. Few consumers believe that brands are fully sustainable when sustainability claims in an advertisement are not supported by a sustainability label. The display of a sustainability label may not be one of the most important factors for consumers considering purchasing fashion items. Those results suggest that brands should use sustainability labels as an important tool in advertising on social media to fill the informational need of consumers and increase credibility.
This paper aims to create a foundation for further, in-depth research of the topic Indigenous entrepreneurship in Colombia and other countries, as well as to facilitate the analysis of obstacles in Indigenous businesses. To answer the research question, seven experts are interviewed using semi-structured interview guides based on several deductive categories. The findings are then analysed through a thematic content analysis before they are presented and discussed.
The results show that there are various inter-connected obstacles impeding more success of Indigenous businesses in Colombia, which are not sufficiently studied and addressed. The most important obstacles are corruption and marginalization, as well as resulting conditions like a lack of infrastructure and education. This study emphasizes the importance of, and encourages the realization of further,
profound research regarding this and related topics.
Die vorliegende Arbeit gibt einen Überblick über die Herausforderungen, die der gegenwärtigen internationalen Steuerpolitik gegenüberstehen. Das Ziel war es, das GloBe Proposal der OECD/G20 und den darin enthaltenen Vorschlag einer globalen Mindeststeuer als Maßnahme gegen die Problematiken kritisch zu analysieren. Dazu wurden mögliche Problemfelder des Konzeptes dargelegt. Das Ergebnis aus der kritischen Analyse und Bewertung ist, dass die globale Mindeststeuer das Potenzial dazu hat, die Herausforderungen einzudämmen. Der Vorschlag stellt einen bedeutenden Schritt für weitere globale Zusammenarbeiten dar. Eine vollständige Abschaffung der Herausforderungen durch das GloBe Proposal ist jedoch nicht möglich. Für eine größere Effektivität der Maßnahme muss die Mindeststeuer höher angesetzt, an geltende Regulierungen angepasst und einheitlich von allen Staaten implementiert werden. Weitere Schwächen der Maßnahme müssen nach Einführung früh erkannt und beseitigt werden.
We, a group of students from the "International Business Administration (IBW)" course at the Faculty of Business and Economics, have carried out a project as part of the subject "Managing Business Processes" that is intended to strengthen HFU's international reputation. This digital cookbook is intended to provide our guest students from partner universities with the opportunity to root the culture they have brought with them. On the other hand, we as hosts would like to convey the local culture to our guest students. By sharing diverse, broad and varied cuisines, we as a community could fulfill our motto of students for students. Not only does the HFU CookBook focus on the culinary arts, but it was also possible to facilitate personal student exchanges through an individual fact sheet. Due to the Corona situation, HFU could not live up to its usual standard for international exchange. Therefore it was important for us to enable the students a personal exchange, based on cultural facts, personal experiences and certain background information.
We hope that all readers of this book will enjoy cooking the recipes and learning about the different cultures.
Bon appétit!
Der seit mehreren Jahren bestehende Nachhaltigkeitstrend in Deutschland lässt bei Konsumierenden ein regionales Umdenken im Lebensmittelkauf beobachten. Die Herkunftsangabe von Lebensmitteln suggeriert den Verbrauchenden dabei bestimmte Produkteigenschaften. Gegenstand dieser Arbeit ist der Zusammenhang zwischen regionalen Lebensmitteln und Nachhaltigkeit aus Verbrauchersicht. In einer empirischen Studie werden Verbrauchende quantitativ zu diesem Themenfeld anhand der Beispielregion Allgäu befragt. Es wird analysiert, inwiefern regionale Lebensmittel von Verbrauchenden als nachhaltig eingeschätzt werden. Nachhaltigkeit wird hierbei in der ökologischen, sozial-kulturellen sowie ökonomischen Dimension betrachtet. Zudem wird untersucht, inwieweit ein regionaler Bezug der Verbrauchenden einen Einfluss auf die Nachhaltigkeitseinschätzung der regionsbezogen betitelten Lebensmittel hat. Der regionale Bezug wird hierbei einerseits durch die geografische Zuordnung des Wohnorts und andererseits durch die emotionale Bindung der Verbrauchenden zur Region definiert. Es zeigt sich, dass Lebensmittel aus dem Allgäu in allen Dimensionen nachhaltig eingeschätzt werden. Insbesondere eine Unterstützung des regionalen Wirtschaftskreislaufes, die Sicherung von Arbeitsplätzen, sowie kurze Transportwege werden mit diesen Lebensmitteln verbunden. Die von dort stammenden Lebensmittel werden nachhaltiger bewertet, wenn ein Bezug der Verbrauchenden zur Region Allgäu besteht. Es lässt sich schlussfolgern, dass Verbrauchende Lebensmittel alleinig aufgrund einer regionalen Bezeichnung mit Nachhaltigkeitsaspekten in Verbindung bringen.
Conducting a due diligence is an integral part of M&A transactions. Its objective is to audit the targeted company with proper accuracy, in order to expose risks and opportunities and allow a profound decision on whether to acquire the company and which price to pay. An essential part of the due diligence is the environmental due diligence, which examines all environmental related liability risks, identifies costs and mitigation potentials. Up to now, little is known about the impact of environmental due diligence on company valuations in M&A transactions. The objective of this work is to get to the core of this influence with the help of interviews with several environmental consultants. The qualitative research shows that three main environmental risks bear an impact. The three main environmental risks are permissions, contamination on site and climate-related risks. Furthermore, it was discovered that the influence of these environmental risks on the company valuation is dependent on several factors. The influence depends on whether the investor is a strategic or a financial investor and to which extent the materiality limits are applied. Thereby four possibilities could be identified as possible effects on the company valuation: there is a dealbreaker, the environmental related costs are directly deducted from the purchase price, the deal size is changed, or the future cash flows of the target firm are being affected. Regarding the latter, an exemplary discounted cash flow calculation is used to demonstrate the negative impact of environmental risks on the target’s value. The findings of this qualitative research may be useful for industry experts, environmental researchers and companies planning M&A to consider environmental risks in their business valuations.
Due to a low birth rate and rising longevity, Europe’s inhabitants are steadily getting older on average. In addition, the rising development of digitized workplaces and the resulting demands on employees’ competencies are urging businesses to reconsider the provision of equal training opportunities for all of their human capital, regardless of the employees’ biological age. It is often negative age-related stereotypes and overly generic training design in companies that hamper the learning success and thus the work performance of older professionals.
Through a combination of third-party case studies and semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted by the author, this paper aims to provide a more holistic, cross-industry, and multinational guide for firms to fully tap the potential of older professionals through the most effective training strategies.
In short, regular professional development reviews and mentoring opportunities can prove to be one of the most cost-effective and efficient training strategies for organizations. To achieve such an optimized learning outcome, managers should also cultivate a work environment conducive to learning and adjust the training design to their older workers' learning needs and preferences. Only then can managers be reassured that the invaluable tacit knowledge of the latter cohort is more apt to remain within the company and contribute to further innovation.
Der Begriff Greenwashing bezeichnet den Versuch von Firmen oder Organisationen ihr eigenes Image, ihre Produkte oder auch Dienstleistungen als besonders gut für die Umwelt anzuwerben, ohne dass dies der Wahrheit entspricht. Das Ziel in der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es zu beantworten, welchen Einfluss Greenwashing auf die Generation Z hat. Denn zumindest auf den ersten Blick scheint die Generation Z, welcher u.a. auch die wohl berühmteste Klimaaktivistin Greta Thunberg angehört und auf welche die Fridays for Future Bewegung zurückgeht, im Vergleich zu anderen Generationen ein besonderes Umweltbewusstsein entwickelt zu haben.
Um die Forschungsfrage zu beantworten, wurde eine quantitative Studie in Form einer Online-Umfrage mit Teilnehmenden aus vier verschiedenen Generationen durchgeführt.
Die quantitative Studie zeigte, dass kein Unterschied bezüglich der Ausprägung des Umweltumweltbewusstseins zwischen den verschiedenen Generationen bestand. Ebenso konnte nicht bewiesen werden, dass es einen Zusammenhang zwischen der Ausprägung des Umweltbewusstseins einer Generation und der Ausprägung der Skepsis gegenüber der Umweltfreundlichkeit grüner Produkte gibt. Auch konnte nicht bestätigt werden, dass die Generation Z eine höhere Skepsis aufweist als andere Generationen. Dies zeigt, dass der Einsatz von Greenwashing größtenteils unentdeckt bleibt.
The aim of this paper is to analyse how technology has assisted in the stabilization of corporate labour markets in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. Innovations in technology influencing the way work is currently done by most corporations, especially technology-oriented corporations, that realized the possibility and effectiveness of working remotely, and the sophistication of relevant technologies in enabling corporate employees to continue working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The case study of how South Africa handled the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, compared to Germany, will be elaborated on. As medical technological innovations greatly improved in the shortest time possible, to have effective vaccines, the breakthrough in COVID-19 vaccines happened.
The paper tests the German stock market for excess volatility and stock price overvaluation with regard to the simple efficient markets model and the cyclically adjusted price-earnings ratio. Long-term historical stock market data of 49 years are used to calculate the detrended real price and ex-post value and data of 39 years to compute the cyclically adjusted price-earnings ratio, both from the sample of two German automotive stocks. The empirical evidence provided by the analysis points to excess market volatility and confirms the theory of overvalued stocks, which is linked to the bubble theory. This indicates that price fluctuations cannot be justified only by changes in fundamental values as claimed by the Efficient Market Hypothesis. The German stock market therefore shows inefficiency.
As prerequisite to final graduation of my master in international business management MBA at Business School, Hochschule Furtwangen University, I conducted this Thesis but also as a practical business case that match with the nature of my master’s focus of international business and could be used in real life.
I put myself as a member of project’s managing team for a pharmaceutical company, this team as a part of strategic decision-making process is responsible about assessing different potential international markets and segments as a part of the company plan to expand their operations, tape and penetrate new markets.
Narrowing down the options to two geographic markets (Germany & Saudi Arabia) and two pharmaceutical segments (Diabetes& OTC), starting this assessment with macro analysis (PESTEL) of Germany and Saudi Arabia followed by micro analysis (Porter’s five forces) of the pharmaceutical industry in the two markets of concern, having more in depth review of the two potential segments in each individual market then head to head attractiveness comparative analysis of the two potential segments in the two potential countries showing the pros and cons for each of the potential available opportunities and finally reach a conclusion to solve this business scenario.
In order to satisfy both scientific research basis and business need I utilized Data from both peer reviewed articles, reports from highly trusted international institutions and organizations for their data accuracy and few theoretical books.
Limitation of this paper: taking in consideration that some relevant data i.e., regarding specific market profitability are not accessible due to either company’s confidential policies or data consolidation for example the financial statements of Bayer, the pharmaceutical company shows consolidated data combining Europe and middle east allowing no possibility(for outsider) to directly compare profitability of each specific country, here in our research Germany and Saudi Arabia, also I tried my best to use the most recent accessible data , but some of the most updated relevant data is out of my reach either due to confidentiality or it is paid data that requires funding resources not available in my case as I am doing this Thesis independently not in partnership with a company, these limitations might to some degree affect the precision of the final conclusion.
An average investor trying to allocate his wealth among multiple assets ideally has nearly infinite possibilities to do so. However, asset allocation strategies try to facilitate this process. Nevertheless, no consensus exists on which strategy is ideal and yields the best performance. Therefore, this paper aims to determine an ideal asset allocation strategy for an average investor by comparing two asset allocation strategies.
The focus is on comparing the practical application of Markowitz’s Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), a sophisticated asset allocation strategy, with an equally weighted asset allocation, namely the 1/N strategy. The past performance of these two strategies is compared with the help of a calculation example based on historical data. The quantitative analysis covers three time periods of different lengths between 1991 and 2022. Also, the strategies are applied to portfolios with different amounts of assets during these periods. Although the existing literature is very controversial concerning the performance of the two strategies, this research shows a clear result. Compared to the 1/N strategy, this study’s findings show an outperformance of the MPT strategy during every period and each portfolio combination. However, the difference in performance regarding return and risk is minimal in most scenarios and would not significantly affect an average investor who invests over a long-term horizon.
Pricing is one of the foundations of any company’s market strategy and the only factor of the marketing mix that deals with revenue generation. The other three viz. product, promotion and place deal with expenditure. Pricing strategies provide varied degrees of flexibility based on organizational capabilities and customer segments. Pricing decisions are fundamental to a firm’s growth and are complex in implementation. Based on the author’s research, value-based pricing provides the best fit for all the important pricing factors like cost structure, profit margin, competition, supply and demand, etc. Despite this, cost-based and competition-based pricing strategies are still being widely used. The IT service industry in India has long focused on the competitive advantages of cheap and abundant manpower but the lack of focus on product development together with the emergence of other low waged countries and the growing nature of technology adaptation in the country have presented significant motivation to these IT firms to invest in research and development aimed at enhancing their product portfolio, which can be best taken advantage of by moving their pricing decisions towards a customer-value centric approach. Basing their prices on the different customer segments and focusing on value generation is the best way forward in the face of increased competition from both domestic and international organizations.
The subject of this bachelor thesis is the analyses of the evolution of the European tourists’ behaviors in sustainable travel and travel choices / preferences since the Covid 19 pandemic.
Empirical results have been obtained through a deeper analysis of several literature researches, studies and an own survey (questionnaire). The outcomes show first that the majority of the young generation tourists are now willing to travel more sustainably and have changed their behaviors, habits significantly and that since the Covid 19. The today situation with climate changes and the Covid 19 have clearly identified impacts on tourist and influenced directly their habits and motivation as their preferences and choice for travel types and destinations. In addition, young tourists are now more attracted and open for new types of tourism, which are linked to own sustainability actions giving them a good conscience. So, we observe a change between a passive and now more active attitude. But is this just a passing trend or a long term “sustainable” trend?
The current COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in a so called "people-crisis" changed the people work and forced businesses to re-locate teams to a virtual working environment.
Virtual and remote work became the only way for many firms to stay afloat, and it meant drastic and forced changes in the meaning of work for a large number of employees. Although this seemed to be impossible for many business organizations, the current reality proved the exact opposite. The pandemic put many teams on a test, which only the high-performers and the ones were ready to adapt, learn and grow could pass. Therefore, complex and well-developed organizations need effective team performance in order to survive. Even though technology makes collaboration possible in a virtual environment skills that make it successful. Employees who merely "perform their jobs" are no longer desired by many businesses. Instead, companies search for talent who own an agile mindset and have the required soft skills to work and adapt in a team.
The aim of this research is to provide general information on the importance of teamworking as well as to analyze the impact of the virtual working environment during COVID-19 crisis on the teamwork.
Through an extensive review of the literature, a research gap was identified concerning the knowledge around diversity and its impact on personality types and their influence on group performance. Previous literature revealed that diversity is a popular determinant for group composition, since it encompasses many different meanings and interpretations. Researchers would rather focus on easily measurable elements such as age or gender, but few studies have been conducted on deep-level diversity, such as personality traits or values. The aim of this study is to answer the research questions proposed concerning the effectiveness of homogeneous versus heterogeneous groups as well as the impact communication has on their performance. Through an analysis of previous studies and literature the research questions and hypotheses were formulated, and a methodology designed to answer them. The methodology used in this research was a variation of the Marshmallow Challenge. The groups were faced with two challenges. The first one was to build a 50cm-tall structure as quickly as possible, with a limited amount of material, including raw spaghetti, tape, rope and a marshmallow to test the stability of the structure. The second challenge was presented about one week later and involved the same materials, but the participants had to reach 70cm. Four teams of three were chosen. The personality tests had four possible outcomes: red, green, yellow, or blue. Each colour had specific characteristics and adjectives associated with it. The data collected revealed that the heterogeneous groups performed better overall. A slightly significant correlation was found between how well the teams performed and the words spoken per minute for the first experiment, but not for the second. The biggest limitation that hindered this study was the time pressure and limited sample size.
Companies are progressively implementing remote work models to handle the evolving changes in economic, social, and technological environments and facilitate their business operations amidst these. Meaning more teams including multicultural ones are deployed to function on a virtual basis, during the course of their employment, or for a specific project.
Therefore, this thesis focuses on presenting the main challenges that these global virtual teams typically face and the practices to implement as a way to resolve them.
Data were obtained from both a literature study and interviews run with a total of six experts. Four of them being managers and two, employees so that varying perspectives on different organizational levels could be covered.
The findings emphasize that the virtual element significantly impacted communication, coordination, collaboration, and the social aspect. Hence teams and/or management need to dedicate more time to collectively decide on and elaborate a set of common guidelines, best practices, and tools to address this. Whilst maintaining openness and a sense of trust throughout, as incidents or interactions can come up that normally prompt unintended assumptions. For reoccurring issues or generally to ensure the team’s performance and well-being though, companies and/or top management need to regularly follow up and be prepared to intervene.
Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, die vorhandenen Maßnahmen zur Prävention von Bilanzmanipulation und die Instrumente zur Aufdeckung auszuwerten, sowie die Maßnahmen zur Stärkung der Unabhängigkeit der Wirtschaftsprüfung im Zuge der Verabschiedung des Finanzmarktintegritätsgesetz auszuleuchten und auf seine Wirksamkeit zu prüfen. Im Rahmen dieser Bewertung wird die Funktion und Verantwortung des Wirtschaftsprüfers in Hinsicht auf die Regelwerke und Berufspflichten dargelegt, sowie darauf aufbauend die verschiedenen Arten und Hintergründe der Bilanzmanipulation beschrieben. Im Zusammenhang mit dem Bilanzskandal der Wirecard AG werden die Schwachstellen der Bilanzkontrolle aufgezeigt und mit den neuen Regulierungen in einem Vergleich gezogen. In Anbetracht der vorhandenen Risiken der Bilanzmanipulation, erfüllen die neuen Reformen ihren Beitrag zur Stärkung des Sicherheitssystems im Finanzmarkt und erschaffen dementsprechend gute Voraussetzungen für eine frühzeitige Aufdeckung und Verhinderung der Bilanzmanipulation.
The aim of the present work is to evaluate the existing measures to prevent balance sheet manipulation and the instruments for detection, as well as to examine the measures to strengthen the independence of auditing in the course of the adoption of the Financial Market Integrity Act and to examine their effectiveness. As part of this assessment, the function and responsibility of the auditor with regard to the regulations and professional duties is explained, and based on this, the various types and backgrounds of balance sheet manipulation are described. In connection with the scandal of the company Wirecard AG, the weaknesses in the control are identified and compared with the new regulations. In view of the existing risks of balance sheet manipulation, the new reforms fulfill their contribution to strengthening the security system in the financial market and accordingly create good conditions for early detection and prevention of balance sheet manipulation.
Die vorliegende Bachelorthesis thematisiert weitgehend die Möglichkeiten und Herausforderungen der Implementierung von Diversity Management die in deutschen Unternehmen entstehen können.
Der Zweck ist das Erforschen von Faktoren, die eine Umsetzung des Diversity Management in der Praxis erschweren, sowie mögliche postitive Auswirkungen, die durch diese neue Herangehensweise entstehen können. Hierzu wird die konkrete Forschungsfrage in den Raum gestellt: “Welche Herausforderungen und Möglichkeiten entstehen bei der Implementierung von Diversity Management in deutsche Unternehmen?”
Um die benötigten Fakten und Informationen zu gewinnen, wurden zuverlässige Quellen angewandt, die statistischen, sowie qualitative Daten und Informationen geliefert haben. Diesbezüglich wurden Auswertungen von Umfragen und Experteninterwiews ausgewertet. Die statistischen Daten, die für die Arbeit verwendet wurden, handeln über die Anzahl der Unternehmen, die Diversity Management breits umgesetzt haben, die Vorteile und Nachteile, die dadurch entstanden sind, die Beweggründe weshalb Unternehmen sich anders orientieren.
Diese Arbeit hat das Ziel darzustellen, wie essenziell Diversity Management für die Zukunft der deutschen Unternehmen ist und welche Möglichkeiten nach der erfolgreichen Implementierung entstehen können. Zeitgleich sollen auch die negativen Aspekte erläutert werden und somit dargestellt werden, dass dieses Thema deutlich unterschätzt wird.
Climate change is currently one of the biggest challenges both in terms of danger to natural habitats, wildlife, and humanity. To tackle climate change, we need to reduce our carbon emissions in a fast and decisive way. This thesis studies one of the potential solutions to do so: green hydrogen. More specifically, its potential development by 2030 in Spain using INKA 4.0 scenario planning software.
Green hydrogen shows to have a wide range of applications, from transport to heating and industry with great potential to decarbonize many sectors. It does come, however with a number of important hurdles mainly related to cost, scalability and technical difficulties that will need to be addressed for it to be successful. With this, 10 descriptors were created generating three scenarios to be studied. The most consistent of them, a successful development of green hydrogen in Spain by 2030 is characterized by having all of its descriptors in a favoring state while the other two have some or all in a hindering state, making its development not successful within the established timeframe. Concluding that due to the great challenge the development of green hydrogen is, its success needs to have all factors supporting it.
The aim of this thesis is to answer the question of how consumers can be influenced by influencers to purchase sustainable fashion. To this end, the following research question was posed: How do social media influencers influence consumers' attitudes, awareness, and purchase intentions toward sustainable fashion? In order to answer the research question, the main terms of the work were defined and explained. Through the use of multiple examples, sustainable influencers with different reach were analyzed. The results of this work showed that followers can be influenced to buy sustainable fashion by influencers on Instagram. Companies see influencer marketing as a high opportunity to achieve their business goals such as brand awareness and increasing sales. Based on this, it is recommendable to use influencers as a corporate strategy to raise awareness of sustainable fashion brands. In this way, sustainable companies can reach different target groups.
Agri-Photovoltaics is a novel renewable energy technology. Amid rising climate change concerns, integrated photovoltaic systems are gaining in importance. Problems such as the increasing scarcity of land and the sealing of fertile soils are becoming more and more serious. Land consumption is often at the expense of agriculture. Farmers are struggling to cope with the ever more difficult conditions due to the effects of climate change. Therefore, the world must increasingly deal with dual use of land. However, especially in Germany the technology of agri-photovoltaics is not yet very advanced. The objective of this thesis is to identify the potential of this technology for the energy transition in Germany. Furthermore, the economic potential for regional farmers in Germany will be elaborated based on an investment appraisal of a vertical agri-photovoltaic system. The application possibilities of agri-photovoltaics are versatile. The work shows that already today farmers in Germany can diversify their income by investing in an agri-photovoltaic system. The costs are higher than for ordinary ground mounted systems, however the land can still be used for agricultural purposes. The investment calculation is carried out in different scenarios. Particularly, the remuneration per kWh as well as the discount factor are decisive for a positive net present value project. The results of this work show that the potential of agri photovoltaics is high for both the energy transition in Germany and the economic benefits for regional farmers. For an increasing expansion of the technology, more precise legislation and appropriate subsidies for agri-photovoltaics are needed.
Currently, the technology is insufficiently covered in German legislation, which needs to be addressed.
Mergers and acquisitions are effective strategies for corporations to accomplish their financial and strategic goals. They can, for example, assist businesses in increasing economies of scale or decreasing rivalry. The annual growth in the value of all mergers and acquisitions highlights the continued trend of M&As. Researchers differ on the role of national culture in post-merger integration. Some argue that national culture significantly influences post-merger integration, making it more difficult to create synergies. Other scholars argue that national culture should be viewed as a competitive advantage that leads to a more positive M&A outcome. National culture is not a major factor in post-merger integration, and other variables, like the firm's desire to adapt and corporate culture, dictate its complexity. Another viewpoint on the influence of national culture is that it relies on the level of connectivity, which means that the more tightly a firm integrates with another, the more probable cultural disputes develop. Therefore, this study aims to look at a wider prospect of the impact of national culture on post-merger integration. The research methodology used in this research work is the qualitative research design which involves a naturalistic study intended to collect, analyze, and interpret non-numerical to understand individual opinions, phenomena, concepts, or experiences. Primary and secondary data were used in this investigation. Semi-structured interviews were used to acquire primary data from the research sample. On the other hand, secondary data for the research study was gathered from existing sources such as prior study results, journal articles, reports, and other recorded literature on the role of national culture in post-merger integration. The results of this research were categorized in the form of the three themes, which forms the basis central basis of the research.
In the quickly developing industry landscape of the organic food market, keeping pace with consumer demands and market growth can be a challenge. Organizations with long histories in the organic market, such as dairy supply cooperatives are facing difficulty to maintain their competitive advantage. These cooperative organizations are unique compared to traditional firms in their committed responsibility to multi-stakeholder value creation and protection as defining measures of successful operations.
The paper investigates what factors and principles could be implemented by a cooperative to establish a consumer retail brand in the organic food market. It also examines the effects of this strategic marketing decision on the relationship between, and outcomes for, several of their stakeholder groups. To balance between narrowing the variables and context, while still providing relevant findings on a national scale, a French organic dairy coop serves as a qualitative case study. In addition, a pool of expert semi-structured interviews was conducted, obtaining real time information applicable to the current case study situation.
The findings supported the development of a consumer retail brand to enhance competitive position in the French organic food market. Beyond organizational competitiveness, these results conclude that a retail brand presence for the cooperative could return synergistic additional value to the cooperative stakeholders, including the business, members and their social and biological environments. Finally, the outcome suggests a reciprocal, reinforcing relationship between a corporate brand strategy and the mission of the organic dairy cooperative case study subject. These findings are partially transferable to other organic cooperatives and add a cooperative organizational perspective to the brand strategy and development academic work.
Concerns about mental health and the declining rate of body satisfaction have increased interest in topics such as diversity, body positivity, and inclusion in recent years. Thus, the suggestion is that companies can communicate deep meanings through advertising images and strengthen their brand identity. This bachelor thesis proposes the application of two theoretical frameworks: Esch’s "Brand Steering Wheel" for identifying the brand identity, and the framework of “Visual Grammar” for analyzing images in advertising. The aim is to find out if diversity in advertising can improve brand identity.
Firstly, this work intends to offer an overall understanding of advertising, brand identity, and multimodality. For this, previous academic literature is used to establish a theoretical basis for understanding. Secondly, certain problems that lack inclusion in traditional advertising are analyzed. Thirdly, with the help of the theoretical framework, the brand identity is analyzed using the brand steering wheel. Additionally, Kress and van Leeuwen’s framework of visual grammar is used to examine images for their meaning.
The findings indicate that there is significant theoretical and practical evidence to suggest that the application of diversity in advertising campaigns would be an effective strategy to build a strong brand identity. The identities and relationships indicated in the photos between viewers and models represent desired attributes that may be identified with the advertiser's products. The brand may be picked if the viewers see that it is correctly represented.
Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, die Funktion von Keywords für den Suchalgorithmus zu untersuchen und festzustellen inwieweit die Optimierung von Keywords für die Suchmaschinenoptimierung wichtig ist. Während die Funktion von Keywords für den Google Algorithmus theoretisch untersucht wurde, wurde die Bedeutsamkeit von Keywords mit einer praktischen Suchmaschinenoptimierung und deren Auswirkungen auf die Google Suchergebnisseite gemessen. Um die Auswirkungen von optimierten Keywords zu messen, wurde eine Forschungsstudie zur Datenerhebung durchgeführt. Diese Studie umfasst eine E-Commerce Website, die Handyketten verkauft und wurde über einen Beobachtungszeitraum von 17 Wochen implementiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich sowohl die Keyword-Optimierung, als auch die On-page Optimierung positiv auf die Ranking-Position der Suchergebnisliste auswirken. Generell deuten die Daten an, dass die Optimierung von On-page Faktoren eine größere Auswirkung auf die Ranking-Position haben und somit eine größere Gewichtung durch den Suchalgorithmus zugeteilt bekommen.
Concerns about China’s currency intervention strategy against the U.S. dollar and other major currencies have been raised by many members of congress for more than a decade. They view it as one of several distorting economic policies China is employing to gain an unfair advantage over their competitors. Assuming the RMB is a freely traded currency, they argue that China’s currency strategy is designed to lower the cost of exports and raise the cost of imports greatly.
Problem and Objective: How is China competing with the USA to become the economic world leader? This paper examines the interconnection among three major economic components in the Chinese economy through financial development, international trade, and economic growth.
Method: The research method involved the exploration of articles authored by economic scholars who have concluded that productivity increases significantly contribute to China’s rapid economic expansion. Numerous articles were retrieved from the website to explain how China is slowly becoming the world economic giant overtaking the United States.
Findings: Scholars expect to have significant economic growth in China, surpassing the individual European countries in terms of ranks and G.D.P. size. The entry of China into the W.T.O. depends on the successful completion of the multilateral phase of accession negotiations. Its membership will significantly impact the international trading systems for numerous reasons. First, the admission serves as a template for various transition economies looking to join the W.T.O due to the increasing demand that the Chinese have accepted within the bilateral phase, the W.T.O. admission negotiations deter the entry of various new members. Secondly, China has taken critical steps towards meeting some of its W.T.O. obligations and the steps that can complete the process that may disappoint some individuals within the organization. Due to the large volume of international trade, there is a risk that trade conflicts can overburden the capacity of the W.T.O. to settle disputes. Third, China has a critical role in shaping various multilateral trade negotiations agendas. The developing nation is also one of the top trading countries, and China is a forceful advocate within the next round for the interest of various developing nations.
Conclusion: US congress has long been concerned about China’s currency policies and economic growth. The RMB’s value versus the dollar has risen by 34 percent nominal and 42 percent actual since 2003. Another concern is China’s use of industrial policies to subsidize priority domestic firms while restricting foreign market access. China’s financial system could be severely undermined if the proportion of non-performing loans increases dramatically due to policies that promote significant gross fixed investment and are primarily backed by low-cost credit policies.
In the opinion of many observers, RMB value is undervalued because of Chinese government restrictions on its value.
Von Robotern, die in der Industrie 4.0 zusammenarbeiten, über intelligente Sprachassistenten bis zu autonom fahrenden Autos – Künstliche Intelligenz verändert unsere Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft nachhaltig. Die selbstlernenden und sich fortlaufend verbessernden KI-Systeme ermöglichen effizientere Abläufe in Produktion und anderen Bereichen. Vollkommen neue Geschäftsmodelle können durch sie entstehen. Die Möglichkeiten sind grenzenlos – und doch sollte sich eine so einflussreiche Technologie innerhalb bestimmter Grenzen bewegen, damit sie uns tatsächlich hilft. Eine zuverlässige, funktionale und vor allem sichere KI braucht gewisse Regeln: zunächst ein gemeinsames Verständnis und eine einheitliche Sprache, sodass alle vom Gleichen reden. Außerdem sind offene Schnittstellen nötig, damit die Systeme ihr volles Potenzial ausschöpfen und effizient zusammenarbeiten. Nur so können verschiedene KI-gesteuerte Maschinen miteinander kommunizieren, werden Produkte entlang der gesamten Wertschöpfungskette sichtbar. Gleichzeitig spielen ethische Fragen eine zentrale Rolle beim Einsatz Künstlicher Intelligenz. Verzerrung, Diskriminierung und Manipulation sollten von vornherein verhindert werden, wenn KI dem Menschen nutzen soll.
Bei all diesen Aspekten leisten Normen und Standards einen zentralen Beitrag: Sie definieren Anforderungen an Künstliche Intelligenz und strukturieren die Technologielandschaft. Damit sind sie ein strategisch wichtiges Instrument zur Stärkung der Innovations- und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der deutschen Wirtschaft. Der geschätzte wirtschaftliche Nutzen von Normen beträgt rund 17 Milliarden Euro im Jahr. Nicht zuletzt deshalb fiel jetzt der Startschuss für die Arbeiten an der zweiten Ausgabe der Normungsroadmap Künstliche Intelligenz. Die Aufgabe der vorliegenden Roadmap ist es, einen strategischen Fahrplan für die KI-Normung zu formulieren.
This study focuses on whether users perceive Trust as an essential factor in revisiting Saleduck CHDE to maximize profit. Three major components were identified based on academic literature on online customer behaviour and e-commerce: Perceived Aesthetics, Perceived Usefulness, and Perceived Ease of use. Seven measurable indicators from previous research were used to measure the unobserved components. Also, relevant company data about the German-speaking Switzerland domain were analyzed to outline the relevance of revisiting visitors. According to Google Analytics, the average revisiting visitor generates approximately 4.8 times higher revenues than the average new visitor. The sample consists of 104 students and employed respondents who took part on a five-point Likert scale. The questionnaire also incorporates questions about demographics and target grouping. For assessing the relationship between these three constructs and Trust, Structural Equation Modelling techniques were implemented using IBM SPSS AMOS 28.0. Results show that most participants value Trust highly when using a coupon website. Nevertheless, relationships between Trust and its latent indicators could not be adequately assessed due to suppression effects. Additionally, differences between groups among both measured variables and latent constructs were assessed. The study found that five out of seven indicators in the measurement model significantly reflect the hypothesized components. However, insufficient sample size and a low number of indicators per construct were most likely the reason for the presence of suppression effects. Also, several potential validity issues occurred; the absence of German-speaking respondents from Switzerland, a low number of employed respondents, and a lack of diversity in the samples' age distribution.
Die klinische Leistungsfähigkeit von Medizinprodukten rückt bei den Anforderungen moderner Entwicklungsprozesse und den damit verbundenen Regularien immer stärker in den Vordergrund. Die Nachweise für diese Performance können jedoch oft erst sehr spät im Rahmen klinischer Prüfungen bzw. Studien erreicht werden. Ein Lösungsansatz für dieses Problem können virtuellen klinischen Studien darstellen, die auf Simulationsmethoden aufbauen und so helfen, frühzeitig wichtige Weichen in der Entwicklung zu stellen und verschiedene konzeptionelle Ansätze für die Produktentwicklung sowie eine Optimierung spezieller Parameter zu erreichen. Die Nutzung derartiger Techniken wird sowohl durch die Europäisch Kommission im Abschlussreport der Avicenna Alliance als auch gezielt von der FDA im Rahmen verschiedener Guidance-Dokumente vorgestellt und forciert. Das Medical Solution Center-BW greift diese Ansätze auf und strebt an, ein Netzwerk aus Partnern aus Industrie und Wissenschaft aufzubauen, dass die Nutzung von Simulation / HPC im Rahmen der Entwicklung von Medizinprodukten systematisch zu erschließen. Das betrifft insbesondere die Option zur Entwicklung virtueller klinischer Studien in den Bereichen der strukturmechanischen Simulation von Knochen-Implantat-Systemen sowie der strömungsmechanischen Simulation im Bereich der endovaskulären Chirurgie. In unserem Beitrag werden wir einen prinzipiellen Vorschlag zur Implementierung eines Verfahrens vorstellen, welches die Bewertung von Medizinprodukten mit Hilfe biomechanischer Simulationen in virtuellen klinischen Studien ermöglicht und explizite Simulationsanwendungen aus dem Bereich der Knochen-Implantat-Systeme präsentieren.