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The aim of this study consists oftwo main objectives: First,to investigatethe penetration and preferences of fintech solutions from the payments sector within the studied population, as well as the elaboration of a forecast for the upcoming years.Second, to examinethe main elements that influence the intention of young customers when deciding to adopt fintech-basedpayment solutions. Existing research has tested several factorsfrom which the variables of trust, transaction efficiency and ease of use are included onthis paper. Additionally,the value-added propositionfrom this studyis represented by the incorporation of sustainability-related purposes into thisanalysiswith the intention of reflecting the increasing presence of efforts to integrate this component within thefinancial industryin recent years.A research model is proposed and tested by including elements based on theTechnology Adoption Model (TAM). By exploring the results of primary data through asurvey with 463 responses from university studentsandexamining secondary sourcesof information, the findings of this study demonstratethat all four tested variables have a positive impact on the intention of using fintech-based payment solutions.Sustainability-related purposes do not play a major role in the decision of using these apps, however, even with a minimal influence, theeffect on intention is positiveand statistically significant. The findings of this study pose important implications for stakeholders within the fintech spectrum whose purposes are related to increasing the intention of young consumers towards using these productsandto provide enoughevidence of the importance of designing incentives that fuel sustainability stewardshipwithin the financial sector.
The current master thesis makes an effort to investigate relationships between perceived service quality, membership satisfaction, and membership loyalty at “Gesellschaft für technische Kommunikation – tekom Deutschland e.V.”, applying adjusted SERVQUAL model. To attain the formulated objectives in scope of the current research, the “Satisfaction – Profit Chain” model is applied, consisting of “Attribute Performance”, represented by SERVQUAL service quality dimensions supposed to serve as antecedent of the second component of the chain “Membership Satisfaction”, and “Membership Loyalty” in order to investigate relations between these three. The findings of the study are supposed to serve as a basis for altering the existing CRM Strategy in order to eliminate current issues within the association, develop strategic marketing capabilities, and create value for members’ attraction and retention.
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.
The present research sought to deepen the debates about how the collector of recyclable material, a subject that has built his political resistance in the Brazilian scenario from the process of re-signification of garbage and his profession. Its empowerment observed from the end of the 20th century was concomitant with the growth of environmental discussions and the strengthening of the solidarity economy as an alternative for economic emancipation in Brazil. In this context, the individual who used to live on the margins of society established himself as a fundamental factor in the recycling chain and became an environmental agent. The question that guided the investigation was "how has the pandemic influenced waste pickers' solidarity organizations, given their challenges and opportunities?". In this context, two specific objectives were determined to be answered in the course of the research. The first sought to understand the relationship between the solidarity economy and the formation of waste picker collectives; the second aimed to identify the challenges and opportunities that could arise from these solidarity organizations' experiences. A vast theoretical analysis was conducted to understand the
foundations of the Solidarity Economy, an alternative to the informal economy and a form of economic empowerment especially considered for vulnerable populations, as a
way to include them economically. Using the case study of Belo Horizonte, a city with a history of alternative economic expressions and strengthened waste pickers' movements, we approached various actors of the recycling chain through qualitative research, using
the in-depth interviews approach.
Among other findings, the research noted that one of the greatest challenges of the post-pandemic Solidarity Economy is related to the expansion of the capitalist market to areas traditionally aggregated by the Solidarity Economy, because they were previously considered to be on the “margins of society”. However, these threats also
give room for opportunities, from responses that reinforce the legitimacy of cooperatives and associations, through their contractual adequacy with the City Hall for
the payment of the environmental service rendered, disconnected from the number of solid waste collected. We have learned that in the daily struggles and achievements of
the waste pickers, challenges and opportunities go hand in hand.
In today's fast-paced business environment, customers expect more than just high-quality products or services. They also demand excellent customer support that is both efficient and personalized. With the growth of businesses and the increasing complexity of products and services, providing efficient customer support has become a critical component of any successful business strategy to fulfill customers and user’s expectations. The present study investigates the need for a technical support helpdesk solution within the business unit Industrial Hydraulics of Bosch Rexroth, a global leader in drive and control technology. The primary objective of this thesis is to assess the current state of the support processes, identify areas of weakness, and leverage these insights to optimize and enhance them. The focus will be on finding a way to enhance transparency of customer data.
Based on the theory to process optimization, a current state analysis was conducted, and expert interviews were carried out to identify weaknesses and potential solutions for improving customer support. The research question "How can the Industrial Hydraulics Services of Bosch Rexroth deliver more effective and efficient customer support?" is addressed through the findings that a central platform is necessary to handle customer inquiries more efficiently, given the diverse communication channels and varying modes of operation within the business unit. The use of the existing SAP CRM ticketing system Robin is suggested as an efficient solution path, which should be optimized for future use based on the identified optimization approaches. The results underscore the importance of a unified approach to working, which is vital for the success of the business unit, resulting in increased efficiency, quality, collaboration, scalability, and customer orientation.
Aim: The research aims at contributing to the growing number of studies on banking performance by investigating empirically the effect of changes in the macroeconomic conditions on bank profitability in Europe for the period 1980-2009. For this purpose, data for banking systems of eight European countries on an aggregate national level are included in the analysis: Germany, France, Austria, Norway, Netherland, United Kingdom (UK), Spain and Italy. In addition to this, two measures are used to represent the bank profitability: net interest income (NII) and return on assets (ROA).
Methods: Panel regression models at three levels are deployed in order to estimate empirically the effect of the macroeconomic indicators on bank performance in Europa: individual estimations on a country level, cross-country estimations on a group level for Northern and Southern Europe and finally overall cross-country estimation on a European level.
Results: The estimation results suggest that macroeconomic conditions are able to explain most of the variation of the banks’ net interest income in European countries, as well as part of the variation of banks’ ROA. Additionally, they clearly indicate that GDP growth rate is the most significant factor influencing bank performance in Europe on all three levels of the model. The effect of the inflation rate is also considered for strongly significant and positive while the effect of the other macroeconomic variables included in this research is different and cannot be generalized probably as a result of the heterogeneity among European countries. Surprisingly, the results did not indicate any significant difference between Norther and Southern Europe, regarding the effect of the macroeconomic conditions on bank performance.
2016 marks the 56th anniversary of the oil cartel: OPEC. It managed to increase prices in 1972. In doing so, it behaved in a manner consistent with a cartel, bringing about a wave of studies on it. This study provides an overview of Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC)’s cartel behavior form 1980 to 2014/5, from five different perspectives. These perspectives, although have been studies individually, but never holistically.
This study grounds the research questions into the structure-conduct-performance paradigm for each of the five perspectives of cartel behavior. Each perspective is also backed by a theory of its own. The first perspective is that of the neo-classical theory of the firm, in that OPEC is deemed to be created for the purpose of creating profits for its members. The second perspective looks at whether or not OPEC is internally and externally stable by looking at economic and non-economic influences on the organization. The third perspective makes use of the theory of market contestability, in oder to determine which member in the cartel has had and still holds most influence within the cartel. The fourth perspective looks at entry and exit trends from OPEC, to determine what impact it has on the incumbent profits and that of the defectors. The fifth perspective uses the concept of black swan from the strategic management literature to discuss whether or not OPEC will dissolve in the next fifty years and whether this will bring about a golden or a black swan.
The methodology prevalent throughout the study is a case study analysis of the OPEC cartel behavior, however, two of the chapters also run a regression analysis (chapters 3 and 4), using variables identified from the structure-conduct-performance paradigm. The second and the third provide a descriptive overview via line graphs, while the last uses the methodology of observation.
It has been found that OPEC has earned abnormal profits which steadily increased, Saudi Arabia has been instrumental in managing quotas, and importance of each country is determined by the output it produced from one year to the next. In addition, economic influences are more important than the non-economic influences for OPEC's viability as a cartel, exit from OPEC is not advisable for the defector nor the incumbent firms and the cartel is not internally stable as barriers to entry are low and members can easily defect and can rejoin the cartel. Lastly, OPEC’s influence in the oil market is waning fast, which might lead to a black swan event.
Corporate debt volumes in emerging market economies have been increasing greatly post 2007-2008 financial crisis. Debt levels have increased across the globe however, the pace is faster in emerging markets than in advance markets. Major countries in emerging economies such as Brazil, Russian Federation, India and China (BRIC) have a large and concentrated share in growing corporate debts. Although, both company specific factors and macro level factors have impacted the corporate borrowings leading to depressed corporate earnings, financial strains and capital outflows in emerging markets the impact of company specific factors is highly pertinent and demands research. The rise in debt levels has affected the return on earnings (ROEs) of the corporate companies which in turn is adversely impacting emerging economy and its financial stability. This paper has empirically tested for the explaining effects of rising corporate debts and changing return on assets (ROAs) on ROEs of emerging market corporate by establishing a multiple regression model. A sample of 100 corporate companies from BRIC countries has been taken to test the model. The test results confirm the importance of corporate debts in predicting ROEs and possible financial strains. Finally, the regression model has been used to estimate ROEs of these corporate companies for the next 5 years with specific recommendation and policy implication to avoid financial crisis.
The field of entrepreneurship and its framework, the entrepreneurial opportunity process, are still young and maturing research areas that receive increasing attention from numerous authors in their academic reviews. While some researchers focus on the generic entrepreneurial opportunity process in order to gain additional insights into the phenomenon, others examine one of the entrepreneurial directions, such as social entrepreneurship or commercial entrepreneurship more closely. So far, a dichotomous approach towards the two types of entrepreneurship has been postulated by contemporary researchers that distinguishes them as two varying approaches.
This master thesis comprises both entrepreneurial directions and investigates their course throughout the entrepreneurial opportunity process, including the nature of the opportunities, their discovery and the decision to exploit an opportunity. The aim is to get a broader picture of the phenomenon of social and commercial entrepreneurship, its differences and similarities throughout the process and thus, examine the dominant dichotomous approach.
Primary and secondary data is gathered from case studies and interviews with entrepreneurs and derived from the information obtained, as well as from existing literature. Seven propositions are postulated that indicate possible differences and similarities regarding the two entrepreneurial approaches. Based on the findings from the testing of the propositions, this research paper concludes that the concepts of social and commercial entrepreneurship hold certain differences, Nevertheless, similarities are prevailing so that a dichotomous approach cannot be supported. The entrepreneurial directions can be displayed on a continuum rather than on extreme ends.
Finally, in order to provide possible future research objectives, an outlook section, containing a critical view on the tie between the entrepreneur and the opportunity is enclosed. It is suggested that the entrepreneur-opportunity nexus is much stronger in the social entrepreneurial context than in the commercial entrepreneurial context.
In the past decade the world saw an unprecedented economic boom followed by a similar bust. Most economies are still recovering and some experiencing sluggish growth. Various reasons have surfaced as to the cause of this economic boom. However, this paper explores the build-up of excessive debt as a result of financial development in spurring up the economy. This paper identified that the financial deepening coupled with other macro-economic factors have expanded credit in the economy. All sectors accumulated high levels of debt. As part of this study, an analysis of household debt was carried out, using a dataset of 30 European countries in order to ascertain determinants of debt. The results showed that household debt has a statistically significant positive correlation with Gross Domestic Production per capita and Life Expectancy at Birth. Additionally, Gross Savings and Gross Domestic Savings also had a positive correlation. This paper concludes by submitting that financial development should be reset to what it was best at doing in the first place, that is intermediation of finance so that efficiency of investment can be improved. Hence economic development.
Zombie companies are widely discussed ever since the ‘lost decade’ in Japan. The prolonged recession was experienced for almost two decades and in great deal attributed to the zombie companies. The Eurozone is currently in recession and is experiencing a growing incidence of zombie companies. If this trend is not stopped but encouraged by the negative interest rates, there is a possibility for a prolonged recession or even secular stagnation. This study aims to examine the reasons for the emergence and existence of zombie companies in the past. It discusses the implications zombie companies had on the aggregate macroeconomic indicators. In discusses how zombie companies should be treated and whether they must inevitably be foreclosed. To determine the severity of the problem, it examines the incidence of zombie companies in selected industries in the Euro periphery countries based on their interest coverage ratio (ICR). The results show that there is no significant incidence in the selected markets. It concludes whether currently, the zombie companies are a real threat to the economy of the Eurozone. Furthermore, it suggests ways how the problem of zombie companies should be prevented and treated.
Die digitale Transformation stellt das Supply Chain Management vor große Herausforderungen. Es muss Antworten und Lösungen finden, um in einem global vernetzten Marktumfeld die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der Supply Chain sicherzustellen. Das Konzept der Blockchain und der Smart Contracts versprechen großes Potenzial. Gerade im Bereich der Prozessautomatisierung und der Kostensenkung, durch das Entfallen bisher notwendiger Clearingstellen. Allerdings stellt sich auch immer die Frage nach der Datensicherheit und Schutz vor unbefugter Manipulation. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es Anwendungsmöglichkeiten und Potenziale einer Blockchain und Smart Contracts im Supply Chain Management zu identifizieren und zu beschreiben
The insurance industry in Germany has been dominated by a commission-based sales model for over seventy years. Intermediaries sell insurance contracts to end customers and are paid a commission depending on the value and type of insurance. This commission-based approach incentivizes salespeople to keep adding new policies to customers in order to make a living, and customers do not get the insurance solutions and advice that suit them the best. A financial services provider has now developed a novel business model that aims to disrupt the insurance industry in Germany. It replaces commission-based insurance with commission-free tariffs and instead includes a flat fee for managing the client's insurance policies. However, the business idea can only be realized profitably if the administrative expense per client is significantly reduced. Due to strict regulations in the insurance industry, many activities within the process are mandatory.
The goal of this work is to automate the business process behind the idea through the use of digital technologies and to reduce the workload in order to make the business model profitable. We used design thinking as a mental framework to carry out the digital transformation of the business model in a structured way. As part of this qualitative research, we conducted expert interviews and a document structure analysis to define hurdles for the realization and to develop detailed process maps. We carried out a process workshop, during which we analyzed the process and identified requirements for a digital prototype, which was developed using the low-code framework bubble.io.
Through workload time measurements, the impact of digital transformation on the performance of the process was confirmed. Finally, different digital options were compared with each other. The findings of this work support the thesis that design thinking has a positive influence on the success of digital transformation and in particular in the development of solutions tailored to people. This success is underlined by a reduction in workload times by 71,2% for bottleneck activities. The comparison of the various digital options implies that the development of customized digital applications is preferable for unique and complex problems.
Prostate segmentation is an essential part of brachytherapy treatment planning, in order to perform the procedure with required accuracy. Nowadays, segmentation of the prostate is still carried out manually during the planning steps, therefore it is a process that can be tedious, time-consuming and prone to inter-observer error. Much effort has been made in development of an computer-based algorithm that can perform prostate segmentation automatically, but only with appearance of deep learning methods, more promising algorithms emerged. So far, convolutional neural networks demonstrated excellent results in fully automatic prostate segmentation. Development of such an algorithm and training an efficient deep learning model is a challenging task, and requires a lot of optimizations. The objective of this study is development and evaluation of an algorithm for image processing based on deep learning methods that can perform fully automatic segmentation of the prostate gland in transrectal ultrasound images. Additionally, we made an overview of the development process, along with challenges and their solutions and demonstrated an algorithm implemented using Python and Tensorflow library, consisted of preprocessing, augmentation, training and validation, postprocessing and validation steps, which is able to successfully carry out fully automatic prostate segmentation with expert level of accuracy. Finally, we presented our implementation of fully convolutional neural network model and results that are encouraging to continue with model improvements and potential clinical application.
Today the author bought six jackets. A friend asked her if she needed six jackets, and if she had this money to pay to all of them. She said that she had only 35 euros and among those six jackets, she will (because they haven’t arrived yet) choose only one. The others five will be returned, because she has this option for free. Then, a friend of her asked: “But what are you doing?!” She answered: “Shopping. I am shopping and writing my thesis.” With pleasure, the author brings to this abstract a concept of brick-and-algo. Pure algorithm – pretty new – any barrier, (brick, the store itself). Experience that brings to the costumer the same feeling as shopping!
Concrete walls also refers to the corporate world, which “bricks” have become glass or simply partitions between one table and another in business in general. The bricks really have fallen apart and companies are going toward a horizontal way, where everybody talks to everybody; again without any brick or any barrier. The hierarchy exists, but in a different level as before. The physical point card became virtual badge, enabling the famous “home office”. Employees began to be evaluated and separated between generations, such as generation X and generation Y or Z (starting in corporations). Consumers have more rights about products and the economy and changing behaviors frantically.
With competitiveness, organizations rely on investing in strategies, assuming new responsibilities, performance necessary for the personal fulfillment of goals and objectives. Promoting the growth and development of its employees, through a model based on mission and values. The quests for survival of organizations have changed the organizational paradigms, in the sense that if before it was necessary to motivate the employees and that today need also to get their commitment. This makes companies to wake up to importance of positive environments, where employees can find favorable conditions to work more effectively.
With globalization and rapid growth of corporations via innovations, talent retention becomes a very important factor for the survival and growth of organizations. At present, the people of organizations must have the ability to manage competently, in order to satisfy and retain their employees, which represent values invaluable to the company. One of those values is the power to renew, create, innovating and to intrapreneur.
Stimulate the entrepreneurial capacity, then by inducing behaviors favorable to systematic innovation, by creating a dynamic of continuous improvement and speed up the process of modernization is a current world. In this sense, the author of the thesis, decided to already introduce innovation, even in the abstract, through another author, or more than an author, a poet and brilliant mind, Fernando Pessoa, when he said:
"There is a time when humans should abandon the used clothes, which already have the shape of their bodies, and forget their paths, which always leads to the same places. It is the time of looking forward: and, if humans don't dare to do it, they will have been, forever, on the sidelines of themselves. " (Fernando Pessoa)
In this context, this thesis proposes to treat about entrepreneurship in general, proposes to talk about intrapreneurship, about corporations, the individuals; and finally, the author tries to makes suggestions for the current decade.
As COVID-19 forces school to shutdown, distance learning or homeschooling is increasingly becoming the preferred and safest mode of delivering education. The new trend however, raises underlying questions on the implication it will have on the educational gap and attainment between advantaged and disadvantaged students in Germany, stemming from the diverse economic, cultural and social situation among the student population. This study presents results of a comparative analysis between advantaged and disadvantaged students in Germany using the PISA data 2018. The study investigated, how large the educational gap in Germany between advantaged and disadvantaged students is and what influences this gap. More specifically, what effect COVID-19 induced school interruption has in increasing the educational at- tainment between the student population. The findings show that there is an educa- tional gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students in Germany and socio- economic and cultural factors influence student performance which aligns with the findings in the literature review. Furthermore, school closures of 51 days result to a loss of 3.26, 3.37 and, 4.12 PISA point for advantaged students in maths, science and reading respectively and a loss of 8.4, 8.1 and 5.01 PISA points in maths, sci- ence and reading for disadvantaged students. The results show an increase in the educational outcome and inequality between advantaged and disadvantaged students in Germany. The findings, necessitate the need for policy makers to neutralize the learning losses resulting from the COVID-19 induced remote learning.