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The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate how different types of reward motivate employees and to show that the degree of motivation of a reward differs from one organi-sational culture to the other and from one person to the other. Furthermore, it makes recommendations which reward components could be used, and which rewards should not be used in certain cultures. In the first part, several motivation theories like the content theories of motivation and the process theories are discussed. These explain the different approaches to determine what motivates people. The thesis then provides an overview of the various extrinsic and intrinsic rewards and illustrates how different reward components influence the motivation of employees. It is highlighted why it is necessary to focus on the total rewards package, rather than on single rewards. In addition, the thesis clarifies how to evaluate reward packages in order to ensure they are effective. The last part deals with culture and exemplifies how rewards need to be adapted to different cultures. Here, the thesis draws mainly on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory.
In conclusion, the thesis argues that it is crucial that a company uses an effective re-wards package which meets the needs of as many individuals within the company as possible. The thesis hopes to provide all people dealing with Human Resources useful insights into Total Rewards, and thus make a contribution to improving the way re-wards packages are set within organisations.
Problem: The thesis is about Marketing options for Sharklet retrofit at Airbus. Sharklets are wingtip devices which cut down on aerodynamic drag by reducing the vortices that are formed at the wingtips of any aircraft during flight.1 Airbus is looking for new Marketing options to increase sales of Sharklets. Market research findings from various fields will be highlighted and the relevance for Sharklet retrofit will be reviewed. The leading question during the thesis will be: How should Airbus continue to market Sharklets?
Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to describe which Sales and Marketing strategy Airbus uses at the moment and to find out where the weak points of the actual strategy are. Furthermore it will be analyzed what the actual brand image and brand communication of Airbus Sharklets is and whether it is in line with the desired brand identity. The thesis evaluates in which way Branding, Neuromarketing and Customer Journey Mapping can contribute to a better Marketing and Sales strategy.
Conclusion: Airbus should continue to market Sharklets by starting with a Customer Journey Map and figuring out what the customer is really looking for and how Airbus can react to the customers’ expectations. Sharklets should be marketed as wingtip devices that are environmentally friendly, fuel-saving and modern by guaranteeing that the Marketing material is consistent. Sharklets should be marketed not only on a rational basis. Emotional Marketing can be used to improve the brand image and the customer’s associations with the product. A mix of rational and emotional Marketing would be the best for Airbus to try how the customer reacts to emotional Marketing first. Last but not least Airbus should use the opportunity to better inform passengers about Sharklets and to provide input for In-flight-magazines to position the company itself and the customer as environmentally friendly and modern.
Modern online marketing strategies, techniques and problems - based on product ''Weddings in Bali''
(2015)
The purpose of this Bachelor-Thesis is to analyze the current situation of the company The Seven Agency in regards to the efficiency of currently used online marketing
channels to promote the website www.baliwedding.org in the international market. The conclusions were made based on results of a questionnaire which has been sent to
current and former clients of the company. Another part of this work contains research about how the company can achieve optimal results with using appropriate channels.
Both, the results of the Situation- and Target-Analysis have been compared to each other and were completed with a summary of the effectively and not effectively used
channels and a recommendation based on secondary data and literature study in order to achieve targeted results has been given.
The Bachelor-Thesis has been written in cooperation with The Seven Agency, located in Bali, Indonesia.
Nowadays companies operate highly international. Therefore intercultural projects correspondently increase. So far there is a lack of literature about the influences of culture on project management, especially when the project is about a worldwide process standardization.
The present Bachelor Thesis starts at this point and analyzes the international project IVR2020 at the company MAN Truck & Bus by means of a written survey.
As the process was developed in the German headquarters the basic assumption was that the more different a country is compared to Germany the more challenges will occur.
Here it was concentrated on the influencing aspect of culture.
Therefor the cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede were considered and a cumulated difference in the form of a number was derived for each country. Those were brought into correlation to the occurring challenges that were determined by a written survey of the project managers and sales managers that are already far enough in the process to give reliable answers.
The correlation analysis leaded to the result that none of the formulated hypotheses could be confirmed. However there where relatively strong negative correlation that indeed
disproved the hypotheses but leaded to the assumption that there might be correlations between the single cultural dimensions and the different facets of challenges. This turned out to be correct for some of the cultural dimensions.
Resulting from these correlations cautious predictions for the countries in which the IVR2020 process will follow in near future were made.
Furthermore the concrete problem fields for MAN Truck & Bus and their causes were evaluated. Based on the findings in literature and the analysis of the written survey recommendations for future similar projects were deviated.
In recent years the Green Bond market has shown a tremendous growth. It would be interesting to see where the motivation of the issuing companies comes from. One theory is that they expect to have a lower credit spread in this new market segment then in the normal bond market. It is the goal of this paper to analyse if this is the case or not. To do such an analyse it is necessary to find a connection between sustainability and classical capital market theories. Due to a lack of common understanding and measurability of sustainability this is not easy to do. Nowadays it is not possible to give a price for social benefit and as a result it is also not seen in the credit spread.
One can see major changes in the business industry, self-fulfillment is not anymore a state to achieve just through material rewards like a high salary but a human reward like recognition for the work employees did, especially in the western countries like Germany or the United States where a high amount of people have enough wealth already. Businesses need to understand the importance of the emotional engagement of their employees at work. The Gallup Institute, one of the leading researching Institutes about employee engagement found out in their research that employees are not emotionally engaged to wards their working place. Here are results for the year 2013: The disengagement of employees causes damages to the whole economy with the amount of 98,5 billion euros to 118,4 billion euros. The low emotional engagement in 2013 was 67% of all employees in the company. 16% of the company is highly engaged but in the same time 17% of the employees are working with no emotional engagement. The thesis “the art of happiness in business” will research throughout the literature of leadership and corporate culture as a key to increase the employee engagement in German companies. To be happy in a company is more than just earning money and leaving the company, employees need to be connected to the working place with their heart and mind. There is a new era coming the “generation happiness” which wants more than money. In a decade where happiness beats money, they want to work in beautiful environments where they can contribute to something bigger than themselves, they want to be happy and reaching their full potential will be a result.
To round up the thesis scientifically “the art of happiness in business” will develop from the existing theory about leadership and corporate culture a 21st century theoretical model as a scientific response to the changes in the industry, who one can find throughout this work. As an outlook the thesis will serve as the scientific foundation for future projects with experienced entrepreneurs to develop practical models increasing the employee engagement for companies.
Living in times when the Internet and Social Media is changing customer’s behavior, Customer Relationship Managers face the question how to deal with those changes and how to optimize their strategy to remain attractive for the customers. The behavior of people is changing immensely as customers do not prefer to be influenced by companies which are pushing products and brands to them. The force and pressure of customers towards brands is rising steadily, since they expect them to actively engage with them and to offer high quality information rather than a brand who is trying to make the purchase decision for the customer. These times, ordinary customers turn into active influencer who could reach a huge number of people and potential customers and therefore influence their purchase decision. Therefore understanding the current customer behavior and the way how, when and why they make a purchase and what could influence their decision is crucial to businesses. Consequently, businesses have to start managing the complete Customer Decision Journey of each target group and customer. On this account, this Thesis will cover each step of the Customer Decision Journey – Formulation, Pre-Purchase, Purchase, and Post-Purchase - and its influence factors. Thus the key success factors will be indicated, afterwards the Thesis will continue with the concept of corporate Online Shops and Multichannel Retailing and two Case Studies will finish this paper. After a secondary research, findings show that the participation of a certain generation and culture, as well as product reviews on the Internet and Social Media peers are influencing the Customer Decision Journey tremendously. Thus, Online Shops are playing an important role in the first two stages of the Customer Journey and the second Case Study shows the importance of the post-purchase stage. On the one hand side, all those new channels that are influencing and changing the customer and his/her behavior could be a big challenge for businesses. But on the other hand, businesses could start to modify their strategy and approach towards its customers, make use of new possibilities the Internet is offering and start creating a positive, memorable and shareable customer experience.
City branding
(2015)
The subject of this Bachelor thesis is based on place branding. The goal is to show its evolution since its creation until today and to analyze its importance nowadays. Our work focus mainly on four aspects of place branding, namely sense of place, identity of a place, stakeholders and communication. Sense of place helps to create meanings and attachment to the place. Identity of a place is mostly created by the different people living there and is very important to build a successful brand. Stakeholders are fundamental to place branding and it is very important to recognize the right groups of stakeholders to involve in the branding process, especially local people. Communication is a big part of place branding and has to be managed in an adapted way. The growing evolution of online branding has to be taken into account and managed closely. Word of mouth is a very efficient and powerful way of communication and it should not be neglected when creating a city brand. All these elements are being studied through the example of Strasbourg’s city branding, “Strasbourg, the Europtimist”. We see that the city is ignoring some of the elements mentioned above and could improve its city branding by applying these aspects more carefully. The Bachelor thesis then analyses the success of one of Strasbourg’s sub-brands: “Strasbourg, Capital of Christmas”. Through its analysis, we demonstrate that the key success factors of this event are based on the involvement of the right groups of stakeholders, a strong identity of place, the creation of meanings to the place and a powerful word of mouth. Recommendations are then made to improve the branding of “Strasbourg, the Europtimist”, based on the successful branding of “Strasbourg, Capital of Christmas”.
The purpose of this paper is a conceptualization of the identification and motivational methods for top distributors in the Chinese market for frequency converters. An examination of the market size, participants and segments is provided. Further the benefits for the manufacturer and distributor that occurring from a partnership are elaborated on and the term top distributor is defined.
Based on marketing channel literature a conclusive multidimensional model for the top distributor selection has been developed. The basic dimensions for distributor selection were determined as Sales/Market, Product/Service and Risk/Uncertainty factors. Those dimensions are supplemented by the China specific factors Guanxi and Human Capital. With special focus been given on the aspects that businesses might encounter when operating in China the reginal factors in distributor evaluation are also being discussed.
IN order to determine the value of different rewards two surveys were conducted. For the identification of the most valuable motivators a rewards portfolio was developed and applied on the data gathered in this surveys. The rewards portfolio was based on the portfolio analysis first developed by the Boston Consulting Group. The rewards determined as most valuable from both the manufacturers and distributor sides were “additional marketing and customer acquisition support”, “extended payment terms” and “market intelligence from manufacturer”. An explanation for the importance of those rewards is additionally provided.
Longevity in the globalised marketplace depends on the ability to remain competitive. Various definitions of economic competitiveness exist: this report compiles them, discusses the methodologies used to measure economic competitiveness and compares the results obtained when these various systems are applied to the country of France. Thereafter, examinations of aspects such as the development of gross domestic product, trade performance, price competitiveness, productivity and employment will be conducted with the aim of providing answers to the following questions: does France really experience a competitiveness problem? If so, what are potential causes of this competitiveness? Is there a particular domain in which France experiences greater difficulties than in others? Comparisons are constantly drawn to countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and China, where possible. First of all, France's GDP development is described in combination with a discussion of whether or not GDP (per capita) serves as a measure of the performance level of an economy. Then, the country's trade performance is closely examined. Aspects such as France's export market shares and its trade products and partners are investigated. Thereafter, focus is placed on price competitiveness. Analysis of the real effective exchange rate based on consumer price indices, the inflation rate and the nominal effective exchange rate is conducted before the aspects of labour costs and productivity are treated. A breakdown of France's GDP and GDP per capita growth rates, as well as unit labour costs are explored in detail. As the last component of the examination, focus is placed on the subject of employment. The findings of this report suggest that France suffers from a competitiveness problem which presents itself mainly in the field of employment which has a knock-on effect on the labour market. The findings of this report mainly confirm the findings of the literature. Proposed measures in order to resolve France's competitiveness problem target the minimum wage, the elderly workforce, labour market regulations and labour taxes. It is argued that implementation of the suggested measures could eventually improve France's level of productivity and the other issues examined.
Today more than the half of the world population live in cities which is 3.3 billion people. By 2050 it is estimated that almost 5 billion people will live in cities. By 2025 there will be 447 mega-cities in the world. Due to this development there is an increasing competition among cities. The purpose of this paper is to describe the different approaches, processes and methods which are needed to turn a place into a destination. First of all the theory of place branding will be described which includes the specification of a place which leads to the theory of place-making.
The next chapter describes what a destination is and from which perspectives you can look at a destination. Depending on the target group, expectations of a destination can be different. To improve a destination it is necessary to know the main elements of a destination as well as attributes which will give memorable experiences to the visitor of a destination.
To get a destination campaign started, several challenges need to be taken like building relations with cooperation partners or securing preservation of architecture and sustainability. This research paper will show you the first steps which need to be done to get a successful start of a destination campaign, as well as important elements of creative place-making and what is important to consider when starting the creative place-making process. After the establishment of a place-making project there are seven steps to follow which are accomplished inside this thesis.
To improve a place there exist different place-making models. For example there is the Business Improvement District model or a government driven model and the Town Centre Management model which have different approaches of turning a place into a destination. To show examples of place-making concepts in the world you will find three Case studies. One about Detroit and the other about New York. The last one will show you a current example of Dún Laoghaire, Ireland. This project started in April 2014 with a Business Improvement District.
The title for this thesis “An Economic Analysis of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)” has been selected due to its topicality and its explosiveness. The stimulus to write this paper originates in the wish to get a deeper insight into the topic, which has been treated majorly under exclusion of the public, and to be able to make a clear statement whether to support or to oppose the partnership. In order to answer this final question, it is also tested whether results from former agreements like NAFTA or Mercosur can serve as a guideline to what can be expected of TTIP. Additionally, the paper aims at making a final statement about the implications of the partnership for the future. To do this, the present paper covers two main subjects. First, it provides an overview of the history of free trade, the different forms of agreements, as well as an insight into the experiences made with NAFTA and Mercosur. This first part is concluded with an estimation of the results and motivations of and for free trade agreements, as well as a transition to the second main subject by naming the impacts of the findings for the planned TTIP treaty. Secondly, after providing a broad overview of TTIP by giving an insight into the definition and the process of formation of the partnership, the benefits and concerns of the deal are revealed. This part is followed by a broad study of ten indicators, which outline the real effects of TTIP on the economy, by distinguishing between three different scenarios. The thesis is concluded by presenting the findings from the former analysis. Although NAFTA and Mercosur do not provide applicable experiences, they still serve as points of orientation and suggest that free trade should be supported. Thus, the planned partnership should also be agreed upon in order to go with the pace of time and to stay competitive. If this is the case, TTIP will be a leading example in the future, motivating more nations to either join the partnership or to form ones by themselves.
This bachelor thesis aims at elaborating a relationship between corporate sabbatical programs and their impact on employee retention by taking the dimension of flexible working as mediating tool. The trend towards offering multiple ways of flexible working is growing as employees are demanding workplaces that encourage work-life balance. Sabbaticals are one type of flexible working arrangements regarding the continuity of work. Flexible working is becoming more and more commonly used by organisations with the goal to increase their recruitment attractiveness and their (employee) retention capability for “high potentials”. A relationship between sabbaticals and employee retention could be hypothesised in two theories. First, the component Flexible Working with the example of sabbaticals was added to the employee lifetime value (ELV) model. The ELV model describes an approach to employee retention, recognising the employee as an internal customer of the organisation. With applying the ELV model, an indirect relationship between sabbaticals and retention could be developed. Second, the retention impact of sabbaticals was implied by transferring the retention effects of flexible working in general on sabbatical leaves directly. The retention effects were measured in the dimensions of job embeddedness and organisational commitment. Both theories are able to design a relationship between the two variables, directly and indirectly, but always considering and linking flexible working to the concepts.
The aim of this bachelor thesis is to provide ZF Friedrichshafen AG with a flexible Human Resource concept for the successful handling of future joint venture projects in China. In order that future JV are planned and conducted successfully, a structured HR approach built on a combination of ZF experience and academic evidence has been developed. It points out cultural differences, creates awareness of potential organizational issues and gives advice. This thesis draws upon various academic resources which are expanded through ZF knowledge. For this, eight expert interviews with China experienced ZF managers were held.
This blueprint covers several of the HR issues that arise when setting up new joint ventures in China. By shedding light upon success factors a necessary flexibility when dealing with different partner firms is provided. After a theoretical outset and a brief introduction of ZF Friedrichshafen and ZF Passau this thesis peaks in the HR blueprint for joint ventures in China. Worth notable factors in setting up the structure, when recruiting and inheriting staff from the joint venture partner as well as considerations of the new Labor Contract Law and for policies and practices allow an understanding of what Human Resource issues can be anticipated in Chinese joint ventures. These then can be planned adequately for.
The results of this work offer a strategical Human Resource framework on how to best approach a next joint venture project in China. A broad range of HR issues have been analyzed and the most critical for joint venture success found implementation in the blueprint. Arranging a working organizational structure with a Chinese partner and implementing uniform policies and practices while considering cultural factors as well as complying with the legal requirements of the Peoples Republic of China is a task which is not easily carried out. Yet while setting up joint ventures in China already is a complex project, the partnering with a Chinese state owned enterprise is a challenge that requires special attention by HR professionals. The blueprint gives insights and guidance for stated issues.
Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Einsatz von Web Analytics und Social Media Analytics zur Gewinnung primärer Marktforschungsdaten. Als Instrumente der Beobachtung von Inhalten des Internets sowie des Web 2.0 verzichten diese auf die direkte Befragung von Zielgruppen. Stattdessen basieren Web Analytics und Social Media Analytics auf der Analyse von Konversationen und Verhaltensmustern innerhalb einer virtuellen Welt. Im Laufe dieser Arbeit soll festgestellt werden, ob und inwieweit sich die Repräsentativität der durch Beobachtung des Internets gewonnenen Erkenntnisse von den durch direkte Befragungen ermittelten Ergebnissen unterscheidet. Dazu wird der Autor zunächst basierend auf einer umfangreichen Literaturrecherche grundlegende
Begriffe der Umfrageforschung, datenbasierten Marktforschung sowie des Web 2.0 definieren. Zusätzlich erhält der Leser einen Überblick über Methoden und Funktionen von Web Analytics sowie Social Media Analytics, die anschließend im praktischen Teil dieser Arbeit eingesetzt werden. In diesem werden mit Web Analytics und Social Media Analytics ermittelte Kennzahlen für Marken unterschiedlicher Produktkategorien in einen direkten Vergleich mit den Ergebnisses einer im Rahmen dieser Arbeit
durchgeführten Online-Befragung gesetzt. Basierend auf den im praktischen Teil dieser Arbeit gewonnenen Erkenntnisse erhält der Leser abschließend Handlungsempfehlungen zum Umgang mit Social Media als Marktforschungsinstrument.
The assembly process of the coverings of side members is the most defective process at the Plant Consolidation Center in Malsch. The difficulty is the high level of variance, the manual process control and that the components do not have a barcode. Since the labelling with a barcode is out of the question, an innovative process assurance for non system-based components by an automated photo documentation and photo plausibility should be found. The following specific questions have been posed:
1. What are the main sources of error in this process?
2. What innovative possibilities do exist to eliminate these main sources of error?
3. Is the installation of a process assurance technologically possible and economically efficient?
The main sources of error have been identified by an error analysis. These are: Taking out the right colour and variation of the coverings of side members, the assembly of the right or no trim and the right positioning of the components in the carrier of charge. The study concluded that the necessary functions of the innovative process assurance are the recognition of the colour and variation of the coverings of side members and the verification of their positions in the carrier of charge. To find out what innovative possibilities for a new process assurance do exist, the logistics trade fair „Motek“ has been visited and 13 providers has been invited to a viewing appointment. In practice, only one inspection system has achieved reliable process results. In order to that only one out of 13 providers submitted an offer. Since the payback and implementation period exceeds the contract period with the Daimler plant in Rastatt, it is not possible to generate savings within this time period. For that reason, the recommended course of action of this study is that fort he company the inspection system is only economically efficient in case of a contract extension.
This thesis examined the stages problem recognition, search for information, pre-purchase evaluation and purchase of the decision-making process for productivity / utility applications. Firstly, the characteristics of mobile applications, the past literature of the stages of the decision making process and technology acceptance theories were reviewed. Based on the findings a new model, based on the particular stages and its relations to each other, was developed. Of all 15 hypotheses, which described the model, 8 were found to be statistically significant. The consumers’ interest in a productivity / utility application is caused by the desire for higher work efficiency or practicality, if the consumer believes that the application has the ability to fulfil this desire. This provides several practical implementations for marketers regarding the channel and type of promotions. Having interest in a mobile application, the application store and internal search are relevant information sources for the consumers to search for information. Especially the relevance of the internal search, emphasizes the importance of brand awareness for productivity / utility applications. Additionally, if the consumers search third-party independent sources, they inspect only a small number of the available relevant applications. Furthermore, involvement in mobile applications has a positive impact on the consumers’ extent of search. Finally, concerning the evaluation of the inspected productivity / utility applications, the performance expectancy, the ease of use and the price are relevant criteria for the consumer. This provides practical implementations for marketers and developers regarding development and promoting of productivity / utility applications.
A behavioral finance: An analysis of investment decision making regarding psychological influences
(2016)
Anywhere humans are interacting, emotions and psychology are important determinants to consider. This statement is true for financial markets as well and often there are occurrences which are not explainable by using traditional theories. Therefore, behavioral finance aims at finding explanations for such occurrences, referred to as anomalies, by combining economic and psychological research. The literature review presented in here shows recent developments in the field and gives an overview of research evidence by reviewing studies from six of the most investigated facets of behavioral finance. The review includes evidence from a variety of studies performed in different contexts to disclose the importance of understanding human behavior, especially in terms of financial markets and economy. The closure of this review consists of an alternative model and concludes that there might be a new science entering the collaboration between economists and psychologist which is computer science.
How can Holidog use its touchpoints more efficiently in order to improve its performance in Germany?
(2016)
The main aim of this dissertation is to study how the company Holidog can improve the customer journey of customers in the German market, with a special focus on the evaluation of present touchpoints and actionable possibilities to create new touchpoints.
Holidog is an online platform for petsitting, present amongst others in the German market. This study focusses on improving the performance in this market by increasing traffic on the website and converting more of this traffic into bookings. Besides, it is evaluated which touchpoints are not efficient in order to free resources for more relevant touchpoints.
The sub-questions researched are:
How can Holidog increase the number of searches on the website?
How can Holidog convert more of the searches into bookings?
Which touchpoints are not efficient and could be abandoned?
The research has been conducted in the period from September 2015 to February 2016. Market information as well as company-specific information has been collected mainly through secondary data provided by the company next to eternal sources providing data about the industry. For testing new approaches, primary research through quantitative observation has been conducted.
The dissertation is structured in five main chapters: (I) Introduction presenting the research topic; (II) Theoretical basis about the petsitting industry and the company Holidog; (III) The current customer journey and all touchpoints created; (IV) Additional touchpoints the company could consider creating; (V) Overall recommendations and conclusion.
Expatriation
(2016)
We are taking a look at the global deployment cycle, more precisely, the repatriation stage. Today many MNCs underestimate the challenges and difficulties returning assignees face upon return. MNCs have recognized the importance of support services and assistance before and during the international assignment. Even though literature findings have confirmed repatriation to be more difficult than expatriation, only a minority of MNCs invests resources in creating an effective repatriation program. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the repatriation phase within the global deployment cycle. Different factors influencing repatriation are analyzed and essential key action steps for a successful repatriation are identified. Also a closer is taken at how expectations and the commitment of international assignees are related to repatriation. In addition, the importance of cultural agility is discussed.