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The interest in topics such as the environment, health and sustainability has increased dramatically in recent years, due to concerns about global warming and demographic change, giving way to the concept of “green branding”.
This bachelor thesis proposes the application of a green branding strategy in order to position Irish agri-food products in the German grocery retail market, and explores its potential effectiveness and current relevance. Firstly, this work intends to offer an overall understanding of the characteristics and implications of a green branding strategy. Secondly, it analyses the connection with Ireland as a country of origin for agri-food products, by putting forward the different arguments for its suitability for the respective products. Finally, the key learnings regarding the successful implementation of a green branding strategy are discussed, based on a real-life best-practice case.
This research employed previous academic and trade literature to develop a theoretical foundation for understanding the concept of green branding in a marketing context. Various forms of industry, consumer and retail insights were used to identify the extent of demand for green brands in Germany and to analyse strength and weaknesses of the Irish agri-food industry in this regard.
An expert interview with the Marketing Manager for Kerrygold in Germany was conducted to uncover points arising from the best-practice application of a green branding strategy.
The findings indicate that there is significant theoretical and practical evidence to suggest that the application of a green branding would be an effective positioning strategy for Irish agri-food in the German consumer market.
Industry 4.0, a term coined at Hannover Messe in Germany in 2011, is believed to be the next disruptive force, driving human progress and innovation. The advent of technologies, such as the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Big Data, and new Mobile Technologies, fuel this disruption. To enable Industry 4.0, mankind is dependent on technological infrastructure, provided by companies, operating in the semiconductor industry. Over the last years, these companies have increased their profits and their stocks are currently trading near all-time highs. Yet, uncertainty created by the disruption of Industry 4.0, the growing influence of China on the semiconductor market, economic insecurities created by political uncertainties, like the 2020 US Presidential election, and the risk and implications of a second global wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, make the equity valuation of leading and established companies in the semiconductor industry exceptionally challenging. This paper examines, how different equity valuation methods compare under said circumstances and shows sophisticated valuation methods must be used to limit valuation error. Further, this paper gives an estimation of the possible ranges of value and suggests the industry may currently be overvalued.
The impact of store atmosphere elements on the purchase behaviour and emotions of customers has an important significance in modern marketing. How to design and conceptualize a store atmosphere in such a way that it provides an unforgettable experience for the customer and entices him or her to arouse an interest in the store environment is one of the most fundamental concerns merchants and marketers must ask and think through these days – likewise, the role of culture in connection with store atmosphere is necessary to understand. The goal of this paper is to answer the question on how behavioural and emotional responses to store atmospheric elements such as visual, aural, olfactory, tactile, social, exterior design, interior design and layout & design differ across individualist and collectivist cultures. A cross-cultural analysis between Germans and non-Germans is made in respect to the posed question. A quantitative online survey was conducted, in which a total of 99 valid participants took part, of which 57 were Germans and 42 were non-Germans. This research extended the study of Barros et al. (2019) and added two more separate store atmospheric elements which are the general exterior design and the general interior design. The data was then analyzed, and the findings were ultimately presented. The findings showed that overall store atmosphere elements have similar emotional and behavioural effects on individualist and collectivist cultures with the exception of the general exterior design element, where a significant difference was found. This paper gives a comprehensive overview on the importance of store atmospheric elements in retail and the comparison between Germany which acts as a country that scored relatively high on the Individualism dimension of Hofstede’s national culture model and the countries Turkey, Russia, Portugal, Albania, Bosnia, Romania, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Iraq which serve as a union of cultures that performed high on the Collectivism dimension. Additional research on the topic needs to be done on how culture affects shopper’s emotional and behavioural responses.
This study is aimed at valuing two companies in the IT services industry with different valuation approaches. Therefore, the preconditions for an accurate and meaningful business value as well as the procedure, strengths and limitations of these approaches are examined. Additionally, the accuracy of the results is determined through comparison of valuation estimates with their corresponding stock prices occurring within the three months following the business valuations.
Furthermore, it is examined if one valuation approach is superior in terms of accuracy. Finally, to verify the quality and explanatory power of the valuation results, they are compared with the outcomes of the study on the information content of equity analyst reports by Paul Asquith, Michael B. Mikhail and Andrea S. Au. The results of the business valuations show that within the three-month period, no price target was exactly achieved by the corresponding stock prices.
Furthermore, no valuation approach could be determined that is significantly more accurate than the others. It can be concluded that despite some limitations in the explanatory power of the valuations, the average percentage approximations of Mastercard’s and Visa’s stock prices to target prices were only slightly below those of the comparative study. In view of the fact that the research capacities and experience behind these business valuations are significantly lower than those of the top analysts in the comparative study, the results are considered consistent with the outcomes of the study on the information content of equity analyst reports.
An analysis of the inter-rater reliability of ESG ratings within the consumer staples industry
(2020)
The aim of this study is to gain further insights into whether ESG ratings of the same firms from different rating agencies differ. To this end, this study examines and compares in particular the ratings of the providers Bloomberg, Sustainalytics and MSCI for companies in the consumer staples industry. The study comes to the conclusion that there are in some cases significant differences between these three providers in terms of the respective ESG ratings. Furthermore, a company-size bias is shown for Bloomberg and Sustainalytics ESG ratings. It appears that these agencies rate companies with a large market capitalization better than firms with a lower market value. These large discrepancies in ESG ratings of companies within the consumer staples industry and individual rating problems, such as the company-size bias, mean that today's ESG ratings tend to be not reliable and not valid. The study shows that ESG ratings will have to change a lot in the near future in order to contribute positively to the investment selection of socially responsible investors.
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.
New developments in decentralized ledger technologies may have a huge impact on how we perceive and use money now and in the future. Most notably, it has led to the development of cryptocurrencies and a variation thereof –stablecoins. This thesis discusses the potential impact of Proof of Work based cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin on the money market and the central bank’s ability to maintain control over the money supply. The IS-LM model is used to evaluate the effects of a private-issued digital currency. However, due to the characteristics of POW based cryptocurrencies, their impact on the money market is neglectable. In contrast, private-issued stablecoins of large international businesses with the potential of gaining enough users to overcome hindering network effects may pose a serious threat to the financial system, if there is no regulation on their usage.
As a response to this development and combined with the phenomenon of a declining cash usage in many countries, central banks have started to conduct research in their own digital currency, namely central bank digital currency (CBDC). Countries such as Sweden or The Bahamas have already started with the implementation of trial phases of their respective CBDC. However, design choices of the country’s digital currency differ due to financial, geographical, and cultural circumstances, among others. Nevertheless, many countries have utilized decentralized ledger technologies as the underlying technology for CBDC, showing its promising potential for further research and future developments.
After the Second World War and especially in the early 70s a new phenomenon arose – today widely known as globalization. It eliminated barriers and thus increased international competition. Companies such as Siemens, General Electrics and Procter & Gamble were forced to act globally in order to stay competitive and therefore they had to redefine their businesses in a strategic and internationally oriented manner. As one of a company’s most essential departments, human resources was tremendously forced to adapt to the changed business environment. Language skills, cultural awareness and global mobility were only a few new requirements in human resources.
Early in the beginning of globalization, large companies recognized the opportunity to outsource specific departments with the goal of cost-saving and resource bundling. Manufacturing was and still is a predestined department to make use of outsourcing, whereas the situation for other departments including IT, procurement and human resources is more complex. The main fear is losing control to the outsourcing partner. Main departments with a strategic importance for the overall success are therefore only conditionally suitable for outsourcing. Companies need to ask themselves, how much control over their human capital they are willing to sacrifice for saving costs and staying competitive. With the purpose to evade this conflict of objectives, companies seek for a hybrid model, which allowed them maintaining control and cutting costs at the same time.
In the early 70s, first companies found the solution in the Shared Service Center model, which then rapidly spread throughout a number of countries and industries. Human Resources Shared Service Centers can be defined as a hybrid model, combining advantages and avoiding disadvantages of outsourcing and decentralization of Human Resources. The Shared Service Center model is expected to lower costs, improve efficiency and service quality, and enable organizations to better focus on core functions. Although the strategy seems only having advantages, there are many aspects to consider in the pre-implementation phase. Moving to the Shared Service Center model represents an immense strategic project, including high risk, costs and impact on the overall success. For this reason, the project needs to be well planned, designed, implemented, monitored
and evaluated from the right people, at the right time and at the right place. Any small mistakes made during the project might have an unpredictable and irreversible impact and prevent the company from benefiting of the Shared Service Center model or might even force the organization to stop the project completely. Before deciding to implement Shared Service Centers, companies need to accept that there is neither guarantee for success nor a universally valid success strategy. Best and worst practices will be discovered during the transition at the earliest and a success evaluation can only happen in the post-transition phase. Although the Shared Service Center model is not a recent trend as it found first-time application many decades ago, the topic remains relevant as many companies still hesitate implementing this risky strategy. Some organizations succeeded, others failed and returned to their old approach while some are currently in the transition phase.
Before deciding to move to the Shared Service Center model, one of the top pharma company’s was facing the same issues as other companies on such a scale. The management increasingly felt the pressure to offer the same or an even better service quality at a lower price. Changing the strategy and implementing Shared Service Centers across the globe was seen as the most promising solution. The large pharma company with employees of many nationalities worldwide offers a huge variety of cultures, which can be seen as a chance, but also as an obstacle on the way to a successful Shared Service Center implementation. Primarily, the company has to consider that the project might not work in the same pace, quality and method for all countries. Finding best practices for all countries is a desirable goal, yet not easy to achieve.
Beginning in the mid 2007’s the US financial market started to slide into the “worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the early 1930’s” (Thakor, 2015: p.156). The domino effect of several events and occasions were leading first to a countrywide recession in the USA then later spreading globally. In the following this term paper will deal with the main causes and effects of 2008 financial crisis. Unlike other topics in literature there is no consensus about the question of guilt in this sense. Among economists there are different approaches to explain the main causes of the financial crisis.
Islamic banking is the new trend emergent within the modern-day banking industry, yet minimal literature is written about it. Most of the literary content today is regarding conventional banking, especially in non-Muslim countries and continents, Europe and U.S. included. Lack of literature is a threat to the operationalization of both modes of banking, due to lack of information and market analysis data. One of the fields where minimal literature coverage exists is market regulation – which is basically information as to how these two types of banking are regulated according to legislative structures. In light of this literature gap, this study emerges to explore the market regulative structure of both Islamic and conventional banks. The methodology to collect primary data is through interviews of selected players in both Islamic and conventional banks, such as bank managers, consultants, and personnel in the IT and finance department. The results of the interviews demonstrate that Islamic banks are faced with shortage of market regulation structures while conventional banks, on the other hand, are overwhelmed with over-regulation. The study provides several feasible solutions for these challenges.
Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit gibt einen Überblick darüber, inwiefern die gängigen Nachhaltigkeitslabels in Deutschland eine Hilfe für den nachhaltigen Konsumenten sind.
Dazu wurden 8 handelsübliche Labels miteinander verglichen. Das Hauptproblem der Labels war die fehlende Glaubwürdigkeit, aufgrund von fehlender Transparenz. In einem zweiten Schritt wurde ermittelt ob, und wenn ja, um wieviel sich die persönliche Zahlungsbereitschaft auch tatsächlich erhöht. Festgestellt wurde, durch Auswertung diverse Studien, dass sich die persönliche Zahlungsbereitschaft durchaus steigern lässt. Dazu muss die Preisbildung allerdings transparent nachvollziehbar sein. Es lässt sich sagen, dass sich die Zahlungsbereitschaft um ein Fünftel steigern lässt. Durch die Auswertung diverser Studien wurden Barrieren ermittelt, welche einen nachhaltigen Konsum erschweren. Auf Grundlage dieser Barrieren, wurden Handlungsempfehlungen entwickelt, durch die diese Barrieren überwindet werden könnten. Besonders interessant ist diese Arbeit für diejenigen, die den nachhaltigen Konsum fördern möchten. Dazu gehören die Initiatoren der bisherigen Labels, sowohl als auch zukünftige Initiatoren.
In a worldwide accessible marketplace with numerous competitors who try to beat prices and quality of services and products, it is vital for online businesses to strive for strategies to be able to survive in a competitive environment and to sustain growth. The company Usbstick-Producer has gained numerous customers in the German market, but nevertheless competes against many businesses which offer similar products to similar prices. Therefore, it is highly important to defend gained market share. Appropriate strategies and investments are necessary to implement in order to attract and retain customers.
The bachelor thesis aims to explore the nature of customer retention and to give the company Usbstick-Producer recommendations regarding possible improvements and customer retention strategies for the German market. The company’s goal is to retain more customers and to ensure customer satisfaction in order to guarantee profitability for the business.
In order to attain the objective of the thesis, a multi-method approach is being used. A literature review is carried out in order to develop a comprehensive analysis and theoretical framework on the topic of customer retention and related concepts. An internal and external analysis are conducted which help to understand the key drivers and most important influencing factors for the business using the PEST analysis, Porter’s five forces analysis and SWOT analysis.
Qualitative research is utilised in order to investigate the practical aspects of the topic in direct relation to the company. Valuable insights and expert opinions as well as experiences are collected during expert interviews in order to develop appropriate strategic recommendations.
The research concludes with strategic recommendations for the company Usbstick-Producer using the collected and analysed data of the literature review and expert interviews. In the conclusion, possible further research topics are assessed and limitations of the research are discussed.
Funding is the key to success for a start-up. Since start-ups are often operating in innovative industries, they rarely receive loans from traditional debt lenders such as banks. However, start-ups do have the option of acquiring money for company growth through equity financing. One possibility for this is venture capital. In this scope, Germany is significantly behind the United States of America due to various aspects. This problem shows the relevance of the topic and justifies the critical examination of this subject. This work aims to analyze the German venture capital market, its development over the last 20 years, its advantages on the one hand and its disadvantages on the other hand as well as its future perspectives. Beyond that, the differences between the German and the American venture capital market and its success factors are presented. To answer all research questions, a broad literature review in combi-nation with several conducted expert interviews, which are evaluated on the principle of the qualitative content analysis according to Mayring, is applied. The results of the analysis indicate that there are mainly three fields that are crucial for a successful venture capital market: Political actions, attitudes of the society, and the economic situation. Within these fields, some aspects of Germany are considered worse than in the U.S. In the United States of America politics often intervenes to create better conditions for investments via venture capital. Besides, the risk affinity of society in the U.S. is a major advantage compared to the risk-averse society in Germany. This is complemented by a pronounced start-up mentality in the U.S. and the positive attitude of society towards the failure of a new start-up. In Germany, the opposite can be found in both aspects. Nevertheless, the German venture capital market has developed positively in recent years and has some advantages, such as a wide range of government grants for start-ups and the opportunity for investors to earn high returns on the initial investment. All experts that were interviewed are very confident that venture capital in Germany will continue to develop positively. They identified the reasons for this evolution in an increasing number of start-ups and better skills among the founders, which increases a start-ups' chances of success. For this reason, the experts forecast rising yield expectations, as well as an increasing number of venture capital providers, and venture capital takers. This research also indicates that the volumes of venture capital funds will rise, and the COVID-19-pandemic will accelerate the development of venture capital in Germany. The results of the research clearly show that despite some weaknesses, the German venture capital market has been on a good path for several years, and that there is a high probability that the growth will continue in the future.
Diese Interventionsstudie untersucht die Auswirkungen eines Outdoor-Wildwassertrainings auf die Fähigkeiten des strategischen Planen und Denkens von Studenten an der Hochschule Furtwangen. Bei diesem Outdoor-Training handelt es sich um eine Wahlpflichtfach-Veranstaltung, die unter dem Titel „White Water Management – learning Management in a new way“ angeboten wird. Die Veranstaltung stellt eine Methode dar, in welcher die theoretischen Inhalte zum strategischen Planen und Denken den Studenten vorgestellt und im Anschluss auf dem Wasser in einem Kajak praktisch erprobt werden. Um einen Lernerfolg beurteilen zu können, wurden sowohl teilnehmende Studenten an dem Training sowie eine Kontrollgruppe, nicht-teilnehmenden Studenten, mittels eines standardisierten Fragebogens zu einem Zeitpunkt vor und nach dem Training befragt. Die Auswertungen der Daten zeigten größere subjektiv eingeschätzte Lernerfolge seitens der teilnehmenden Studenten im Vergleich zur Kontrollgruppe.
Die Frage ob das Elektroauto mittelfristig den Verbrenner in Deutschland ablösen wird beschäftigt momentan Politik und Medien. Aktuell stellen Elektroautos trotz staatlicher Förderung noch ein Nischenprodukt am deutschen Pkw-Markt dar. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht innerhalb einer ausführlichen Marktanalyse von Sekundärdaten ob und gegebenenfalls wann Elektroautos in Deutschland den Massenmarkt ansprechen werden. Hierzu wird der deutsche Pkw-Markt mithilfe von Modellen der Diffusionsforschung untersucht. Ziel der Diffusionsforschung ist es, die Verbreitung einer Innovation am Markt im Zeitverlauf zu beschreiben und zu erklären. Es wird dabei herausgearbeitet: welche Käufer Elektroautos momentan ansprechen, welche Faktoren erfüllt sein müssen, dass sich Elektroautos am Massenmarkt in Deutschland durchsetzen können und welche Faktoren den Verlauf der Verbreitung von Elektroautos in Deutsch¬land in Zukunft beeinflussen werden. Aus Basis der gewonnen Erkenntnisse wird schließlich eine Prognose zur zukünftigen Verbreitung von Elektroautos in Deutschland erstellt.
Mit dem Fitnessboom in Deutschland profitiert auch die Nahrungsergänzungsmittelindustrie. Auf Social-Media-Kanälen wie Instagram wird immer sichtbarer wie Influencer der Fitnessbranche mit Produktplatzierungen für Nahrungsergänzungsmittel werben. Diese Arbeit untersucht das neue Marketingphänomen des Influencer Marketings bezogen auf die Nahrungsergänzungsmittelindustrie der Fitnessbranche in Deutschland. Für die Untersuchung wurde eine persönliche Befragung von Fitnessstudiobesuchern durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, dass das Influencer Marketing eine Rolle für den Erfolg von Herstellern der Nahrungsergänzungsmittelindustrie haben kann und diese neue Marketingdisziplin voller Potenzial steckt.
Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es zu erforschen inwiefern Führungskräfte den gesundheitlichen Zustand ihrer Mitarbeiter beeinflussen können. Macht falsche Führung krank? Wie kann man gesunde Führung umsetzen und warum ist das wichtig? Hierbei wird negativer Stress am Arbeitsplatz als Hauptfaktor für Burnout und psychische Erkrankungen näher analysiert. Traditionelles Führungsverhalten wird kritisch betrachtet und begründet folglich wichtige Ansätze gesundheitsförderlichen Führens. Die Bedeutung gesunder Führung und der Einfluss des direkten Vorgesetzten auf die eigene Zufriedenheit werden anhand aktueller Studien gezeigt. Gesundheitsmaßnahmen der leitenden Organisation und Personalentwicklung bilden zusätzlich wichtige Komponenten.
Jene Erwartungen, die heutzutage an die Führungspositionen gestellt sind, werden im weiteren Verlauf der Thesis hinterfragt. Welche Herausforderungen entstehen für Führungskräfte und Geschäftsleitung? Die Bedeutung von Führungskompetenzen und Führungskräfteentwicklung nimmt seit Jahren zu.
Als praktisches Beispiel dafür wurden zu den Forschungsfragen Interviews mit der jeweiligen Leitung des betrieblichen Gesundheitsmanagements zweier Unternehmen aus der Region Südschwarzwald geführt. Die qualitative Befragung ergab einen eindeutigen Bedarf an psychischem Gesundheitsmanagement. Die Rolle von Führungskräften wird in beiden Fällen als höchst bedeutend angesehen und in der Studienanalyse näher erläutert.
The topic of traditional fashion retailers fighting for their position against growing e-commerce suppliers has been omnipresent in recent years. Therefore, it is important to understand what possibilities modern technology and innovation has to offer, and how these innovative technologies can be leveraged to achieve traditional brick-and-mortar-retailer’s goal of staying relevant and competitive.
The objective of this thesis is to examine and compare the effectiveness of different in-store digitalization concepts and technologies in retail organisations, analyzing different challenges such as the practical implementation in stores, customer adoption and acceptance factors in context of socio-demographic, and measuring the success of the concepts. Also, the current situation will be explored to see what is already being done today and where there is more potential using different approaches and technologies. For this purpose, a variety of studies, papers and other literature will be analyzed and put into context with the research topic.
Concluding the thesis, we find that all technologies and its practical applications affect relevant variables in different models such as TAM, the convenience/social presence model, and the customer decision-making process. Besides that, the socio-demographic variables geography, age and gender all influence adoption and readiness towards technology to a certain extent. Finally, we give examples on how the technologies can influence classic fashion retail KPIs.
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.
This thesis proposes the adoption of renewable energies as a means to foster economicdiversification in oil and gas dependent rentier states. Surprisingly, oil and gas endowment does not always imply wealth and prosperity, mirroring the on-going debate whether natural resource dependent countries are blessed or cursed by their resource abundance.
This thesis seeks to bridge this gap by focussing on rentier states and the question whether rentier states are cursed or blessed. Based on the example of Oman, the proposed approach will be closely assessed. Additionally, the Sultanate’s challenges stemming from natural resource dependence and its preparedness for a post-oil era will be investigated.
Moreover, this thesis will analyze whether a paradigm shift in Oman’s energy sector can mitigate prevailing challenges and support the country’s economic diversification.
These three research questions will be answered through surveying and analyzing literature and data pertinent to the research topic. Findings indicate that rentier states tend to be more vulnerable to the resource curse and the impending fossil fuel depletion as it could cause public outcry and political and economic turmoil. Oman as a rentier state faces a grim post-oil era, fueled by many challenges, including dwindling oil and financial reserves, productivity losses driven by labor market distortions and rapid population growth.
Finally, findings suggest that the combination of economic and energy diversification can have strong positive effects on the Omani economy, such as freeing oil and gas reserves for export revenues, job creation, and private sector strengthening. However, Oman’s renewable energy industry is still in its infancy and faces various challenges, ranging from absent policies and adequate financing to heavily subsidized fossil fuels. As of now, the proposed approach is overly ambitious as the installed renewable energy capacity is too low to create significant employment opportunities or to free oil and gas for export purposes. However, heightened volatilities and economic shocks in recent years were eyeopening for the Omani government and have resulted in stronger efforts to enforce economic development plans. Similarly, the political transition after the death of Sultan Qaboos injected new impetus into Oman’s economy, which will facilitate the diversification of economic bases.