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Climate change, commodity price volatility and scarcity of natural resources are some of the clear signals that indicate the unsustainability of the traditional linear economy.
Manufacturing companies in the European Union are becoming aware of playing a key role at the heart of these problems, as they are responsible of determining the impact that products have on the environment and on the economy, during their first lifecycle and after. Manufacturers therefore started to acknowledge the possibility of adapting their business model to circular strategies. The main objective of circular economy is the decoupling of economic growth from natural resources while providing economic and environmental prosperity. This study aims to determine whether circular economy can represent a viable alternative to the current linear economic system in the context of European manufacturing sector. To answer this question, a literature review was conducted to gather qualitative existing data that has been selected according to relevance and analyzed.
The results showed that circular economy has the potential to be successfully applied to the European manufacturing sector, representing a prosperous alternative to the traditional linear economy.
The goal of this bachelor thesis is to find out if Lidl is well prepared for the future challenges in the retail sector. Change management plays an important role, as implementing new aspects into a business requires change. As change management is a well-covered topic, the goal was to understand how change management works and what kind of problems might come up in theory. By interviewing experts within Lidl, it was aimed to find out where Lidl is positioned compared to the competition and what potential plans are ahead but also what kinds of challenges Lidl as a company is facing. It shows that implementing change requires good shareholder management, communication but also understanding the market to know which change makes sense or not. At the end the goal is to define risks and to assess if Lidl is well positioned to maintain the success.
By researching the influence of heuristics and biases on investment decisions and performance of investors in the exchange, this paper contributes to the field of behavioral finance. The paper adopts a generalized perspective on investors and markets in the exchange and provides insights into investors’ decision-making behavior that challenge the traditional assumption of perfectly rational market agents. Thus, it presents statistically significant evidence that investors may not resemble the concept of perfect rationality, as they use heuristics and comply with the prospect theory in investment decisions. Therefore, these decisions are shaped by systematic errors known as biases. The paper’s focus comprises the heuristics of availability, representativeness and anchoring and adjustment as well as the prospect theory. These psychological concepts are investigated for their impact on investment decisions and for subsequent effects on investors’ performances. The investment performance, for this purpose, is measured by investors’ returns. In addition, these psychological elements are studied comparatively to detect interrelations between them and to identify differences in the magnitude with which they influence investment decisions of distinct groups of investors. The paper involves an analysis of quantitative primary data collected by an international survey. Thus, a sample of 297 investors with different characteristics is analyzed. Although the study reveals that investors in the exchange behave according to the considered psychological elements in their investment decisions without differences between groups, it does not show that this entails performance-inhibiting consequences. However, a negative relationship between the investors’ age and their compliance with these elements is found.
Global collaborations are becoming increasingly relevant in product projects. Therefore it is necessary to understand the different project management approaches on how global projects are carried out and what the differences are.
This bachelor thesis is a review of two project management manuals, which were designed by the company itself, on how project management at an internationally operating commercial vehicle manufacturer works with the focus being on time and risk management.
The aim of this thesis is to give recommended actions which improve the project steering, collaboration and the general approach in regards of time and risk management.
To achieve this goal a review of both project management manuals as well as expert interviews were carried out. Qualitative expert interviews were conducted with German- and English-speaking colleagues from different plant locations all around the world. Specifically, 12 questions included background knowledge and project work knowledge and were related to the two manuals, with the focus being on time and risk. The interviewees were required to be actively involved in at least one project and therefore have project work experience and thus are using one of the own project management manuals.
The answers of the interviews, as well as the current manuals contribute to the findings and based on the findings, it is recommended to create an example project for training purposes, to create a list of projects in order to divide the work, to use sprints or detailed planning, to focus on five top risks, to create a social intranet page dedicated to project management and to create a clear meeting plan in advance.
Moving places in cars impacts human activity daily. Therefore, living in a world without cars is inconceivable. While demand for cars exists, supply experiences shortcomings. Customers receive their vehicles with only one key or must deal with long delivery times. There is a correlation between the car industry, supply shortfalls and the current state of the world regarding COVID-19. The objectives of this research are examining how the semiconductor chip shortage affected sales and production of German car manufacturers and what strategic conclusions can be drawn for the future. To reach the objectives a quantitative theory analysis of existing literature was applied. The chosen car manufacturers are Audi AG, BMW AG, and Mercedes-Benz Group AG.
The results show that all objects to the research topic experienced a decline in production and sales. Further, that the semiconductor shortage, mainly anticipated by the pandemic, revealed the fragility of supply networks of the automotive industry. Different strategic attempts may cure supply chain management issues as such; however, it depends on the evaluation of the automotive industry whether this crisis carries a sustainable effect with its presence or not.
The aim of the thesis is to apply the theoretical ideas of the internal analysis and the blue ocean strategy to the case of Nintendo and their then newly released Wii console. In doing so the author will address the question about the success of a console that became a worldwide success despite its technical inferiority compared to its competitors based on the swift in the corporate strategy including the internal strengths of the company.
It will explain in detail how the internal analysis can be used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a company which when combined with a specific business strategy, can lead to sustainable competitive advantage and the creation of a blue ocean.
For this purpose, the author uses the internal analysis tools of the value chain such as the VRIO framework as well as the blue ocean strategy derived by Kim and Mauborgne.
In the context of the Thesis I helped myself above all with the books of the creators of the models. In addition, from Internet sources and newspaper reports since one finds in the context of the investigation for consoles few technical literature.
During my application of the models I finally came to the conclusion that Nintendo has implemented the theoretical models in the best possible way and on the basis of these it is possible to follow the process of company restructuring. Moreover, through the theoretical models it was possible to validate the strengths and weaknesses of the company and to put them in context.
Artificial Intelligence is becoming an increasingly important part of everyday life and is considered a matter of course by many people. Since it can be assumed that artificial intelligence will play an increasingly central role in business in the future, this paper aims to investigate the intersection between AI and Digital Sales Technologies through a systematic literature review. This thesis identified 32 relevant articles through an extensive literature search in the databases Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and SpringerLink. Through the detailed analysis of these 32 articles, the following four topic clusters could be identified: “Application Layer, Social Layer, Challenges, and Futuristic Layer”. Based on these layers, the developed research questions were answered successfully, and the following conclusions were drawn: AI is already being used in Digital Sales Technologies in numerous ways, for instance through voice assistants like Alexa. In addition, various changes for consumers and salespeople were identified, that accompany the adoption of AI in Digital Sales Technologies. Furthermore, this thesis provides an answer to which challenges this integration brings and how AI will influence Digital Sales Technologies in the future. Finally, research gaps for future research are identified based on the collected findings from the literature review.
With the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns, the relevance of remote working has increased dramatically. The goal of this thesis is to answer the key question of what remote leadership looks like in German companies while also offering an outlook at the future of remote working.
In the first part of the paper, a literature review introduces the reader to current findings on digital transformation, leadership, remote working, remote leadership and the digital readiness of Germany.
In the second part, an interview study with ten leaders in German companies reveals how they think about and what suggestions they have on the remote leadership role, leading remotely, remote work as a concept, Germany as a place for remote working, future flexible working models and the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The results of this study show that the most common remote leadership approaches in German organizations seem to be democratic and transformational. Furthermore, remote employees need more feedback and motivation than office-based employees. Working times of remote employees are controlled less strictly while results become even more important. Instead of being controllers and supervisors, remote leaders are often becoming team players. Lastly, hybrid remote working models are here to stay after the pandemic.
Future research on the topic could look at remote leadership from an employee perspective or survey larger participant groups about remote leadership to gain a broader view on the topic.
In the context of the global climate crisis, socially responsible investing has gained momentum in the financial market. One of its objectives is the achievement of a positive environmental impact. Among the instruments used for this purpose are green bonds. These are fixed-income instruments whose proceeds may only be used for green activities. To this point, market-based standards aimed at establishing uniform definitions of what constitutes “green” have strongly contributed to the development of the green bond market. In order to further promote the issuance and credibility of green bonds and exploiting their financing potential, the European Commission has proposed the introduction of a European Green Bond Standard.
This thesis examines how an introduction of the European Green Bond Standard could impact the existing German green bond market and lead to more private investments in green projects in the future. To address this question, information from an extensive literature review as well as quantitative data from Refinitiv EIKON's Green Bond Guide was used.
For the German green bond market to grow, in particular an increased involvement of the private sector is essential. This thesis finds that the current draft of the European Green Bond Standard offers great potential in this respect. Through increased transparency and assurance, increased demand as well as associated reputational benefits and the possibility to use targeted policy incentives it has the potential to increase the attractiveness of green bond issuance for the private sector and thus induce more issuances. An extension of the grandfather clause, which is currently under discussion, could underpin this even further.
Key factors sustainability and digitalization – an analysis of countries performance and actions
(2022)
Climate change is an extremely relevant topic nowadays in everyday life, politics and even economy. Therefore, it is important to understand the dimension of this topic and be conscious about how it is affecting everyone’s life. Many people’s base of living is fading through for example crop failure or natural disasters. Next, businesses must also adapt since many governments have implemented emission caps which force organizations to restructure business processes to meet those goals. Adapting to new circumstances or ways of working is crucial to fight back menacing environmental changes and without coherent enforcement, the goal of combating global warming and tackling climate change can’t be achieved.
But how can these challenges be fought against in a meaningful way and matter in a long-term perspective? There were already some attempts made like setting a maximum for global warming worldwide. On the other hand, there is no country which can meet those in the required period of time. Next to battle the problem of global warming every country in the world has to take part and work together, or else the goals can’t be fulfilled, which can occur to be difficult and hard to execute in reality. If there is no coherency in enforcement the aim of fighting the global warming and climate change can’t be attained.
The essential query I want to obtain with this thesis is what the possibilities for countries through sustainability and digitalization to live and operate in a more renewable way are. Part of this work will be assessing Sweden’s progress and development in this field since they are pioneers in both key areas. Afterwards there will be a comparison to Morocco and Singapore which at first glance differ completely from each other to work out differences and common ground.
In the end contrasting key factors like climate and geography, politics or economy etc. will give insights about opportunities and unused potential in making the world more sustainable with the help of digitalization.
The technique of acquiring the data is mainly focused on news articles, tech, and business publications as well as governmental proclamation and reporting of environmental portals. The reasoning for this is that the topic is very up to date and the source of information needs to be as recent as possible.
The intention of the project is to generate understanding and awareness about how sustainability and digitalization can be drivers and work together in a complex sphere like environmental change.
Since the occurrence of cybercrime rises every year, it has become increasingly important for companies to further secure their data and important information. It is not enough to just secure the data inside of the company, by now companies must go one step further.
This thesis focuses on a way to develop tools and methods to determine whether company data is secure in the hands of third-parties as well. To do so it is important to understand what different methods are available and reliable enough for the everyday usage.
The aim of this thesis is to present an evidence-based methodology to identify third-party risks. To achieve this goal, an analysis of international standards of technology knowledge is conducted. The market is searched for already existing service providers with the intend to find already existing information and templates on the topic. By conducting interviews information and expert knowledge is gathered.
The analysis and interviews contribute to the development of a generalized questionnaire which can be used to evaluate third-party risks. A generalized questionnaire that is fit for every third-party working with company data, that can be adjusted if necessary.
This paper analyses five different Cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Dogecoin and Litecoin, and studies their impact on traditional financial portfolios under different allocation strategies. The allocation strategies under consideration in this paper are the modern portfolio theory according to Markowitz, an extension of it such as the tangency portfolio, and the equally weighted portfolio. Further, this study explores the effect on the efficient frontier when Cryptocurrencies are added to the efficient portfolios. In addition to that, the paper aims to examine whether the mean – variance portfolio optimization according to Markowitz outperforms the naïve and tangency portfolio strategy. The portfolio performance is evaluated based on the Sharpe ratio. The quantitative analysis of this paper covers the time period from 2017 to 2022, in total five years. In accordance with the existing literature on portfolio optimization with Cryptocurrencies, the study reveals that besides some issues related with Cryptocurrencies such as cybercrime and a lack of regulations, Cryptocurrencies can be beneficial for portfolio diversification with traditional financial assets. Referring to the portfolio strategies, the study highlights that the optimal mean – variance portfolio and tangency portfolio do not differ significantly in terms of Sharpe ratio. However, both strategies outperform equally weighted portfolios.
University-Industry Collaboration (UIC) is considered by academics and industry as a vital factor that has the power to both positively and negatively impact the open innovation (OI). To contribute to the literature and to identify challenges as well as to conceptualize some recommendations to help industries, this thesis raised a question:
what are the challenges of UIC and what recommendations can be made to solve the challenges. The main research objective was to recognize the determinants of UIC challenges. An empirical study was conducted in order to give an answer to the research questions and to meet the research objective. This research explicitly focused on students/interns and internships to analyze and to discover the challenges and solutions since students or internships are the least researched area in the field of UIC research. Participants were personally contacted with the survey link that was created online to conduct explorative research with the help of close-ended (quantitative) and open-ended (qualitative) questions. The results reveal that there are numerous challenges students face during the internship and thus these most likely hinder the successful UIC and ultimately successful OI. According to the results obtained from both quantitative and qualitative sections obvious and major challenges lie in innovation mediators ‘organizational culture’. From the quantitative result perspective only, major challenges are in the area of absorptive capacity and supervisors' support, internalization, and trust. Similarly, from the qualitative results perspective only, major challenges are bad crisis management, communication, and hierarchical structure.
Plastic packaging and its waste are known to have a negative impact on the environment and on human health. This study aims to determine effective government measures for the management of plastic packaging in Germany. Specifically, the effectiveness and acceptance of possible environmental incentive and restriction policies are analyzed based on the objectives of reduction, reuse, and recycling. Therefore, the policies of a plastic packaging tax, tax differentiation, bans, and concentration limits of chemical additives, as well as restrictions on packaging design, are investigated.
In order to examine the consumer acceptance of the policies, an online survey was conducted with 272 students. This study further contributed to the analysis of effectiveness as consumption effects were measured. Accordingly, the expected policy effectiveness was examined based on literature research and quantitative insights from the field study.
The results - which are only representative for German consumers with an academic background between 18 and 29 years of age - revealed that most respondents accepted the policies, although acceptance was higher for restriction policies than for incentives. Furthermore, problem awareness was found to slightly correlate with policy acceptance in most cases. In terms of expected policy effectiveness, several factors indicate effectiveness for all policies. However, multiple prerequisites for the achievement of policy effectiveness were identified, whereas the requirements for restrictions on chemical additives were most complex.
When enterprises decide to expand operations to new foreign markets, they are encountered with the crucial decision of how to implement their marketing strategy in each market without losing consistency across their global brand image. This thesis will focus especially on the impact culture has on this decision and on its implementation. To do so, a qualitative analysis in form of expert interviews was performed in six multinational companies across different industries. Marketing managers from the headquarters were questioned about the implementation of their global marketing strategy in their local markets. The findings give new insights for managers in terms of future adaptations for efficient communication of marketing strategy across the multinational company.
The two strategic options standardisation and adaptation are examined in the literature to set a foundation to later discuss culture’s influence on this decision. Furthermore, a cultural framework will be given and the communication structure of the two main parties of a multinational company will be reviewed in the existing literature.
Abstract
The large-scale impact of the climate change on all regions and industries of the world underlines the need for action in the logistics sector. Despite literature in this field has matured fast since the last 5 years, it neglects the consideration of digital tools or measures to introduce sustainability in the sector. Consequently, precise recommendations on how to manage digital disruptions in order to reach sustainability goals in Logistics are lacking.
The objective of this thesis is to develop those recommendations and to facilitate their implementation for practitioners in the truck container transportation sector. To do so, the impact as well as the evolution of digitalization must be determined. Besides, factors for managing digital change successfully and measuring their impact in this sector shall be ascertained. Finally, a holistic framework to support the implementation process for becoming more sustainable by using digitalization should be presented.
A single-case study at the Logistics Start-Up “driveMybox” intends to fill the identified gap in knowledge. Particularly, it is studied how the organization manages to use digital tools to offer CO2-neutral truck container transports on their platform. Thereby, the different approaches are being looked at. Besides, data is gathered through qualitative interviews and other internal documents.
The first outcome of the thesis is an overview that illustrates the role of digitalization in Logistics. It increases the awareness of the digital impact and helps practitioners to take useful actions. Furthermore, a clear set of success factors to forward sustainability in the transportation sector was developed. Finally, a holistic result depicts which steps can lead to a more sustainable transportation process. Summarising, the thesis contributes to extant literature by combining digitalization with approaches to sustainability. The given recommendations consider the particularities of Start-Ups and support practitioners in this field with valuable guidelines and a holistic framework.
The sharing economy is a global phenomenon and an alternative consumption model based on granting access to owned surplus of resources to strangers through web-based platforms in exchange for money or for free. While this model quickly gained popularity in the transactions between individuals (C2C or P2P) and between individuals and companies (B2C), the potential of sharing between enterprises (B2B) is yet to be harnessed. Among the positive consequences the sharing economy claims to deliver, such as increased efficiency, waste-cut, and community-building, sustainability is the fundamental consequence this paper will focus on. Specifically, this thesis aims to determine if the sharing economy in the B2B market is a sustainable business model for the future. The obtained results show that, while the sharing economy in B2B, especially in small to medium-size companies, has the potential to bring more efficiency and sustainability for the future, this seems not to be the case in the present. This is the result of several external limitations, especially in the field of technology, legality and in society, but also of internal factors, such as conceptual and empirical unclearness that occasionally even lead to business misconduct and abuse of the positive connotation of the sharing economy model.
The aim of this paper is to analyse how technology has assisted in the stabilization of corporate labour markets in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. Innovations in technology influencing the way work is currently done by most corporations, especially technology-oriented corporations, that realized the possibility and effectiveness of working remotely, and the sophistication of relevant technologies in enabling corporate employees to continue working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The case study of how South Africa handled the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, compared to Germany, will be elaborated on. As medical technological innovations greatly improved in the shortest time possible, to have effective vaccines, the breakthrough in COVID-19 vaccines happened.
The paper tests the German stock market for excess volatility and stock price overvaluation with regard to the simple efficient markets model and the cyclically adjusted price-earnings ratio. Long-term historical stock market data of 49 years are used to calculate the detrended real price and ex-post value and data of 39 years to compute the cyclically adjusted price-earnings ratio, both from the sample of two German automotive stocks. The empirical evidence provided by the analysis points to excess market volatility and confirms the theory of overvalued stocks, which is linked to the bubble theory. This indicates that price fluctuations cannot be justified only by changes in fundamental values as claimed by the Efficient Market Hypothesis. The German stock market therefore shows inefficiency.
The current COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in a so called "people-crisis" changed the people work and forced businesses to re-locate teams to a virtual working environment.
Virtual and remote work became the only way for many firms to stay afloat, and it meant drastic and forced changes in the meaning of work for a large number of employees. Although this seemed to be impossible for many business organizations, the current reality proved the exact opposite. The pandemic put many teams on a test, which only the high-performers and the ones were ready to adapt, learn and grow could pass. Therefore, complex and well-developed organizations need effective team performance in order to survive. Even though technology makes collaboration possible in a virtual environment skills that make it successful. Employees who merely "perform their jobs" are no longer desired by many businesses. Instead, companies search for talent who own an agile mindset and have the required soft skills to work and adapt in a team.
The aim of this research is to provide general information on the importance of teamworking as well as to analyze the impact of the virtual working environment during COVID-19 crisis on the teamwork.
Companies are progressively implementing remote work models to handle the evolving changes in economic, social, and technological environments and facilitate their business operations amidst these. Meaning more teams including multicultural ones are deployed to function on a virtual basis, during the course of their employment, or for a specific project.
Therefore, this thesis focuses on presenting the main challenges that these global virtual teams typically face and the practices to implement as a way to resolve them.
Data were obtained from both a literature study and interviews run with a total of six experts. Four of them being managers and two, employees so that varying perspectives on different organizational levels could be covered.
The findings emphasize that the virtual element significantly impacted communication, coordination, collaboration, and the social aspect. Hence teams and/or management need to dedicate more time to collectively decide on and elaborate a set of common guidelines, best practices, and tools to address this. Whilst maintaining openness and a sense of trust throughout, as incidents or interactions can come up that normally prompt unintended assumptions. For reoccurring issues or generally to ensure the team’s performance and well-being though, companies and/or top management need to regularly follow up and be prepared to intervene.
The purpose of this thesis is to examine how process mining might enhance and benefit processes to increase the competitive advantage, while also examining the difficulties businesses are facing when implementing process mining and the purpose for which they have implemented it. Presentations of cases from various industries are backed up by in-person interviews with representatives of various businesses. The findings show that process mining is a tool that users highly recommend since it produces results that have never been seen before, regardless of the field in which it is used and regardless of their initial purpose for choosing such a concept. It also emphasizes the importance of the staff and people in putting a new idea into practice, as well as their obstacles embracing anything new.
Businesses that are competing for an advantage knock on many doors. The last ten years have seen many businesses of all kinds open their doors to process mining. A notion that identifies their shortcomings, provides them with room to grow and gives them transparency. One would assume that firms' focus is on keeping costs low in today's environment, where expenses climb enormously daily, therefore that's why they introduce innovative concepts. That may be true at first, but once the concept's genuine usefulness is realized, their focus is simple to change. Companies today recognize the need of process optimization if they wish to operate with a competitive edge and have a sound business plan. Until businesses decide to test the idea themselves, the network effect is important in such situations.
Since the concept hasn't been on the market for very long and not many companies have had experience with it thus far, it was observed that the results of the literature review with regard to the content of the interviews were practically comparable.
Finally, this paper provides recommendations for a transition from the conventional business models that firms are still using to more modern technical, data-based approaches. Only a broad analysis and conclusion are possible with the sample size of eleven companies and ten specialists.
The following study examines the influence selected variables have on the price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin by utilizing a multiple linear regression model. Data of 267 observations for each variable during a five-year period from 13 August 2016 to 1 October 2021 are analyzed. The results present empirical evidence on the relationship of Bitcoin and external determinants such as traditional financial assets, in particular the stock market, the bond market, domestic currencies, the real estate market, gold, and the popularity of Bitcoin, represented by a Google Trends analysis. The findings imply that only the stock market and the real estate market proxies significantly influence the price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Private equity investors acquire companies, aim to increase the company’s corporate value and thus aim at selling the respective company at a profit after some time. To increase the value of their portfolio companies, private equity investors employ three main value creation strategies. Financial leverage, multiple expansion, and operational value creation. There has been a significant shift in importance between these three value drivers. While in the 1980s more than 50% of value creation was achieved by leveraging equity with the help of debt capital, this value driver only accounted for 15% in the 2010s. Instead, the value driver operational value creation has gained significantly in importance. It alone accounted for 55% of total value creation in the 2010s, more than financial leverage and multiple expansion combined. The aim of this thesis is to answer the question which operational value creation levers private equity investors use to increase the value of their portfolio companies during the holding phase. In addition, the thesis deals with the question of operational value creation drivers of the future. These are derived based on prevailing megatrends of the future. Research on the operational value drivers used by private equity investors revealed that these drivers can be assigned to three main aspects.
These aspects are, on the one hand, financial aspects, where private equity investors take measures to improve working capital. Moreover, within the framework of financial aspects private equity investors influence the cost structure as well as the cost of capital and the capital structure. Furthermore, private equity investors assert influence on the governance structures of their portfolio companies. For the aspect of governance, measures such as replacement of management/change of management structure, monitoring and controlling as well as incentive systems were identified to increase the value of the company. Another identified aspect for value creation are strategic aspects. In terms of strategic aspects, private equity investors use the levers of mergers and acquisitions, organic expansion, outsourcing/insourcing as well as product and pricing strategies.
The research on the value creation levers that private equity investors will have to apply in the future in order to ensure value creation of their portfolio companies is based on the megatrends of digitalization, demographic change and sustainability. The research revealed the implementation of digitalization measures, employee, and talent management as well as the implementation of ESG criteria.
This thesis has structurally outlined value drivers that contribute to value creation in private equity investments. The research also showed that value creation levers taken can directly and indirectly influence the value of the portfolio company. Value drivers II with a direct effect on the change in equity value affect either revenue, margin or net debt, while the indirect value drivers affect the valuation multiple.
The aim of this research is to explore social media platform TikTok and how it can be used as a marketing opportunity for brands but at the same time be a challenge for others. A qualitative study has been conducted due to the subjective nature of the topic, as well as a qualitative survey to get better insights of TikTok users’ behaviour. To analyse the data, a content analysis of 4 brands over the time frame of 3 months 01.06.2022 to 25.08.22 has been conducted. The findings can offer researchers and marketers better insights about if and how to implement TikTok into a marketing strategy of a company.
The aim of this paper is to examine the role of packaging design as a strategic marketing tool in the fast-moving consumer goods industry and how this can be done most effectively to appeal to multiple generations. The research question is: how could companies in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry design their packaging to appeal to different generations?
To answer the research question, a quantitative online survey was carried out targeting consumers of generations X, Y, and Z in order to find out what they expect from product packaging. In addition, qualitative expert interviews were conducted to gain a deeper insight into the FMCG market and the role of packaging.
Empirical research showed that packaging is an essential marketing tool when it considers certain conditions, such as general consumer demands and important megatrends. In addition, it was found that neither consumers nor brands place much value on different generational backgrounds in packaging but rather on common values across generations. However, the generational background of the consumers could serve as a guideline for concrete target group definitions.
This shows that packaging is essential for consumers and brands today. On this basis, it is advisable to follow a packaging strategy that combines generations and common consumer values in order to be as competitive as possible in the FMCG market.
The purpose of this thesis is to determine which factors of the German entrepreneurial attitude can ensure a successful transition onto the Mexican market, defining the values and characteristics of a German entrepreneur.
In this context, explanations of the characteristics of the German entrepreneur, his "entrepreneurial attitude", "entrepreneurial characteristics" and "entrepreneurial intention" are of importance for the further investigation.
Through the literature research, this content was composed and defined. The Mexican market was taken as the focus and considered in the context of culture, values, and characteristics. Subsequently, the findings were verified and discussed through several expert interviews. By that, the research questions were aimed to be answered.
The results show that the terms of achievement, sense of duty and time-dominated are relevant success factors of German entrepreneurial attitude. There is a need for adaption for those terms and especially for the terms of authoritarian leadership style and hierarchical.
The results of the literature review with regard to the content of the definition of German entrepreneurship were seen by some of the experts as outdated and not up to date.
Finally, this work provides recommendations for a successful transition of German entrepreneurs to the Mexican market to promote entrepreneurial activities. Here, reference is made to the values and characteristics that have found approval or rejection through the interviews.
The literature research was limited to the dimension model of Hofstede and is not including other cultural models. The sample amount of five experts permits only a general analysis and conclusion.
This thesis addresses the relationship between sustainability action and firm competitiveness. Through the analysis of literature and by conducting a survey on consumer demands and preferences, the question whether sustainability action can help companies in the consumer electronics sector gain a competitive advantage is answered.
This thesis comes to the conclusion, that sustainability action can yield many advantages for companies, when executed properly. In general, companies with a strong sustainability performance reduce their production cost, have easier access to capital and labor, show financial and stock performance on the same level or higher than less sustainable companies, reduce stakeholder risk and gain consumer goodwill which can materialize into a competitive advantage. Regarding the consumer electronics sector,
this thesis shows that most consumers would prefer more sustainable products over less sustainable ones and would be willing to pay a price premium. What seems to be a big issue in the consumer electronics market is, that even though companies like Apple already act on the issue of sustainability, they are either doing a bad job or having a hard
time communicating their sustainability initiatives to consumers.
This research paper explores consumer behaviour towards the purchase and usage of Electric Power Two Wheelers (EP2W) by German millennials, the target consumers of this paper. To evaluate the purchasing intentions of German millennials on EP2W, academic research has been conducted. Therefore, data from scientific studies have been collected with a focus on which aspects influence the target consumers’ opinions between electric P2W and fossil fuel P2W. The resulting data showed that millennials exhibit stronger purchase motives towards EP2W. It also states that the purchase price of the EP2W serves as a primary factor.
This thesis paper aimed to compare the marketing of wine in Germany and France. Though Germany and France are neighboring European countries, they are culturally, politically, socially, economically, geographically, and technologically different. These differences, directly and indirectly, affect the way both countries do business.
Three research questions helped to compare wine marketing in Germany and France. These questions are the following:
Factors that go into the wine production as well as certain indicators or characteristics inform the potential customers about the quality of the wine they have in their glasses. That is why the first question in this thesis focused on how the quality of wine is defined in Germany and France.
Wine Associations at different layers: regional, national, European, and international play an important role in wine promotion. So, the second re-search question was to investigate the contribution of these different wine co-operatives in wine marketing.
To market their wine, many countries put in place different marketing strategies to increase their wine image and customer base. That is why the Last part of this paper was to compare the different marketing strategies used in the wine sector in Germany and France.
This thesis ended up with a conclusion.
The necessity and efficiency of a well-designed onboarding program is undeniable. In addition to the individual design of an onboarding program, the presentation and marketing of the activities in this context differ, with potential indications of onboarding strategies. The thesis aims to investigate the communication of onboarding-relevant content by German companies to detect characteristic indications of two controversial onboarding strategies – the Cold water and the Babysitting approach. In this context, the following research question was established: How do German mid-sized companies present their onboarding activities?
The research is based on communication content, whereby the qualitative content analysis according to Mayring was applied which provides the basis for subsequent analyses investigating linguistic and industrial interrelationships. The study was performed on the 50 MDAX-listed companies as a representative of all German corporations.
The qualitative examination revealed a strong preference towards the Babysitting approach. Here, linkages were identified regarding a segmentation of the onboarding content by target groups based on entry and experience levels, supporting the detailed presentation and implementation of this approach. Also, the address towards potential candidates of these companies was increasingly characterized by a personal 'Du' address. These findings support the associated perception of the employer as employee- oriented and are thus coherent with the characteristics of this approach. Indications of the Cold water method were found more among innovative industries. The analysis also demonstrated the use of existing employees as transmitters regarding onboarding relevant content, with storytelling and blogs emerging as the primary channels of communication of Cold water corporations. Additionally, the communication of general rather than specific onboarding topics supports the characteristics of the Cold Water approach, as the onboarding phases are non-prestructured and the responsibility of a successful integration lies with the new employee.
The goal of the following paper is to examine if Corporate Architecture can be used as a tool for Employer Branding, as both concepts gained of importance over the last years, due to the war for talents. Therefore, specific aspects of each of the theories are focused on. The focus of Corporate Architecture lies on the interior design of offices, specifically in combination with the color association theory. This theory states, that colors are associated with specific values, things or emotions. The focus of Employer Branding is set on the values of cohesion and agility, as those are key characteristics of innovative teams and organizations.
Employers must have the necessary tools to engage in the fight for talent, which is growing increasingly competitive. The rising competitiveness of the recruiting industry today has further driven the development of the recruitment process, resulting in the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques.
In this thesis, a literature review of current applications of AI in recruitment is conducted to better understand AI’s present strengths and limitations as well as its future potential.
In particular, this thesis attempts to clarify, from a recruitment strategy perspective, how AI can be used to improve recruitment and facilitate recruiters’ daily work, with a focus on which guidelines should be in place to achieve these goals.
The results reveal a significant gap between the promise and current reality of AI applications in human resources. However, with a few adjustments and cautious implementation, AI can indeed provide recruiters with promising solutions primarily by taking over tasks such as sourcing, screening and possibly even interviewing applicants through video screening. This has the potential to improve the quality of hiring and eliminate bias in recruitment. The thesis also finds that, at present, a fully automated process without any supervision from recruiters is unrealistic, at least in the final stages of the decision-making process, due to the ongoing and crucial need for a human touch and the currently foreseen negative cultural reaction to AI in its present limited form.
Growing environmental awareness, especially among young generations, is reflected in the willingness to accept price premiums for sustainable and recyclable products. In recent years, marketers have focused on reinforcing consumers’ attention and interest in green goods by increasing the effectiveness of various sustainability information on product packaging.
In this thesis, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) investigated the effect of visual and verbal recycling claims on product packaging upon the willingness to pay (WTP). Although findings showed no changes in WTP related to a visual claim, the presence of a verbal claim positively impacted the WTP in two of four cases. Further, significant interactions between the two factors were detected. The results suggest that students considered an imagery seal irrelevant during product evaluation, whilst communicating recycling information with a textual message or with a conjunction of both claims showed a tendency to improve price-value perception. However, results for the verbal and interaction effects showed variations across products. Therefore, one may not draw unequivocal assumptions from the findings of this study without research replication on a larger scale.
In two experiments, this empirical research examines consumers’ willingness to pay and the likelihood of purchase decisions by thoroughly investigating the neural, behavioral, and psychological properties of packaging design. A general theory is tested by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a NeuroPricing online survey on consumer behavior using the example product Tassimo. Hypotheses are tested with 592 German consumers who evaluated the packaging of Tassimo coffee. A closer look at the neural data from the brain imaging experiment shows that uncertainty can arise among consumers with regard to sustainable packaging and this can have a negative impact on the purchase decision and willingness to pay. The results from both experiments show that it is not possible to make a holistic statement as to which sustainable or enjoyment-focused packaging design increases the likelihood of a purchase decision or the willingness to pay. Implications for future packaging design research and underlying complexities with sustainable packaging are discussed.