Refine
Year of publication
- 2018 (100) (remove)
Document type
- Bachelor Thesis (69)
- Article (peer-reviewed) (5)
- Part of a Book (5)
- Conference Proceeding (5)
- Other (5)
- Report (4)
- Book (3)
- Contribution to a Periodical (1)
- Doctoral Thesis (1)
- Master's Thesis (1)
Language
- English (100) (remove)
Is part of the Bibliography
- No (100) (remove)
Keywords
- Online-Ressource (5)
- Digitalization (4)
- Assistive technology (2)
- Consumer behaviour (2)
- Digital transformation (2)
- Finance (2)
- Industry 4.0 (2)
- Millennials (2)
- Social media (2)
- Sustainability (2)
Course of studies
Digital Transformation, Smart Factories, and Virtual Design: Contributions of Subject Orientation
(2018)
It is a fundamental right of every natural person to control which personal information is collected, stored and processed by whom, for what purposes and how long. In fact, many (cloud based) services can only be used if the user allows them broad data collection and analysis. Often, users can only decide to either give their data or not to participate in communities. The refusal to provide personal data results in significant drawbacks for social interaction. That is why we believe that there is a need for tools to control one's own data in an easy and effective way as protection against economic interest of global companies and their cloud computing systems (as data collector from apps, mobiles and services). Especially, as nowadays everybody is permanently online using different services and devices, users are often lacking the means to effectively control the access to their private data. Therefore, we present an approach to manage and distribute privacy settings: PRIVACY-AVARE is intended to enable users to centrally determine their data protection preferences and to apply them on different devices. Thus, users gain control over their data when using cloud based services. In this paper, we present the main idea of PRIVACY-AVARE.
What Are the Barriers for Asylum Seekers and Refugees Who Want to Enroll at a Swiss University?
(2018)
Augmented Sensors
(2018)
Assistive Augmentation
(2018)
Globalization brought high competition in the market. Therefore, international Marketers started to use a strategy of linking a product to its Country of Origin to get a potential competitive advantage on their product. Previous studies have found that the effect of Country-of-Origin on consumer´s product evaluation, perception and purchase intention. However, it was limited to find the County-Of-Origin effect on different age groups especially in Germany.
The purpose of this research was to analyze the effect of Country of Origin on German consumer´s product evaluation and different age groups. Projective test was adopted for designing the questionnaire and Italy, China and France were selected as the country. In the end, the data was represented by statistical analysis and graphic representation.
This research comes to the conclusion that the Country of Origin either has an impact or has no impact on German consumer´s product evaluation. Their evaluation showed various results based on country and product information such as Country image, Country of Manufacturer image, product category and brand. Therefore, this research was not able to define the general Country of Origin effect on German consumer´s product evaluation. However, this research will give an insight for designing a future research and a more comprehensive understanding of the Country of Origin effect on age groups.
In order to address the many challenges that the global population is currently facing, effective policies and therefore effective measurement concepts of development are necessary. However, disagreement regarding the methods to create and implement measurement concepts prevails. Furthermore, the abundance of development indicators makes it difficult to keep a clear overview of available measurement options. Therefore, this study clarifies the current status of the discussion regarding development. It also provides a comprehensible summary of the criteria that a valid development indicator should fulfill as well as a clearly structured overview of the most important development measures – divided into single and composite measures, then further broken down according to whether the components are aggregated and whether they are weighted. To make the results more tangible, this study assesses the Human Development Index and the World Happiness Report in greater detail and applies both to Germany and Bhutan. This is concluded by a set of general recommendations regarding the sensible application of development indicators.
Vehicles powered by electricity are the future of mobility in Germany. At the present
time, electromobility is rather hesitantly implemented in Germany, particularly due to
concerns regarding charging infrastructure and battery power/technology.
The purpose of this research project is to forecast – by using scenario planning techniques - how electromobility will influence the way we move in Germany by 2035. The outcome are three distinct scenarios that reflect the possible shift towards E-Mobility in Germany, especially taking into consideration the charging infrastructure, different battery technology and type of electric vehicle. In order to generate scientifically significant scenarios, input factors (Descriptors) were designed in accordance with the newest research findings from literature. Additionally, special ratios between all possible manifestations of input factors were defined, compared and evaluated.
Social Innovations in the extended Lake Constance area – an overview of the current activities
(2018)
In recent years the importance of social innovation for societies is rising. Therefore, the European Union realized, that political goals can be successfully achieved through social innovations.1 The concept is offering solutions for social challenges broadly based and in a variety of different fields Thus, the focus of this paper will be to identify social innovation activities in the Lake Constance area and the problems which are being solved through those activities. It will therefore provide a quantitative analysis of the identified projects including the main idea of the activity as well as information about the innovators. The key outcomes of this paper are, that social innovators are mainly focusing on current political challenges such as the refugee crisis. Problems which the society is already facing for a longer period of time, are less focused. It could further be identified, that the majority of social innovators are students or graduates. Also, most of the activities have their origin in bigger cities such as Stuttgart, Karlsruhe or Heidelberg.
The relation between Frugal Innovation and Sustainability is a widely discussed topic in current academic literature. To assess the correlation between these two concepts, a sample of the most frequently mentioned Frugal Innovations was selected. The criteria to evaluate the sustainability potential for each of these cases was built upon the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a global reference indicator. Frugal Innovations among the banking, transport, energy, ICT, water, appliances and healthcare sectors were evaluated. The results suggested a positive contribution and impact of Frugal Innovations towards economic, social and environmental development.
Subject of the thesis at hand is the analysis of symmetric block ciphers with a block length of 32 bit. It is meant to give a comprising overview over the topic of 32 bit block ciphers. The topic is divided in the examination of three questions. It contains a list of state of the art block ciphers with a block length of 32 bit. The block ciphers are being described, focussing on the encryption function. An SPN-based cipher with 32 bit block length is being proposed by rescaling the AES cipher.
The 32 bit block length results in certain security issues. These so called risk factors are analysed and mitigating measures are proposed. The result of the thesis is, that 32 bit block ciphers can be implemented in a secure manner. The use of 32 bit ciphers should be limited to specific use-cases and with a profound risk analysis, to determine the protection class of the data to be encrypted.
This bachelor thesis is a comparative study between German and French consumers. Why do Germans spend less on food than French consumers? This question, which is the main one of this paper, leads to a subdivision in three other questions: How do the culture and some financial aspects of Germany and France impact their food buying decisions? German consumer vs. French consumer: how important are the characteristics of each consumer behaviour Profile? Are the other parameters being taken into account while buying food the reasons why French consumers spend more on food than Germans?
In order to answer the first two questions not only an analysis of both culture is required but also an examination of the consumption behaviours of each population. By means of qualitative and quantitative research methods the third question will be treated.
According to this comparative study, the results show that buying decision related to food is strongly influenced by some cultural aspects of each population. An answer of the main question of this study can also be derived after analysing the German consumer Profile.
While Africa presents huge markets for foreign software, sales in these markets have been decreasing over the years. This downward movement in sales can be attributed to the challenges software companies are facing in these markets.
Using the case of TeamViewer GmbH in South Africa and Nigeria, this paper seeks to examine these challenges and give possible recommendations on how to improve sale. It also would analyze the opportunities present in these markets for foreign software.
Through an interview with customers and re-sellers in the South African and Nigerian markets, we uncover that, high prices, competition, unawareness of subscription, to name a few, are some of the challenges resulting in poor sales. Also, using the political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental (PESTLE) model of analysis, an overview of the socio-economic and political situation in these markets were examined. The findings from this paper would serve as a spring board for further research on this topic.
With today’s trends of higher flexibility in production processes and Industry 4.0, there is a heightened demand for flexible sensor solutions. SICK IVP is catering to this demand by providing highly customizable vision sensor systems. However, in the past, customization was mainly done by experts in the vision market and so, vision sensors were primarily sold in a B2B market. Recent development
towards easier to use micro-software solutions, so called apps, enable the end user to develop his own solutions. This allows SICK to market their vision products more directly to the end user, or in other words
in a B2C market.
These trends necessitate new marketing strategies and User Experience Design. Accordingly, this thesis evaluates the current marketing approach for the SICK vision apps, namely, the SICK AppPool and sick.com by mapping customer experience for a specific given task. In-depth empirical research on
customer experience was conducted. Finally, recommendations on a marketing approach for the SICK vision apps, including training, a pricing model and a UX Design concept are given.
Digitalization has made business virtual. As the current workforce is slowly adapting to it, the “digital natives” come into play.
We all know, that Millennials have a different approach to media and virtuality. They are practically born with it. But how would they perform if they had to use virtual media in a professional setting? Does the experience and the technology surrounded upbringing give them a clear advantage? Or will they struggle with this entirely new dimension of communication the same way older generations do? This Thesis focusses on the challenges of virtual teams, predominantly in cross cultural situations. But especially on how Millennials tackle virtual teams in a global setting, if they did not have extensive prior preparation.
The first part tries to identify the theoretical background of this paper – the classical challenges of cross-cultural communication in virtual teams but also the willingness of Millennials to use digital work tools for their future.
The main segment then introduces data and observations collected on the GVT project - a pilot project from the Hochschule Furtwangen University, where students from Spain, Finland and Germany took part in a simulation of virtual teamwork. In groups, these students had to develop a project about Erasmus at their university – but purely virtual to experience physical borders in teams.
A pre-survey and a post survey have been carried out on this group to analyze and investigate how perception and reality differ. Furthermore, the participants left testemonials and many virtual meetings were monitored.
This Thesis will conclude with chapter 3 to show if Millennials have a valid advantage in working with virtual teams. It will also show the necessity to train young people and change our education to a more digital approach, as business will inevitably become increasingly virtual.
After the global financial crisis of 2008, central banks in many advanced economies reacted with an expansionary monetary policy to counteract deflation. Various economies have reached the zero-lower bound ever since, but central banks have still been involved in asset purchase programs to further stimulate the economy and to reach price stability goals. This paper examines the changes in income structures commercial banks face because of the low interest environment. Concluding the theoretical impact of a low-interest environment, it can be said that banking profitability worsens in the interest business mainly because of the zero-lower bound whereas banks benefit in non-interest operations and loan loss provisions as they diversify their business and occur fewer nonperforming loans. Through the risk-taking channel, banks change their perception towards risk and are more willing to commit to riskier business but this increased risk-taking does not threat financial stability. The empirical analysis of 112 banks of the Euro area confirms that relevant bank key performance indicators deteriorate, especially after the global financial crisis in 2008. The conducted regression analysis indicates that the net interest margin is compressed because of the zero-lower bound and persistent low short-term rates and the shape of the yield curve. For key performance indicators of return on average assets and return on average equity the positive link is only given for the short-term interest rates but not the yield curve. For these key performance indicators, a sound economy is more important than the interest rate level. Overall, the banking sector of the Eurozone appears to be not immediately threatened by a low-interest environment as they were able to increase non-interest related income. In the long run, higher market interest rates, however, are needed to establish profitability in the interest business.
The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to find out whether there are indicators that point out a convergence of nonprofit and for-profit businesses. Therefore, various business concepts and the money markets of for-and nonprofit businesses are analyzed by implementing a qualitative content analysis. The results show that most of the concepts and both money markets show clear features of for- and nonprofit businesses. In conclusion, indicators of convergence could be identified.
The growing desire of firms to engage in international business, is the continuous need for growth. This paper is focus on designing an international market entry strategy for KARL OTTO BRAUN GmbH Co. & KG an OEM company, a producer of medical textile products. A prerequisite is market selection and entry, should only be possible with own branded products. As an OEM, KOB produces and packages medical textile products for other companies, who market and distribute the products under their own brand names. In this paper, qualitative and quantitative research methods are used. Expert interviews, desk research and questionnaires are employed, to gather evident data that will assisst in identifying a suitable market for KOB and determine an adequate market entry mode. Since KOB produces for other companies, caution is exercise not to enter markets, where existing key customers are present. This paper also studies market development strategies and in addition to questionnaire feedbacks, will support in elaborating a suitable market development strategy for KOB own branded products in a chosen market. The goal of the paper is to use the results of the empirical study to recommend KOB an international market entry strategy.
In 2016, Germany’s population consisted of 22.5% of individuals with a migration background and the share is expected to further grow in the future. Therefore, how to successfully integrate migrants is a recurring topic. This paper examines the labour market integration and identificative integration among one of Germany’s largest minorities, migrants from the former Soviet Union. Due to a lack of data on the second-generation migrants and outdated findings on older migrants, secondary research and primary research in form of an online survey is conducted to disclose the current integration status and how it is affected by the cultural background of both generations. Furthermore, possible differences in the integration process of migrants of different ages are investigated.
The results show that the integration of the target population is characterized by a relatively high employment rate, a positive attitude towards Germany and pursuit of the most rewarding acculturation strategy. However, the lack of interethnic networks and the strong presence in blue-collar jobs leave room for improvement. Through the deployment of migrant networks, the target group benefits from its cultural background but also feels discriminated because of it. Only a few significant differences between the integration of migrants of different ages are discovered, including the command and use of German as well as the role of migrant networks.
The purpose of the thesis is to recognize the huge potential of the mobile sales channel through mobile websites and/or apps for the mobile shops in the sporting goods industries. Many retailers and fashion brands have already recognized the huge market of the M-Commerce. Surprisingly, sport brands till now have largely missed out on the M-commerce market. Only few of them have a mobile store and none of them provides a satisfying user experience. Therefore, those sport brands that already have a mobile shop need to rework their concept, and those that have no m-channel so far need to establish one. Given the exponential market growth, waiting is no longer an option. Sports brands that delay or fail to strengthen their mobile presence will fall behind competitors and miss a major opportunity to maximize their sales.
Coworking spaces are known for providing the opportunity to network with the members of a coworking space and with the outside world. In order for this networking to happen, there must be a third person facilitating the relationship creation, which in this case is a Community Manager. As a result of this, this study aims to apply the concept of being a superconnector to the Community Managers in coworking spaces.
In order to prove this theory, the author of this paper carried out a qualitative research with eleven in-depth interviews. Seven of them were addressed to coworking members, while the other four to the Community Managers of four different coworking spaces. The coworking members were chosen through referral or through snowball sampling in order to acquire diverse results. Amongst these coworking members there were freelancers, start-up builders and employees from bigger companies. This variety provided the researcher with valuable information to understand how the different types of coworkers may benefit differently from the role of a Community Manager whilst networking. This research might also be helpful for other researchers since it provides information about the different sizes and populations of the coworking spaces.
The results of this study demonstrate the importance of the presence of a Community Manager in coworking spaces. This impacts mostly coworking spaces that focus on freelancers and start-up entrepreneurs that place a high value on networking.
The world is in a trend of urbanization, which leads to population surges in the major cities. The consequences are an increase in pollution and traffic congestion. With the rise of the sharing economy, bike sharing systems are a possible solution to the urban traffic problem, which at the same time is a sustainable “green” way of transportation. This trend is especially visible in China where the combination of bike sharing and the Internet of things has resulted in a new form of bike sharing: the free-floating bike sharing system. This paper seeks to analyse the new model, the underlying market conditions of China and Germany affecting the system and eventually tries to evaluate the chances and limitations of the FFBSS in the German market, considering the differences in the market and the opinions of expats who experienced the system first hand in China. This paper focuses on the two major operators of the free-floating bike sharing system, Mobike and Ofo bike, who have split most of the Chinese market between them, kicking out most of its competitors.
The demand and supply for clean label trend have been growing continuously during the last years. Consumers are increasingly choosing to buy products that contain health and sustainability information. The negative perception of additives, colorants, palm oil, gluten and Monosodium Glutamate has been discussed and has put the food industry for challenging and expensive product adaptations such as recipe changes and design rejuvenation. A literature review based on academic journals and books provides an understanding of the consumer action’s and the food industry’s reactions related to the clean label trend. Furthermore, factors that influence the rise of the clean label trend are discussed. Health and nutritional claims are defined. Additionally, the motivators of a food choice for German consumers are examined. Lastly, an eye-tracking study was conducted to gain insights into consumers visual attention to areas of interest on a stimulus.
Matured markets and rising global competition lead to new challenges for the
manufacturing industry. Lean Production provides an approach to meet those challenges,
even more, to gain competitive advantage by improving the efficiency of processes. As
implementation of Lean Production is associated with high investments in form of time
and money, there is a high demand to measure these improvements. But standardized
Balanced Scorecards (BSCs) and classical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are not
designed to show those occurring changes.
This thesis reviews current literature researches and elaborates possible indicators to make
Lean efforts measurable. This approach is further analyzed based on the example of the
implementation of Shop Floor Management in a medium-sized, international automotive
supplier. The thesis results in a proposal of a concrete set of indicators.
People are surrounded by many offers every day, a discount, a gift or a special sale. A walk through a store can lead us to purchases which are not necessary but in our minds are worth it. Pricing may be one of the easiest ways to influence consumers and to make products more attractive.
This study compares the pricing practices “use of word free/free offers” for example buy one get one free and “discount.” Those two practices have different influences on the consumer behaviour and the product perception. A discount tends to be less worth it than a free offer if an average customer would be asked. A survey of over 200 people was made to witness this statement.
This number of people were divided into two groups which were asked different questions via an A/B testing survey. Group A was asked about a free product, and group B was asked about a discount. Additionally, this study includes a field validation in the form of observation. Customers of a transregional drugstore were observed when buying a product. This drugstore where the validation was made offers a bi-weekly brochure with promoted products. Among them are discounts and free offers. The number of sales was compared and analysed to confirm the results of the survey.
This bachelor thesis explores the opportunities of Talent Scouting at ZF Friedrichshafen AG in terms of a cross-divisional internal talent management measure in line with future requirements and the frame of a CoE function. It deals with the definition of talent within the scope of Talent Scouting, ZF specific demands with regard to matching internal talents with key positions and the general framework that must exist in order for Talent Scouting to be successful.
The thesis is supported with primary and secondary research data. A theoretical framework is set up through a comprehensive literature review and used as a foundation for a qualitative data research approach. The literature review comprises the talent definition within the business scope, the frameworks of TM and a first look at Talent Scouting. Furthermore, relevant internal TM measures at ZF are examined. The research includes expert interviews conducted with ZF internal employees. The gained insights are then discussed and concluded into recommended actions for a Talent Scouting process at ZF.
Major findings include a new understanding of talent and the need for a transparent process to encourage and enforce internal mobility division-wide. Additionally, the requirement for an overall coherent TM strategy is accentuated. This is emphasized with demands for a cultural and organizational mindset change. Additionally, a talent life cycle is established and the concept of a Talent Conference is considered. Further topics discussed include the use of big data, staffing rules in placement processes and possibilities on increasing visibility of talents.
Finally, the thesis provides a brief outlook on the potential of people analytics and system-aided processes for HRM in the future.
The real-world possibilities for blockchain applications are endless, yet few real-world use cases exist in early 2018 beyond cryptocurrency. Among the many newly initiated and emerging proposals for applications of this unique technology, the area of vehicle emissions provides an opportunity to bring the advantages of cryptography and decentralized databases to the collection and storage of scientific research data. The reporting of vehicle emissions has been a publicly acknowledged area of deceit and scandal, while the cornerstones of blockchain are transparency and consensus. There is, perhaps, a way for this newly expanding technology to provide a disruption to the automotive industry by efficiently and reliably reporting vehicle emissions.
This paper seeks to analyze: the capabilities of an emerging technology when applied to an existing older technology and its utilized environment as well as propose a system for efficiently and reliably collecting and reporting internal combustion engine based vehicle emissions data using blockchain; also, finally, theorize the impact of such a system on the automotive industry.
By combining multiple technologies which already exist in practice, as well as some which are expected to be massively implemented in the near future, it is theoretically possible to establish a blockchain based system for not only recording emissions from every participating vehicle, but also electronically executing a check against local emissions restrictions via smart contracts defined by geo-locational range and GPS referencing. The data can be processed and stored in a way that protects the identity and location history of the driver by assigning responsibility of compliance to the identity of the vehicle. The network can be protected from malicious actors by way of an emissions application specific protocol which involves unique GPS data.
While the short run effects of such a system may be met with pushback from the automotive industry because of increased regulation and impact on sales of internal combustion engine vehicle inventory, the long run effects parallel and may even supplement the future effects of the global trends which make the system possible.
Renewable energies play an increasingly significant role both in politics in Germany and especially in the energy market. The latter meanwhile is determined by the prices of the different energy sources in the mix of the German market. The goal of the present work is to analyse the influence of renewables on energy prices on the Spot and the Futures market and to find indicators, that help to better predict energy prices and therefore could be decisive for the time of purchase. Due to the limited scale of this thesis and because of the leading role of wind and solar energy, the main focus is on these two energy sources. Therefore, a quantitative data analysis by means of Pearson’s correlation coefficient is performed. The results are analysed to find main influencing factors on energy prices. Using the results, it can be concluded by what kind of event the resulting price changes are caused and how these events can be forecasted.
Social media is important to the private lives of people. Marketers can use this to sell their products and create a competitive advantage. This study’s research questions were formulated in order to examine this topic more closely. The aim of this thesis is to provide a theoretical background on social media and the influence of purchase decisions, as well as empirical evidence. Secondary data from various journals and articles was used to provide a theoretical framework based on the latest information. Empirical studies by researchers in different industries have examined the topic with a statistical approach. Their findings are used to provide a practical perspective. The results show that social media has a positive influence on consumers’ purchase behaviour. The conclusion discusses recommendations for future research, limitations and a critical view on existing empirical research and theory on this topic.