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- BMP - Business Management and Psychology (23) (remove)
There is a growing trend for multinational enterprises to send their expatriate employees on international assignments to achieve corporate development, human resource goals and to gain a competitive advantage in the global context. Therefore, the performance and productivity of international assignees play a major role for them and the organization. However, expatriate research has so far rarely taken into account the factors that do not directly relate to expatriate performance. Instead, research has focused on expatriate success and failure. However, the literature shows that neither can yet be clearly defined. Therefore, this study instead focuses on expatriate performance and productivity by placing special emphasis on literature gaps. Hence, in this study the importance of several factors is tested, namely: 1) overall international experience, 2) informal social networks, and 3) expatriate family. As this research aims to develop practical approaches to managing critical circumstances when relocating overseas, a link between theory and previous study findings has been established. To provide a point of departure for Global People Transitions GmbH, a special focus has been placed on organizational support and intercultural training. The data have been collected through guided expert interviews with six participants, three of them expatriates, two expatriate spouses, and one repatriate. The study results have found that the tested factors have an impact on expatriate adjustment and, consequently, on expatriate performance and productivity. In addition, several aspects to improve expatriate performance and productivity have been identified, such as providing organizational support or creating structures and routines. Lastly, it has become clear that research on international assignments is very elusive due to several underlying factors that influence the matter.
Durch die Covid-19 Pandemie kam das Thema Home-Office in aller Munde. Die Arbeitsweise des mobilen Arbeitens eignet sich hierbei nicht für jede Tätigkeit gleichermaßen.
In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden die Führungskräfte betrachtet. Das Ziel ist es zu untersuchen, ob ein bestimmter dominierender Führungsstil sich besonders für das Führen von Mitarbeitenden im Home-Office eignet und ob Führungskräfte mit verschiedenen Führungsstilen diese Arbeitsweise anders einschätzen. Dafür wurde eine quantitative Studie durchgeführt, die von Führungskräften Einschätzungen zur Eignung von kreierten Szenarien sowohl im Büro als auch im Home-Office einholt. Spezifisch wurden die Teilnehmenden dabei in die dominierenden Führungsstile des Bosses und des Coaches klassifiziert und anschließend zu ihrer Einschätzung der Eignung des Arbeitsortes in verschiedenen Szenarien befragt. Diese Studie zeigte, dass die hier betrachteten Führungsstile und der Arbeitsort einen Effekt auf die Einschätzung der Eignung hatten. Hierbei zeigte sich, dass die Teilnehmenden, die mit dem dominierenden Führungsstil des Coaches klassifiziert wurden, die Eignung der Szenarien für die Arbeit im Home-Office positiver einschätzten.
Weitere Forschung hierzu könnte sich sowohl mit der Sicht der Mitarbeitenden auf die Führungsstile beschäftigen als auch weitere spezifische Gruppen und Tätigkeiten betrachten.
A Descriptive Study on Customer Attitudes towards Green Branding in the Fashion Industry in Germany
(2021)
This paper attempts to provide an up-to-date representation and analysis of customers' attitudes towards green branding in the fashion industry and their willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainable and ethical clothing in Germany. Related literature strands are reviewed to understand how the fashion industry works, what green branding means, and how customer attitudes are shaped. After creating an attitude measurement model, an online questionnaire was designed and sent to Furtwangen University students, with 153 valid responses returned. The descriptive analysis sheds light on the three attitudinal components related to sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry. It is noted that customers do not hold a definite attitude. However, a tendency towards the positive end is ascertained. Significant gaps still exist in terms of knowledge and awareness of some commitment by fashion brands. Another huge factor influencing attitudes appears to be a lack of trust. The behavioral component showed that customers are trying to contribute through proper disposal and are willing to buy sustainable and ethical clothing more often. However, there is still some room for improvement in terms of customer education. Nevertheless, it is found that they are willing to accept an additional contribution for sustainable and ethical clothing. In general, it can be concluded that there is a foundation to improve the fashion industry towards more sustainability. However, all stakeholders, i.e., customers and fashion brands, as well as the government, need to work together to change the industry in the long run.
This thesis refers to Western multinational corporations (MNCs) that expanded their business activities in China significantly within recent years. These organizations operate in highly complex cultural environments, based on the infinite number of teachings drawn from past dynasties. The culture scope is difficult to assess, which explains the limited research available. The thesis examines whether classic performance evaluation systems in German MNC’s operating in China prove to be efficient. Furthermore, reference is drawn to the influences of controversial discussions on performance appraisals in German headquarters, whereby it is examined if Western alternatives would be compatible within a Chinese setting. Underlying cultural concepts; Confucianism, face dynamics, etc., and their implications are studied due to their high impact on the regulation of social interactions between German expatriates and Chinese business leaders. As part of the research, qualitative expert interviews were conducted with expatriates in China originating from both German SME’s and corporations. The results showed that hierarchies largely dominate corporate culture, which is partly due to partisan influences on the organization. Traditional performance appraisal systems largely prove to work efficiently. Lateral collaboration is evaluated as close to non-existent. Praise is rarely expressed. Furthermore, Chinese leaders and cultural, political underpinnings consolidate companies within their strict hierarchy and largely prevent the introduction of agile approaches, therefore alternative approaches can only be partially implemented.
This paper investigates the influence of manipulated attention on the perceived severity of financial risks. Participants undertake an online survey where they get exposed to images of various financial risk sources, while their attention is directed towards one of five available visual images of financial risk hazards.
Beforehand, they are instructed to remember and repeat the respective labeling of all pictures. It is ensured that the attended picture is randomly chosen, and the participants are aware of the corresponding names. Subsequently, participants are asked to rate the risk on four related characteristics.
Considering the responses of 292 people, only the numerical values indicate differences between attended and unattended risks, but the applied statistical measures provide no evidence for this hypothesis.
This paper reflects the topic of risk regarding an individual’s propensity to engage in risky behavior. Therefore, a survey was conducted among four different cultures to study cultural effects on risk-taking behavior. These contained Germany, France, China, and Latin America with a total sample size of 655. The applied questionnaire covered seven different domains regarding social, recreational, health/safety, ethical, investment, gambling, and business risk for which the participants had to assess the likelihood to engage in theoretical situations on a scale of 1 to 6. Significant cultural differences, as well as domain-specificity, could be confirmed using several one-way ANOVAs for the statistical evaluation. In this case, in comparison with the other cultures, Germany showed the highest risk propensity in the social domain, France for recreational and ethical risk, Latin America in the business as well as health/safety sector, and China in the investment and gambling domain.
Differences in the perception and their effects on the implementation of organizational agility
(2021)
This thesis paper investigates the differences in organizational agility implementation and links practical approaches to complex theory. Several agile transformations have been studied to provide an overview of the common guidelines that foster agile working. In alignment with the ambivalence of agility, the results show that a symbiotic mixture of bottom- up and top-down features in the application is required. Especially in traditional organizations, where hierarchical structures prevail, the practical implementation requires the approval of managers and the active involvement of employees to be successful. Additionally, companies cannot apply a uniform approach to achieving agile but must alter practices to fit their specific needs. Consequently, this paper can be particularly beneficial to companies attempting an agile change.
Der Frauenanteil in den Führungsetagen der deutschen Wirtschaft stagniert seit Jahren auf einem niedrigen Niveau und spiegelt nicht im Entferntesten den Anteil weiblicher Beschäftigter wider (vgl. Tonn 2016, S. 11). Vor allem im Top-Management sind Frauen deutlich unterrepräsentiert. Die Grundannahme dieser Bachelorarbeit besteht darin, dass Frauen grundsätzlich motiviert sind, Führung zu übernehmen und die gleichen Potentiale wie Männer besitzen. Um eine Führungsposition einzunehmen, müssen die Rahmenbedingungen passen. Aufgrund biologischer Unterschiede und der Sozialisation präferieren Frauen andere Rahmenbedingungen als Männer. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde die Frage untersucht, was sich aus Sicht der Frauen verändern müsste, damit sie ihr Potential entfalten können. Dazu wurden 50 weibliche Probandinnen aus unterschiedlichen Branchen befragt. Die systematische Betrachtung der Aussagen ergab im Wesentlichen folgende sieben Aspekte: Gestaltungsfreiheit, Unterstützung zu Beginn und in der Führungsposition, Vertrauen, eine gute Feedback- und Fehlerkultur, die Vereinbarkeit mit dem Privatleben, Menschlichkeit im Fokus und attraktive Anreize. Des Weiteren konnten durch die Ergebnisse Handlungsoptionen abgeleitet werden, um strukturelle und kulturelle Rahmenbedingungen zu gestalten, die talentierten und motivierten Frauen einen einfacheren Zugang zu mehr Führungsverantwortung verschaffen.
Pricing decisions are some of the most important marketing considerations and require knowledge on the value that customers associate with a company’s offerings when optimizing revenues and product positioning in a market. However, measuring the customers’ willingness to pay (WTP) remains a challenging task, because numerous biases, psychological phenomena, and social norms cause distorted answers in methods that are commonly used to assess the WTP, which leads to misguiding data and false assumptions with regard to price-sales relationships. This study recognizes the importance of reliable and accurate data that adequately reflects the real market situation. In this context, controlling as a business function plays a major role, being the intersection between financial consideration and business functions such as marketing and sales, providing important data that is used as a foundation for strategic decision-making. Therefore, this study has the objective to investigate how implicit price research can support the planning of strategic decisions in the context of digitized controlling by implementing an online reaction time tool as an integrated module into a controlling software.
The present paper proposes to contribute to this topic by applying an experimental pricing research method – NeuroPricing® Online – using implicitly assessed reaction time data to investigate the subjects' unconscious willingness to pay in two distinct case studies in the mineral water market.
The results of the first case study indicate the existence of the willingness to pay a price premium for organically labeled water but suggest a strong dependence on the container type and the distinct price segment in which the water is offered. The second case study revealed that the perceived value of identical products of a brand could be considerably different between potential customers in established and new sales regions.
Our research contributes to a better understanding of consumers’ valuation and emphasizes the importance of implicit pricing research as a method to support digitized controlling as an interconnecting business function between financial considerations, consumer behavior, and strategic management.
Forecasting demand is a mission-critical but non-trivial pursuit in strategic planning for any brand. However, long-established explicit pricing research methodologies suffer from well-described biases, thus posing a significant obstacle to accurate forecasting. One way to tackle this challenge is resorting to implicit measures inspired by paradigms from cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Hence, as carried out with NeuroPricing Online, implicit price research can help identify a consumer's Willingness to Pay (WTP) for a product or service. Consequently, the entire sample´s distribution of WTPs can be converted into a population model of demand vs price. A subsequent model of revenue has, to date, in marketing research, typically been based on indexed values, providing the user of the data with non-intuitive and rather abstract measures. Here, using the case of a Mineral Water bottler, we have integrated the demand model directly in a well-maintained digital controlling tool of said cooperation. Central figures such as gross sales and contribution margin were modelled based on realistic cost and market estimates. Thus, assuming the same conditions, the data leads to a fact-based and accurate prediction of the results of a price change. The insights allow the company to gain concrete insights into the context of its pricing strategy and, if necessary, reposition itself to achieve a competitive advantage. For instance, the pricing model integrated into the controlling tool allows for comparing various bottle types in terms of revenue and contribution margin. As such, the specific impact on the financial performance of, say, a revenue maximising or contribution margin maximising strategy can be predicted.
In times of demographic change, globalization, digitalization and change in the coming generations, human resources development with the qualification and further development of executives is becoming increasingly important. The company Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG has introduced the new management level of team leader for sales and administration since the beginning of 2021. In addition to the team leaders in sales and administration, there is an unofficial management level in logistics. The team leader level at Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG has already existed for several years but has received little attention in terms of development and qualification.
The topic of the paper deals with the importance of the qualification of managers on team leader level in the logistics of Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG. Thereby the work deals with the construct of leading, the manager in general and the development measures in a company. A deeper insight is given in this area into the various qualification programs of Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG.
The qualitative content analysis according to Mayring is applied for the question to be answered, whether the qualification of the managers on team leader level is attributed an importance and if so, how this is weighted. The results of the interviews indicate that the Würth company attaches great importance to the qualification of managers at team leader level, and thus a high significance. This is made clear by appropriate points, such as the influence on the employees by their shown behavior and actions. Furthermore, this is in direct connection with the leadership styles and leadership behavior, which can be influenced by the development and promotion of competencies.
When translanguaging, individuals use and combine all their available language repertoires in order to increase comprehension. The use of different languages together
implies that there is no strict language separation. First studied in a school context, the primary purposes of this concept are the complete understanding of subject matter and the simultaneous development of additional languages. Recent studies in different business contexts show the concept’s transferability to other environments. This brings forth questions about, firstly, the implementation of translanguaging in a workplace and, secondly, the possible effects of translanguaging on interpersonal relationships in work teams. The focus of the analysis hereby lies on work teams with intellectual and creative
tasks. The transferability of International High School’s eight core principles, which are meant to improve students’ translanguaging skills, into a business context is discussed. The theoretical analysis results show that the eight principles are, in theory, all applicable
to creative and intellectual teams, but further challenges may arise. No definite answer is presented regarding the effect on interpersonal relationships; both positive and negative effects are possible. Results are all context-dependent, and further empirical research is needed to study the theoretical assumptions made in the present paper.
The present paper aims to identify role conflicts according to social role theory that leaders acting as managerial coach might be exposed to during their work. Therefore, several behavioral approaches that are characterizing for managerial are identified through literature assessment. These distinctive behavioral patterns are analyzed upon alternative reasonable expectations that role senders might have in regard of leadership.
Hereby this study can identify several potential sources of person-role conflict due to incongruencies between expectations of role senders and the actual leadership behavior of a managerial coach. As literature indicates that role conflicts have serious impacts on the effectiveness of leadership behavior, this study furthermore presents a guideline for organizations and managerial coaches on how to support the acceptance of coaching.
Sustainability, encompassing the economy, the environment, and society in equal parts, is an increasingly prominent topic that is gaining in importance and awareness due to the climate crisis and the resulting urgent need for action. It is essential to simultaneously focus on the global and on the local scale in order to create a paradigm shift. This study addresses the attitude-behavior gap of employees in the daily operations within companies and evaluates how nudges can be implemented to narrow this gap. A literature review was conducted to understand the separate topics of sustainability, the attitude-behavior gap, and nudging. Based on these three topics and their interrelation, exemplary nudges on habits and on infrastructure to be applied in a company and modified to its needs are developed. The method of implementation of nudges cannot be generalized because (1) attitudes and behavior and their interrelation are individual and influenceable factors and (2) the corporate context and how nudges are communicated impact the effectiveness of the interventions. Investing in internal sustainability practices in combination with indispensable external practices leads companies to a holistic, authentic, and successful approach towards becoming a sustainable business.
Keywords: Attitude-Behavior Gap, Nudging, Corporate sustainability
The aim of this study is to understand the concept of Ethical Branding from the perspective of Generation Z. This umbrella question was divided into three research questions: 1. What constitutes an ethical brand for Generation Z, 2. What is Generation Z´s attitude towards ethical brands, and 3. How will the future of ethical brands look like? For this, ten individual online interviews with undergraduate students were conducted. Findings reveal that young people view Ethical Branding as an important personal issue. Members of Generation Z view an ethical brand as holding values such as fairness, honesty, integrity, and consideration at its core and consistently acting according to these values. This manifests itself in the fulfillment of environmental, social, legal, and economic responsibilities. Participants depict a largely positive outlook for ethical brands as society – in particular young consumers – becomes more aware of the importance of mindful and responsible consumption, challenging existing brands in the future. Companies should therefore focus on delivering what they promise and aligning all business activities if they want to be perceived by Generation Z as a truly ethical brand.
This research examines whether a company's popularity is a determining factor for its attractiveness among employees. For this purpose, two groups of subjects were asked to rate the attractiveness of an identical job advertisement. The only difference between the groups was that one group was led to believe that it was the job advertisement of a well-known company, whereas the other group was presented with the advertisement of a rather unknown, but in terms of activity and prestige comparable company. The results suggest that the familiarity of the company does indeed influence popularity to a significant degree. Implications of this finding are also further explored.
Understanding how consumers choose between alternatives and how they use the context in doing so is the aim of numerous consumer behaviour studies. The effect of extremeness aversion has been found to be a replicable phenomenon in this field. According to this context effect, alternatives with extreme numerical attributes are less likely to be chosen than the alternative with intermediate attributes in a choice set. A new research direction regarding extremeness aversion considers not only these numerical attributes of a choice set but also the implications of the spatial dimension. Therefore, it has been hypothesized that there could also be a preference for the spatial middle in a choice set. As the phenomenon of extremeness aversion corresponds with decision uncertainty, this research aimed to investigate numerical and spatial extremeness aversion in a product class of high uncertainty and complexity. Thus, consumer preferences regarding the product class of wine were analysed in different choice architectures. Interviews in a wine specialist store and an online survey were conducted with a total number of 924 participants. The study’s results are not consistent over both data collection methods. However, independently of each other, they support the notion that consumer choices may be partly influenced by a preference for the numerical middle option, as well as by a preference for the spatial middle option.
Die COVID-19-Pandemie ist Treiber der Digitalisierung, welcher das Verhalten von Menschen nachhaltig beeinflusst und Organisationen vor neue digitale Herausforderun-gen stellt. Diese Forschung untersucht hierzu 75 Sparkassen aller Größenklassen und Regionen Deutschlands auf deren Digitalisierungsstand während der COVID-19-Pandemie. Der DSV-Gruppe als zentraler Lösungsanbieter der Sparkassen, liegt derzeit keine aktuelle Forschung zu Einstellungen und Maßnahmen bezüglich der Digitalisie-rung in den Sparkassen vor. Daher sollen die Forschungsfragen „Welche digitalen Her-ausforderungen bestehen zum aktuellen Stand bei den Sparkassen?“ und „An welchen Punkten kann die DSV-Gruppe ansetzen, um die Sparkassen bestmöglich in ihren digita-len Herausforderungen zu unterstützen?“, durch eine quantitative Online-Umfrage be-antwortet werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die befragten Sparkassen Unterstüt-zungsbedarf in der Digitalisierung von Prozessen, vor allem für Beratungsgespräche und Home-Office, aufweisen. Zudem wurden Defizite in der Agilität und Gewinnung digi-tal geschulter Mitarbeitenden identifiziert. Die DSV-Gruppe könnte den befragten Sparkassen in der Digitalisierung mehr Führung durch zentralere Steuerung zeigen und eine individuellere strategische Beratung bieten. Außerdem könnte die Schulung von Mitarbeitenden in ihrer digitalen Fitness unterstützt und tiefergehende Forschungen zum Zusammenhang zwischen dem Kostendruck, der digitalen Einstellung und den digitalen Maßnahmen der befragten Sparkassen angestellt werden. Die Forschung erkennt Relati-onen, welche die DSV-Gruppe in weiteren Forschungen auf Kausalität untersuchen soll-te, um die untersuchten Sparkassen bei der Anpassung ihrer Geschäftsmodelle an die veränderten Gegebenheiten der Digitalisierung zu unterstützen und somit die Ge-schäftsbeziehung zu den Sparkassen nachhaltig zu festigen.
This bachelor thesis is about the digital transformation and the resulting need for new business models. Additionally, the Servitization is changing the business environment as well. Together with new technologies such as the Internet of Things, this digital Servitization is creating threats and new opportunities for businesses. Therefore, the goal of this thesis is to conceptualize a Smart Home as-a-Service business model for a drive- and control technology manufacturer with the example of Somfy and to test it in qualitative expert interviews with potential Business-to-Business customers.
The research questions addressed and answered in this thesis are:
(a) „How can a concept of an as-a-Service business model in the field of smart home to expand the market segment from single to multi-family houses by a new target group of a drive and control technology manufacturer look like?“
Question (a) is answered with a concept based on the Service Business Model Canvas. It is a Business-to-Business-to-Consumer business model, where the residential construction companies build in the necessary hardware in new residential buildings. This is the prerequisite for the focal company Somfy to offer tenants smart home applications in a subscription model.
(b) „How is the relevance, value, and feasibility of the Smart Home as-a-Service concept assessed by residential construction companies?“
Question (b) is tested with qualitative expert interviews. The results indicate a high relevance for the Business-to-Business customers. Additionally, offering Smart Home as-a-Service would create various values for residential construction companies, such as an additional selling feature, while the model is being assessed as generally feasible. Further research is suggested for example in the take-rate of the tenants.
The aim of this research is to provide a holistic overview of the influences on the intention to invest in the context of behavioral finance. For this purpose, a model was created in which the effects of the theory of planned behavior, financial risk propen-sity, and the self-determination theory on the intention to invest were examined. With the help of nine hypotheses, the significance of the relations within the model, as well as a mediation effect were analyzed. In order to test these hypotheses, a quantitative survey querying the above-mentioned possible factors and further questions about the participants' investment behavior was created and sent to all students at Furtwangen University. Results showed that all relations within the model were significant and that especially attitudes and financial risk propensity had a pronounced influence on the intention to invest. However, several variables for self-determination theory had to be eliminated to guarantee validity and reliability of the model. The findings of this study enable financial institutions, such as banks, to actively influence and en-courage customers to invest or to purposefully develop new investment products to gain additional customers.
The world is constantly changing, and cosmetic companies need to adapt to these changes to survive. In particular, cosmetic companies should not underestimate changes in how customers value information from different sources because proper marketing can lead to increased sales. Therefore, this thesis aims to determine which information sources customers of Generation Y are using and how they weight the information from these different sources. A survey was conducted with people of Generation Y to answer the research question. The survey showed that the most frequently used and highest weighted sources for getting information are search engines, friends and family, and product ratings. Furthermore, the results indicate that information gathered from offline sources has a more significant impact on purchase behavior than information gathered from online sources. Potential customers using search engines are more likely to buy a product online. However, the price of a product does not influence how consumers weight the opinions of friends and family, and age does not impact the weighting of social media or the total number of sources a customer uses. To conclude, a company should not ignore the importance of offline information sources because the data shows that offline sources significantly impact buying behavior. They should also aim to have their online shop appear as one of the top search engine results because this will impact the likelihood that customers visit their websites and buy their products.
Do Meat-Eating Consumers Use Organic Meat to Rationalize the Consumption of Conventional Meat?
(2021)
This thesis explores how meat-eating consumers may be able to rationalize the consumption of conventional meat by believing to substitute a certain amount of it for organic meat. The underlying rationale is that the positive associations elicited by the organic label and the favorable beliefs consumers have formed about organic meat enable them to use it as a moral license. Building on cognitive dissonance theory, this work specifically investigated whether (1) meat-eaters perceive organic meat better than vegetarians and (2) meat-eaters overestimate how much organic meat they consume. German meat-eating and vegetarian participants were recruited for a study (n=156) to answer these questions. The results show, first, that organic was generally rated as better than conventional meat on all dimensions surveyed, and to a greater extent by meat-eating than by vegetarian respondents. Second, meat-eating participants on average reported estimates of organic meat consumption that were significantly higher than the population mean, indicating that consumers may not eat as much organic meat as they believe. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that organic meat might be used to rationalize unsustainable food choices.
Pro-environmental attitude is, on many occasions, a weak indicator for pro-environmental behavior. Personal interests interfere with the human desire to follow normative goals during the decision-making process, which may result in the unpleasant state of attitudinal ambivalence. The more balanced two contrary attitudes are, the higher is the chance for external persuasion as it may decrease the internal ambivalent conflict. However, moral informational interventions seem not to cause the desired behavioral change but may instead increase the sense of resignation and guilt. This paper aims to set focus on the attitude-behavior relationship in the concrete example of plastic-packed food and how post-decisional evaluations vary when either individual (hedonic or gain goal) or collective motives (normative goal) are being followed. Measured indications for actual disengagement or attitude adaption are relatively weak but felt ambivalence in the case of immoral decisions could be demonstrated in the form of response times. Practical conclusions that may facilitate pro-environmental behavior are being presented at the end of the work.