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Nowadays, big sport events such as Olympic Games are not only an exciting carnival for sports enthusiasts, but also a good opportunity for the host country/city to accelerate its economic development. After more than 40 years of development, Computable General Equilibrium has been proved to be a very powerful tool to analyze the impact of big sports events on host country/city. In this paper, 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will be used as the target case to study the impact on the economy. A Supply model and a demand model will be established according to CGE theory to describe the case. This paper is not focused on the detail but the whole picture of Beijing’s economy by analyzing the industrial structure changes under the influences of hosting the Olympic. Beijing’s industrial structure development will also be analyzed in this paper.
There is an increase in concern for the environmental impact such as GHGs emission and hazardous chemicals discharge along with the wastewater, from the product production process. Likewise the concern in the social impact also rises, in which it include the use of forced and child labor, unfair wages and inhumane treatment of worker in the production process of various industry.
Moreover, with the change in business strategies to fast fashion, in which new product collections are launch four times a year. In response, company have change the structure of their supply chain to shorten lead-time, higher inventory turnover, high order fulfilment and lower price for their customer. However, while focusing on these factors, environmental and ethical are being overlooked.
With the pressure from the public, laws mandate by the government, as well as the foreseen market opportunity make many of the large company to start thinking about a way to eliminate environmental and ethical impact from their supply chain. Various techniques and instruments are developed in order to help the company to analyze and abolish these problems.
Two companies are used as an empirical studies, which are H&M and Inditex. Though the analysis the challenges they faced and instruments and technique they used in response to the challenges, one can clearly observe the different approach in handling the challenges of these two companies. Nevertheless, positive improvement in eliminating environmental and social impact from their supply chain can clearly be seen from their effort.
Organizational Development is a relatively newer concept in the corporate world. This concept continues to being explored by researches due its growing importance and fascination results. Many organizations strive to establish a competitive edge by the evolution and differentiation in not only the OD interventions but also in handling their effects. Due to its intriguing nature, it has been the focal point of this study/research.
Scope of this research is to explore the perceptions of employees, which are created over a course of time about certain dimensions related to Organizational development interventions in the telecommunication sector of Pakistan. Firstly Literature Review has been conducted to find out existing theory that has been explored and created over decades by past research about the OD interventions and also how the perceptions of employees/individuals are mapped with reference to Organizational Development and how it impacts their acceptance of these interventions. Secondly short interviews from the management (Directors/Heads of Organizational Development) of the key players of the telecommunication sector have been conducted to unfold the hidden issues, objectives, initiatives taken and hurdles faced by these players and hence has provided with certain issues on which substantial and extensive research has yet not been done. With the help of these interviews common objectives and common hurdles during OD implementation have also been identified among key telecommunication player of Pakistan. To limit the scope of the thesis, Acceptance of OD has been taken as the dependent variable while Perceptions of Organizational Development (Level of Uncertainty, Feelings about OD interventions, Opportunities for Growth & Development and Opportunities to Participate) were identified to be the independent variables with the help of literature review.
This study attempts to explore how the different dimensions of perceptions of Organizational Development exist amongst the employees of the telecommunication sector of Pakistan and how the negative/positive perceptions impact the acceptance level of these OD interventions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted from 20 employees (Five from each organization) from the four major players of the telecommunication sector of Pakistan namely Warid, Telenor, Mobilink, and Ufone.
Non-R&D-intensive firms and industries play and continue to play an important role in the German manufacturing industry, as their 41% share of value added in 2007 indicates. Nonetheless, non-R&D-intensive SMEs especially need to ready themselves for a future shaped by a continuously increasing internationalization of competition, rising knowledge intensity and complexity and an impairing job market situation due to demographic changes. Non-R&D-intensive SMEs are therefore more than ever required to boost the effective and efficient exploitation of firm-specific resources and competences in order to generate, secure or enhance competitive advantages. As studies however show, existing strategic competence management concepts are currently implemented rather by large firms. In addition to small firm size, low R&D intensity effects staff setup, innovation behavior, generation and use of knowledge and competitive market behavior which further negatively influence a firm's possibilities and propensity to implement these strategic competence management concepts. In a first step into this field of study, this master thesis aims to identify and analyze specific characteristics facilitating or discouraging an implementation of strategic competence development processes in non-R&D-intensive SMEs in the form of requirements, drivers and barriers. A literature review addressing the particularities of non-R&D-intensive SMEs and the attributes of current strategic competence management concepts discouraging an implementation of strategic competence development builds the foundation for nine guided interviews of explorative nature involving four non-R&D-intensive SMEs conducted to acquire qualitative empirical data to complement the theoretical findings. A total of 22 specific characteristics, i.e. eleven requirements as well as six drivers and five barriers, facilitating or discouraging an implementation of strategic competence development in non-R&D-intensive SMEs were identified after forging the bridge between theoretical and empirical findings.
Cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular as an investment object due to the underlying promising blockchain technology, a growing number of use cases and especially because of their recent enormous price increases. As a young and emerging asset class, cryptocurrencies also face investors with several challenges and uncertainties.
This thesis investigates the impact of adding cryptocurrencies to diversified portfolios and whether cryptocurrencies can be a reasonable portfolio addition for investors. For this purpose, based on Harry Markowitz's Portfolio Selection Theory, a statistical analysis of portfolios with and without cryptocurrencies and different degrees of diversification was conducted for a 5-year-period. The portfolios were analysed in terms of return, risk and correlations and the efficient portfolio allocations as well as efficient frontiers were determined for different return and risk scenarios, both with and without the use of short sales.
The results of the statistical analysis showed that cryptocurrencies have significantly higher returns but also higher levels of volatility and risk than traditional asset classes. Although cryptocurrencies show less strong positive correlations with other traditional assets, they nevertheless correlate positively with the representatives of the traditional asset classes examined, which is why cryptocurrencies are only suitable to a limited extent as a means of risk diversification. Cryptocurrencies can be an attractive portfolio diversification but only for investors who are willing to accept higher risks for higher returns as the addition of cryptocurrencies significantly increases both the return potential and the risk of portfolios. Therefore, the higher an investor's expected portfolio returns and risk appetite, the higher should be the portion of cryptocurrencies in his portfolio.
Sustainability first caught greater attention when the Brundtland commission first published their report “Our Common Future”. Since then, a lot has been done to fight against climate change. Sustainability has become one major issue in the daily business of companies. One industry that is surely going to change as a cause of the increased awareness of sustainability issues is the automotive industry. The disruptive electrification push plays an important role in the fast changing industry. E- mobility solutions as a means for more sustainable mobility are demanded more and more by customers. Also, governments shape the change in the industry with new regulations, bonus payments for buying electric cars and their emission targets. All this might sooner or later push traditional combustion engine cars out of the market. New players like Tesla focusing only on electric vehicles are entering the market and traditional car companies are changing their business towards e-mobility as well. That this change works well, companies also will need a well-developed marketing as well as brand positioning strategy and this is where the concept of green marketing kicks in. Broadly spoken, green marketing is the marketing of products that minimize the negative effects on our environment. Therefore, the thesis is generally researching the details of literature on green marketing and brand positioning. Later on, a detailed transition to the automotive industry is made with the analyzing of the three companies Volkswagen, BMW and Tesla. The thesis works out how those three companies managed to transfer their marketing mix into a green one and how this then affected their brand positioning. The thesis discusses the findings critically and gives implications for theory and practice as well as a guide to what needs to be done to be recognized as a green player in the automotive industry.
This research is aimed at analyzing social media patterns of consumers in Russia and in Germany, and social media strategy of automakers. The purpose of the paper is to observe social media presence of three major car manufacturing companies and see what the social media preferences of consumers are during purchasing journey. Furthermore, the results include comparison between Russia and Germany as well as social media best practices of automakers. For this, data was collected from a random sample of people in Russia and in Germany through online questionnaire. After that an analysis of secondary data on social media presence of automakers was done. A total of 650 people participated in the online questionnaire. The data was analyzed for each country and compared with each other. The results revealed that there are a lot of similarities in social media usage. However, existing differences are very drastic and needed to be considered by companies when it comes to establishing a social media strategy in a specific country. Furthermore, selected car manufacturing companies have a relatively strong social media presence but are different among each other with some gaps that can be improved.
Benefits of setting up a Machine tool production plant in Slovakia as an alternative to India
(2015)
In this paper, I analyze the position of Indonesia current account during thirty five years from 1980 to 2015. The main findings may be summarized as follows:
(a)The movement of Indonesia CA position which interrelated mainly by the transaction of goods and services, and Ind IIP which interrelated to the getting indebtedness of the country.
(b)Indonesia as an open economy, for running CA position is determined by driving forces in macroeconomic scale, such as saving and investment, financial balance, real exchange rate, and trade balance. Indonesia recently is now more open to the free capital without strong foundation of financial system and human resources, so Indonesia suffers from the competitiveness problem.
In this paper, author was unable to find some data and interpretation. From policy recommendation, author strongly suggests government for some long-term policies.
This thesis aims to find out what are the career related self-perceptions of female researchers and scientist working or studying in the biomedical field in Finland and Germany. The literature research, statistics and empirical evidence collected by in-depth interviews are used to enlighten the cultural differences, environmental influencers and importance of self-esteem in career development. These in-depth interviews are arranged as individual narratives, which are then further analyzed in the data part. The main findings in the paper point out, that the support from the system provides better chances for women in Finland to combine family and the career, but many of the challenges are still rising form the lack of self-confidence and the tendency to avoid self-promotion. The both sides of working in the industry versus academy are as well looked into. Suggestions for new policies include better information for academics about employment possibilities in industrial the sector, positive role models who especially encourage women to combine work and family, and feedback and coaching in order to motivate women.
As this paper study how a brand can differentiate itself to stand out among the competitions for better growth opportunities, focus is given to two emerging trends in the market, the halal skincare and also functional skincare brand. Halal skincare stands for the skincare product that is permissible for Muslim consumption from the religious perspective. This trend is growing tremendously as Muslim is the second biggest religion in the world with high fertility rate. In skincare, the concept of halal would exclude the use of alcohol and pig-derives material in the product. This market amount to $46 billion in 2013 and is growing at 8% annually. This undercapitalised halal skincare market with few competition provides good opportunities for a brand to grow and develop. The functional skincare on the other hand, is a trend emerged over time where products provide additional benefits on top of basic function. This skincare trend is basically driven by modern technology that leads to many innovations of these multi-featured products. Example of the additional benefits that will be the focus in this study are the anti-aging and the sun care protection. Both trends gained enough attention by demonstrating a strong growth in the respective segments. This study will provide a snapshot of the current growing trends in the market and provide the key steps to position and differentiate a brand in order to stand out against the competitors with reference to the halal and functional skincare. The key objective here is to understand the determination of the brand positioning through the analysis of competitors, the target consumer and formulation of own brand differentiations. As every brand will be given a variety of judgements by the consumers, it is essential that a brand is position properly in the mind of the consumer in order to be successful in the market.
As a decisive factor for ongoing corporate success, companies are increasingly concerned with the possibilities of increasing their innovative ability. In connection with factors that can be influenced by internal company decisions, this work deals with the question of which factors are particularly effective in this context. The underlying hypothesis deals with the statement that the innovation performance can be fundamentally influenced by internal company decisions.
From the qualitative survey and study of three medium-sized companies from the districts of Schwarzwald-Baar and Rottweil, company-internal factors for increasing the ability to innovate and their relevance and practical application are examined. These companies are MinebeaMitsumi Technology Center Europe GmbH, Wiha Werkzeuge GmbH, and Hugo Kern und Liebers GmbH & Co. KG. In this context, several employees from the development and innovation teams of the companies were interviewed personally and other employees of one company were interviewed using an online survey. The questionnaire was further expanded on the basis of the information and results obtained. The results of this survey were critically reflected on by the project manager of the company surveyed first.
The seven internal factors identified from the literature are the Generation and Implementation of Ideas, Creativity and Time Pressure, the Use of External Information, Creation of Knowledge, Behavioral Patterns, Organizational Structures and the Composition of Teams. These factors were identified with different relevance and application in the practice of the examined companies. It cannot be conclusively clarified from the study whether the ability to innovate can be positively influenced, in particular by the factors identified. In this context, further investigations are necessary. Based on the literature review and experiences of the companies, this thesis presents a recommendation for measures relating to the positive influence of factors to increase the ability to innovate.
Organizations invest money, time and energy on fostering gender diversity at the workplace. Other than being fair, diversity has been proved to improve company performance, as it promotes innovation, creative thinking and decision-making capabilities, as an example. However, having said that, there are still some sectors or areas which lack of a fair representation between men and women. In order to build a more balanced workforce, it is necessary for the organization to find ways to be appealing to all groups. One way can be to focus on the recruitment process.
The recruitment process contains some major and minor biases, which can influence the hiring decision. In most recent years, it has been revealed that the words used in job postings can in fact encourage or discourage different groups of people, in this case, men and women. That is due to the fact that language is gendered, because men and women communicate who they are, what they want, what they need differently. Language is strictly related to how one person is perceived in the society and the role they have, with the risk of falling into a stereotype.
The objective of the paper is to study and explain the effect of wording in job postings. To do so, around 200 participants have replied to a questionnaire which presents ten sets of job descriptions containing and comparing gendered words. The questionnaire allows to compare the answers from men and women and assess to what extend wording influence the application decision. It appears that women are more reactive to biased language than men and they prefer female-themed terms; despite being more indifferent, men also lean towards feminine language in some cases.
This study investigates the interrelationship between Knowledge Management (KM) and employee satisfaction and proposes strategic implementation steps for the further development and acceptance improvement of a new Operational Framework (Blueprint) at Robert Bosch GmbH, Power Electronics. Two primary research questions are addressed: (1) whether KM offers insights into and explanations for employee satisfaction issues, and (2) what strategic implementation steps can be derived for the development and acceptance of the Blueprint. The research commenced with an analysis of existing employee satisfaction surveys, supplemented by in-depth interviews, to understand the current state of employee satisfaction in the business unit undergoing transformation. The literature review was then conducted to ascertain the connection between KM and employee satisfaction. Subsequently, the study engaged in multiple interviews with top management in the Power Electronics business unit to identify implementation measures and best practices across various industries. A comprehensive set of practices was established and subsequently evaluated in a workshop involving line employees from the business unit, integrating theoretical findings with practical experiences. The final recommendations were grouped into three categories: Meeting Structure, Culture and Leadership, and Knowledge Management Guidance. The findings underscore the significance of KM in promoting employee satisfaction and suggest that the proposed strategic steps can foster the further development and acceptance of the Blueprint at Robert Bosch GmbH, Power Electronics.
All the companies need to plan and budget for future. For planning they need sale forecasting so that accordingly they can manage their supply chain efficiently. Companies do have historical data which can be used for forecasting sale. However, the accuracy of the predictive model depends on the quality of data which is being fed to the model. Poor data quality may result in poor forecasting. Hence, there is need to work on data quality management and to formulate some generic approach for ensuring data quality. Besides, it is also required to detect abnormal sale from the past data, get the reason for those abnormal sale records and remove them from the data. Subsequently, cleaned data can be used to work on predictive modelling which will forecast sales with the most likelihood of near to accurate results. These historical data can be analyzed as a time series data by using as simple time series analysis as ARIMA or by using complicated neural network. Evaluation of these predictive models will help in making a decision of selecting a best fitted model for future forecasting. The thesis aims to work on data quality management of raw data and then analyze time series data to determine predictive model for forecasting. Besides, thesis also aims to understand how data is collected and how organization performs sales processes. This would not only facilitate in finding and bridging the gaps in the business processes but also in preparing the organization for the state-of-the-art technologies to enhance their business for future.
Family businesses are major contributors of a strong and diverse society. Not only help to keep power in the hands of small units (families), they also foster innovation and personal freedom and this is necessary to maintain a healthy society, which is also necessary not only in Mexico but throughout Latin America and other regions where emerging countries tend to be a majority. The presence of strong private businesses in a society can reinforce the social values of their communities. Wealth and stability that they create can foster personal growth around them, especially if the owners are responsible for philanthropic activities and civic leadership. Thousands of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries are reaching a difficult phase. Most of the owners who founded the company on the 60s or 70s and made it to the next century are ready to retire without having a plan of succession to the one who will be taking over. Some of these enterprises are also struggling to find a strategic path among lots of heavy changes on the corporate world while others fight unexpected competition from abroad, normally from developed countries. it is also difficult for companies to face this sensation of isolation on a daily fight for survival and for standing out. At last, many of them end up selling their companies because of pressure or failure, being victims of a powerful tendency of family businesses to stop growing and develop their potential. 1.1 Objectives Provide an overview of the SMEs in Mexico and their current situation. Uncover the possible factors that cause their failure. Suggest a different solution through implementation of corporate governance, the way bigger companies do. Investigate and explore fears and advantages of implementing corporate governance. Analyze how corporate governance can be integrated to a SME in Mexico. 1.2 Limitations of the analysis This analysis considers that the reader has a short background on business, as the basic concepts will not be detailed. The study will focus on solving a specific problem that the author considers to be crucial for any SME in a developing country to solve, but from the perspective of corporate governance. The classification of the group of companies that have been analyzed may vary from country to country. 1.3 Methodology This project comprises a study of the presented bibliography on the situation of the corporate governance in Mexico and how can it be applied to small and medium size businesses in order to face the current challenges. The study focuses on the role of the board of directors in the company and how it can lead to a case of success by giving up some control by the business owners and pass it to the experienced advisors that will be part of the board. A document called “Código de Mejores Prácticas Corporativas” (Corporate Governance Codex) will serve as a big support for the research, since this is the official document companies must take a look at before even start thinking on implementing corporate governance practices. The research includes results form an annual survey presented by “PriceWaterhouseCoopers” in 2014 that was carried out all over the world including Mexico. This survey was done between May 30th and July 21st in 2014 to 122 companies from Manufacture, retail, finance, mining, construction, wholesale, and agriculture, and it is considered by many firms as the most important survey to consider when analyzing the current situation of family businesses in Mexico.
This project builds an understanding on the evolution of financial intermediaries and its actors based on financial intermediation theory. By discussing the perspectives of borrowers and lenders within the crowdfunding industry, this study advises a way to create a competitive advantage for emerging Crowdlending platforms by leveraging on institutional investors.
This study recommends an inductive analysis of the crowdfunding industry, based on studies of other authors, observations of the industry and academic papers regarding investment behaviours. This leads to a Porter’s Five Forces analysis, which depicts the linkages among the actors of the business. The previous analysis suggests that institutional investors create positive linkages within the business; therefore, the project continues to explore the requirements of these agents when employing crowdfunding platforms as an effective investment vehicle.
As an investigation tool, a questionnaire is designed and delivered to institutional investors in the Latin American region. Results show that institutional investors lean towards short term credit operations structured under a monthly cash flow arrangement. While investors do care about the established communication channels and management of cash flows towards borrowers; support activities are susceptible of outsourcing and may constitute a value-added opportunity for financial intermediaries.
The context of this project is a study of the business expansion and development of the Becual Chile crowdlending platform as a young company in the market. The study is led by the Hochschule Furtwangen University and complemented by other two theses: ‘Credit Risk Model for a SME Crowdlending Platform’ (Aravena) and ‘Growth Strategies for SME Crowdlending Platform’ (Beltran).