IBM - International Business Management
Refine
Document type
- Bachelor Thesis (271)
- Master's Thesis (1)
Keywords
- Marketing (8)
- China (6)
- Social media (6)
- Digitalization (5)
- Agility (4)
- Finance (4)
- Germany (4)
- Leadership (4)
- Neuromarketing (4)
- Banking (3)
This paper includes a brief summary of the theoretical background on onboarding and links the findings to modern trends. To answer the questions about expectations and needs of young employees survey results of a study conducted with over 400 participants between the ages of 18 and 27 will be evaluated. The results show that onboarding practices are highly expected by young adults and that integration is of very high importance for the age group. According to the survey results, onboarding programs can also help organizations improve their attractiveness as an employer. Furthermore, the open-ended questions of the survey provide detailed information on which specific measures should be included in an onboarding process. With the use of theoretical knowledge, the findings from the survey and results of a survey with department heads of the company, an onboarding process for Bürstner GmbH & Co.KG was developed. The plan includes specific steps from before the first working day, to the first weeks in the company until the end of the probationary period. Measures include a new employee profile, an initial training plan, a learning management system based online course and more. Through a transferability check of the process, it is concluded that many aspects can be transferred to other organizations; subject to adaptions. In the future further studies and employee feedback examining the onboarding measures, will have to be carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed onboarding process and provide more insight into current trends.
The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to provide an overview on the development, acceptance and the current status quo in the application of the concept of Lean Administration in Germany. In this context, based on an extensive literary and quantitative research, the Japanese concept of Lean Management, its history, principles, related approaches and the according criticisms will be explained. Of particular importance is hereby the concept of Lean Administration, which is intended to transfer the Lean Principles from the direct business divisions to the indirect business divisions of a company. Through the execution of the literary research, it became apparent that the Lean Principles are already well established and acknowledged in many parts of the world. Particularly, manufacturing companies in Japan and Germany create their production systems in accordance to the Lean Approach. In addition to this, the principles of Lean Management are increasingly applied in indirect business areas, predominantly in Japan. But also in Germany, the awareness of the principle of Lean Administration is increasing, although the implementation of the Lean Principles in administrative areas in German companies still appears to be very restrained.
In order to investigate this circumstance in more detail, a quantitative study was subsequently conducted on the topic of "Lean Administration in Germany: Demographic and cultural factors impacting the success of the implementation of the concept“. Therefore, various factors that could have an influence on the acceptance towards the concept of Lean Administration were examined. Particular weight was given to the analysis of the cohesion between age and the level of professional experience of the respective subjects, and the openness towards the application of the concept of Lean Administration. Contrary to the initial hypothesis that both, a young age and a low level of professional experience would have a positive impact on the acceptance towards Lean Administration, the main finding of the statistical analysis is that there is no identifiable relationship between the three variables.
Nevertheless, even though no statistical evidence could be found for the initial hypothesis, the following significant findings could be identified. Accordingly, it seems that particularly subconscious factors have an influence on the acceptance of the concept of Lean Administration in Germany. Due to the habits of common approaches for processing administrative tasks and the fear of uncertainty about Lean Administration in practice, employees often feel insecure or not sufficiently encouraged to try out a new concept in administration. In this context, this bachelor thesis represents an overview and a guideline - especially for managers, department heads and employees in human resources - on the approaches, which can be used to promote Lean Administration in an adequate environment for increasing the resource efficiency in indirect areas in the long term. Consequently, through a well-structured approach and the usage of visual graphics in an appealing design, this thesis explains, what is required to be considered or could be investigated in the future in order to sustainably establish the concept of Lean Administration in German companies.
Agriculture in Tanzania is not only the biggest employer, but also it is the highest contributor of the GDP. Apart from being an important sector in the country, it is characterized by small scale subsistence farming which is not mainly profitable. In order to transform the agriculture from traditional to commercial, young people, who make 35% of the entire population, are the main driver however they are facing many challenges. Having that in mind, Tanzanian government has enacted several policies whose main aim is to make it easy for young people to engage in agriculture.
In this bachelor thesis, the agricultural policies which have been enacted by the government to attract young people will be discussed and it will be analyzed if they have brought the impacts desired by the government. In order to do that, a survey was conducted in a district called Bukombe in Tanzania and in one agricultural university which is found in Eastern Tanzania.
The results of the above mentioned studies show that majority of youth policies which have been enacted in Tanzania do not involve youth from the beginning of the preparation. Also, there the general studies found that not many young people are aware of the policies which have been enacted to protect them or make their farming activities easier.
The limitation for this study is that the study sample which is used is from only one district and one university so it may be difficult to compare that the results represent the whole country. Also another limitation is that there are still not many studies which have been conducted in Tanzania for this matter so it is difficult to find the up to date resources. This leads to the resources used to be a bit older and in most of the time to depend on only resources from the websites of government institutions.
The current mechanisms and information sources for international students in Germany are insufficient. This thesis aims to evaluate the need for potential substitutes of preexisting information sources. Specifically, it analyzes if a commercial service provider can operate as a successful alternative. To investigate current mechanisms and their shortcoming, former information sources were assessed and evaluated. Additionally, five expert interviews were conducted gaining a time accurate evaluation of the present situation. The results show that current information sources are too bureaucratic and restricted in their actions. Nonetheless, the findings also display that there is a great need for optimal and effective access points. This thesis concludes with an analysis of a likely business model, and how it would successfully operate within the Chinese market. Conclusively, a commercial service provider has the optimal prerequisites to fulfill the current demands of international students.
This thesis should serve as a model to plan an efficient and smart solution when handling the phase-out process of products by XXXXXXXXXX in form of a 10-year life cycle plan. A deeper look into the product life cycle of three absolute rotary encoder families will be taken: A3M, ARS and ATM. These families are subdivided into different sizes, mechanics and electrical interfaces. By means of a status quo analysis, future trends and tendencies, regarding interface usage, technological changes or industries, will be identified. A survey is being executed to get a clearer perspective and to find out why customers bought a particular encoder: What types of machines are the products being used in? What requirements do the customers need for the future? The outcome of the survey will help to develop successor or alternative products that meet customer needs. The affected encoders are up to 20 years old and have reached the decline phase of their product life cycles. In addition to that, the production of some components of the encoder types mentioned above are being discontinued. In order to identify how much stock of the terminated parts is available, a last time buy range analysis will be conducted. Thereby, a range can be calculated which states how many more years the product can be sold. However, this is a linear calculation which means it is based on the consumption of the previous years. It is very much likely that by considering the insights of the survey regarding future tendencies, the consumptions will develop on an irregular basis, which means that it will decline more and more every year and not stay constant. This is crucial for planning the phase-out of the encoder families. Some of the discontinued parts are not only used for ATM, ARS and A3M but also for other encoders. Building on this knowledge, different phase-out scenarios for the three encoder families will be created. The strategically most fitting one for the respective encoders will be identified by means of a utility value analysis. After concluding the final strategy, a communication strategy will be elaborated to complete this academic paper.
The economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the clubs of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga
(2021)
The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the entire world in every aspect of life. The global economy is experiencing enormous setbacks in every economic sector. Specifically, the sports industry is facing a massive revenue loss since the outbreak of the virus, resulting from the implementation of pandemic containment measures. Every professional sports league has to adapt to the given circumstances and create solutions to keep the operational business alive. This study focuses on the clubs of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. Due to the novelty of the topic, previous literature has hardly mentioned the economic consequences and long-lasting effects on the organizations and their ecosystem. In addition, the pandemic is a continuous process, leading to new results and insights consistently. To this end, the present research highlights the economic consequences of the pandemic and exhibits the conditions under which the league operation can be executed.
Following a qualitative research design to answer the research questions, a detailed literature review and analysis was carried out to provide theoretical delineations. Subsequently, primary data was collected through six semi-structured interviews with managers of a sample of DEL clubs to explore the problems, concerns and attitudes towards the pandemic’s effects.
The results demonstrate that the main source of income of the clubs are partly or completely eliminated because of the pandemic. In particular, ticketing and sponsorship, which are the main sources of income for the clubs, were affected. Overall, the outbreak of the virus led to a chain reaction of events, ultimately impacting the league operation. Consequently, the clubs need to rethink their business model and implement tactics to conquer this situation. Furthermore, the league operation of the 2020-2021 season can only be guaranteed if risk minimization actions and crisis management strategies are applied.
In sum this research provides a clear and transparent overview of the operational business of the DEL clubs under the effects of the pandemic. In addition, this research represents a starting point for future comparison and functions as a guidepost and support for a post pandemic economic analysis.
Zoom fatigue - a phenomenon that has been occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing regulations forced numerous companies into home office, which shifted the internal communication to video conferencing platforms. Nevertheless, these solutions do not offer the same interactive atmosphere and social factor as face-to-face meetings. That is the reason why some people experienced a sense of distance and a lack of motivation and concentration.
Virtual reality collaboration platforms are a digital solution resembling a serious game situation that could solve the problem of impersonal teamwork. With this application users could meet in the virtual space, giving them enhanced possibilities to interact with their team members and work together on projects regardless of the distances in location.
As the platform is an innovation that is new to the market, the awareness about this product is not yet widely spread. With the help of an effective marketing mix and a market launch strategy, potential users should therefore be informed about this possibility, leading to a successful implementation of the platform in various institutions. To gain insights into the market and gather information about the target group an analysis through literature research as well as a survey has been carried out. The results showed that the market shows a general interest in virtual reality collaboration platforms. Nevertheless, several respondents expressed their lack of understanding and imagination to use the platform constructively in their professional environment. Additionally, expected high expenses and the lack of technical equipment could be an obstacle to implementing virtual reality collaboration platforms in traditional work processes. Therefore, the mission for the market launch strategy will be to develop a marketing mix that responds effectively to all questions and inspires organisations to discover their possibilities and benefits with this digital solution.
This research paper aims to provide an overview of companies listed in the German DAX, MDAX and SDAX indices that have been involved in prosecution procedures directly contradicting their Corporate Social Responsibility strategies and how they present themselves as a Corporate Citizen. The terms Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Social Responsibility will be further defined and the reasons companies implement them elaborated. The results will be structured according to the stock index they belong to and whether they had any active prosecution procedures by government organizations against them during the last ten years that would go against their Corporate Citizenship strategy. The end result will be judged in terms of how a company can propagate certain values while being investigated for actions that directly contradict them and whether it could be considered hypocritical for companies to be involved in them while claiming to be a “good” Corporate Citizen.
Prior research agrees that consumer choice is heavily influenced by the choice context.
According to the compromise effect, the middle alternative in attribute space is preferred over more extreme options. However, the role of the spatial order of alternatives seems to be neglected by most compromise effect studies. Usually, alternatives are ordered by attributes, meaning that the compromise option is placed in the spatial middle of the choice set, despite the fact that research indicates a consumer preference for the spatial middle of a choice set. To investigate this issue, we hypothesized that an alternative would be chosen more frequently when positioned in the spatial middle of a choice set versus at the edge of a choice set. We assumed that this effect would be stronger when consumers are unfamiliar with a product category. Therefore, we expected to observe a negative correlation between decision-makers’ familiarity with a product category and their tendency to choose an alternative more frequently when positioned in the spatial middle of a choice. To find out, we conducted an online survey targeting 907 university students. The results support our hypothesis and the notion that the compromise effect might be partly driven by a preference for the spatial middle position of a choice set rather than only by a preference for the compromise option.
Customer Relationship Management has focused on numerous data privacy practices in the current information and big data era. The present study focuses exclusively on the declaration of consent (DoC) in the context of the automotive industry, particularly in the sector of premium car manufacturing. A DoC is an individual's authorization to an organization for data processing; within the context of this study, a DoC is referred to as the authorization of an individual for processing its personal data in order to receive personalized marketing communications. Not much is known about the factors that influence individuals to grant such permission. Relevant literature on consumer behavior, permissions marketing, and psychology is reviewed from a marketing perspective to develop a framework based on the privacy calculus, which distinguishes individuals' costs and benefits based on assessing selected cost and benefit drivers. The influence of perceived benefits, incentives, both monetary and non-monetary, consumer control, trust, information protection, and transparency is identified as benefit-associated factors, whereas the influence of opportunity costs entitled to the providing the consent, privacy concerns, intrusiveness, and the quantity of the information supplied by the organizations during the consent collection is identified as costs-associated factors. In accordance with the literature, several hypotheses were formulated to estimate the consumers' intention to consent. This study supports Mercedes-Benz AG to improve its consent capturing management and related processes.