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The access to the Internet has enabled various peer-to-peer marketplaces to develop with fast pace and complete with traditional businesses by offering broader range of goods and services. In some cases peer-to-peer markets offer a solution to a problem, going beyond the capabilities of a traditional business. This thesis studies a particular peer-to-peer market called crowdfunding that offers a solution to individuals who require funds and has been a subject of experts’, regulators’ and media attention. In particular, the paper studies the way crowdfunding websites Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Crowdfunder match buyers and sellers and discovers that some websites might have an incentive to manipulate matching. Furthermore, the paper analyzes the pricing structure these websites use and learns that price discrimination is present in crowdfunding. Additionally, the paper investigates the most fundamental mechanism that allows Internet platforms to function, which is reputation. In particular it uncovers that the way trust is built in crowdfunding differs to certain extant to other peer-to-platforms and that this questions requires further research. Finally, after looking at the arising regulatory issues, it becomes clear that there are opposing opinions of experts and regulators about regulation of crowdfunding that create both fear and hope. Privacy and data usage by the crowdfunding websites seems to be an issue that also requires further attention.
The following bachelor thesis was written in cooperation with the company GF Automotive AG located in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. It is a worldwide recognized development and serial production partner of the automotive industry. The thesis covers the topic ‘The potential of gaining competitive advantage through Green Marketing’. The purpose of this thesis is to research if sustainability within the automotive supply industry is of high importance and can be used to gain competitive advantage. The thesis offers possible measures to implement successful practices that were detected in the conducted benchmark. It points out that green marketing in the B2B business can support companies to differentiate and it illustrates how marketing communication of the company GF Automotive AG can be adapted in order to succeed and remain leader in the highly competitive automotive supply market
Advanced sales approach to increase professional fairs participation: international experience
(2016)
The following bachelor thesis was written in cooperation with Hannover Fairs USA, Inc. (HFUSA), which is the Deutsche Messe AG’s (DMAG) U.S. subsidiary. DMAG in Hannover, Germany, is one of the biggest and most active event organizers in the world. The target region of the HFUSA office is North America. Their function is to host industrial trade shows in Chicago and to sell exhibit space at their parent company’s shows in Germany to American companies. The focus of the thesis will be on the DMAG’s CeMAT show which serves the intralogistic and material handling industry. The topic of the thesis is ‘Evolving a structured and advanced sales approach to enhance the number of American companies, participating at the Deutsche Messe’s CeMAT show.’ The research focus is on the intralogistic and material handling industry, the meaningfulness of trade shows and various skills and processes of sales theory. Furthermore, it places emphasis on corporate and sales strategy. The thesis offers possible measures which should serve c-level employees of the company as a basis for creating a more standardized corporate, marketing, and sales strategy to streamline the process amongst employees, to enhance sales processes, improve efficiency and therefore increase revenue in the long run. This will also positively influence the process of achieving their goal of enhancing the number of participating U.S. companies at the CeMAT show in Hannover.
Crowdfunding is one of the greatest financial innovations in finance today, which acts as a financing alternative for start-ups. The advantages provided in this financial structure not only enable entrepreneurs to realise their dream of raising capital but it also enables them to learn more about their product, establish a pre-customer base, pre-sales as well as build their brand though leveraging the internet as a marketing platform for their projects. Start-ups that have succeeded in raising their target funds, acknowledge the benefits they received. Even those that did not achieve their goal still appreciate the experience because through the feedback they receive from the public, they are able to enhance their product and make better decisions for their next projects. Also backers benefit significantly depending on their position; for instance, upon success startups acquire funds, donors on reward- and support-based platforms receive small gifts such as Tshirts, acknowledgements, on pre-purchase platforms backers receive discounts on pre-purchases and in a special case of crowdinvesting, investors receive dividends or equity from the start-up. Also, crowdfunding platform-administrators benefit from it when start-ups accomplish their goal. Start-ups may approach investors, business angels and banks for capital; however, the probability of acquiring funds is subsided and they also do not provides them additional benefits like those crowdfunding delivers. The crowdfunding process is one of the easiest means of funding startups’projects in comparison to that involved whilst seeking funds from banks and venture capitalists as well as business angels.
The major aim of this paper is to analyse how crowdfunding has simplified the means of raising capital for start-ups and how this modern financial instrument is anticipated to develop in the next five years. Withal, the paper seeks to show how crowdfunding has enabled startups to curb their financial predicaments. The paper will firstly, provide the foundation of crowdfunding, including success factors of start-ups. Next the author will analyse how crowdfunding platform operate, then its significance to start-ups including the risks involved. The author will investigate crowdfunding in Europe, America and Australia. Results from the Interviews conducted with start-up founder Dominick Solenick and platform CEOs from Switzerland will be illustrated. Finally, a conclusion based on this research will be provided.
In the current difficult climate for international aviation especially in Europe and the USA, one sector is performing extremely well, the so-called low cost carriers. While the flagcarriers are experiencing severe difficulties, withdrawing from routes and cutting staff, the low cost sector continues to expand at a tremendous pace. Since their entry in various countries in the late 90’s, low cost carriers have grown to even become dominant players on a significant number of intra-national short haul routes. Although the severe competition of low-cost airlines is observable in many industrialized countries nowadays, our focus in this paper will be restricted to the US market which at many levels appear to be interesting and the perfect case to illustrate the impact of low-cost carriers on the domestic aviation market. The extent to which this expansion affects the traditional airline networks in other terms the so-called legacy or network carriers, poses interesting questions for the US airline industry and policy makers. As a pre-requisite to analyze the current situation of the US airline market with regards to the impact low-cost carriers, it is crucial to have a historical background on the domestic US aviation and to understand the role of antitrust policies. First of all, until 1978 the US airline industry was regulated by the US government, allowing only few carriers, the network carriers. Those carriers are therefore the historical carriers. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) was the economic regulatory body for airlines that controlled airline schedules, fares, and routes, which essentially allowed U.S. airlines to exercise monopoly power. In 1975, the CAB’s Special Staff did a self-study of the organization and concluded that the amending federal law to eliminate “protective entry, exit, and price control” would be beneficial for the airline market. It was believed that the industry was naturally competitive and there did not appear to be any significant barriers to entry nor substantial economies of scale that would limit the number of efficient and profitable firms. Therefore, the Airline deregulation Act of 1978 eliminated economic regulation of the airline industry. The deregulation allowed many carriers to enter the industry, existing carriers to expand their operations, competition to flourish and air fares to
fall. Monopoly markets were now only present on the smallest city-pair markets which lacked enough traffic to support more than one airline. After deregulation, Southwest Airlines initiated the budget flight in Dallas, Texas.
With flights turning profitable in 1973 and remaining so ever since, former lawyer Herb Kelleher proved the viability of low cost flights. In terms of passengers carried each year, Southwest is now the biggest airline in the USA and the second biggest airline in the world. Although entering the airline industry was relatively easy, successfully overcoming the advantages of larger incumbents proved to be more difficult. The deregulation greatly illustrated the relevance of Paul Gerdoski’s arguments about the effect of market entry. Firstly, market entries increased industry competition and forced the traditional network carriers to increase their efficiency leading to lower fares and better service on many routes. Secondly it fostered industry innovation with the appearance and growth of low cost carriers.
The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the need and prospects of implementing a Social Media advertising strategy in order to increase customer awareness in the United States for an innovative scuba diving product called “Buddy-Watcher”. This product was introduced to the German market in November 2014 by Free-Linked GmbH, which specializes in scuba diving communication and comfort equipment.
The employed investigation approach includes a quantitative research conducted by means of an online survey among a nonprobability sample via self-administered questionnaires. By collecting and analyzing primary data, this exploratory study aims to provide first insights on the value and the perception of potential customers towards Social Media advertising activities. Furthermore, a SWOT analysis was carried out based on the theoretical research as well as the findings of the survey to deliver a specific recommended course of action for businesses like Free-Linked GmbH. The results provide indications for the effectiveness of Social Media advertising regarding the creation of awareness for a product, yet not necessarily its purchase. Small and medium sized businesses have the opportunity to benefit from this type of advertising, if the preferences of the target group can be identified and taken into consideration. Hence, this work serves as a basis for further decision-making, whereas future research could consider the effect of various advertisement options or other Social Media alternatives for targeting US customers by employing a combination of quantitative and qualitative research designs.
Low organizational commitment of employees is a well-known challenge for organizations nowadays. In order to actively manage and promote organizational commitment, organizations need to be aware of its most important influencing factors. This thesis focuses on the exploration of the potential of human resource development to improve employee commitment. An empirical study has been conducted at the shop floor area of the project partner thyssenkrupp Aufzugsweke GmbH in order to investigate the negative influences on organizational commitment, identify the potential positive impacts of human resources development practices and provide the organization with a recommendation about suitable measures to retain and develop organizational commitment.
The goal of this thesis is to provide information on how the music distribution has evolved throughout the years since the internet and computers have brought a
new digital ear to the music industry. This gave unlimited access to vast amount of information, creating new methods of communication and connecting to thousands of music lovers with only one mouse click. Technological and social changes have
followed ever since the beginning of the 20th century with significant impact on different business aspects like Marketing, Communication and Pricing. In the following years illegal downloading has brought the music industry to a crash with sales dropping
almost double in only one year. This, however, led to the idea of legal downloading and later in 2008 to the birth of the most used music streaming service Spotify. The bundle paying method of this new service has not only put the industry back on its feet
but it has also brought the interest in the consumers back. A monthly “flat rate” in exchange of a vast music catalogue of more than 30,000 songs, albums and artists with the ability to listen to it offline turned out to be the better alternative.
The purpose of this paper is to conduct an explorative research on the current situation of the music business and the business models of the new trend “music streaming” by using different analytical methods. The research results show a significant change in the way Marketing and Communication are being done by labels, brands and the streaming services due to the rapid technological progress and the new social habits born with it. Using the experience of listening to music, data and audience intelligence provided by the services, brands are now able to communicate their exact message in front of the right person and in the right time. Pricing of music has also gone through a big transition
since music streaming has become the preferred way of listening to and exploring new music. The effect of the bundles provides users with unlimited usage of the music streaming service and its catalogue in exchange of a monthly fee also called “flat rate”.
Each service decides on the price and the subscription method to be offered. To give a more comprehensive picture on what the future of music streaming
is, this paper is using not only secondary data but primary data as well. In order to generate free discussion, the study refers to the media and an expert to give answer on what are the signs pointing the direction the music business is headed towards.
The present paper identifies appropriate communication strategies to support the implementation of Cross Selling (CS) in the sales organization illustrated on the example of Robert Bosch GmbH. Therefore the focus is on the analysis of internally applied communication media in order to determine strong and weak points. In the first instance, an extensive literature research with respect to CS is conducted and a theoretical framework of effective communication provided. Subsequently, an empirical study is being carried out. Surveys are sent worldwide to the CS Coordinators at Bosch in order to analyse currently applied communication media and identify possible communication gaps. Furthermore, an expert interview with CS project leader Paulo Ferreira is conducted in order to gain additional insights into the CS field within Bosch. In the process, it results that the CS project team already makes an adequate use of communication means; but nevertheless there is still potential for improvement with respect to certain communication activities. The results indicate that the most effective communication techniques are based on face-to-face interaction with a high degree of social presence and information richness. By the application of theoretical foundations combined with knowledge obtained through primary research, a recommended course of action is issued on how to further optimize the communication within the central CS project team. On this basis, the recommendation is given to develop an internal integrated marketing communication program which takes a number of additional measures into consideration. In addition, limitations of this study as well as future perspectives are being discussed.
The purpose for researching the topic of the globalization of sport, is to examine the extent to which baseball is a global sport. While many writers in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and the history of baseball have studied countries around the world on an individual basis; little to no research on globalization has been pursued. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of baseball around the world is the focal point of this paper. This study is based on the work of Roland Robertson in the field of globalization and Richard Giulianotti in the field of soccer. Robertson, a professor of sociology at
Aberdeen University, developed a Five-Phase model of globalization which identifies key turning points in the evolution of globalization around the world. Giulianotti applied the Five-Phase model to the game of soccer to determine which factors played an essential role in the globalization of the sport.
The author has derived a list of critical research statements to guide the hypothesis that baseball is a global sport. This study considered literature of baseball around the world. Topics included the significance of Spalding’s Great Baseball World Tour,
examples of countries where baseball has been played, international baseball governing bodies and events, and baseball celebrities that have influenced the
game. Also, the author interviewed Nate Fish, Co-Director of the Israeli National Baseball team, and Tom Gillespie, International Baseball Scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates, to supplement the analysis.
The evidence of the global significance of baseball includes the prominence of an international governing body World Baseball Softball Confederation, international baseball events World Baseball Classic / Premier 12, and a large body of membership in internationally sanctioned events. Interest in the game is growing internationally, evidenced by the fact that 72% of the world recognizes the game of
baseball, online subscriptions for premium content are trending up, and records in attendance, viewership, sponsorship, and social media activity were achieved during the 2013 World Baseball Classic. The findings of this research suggest that there is an emerging market for international baseball.