IBM - International Business Management
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The Light Commercial Vehicle is a small vehicle, of up to 6 tons, mainly used for small business in the transportation of good or for personal purposes. LCV market is not well known and yet to be considered as a potential business, especially for Commercial Vehicles Business Unit which belongs to the Interior division of Continental Automotive. Some neighboring segments within Interior division have some participation in the market; however, it is not considered as a main priority for either of them. There is no proper focus on analyzing its potential and find the right strategy to tackle it. Due to some sort of pressure to grow Continental’s businesses, Commercial Vehicles BU, represented by Vehicle Electronics segment, has come up with the intention of finding how to approach this new business opportunity in the face of other neighboring segments of the same division also getting into this broad opportunity. There is also a need to establish a right internal communication process and its impact upon a concrete choice of product to enter this new business. Finally, to establish if LCV market is a promising opportunity, in particular for Commercial Vehicle Business Unit. This research is highly beneficial for Continental Automotive, in special for Commercial Vehicle Business Unit since it helps to understand its current situation in the market at different regions levels. Business Unit is able to find right approach for the LCV market together with a suitable sales strategy for each region and a concrete choice of products at a competitive price level with the results, discussion and recommendation of this research. In other words, to get new businesses for future sales growth. Continental Automotive was founded in Hannover in 1871. Nowadays, it is one of the German Automotive Supplier leaders of the automotive market worldwide. The company has presence in 50 countries and sales of €34.5 billion and mainly supplies tires, brake systems, chassis components, vehicle electronics and powertrain controls. Vehicle Electronics segment, part of Commercial Vehicles segment, is the direct responsible for this LCV market. The segment specialist in electronic solutions in six fields of applications such as Commercial Vehicles, Bus, Agriculture, Construction, 2-Wheeler and Marine business. The Light Commercial Vehicle is consider as an important part of the fleet of vehicles and for a number of years now have been taking a constantly increasing share of the transport services, both in Germany and Europe” (BASt, DEKRA, UDV, & VDA, 2013, p. 5). The potential market for this kind of vehicle stands on BRIC countries, mainly India and China. Although Brazil is considered as the most mature and stable of the BRIC by (Barclay, 2010), still is hard to forecast due to economic volatility and changing regulation, indicates (Roland Berger, 2014). The market development in Russia is hard to anticipates, points out (Barclay, 2010) due to its crisis and political issues. “India is expected to return stronger growth” (Roland Berger, 2014) owning the fastest production growth from the other three. For (Roland Berger, 2014) China will be the global volume driver in automotive, remaining by far the largest of the market. The methodology held in this study is based on an exploratory research; using qualitative data which has been collected thought secondary and primary data. This research work starts with the introduction, following by chapter one which includes the problem background, problem statement, research questions and objectives, purpose and significance of the study and finally limitations. The second chapter continues with the review of related literature and studies. It explains the Light Commercial Vehicle characteristics, segmentation production and demand. Besides, it describes the company’s history, SWOT analysis, structure segments and portfolio. It also gives an overview of the trends in the automotive industry, OEMs, suppliers and BRIC opportunities. Chapter three informs about the methodology used together with the data collection and target group. Chapter four focus on developing all findings. Finally chapter five explains the discussion and recommendations of this study.
In times of globalization Country Images and Country of Origin Effects have increasingly gained importance.
More informed consumers are able to purchase goods from around the globe and are no longer restricted to buying only goods produced in one’s home country. This has led to a rise in competition in the international market place, not only in the fashion industry. Managers are increasingly concerned with how brand’s Country of Origin is perceived and what effects it might have to relocate production to a developing country. While previous research was mainly focused on cross-sector investigations and studies of countries in Europe and North America, this paper’s focus was put on the perception of German consumers in regards to the countries New Zealand, Australia and China. The overall question to be answered in this study is “how do German fashion customers perceive the labels “Made in China”, “Made in New Zealand” and “Designed in Australia” and how do these perceptions affect the buying decision and price sensitivity? The results of this paper add value to the Australian brand Unreal Fur and the New Zealand brand PIA NAERA. It analyses their situations in the marketplace and gives suggestions of which marketing methods can be used in order to guide the customer’s perceptions and help support a positive image.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine leadership trends in France and Germany. It is examined whether leadership in both France and Germany is going to become participative in the near future due to increasing internationalization and due to the emergence of a new leadership generation in France and Germany with different expectations and behaviors, namely
Millennials.
Design/methodology/approach – This thesis comprises three major parts: First, leadership career paths in France and Germany are compared. Second, French and German management cultures are compared and their likelihood of convergence examined. Third, a closer look is taken at inter- as well as intra-generational differences with particular focus on Generation Y/ Millennials – the new leadership generation. Their differences and similarities in comparison with older generations as well as across national cultures are presented and discussed.
Findings – The analysis shows that outstanding leadership in both France and Germany seems to be participative. Further, French and German Millennials tend to be more open towards participative leadership than older generations. Nevertheless, participative leadership is more likely to be practiced in Germany than in France. French top managers still share very distinct national career path patterns, providing an elitist reputation and certain privileges. This often leads to rather non-participative, but authoritarian command-and-control based leadership
practices in France.
Research limitations/implications – Limitations of this thesis include the enormous scope of the topic - not everything could be covered in depth. Further, the up-to-date nature of the data used must be questioned - the incredible speed of change in today’s business world makes even recent research studies outdated within a short period of time.
Originality/value – French and German top management career paths as well as French and German management practices have been examined individually as well as comparatively in countless studies. However, different than probably any research study so far, this thesis also
includes inter- generational as well as intra-generational differences and similarities in France and Germany in order to reveal future trends. All in all, this thesis provides a broad outline of leadership trends in France and Germany and points out where further research must be carried out in more depth.
The aim of this thesis is twofold: 1. to find out how intercultural collaboration between the German and French employees at MBtech and AKKA Technologies, a corporation which recently acquired MBtech, works and 2. to identify conditions under which such collaboration can function smoothly. In order to answer these questions, an extensive literature review as well as an empirical study in the form of interviews have been carried out. The consulted literature comprises English, German and French works. The empirical study is a qualitative method searching to understand the topic in more detail. Interviews were conducted with German and French employees of MBtech and AKKA Technologies living in France and Germany. Globalization and in particular the intense business interconnection between France and Germany, the two economically strongest forces in Europe at present, make intercultural research in this field a topic of interest and importance. The need for permanently constructive collaboration is fuelled by the fact that numerous intercultural collaborations between MBtech and AKKA Technologies are taking place over a long period of time.
The research question how intercultural collaboration works at MBtech and AKKA Technologies could only be answered to some extent due to the little representativeness of the qualitative method of interviewing. However, the insights obtained indicate that it works reasonably well. While many statements allow the conclusion that differing views on the German and the French side lead to difficulties, many other statements show that in spite of these differences, intercultural collaboration is on a good and growing level. Based on the findings gained for answering the research question under which conditions intercultural collaboration can function smoothly, a number of concrete recommendations were issued. Being related mainly to enhanced communication and mutual understanding, these recommendations aim at equipping MBtech and Akka Technologies well to face the future.
Background
The recent worldwide financial crisis that occurred in last quarters of 2007 up until mid 2009 was accompanied by the massive failure of many financial institutions and liquidity providers. Investment banks and other institutionalized financial investors were unsuccessful in producing any real returns for their clients. This drastic fail in all the other traditional investments led to the questioning of how well the hedge fund industry performed in this light based on their promise as absolute return producers regardless of the market environment. This paper seeks to analyse the performance of the Long/Short Equity Strategy in particular relative to the performance of the overall market.
Methods
Thorough examination and validation of numerous empirical studies which have already been carried out on the subject matter are brought to light through the analysis of available historical data of the returns posted by these funds during the crisis using generally accepted statistical funds’ assessment tools giving an adequate angel to the performance of Long-Short Equity hedge Funds especially at the heart of the financial crisis in the last quarters of 2007 to mid 2009.
Results
Equity Long/Short Hedge funds as every other strategy in they industry succeeded in 2008 in outperforming other traditional investment vehicles and the broad stock an bond markets although the failed in to produce the absolute returns promised to their investments. In 2009 they posted similar results to that of S&P 500 index with subsequent declines in 2010 and 2011 thus failing to period their returns where highly correlated with that of the overall market coined with negative skewness and high kutorsis.
Conclusion
Even though hedge funds succeeded in outperforming the market in the heart of the crisis, they failed to provides their investors with absolute returns and also the benefits which the provide in terms of diversification to reduce the exposure of their funds to market risk was limiting. The very high fees paid to them by investors was not justified by their performance.
This bachelor thesis is about a Business Plan in form of a Business Model for a healthcare and mediation company for Germany and Switzerland.It basically asks the question how can vale for the customer, the placed employees and the company be created, maintained and increased. The purpose of this assignment is to analyze the existent HR Industry market and position the Company in a profitable niche in order to achieve a strategically important growth into other fields. The present work consists of five parts.In the following first part the HR Industry and its market potential are explained. Secondly the Business Model is explained theoretically and then applied to CarePers. In the third part the Philippines are analyzed culturally and the effects are used on an elaborated business adaptation. In the fourth part mayor basic strategy concepts are introduced and applied to CarePers. The fifth part concludes the work.
Several interviews have taken place with the company’s founder and the company’s COO. Extensive analysis of the market has been done by revising several official statistics. Based on theoretical aspects presented and explained a practical realization and adaptation of the academic content has been done
In the last few years no other innovation has been able to influence the marketing environment like neuromarketing, the new science of consumer behaviour, which combines neuroscientific techniques with marketing in order to understand brain functions in terms of marketing activities. This combination helps to improve the understanding of the influence of emotions and senses on decision-making and buying-behaviour. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential and limitations of neuromarketing, by taking a close look into published data, conducted studies and expert opinions concerning this new field of science. The published data retrieved from studies using brain-imaging techniques found that emotions and human senses influence every second in human beings’ perception and that consumers are not able to decide completely economically. Nevertheless, further research is recommended in order to gain a deeper understanding of the human brain and how it conducts
decision-making processes. Additionally, consumer neuroscience has high potential to become a commonly used technique, which sustainably supports traditional
market research. Neuromarketing seems to become a promising technique to provide consumers with desired products, services, web shops and advertising
design.
In recent times, China’s role in the clothing industry has been threatened. China’s ability to compete on a cost basis is diminishing and urges the country to find a new means of competition. The aim of this study is to assess China’s future role in the industry with special regards to European apparel manufactures. This is done by taking a closer look at several factors that have an impact on the industry. The analysis of published data, conducted studies and expert opinions brought to light how the government is actively involved in the pursue of maintaining China’s leading role in the textile and clothing industries as these are important contributors to China’s economic well-being. Two strategies have been emphasized. Firstly, the upgrading of the industry as a means of differentiation that allows China’s clothing industry to compete on other factors than costs. Secondly, the boost of China’s domestic market in order to mitigate against the risk arising from the volatility of markets and increased need for speed in the industry. While China’s role is undoubtedly changing, it seems like the country has found opportunities to maintain an important position in the future of the clothing industry.
A few years ago Porsche AG defined its “Strategy 2018”, to be followed by all subsidiaries worldwide. This includes ambitious sales and financial targets, which only can be fulfilled if Porsche becomes more efficient. One of Porsche’s core measures to reach the set targets is the development of its global dealer network. Currently, the subsidiary Porsche Middle East and Africa, responsible for the future growth in the Middle East, India and Africa, lacks this efficiency. A defined process for the set up of a new dealership in this region is not existent and tasks as well as responsibilities are not transparent among the task force.
This thesis was used to analyze the set up process of Porsche Middle East and Africa and to define an overall concept. Based on relevant literature, conducted interviews and gathered information, the required activities to successfully establish a new dealership have been identified and finally an all-encompassing concept have been created. The three stakeholders of a dealer set up, the parent company, its regional and its local presence served as informants.
The proposed concept provides Porsche Middle East and Africa and the new investors with a detailed guideline during the whole process and permits a smooth and punctual dealer set up and opening. The process integration takes Porsche Middle East and Africa a major step forward on its way to Porsche’s ‘Strategy 2018’.