Business Strategy
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Course of studies
Crowdlending is a growing business model that originated from the new crowdfunding phenomenon. It consists of funding companies’ loans through joining money from many investors in exchange for regular payments. One important key value in this model is the speed of the credit approval and the investment choice. The upcoming crowdlending platforms facilitate their growth through the automation of those processes. This study explores the creation of a credit-scoring model for an entrepreneurial platform, in order to fulfill the necessity of quickly determining the risk and the characteristics of loan applications for SME companies. This study will also analyze the pricing loan strategy based on the risk of the operations. Finally, the thesis suggests a of the loans and concludes with a series of improvement measures for the model.
In times of globalization the international market development poses one of the trend-setting challenges for many companies in the future. Companies are facing in an increasing intensity of competition in their market environment. This development is expedite by the growing technological exchangeability of products, so the differentiation on the technological dimension will be hampered significantly. All the more the necessity of the foreign sales come to the fore to counteract the degree of competition. The research question is: How can Kendrion IDS participate in the Northern European market to generate further growth?
The aim of this thesis is to detect the industry-specific market potentials for the target-oriented and strategic business development in Scandinavia.
In order to achieve the stated objective, the initial position of Kendrion IDS was investigated on the basis of a situation analysis. Within this analysis the internal strengths and weaknesses were examined. Afterwards the relevant markets and the industries were tested for opportunities in the market analysis and for external risks in the environmental analysis. The outcome of this is the developed SWOT-analysis, which states that depending on the country in Scandinavia there are potentials in different industries. The findings prove that different distribution channels lead to a different extent of success.
The buzzword “smart city”, which describes the integration of digital technologies in different areas of cities, is on the rise worldwide. Even though there are various megatrends pushing towards the uptake of smart cities, both public sector and businesses struggle to indentify viable sources of financing and business models for smart city initiatives.
This also holds true for the smart city business of Bosch Software Innovations GmbH, which includes various smart city projects in initial stages. Therefore, the topic of business model development in the context of smart cities is being approached in this thesis, with the Gambit project in the City of York being examined as a reference project. The idea of Gambit – “Gamification for better living in cities by influencing tourist behaviour” - is based on a smartphone application for tourists, which aims to influence visitor behaviour through elements of gamification. Thereby city services should be assisted in mitigating the problem of local overcrowding in the city centre. In its initial phase, the project is financially supported by public authorities. The central question is how such a kind of project can be financially viable and how its commercial uptake can be achieved. With this in mind, the aim of this thesis is to explore business model development for smart city solutions based on the example of the Gambit project in York. To do so, a multi-method approach is used, comprising a literature review on the theoretical background of smart cities and business models, as well as empirical research based on interviews with the partner organisations of the project, as well as a workshop with other city stakeholders.
This key findings show that the attraction of additional stakeholder within cities is essential for the economic success of smart city projects. This implies multi-directional value streams and multiple sources of financing within smart city initiatives. In this context, various forms of financial contribution, such as indirect payments through other offerings and the provision of advertising space to co-finance solutions should be considered. Besides, linking smart city solutions to other services within cities might form the basis for financial viability. The findings produced stress the importance of collaboration and partnering. Furthermore, it can be concluded that the diversity of stakeholders implies a diversity of value streams in smart city business models.
Unsustainable production- and lifestyle patterns which are reaching into present have destroyed the global environment to such a degree, that severe consequence already became visible. Albert Einstein once said “A new way of thinking is necessary if humanity wants to live on.” Seeing themselves confronted with an enormous climatic change, scarce resources, and increasing inequalities, people became aware of the need for this new way of thinking - sustainable thinking. As agriculture is the sector which uses the largest amount of land it is essential that agricultural practices be performed sustainably. Instead of using more resources, farmers are called to increase their productivity by applying more efficient farming practices. By increasing productivity and efficiency, farmers could “close the gap between their actual and potential yield”. As if things weren’t tough enough as they are, the world population is increasing exponentially. As the world’s population increases, so too does the number of hungry. Therefore, the agricultural productivity needs to be increased by 70%. To achieve this goal, the smallholder sector – 84% of all people active in agriculture – needs to be empowered, enabling smallholder farmers to successfully contribute to global food security. This collaboration would generate four winners: The environment, as agricultural practices would be performed more sustainably, the world population, as there would be more food available, the smallholder farmers themselves, as they would generate more income by selling higher yields and would therefore be lifted out of poverty, and the agricultural companies, as they would gain additional trading partners. As worldwide smallholder situations differ substantially a tool – called the “Smallholder Maturity Model” - is needed to analyze the actual empowerment level of a specific smallholder population and by doing so, enabling agricultural institutions to address smallholders’ real needs and empower them long-term. The development of the aforementioned tool is based on reports published by esteemed agricultural organizations, articles written by research specialists, namable databases and interviews with internal and external specialists disposing about high class agricultural knowledge. According to the analysis-results of the present work, the smallholder farmers’ empowerment level strongly depends on being supported– in terms of financial support as well as trainings. Only smallholder farmers who are supported are able to apply good and sustainable agricultural practices, increase their efficiency and sell their yield more competitively. Therefore, the “Smallholder Maturity Model” is a helpful tool to generate a picture of the actual smallholder situation and facilitate the decision-making process of agricultural institutions interested in developing adequate supporting-strategies. In order to get country or crop specific survey results, the rating of the several possible answers could be adjusted to the specific regional conditions As the only objective is finding an effective way to empower smallholder farmers and improve their situations, both application methods are acknowledged.
The paper intends to analyze the application of change management in family-owned businesses in the engineering industry of Baden-Württemberg. A lack in literature implies the necessity to specifically regard change management in this sector. The investigations are concerned with particularities in cultural dimensions of family-owned businesses and how these might affect the application of change management. The aim is to identify factors which enable businesses in this sector to improve change management and to maintain or enhance their effectiveness. On the basis of an analysis of relevant literature, assumptions for the application of change management in family-owned businesses in Baden-Württemberg’s engineering industry are derived. Bizerba GmbH & Co. KG is proved representative for this type of business. By means of a case study, the implementation of the tool Team Foundation Server at Bizerba GmbH & Co. KG, the change approach is applied in practice. To gain quantitative data, the change implementation is monitored. A survey is conducted and statistically investigated to examine the importance of applied factors during the change initiative. The research at Bizerba reveals several substantial results for the application of change management in this context. A universally applicable approach for change plays a minor role in this context. Rather, the application of specific factors is crucial for a successful implementation of change. During the change initiative the importance of factors modifies. “Soft factors” gain in relevance with the project’s progress. In this connection, the integration of the individual employee plays a significant role. The research results advise the application of individual stakeholder interviews and continuous communication. Commitment to change by formal leaders and informal leaders’ positive participation in the change initiative help overcome prevailing resistance to change. An explicit triggering event for change is not necessary in the context of the family-owned business. Though, the definition of a clear vision and objectives is of primary importance to achieve the understanding for change necessity amongst target group members. However, the sample size is too small for the research outcomes to be representative for all family-owned businesses in Baden-Württemberg’s engineering industry. Still, the research displays several factors and instruments which help establish effective internal change management capabilities for family-owned businesses in the engineering industry of Baden-Württemberg.
The aim of this bachelor’s thesis was to identify possible measures for the competence development of unskilled and semi-skilled workers in small and medium-sized enter-prises (SMEs), with a focus on the development of interdisciplinary competences. It is solely based on already existing research results and publications and shall provide an overview of the current state of knowledge regarding the issue.
To be able to find possibilities to develop interdisciplinary competences, essential terms as competence, knowledge and competence management as well as the target group of unskilled and semi-skilled workers and their specific learning needs have to be clarified. Under consideration of all relevant aspects, recommendations for interdisciplinary com-petence development, which fit to the target group, can be made. The results of this paper show that in comparison with other occupation groups unskilled and semi-skilled workers need more support regarding their learning process, as for ex-ample through the definition and control of fixed goals. Apart from continuous learning and sufficient time, especially forms of learning which are close to the workplace are appropriate. Despite all learning difficulties which characterize the target group, they rep-resent a not inconsiderable potential and an opportunity for enterprises to successfully overcome challenges such as globalisation, demographic change and the lack of qualified personnel.
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.
In this paper the author will look at the development of industrial parks with case study of Ethiopia and Kenya since this are the developing countries and with a blue print to industrial parks in which the authors main objective is to establish the industrial park planning and development of Industrial Parks in Africa, establish the importance of ICT as a response to the sustainable planning of industrial areas in Africa and to establish the issue of environment sustainability in Africa. The problems in implementing the industrial parks the mismanagement of funds, challenges faced by foreign investors, not usage of ICT knowledge, threats from the terrorist groups and the recess in support by the government. Hence the need to address these issues in this research work. Threat analysis will be addressed in consideration to Kenyan economy that brings in a recession to the country such as Al-Shabaab. Finally conclusion and recommendation are made in which in the author’s findings is that the governments are eagerly working to put their country modernized and with high security. Revenue made by the government is set to put security measures to make more revenue from tax in by implementing the police reforms. Hence the conclusion that investing in industrial parks are of great benefit for foreign investors, the governments and will aid in poverty eradication in Kenya and Ethiopia.