Open Access

Entrepreneurship research faces a crossroads and a new approach is needed to better understand entrepreneurial behavior. Incorporating neuroscience to comprehend the entrepreneurial mindset seems promising. Nevertheless, the potential of neuroscience for entrepreneurship research is only slowly being realized. Based on an extensive literature review, this thesis examines the emerging role of neuroscience with respect to entrepreneurship. Referring to the model of the entrepreneurial process, this thesis investigates how entrepreneurs discover, exploit, and finally capture opportunities. In this context, explanations regarding trait, expertise, adaptation, and mindset of the entrepreneur are relevant for further examination. Moreover, decision-making in uncertain situations is analyzed. In this context, the dynamic interplay between the reflective and reflexive system is considered. Ultimately, this thesis provides recommendations for organizational innovation to enhance entrepreneurial activity.

The well-substantiated “cheerleader effect” proposes that individuals in groups are perceived to be more attractive compared to when they are presented in isolation. With the aim of finding out whether this effect is applicable to additional dimensions of social perception, we investigated attractiveness, salary, vanity and intelligence judgements in two methodologically distinct experiments. We could not detect differences in ratings between the isolated and group presentations of individuals in a between-subjects design but found evidence supporting the existence of the cheerleader and the “banker effect” in the within-subjects design. Besides an increase in attractiveness, replicating the cheerleader effect, individuals were as well perceived to be earning higher salaries when surrounded by others, thus establishing the banker effect and further emphasising the actual impact of group context on trait judgements. The supplementary finding that both effects do not occur simultaneously within the same person creates new pathways for identifying their underlying causes and deriving possible explanations.

During the last years, an increasing number of organisations has tended to favour the utilisation of collaboration software to support organisational processes and their employees in their daily work. Even though most of the software products are sold in a standardised manner, they offer a great variety in terms of their functionalities. Consequently, a company is likely to find a software solution which suits its distinct requirements which themselves originate from technological, market and social changes and prevailing VUCA conditions. Hence, a company is forced to regularly adapt its internal processes and structures to maintain competitive in the business as well as the labour market. Utilising a collaboration software represents a promising opportunity for a company to introduce solutions for real time communication, social networks or shared information bases which are already used commonly in people’s private lives to the professional environment as well. Thereby they allow associates to transcend geographical and temporal distances while facilitating fast interaction, increasing productivity and providing for new opportunities for collaboration in both, regular work routines and exceptional situations. The corporate implementation of such a software can be realised by building on formal project planning principles. This project management-driven approach tends to concentrate on preparing the steps required to ensure a successful deployment from a technical perspective. The effectiveness of the implementation, however, is mainly determined by employees’ reaction to the new software: Their level of acceptance and the incorporation of the software’s functionalities into their daily business routines finally influences to which degree an organisation can exploit and experience the desired benefits. Aiming towards positively shaping users’ perceptions and the software’s usage, the critical success factors for software implementations are reviewed. Given that most of them are directly related to the people affected by the implementation, underlines the importance of interpreting the implementation of a collaboration software as an organisational change. By analysing the change process in theory and considering the employees’ behaviours for the subsequent conceptualisation of an implementation strategy, a user-centred approach can be further promoted. The theoretical insights obtained from the scientific research on collaboration software implementations and the related organisational change process are then applied to a business case which deals with the implementation of the collaboration software product Office 365 at TTS Tooltechnic Systems AG & Co. KG. After presenting the derived implementation structure, it can be concluded that so far, the identified critical success factors were verified by the case study. Moreover, the user-centred approach which focusses on guiding employees through the change process and ensuring a smooth transition in general produced positive results. Nevertheless, it can be observed that an adequate project planning and timing remains indispensable. The final evaluation of the implementation’s success cannot be performed yet, since the implementation at the company has just recently started, but it becomes clear that it will likely be influenced much by the ongoing required cultural change within the company.

The understanding of what lies behind actions and how our mind functions is the basic requirement for effective and successful intercultural teamwork, management and leadership. While the literature acknowledges the importance of cultural differences in influencing teamwork and management, it ignores differences in cognitive processes, that can influence how attitudes are developed and behaviors are manifested in local environments. With this in mind, this paper examines the different learning styles, which are the foundation of thinking patterns, problem-solving methods and working styles of Chinese and German employees at IMS Gear. To get a better understanding of how the members of each culture approach a project, a project planning observation is conducted and the findings are compared. Based on the results, different leadership styles are suggested.

In 2018 the EU General Data Protection Regulation came into effect. Personal data has been protected in the European Union than nowhere else in the world. At the same time, China has become the largest e-commerce market in the world, overtaking the US. Moreover, the Chinese e-Commerce market still has growth potential since only 60% of the country´s population has internet access. The purpose of this thesis is to research the question of whether electronic commerce is powerful in China due to low levels of data protection. First of all, this thesis is examining the main principles of Chinese data protection in comparison to Germany as a country with high data protection standards. Secondly, this work investigates the importance of personal data in electronic commerce. Thirdly, it intends to explain the development of Chinese online business. In the end, the key learnings will be presented. This research uses statistical evaluation, literature, and legislative review to get a theoretical understanding of the matter. It uses various forms of market insights to understand the industry, the consumer, and the role of the Chinese regime. The findings indicate that there is a correlation between the degree of data regulation and the quality of promotion. Personal data are not the only one critical success factor for the establishment of e-commerce.