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- BMP - Business Management and Psychology (19) (remove)
In der heutigen Wirtschaftslage ist es für Unternehmen zunehmend wichtig sich aufgrund von einem zunehmend gesättigten Markt und steigendem Wettbewerb klar zu positionieren. Eine Grundlage für das strategische Marketing kann zum Beispiel durch ein Marketingkonzept geschaffen werden. Es dient als Leitfaden für weitere unternehmerische Marketingaktivitäten. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden die Grundlagen für ein Marketingkonzept analysiert und aufgezeigt, mit dem Fokus auf der Kommunikationspolitik. Für die Ausarbeitung wird beispielhaft ein Produkt des kroatischen Unternehmens Terra Marascae d.o.o. verwendet. Die Kommunikationspolitik ist auf den unternehmenseigenen Online-Shop sowie die Gewinnung von Neukunden ausgerichtet. Die Informationen werden anhand des AIDA-Modells gewonnen. Auf dieser Grundlage kann die Kommunikationspolitik des Marketingkonzepts weiterführend abgeleitet werden. Dazu wird in Interviews sowie theoriegeleiteter Konzeption konkret ausfindig gemacht, welche Informationen für den Kunden und dessen Kaufprozess relevant sind. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, dass es wesentlich ist, die Besonderheiten der Produkte in der Kommunikationspolitik klar zu kommunizieren.
This thesis aims to ascertain whether the concept of job sharing might be a solution for organizations to adapt their company values to meet the changing principles of society. The shift in demands results from the younger generations seeking different values in their free time, which also influences the demands at work. The disbalance between organizational and individual values leads to employee dissatisfaction and increasing turnover rates. The part-time concept of job sharing is on the rise regarding new work opportunities. Therefore, subtopics including flexibility, work-life balance, gender balance, and diversity in the workforce are positively encouraged through job sharing. The data and research in this thesis are obtained from existing literature on the work concept. Most previous research has focused on the influences on individuals and less on multiple levels within a company. The findings of this paper state that job sharing can significantly impact the value shift of a company in many different facets. Nevertheless, the concept also provides a large number of requirements on several levels which need to be adjusted to benefit from the concept.
Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, die Funktion von Keywords für den Suchalgorithmus zu untersuchen und festzustellen inwieweit die Optimierung von Keywords für die Suchmaschinenoptimierung wichtig ist. Während die Funktion von Keywords für den Google Algorithmus theoretisch untersucht wurde, wurde die Bedeutsamkeit von Keywords mit einer praktischen Suchmaschinenoptimierung und deren Auswirkungen auf die Google Suchergebnisseite gemessen. Um die Auswirkungen von optimierten Keywords zu messen, wurde eine Forschungsstudie zur Datenerhebung durchgeführt. Diese Studie umfasst eine E-Commerce Website, die Handyketten verkauft und wurde über einen Beobachtungszeitraum von 17 Wochen implementiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich sowohl die Keyword-Optimierung, als auch die On-page Optimierung positiv auf die Ranking-Position der Suchergebnisliste auswirken. Generell deuten die Daten an, dass die Optimierung von On-page Faktoren eine größere Auswirkung auf die Ranking-Position haben und somit eine größere Gewichtung durch den Suchalgorithmus zugeteilt bekommen.
The sale of insurance policies through the payment of commissions to intermediaries, such as agents, is a common practice in the insurance sector. As a consequence of this compensation method, intermediaries must weigh-off between increasing their commission-based income and offering clients suitable low-priced policies. A novel business model seeks to address this issue by substituting this commission-fee-based approach with a subscription-based approach. Although a company already applies this business model with a minor customer base, there is a lack of information about whether and under which circumstances it can be financially profitable. To obtain transparency about the financial prospects of this business model, a corporate financial model was created, through which seven scenarios were modeled and financial key figures compared. Three scenarios simulate distribution via a direct sales channel through the company workforce, and four scenarios via an indirect sales channel consisting of external intermediaries. The comparison of the scenarios indicates that this commission- free business model can be profitable in the long term regardless of the sales channel selection. Yet the results show that distribution via the indirect channel can be perceived as more profitable. By optimizing processes in both channels and by adjusting the remuneration for intermediaries in the indirect channel, the financial prospects for all scenarios can be further increased.
Der Begriff Greenwashing bezeichnet den Versuch von Firmen oder Organisationen ihr eigenes Image, ihre Produkte oder auch Dienstleistungen als besonders gut für die Umwelt anzuwerben, ohne dass dies der Wahrheit entspricht. Das Ziel in der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es zu beantworten, welchen Einfluss Greenwashing auf die Generation Z hat. Denn zumindest auf den ersten Blick scheint die Generation Z, welcher u.a. auch die wohl berühmteste Klimaaktivistin Greta Thunberg angehört und auf welche die Fridays for Future Bewegung zurückgeht, im Vergleich zu anderen Generationen ein besonderes Umweltbewusstsein entwickelt zu haben.
Um die Forschungsfrage zu beantworten, wurde eine quantitative Studie in Form einer Online-Umfrage mit Teilnehmenden aus vier verschiedenen Generationen durchgeführt.
Die quantitative Studie zeigte, dass kein Unterschied bezüglich der Ausprägung des Umweltumweltbewusstseins zwischen den verschiedenen Generationen bestand. Ebenso konnte nicht bewiesen werden, dass es einen Zusammenhang zwischen der Ausprägung des Umweltbewusstseins einer Generation und der Ausprägung der Skepsis gegenüber der Umweltfreundlichkeit grüner Produkte gibt. Auch konnte nicht bestätigt werden, dass die Generation Z eine höhere Skepsis aufweist als andere Generationen. Dies zeigt, dass der Einsatz von Greenwashing größtenteils unentdeckt bleibt.
Due to technical advances, multisensory technologies have gained traction in the research and development of many industries. With the launch of virtual and augmented reality systems, the potential for these technologies increased even further. The senses of vision and hearing have long been integrated into current products, leading to the assumption that olfactory stimuli are likely to be included soon to stimulate the sense of smell.
With this trend, the issue of implementation into current digital products and services arises, as odors currently cannot be captured in one place and released in another on a large scale. Therefore, this thesis deals with the nature of smell from a cognitive psychological and technological viewpoint. We show why it makes sense to stimulate the sense of smell in multisensory experiences and present early and current technical standards. In addition to this, we conducted expert interviews enabling us to provide insights into the digital scent and olfaction industry. Among other aspects, our results suggest that there are fundamental challenges that developers have to overcome and that a successful implementation depends on the business application.
Prior research found extremeness aversion effects to be common and robust. Nevertheless, most research neglected the spatial arrangement's influence on a consumer's choice and placed the compromise option of a choice set simultaneously in the spatial middle. Following these findings, five bachelor theses were conducted to investigate both aspects by analyzing numerical and spatial choice architectures – their data comprised three online surveys and three field experiments. This study aimed to compare their findings and analyze their data sets to search for overarching effects. Therefore, we hypothesized that there is either information-format compatibility or a general tendency towards the spatial middle of a choice set. To research this hypothesis, we brought the data sets into a comparable format, analyzed our findings, and conducted t-tests to test for statistical significance. Even though the study could not find overarching effects across the data, it supports the notion that a choice set's spatial arrangement, like the numerical one, can influence consumer behavior. Furthermore, it led to valuable insights for future research approaches concerning expanding extremeness aversion into a spatial dimension.
A Descriptive Study on Customer Attitudes towards Green Branding in the Fashion Industry in Germany
(2021)
This paper attempts to provide an up-to-date representation and analysis of customers' attitudes towards green branding in the fashion industry and their willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainable and ethical clothing in Germany. Related literature strands are reviewed to understand how the fashion industry works, what green branding means, and how customer attitudes are shaped. After creating an attitude measurement model, an online questionnaire was designed and sent to Furtwangen University students, with 153 valid responses returned. The descriptive analysis sheds light on the three attitudinal components related to sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry. It is noted that customers do not hold a definite attitude. However, a tendency towards the positive end is ascertained. Significant gaps still exist in terms of knowledge and awareness of some commitment by fashion brands. Another huge factor influencing attitudes appears to be a lack of trust. The behavioral component showed that customers are trying to contribute through proper disposal and are willing to buy sustainable and ethical clothing more often. However, there is still some room for improvement in terms of customer education. Nevertheless, it is found that they are willing to accept an additional contribution for sustainable and ethical clothing. In general, it can be concluded that there is a foundation to improve the fashion industry towards more sustainability. However, all stakeholders, i.e., customers and fashion brands, as well as the government, need to work together to change the industry in the long run.
Differences in the perception and their effects on the implementation of organizational agility
(2021)
This thesis paper investigates the differences in organizational agility implementation and links practical approaches to complex theory. Several agile transformations have been studied to provide an overview of the common guidelines that foster agile working. In alignment with the ambivalence of agility, the results show that a symbiotic mixture of bottom- up and top-down features in the application is required. Especially in traditional organizations, where hierarchical structures prevail, the practical implementation requires the approval of managers and the active involvement of employees to be successful. Additionally, companies cannot apply a uniform approach to achieving agile but must alter practices to fit their specific needs. Consequently, this paper can be particularly beneficial to companies attempting an agile change.
Der Frauenanteil in den Führungsetagen der deutschen Wirtschaft stagniert seit Jahren auf einem niedrigen Niveau und spiegelt nicht im Entferntesten den Anteil weiblicher Beschäftigter wider (vgl. Tonn 2016, S. 11). Vor allem im Top-Management sind Frauen deutlich unterrepräsentiert. Die Grundannahme dieser Bachelorarbeit besteht darin, dass Frauen grundsätzlich motiviert sind, Führung zu übernehmen und die gleichen Potentiale wie Männer besitzen. Um eine Führungsposition einzunehmen, müssen die Rahmenbedingungen passen. Aufgrund biologischer Unterschiede und der Sozialisation präferieren Frauen andere Rahmenbedingungen als Männer. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde die Frage untersucht, was sich aus Sicht der Frauen verändern müsste, damit sie ihr Potential entfalten können. Dazu wurden 50 weibliche Probandinnen aus unterschiedlichen Branchen befragt. Die systematische Betrachtung der Aussagen ergab im Wesentlichen folgende sieben Aspekte: Gestaltungsfreiheit, Unterstützung zu Beginn und in der Führungsposition, Vertrauen, eine gute Feedback- und Fehlerkultur, die Vereinbarkeit mit dem Privatleben, Menschlichkeit im Fokus und attraktive Anreize. Des Weiteren konnten durch die Ergebnisse Handlungsoptionen abgeleitet werden, um strukturelle und kulturelle Rahmenbedingungen zu gestalten, die talentierten und motivierten Frauen einen einfacheren Zugang zu mehr Führungsverantwortung verschaffen.
Sustainability, encompassing the economy, the environment, and society in equal parts, is an increasingly prominent topic that is gaining in importance and awareness due to the climate crisis and the resulting urgent need for action. It is essential to simultaneously focus on the global and on the local scale in order to create a paradigm shift. This study addresses the attitude-behavior gap of employees in the daily operations within companies and evaluates how nudges can be implemented to narrow this gap. A literature review was conducted to understand the separate topics of sustainability, the attitude-behavior gap, and nudging. Based on these three topics and their interrelation, exemplary nudges on habits and on infrastructure to be applied in a company and modified to its needs are developed. The method of implementation of nudges cannot be generalized because (1) attitudes and behavior and their interrelation are individual and influenceable factors and (2) the corporate context and how nudges are communicated impact the effectiveness of the interventions. Investing in internal sustainability practices in combination with indispensable external practices leads companies to a holistic, authentic, and successful approach towards becoming a sustainable business.
Keywords: Attitude-Behavior Gap, Nudging, Corporate sustainability
This research examines whether a company's popularity is a determining factor for its attractiveness among employees. For this purpose, two groups of subjects were asked to rate the attractiveness of an identical job advertisement. The only difference between the groups was that one group was led to believe that it was the job advertisement of a well-known company, whereas the other group was presented with the advertisement of a rather unknown, but in terms of activity and prestige comparable company. The results suggest that the familiarity of the company does indeed influence popularity to a significant degree. Implications of this finding are also further explored.
Understanding how consumers choose between alternatives and how they use the context in doing so is the aim of numerous consumer behaviour studies. The effect of extremeness aversion has been found to be a replicable phenomenon in this field. According to this context effect, alternatives with extreme numerical attributes are less likely to be chosen than the alternative with intermediate attributes in a choice set. A new research direction regarding extremeness aversion considers not only these numerical attributes of a choice set but also the implications of the spatial dimension. Therefore, it has been hypothesized that there could also be a preference for the spatial middle in a choice set. As the phenomenon of extremeness aversion corresponds with decision uncertainty, this research aimed to investigate numerical and spatial extremeness aversion in a product class of high uncertainty and complexity. Thus, consumer preferences regarding the product class of wine were analysed in different choice architectures. Interviews in a wine specialist store and an online survey were conducted with a total number of 924 participants. The study’s results are not consistent over both data collection methods. However, independently of each other, they support the notion that consumer choices may be partly influenced by a preference for the numerical middle option, as well as by a preference for the spatial middle option.
Do Meat-Eating Consumers Use Organic Meat to Rationalize the Consumption of Conventional Meat?
(2021)
This thesis explores how meat-eating consumers may be able to rationalize the consumption of conventional meat by believing to substitute a certain amount of it for organic meat. The underlying rationale is that the positive associations elicited by the organic label and the favorable beliefs consumers have formed about organic meat enable them to use it as a moral license. Building on cognitive dissonance theory, this work specifically investigated whether (1) meat-eaters perceive organic meat better than vegetarians and (2) meat-eaters overestimate how much organic meat they consume. German meat-eating and vegetarian participants were recruited for a study (n=156) to answer these questions. The results show, first, that organic was generally rated as better than conventional meat on all dimensions surveyed, and to a greater extent by meat-eating than by vegetarian respondents. Second, meat-eating participants on average reported estimates of organic meat consumption that were significantly higher than the population mean, indicating that consumers may not eat as much organic meat as they believe. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that organic meat might be used to rationalize unsustainable food choices.
Pro-environmental attitude is, on many occasions, a weak indicator for pro-environmental behavior. Personal interests interfere with the human desire to follow normative goals during the decision-making process, which may result in the unpleasant state of attitudinal ambivalence. The more balanced two contrary attitudes are, the higher is the chance for external persuasion as it may decrease the internal ambivalent conflict. However, moral informational interventions seem not to cause the desired behavioral change but may instead increase the sense of resignation and guilt. This paper aims to set focus on the attitude-behavior relationship in the concrete example of plastic-packed food and how post-decisional evaluations vary when either individual (hedonic or gain goal) or collective motives (normative goal) are being followed. Measured indications for actual disengagement or attitude adaption are relatively weak but felt ambivalence in the case of immoral decisions could be demonstrated in the form of response times. Practical conclusions that may facilitate pro-environmental behavior are being presented at the end of the work.
This thesis talks about the relation between investor sentiment, stock return and trading volume in the German stock market. Six Granger causality tests were performed in order to determine, whether one of the above mentioned factors is indicative of the others. The results imply that investor sentiment is indicative of both, stock return and trading volume in the specified time period. However, there is no further significant evidence for other relations among the variables. The results are mostly in line with the literature available on this topic and back up the importance of the concept of investor sentiment as investor sentiment delivers an attempt to explain why investors behave irrationally on the stock market. Hence, the factors influencing investor sentiment should be subject to further research in order to gain a broader understanding of the topic.
This paper proposes to consider the influence of transparency in leadership styles on work performance and satisfaction. In an experimental setting, a pair of strangers were advised to solve a Sudoku in a digital environment under time pressure. With an induced hierarchy, the leader was able to view the task and the timer, whereas only the subordinate was enabled to actively edit the riddle. The treatment group was told to transparently communicate the intended leadership style during the preparation phase. The results indicate that transparency has a significant positive effect on the performance and the satisfaction of the teams. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that transparency may not be the direct cause of improved performance and satisfaction. Yet it might be crucial in establishing trust between the leader and subordinate, causing a positive effect on the two dependent variables. The paper is concluded by discussing limitations, practical implications and considerations for future research.
What happens in a situation in which an individual is given a quality task for no compensation while knowing that someone else receives a reward for the same effort? If a performance drop occurs, does the individual's fairness sensitivity play a dependent role? These questions are approached theoretically and experimentally within this thesis. As a foundation, the most critical insights from the psychological investigation of extrinsic rewards and its impact on intrinsic motivation and performance are reviewed. Furthermore, relevant findings regarding fairness are introduced from varying fields of research. The conducted double-blind experiment suggests with limited confidence that the higher an individual's fairness sensitivity in a situation of perceived unfair treatment, the lower the performance.
The bachelor’s thesis deals with the question of whether a treatment with neurofeedback could provide a benefit for the members of an organization during a change process.
In particular, the motives and challenges of change projects were identified. Furthermore, the methods which can be used to reduce and even prevent these problems were examined. The non-achievement of basic human needs, the associated fear, the loss of trust and stress plays a major role here. A good change management is able to address some of these issues, for example through good communication and the implementation of a change vision. The difficulty is that people may be too stuck in their views, including previous bad experiences, to be helped by current methods. It could be shown, that the training with neurofeedback achieves positive and fast lasting effects. The thesis explains how the person to be treated must be prepared and what a training might look like. Various areas in which neurofeedback has already been successfully used are briefly described and it is investigated whether there are treatments for disorders that are similar for the resistances in change processes. Expert interviews have examined these assumptions more closely and provided a practical and concrete perspective on the treatment with neurofeedback in an organizational context.
Finally, it was found that training with neurofeedback in companies is quite an interesting option. At this stage, however, there is a lack of studies that can prove the concrete benefits. Until now, neurofeedback has been applied almost exclusively to the medical field and this will probably not change in the upcoming years due to the high complexity of the procedure. Other methods, such as yoga or meditation, are on the one hand easier to carry out and the other hand already established in society. However, since positive results have already been achieved with biofeedback and people are beginning to take an interest in it, this could be a first step towards neurofeedback.