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Effective lead management
(2023)
In the last few years the global interest on lead management has increased. This classic topic for marketing and sales departments is aimed at converting potential customers into sales. The following thesis identifies the challenges and solutions for marketing and sales departments in order to process effective lead management. Using data from a literature review and qualitative empirical research, conducted with representatives of marketing and sales departments, the results showed overall and task specific challenges and solutions. The research indicates that overall challenges and solutions regarding the gap between marketing and sales, new processes and data management including data quality, software and silos emerge. In addition task specific challenges and solutions concerning lead generation including purchased leads, lead qualification, lead nurturing and sales specific challenges and solutions conclusively the focus on existing customers, time famine and lead routing were identified. This thesis provides a framework for further studies regarding the challenges and solutions for marketing and sales departments processing lead management.
This study aims to address the research gap surrounding the role of leadership in the formation of high-performance teams within startup companies. While there is existing research on high-performing teams, limited attention has been given to leadership in this environment. To bridge this gap, the study combines a literature review and qualitative analysis through semi-structured interviews with diverse stakeholders in startups, with the goal of providing practical guidance for startup executives based on the research findings. The study uncovers key aspects of leadership in high-performance teams, emphasizing the importance of skills such as motivation and support for team members, fostering psychological safety and trust, and effectively managing uncertainty. In addition to resource constraints and high expectations, the study sheds light on the challenges faced by leaders in startup and high-performance team environments, particularly the blurring of traditional leadership roles as team members seek autonomy and decision-making authority. These findings present opportunities for future research to explore this progressive leadership style. Overall, this study contributes to our understanding of leadership dynamics within high-performance teams operating in the context of startups. It offers valuable insights that can help startup executives navigate the complexities of leadership and foster the development of successful and high-performing teams.
In an oversaturated market, companies are required to use innovative and, above all, creative advertising methods to capture their customers’ attention, and thus differentiate themselves from rival businesses. To this end, companies have been increasingly relying on the use of humor, a phenomenon that remains highly subjective and is perceived differently by each individual. This master’s thesis, which was completed as part of the International Marketing and Sales program at the FH Vorarlberg, focuses on this phenomenon of humor as well as its impact on advertising perception. With the aid of three different theories, the term “humor” is defined. Furthermore, this study explains and researches the so-called vampire effect, wherein various factors (in this case humor) draw attention away from the actual advertising message. In addition, this thesis takes a closer look at involvement, as a person’s involvement or interest in a brand or product can influence brand and product recall and recognition. An online survey was conducted to determine whether the vampire effect caused by humor is able to influence brand and product recall. In other words, this concerns whether the viewer can still remember the brand and product afterward or whether the humor employed triggers the vampire effect. Furthermore, this thesis explored whether the vampire effect caused by humor is able to influence brand and product recognition. Recall is the retrieval of information from memory without direct cues, whereas recognition refers to the recognition of information when it is presented again. Furthermore, within this context, it was discovered that brand and product recall varies with low and high involvement viewers of the advertisement. In other words, this means that the strength of the vampire effect caused by humor changes depending on the strength of the viewer’s involvement. During the course of this research, it was further observed that the humor employed significantly affects the perception of the advertising message, thus confirming the existence of the vampire effect. This effect also influences both brand as well as product recall and recognition. In both cases, participants in the survey were less able to remember the product and brand in the humorous advertising. Furthermore, it was proven that people with low involvement in the advertised product group are more heavily affected by the vampire effect. As such, they are more likely to not remember the product or brand after seeing the advertisement.
The presented master thesis of the study subject International Management and Leadership at the University of Applied Science Vorarlberg in Dornbirn handles the potential future influence of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due diligence on SMEs. First this thesis introduces the most important regulations that might come into place with this Due Diligence Act and gives a theoretical input when and how it will come into place, and also who it will affect directly and who will be affected indirectly. The empirical data resulted of several qualitative expert interviews and a following quantitative research. The expert interviews are split in two different groups, first the topic experts from institutions like chamber of commerce or chamber of labour and second experts from highly successful Austrian companies which are already handling the topic and the future challenges. Expected outcome of the qualitative interviews was a better view on the actual situation especially the impact on small and medium enterprises. On the basis of this results the quantitative survey was produced. In the quantitative survey the goal was to see, how much entrepreneurs and companies in the small and medium sector already are aware of the upcoming legal challenges throughout the supply chain. With all this collected data the practical outcome of this thesis is the Checklist, which helps entrepreneurs to find out if and how much they will be affected by the Act. And finally, the most important part is the Guideline, which introduces first risk assessment tools, that will help companies to prepare for future legislation and bring undoubtedly a certain advantage for the upcoming challenges.
Although workplace climate has been already extensively studied, the research has not led to firm conclusions regarding leadership trainings referring to the awareness of psychological safety in a company and its influence on existing teams and the general work climate. The author used the already existing model of Carr, Schmidt, Ford, & DeShon (2003) and adjusted it with psychological safety as 4th climate item to develop hypothesen which can also be seen as a path analytic model. The model posied that climate affects individual level outcomes through its impact on cognitive and affective states. Therefore, the author wants to show the correlation between the 4 higher order facets of climate affect the individual levels of job performance, psychological well-being and withdrawal through their impact on orangizational commitment and job saitsfaction (Carr, Schmidt, Ford, & DeShon, 2003).
This thesis investigates the role of leadership behaviours of C-level executives in the context of post-M&A integration processes. The primary focus is on understanding the impact of specific leadership behaviours on inspiring desirable follower effects and facilitating emotional acceptance during organizational change. Drawing on the frameworks presented in “Six- Dimension Integrative Model of Leadership” and "The Six Domains of Leadership" developed by Sitkin et al., the study conducts expert interviews with managers from middle management who have recently experienced M&A integration. The answers are analysed in depth to identify the most effective leadership behaviours, highlighting those mentioned most frequently and those capable of triggering multiple follower effects simultaneously. The result is a list of behaviours that can serve as a guideline for C-level executives who want to foster desirable follower effects throughout the M&A integration journey.
The control measures for the COVID-19 pandemic, early 2020, caused a chain reaction that eventually led to a shortage of components in the electronic manufacturing industry. A lack of components meant that the production and sales were interrupted or even stopped. For many electronic manufacturing firms, this was seen as a crisis. A crisis is mostly divided into three phases called the pre-crisis phase, crisis management and post-crisis phase. The pre-crisis phase involves an environmental assessment and setting up of crisis management teams, and plan. The crisis management phase has to do with the collection and interpretation of information and the mitigation of the crisis. The post-crisis phase looks at learnings from the crisis. In this paper it was investigated how the electronic manufacturing firms in Vorarlberg managed the crisis in the period between 2020 and 2022. The overall aim was to get a full understanding of how it affected the operations regarding the respective crisis teams and which factors were considered most important for setting up the teams. Two basic criteria which had to be over-come was the uncertainty and lack of time. It was seen that even though the fundamental structure did not change, crisis teams were added in the form of a crisis management team and task forces. The task forces played a major role in getting an understanding of the problem and the effect it has on the business. The crisis management team, which includes high level managers from all affected functional areas, had to re-evaluate the high level strategy and decide what needs to be done, and who will be doing it. In order to do so, they needed to understand what the priorities are regarding components and products and then decide on the priorities regarding affected business. The new strategy was then handed down to the task forces for implementation. A major focus of this paper was also on decision making and how everything contributed to making decisions that had the right effect in resolving the financial crisis for the organizations.
Supply shortages faced in products and resources from semiconductors to natural gas in recent years have had impact massive on global economy, but such challenges are not new for supply chain professionals. Many major events in the past have disrupted supply chains: 9/11 attack in New York, Tsunami in Japan to name a few, but COVID19 have had the biggest and widespread impact in the modern times. Even though supply chain resilience being a term coined in early 2000’s, its usage and importance has increased since then. With the curiosity of assessing the current state of sup-ply chain resilience literature and finding a resilience measurement method which is a one-fit for all supply chains in the manufacturing industry of Vorarlberg, the following research project was undertaken. Research is carried out with mixed methods, using a systematic literature review followed by expert interviews. In the conclusion of the research the author argues that there is a significant difference in the understanding of the term resilience within industry, there is a lack on the need for a meas-ure for resilience. The ways in which the structure of an organization impacts the level of resilience, foreseen benefits of digitalization and technologies for resilience are also dis-cussed. A comparative analysis on the SCR measurement methods discovered in literature, resulted in recommending Resilience index for on-time delivery proposed by Carvalho et al for the mentioned industry.
Having autonomy in the workplace can have a positive impact on employees’ performance, which in turn can benefit the organization’s competitive advantages. While previous researches have primarily focused on the psychological effects of job autonomy on employee performance and has been limited to certain domains, the relationship between job autonomy and organizational design is an important area of study for organizations seeking to improve their competitiveness. This thesis proposes a conceptual model for designing an organization structure that promotes employee performance in manufacturing companies by removing obstacles towards obtaining job autonomy. The focus is on ambitious employees who seek growth and development opportunities within their organization. The model is based on a review of existing literature on job autonomy and organizational design. Exploratory qualitative research was conducted with selected ambitious employees from different industries by means of one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Overall, the proposed model has practical implications for manufacturing companies looking to motivate their employees, as well as for researchers seeking to advance their understanding of organizational design in our times.
The advent of autonomous and self-driving cranes represents a significant advancement in industrial automation. One critical prerequisites for achieving this long-term goal is the accurate and reliable detection of tools guided by ropes in real-world environments. Since the tool is suspended by ropes, the tool pose cannot be controlled directly. This master’s thesis addresses the challenges of pose estimation for rope-guided tools using point cloud measurements. The proposed algorithm utilizes constraints imposed by the crane kinematics and information extracted during the segmentation process to efficiently infer the pose of the hook, therefore enabling the use of the pose for decision making in real-time critical applications. RANSAC (Random Sample and Consensus) is deployed in the segmentation process to extract geometric primitives from the point cloud which represent the ropes and distinctive parts of the tool. Since the point cloud is often to sparse for feature matching a bounding box is used to estimate the initial position of the tool. Two different methods are presented to improve the initial pose. A computationally expensive method with a high level of confidence, integrating the ICP (Iterative Closest Point) algorithm is used as a benchmark. A linear Kalman filter is used in the second method which is real-time capable. The benchmark is then used to evaluate the real-time capable approach. The core contributions of this research lie in the innovative utilization of bounding boxes for pose estimation. The findings and methodologies presented herein constitute an advancement towards the realization of autonomous and self-driving cranes.
The Fast Average Current Mode control methodology is a novel method for the implementation of a current compensator in a switched-mode power supply. It does not require compensation against sub-harmonic instability and is inductor independent. In this work, the digital implementation of this topology is compared against an analog implementation using simulation. Additionally, a hardware prototype is created to validate the digital simulation's results. In a Simulink environment, parameters of the digital implementation, such as the digital-to-analog converter resolutions and the delay counter frequency are varied to research their impact on system performance. The simulations show that a digital current compensator has similar performance as an analog implementation when designed tailored to the application. When evaluating the whole control loop the digital system is inferior due to added delays caused by digital to analog conversion. By operating the Buck converter hardware implementation as a current source, the functionality of the current mode control implementation in a FPGA was proven. Voltage control cannot be validated due to hardware issues. Due to the successful simulation of the source code with a mixed signal model of the converter, it can be assumed that it is functional. Apart from performance, a digital implementation shows many benefits compared to an analog solution, such as configurability of control parameters and easy compensation of component variations and aging.
Recent years have been commanded by a cascade of unpredictable incidents, that have redefined new standards in our private, but also in our professional life. Events like the financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy crisis in Europe, resource scarcity and so forth have caused instability, forcing companies towards flexibility, constantly adapting their operative structures according to the needs of the moment. The effective adaptation to this environment is the key for reacting the dynamism of the market, and for guaranteeing future success. However, the introduction of these crucial changes on a stable company organisation is challenging. Furthermore, due to digitalisation, boundaries between countries have been removed, and the daily cooperation with co-workers and customers all around the globe became the new standard. The establishment of a good corporate culture where diverse people can work in harmony and, is a difficulty that comes ahead.
This master thesis developed from a professional perspective. The topics of change management and corporate culture where combined, and the relationship between these two concepts was studied. This master thesis aims utilising corporate culture as an instrument in managements favour, to implement strategical changes easily and successfully in a more efficient way. The relation between corporate culture and the resistance to change, focusing on the initiation of the change process, was the main area of study. Research questions and hypothesis, formulated with a solid theoretical background, are to be answered based firstly on literature, and secondly on the results of empirical quantitative re-search. To conclude, a set of recommendations for corporates were suggested with the intention of guiding companies how to use corporate culture as an instrument for change management.
This thesis focuses on implementing and testing communication over a private 5G standalone network in an industrial environment, with a specific emphasis on communication between two articulated robots. The main objective is to examine machine-to-machine communication behavior in various test scenarios. Initially, the 5G core and radio access network components are described, along with their associated interfaces, to establish foundational knowledge. Subsequently, a use case involving two articulated robots is implemented, and essential metrics are defined for testing, including round-trip time, packet and inter-packet delay, and packet error rate. The tests investigate the impact of 5G quality of service, packet size, and transmission interval on communication between the robots, focusing on the effects of network traffic. The results highlight the significance of prioritizing network resources based on the assigned quality of service identifier (5QI), demonstrate the influence of packet sizes on communication performance, and underscore the importance of transmission intervals for automation purposes. Additionally, the study examines how network disturbances influence the movements of a robot controlled via 5G, establishing a direct relationship between network metrics and the resulting deviations in the robot’s trajectory. The work concludes that while machine-to-machine communication can be successfully implemented with 5G SA, tradeoffs must be carefully considered, especially concerning packet error rate, and emphasizes the importance of understanding the required resources before implementation to ensure feasibility. Future research directions include investigating network slicing, secure remote control of robots, and exploring the use of higher frequency bands. The study highlights the significance of aligning theoretical standards with practical implementation options in the evolving landscape of 5G Networks.
Lack of transparency and traceability of products and their raw materials means that most products can only be thrown away or not properly recycled due to a lack of relevant data. This conflicts with the circular economy principles, which are demanded by several initiatives, including the European Union. The aim of this master thesis is to analyze this conflict and to propose a technical solution based on Distributed Ledger Technology that enables transparency and traceability of products and their materials. Therefore, the thesis addresses two central research questions: 1. How can traceability and transparency be enabled by integrating a DLT solution? 2. How would a prototype with the integration of smart contracts and DLT look like? To answer these questions, a blockchain solution is implemented using Hyperledger Fabric. The solution uses the immutability and decentralized nature of DLT to record and track the movement of products and their materials throughout their life cycle in the Circular Economy. Furthermore, with private data collections, confidentiality, and privacy are granted while ensuring transparency. The thesis contributes to the Circular Economy field by exploring the principles, models, and challenges of the Circular Economy and the circularity goals of a Digital Product Passport to develop a suitable technical solution. The chosen blockchain framework, Hyperledger Fabric, is presented, and its key components and features are highlighted. The thesis also delves into the design decisions and considerations behind the Digital Product Passport platform, explaining the architecture and transaction flow together with the prototype implementation and demonstration to showcase the functionality of the solution. Results and analysis provide insights into the challenges of the Circular Economy, sustainable resource management, and the Digital Product Passport, resulting in recommendations for future improvements and enhancements. Overall, this thesis offers a practical solution utilizing DLT to enable transparency and traceability in the Circular Economy, contributing to the realization of sustainable and efficient resource management practices to ultimately contribute to the set Circular Economy initiatives.
A rapid change to remote work during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic allowed many organizations to roll out new collaboration platforms to rapidly digitalize their workflows and processes in order to continue operation. This sudden shift to remote work revealed to employees the potential benefits of working remotely in the form of additional flexibility and also showed the challenges and barriers organizations could face by introducing such a strategy. This thesis aims to uncover the key considerations that the organizations of the industrial sector in Vorarlberg need to consider establishing a remote work strategy. According to the results from the research, the Covid-19 pandemic was as a paradigm change for the interviewed decision makers about how they thought about remote work and how they transformed their respective organizations too continue to operate. After the initial phase of Covid-19 restrictions organizations started to experiment with a remote work strategy of their own, based on their past experiences. For now, most of the interviewed organizations use already different remote work concepts and evaluate which one suits best their needs. The main considerations as to why an organization introduced a remote work strategy are to be an attractive employer and to stay ahead in the search for new talent. Further by introducing a remote work strategy, organizations need to change their rules of collaboration, adapt their core values to fit a remote workplace and to introduce collaboration platforms which are designed to support a remote workforce.
This thesis evaluates the feasibility of conducting visual inspection tests on power industry constructions using object detection techniques. The introduction provides an overview of this field’s state-of-the-art technologies and approaches. For the implementation, a case study is then conducted, which is done in collaboration with the partner company OMICRON Electronics GmbH, focusing on power transformers as an example. The objective is to develop an inspection test using photographs to identify power transformers and their subcomponents and detect existing rust spots and oil leaks within these components. Three object detection models are trained: one for power transformers and sub-components, one for rust detection, and one for oil leak detection. The training process utilizes the implementation of the YOLOv5 algorithm on a Linux-based workstation with an NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 GPU. The power transformer model is trained on a dataset provided by the partner company, while open-source datasets are used for rust and oil leak detection. The study highlights the need for a more powerful GPU to enhance training experiments and utilizes an Azure DevOps Pipeline to optimize the workflow. The performance of the power transformer detection model is satisfactory but influenced by image angles and an imbalance of certain sub-components in the dataset. Multi-angle video footage is a proposed solution for the inspection test to address this limitation and increase the size of the dataset, focusing on reducing the imbalance. The models trained on open-source datasets demonstrate the potential for rust and oil leak detection but lack accuracy due to their generic nature. Therefore, the datasets must be adjusted with case-specific data to achieve the desired accuracy for reliable visual inspection tests. The results of the case study have been well-received by the partner company’s management, indicating future development opportunities. This case study will likely be a foundation for implementing visual inspection tests as a product.
Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) modules are used in industrial settings to control and monitor various manufacturing processes. Detecting these modules can be helpful during installation and maintenance. However, the limited availability of real annotated images to train an object detector poses a challenge. This thesis aims to research object detection of these modules on real images by using synthetic data during training. The synthetic images are generated from CAD models and improved with Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). The CAD models are rendered in different scenes, and perfectly annotated images are automatically saved. A technique called domain randomization is applied during rendering. It renders the modules in different poses with constantly changing backgrounds. As the CAD models do not visually resemble the real modules, it is necessary to improve the synthetic images. This project researches StarGAN and CycleGAN for the task of image-to-image translation. A GAN is trained with real and synthetic images and can then translate between these domains. YOLOv8 and Faster R-CNN are tested for object detection. The best mean Average Precision (mAP) is achieved when training with a synthetic dataset where 50% of the images were improved with StarGAN. When trained with YOLOv8 and evaluated on a real dataset, it achieves a mAP of 84.4%. Overall, the accuracy depends on the quality of the CAD models. Using a GAN improves the detection rate for all modules, but especially for unrealistic CAD models.
Scrum has been a prominent project management framework for managing software development projects. The scrum team embodies values such as commitment, focus, respect, courage, and openness to develop trust, which serves as the foundation of the scrum framework. However, in recent years, scrum teams are shifting towards a work-from-home environment which is relatively new to most of them and known to present various challenges. Looking at the benefits of adhering to scrum values, this study aims to investigate the challenges scrum teams experience in adhering to scrum values while operating virtually, as well as to explore practical strategies to overcome the identified challenges, particularly during the storming stage of team development. This research employed a qualitative methodology using semi-structured interviews with scrum team members who have experience working in a virtual environment. Through qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews, this research identifies significant challenges within five main categories: communication, collaboration, interpersonal dynamics, the virtual work environment, and personal workspace issues. However, beyond the challenges, the study reveals practical strategies as well for successful team dynamics and higher efficiency. The strategies derived from team members' experiences are categorized into six categories: enhanced meeting management, leveraging in-person engagements, optimizing tools & technology, effective communication strategies, team-building, and nurturing a positive work culture.
Purpose: In this thesis the viable system model (VSM) is used as a framework to develop a model for the management of a business alliance that contains the necessary and sufficient conditions for maintaining synergy of its constituent organisations and for adapting to a changing environment so that it can remain a long-term viable alliance. In addition, a model is developed that makes explicit the inherent link between the VSM and the core elements of knowledge management theory. Based then on the alliance management model and the link established between the VSM and knowledge management, an application framework is developed to guide practitioners in defining necessary alliance management functions and relationships, the knowledge required by that management to fulfill those functions, and the processes that need to be in place to manage that knowledge. Design/strategy: The research has been divided into four phases: theoretical construction, refinement with practitioners, real-world application, and evaluation of test case and toolset. The researcher has worked closely with practitioners actively involved in the formation of a new international alliance to develop a VSM model and application framework for the alliance management. Formally, the research strategy has been defined as an action research and the research philosophy as one of pragmatism. Findings/limitations: The developed application framework, has been successfully used to identify absent and incomplete roles, actions, and interactions within the management of the specific alliance test case. This has helped to demonstrate how the application framework and VSM model can be used to diagnose and, most importantly, to articulate and visualise management deficiencies to facilitate clear and unambiguous discussions. The timing of this cross-sectional research did not allow the application framework to be utilised from the outset of the alliance formation as an organisational planning tool and also not to its full extent to support the development of knowledge processes for the alliance management. However, the step-by-step approach used in developing the toolset and then explaining its application will allow the reader to judge its credability and generalisability for other practical applications. Practical implications: The developed toolset consists of a VSM for an alliance management, job descriptions for that management (responsibilities, interfaces, and core competencies), a visual model illustrating the link between the VSM and knowledge management, and an application framework to guide the filling of the alliance management job descriptions in phases of recruitment, onboarding, and development (of interfaces and activities processes). Overall, one could say that the conditions prescribed by the VSM are rather obvious and yet, as seen by the specific alliance test case, many of these conditions have been completely overlooked by a management that was more than capable, willing, and empowered to enact those conditions. This gives a good indication that the toolset which has been compiled in a visual and tabular systematic fashion may well be useful to practitioners for the organisational planning of an alliance management. The visual representation of a management role in the VSM as a set of knowledge episodes put forward by this research is significant. It forces the express recognition that knowledge management is an integral part of every interaction that takes place and every action performed that, according to the VSM, are necessary and altogether are sufficient for viability. It means that knowledge management cannot be considered as some abstract topic or unnecessary overhead or afterthought – it is entirely necessary, practical and forms a natural course of events during design of action/interaction processes. In other words, if an organisation is viable then, by definition, it does knowledge management whether or not it is formally recognised as such. The VSM, by defining necessary and sufficient actions and interactions for its roles, therefore provides a focus for relevant knowledge and serves as a tool for structured knowledge management. Originality/value: This research addresses a general academic call for hands-on insights of VSM applications by sharing real-world insights, artifacts and reflections generated by a practical and relevant organisational management application. It also addresses the potential, recognised by academics, for VSM as a framework for knowledge management by developing an intuitive model linking those theories and then using that model as part of a framework to guide its application. The introduction to aspects of knowledge management theory relevant to the model developed as well as the meticulousness and comprehensive explanation of the VSM provides a solid theoretical foundation for practitioners. The developed toolset is based on existing theories from multiple fields of research that have been logically linked and extended in an original and novel manner with a strong focus on practical application. This researcher’s hope is that this will stimulate interest for future research and practical application from academics and practitioners alike.
The implementation of direct-to-consumer (D2C) business models has become more important for companies trying to develop a competitive edge and improve consumer engagement in today's rapidly expanding e-commerce market. This master's thesis investigates the important success elements and problems of deploying D2C models in the e-commerce business. The research question focuses on identifying the factors that contribute to the successful transition to D2C models and the obstacles businesses encounter along the way. Through qualitative research using the Eisenhardt method and in-depth case studies with industry experts, this study provides valuable insights into key success factors for direct-to-consumer (D2C) business models in e-commerce.The findings highlight that businesses that effectively implement D2C models utilize key success factors such as a clear value proposition, customer engagement and relationship build- ing, seamless online experiences, targeted marketing and digital advertising, brand identity and storytelling, and flexibility and adaptability. However, they also face challenges related to operational adjustments, marketing and branding investments, competition, and market saturation. Based on these research outcomes, this thesis provides recommendations for businesses seeking to switch to or implement D2C models in e-commerce. These recommendations emphasize embracing a customer-centric mindset, developing digital capabilities, foster- ing strong leadership commitment, leveraging data and analytics, establishing direct customer relationships, optimizing operational processes, building brand trust and credibility, and allocating resources wisely. This master's thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of the key success factors and challenges associated with the transition to or implementation of D2C business models in the e-commerce industry. It provides advice to help companies successfully transition to D2C models.
This thesis aims to determine how banks can prepare for fulfilling and implementing the IFRS S1 requirements, which have been published by the International Sustainability Standard Board. It also examines the extent to which banks in Liechtenstein and Switzerland have already implemented the existing regulatory requirements in the area of sustainability transparency and integrated them into their financial reporting. The focus is to determine whether, and to what extent, these requirements enable banks to disclose relevant information on sustainability aspects in their financial reports. In order to answer the research question appropriately, a qualitative research method according to Mayring was used, which included conducting expert interviews. In this context, it is important to analyze the possibilities of IFRS S1 concerning the identification, assessment, and disclosure of sustainability risks and opportunities. The thesis also analyzes the impact of the regulatory requirements on banks, including the challenges of implementing IFRS S1 and the potential benefits and opportunities for banks of complying with the sustainability transparency requirements. The results are intended to develop a better understanding of how the regulatory requirements for sustainability transparency can be effectively used by banks to improve the quality and comparability of sustainability-related financial information under IFRS S1.
In the current international business environment employees are spending large amounts of their time in meetings. More than ever these meetings take place remotely and often have the problem that individuals in the meeting do not share information or opinions. Employees often stay in muted in meetings and allow one or two participants to drive the conversation. This habit is especially troublesome for problem solving meetings. Problem solving meetings invite individuals from different disciplines to share and brainstorm possible causes for issues related to poor company outcomes. Active and open contribution from all members is required to achieve the group goals. This study aims to find methods that will increase contribution amongst meeting participants in regular meetings as well as problem solving meetings. The study tested sixteen topics for their influence on contribution in meetings. This was done in a survey, that was distributed within a multination engineering corporation, and on LinkedIn. There was a total of 68 responses. These responses were then separated by above average and below average participation in problem solving meetings. Hypothesis testing was done on the total group and separately on the problem-solving group. Employee participation in decision making and psychological safety were found to correlate highly with Contribution in meetings for both groups. Psychological safety was found to be of even greater importance to problem solving group. This study demonstrates that to increase contribution in meetings, leaders should provide a psychologically safe climate where employees share in the decision making. Furthermore, a psychologically safe environment is critical in problem solving meetings where members of different disciplines with low familiarity take part.
This master thesis investigates drivers and barriers of innovation workshops for an intercultural participant group. Actively dealing with innovation management is considered vital for companies which are acting on competing markets. An innovation workshop is a useful tool in order to foster innovation ability, develop innovative ideas and drive innovation forward. Intercultural participant groups are not only a common challenge in today's business world but also entail several benefits as they incorporate diverse knowledge bases and perspectives and hence contribute to the ideation and innovation process. Within the master thesis a broad variety of barriers and drivers are evaluated. Main barriers of innovation workshops for an intercultural participant group are high conflict potential, miscommunication, language barriers, a lack of management support, no agreement on workshop objectives as well as poor workshop preparation, organization and facilitation. Main drivers of innovation workshops for an intercultural participant group are a heterogeneous group composition, intercultural competence of the facilitator, the opening up of mindset silos, an intensive workshop preparation and empathetic facilitation. These drivers and barriers build the basis for the determination of success factors and recommendations for action for organizers and facilitators of an innovation workshop for an intercultural participant group. In the further course of the paper an exemplary workshop design will be presented as a guideline and framework for managerial practice
Data is the new oil,” said British Mathematician and Tesco marketing mastermind Clive Humbly1. Data has also been described as the backbone of digital retail enterprises2 and the currency of the digital age. Whether these statements live up to be true is debatable, but what is certain is the fact that the internet age has contributed to the avalanche of data witnessed today. In a century dominated by predictive analysis and artificial intelligence, it is no surprise that by the end of the last decade, data companies Apple, Amazon and Microsoft closed as the world´s first trillion-dollar companies, with their revenues dwarfing economies of several countries across the globe.3The recognition of the importance of data in today´s economy bears with it the responsibility to protecting its owners. While this intricate balance has long been the subject of legal analysis the General Data Protection Regulation, 2018, is hailed as the world´s most comprehensive and strict data protection regime currently in force. In addition to protecting the personal data of persons from its member countries, the Regulation also seeks to ensure the same protection accompanies any data transferred out of the European Union to other countries. It is almost 5 years since the Regulation was passed and process of implementation into business operations an important topic of discussion. Of importance to this study are the Modernized Standard Contractual Clauses, a tool of data transfer to countries outside the EU, which replace the three sets of SCCs adopted by the now repealed Data Protection Directive 94/46. These Standard Contractual Clauses came into effect on 27th September 2021, and companies have until 27th September 2022 to rely on the old set of clauses. With this deadline coming up, how far have the clauses been integrated into operations by businesses in Austria and the EU?
The rapidly evolving nature of Industry 4.0 has confronted corporates with the challenge of being able to react rapidly and nimbly (Van Solingen, 2020). Hence, many corporates need to embark on a journey of adaptation toward becoming agile organisations (Schmitz, 2018). However, this adaptation can only be achieved if employees fully commit to changing to an agile posture, and the required commitment is simply not forthcoming without proper corporate initiatives (Neves & Caetano, 2009). As there is no holistic summary of corporate initiatives required to boost employees' commitment to change when approaching an agile transformation, this study supplements the current research. The initiatives are derived from the existing literature and from unique insights given into a European automotive supplier that is currently managing a global agile transformation. Employees’ perceptions of the transformation in Austria and China were recorded and conclusions regarding what drives employees’ commitment to change and what led to job terminations were determined.
Fear of failure is a major factor influencing entrepreneurial actions. Since the female quota for startups and self-employment is still lower than for men, the aim is to determine the extent to which the fear of failure is incorporated into the entrepreneurial actions of women in Austria. The trailblazer and pioneer in female entrepreneurship America is used as an international benchmark for evaluation. A quantitative survey was conducted among women from Austria and America on their fears of failure related to self-employment and their aspirations to become self-employed. There were significant differences in the quantitative study between self-employed and non-self-employed women, irrespective of their country of origin. As a result, recommendations for action were created to reduce the influence of Fear of Failure on entrepreneurial actions of Austrian women.
The impact of organizational citizenship behavior for the environment on corporate sustainability
(2022)
Today, many businesses increasingly engage in pro-environmental activities to face environmental challenges such as pollution or climate change. In addition to formal management practices, employees are impacting environmental advances with voluntary pro-environmental activities, also known as Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment. The purpose of this master thesis is to explore factors that could influence employees’ engagement in Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment. For this aim, five semi-structured interviews were carried out with multinational corporations from the DACHL region. The results show that certain leadership styles, corporate culture, a sustainability-driven mindset, environmental concern, communication and motivation can influence employees’ engagement in Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment. In addition, the cumulative effect of small initiatives seems to considerably impact environmental sustainability. In contrast to past research on this topic, this study takes a qualitative approach to explore different influencing factors of Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment. In addition, the study focuses on businesses located in the DACHL region.
Projects, in which software products, services, systems and solutions are developed, all rely on the right requirements to be established. Software requirements are the expression of user wants or needs that have to be addressed, business objectives that have to be met, as well as capabilities and functionality that has to be developed. Meanwhile, practice shows that very often incorrect, unclear or incomplete requirements are established, which causes major problems for such projects. It could lead to budget overruns, missed deadlines and overall failure in worst-case scenarios.
The field of requirements engineering emerged as an answer to these shortcomings, aiming to systematize and streamline the process that
establishes requirements. Requirements elicitation is a key component of this process, and one of its starting points. The current thesis attempts to outline best practices in requirements elicitation, as well as what issues, obstacles and challenges are currently faced, and then present this through the lens of national culture. In this way its effects on the practice, if any, could be highlighted and studied further. The way this was achieved was by interviewing practitioners from two nations, which are shown to be
culturally different, and then comparing and contrasting the findings.
Meanwhile, the validity of those findings was enhanced by comparisons with existing literature.
Even though the findings were not compelling enough to form generalizations or concrete conclusions about the effects of national culture on requirements elicitation, these findings revealed patterns that could be worth exploring further. When it comes to requirements elicitation itself, it was observed to benefit from a structured and systematic approach, and be
most effective with one-on-one, instead of group interactions. The main pain points of the process stem from the complexity of communication, but are not always obvious. Practitioners are also advised to carefully plan the gathering of requirements, as the source may not have them readily available, and could even be unclear about what exactly is needed. Overall, this thesis research could be considered successful in its goal to shed a modicum of light on the issue at hand from a different, underexplored angle. By following a systematic and methodical approach, this research has also been made easier to expand or replicate.
Power cables play an important role in power grids. Insulation faults in cables can have adverse effects on the operating behaviour. These effects can be assessed through an AC withstand test by using a very-low frequency high voltage generator. This generator produces a sinusoidal voltage waveform at 0.1Hz with high voltage levels up to 65kV peak. During the quality assessment, the power cable is repeatedly charged and discharged. The discharging process is done by a discharging circuit where the energy is dissipated thermally. But to reuse the dissipated energy a novel extension in form of an energy storage system is presented. This thesis, therefore, describes the design process of an energy storage system that allows the temporary storage of the discharge energy. The developed system is composed of a bidirectional DC/DC converter and an aluminium electrolytic capacitor as storage type. Based on the maximum VLF system ratings the energy storage unit is dimensioned and sized. The effective power flow control between the storage system and the available discharge energy is done by a synchronous buck-boost converter. This bidirectional converter works in continuous conduction mode over the complete charging phase. Together with a theoretical analysis of the underlying problem and the use of converter analysis methods the selected synchronous buck-boost converter is dimensioned and sized. In addition, a state space AC modeling of the converter with its electrical uncertainties is conducted. With the converters AC model, the controller is designed. A closed-loop input converter current control scheme based on a proportional-integral controller is implemented. The system assessment is done by a model-based hardware implementation in Matlab Simulink and Plecs Blockset. The system is rated to store discharge energies up to 4.3kJ in a short charging period of 2.5s. The maximum peak power during the charging phase is 2.7kW. The digital proportional-integral controller is implemented through an emulation process of the designed analog controller. Based on a C-code implementation of the digital controller the gap between the real hardware is reduced. During the design process theoretical calculations are made and reveal that designing a capacitor storage unit has a direct impact on the peak system currents and also impose also limitations on permissible DC voltage ranges on electrical components. The developed energy storage system and its power flow control strategy were investigated through simulation studies. The results show proper charging of the energy storage medium. In addition, also a statement of the final technical feasibility is made. In total, this work summarizes a detailed design process of the energy storage system. This proof of concept is intended to further advance the system integration.
Development of a low pressure syringe pump for detecting cannabinoids through liquid chromatography
(2022)
The following thesis covers the miniaturization and characterization of a pneumatic syringe pump, which is used for applications in low-pressure liquid chromatography. For this purpose, the components of the prototype are dealt with in the first section. These include the membrane pump and the cylinder for pressure and force generation, the syringe used for sample preparation and the construction of the test column. Furthermore, the pressure preparation on the cylinder, the friction losses of the syringe and then the behavior of the syringe in various application scenarios are considered. In the second section, the focus is on the different behaviors when using water and ethanol as a solvent. Tests in normal applications, as well as with air pockets or leaking seals, show the different behavior and the resulting deviations in the test pressure of the column. In addition, the maximum forces that can be applied to the syringe are worked out in several tests and the different maximum pressures, which depend on the solvent contained, are evaluated. These different maximum pressures, which are due to the different sealing behavior in connection with the surface tension of the liquid, will be discussed in conclusion. An outlook follows, up to which test pressures the system can be used and how these can be achieved.
This master’s thesis provides an overview of a more efficient, future-oriented living concept in Dornbirn, Austria. The use of a combined heat and power unit (CHP), in combination with a thermal storage, as a heating system is specifically investigated. In order to make this heating system more attractive for the consumer, the sale of the generated electricity from the CHP is considered. The more efficient use of energy for heating increases the attractiveness by a minimisation of the living space. This master’s thesis aims to draw attention to the issue and to achieve a rethinking in the planning of future living space. For the research and elaboration of this thesis, statistics and trustworthy literature were used, and physical modelling was applied. This Master’s thesis can be assigned to the fields of energy technology, mechatronics, architecture and civil engineering. It contributes for students, researchers, and other interested person in these sectors.
The detection of glucose is an essential part of diabetes management and can help to prevent secondary diseases, that can occur as a result of diabetes. For this reason, it is important to improve the current glucose monitoring by developing novel sensors with high efficiency, low cost and compact design. The use of microelectrodes with interdigitated array (IDA) structures reduces the total detector size while providing benefits such as large currents, high sensitivity, and fast response. The aim of this thesis is to develop a novel sensor based on platinum interdigitated array (IDA) electrodes and to investigate which method is most effective for the detection of glucose. This work is divided into two parts. The first part is focused on the design and the fabrication of the sensor chips. The second part is concerned with the electrochemical characterisation of the sensors. Two distinct sensor designs are created, each consisting of a four-electrode system arranged as an interdigitated array. For the fabrication of the sensors, two different manufacturing processes are used. A lift-off process is used to fabricate the 2 μm-Gap sensor chips, whereas a lift-off free process is applied to produce the nanogap sensor chips. The electrochemical characterisation of both sensor chips is achieved by the immobilisation of the enzyme glucose oxidase (GOx) on the electrode surface. This thesis investigates the immobilisation of GOx by reduction of diazonium salts and the direct immobilisation of GOx by cyclic voltammetry. As a result of this work, it has been demonstrated that glucose detection by reduction of diazonium salts is error-prone due to modification with a multi-step procedure and is not suitable for our sensors based on platinum IDA electrodes. The direct immobilisation of GOx by cyclic voltammetry, by contrast, demonstrates the successful detection of glucose. In glucose solutions ranging from 5 mM to 20 mM, a direct correlation between the glucose concentration and the measured current is obtained. The reproducibility of direct immobilization is demonstrated by repeated performance with various sensors.
In today’s world, fiber optic networks for data transmission are an essential technology. This technology provides multiple advantages compared to conventional electrical data transmission. The simultaneous transmission of multiple optical signals in a single fiber is one of the main benefits of fiber optic cable. This is accomplished by directing the different optical signals into a single fibre and splitting them up after the transmission in order to obtain the individual signals. Arrayed Waveguide Gratings (AWGs) are used for this purpose in modern optical networks. Design and evaluation process are two components of AWG development. During the evaluation of several simulated and already manufactured AWGs for telecommunication applications, it was discovered that the channel spacing parameter does not conform telecommunication standards. The correct shift of the geometric parameter ”separation of the output waveguides” leads to the standard-conform channel spacing.
According to the current state of the art, no commercial tool is available which calculates the shift of this parameter correctly. The aim of this thesis is the development of a software tool to calculate the accurate shifting of the geometric parameter ”separation of the output waveguides” of an AWG. This tool operates as an interface between the design and evaluation processes and must be able to import the data format of the evaluation process and returns the data in a suitable data format for the design process. The Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences uses three different methods for the shifting of the geometric parameter ”separation of the output waveguides”. These methods are evaluated and optimised as part of this thesis. Additionally, it has been determined that the shift of the geometric parameter ”separation of the output waveguides” has no significant impact on the performance of the AWG.
Erosion due to cavitation is a common problem for any kind of water turbine. Most of the currently used techniques to detect cavitation are using an Acoustic Emission (AE) sensor and highspeed cameras during operation. For the pelton wheel which is subject of this thesis it is impossible to take pictures during operation, because of the splashing water and the mist. Therefore this thesis aims to explore possibilities in detecting erosion on the buckets of the pelton wheel on images taken during manual inspections. Since the provided images are snapshots taken with a mobile phone camera without a tripod, a lot of effort was invested in the preprocessing of the images. For the main task, the classification of the erosion, two methods were evaluated: Local Binary Patterns (LBP) + kN-earest neighbor classification and the classification with a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). The given 2405 images, contained 4810 buckets on which the erosion was graded from zero to four. This means the baseline for the classification accuracy is 20%. LBP + kNearest neighbor classification scored 32.03%. The chosen CNN model, a light version of the Xception architecture outperformed the LBP + kNearest classification with 58,29%. The biggest issue found during research is the variance of the erosion grading by the maintainance personnel. Reasons for this are: no objective grading critera like the area of erosion in mm2, classification by different employees, a shift in grading from overall bucket condition to erosion from cavitation and too many classes for grading. The mentioned reasons were confirmed by the manual classification experiment were an IllwerkeVKW employee had to perform the grading on images of the dataset. The contestants accuracy score was 36% for this task. The result of 58,29% classification accuracy indicates that an automated grading of erosion by cavitation is feasible.
Skiing is one of the most popular winter sports in the world and especially in the alps. As the skiers enjoy their time on the slopes the most annoying thing that could happen is long waiting times at a lift. Unfortunately, because of climate changes, this happens more regularly because smaller skiing areas at lower altitudes have to close and the number of good skiing days decreases as well. This leads to a increase in the number of skiers in the skiing areas which inevitably leads to longer waiting times and dissatisfied skiers. To prevent this from happening, the carriers of the skiing areas have to manage the skiers flow and distribution and what better way to analyse the current situation and possible changes then by simulating the whole area. A simulation has the advantage of being flexible with regards to time as well as configuration. Be it simulating a skiing day and look into detail of the behaviour of a single skier and how it moves in the area by simulating in real time or setting the focus to the whole area and find out when and where queues are forming throughout the whole day by speeding up the time and simulate the day in only seconds, everything is possible. Even simulating a scenario where some part of the area is closed and the skiers cannot take specific lifts due to some technical error or some slopes because of to less snow. By simulating and analysing all these scenarios not only does the experts of the skiing area gain valuable statistical information about the area but can also simulate changes to the system like a crowd fl ow control or an increase or decrease in capacity of a lift. The simulation built in context with this work for the skiing area of Mellau shows all those applications but can also be used as a basis for further improvements of the skiing area or be expanded to other areas like Damüls. The simulation was implemented using the Anylogic simulation environment and the statistical evaluation was also performed in this program.
Systems are constantly increasing in complexity. This poses challenges to managing and using system knowledge. The Systems Modeling Language (SysML) is a modeling language specifically for systems, while Machine Learning (ML) is a tool to tackle complex problems. Currently, no bridge between systems modelled in SysML and ML regarding said systems has been proposed in literature. This thesis presents an approach that uses Model-driven Software Engineering (MDSE) and Template-based Code Generation (TBCG) to generate a ML IPython Notebook (IPYNB) from a SysML model. A mapping configuration using JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) allows the definition of mappings between SysML elements and template variables, enabling configuration and user-supplied templates. To test the approach, a SysML model describing ML to predict the weather based on data is created. Python ML templates are supplied and template variables mapped with the JSON mapping configuration are proposed in the thesis. The outcome is an executable IPYNB that contains all information from the SysML model and follows the modelled workflow. The findings of the work show that model-driven ML using SysML as a modeling language is beneficial due to the representation of ML knowledge in a general-purpose modeling language and the reusability of SysML model elements. It further shows that TBCG and a mapping configuration allow for more flexible code generation without changing the source implementation.
Offline speech to text engine for delimited context in combination with an offline speech assistant
(2022)
The inatura museum in Dornbirn had planned an interactive speech assistant-like exhibit. The concept was that visitors could ask the exhibit several questions that they would like to ask a flower. Solution requirements regarding the functionalities were formulated, such as the capacity to run offline because of privacy reasons. Due to the similarity of the exhibit, open-source offline Speech To Text (STT) engines and speech assistants were examined. Proprietary cloud-based STT engines associated with the corresponding speech assistants were also researched. The aim behind this was to evaluate the hypothesis of whether an open-source offline STT engine can compete with a proprietary cloud-based STT engine. Additionally, a suitable STT engine or speech assistant would need to be evaluated. Furthermore, analysis regarding the adaption possibilities of the STT models took place. After the technical analysis, the decision in favour of the STT engines called "Vosk" was made. This analysis was followed by attempts to adapt the model of Vosk. Vosk was compared to proprietary cloud-based Google Cloud Speech to Text to evaluate the hypothesis. The comparison resulted in not much of a significant difference between Vosk and Google Cloud Speech to Text. Due to this result, a recommendation to use Vosk for the exhibit was given. Due to the lack of intent parsing functionality, two algorithms called "text matching algorithm" and "text and keyword matching algorithm" were implemented and tested. This test proved that the text and keyword matching algorithm performed better, with an average success rate of 83.93 %. Consequently, this algorithm was recommended for the intent parsing of the exhibit. In the end, potential adaption possibilities for the algorithms were given, such as using a different string matching library. Some improvements regarding the exhibit were also presented.
The demand for managing data across multiple domains for product creation is steadily increasing. Model-Driven Systems Engineering (MDSE) is a solution for this problem. With MDSE, domain-specific data is formalized inside a model with a custom language, for example, the Unified Modelling Language (UML). These models can be created with custom editors, and specialized domains can be integrated with extensions to UML, e.g., the Systems Modeling Language (SysML). The most dominant editor in the open-source sector is Eclipse Papyrus SysML 1.6 (Papyrus), an editor to create SysML diagrams for MDSE.
In the pursuit of creating a model and diagrams, the editor does not support the user appropriately or even hinders them. Therefore, paradigms from the diagram modelling and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) domains, as well as perceptual and design theory, are applied to create an editor prototype from scratch. The changes fall into the categories of hierarchy, aid in the diagram composition, and navigation. The prototype is compared with Papyrus in a user test to determine if the changes have the effect of improving usability.
The study involved 10 participants with different knowledge levels of UML, ranging from beginners to experts. Each participant was tested on a navigation and modelling task in both the newly created editor, named Modelling Studio, and Papyrus. The study was evaluated through a questionnaire and analysis of the diagrams produced by the tasks.
The findings are that Modelling Studio’s changes to the hierarchical elements improved their rating. Furthermore, aid for diagram composition could be reinforced by changes to the alignment helper tool and adjustments to the default arrow behaviour of a diagram. Lastly, model navigation adjustments improve a link’s visibility and rating of a specialized link (best practice). The introduction of breadcrumbs had limited success in bettering navigation usability. The prototype deployed a broad spectrum of changes that found improvement already, which can, however, be further improved and tested more thoroughly.
With the rise of people wearing smartwatches and the ever-lasting issue of stress, there has been an interest in detecting stress with wearables in real-time. This allows for interventions that take place exactly when stress occurs. However, many situations require all of our attention, making them unsuitable for any interventions. Additionally, many approaches currently do not factor in this aspect, running the risk of offering users undesirable interventions.
This thesis examines how contextual user information can be incorporated into a stress intervention system to reduce undesirable intervention timings. The system is split into detecting stress using heart rate variability (HRV) metrics obtained from a photoplethysmography (PPG) signal, and inferring user context from available sensor data. It is evaluated with a simulation-based approach using daily schedules of created personas and randomly sampled stressors during daily life.
The results obtained indicate the benefit of adding contextual user information to a stress intervention system. Depending on the busyness of the schedule, it can greatly decrease the number of received interventions. However, as these findings are attained without performing a user testing, it is unclear how they compare to results from real-world usage.
The alarming degradation of the natural environment is leading many consumers to increasingly demand sustainable products. Since 2017, the global purchase intention of such products has increased by 63%. To respond to the increasing demand, more and more companies have started producing products from sustainable materials such as recycled products. However, purchase intention does not always result in actual behavior and can vary due to different products and in country-specific contexts. Hence, it is the purpose of this study to determine which factors influence the purchase intention of recycled products and whether these factors differ between a developed country such as Germany and a developing country such as South Africa. Furthermore, the study aims to discover whether there are differences in purchase intention with regard to different product categories, whether there is an intention-behavior gap, and whether there are country-specific differences. Finally, target groups of the corresponding countries will be derived. To answer the research questions, a quantitative study was conducted using an online questionnaire in Germany (n = 603) and South Africa (n = 692). The findings demonstrate that the purchase intention for recycled products is significantly higher in South Africa than in Germany, but no significant difference in the factors influencing the purchase intention could be found. However, the factors differ in terms of the extent of their influence. Thus, the factor “Attitude / Environmental Concern” has the strongest influence in South Africa, while the factor “Value / Accessibility” has the strongest influence in Germany. Likewise, a difference could be found concerning the products, with the purchase intention for mobile phones generally smaller than for t-shirts and toilet paper. In a country-specific comparison, however, purchase intention for t-shirts is significantly higher in South Africa than in Germany. An intention-behavior gap was identified for the sample, and it was found that the age groups 25 to 49 have the strongest purchase intentions and that the purchase intention increases significantly with increasing education level.
Today, industrial B2B manufacturers face a rapidly changing environment, exacerbated by increasing globalization and associated shifts in the competitive landscape. Digital transformation and the emergence of new innovations and technologies are forcing companies to rethink their business models and offerings to integrate digital services to strengthen competitive advantages. Suppliers are becoming more deeply involved in customer processes through digital after-sales services, with the aim of exploiting efficiencies. Following the servitization transformation, companies intend to change their purpose from focusing on the pure physical product to becoming a service provider with emphasis on value creation and the capture of the customer.
To investigate how customer and supplier perspectives agree and what requirements each side has for digital after-sales services, exploratory qualitative research was conducted with customers and suppliers by means of one-on-one interviews. The thesis aimed to assess the status, progress, and future possibilities of implementing digital after-sales services and business models based on them. Research shows that the far-reaching establishment of product-accompanying services with strong connectivity and customer-centricity is primarily relevant. Disruptive business models still require a mind-shift and organizational readiness on the part of both customers and suppliers. In principle, digitization in after-sales interaction is beneficial and should be steadily advanced to make customer processes as well as further developments at the supplier level more efficient and well-founded through the analysis of real data. Overall, this thesis outlines important aspects that need to be considered while developing digital service innovations to deal with customer demands appropriately.
Keywords: Servitization, Digital After-Sales Services, Predictive Maintenance, Remote Monitoring, Digital Interaction, Digital Service Innovation, Digital Service Innovation Process
The presented master thesis of the study subject International Marketing and Sales at the Fachhochschule Vorarlberg in Dornbirn deals with the influence of emotions on the attitude toward hydrogen cars and their purchase intention. For this purpose, an empirical analysis with a correlation analysis was conducted in order to be able to determine the correlations of the individual parameters.
At the beginning of the thesis the hydrogen technology was presented in more detail and by means of suitable criteria it was shown that the hydrogen car represents a certain potential, however, in comparison to the combustion cars and electric cars, the hydrogen car is currently in third place. The relatively long range, the fast-refueling and the sustainability were identified as advantages, while the current high price and the poorly developed refueling station network are currently the biggest ob-stacles to a hydrogen car. It can be seen that research and development of hydrogen cars is being driven forward in many countries around the world, including by the gov-ernment side through the provision of various subsidies. For this reason, the future development of the driving technology remains exciting and simultaneously uncertain.
In the second step of the work, emotions were examined in more detail. The aim was to find out which emotions exist and which of them are predominant when buying a car, and then to find out what influence emotions have on the cognitive process, the attitude, and the purchase intention. It turned out that the majority of the population is highly involved in the purchase of a car and therefore tries to make rational decisions, which makes the influence of emotions more difficult, but not impossible.
By presenting suitable marketing tools for measuring emotions, it was shown that measuring emotions is a difficult undertaking. Measurement is often difficult or expen-sive and involves a great deal of effort. For this reason, beside the presentation of marketing tools, the strategic approach for a marketing campaign was also presented.
Based on the conducted empirical analysis, the influence of emotions on attitude and purchase intention could not be significantly confirmed but it could be proven that the knowledge about hydrogen cars is currently low. One inside is that an increase in awareness increases the purchase intention of hydrogen cars. Furthermore, a signifi-cant correlation between the sustainable attitude and the purchase intention could be proven. In addition, people who like to follow new trends are more likely to buy a hy-drogen car than others. This paper concludes with a brief summary of the findings and an outlook on the potential for improvement of the hydrogen car market.
Keywords: Hydrogen Cars, Sustainability, Emotions in Marketing, Purchase Inten-tion, Attitude, Marketing Tool
In recent years, more and more companies have become aware that a brand also has a social dimension, and with the advent of social media platforms, brand communities have experienced a shift from a traditional offline to more of an online presence. Brands of innovative consumer durables have also recognized social media brand communities as a very significant marketing strategy. It is therefore important to understand the influence of these communities on members' purchase intentions.
This master’s thesis has the goal of demonstrating to enterprises what aspects of a social media brand community will influence the purchase intention of its members and what should be considered in order to enhance it. This will ultimately lead to the following research question: How do social media brand communities influence the diffusion process of innovative consumer durables in the DACH region?
To answer this, a quantitative study has been conducted that has targeted people who are participating in a social media brand community of innovative consumer durables in the DACH region. This involved testing various criteria of a social media brand community and their impact on the diffusion process (purchase intention).
The findings of the study revealed that increased positive electronic word-of-mouth leads to enhanced purchase intention of members. Furthermore, the research has shown that higher identification with a social media brand community, greater engagement, increased entertainment value, faster corporate responsiveness, and reduced occurrence of social spam, do not have a positive effect on the diffusion process of innovative consumer durables.
The research focused on the wood pellet market for private consumers in Germany and has the objective to understand the factors affecting the purchase decisions of wood pellets buy-ers. The aims of the research were achieved by applying the Engel, Kollat, Blackwell model of consumer behaviour, by conducting in-depth interviews and deriving the grounded theory. The application of EKB model revealed that the following groups of factors may influence the con-sumers: cultural (culture and social class), social (family influence), personal (age and lifecycle stage), psychological (believes, motives, attitudes) and unexpected circumstances. In-depth interviews with the buyers of wood pellets helped specify the influencing factors to finally an-swer the research question. The analysis showed that the buyers of wood pellets are influ-enced by family, personal believes and attitudes, and the unexpected circumstances. The most important factors for the buyers are the quality of the pellets and reliability of the supplier. If they are satisfied with the quality of product and service, they will be reluctant to look for an alternative. And on the opposite side, in case the quality of the product or the service is unsat-isfactory this is a limiting factor and will stop the buyer from purchasing this product. Price is an important factor for the buyers of pellets in bags. However, in the situation of volatile mar-ket and exploding prices, the price factor will play a bigger role. Thus, the strategic factors for marketing of pellets is to concentrate on quality and price communication, and to focus on the quality of pellet delivery service.
Nowadays, online marketing is becoming increasingly important not only in the B2C but also in the B2B sector, as evidenced by marketing budget expenditures. Companies pursue overarching goals involving visibility and attention from prospective customers in order to raise brand awareness and as a result, outperform increasing market competition. This begs the question of whether online marketing is appropriate for increasing brand awareness.
The master´s thesis topic developed from both a personal as well as a professional perspective. Private research increased the author´s interest in the topic of online marketing. Furthermore, brands, whose level of awareness needs to be improved, are becoming a more common topic of professional debates. In this way, the research of the current master´s thesis was created.
The aim of this master's thesis was to discover how online marketing can be used to increase awareness of a brand. This will be analyzed by using the brand turn to zero, which offers consulting services for B2B customers in the sustainability industry. In this context, suitable and visible online marketing channels for increasing brand awareness are to be identified. In addition to this, suitable content for the company´s own as well as paid online marketing channels need to be collected. Furthermore, the influence that online marketing has on creating brand image awareness is to be presented.
Research questions are defined in order to achieve the described objectives. Within the scope of the master thesis, one main research question, as well as three sub-research questions, are to be answered based on the literature as well as the generated output resulting from the empirical part. Eight existing B2B customers of turn to zero, originating from com-mercial and industrial sectors, were interviewed in the empirical part. The interview findings were evaluated by using qualitative content analysis according to Mayring.
Research results showed that targeted combinations of online marketing channels are contributing to increase brand awareness. In addition, the research succeeded in determining suitable communication content for various online marketing channels. Furthermore, the in-fluence of online marketing could be investigated more closely in terms of brand image.
Startups usually have high growth ambitions but only limited resources. Therefore, they are looking for efficient and effective methods to grow their business. However, if they go interna-tional, challenging changes will likely be made if the company is not focused on the global market. The aim of this work is therefore to support startups in the internationalization of their business and to provide guidance from the beginning by using strategic marketing elements to facilitate this process. To achieve this, a qualitative method of analysis was chosen. First, a literature review was conducted on the relevant topics of a startup, strategic marketing, and internationalization. Five success factors emerged from the literature: commitment, strategy, research, marketing mix adaptation, and organization and network. These were then ana-lyzed in more detail in expert interviews. The analysis of the interview results shows that for the internationalization of startups, the commitment to internationalization and a global mindset is of great importance from the very beginning. This is because they influence all supporting and strategic marketing elements.
The number of electric vehicles will increase rapidly in the coming years. Studies suggest that most owners prefer to charge their electric vehicle at home, which will fuel the need for charging stations in residential complexes where vehicles can be charged overnight. Currently, there already are over 100 such residential complexes, with another 70 added every year in Vorarlberg alone. In most existing residential complexes, however, the grid connections are not sufficient to charge all vehicles at the same time with maximum power. In addition, it is also desirable for grid operators and electricity producers that the power demand be as smooth and predictable as possible. To achieve this, ways to manage flexible loads need to be found, which can operate within the technical constraints. Therefore, the most common scenarios how the load can be made grid-friendly with the help of optional battery storage and/or photovoltaics using optimization methods of linear and stochastic programming were examined. At the same time, the needs of the vehicle owners for charging comfort - namely to find their vehicles reliably charged at the time of their respective departure - were addressed by combining both objectives using suitable weights. The algorithms determined were verified in practice on an existing Vlotte prototype installation. For this purpose, the necessary programs were implemented in Python, so that the data obtained during the test operation, which lasted one month, could be subjected to a well-founded analysis. In addition, simulation studies helped to further reveal the influence of PV and BESS sizing on the achievable optimums and confirm that advanced optimization algorithms such as the ones discussed are a vital contribution in reducing the charging stations’ peak load while at the same time maintaining high satisfaction levels.
This paper sought to identify and analyze what are the barriers towards women career’s development as business leaders in Brazil and Nicaragua when it comes to the country societal variables. In order to comprehend these barriers through women’s perception, qualitative data was chosen for this investigation, which was gathered through one-to-one interviews within businesswomen from Brazil and Nicaragua that have experience in leadership positions. The results of this research confirm that societal, economic, and political factors have great influence at gender equality and in how it affects women’s progress as business leaders. Thus, it can vary considerably between countries, even when they have similar culture backgrounds. Furthermore, it is imperative to comprehend these differences in order to close any gender gap in the field.
Observing the ratios of the rail usage in terms of passenger travelled per km and per capita, we see that there are huge differences between countries, so some railway systems are performing better in catching passengers than others. By analysing the factors that make the railways attractive for users, and setting standard values for these factors, we can analyse how well a system is performing. This paper has investigated those factors and developed an assessment tool that will inform about the required improvements, so in a later stage specific strategies can be developed to increase the performance in order to attract more passengers. Spain will be used as case study, since the country has specially low passenger rail usage compared to other countries even though the large investments in high speed lines the country undertook in the last decades.
The e-commerce market has been growing for years and this trend seems to be continuing. Online stores for clothing are very successful. It seems that hardly any company can afford not to have a digital presence. This goes hand in hand with the fact that the range of products on offer to customers is getting bigger and bigger. But it's not just the range that's getting bigger, it's also the effort customers have to make to find the right product. For this reason, many successful online stores are already relying on AI. In doing so, companies are creating opportunities for customers that an employee could hardly manage. Implemented on the website, AI can check inventory, update it in real time, predict trends and evaluate customer or user data and make suitable recommendations. This is important for the customer because with the huge choice available, for one thing, personalization is increasingly important and being presented with a relevant selection. A central question is whether the recommendations are trustworthy and whether they can be equated with a real salesperson advising the customer. After all, trust is relevant in longterm customer relationships in that it leads to loyalty and satisfaction, which in turn increases the intention to repurchase. The recommendation tools mentioned are also of particular interest for another reason. On the one hand, they help customers to get a relevant selection of the offer and thus to get faster to the desired one. On the other hand, they are relevant for companies not only because of customer satisfaction, but also because of the chance to reduce returns. The large online stores for clothing offer their customers very generous opportunities to return the goods free of charge. In doing so, the companies have responded to customer wishes, because hardly anything is more important to them when it comes to online shopping: free returns. In this way, customers have minimized the risk of having to keep goods that do not fit or please them. This thesis examines whether recommendation tools can help customers to better assess the sizes and properties of clothing, so that they receive more suitable clothing and do not even feel the need to order several sizes of the same item of clothing. It can therefore be assumed that trust in the recommendations of the AI tools reduces uncertainty, which in turn should reduce the intention to return goods. Another assumption to be tested is that of the perceived usefulness of the recommendation tools. As a prerequisite to get an assessment of these assumptions is the usage of the tools. Therefore, a survey was initiated in the DACH region to assess the extent to which usage influences the factors mentioned. It was found by means of a regression analysis that the frequency of online purchases, mediated by perceived usefulness, explains the influence on trust.
In recent years, numerous studies around the world have examined the environmental potential of biochar to determine whether it can help address climate challenges. Several of these studies have used the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method to evaluate the environmental impacts of biochar systems. However, studies focus mainly on biochar obtained from pyrolysis, while the number of studies on biochar from gasification is small.
To contribute to the current state of LCA research on biochar from gasification, LCA was performed for biochar, electricity, and heat from a wood gasification plant in Vorarlberg, Austria. Woodchips from local woods are used as biomass feedstock to produce energy, i.e., electricity and heat. Thereby, biochar is obtained as a side product from gasification. The production of syngas and biochar takes place in a floating fixed-bed gasifier. Eventually, the syngas is converted to electricity in a gas engine and fed to the power grid. Throughout different stages within the gasification process, heat is obtained and fed into local heat grid to be delivered to customers. The biochar produced complies with the European Biochar Industry (EBI) guidelines and is used on a nearby farm for manure treatment and eventually for soil application. Thereby, the effect of biochar used for manure treatment is considered to reduce emissions occurring from manure, i.e., nitrogen monoxide (N2O). Further, the CO2 sequestration potential of biochar, i.e., removal of CO2 from the atmosphere and long-term storage, is considered. Several constructions, such as the construction of the gasification system and the heating grid, are included in the evaluation.
As input related reference flow, 1 kg of woodchips with water content of 40 % is used. Three functionals units are eventually obtained, i.e., 0.17 kg of biochar applied to soil, 4.47 MJ of heat and 2.82 MJ of electricity, each per reference flow. The results for Global Warming Potential (GWP) for biochar is – 274.7*10 - 3 kg CO2eq per functional unit, which corresponds to – 1.6 kg CO2eq per 1 kg biochar applied to soil. The GWP for heat results in 17.1*10 - 3 CO2eq per functional unit, which corresponds to 3.6*10 - 3 kg CO2eq per 1 MJ. For electricity, a GWP of 38.1*10 - 3 kg CO2eq per functional unit is obtained, which is equivalent to 13.5*10 - 3 kg CO2eq per 1 MJ.
The calculation was performed using SimaPro Version 9.1 and the ReCiPe method with hierarchist perspective.
Debugging errors in software applications can be a major challenge. It is not enough to know that a specific error exists, but the cause of it must be found in order to be able to fix it. Finding the source of an error can be time and cost intensive. The general approach is to analyse and debug the presumably erroneous part of the software. The analysis can be accompanied by instrumentation to gather additional information during the program execution. The analysis is made more difficult by the existence of different errors categories. Each category may need to be handled individually. Especially in embedded software applications, which commonly lack features like process or memory isolation, error detection and prevention can be even more challenging. This is the kind of problem this thesis tackles. This thesis tries to support developers during debugging and troubleshooting. The main focus is on errors related to memory management and concurrency. Specific features and properties of Arm Cortex-M processors are used to try to detect errors as well as their causes. For example, the memory protection unit is used to isolate the stack memories of different tasks running in a RTOS. The thesis tries to provide as much information as possible to the developer when reporting errors of any kind. The solution developed in this thesis also contains a custom memory allocator, which can be used to track down errors related to dynamic memory management. Furthermore, a Eclipse plugin has been developed which provides assertions for array accesses to detect and prevent out-of-bound accesses. The resulting solution has been implemented in commercial embedded software applications. This ensures that the developed solution is not only suitable for newly developed applications, but also for the integration into already existing products.
A concept for a recommender system for the information portal swissmom is designed in this work. The challenges posed by the cold start problem and the pregnancy-related temporal interest changes need to be considered in the concept. A state-of-the-art research on recommender systems is conducted to evaluate suitable models for solving both challenges. The explorative data analysis shows that the article's month of pregnancy is an important indicator of how relevant an article is to a user. Neither collaborative filtering, content-based filtering, hybrid models, nor context-aware recommender systems are applicable because the user's pregnancy phase is unknown in the available data. Therefore, the proposed recommender system concept is a case-based model that recommends articles which belong to the same gestation phase as the currently viewed article.
This recommender system requires that the month of pregnancy, in which an article is relevant, is known for each article. However, this information is only available for 31% of all articles about pregnancy. Consequently, this work looks for an approach to predict the month of gestation based on the article text. The challenges with this are that only few training data are available, and the article texts of the various months of pregnancy often contain the same terms, considering all articles are about pregnancy. A keyword-based approach using the TF-IDF model is compared with a context-based approach using the BERT model. The results show that the context-based approach outperforms the keyword-based approach.
In the context of this master thesis, general tensions within the relationship between headquarters and their subsidiaries are examined using the practical example of a Swiss company with its subsid-iary in Kenya. Thereby, the influence of cultural aspects and the associated different expectations on management and leadership are emphasized. In doing so, two countries are compared which have not yet been considered in the same context. The objective of this master thesis is to develop a framework that enables the headquarter in the German speaking area of Switzerland and the sub-sidiary in the Bantu speaking area of Kenya to overcome cultural barriers and to increase mutual understanding in the business context. This will facilitate the identification of potentially dysfunc-tional aspects in the working relationship and provide a basis for optimizing the existing business relationship between the Swiss headquarter and the Kenyan subsidiary.
This thesis addresses the overarching question of what the two business entities need to know about each other in terms of cultural characteristics and emerging differences in business practices (in terms of management/leadership) in order to improve the overall cooperation and working rela-tionship between the headquarter and its subsidiary. Thus, the following topics are emphasized with-in this thesis: tensions within the headquarter/subsidiary relationship, concise country profiles of Switzerland and Kenya including a cultural overview of both countries, cultural concepts including organizational culture, common leadership theories related to the situational leadership approach, and finally, an evaluation of the current status quo in the working relationship between the Swiss headquarter and the Kenyan subsidiary based on interviews.
The term start-up has become indispensable when new ideas are to be turned into business ventures. The number of start-ups is continuously increasing, but at the same time, many new start-ups are marked by failure. The successful path from start-up to a stable business model is to be explored in more detail in this thesis. The focus here is on the various success factors and how decisive they are.
At present, start-ups are mainly focusing on the area of digitalisation, not only triggered by the Covid19 pandemic but also by the high demand for digital products and services. In the past, start-ups founded in Silicon Valley/USA have been incredibly successful. Nevertheless, currently many other countries offer decisive advantages for start-ups and are therefore more attractive than the Silicon Valley. In Europe, Spain stands out with a rapidly growing start-up scene, primarily in the metropolises of Madrid and Barcelona.
This Master's thesis aims to empirically investigate the interrelationships of the necessary success factors in the start-up scene for the country of Spain. The focus of the study here is on the digitalisation industry. Qualitative content analysis is used for closer examination and is carried out through expert interviews. Qualitative research allows a much deeper insight into the interviewees' personal experiences and examines non-measurable factors. The subsequent evaluation is intended to present correlations and provide new insights. In summary, a list of recommendations is generated to provide future founders with suitable suggestions and advice right from the start.
This master thesis investigates leadership traits and how they can drive success within international organizations in the digital era. The basic principles of what defines a leader have undergone significant scrutiny throughout the past one hundred years, however, the digital revolution has created the most upset when considering the requirements for efficient leadership.
This paper utilizes a literature review to first determine how modern leadership theory developed and the implications of current research, followed by an empirical study designed to collect real-world data which represents how current leaders active in various industries understand their role as a leader and what skills they use to promote success within their organization.
Cross-examination of these sources indicates that the most effective leaders employ a combination of Transformational Leadership Theory and Emotional Intelligence-based leadership. The extent to which a leader must individualize their style is strongly contingent on the organizational culture, the individual employees, and the external environment. While traits such as communication, charisma, and trustworthiness are certainly strong indications of an efficient leader, agility and adaptability clearly stand out as the traits which are most required for highly effective leaders in the digital era.
This paper gives an insight into how cybersecurity is built inside and outside banks in Austria. The research was conducted based on information received from bank representatives in Austria as well as on literature, participation in various kinds of online conferences, and so on. The main objective of this paper was to investigate the cybersecurity execution scheme and to consider the possible impact of the cultural factor on cybersecurity execution. Due to a force majeure situation like coronavirus, the author was able to obtain little information from participants, but even this helped to draw satisfactory conclusions and make recommendations to banks. Thanks to the vast amount of literature and research, confirmation of the factor under study was found, confirming the relevance of the work and the potential for further research.
Companies worldwide and, therefore, companies from Vorarlberg face a common problem: the lack of skilled workers that led to the so-called “war for talents” in the last decades. This problem encouraged scientists to investigate the importance of many different monetary incentives and non-cash benefits to win this war for talents. This master’s thesis aims to examine if and how companies in Vorarlberg already use non-cash benefits. Furthermore, the most important benefits and their influence on the attractiveness of job advertisements are identified.
For this purpose, interviews with three HR managers from companies in Vorarlberg are carried out. Subsequently, in a quantitative survey, 21 different monetary incentives and non-cash benefits, intangible non-cash benefits, and corporate culture are evaluated by 316 participants. Furthermore, the participants ranked five different job advertisements to conceive results on the research questions.
The results clearly show that non-cash benefits are far more critical for future employees than classical monetary incentives. Although the number of international participants was lower than the number of Austrian and German participants (41 to 81 to 194), it is still obvious that independent of nationality, non-cash benefits can lead to a competitive advantage for companies in Vorarlberg. The interviews show that companies already work with such benefits in their daily business but do not strategically communicate on the topic.
To summarize, it can be concluded that a variety of non-cash benefits should be implemented within a company and also should be mentioned in job advertisements as they can help to attract more applicants not only from Austria but also from abroad and, therefore, help to win the war for talents.
Leadership, leader-follower relationship, and
subordinates’ behaviors during the Covid-19
pandemic
(2021)
In today’s world, companies feel the urge to disguise from competitors and to connect emotionally with consumers in order to foster a meaningful and long-lasting relationship. Simultaneously, stakeholders demand an increase of companies’ social responsibility. Cause-related marketing (CRM) is a marketing tool that addresses the change in societal values and the rising expectations from stakeholder groups. The increasing number of companies that choose to partner with a non-profit organization highlights that linking a charitable cause to the company's brand is an effective marketing tool. Authors illustrate that CRM, as a form of showing corporate social responsibility, will become even more important in the future. This master thesis examines the relationship between CRM, emotions, and culture. The research goal is to identify if CRM programs are effective in evoking emotions in consumers and if the cultural background of a consumer influences the evocation of certain emotions. The empirical findings outline that CRM programs are effective in evoking emotions. Other-focused emotions evoked by CRM programs are stronger expe-rienced by members of collectivistic countries than by members of individualistic countries. Likewise other-focused emotions evoked by CRM programs are stronger experienced by high interdependent selves than by low interdependent selves.
HRM Practices and Innovative Work Behavior: Employee Involvement and Job Auton-omy as influencing factors of Innovative Work Behavior
An organization´s capacity to innovate often resides within its employee´s innovative work behavior. Previous research suggested positive effects of employee involvement and job autonomy on innovative behavior. This research aims to analyze the impact of involvement- and autonomy-focused HRM practices (participation, information-sharing, work-scheduling autonomy, decision-making autonomy, and work-methods autonomy) on innovative work behavior. It is hypothesized that all five HRM practices mentioned above positively influence employees´ innovative work behavior. Therefore, a cross-sectional quantitative research design was chosen. Online questionnaire data from 376 employees in Austria was analyzed. Although all five HRM practices correlated with innovative work behavior, only work-methods autonomy had a statistically significant influence on the innovative work behavior of all employees. Thus, practitioners should include work-methods autonomy as critical HRM practice in a “high-innovation” HRM system to facilitate employees´ innovative work behavior.
In this work, the simulation possibilities of transient magnetic fields are investigated. For this purpose, an experimental setup is established to compare the simulation results with actual measurement data.
The experimental set-up consists of two coils, which are placed on two U-shaped iron cores. These cores are then brought together to form two air-gaps. These two gaps are used for measurement and the optional insertion of samples. The simulations are carried out with the finite element method (FEM) program ANSYS Maxwell 19R3.
In the first experiments, static simulations and measurements are compared to verify the validity of the available material data and the simulation techniques, especially the symmetry considerations, excitations of the coils, and boundary conditions. The static simulations show two main sources of uncertainty. The B-H curve of the core material used in the simulations and the air-gap distance uncertainty.
After validating the simulations with the static measurements, transient experiments are performed. In these experiments, the qualitative agreement of the simulation and measurement, as well as the characteristic rise times are compared. The experiments show a decisive influence of the considered loss mechanisms on the agreement of the simulation results with the measurements. Therefore, several simulations with different loss mechanisms are performed.
Finally, also the simulation capability including a material sample in the upper gap is investigated. Therefore, the conformity of the relative change of the measurement and the simulation is compared.
In the experiments a good simulation capability within a 5% error bar is seen. The main difficulty of this work represents the uncertainty due to the available material data. It is assumed, that with more accurate material data the error can be reduced significantly.
This paper analyses an electrical test tower of the OMCIRON electronics GmbH and evaluates whether a Predictive Maintenance (PdM) strategy can be implemented for the test towers. The company OMICRON electronics GmbH performs unit tests for its devices on test towers. Those tests consist of a multitude of subtests which all return a measurement value. Those results are tracked and stored in a database. The goal is to analyze the data of the test towers subtests and evaluate the possibility of implementing a predictive maintenance system in order to be able to predict the RUL and quantify the degradation of the test tower.
By assuming that the main degradation source are the relays of the test tower, a reliability modelling is performed which is the model-driven approach. The data-driven modelling process of the test tower consists of multiple steps. Firstly, the data is cleaned and compromised by removing redundances and optimizing for the best subtests where a subtest is rated as good if the trendability and monotonicity metric values are above a specific threshold. In a second step, the trend behaviours of the subtests are analyzed and ranked which illustrates that none of the subtests contained usable trend behaviour thus making an implementation of a PdM system impossible.
By using the ranking, the data-driven model is compared with the reliability model which shows that the assumption of the relays being the main error source is inaccurate.
An analysis of a possible anomaly detection model for a PdM is evaluated which shows that an anomaly detection is not possible for the test towers as well. The implementability of PdM for test towers and other OMICRON devices is discussed and followed up with proposals for future PdM implementations as well as additional analytical analyses that can be performed for the test towers.
The purpose of an energy model is to predict the energy consumption of a real system and to use this information to address challenges such as rising energy costs, emission reduction or variable energy availability. Industrial robots account for an important share of electrical energy consumption in production, which makes the creating of energy models for industrial robots desirable. Currently, energy modeling methods for industrial robots are often based on physical modeling methods. However, due to the increased availability of data and improved computing capabilities, data-driven modeling methods are also increasingly used in areas such as modeling and system identification of dynamic systems. This work investigates the use of current data-driven modeling methods for the creation of energy models focusing on the energy consumption of industrial robots.
For this purpose, a robotic system is excited with various trajectories to obtain meaningful data about the system behavior. This data is used to train different artificial neural network (ANN) structures, where the structures used can be categorized into (i) Long Short Term Memory Neural Network (LSTM) with manual feature engineering, where meaningful features are extracted using deeper insights into the system under consideration, and (ii) LSTM with Convolutional layers for automatic feature extraction. The results show that models with automatic feature extraction are competitive with those using manually extracted features. In addition to the performance comparison, the learned filter kernels were further investigated, whereby similarities between the manually and automatically extracted features could be observed. Finally, to determine the usefulness of the derived models, the best-performing model was selected for demonstrating its performance on a real use case.
With green cosmetics becoming widely used in Germany, this research would like to fill a research gap and investigate the impact of transatlantic transportation on the willingness of German customers to purchasing the product. With growing environmental awareness this information might be decisive for companies willing to expand internationally. They can take it into consideration when creating their international expansion strategy and deciding for the mode of entry.
Current research also explores the option of targeting the customers with marketing messages to share information about the low environmental impact of the transatlantic transport. It tests different marketing messages and analyses their impact on green purchase intention.
The phenomenon of the increase of numerous widespread and common diseases, ranging from simple dental problems to obesity, high blood pressure or diabetes, is a concern which can be observed in various aspects of the entire world. Reasons for this is a combination of an unhealthy diet and insufficient physical activity. Consequently, governments across the globe are seeing the need to change consumer behaviour by introducing plain packaging regulations. From an entrepreneurial point of view, this would result in financial losses as well as various limitations in product design, branding and differentiation. Therefore, an empirical study with 232 respondents was conducted, which revealed that the use of images on packaging activates emotions in customers within a few seconds. This master thesis examines possible correlations and differences between the importance of emotionally loaded product packaging and consumer behaviour at the point of sale. The persuasive effect of images on purchase decisions is based on personal consumer experiences and validated processing in the brain which trigger specific emotions. Modern companies are able to communicate company values through emotions by using images correctly. The results of the conducted survey enable Diezano to successfully implement the communication strategy in the event of the introduction of plain packaging regulations. By using mountain graphics, Diezano conveys values such as home, regional, refreshment, tasty, memories of childhood and nostalgia, which the brand aims to convey to the market. Based on the result of this master thesis, it is concluded that the picture superiority effect is mostly underestimated, yet it is an indispensable medium for emotional differentiation and thus a company’s success.
Marketing automation
(2021)
Packaging has important functions, such as the marketing function or protecting the product from spoilage. However, the supply in the supermarket must be viewed critically, as the majority of packaging is designed for single use. The question of how producers and retailers can increase customer acceptance of sustainable packaging in supermarkets has particular relevance in terms of the environmental impact of packaging waste. Although more and more customers are interested in the topic of sustainability, a gap between their attitude and behavior is apparent. This is addressed in more detail on the basis of two product categories. Expert interviews with international producers and retailers as well as a consumer survey allow the views of these three decision-makers to be taken into account. At the end, concrete recommendations for action are presented. These show that, among other things, information and transparency are essential in order to be able to influence consumers' purchasing decisions. In addition, the responsibility of all decision-makers is seen as the key to success.
The fact that services have emerged a driving force and the fastest growing sector in international trade attracts researchers to follow the changes taking place in the service industry. This study extends the scientific discussion on internationalization of service firms. Unlike previous research that examined factors that influence a single firm’s decision to internationalize, I acknowledge the heterogeneity of services, and based on the results obtained from secondary analysis of primary qualitative data sets, answer the main research question how internationalization motives differ between people-processing services, possession-processing services, and information-based services. This research goes beyond identification of variation in internationalization motives and analyses the service characteristics that might be responsible for the differences. In addition, I assess the key trends in the service sector and predict the possible future internationalization motives that are likely to emerge from the current trends.
Findings of this study reveal two major issues. First, it is evident that reasons for internationalization differ among hotel, retail firms and Higher education institutions representing people-processing services, possession-processing services, and information-based services respectively. Second, a few motives are common across sub-sectors, however the significance of the motives vary from sub-sector to sub-sector. I conclude that the differences in underlying structures of the respective service sub-sectors is the fundamental cause for the variation in internationalization motives among service sub-sectors. Other factors such as distinctive characteristics of service, firm’s competitive strategies, income elasticity of demand, and life-cycle stage of the service sub-sector also contribute to the differences in internationalization motives.
This paper also presents three different factors, which are likely to emerge as significant factors that influence service firm internationalization decision in future. (1) Company’s urge to be socially responsible and the need to contribute towards the environmental well-being (2) The need to sell regional products and services to neighbouring nations and respond to consumers’ demand for sustainable consumerism (3) Decision to penetrate foreign markets facilitated by the low risks and low cost of internationalization.
Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to explore the of self-initiated expatriates prior to and during acculturation to life in a smaller periphery region such as Vorarlberg, Austria. By providing insights into their lived experience this research aims to fill in the gaps of missing information on motivators, success factors to adjustment, issues, and stressors, and more that SIEs experience when adjusting. Specifically, what items promote adjustment and what items hinder adjustment.
Findings: Developed a better understanding of how and what motivational factors lead to expatriation. Furthermore, that opportunities arise by chance. During acculturation, language factors (dialect), cultural differences act as stressors. While social support, and organizational support, learning of the language act as promoters of acculturation.
Further Research could be done including ethnicities, SIEs moving from developed to developing countries, adjustment in regions with dialect vs no dialect.
Key words: self-initiated expatriates, expatriation, acculturation, adjustment, promoting acculturation, hindering acculturation.
Whenever foreign activities turn out to be essential to ensure the company's goals and competitiveness, companies become international. New markets, new lucrative resources promise profitable growth. The new step beyond the national borders requires careful consideration based on the political conditions of the target market (e.g. stability of the political system, social peace, legal certainty, institutional barriers to market entry, attitude to direct investment). The legal framework, such as state funding, environmental protection laws, tax legislation, state requirements or bureaucratic regulations, appear to be at least as relevant too. However, SMEs often lack the capacity and/or courage to take this step. Political authorities at the European level and below are aware of this problem. Numerous studies show that internationalisation is not only necessary to improve competitiveness, but greatly promote innovation, e.g. within international collaborations, it is important to get the authorities to treat these issues with special attention. Governmental promotion is supposed to work in terms of establishing regional balance and supporting socially relevant topics and research. Nevertheless, despite the willingness to support SMEs in their cross-border projects, billions of released Euros are lying around and have not been used. It seems reasonable to assume money is not easy to come by. Enormous bureaucratic hurdles are on everyone's lips. But is that the only reason? Are the people sufficiently informed to be able to take advantage of the numerous financing opportunities? Or is there even more behind the invisible hurdle at first glance? To ascertain this circumstance more precisely, an in-depth analysis to answer the research question ‘what can the institutions do better to make it easier for SMEs to access funding?’ is required.
The research activity described in this master thesis focus on global leadership in team sport. Football head coaches working or who have worked in the globalised Big Five leagues of England, France, Germany, Spain and Italy are investigated. These leagues are host to players, staff, executives, fandoms and head coaches from around the globe. Sport in general is posed as a valid platform to investigate global leadership. Elite and globalised clubs in association football are further posed the archetype of global sport. Head coaches at the helm of the on-field and off-field teams are hypothesised as global leaders, due to their squad, staff and networks of global nature and the span of their influence on individuals around the globe.
It is proposed that investigations of the leadership in this setting can usefully contribute to insights on global leadership. The research activity follow an exploratory purpose resulting from a gap found in the literature review. The research design framework is a first sequential loop of Ground Theory methodology with the aim to identify useful hypotheses for future theoretical sampling. Secondary data was gathered and analysed qualitatively. The data stems from the public domain and statements from interviews, commentaries, biographies, and conferences on or by the head coaches. The theoretical framework of the presented re-search covers the personal traits and attributes of the investigated individuals.
Findings both overlap and contrast with findings from other global leadership research activities. The differences were identified in properties of the global sport business such as constant public attention. Based on the findings from the purposive sampling and acknowledging applicable limitations on the findings, hypotheses for theoretical sampling are proposed. Theoretical sampling is the next step in the workflow of the Grounded Theory methodology used for this study.
The classification of waste with neural networks is already a topic in some scientific papers. An application in the embedded systems area with current AI processors to accelerate the inference has not yet been discussed. In this master work a prototype is created which classifies waste objects and automatically opens the appropriate container for the object. The area of application is in the public space.
For the classification a dataset with 25,681 images and 11 classes is created to re-train the Convolution Neuronal Networks EfficientNet-B0, MobileNet-v2 and NASNet-mobile. These Convolution Neuronal Networks run on the current Edge \acrshort{ai} processors from Google, Intel and Nvidia and are compared for performance, consumption and accuracy.
The master thesis evaluates the result of these comparisons and shows the advantages and disadvantages of the respective processors and the CNNs. For the prototype, the most suitable combination of hardware and AI architecture is used and exhibited at the university fair KasetFair2020. An opinion survey on the application of the machine is conducted.
Integration of an industrial robot manipulator in ROS to enhance its spatial perception capabilities
(2020)
Robots without any external sensors are not capable of sensing their environment, often leading to damaging collisions. These collisions could potentially be avoided if the robot had a way to sense its environment in the first place. This thesis attempts to tackle this problem by equipping such a robot with extra sensor hardware for perceiving environmental objects. The robot used within this thesis is a KUKA LBR iiwa 7 R800. The goal is a robot capable of moving in an unseen environment without colliding with obstacles nearby.
The research covers different sensor options, robots in cramped areas as well as algorithms and simulation topics. Software platforms and libraries used for the implementation are briefly introduced.
Multiple infrared sensors are directly installed onto the robot manipulator. The extra sensors and the robot are integrated into the ROS middleware to create an application capable of sensing the robots’ environment and plan collision-free paths accordingly.
The experiments show, that the low amount of available sensor data can not map the robots’ environment with enough detail. Additional problems, such as sensor noise corrupting parts of the generated map or the robot recognizing itself as an obstacle, lead to a negative result in total. In future work, the choice of sensors shall be reconsidered and tested upfront via simulation software.
An implementation approach of the gap navigation tree using the TurtleBot 3 Burger and ROS Kinetic
(2020)
The creation of a spatial model of the environment is an important task to allow the planning of routes through the environment. Depending on the number of sensor inputs different ways of creating a spatial environment model are possible. This thesis introduces an implementation approach of the Gap Navigation Tree which is aimed for usage with robots that have a limited amount of sensors. The Gap Navigation Tree is a tree structure based on depth discontinuities constructed from the data of a laser scanner. Using the simulated TurtleBot 3 Burger and ROS kinetic a framework is created that implements the theory of the Gap Navigation Tree. The framework is structured in a way that allows using different robots with different sensor types by separating the detection of depth discontinuities from the building and updating of the Gap Navigation Tree.
The humidification dehumidification (HDH) cycle is a process for thermal water treatment. Many studies were carried out investigating operation of an HDH cycle with water and seawater as working liquid. Currently research into other areas of application is limited. Exchanging the working liquid in the humidifier from seawater to a water oil emulsion and investigating its behavioural changes is the basis for the expansion into applications such as bilge water treatment. This master’s thesis covers analysis of the behaviour of an HDH cycle operated with a water oil emulsion. The main elements are (1) proof of concept for operation of the HDH cycle with a water oil emulsion, (2) comparison of measurements and thermodynamic calculations, (3) investigation of the impact of operating parameters and (4) optical analysis of the bubbly flow in water and oil.
Operation of the HDH cycle using water oil emulsion was shown to be feasible with a small change to the setup previously used for investigations with seawater as working liquid. To keep the emulsion from separating into its individual parts, constant movement of the working liquid needs to be ensured. For this a magnetic stirrer was introduced into the bubble column humidifier (BCH) used. In a batch process an oil concentration of >97 % was reached without visible traces of oil in the produced condensate.
Comparison of the measured and thermodynamically evaluated productivity shows that measured productivity is higher. The proposed explanation for this is supersaturation of air at the BCH exit. Further investigation into this phenomenon is needed to confirm this hypothesis.
Influential parameters investigated are (1) liquid temperature, (2) superficial air velocity and (3) sieve plate orifice diameter. Increase of liquid temperature results in an exponential increase in productivity. At superficial air velocities up to 3 cm/s productivity increases with superficial air velocity. For superficial air velocities higher than 3 cm/s productivity plateaus. At low superficial air velocity, an increase of sieve plate orifice diameter results in increasing productivity. Further increase of the sieve plate orifice diameter inverses this phenomenon.
Bubbly flow in water and oil is influenced by the different viscosities of the liquids. Water creates small bubbles of similar size at low superficial air velocities. At superficial air velocities >2 cm/s turbulences start to increase and finely dispersed bubbles are present in the water. Bubbly flow in oil creates larger bubbles at all superficial air velocities. The airflow transitions to plug flow at velocities of 3 cm/s and above.
Result from this master’s thesis can be used for as a basis to broaden the understanding of the HDH cycle and find new areas of applications.
Moving from one country to another, from one cultural context to a different one comes with many challenges and problems. The expatriate adjustment process, in general, has been evaluated extensively in the literature. Little is known if the knowledge in the literature is also valid for the situation of expatriates in rural Vorarlberg. In this paper was examined, which are the most common problems for highly skilled immigrants that are moving to Vorarlberg. In a mixed-method approach, information was gathered with an online questionnaire whose results served as a basis for a series of semi-structured interviews. In addition, an expert talk with a local relocation consultant was conducted. It was found that by far, the most severe difficulty is based on the domestic language situation. An expatriate needs to talk and understand German, but the local language is an Alemannic subsection of the German language that is not easy to understand. Additional difficulties that cause culture shock are limited opening hours, mobility troubles, and several others. The awareness about the composing of these problems might help to find the appropriate measures to support expatriates to come in the future.
Although pilot projects are an accepted means of entry into prospects, research on the object of startups selling SaaS and use pilots to enter and to further scale within their prospect’s organization is limited. The reader can expect a collection of key practices of SaaS startups in the field of Decision Support Software. These combine the main sales-oriented elements within pilot projects that are reflected on by Customer Success Management, Change Management as well as cultural dimensions. Explorative interviews, mainly with stakeholders in Decision Support Software startups, were conducted to further gain an understanding of the research object. Results indicate that pilots are strategically used in the sales of such startups to simultaneously deal with their customer’s uncertainties and as a means for the startups to get commitment and increase their value proposition through the additional service that they offer in order to acquire an internal support basis. Customer Success Management as well as Change Management are furthermore advantageous in quickly achieving measurable results that leverage buyers and seller’s justification for further sales.
The purpose of this work is to explore implicit schemes underlying the market segmentation analysis process. Boosting transparency for and in the new discipline of healthcare marketing, the work offers a toolbox of both primary and secondary methods to identify the accurate target market. This is crucial, since resource allocation in B2C segmentation and targeting is still often misleading. An Austrian, internationally present niche player serves as a research object to turn theoretical insights into practical verification. Data for the thesis are collected through company-internal data analysis and desk research, grounded in a multi-method approach with primary and secondary research. On the one hand, the work assesses the most effective segmentation and attractiveness/knock-out criteria according to scientific sources. Delving into the topic of a priori and a posteriori segmentation, an overview of suitable techniques is going to be offered. On the other hand, the thesis illustrates how the accurate target segment in the healthcare industry can be evaluated and determined through companyinternal consumer and market data.
Primary research on demographics (age, gender), psychographics (preferred channels), behavioral criteria (new/existing, CLC) and product categories is found to be particularly meaningful for the healthcare player. Results vary between countries, which is why an international-marketing strategy instead of a domestic-marketing approach is advisable.
Secondary research shows that socio-demographic and behavioral criteria are most used as a priori criteria, whereas a posteriori segmentation is promising to reveal psychographic clusters. One of the author’s recommendations is to niche down accurate market segments such as LOHAS or “best agers” by refining psychographics/socio-demographics with behavioral segmentation through “occasions” (e.g. back pain, depression, injuries). Novel approaches such as outcome-based segmentation or emphasizing “promoters” are discussed too.
The findings pave marketing managers the way for identifying the accurate target segments in the B2C health industry, selecting accurate methods grounded in profound scientific research and with concepts suitable for SMEs. The thesis proves that marketing segmentation is no longer a “nice-to-have” but a “must” in the health(care) industry.
This study deals with the energy situation in Ny-Ålesund, an Arctic research station on the archipelago Svalbard, and aims at analysing the technical feasability of a transition to renewable energies by taking into consideration both the environmental and climatic impediments.
The analysis is based on a 27 year long collection of authentic meteorological data with all its strong fluctuations, seasonal as well as yearly. Great emphasis was put on the discussion of tried-and-tested renewable technologies that were compared to a new wind-based energy device that has yet to be tested for its reliability in the harsh environment of notably the Arctic winter. Meticulous calculations lead to the result that bifacial solar modules are an efficient means even in months when the sun stands low and their combination with wind-based devices prove to generate a maximum output. Geothermal energy seems to be promising in the region, but could not be evaluated due to a crucial lack of relevant data.
The study comes to the conclusion that the research station of Ny-Ålesund could well rely on a combination of renewable energy devices to cover its energy load, but needs to keep a back-up system of diesel run generators to bridge short periods of possible dysfunctions or standstills due to meteorological circumstances. Battery storage could only contribute to solve the problem of an unfortunate interruption of the energy supply, but it cannot serve as the entire back-up system since, at present, the need would go beyond all possible dimensions.
Graphite substrates underwent two methods of creating doped silicon carbide films via carbothermal reduction; the first method being liquid-phase processing, or dip-coating, and the second gas-phase processing, otherwise referred to as the solid-vapour reaction. The dip-coating procedure resulted in flaky coatings, while the solid-vapour reaction resulted in polycrystalline films with columnar growth that displayed promising morphological and electrical properties. The films were tested on their performance as semiconductor diodes, and proved that carbothermal reduction in the gas phase is a promising technique for creating polycrystalline silicon carbide films for the application of light-emitting diodes.
Many test drives are carried out in the automotive environment. During these test drives many signals are recorded. The task of the test engineers is to find certain patterns (e.g. an emergency stop) in these long time series. Finding these interesting patterns is currently done with rule based processing. This procedure is very time consuming and requires a test engineer with expertise. In this thesis it is examined if the emerging field of machine learning can be used to support the engineers in this task. Active Learning, a subarea of machine learning, is used to train a classifier during the labeling process. Thereby it proposes similar windows to the already labeled ones. This saves the annotator time for searching or formulating rules for the problem. A data generator is worked out to replace the missing labeled data for tests. The custom performance measure “proportion of seen samples” is developed to make the success measurable. A modular software architecture is designed. With that, several combinations of Time Series Classification algorithms and query strategies are compared on artificial data. The results are verified on real datasets, which are open source available. The best performing, but computational intensive solution is an adapted RandOm Convolutional KErnel Transform (ROCKET). The custom query strategy “certainty sampling” shows the best results for highly imbalanced datasets.
This master thesis investigates a Computational Intelligence-based method for solving PDEs. The proposed strategy formulates the residual of a PDE as a fitness function. The solution is approximated by a finite sum of Gauss kernels. An appropriate optimisation technique, in this case JADE, is deployed that searches for the best fitting parameters for these kernels. This field is fairly young, a comprehensive literature research reveals several past papers that investigate similar techniques.
To evaluate the performance of the solver, a comprehensive testbed is defined. It consists of 11 different Poisson equations. The solving time, the memory consumption and the approximation quality are compared to the state of the art open-source Finite Element solver NGSolve. The first experiment tests a serial JADE. The results are not as good as comparable work in the literature. Further, a strange behaviour is observed, where the fitness and the quality do not match. The second experiment implements a parallel JADE, which allows to make use of parallel hardware. This significantly speeds up the solving time. The third experiment implements a parallel JADE with adaptive kernels. It starts with one kernel and introduce more kernels along the solving process. A significant improvement is observed on one PDE, that is purposely built to be solvable. On all other testbed PDEs the quality-difference is not conclusive. The last experiment investigates the discrepancy between the fitness and the quality. Therefore, a new kernel is defined. This kernel inherits all features of the Gauss kernel and extends it with a sine function. As a result, the observed inconsistency between fitness and quality is mitigated.
The thesis closes with a proposal for further investigations. The concepts here should be reconsidered by using better performing optimisation algorithms from the literature, like CMA-ES. Beyond that, an adaptive scheme for the collocation points could be tested. Finally, the fitness function should be further examined.
In recent years, much research has been done on medical laser applications inside the human body, as they are minimally invasive and therefore have fewer side effects and are less expensive than conventional therapies. In order to bring the laser light into the human body, a glass fibre with a diffuser is needed. The goal of this master thesis is the characterization and production of fibre optic diffusers that can be used for the three therapeutic applications: photodynamic therapy, laser-induced thermotherapy and endovenous laser therapy. For this purpose the following goals have to be achieved:
- Optimization of the efficiency and homogeneity of internally structured diffusers
- Examine damage thresholds of the diffusers in the tissue using a crash test
- Achieving a better understanding of the decouple mechanism with a simulation
Using an ultra-short pulse laser, modifications could be introduced into the fibre in this way that the radiation profile is homogeneous and the decoupling efficiency is 68.3 %. It was discovered that the radiation profile depends on the wavelength. Attempts have been made to improve the decoupling efficiency by mirroring the distal end of the fibre. The mirror reflects the remaining light back into the fibre, so that it is also decoupled lateral on the modifications. Vapor-deposited aluminum with physical vapor deposition is a promising approach. However, the adhesion of the coating must be improved or the coating must be protected by a mechanical cover, otherwise it will flake off too quickly.
In a crash test, it was shown that the glass fibre diffusers can withstand 20 W laser power for 300 s without visible change. In an ex vivo test, the coagulation zone in the tissue was examined and it was showed that the diffusers radiate radially homogeneously. Using a ray trace simulation, the course of the light rays in the fibre was examined and the correlation of modification width and length with the decoupling efficiency was investigated. It was discovered that there are helical light rays in the fibre, which cannot be decoupled by modifications in the fibre centre.
This thesis aims to support the product development process. Therefore, an approach is developed, implemented as a prototype and evaluated, for automated solution space exploration of formally predefined design automation tasks holding the product knowledge of engineers. For this reason, a classification of product development tasks related to the representation of the mathematical model is evaluated based on the parameters defined in this thesis. In a second step, the mathematical model should be solved. A Solver is identified able to handle the given problem class.
Due to the context of this work, System Modelling Language (SysML) is chosen for the product knowledge formalisation. In the next step the given SysML model has to be translated into an object-oriented model. This translation is implemented by extracting information of a ".xml"-file using the XML Metadata Interchanging (XMI) standard. The information contained in the file is structured using the Unified Modelling Language (UML) profile for SysML. Afterwards a mathematical model in MiniZinc language is generated. MiniZinc is a mathematical modelling language interpretable by many different Solvers. The generated mathematical model is classified related to the Variable Type and Linearity of the Constraints and Objective of the generated mathematical model. The output is stored in a ".txt"-file.
To evaluate the functionality of the prototype, time consumption of the different performed procedures is measured. This data shows that models containing Continuous Variables need a longer time to be classified and optimised. Another observation shows that the transformation into an object-oriented model and the translation of this model into a mathematical representation are dependent on the number of SysML model elements. Using MiniZinc resulted in the restriction that models which use non-linear functions and Boolean Expressions cannot be solved. This is because the implementation of non-linear Solvers at MiniZinc is still in the development phase. An investigation of the optimally of the results, provided by the Solvers, was left for further work.
Zeros can cause many issues in data analysis and dealing with them requires specialized procedures. We differentiate between rounded zeros, structural zeros and missing values. Rounded zeros occur when the true value of a variable is hidden because of a detection limit in whatever mechanism was used to acquire the data. Structural zeros are values which are truly zero, often coming about due to a hidden mechanism separate from the one which generates values greater than 0. Missing values are values that are completely missing for unknown or known reasons. This thesis outlines various methods for dealing with different kinds of zeros in different contexts. Many of these methods are very specific in their ideal usecase. They are separated based on which kind of zero they are intended for and if they are better suited for compositional or for standard data.
For rounded zeros we impute the zeros with an estimated value below the detection limit. The author describes multiplicative replacement, a simple procedure that imputes values at a fixed fraction of the detection limit. As a more advanced technique, the author describes Kaplan Meier smoothing spline replacement, which interpolates a spline on a Kaplan Meier curve and uses the spline below the detection limit to impute values in a more natural distribution. Rounded zeros cannot be imputed with the same techniques that would be used for regular missing values, since there is more information available on the true value of a rounded zero than there would be for a regular missing value.
Structural zeros cannot be imputed since they are a true zero. Imputing them would falsify their values and produce a value where there should be none. Because of this, we apply modelling techniques that can work around structural zeros and incorporate them. For standard data, the zero inflated Poisson model is presented. This model utilizes a mixture of a logistic and a Poisson distribution to accurately model data with a large amount of structural zeros. While the Poisson distribution is only applicable to count data, the zero inflation concept can be applied to different kinds of distributions. For compositional data, the zero adjusted Dirichlet model is introduced. This model mixes Dirichlet distributions for every pattern of zeros found within the data. Non-algorithmic techniques to reduce the amount of structural zeros present are also shown. These techniques being amalgamation, which combines columns with structural zeros into more broad descriptors and classification, which changes columns into categorical values based on a structural zero being present or not.
Missing values are values that are completely missing for various known or unknown reasons. Different imputation techniques are introduced. For standard data, MissForest imputation is introduced, which utilizes a RandomForest regression to impute mixed type missing values. Another imputation technique shown utilizes both a genetic algorithm and a neural network to impute values based on the genetic algorithm minimizing the error of an autoencoder neural network. In the case of compositional data, knn imputation is presented, which utilizes the knn concept also found in knn clustering to impute the values based on the closest samples with a value available.
All of these methods are explained and demonstrated to give readers a guide to finding the suitable methods to use in different scenarios.
The thesis also provides a general guide on dealing with zeros in data, with decision flowcharts and more detailed descriptions for both compositional and standard data being presented. General tips on getting better results when zeros are involved are also given and explained. This general guide was then applied to a dataset to show it in action.
The boom of information technology development created high demand for skilled labour force in IT occupations. IT professionals install, test, build, repair or maintain hardware and software and can do the job from any location in the world.
Demand for the workforce significantly outstrips the global supply. In a situation of staff shortage employers have to compete on local and global labour markets. The ability of a firm to attract and retain the best talent would become a source of its sustainable competitive advantage.
Aim of the study is to understand what influences perception of employment attractiveness by IT professionals the most. This study intends to expend the existing knowledge about employees´ needs and “psychological contract” concept.
The research was conducted with the participation of 4 IT and 4 HR English-speaking experts who live and work in Austria. In the study the grounded theory approach and the descriptive qualitative methods were applied.
The research findings explain which factors influence the decision of IT professionals to join, stay or leave an employer. The results are discussed in relation to talent attraction and retention practices of Austrian employers.
How people perceive stigmatization at work in connection with mental health problems and what role this stigmatization fulfils in the DACH-Region, means Germany-Austria-Switzerland, has so far received no greater attention from scientists. Although the stigma of mental illness has been extensively researched among the general population, little is known about its consequences of the stigma of mental health in the workplace.
This study seeks to bridge the gap in this area. As the purpose of this thesis is to illustrate the dynamics of stigmatization rather than to explain its mere quantitative relevance, I have chosen to investigate how the complex systemic interdependencies according to Forrester (1968) manifest in the reflection of the subjects.
On the background of socio-cultural aspects in the DACH-Region regarding mental health problems and forms and natures of stigma while following the question what role stigmatization plays in this German-speaking area DACH, I conducted a qualitative social research study with affected persons (employees from various German companies) to investigate this issue. Hereby I focus on people working in the industry sector.
The present thesis begins by exploring the question of intercultural and sociocultural differences in the DACH region according to Hofstede’s Dimensions, as well as their possible relevance for answering the research question. Definitions and theoretical interpretations regarding the backgrounds about mental health, mental health problems and their appearance will be mentioned. Based on Goffman’s (1963) research on stigma, I investigate why mental health issues have the potential to stigmatize especially at the workplace. Goffman’s ideas on stigma illustrate how by providing important insights into understanding the situation of affected persons. The connection between stereotypes, stigmatization, and discriminatory behaviour according to Major & O’Brien (2005) is hereby necessary to be noticed.
Through personal interviews I explore how, what way, people at work perceive stigmatization surrounding mental health problems and how stigmas interact. The findings conducted in this study give a cue towards the systemic approach of stigmatization. That is why a new hypothesis on the ways of stigmatization in German-speaking countries is drawn up. Stigmatization is under investigation as a systemic instrument for maintaining management and group power to affect single employees and restore group identity, consciously or unconsciously. I discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for management behaviour and leadership development in organizations.
The workplaces are changing with the increase in the use of technology, digital communication, the shift towards multicultural teams, and remote work due to COVID-19. Leaders need more collaboration and acceptance of digital communication tools such as Teams, Slack. This study aims to determine the influence of culture in the acceptance of digital tools in leadership communication. In the literature review, 3 cultures (organizational, national, Individual) were assumed. And Individual culture was tested using Schwartz (openness to change) value survey along with other qualitative questions in 1-1 interviews of Austrians and multinationals living in Austria. Analysis from findings suggests that culture plays an important role in technology acceptance of digital tools in leadership communication. This was confirmed by the Schein model and Schwartz value ratings. The culture comprises of organizational, national, regional, and individual culture. Individual culture plays an important role, but other cultural factors cannot be avoided. Key factors affecting the technology acceptance in Vorarlberg (Austria) are listed along with recommendations to leaders.
For centuries, companies and institutions are working on the development of organisational project maturity models. The purpose of these models is to develop a path for improving an organisation’s capability of managing projects. Projects are the means by which companies implement their strategic objectives. Trends like globalisation and advances in IT lead to more geographically distributed teamwork. Therefore, this thesis gives a comprehensive answer to how project management maturity models address transnational project management.
For accomplishing the research objective, this thesis follows an integrated, qualitative literature review approach. Theoretical frameworks and applied research on project management maturity assessments were systematically collected and analysed. The results extracted from these two sources were synthesised to extract findings.
The main research result shows that models continuously adapt to transnational project management. They are doing this by aligning the organisational culture and values, focusing on organisational wide learning and gradually embedding behavioural and intercultural competencies. Maturity assessments need to follow this trend.
Furthermore, transnational convergence of the models’ dimensions was observed. This development leads to growth in size and complexity. To apply them internationally, the models should be simplified or easily adapted to specific countries and cultures.
This research seeks to explore the cultural impact in the development of a new product, and if operational CRM (CRM technologies) can bring these two concepts together. As an industrial designer, the researcher finds it fascinating to explore how the abilities that a designer uses can help to solve users' problems could be implemented into structural or strategic decision-making of a company. Therefore, the researcher believes that the results might bring value to the head of international teams in charge of Product Development, by bringing some ideas for what is essential to consider in these processes and how CRM could become a relevant tool to satisfy customers and users.
This research generates value to international management and leadership studies because it brings the management of new product development from an organizational point of view within an international context to the forefront. It also builds an understanding of what to consider when the value chain is decentralized and involves international collaboration in product development processes. And positive elements and/or problems that may arise concerning culture and the role of the CRM within this process.
This master thesis investigates effective leadership behaviour of multicultural teams during change management. Multicultural teams can be highly effective in dealing with complex change processes and can represent a key player to tackle today’s VUCA-world challenges.
Effectiveness of multicultural teams during change depends critically on leadership with a range of specific behaviours. Involvement and support of the employees in a coaching role is key. Leaders need to display behaviours such as continuous development of cultural and emotional intelligence, critical self-reflection, open-mindedness, and readiness to serve as authentic role models. Furthermore, the creation of a sense of unity based on good communication and common sense is essential to build multicultural teams, and to enable them to embrace their differences as opportunity. Trust, transparency and a holistic change process are vital. Effectiveness essentially depends on the following factors: the organization’s culture, the characteristics of the employees and of their leader, and on the external environment. Leaders should take these factors into consideration at all times.
Increasing international competition and accelerated technological change characterize the environment in which companies must maintain and, if possible, expand their competitive advantage. In this context, the new, popular keyword innovation management is often mentioned. Many corporations propagate and use it for marketing purposes. As a result, the companies have to evaluate, develop and launch innovations increasingly faster, which poses great challenges for many and requires a high degree of adaptability.
This master thesis analyzes innovation management (IM) in the automotive industry and in other industries (material manufacturers, service providers, medicine, ...) depending on the number of employees and turnover. In addition, the maturity levels of the IMs and the innovation management systems (IMS) are examined. It also tries to determine which design or "building blocks" are necessary for a successful innovation management. Furthermore, factual and monetary guidelines by the management are evaluated. The thesis also aims to find out how the success of IM is measured. Therefore, guideline-based expert interviews were conducted with responsible people from the innovation departments and then systematically analyzed.
In the literature, expenses for innovations are often wrongly equated with the R&D rate. In this master thesis, it could be shown that this ratio is highest in the automotive industry. However, it does not correlate with the number of employees, turnover, maturity level, success or design of the IM. Furthermore, it could be shown that larger companies have a higher degree of maturity. The reason for this is that more people are usually involved in innovation and that a holistic understanding of innovation is better anchored in large corporations. When designing the IM or the roles of the innovation department, large companies use several different types. While the IM departments in small and medium-sized companies are usually incubators and accelerators, large companies also use corporate venture capital to support start-ups and develop new business models. In this thesis, the success of IM was determined by the number of innovations implemented in customer projects. It was found that, regardless of the size of the company, a higher degree of maturity of the IM and the accelerator role seem to have a positive influence.
Unfortunately, there are rarely concrete goals and targets set by the management although these, along with a holistic understanding of innovation in the company, are without doubt the most important part of a successful innovation management.