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Influencer Marketing has been discussed by various marketing experts for years and is already a fixed component of the marketing strategy in many companies. These are mainly companies from the B2C sector. Recently, more and more companies are asking themselves about possible areas of application within the B2B structure. This phenomenon is influenced by the increase in digitalization and the ever-higher hurdles in reaching target groups using traditional marketing tools.
The topic of this master’s thesis was the result of professional and personal development. Various modules attended during the study inspired a deeper interest in the subject. Furthermore, the topic was always a point of discussion in the professional environment, resulting in the realisation that there is currently very little knowledge in B2B companies regarding Influencer Marketing.
The aim of the research was to discover how to systematically find end users for the use of Influencer Marketing in B2B companies in the tool and hardware industry. Furthermore, the success factors for a long-term cooperation between influencers and companies from this industry will be identified and presented.
Research questions were created in order to realise the above-mentioned objectives. Therefore, the primary research question and three sub-research questions were created for both the theoretical and empirical part of the work. To answer these questions, eight experts from B2B companies in the tool and hardware industry were interviewed. The evaluation was based on the qualitative content analysis according to Mayring.
From the research results, a possible selection procedure could be identified, which would enable companies to systematically select influencers for marketing purposes. Furthermore, success criteria for a long-term cooperation between influencers and companies were also identified.
Digitalisation poses great challenges for regional tourism management. However, many organisations are currently undergoing a transformation from a marketing to a destination management organisation (DMO), which is why only a few have managed to adopt new digital approaches and to assert themselves as DMOs within the destination and against ever growing global platforms.
The presented master thesis therefore deals with this issue and aims to pave the way for DMOs to develop and use digital business models themselves.
The objective of the thesis is to develop a systematic process for the development of own DMO business models and to evaluate whether the establishment of a multi-sided platform as the recipe for the success of global platform providers is also suitable for DMOs. For this purpose, an extensive literature research was conducted and semi-structured expert interviews were evaluated. In addition, the Anchor Point Canvas was developed as a supporting framework for the modelling of business models for companies with historically grown structures and constraints.
Throughout history, a variety of influences have changed the way we sell our products. Starting with the Industrial Revolution up to the first saturation phase in the 1970s. The question now arises as to whether the heating industry is currently back on an evolutionary development path with the increasing digitalisation of distribution. How the sales process in the B2B sector will change with increasing digitalisation and what effects this will have on sales personnel is only documented by a few sources which do not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the craft or even the heating industry. This results in a research gap which is to be closed in the context of this thesis. The aim of this research project is to find out the effects of a further digitalisation of the sales process on the sales force in the defined environment of the heating industry in Central Europe. For this purpose the following research questions are asked: Which steps in the sales process in the heating industry in Central Europe should be digitalised? How will the digitalisation of the sales process affect the sales force in the heating industry in Central Europe? A case study, according to Yin was chosen as the research method. The data were collected by means of in-depth interviews and analysed qualitatively, according to Mayring. The increasing digitalisation will have a large effect on the sales force, tasks will disappear, new tasks will be added and new ones will replace conventional working methods. In summary, automation will simply make tasks superfluous, software tools will improve quality and increase efficiency, and personal selling will become a premium skill. Companies will try to automate as many backoffice activities as possible and reduce the number of office staff if necessary.
Companies develop and implement strategies with the aim to address the needs of their customers. Acquisition is one market expansion strategy that companies can use to acquire new market access, technologies and/or to grow organically. In recent years, Chinese companies have been active in acquiring companies all over the globe to develop their strategic position. This caused certain contra reaction in Europe and as well in the Swiss media against cross-border acquisitions of Swiss companies.
Swiss companies and particularly the Swiss-MEM (Machinery, Electrical and Mechanical) industry is highly export oriented and their value proposition builds on attributes like knowledge, technology, and differentiating products. Among them are many “hidden champions” and niche players who successfully dominate the market segment.
As observed with Chinese companies, Indian companies also started to become more active outside of their domestic markets by increasing their foreign direct investments into Europe, Asia and North America, over the last decades. The lasting and good relationship of India and Switzerland might trigger the wish for Indian companies to acquire Swiss and particularly Swiss-MEM companies for acquisitions.
This Master’s Thesis assesses how often Indian investments into public and privately owned Swiss-MEM companies by acquisition happen, how are the attempts of acquisitions perceived by the stakeholders and what measures Swiss and Swiss-MEM companies can take, to protect themselves from being acquired. To access the research topic, several sub-questions will be analysed with the aid of primary and secondary research to assess the situation.
The research topic is of particular interested to the author since he spent over 20 years working in the Swiss-MEM industry, involved in international affairs and in recent years specifically with India. The observation of Chinese acquisition activities and insight into the size and potential of India were the drivers for researching whether India might follow China’s example.
In conclusion, Indian companies are not explicitly targeting Swiss and Swiss-MEM companies, but there are reasons to believe that it would make sense for Indian companies to look into the acquisition of Swiss and Swiss-MEM companies. The perception of such acquisitions varies, but there are arguments for and against them. Companies must take strategic and organisational measures in order to prevent themselves from becoming the target of an acquisition. However, it is known that the state should not interfere in the market and a discussion at a political level, planning how to deal with cross-border acquisition, is needed.
Further areas for research based on this Master’s Thesis could be the review of how the targeting of Swiss and Swiss-MEM companies by Indian companies would look, and also the topic of the succession planning in Swiss secondary sector in conjunction with Indian targeting for acquisitions. A third area to research might be investigating the political aspects involved in the research questions.
Cultural Due Diligence
(2020)
Much research has been conducted in recent years to discover the reasons for the high failure rate of M&As, whereas one frequently cited reason is the incompatibility of the corporate cultures. In order to minimize this risk and to be able to react to these differences already at an early stage, Cultural Due Diligence offers itself as part of the due diligence process. Unlike existing, more general research, I emphasize the cultural challenges companies face when investing transnationally with this thesis. Using the results of a single case study with inductive character, I answer the question how to conduct Cultural Due Diligence in cross-border M&As and propose an appropriate model. The findings reveal that especially in cross-border M&As, cultural incompatibility poses a risk for failure. I was able to find out that companies that seek to grow internationally with M&As deal with similar issues in terms of corporate culture as pointed out in existing Cultural Due Diligence methods. The present study, however, shows that national culture has a great influence on corporate culture, which is why it is essential to include it in the cultural assessment in cross-border acquisitions. This provides information about why there are differences, besides the fact that they exist. Only this understanding puts a company in the appropriate starting position to recognize differences, understand them, assess whether these differ-ences are acceptable, as well as to develop appropriate strategies to address them in the integration phase.
Nowadays, the area of customer management strives for omni-channel and state-of-the-art CRM concepts including Artificial Intelligence and the approach of Customer Experience. As a result, modern CRM solutions are essential tools for supporting customer processes in Marketing, Sales and Service. AI-driven CRM accelerates sales cycles, improves lead generation and qualification, and enables highly personalized marketing. The focus of this thesis is to present the basics of Customer Relationship Management, to show the latest Gartner insights about CRM and CX, and to demonstrate an AI Business Framework, which introduces AI use cases that are used as a basis for the expert interviews conducted in an international B2B company. AI will transform CX through a better understanding of customer behavior. The following research questions are answered in this thesis: In which AI use cases can Sales and CRM be improved? How can Customer Experience be improved with AI-driven CRM?
The present research had compared how Uppsala and Bartlett & Ghoshal (B&G) models explain the internationalization process of the Brazilian pulp producer Fibria.
The Uppsala model describes the developments of capabilities that enable the firm to move towards higher commitments abroad. Despite its sine-qua-non dependence on foreign markets, it is unlikely that Fibria will internationalize its production to another country, given the country-specific advantages that the company has in Brazil. Nevertheless, Fibria set its structure abroad even when the direct exports would suffice to reach the markets without any foreign direct investment.
B&G deals with the aspects of the organizational structure and described the Transnational type as the evolution of the international firm. In their typology, Fibria was a Global and Ethnocentric type, but interestingly, elements of Transnational and Geocentric models were also observed in the company.
Both theories overlap or complement each other in many aspects. However, they could not explain the peculiarities of the internationalization of Fibria. One reason is the lack of country-related elements in these models.
Eventually, comparisons between theories such as those presented enable decision-makers to align the corporate strategy using suitable models, bearing in mind the limitations that each method entails.
Einkauf 4.0
(2020)
Traditionelle Einkaufsprozesse haben viele Fehlerquellen und ungenütztes Potential. Viele Konzepte, die meist im Zusammenhang mit Digitalisierung und Industrie 4.0 stehen, versprechen Optimierungen. Diese Vielfalt führt jedoch in der Praxis zu Unklarheiten, da fraglich ist, was tatsächlich hinter den Konzepten steckt. Insbesondere der sogenannte „Einkauf 4.0“, der mehr als eine Digitalisierung der Beschaffungsprozesse verspricht, wirft viele Fragen auf.
Das Ziel der vorliegenden Forschungsarbeit ist es festzulegen, welche Merkmale dem „Einkauf 4.0“ zugeschrieben werden können und ob sich diese in Praxis wiederfinden. Dazu werden folgende Forschungsfragen gestellt:
1. Welche Merkmale können eindeutig dem Begriff „Einkauf 4.0“ zugeordnet werden, um eine aktuell gültige Umfangsdefinition zu erstellen?
2. Werden die gefundenen Merkmale des Einkauf 4.0 in der Praxis als relevant erachtet und umgesetzt? Falls ja, welche?
Um die erste Forschungsfrage zu beantworten wurden eine qualitative und eine quantitative Inhaltsanalyse durchgeführt. Die Merkmale des Begriff Einkauf 4.0 konnten dadurch eindeutig festlegt und abgrenzt werden. Die zweite Forschungsfrage wurde beantwortet in dem ein Vergleich der gefundenen Merkmale mit der Studie „BME-Barometer Elektronische Beschaffung 2020“ des BME e. V. erfolgte.
Die Auswertung der Inhaltsanalysen zeigt, dass sich Merkmale für den Einkauf 4.0 finden lassen, diese jedoch kritisch zu hinterfragen sind. Der Vergleich der Merkmale mit der Studie des BME e.V., ergibt, dass einige Merkmale in der Praxis wiederzufinden sind; Sie sind jedoch von unterschiedlicher Relevanz. Weiterführende Forschung ausgehend von der hier formulierten Definition würden tiefere Einblicke in das Konzept des Einkauf 4.0 ermöglichen.
