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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
For a given set of banks, how big can losses in bad economic or financial scenarios possibly get, and what are these bad scenarios? These are the two central questions of stress tests for banks and the banking system. Current stress tests select stress scenarios in a way which might leave aside many dangerous scenarios and thus create an illusion of safety; and which might consider highly implausible scenarios and thus trigger a false alarm. We show how to select scenarios systematically for a banking system in a context of multiple credit exposures. We demonstrate the application of our method in an example on the Spanish and Italian residential real estate exposures of European banks. Compared to the EBA 2016 stress test our method produces scenarios which are equally plausible as the EBA stress scenario but yield considerably worse system wide losses.