Refine
Has Fulltext
- yes (1096)
Year of publication
Document Type
- Master's Thesis (681)
- Bachelor Thesis (361)
- Article (45)
- Course Material (3)
- Other (3)
- Book (2)
- Report (1)
Language
- English (1096) (remove)
Keywords
- Deep Learning (6)
- LSTM (5)
- Digitalization (4)
- Germany (4)
- Transfer Learning (4)
- COVID-19 pandemic (3)
- China (3)
- Competencies (3)
- European Union (3)
- FinTech (3)
Institute
- FB I - Wirtschaftswissenschaften (332)
- International Business Management (IBMAN) B.A. (196)
- International Economics M.A. (87)
- Poltical Economy of European Integration M.A. (69)
- Accounting and Controlling M.A. (63)
- Berlin Professional School (BPS) (37)
- International Finance M.Sc. (34)
- International Marketing Management M.A. (33)
- International Business Administration Exchange (IBAEx) B.A. (30)
- Business Intelligence and Process Management M.Sc. (29)
AbstractBlack box machine learning models are currently being used for high-stakes decision making in various parts of society such as healthcare and criminal justice. While tree-based ensemble methods such as random forests typically outperform deep learning models on tabular data sets, their built-in variable importance algorithms are known to be strongly biased toward high-entropy features. It was recently shown that the increasingly popular SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) values suffer from a similar bias. We propose debiased or "shrunk" SHAP scores based on sample splitting which additionally enable the detection of overfitting issues at the feature level.
AbstractThis paper examines the influence of the six World Governance Indicators (WGIs), as defined by the World Bank, on the real GDP growth of five emerging markets, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries, and three advanced economies, the United States, Germany and Japan. The analysis is based on a panel data set containing the six WGIs along with further macroeconomic variables (government debt, external debt, current account balance, trade balance, budget balance, foreign exchange rate and short-term interest rate), with annual data from 1996 to 2018. We find that regulatory quality has a positive impact on economic growth, an effect that remains stable across all robustness tests. This indicates that a sound regulatory environment stimulates economic growth. We also find a negative impact of rule of law on economic growth, but this effect is not robust. The literature, however, documents a negative effect from income to rule of law, expressing that higher income does not necessarily lead to a demand for better institutions. A principal component analysis on the WGIs shows that governance is diverse across countries, while stable over time. The first two PCs capture more than 95% of the WGIs variance and are able to cluster emerging and developed markets.
Shark incidents are rare and graphic events, and their
consequences can influence the behavior of beach users,
including bathers, to a great extent. These incidents can
be thought of as a fearsome risk that may lead decision
makers to overreact or respond with inaction. This paper
examines the reaction of recreational beach users, includ-
ing bathers, to changes in the risk of shark incidents. In
addition to valuing recreational visits to Durban Beach,
South Africa, we study the reaction of beach visitors to a
hypothetical scenario in which protective shark nets,
deployed in coastal waters to protect bathers, are to be
removed. To examine potential heterogeneity of the treat-
ment effect in a travel cost-contingent behavior model, we
develop a semiparametric multivariate Poisson lognormal
(MPLN) model to jointly analyze observed and stated visit
counts. Results show that removing protective shark nets
at Durban beach would decrease recreational visits by
more than 20%. Applying the semiparametric MPLN
model we further find that both the value of a recreational
visit and the predicted change in visitation rates vary as a
function of whether recreationists usually enter the water,
whether they have heard of previous shark incidents, and
their general risk attitude.
Background
In light of their experiences on the refuge and upon their arrival in the receiving society, refugees may have differentiated needs regarding health care. However, negative attitudes of the members of the receiving society and a lack of information pose as barriers for refugees when trying to access health care services. In that sense, it is largely unknown, which antecedents positively affect Germans’ perception of information barriers that refugees face. Based on an extended version of the Empathy-Attitude-Action model, this study examined selected predictors of problem awareness in the form of perceived information barriers that refugees face, emphasizing the role of positive intercultural contact experiences.
Methods
A sample of members of the receiving society, here: Germans (N = 910) completed a cross-sectional online survey with validated self-report measures. From the perspective of Germans, assessments covered positive intercultural contact, attitudes on refugees’ rights, the recognition of refugees’ socio-emotional support needs as a form of cognitive empathy, and the perception of refugees’ information barriers when accessing health care. We conducted structural equation modeling to examine hypothesized latent associations and specified three different models with unidirectional paths between the study variables, each allowing another direct path from intercultural contact to the variables. We determined the best model using the chi-square-difference test and tested for indirect effects along the paths through bias-corrected bootstrapping.
Results
Our results show consistency with the Empathy-Attitude-Action model. We found Germans’ cognitive empathy toward refugees to be associated with more positive attitudes and a greater awareness of refugees’ information barriers. We further found more positive intercultural contact to be associated with greater cognitive empathy toward refugees and with more positive attitudes. While these contact experiences showed a slightly direct negative effect on Germans’ perception of refugees’ information barriers to accessing health care, the indirect effects via cognitive empathy and positive attitudes were positive.
Conclusion
Previous positive intercultural contact may be directly and indirectly linked to greater awareness for refugees, helping Germans as the receiving community (1) to become more empathetic toward refugees, (2) to improve their attitudes toward refugees’ rights and to (3) raise consciousness for information barriers that refugees face when trying to access health care services.
This paper examines empirically the importance of equity
preferences for the formation of international environmen-
tal agreements (IEA) for transboundary pollution control.
Although it has been shown theoretically that the existence
of equity preferences among countries considering an IEA
increases the chances for formation and stability of a coali-
tion, empirical assessments of such preferences have been
limited to climate change mitigation and single-country
studies. We consider the case of marine plastic pollution, of
which a large share consists of food and beverage con-
tainers, representing a transboundary pollution control
problem of increasing policy concern, with properties that
lead to distinct considerations for equity and the sharing of
abatement costs. We employ a coordinated choice experi-
ment in the United Kingdom and United States to assess
preferences for abatement-cost allocations in a marine plas-
tics IEA. Pairs of cooperating countries and the relative
allocation of abatement costs are varied experimentally.
Results show systematic aversion to both advantageous and
disadvantageous inequality with respect to abatement costs
but also that the relative strength of advantageous and dis-
advantageous inequality aversion differs across countries.
Across both countries, there is evidence that left-leaning
voters generally favor more equal international sharing of
abatement costs. Differences of these results from the case
of greenhouse gas emission reduction, and implications for
current efforts to establish a legally binding global treaty on
marine plastic pollution, are discussed.
Shaping a Sustainable Future
(2022)
This book gives insights into important factors that are shaping effective learning for sustainability and describes innovative teaching formats that will enable students to contribute to a more sustainable world in their future role as decision makers. Basic concepts in the context of sustainability-related teaching and learning are defined and the relation between learning objectives, methods, skills and outcomes is conceptualised. The book’s detailed description of 23 teaching formats, including their learning objectives, course contents and structure, as well as applied methods aims at supporting lecturers and trainers in the design of their own teaching formats. With conbtributions by Pilar Acosta, Bimal Arora, Hasret Balcioglu, Diana Bank Weinberg, Maria Angeles Bustamante Gallego, Silke Bustamante, Julen Castillo-Apraiz, Helen Chiappini, Arrate Lasa Elguezua, Iñaki Etaio Alonso, Diego Rada Fernandez de Jauregui, Irene Garnelo-Gomez, Jonatan Miranda Gomez, Zsuzsanna Győri, Tony Henshaw, Igor Hernandez Ochoa, Mark Hoyle, Maria V. Ilieva, Divya Jyoti, Achilleas Karayiannis, Prashan S. M. Karunaratne, Philipp Kenel, William Kitch, Tetiana Kravchenko, Idoia Larretxi Lamelas, Edurne Simón Magro, Olaia Martinez Gonzalez, Martina Martinovic, Virginia Navarro Santamaria, Maria, Nemilentseva, Rana Parweeen, Andrea Pelzeter, Daria Podmetina, Manuel Quirós, Ellen Saltevo, Marina Schmitz, Elena Senatorova, Kai Shaman, Aušrinė Šilenskytė, Julia Solovjova, Unai Tamayo Orbegozo, Marko, Torkkeli, Itziar Txurruka Ortega, Gustavo Vargas-Silva, Anna Young-Ferris and Chuan Yu.
This work shows the results of the effectiveness testing of several higher education teaching formats/courses that are dealing with sustainability and/or responsibility and presents a variety of factors influencing teaching effectiveness. It was developed within the framework of the ERASMUS+ project “EFFectiveness Of Responsibility Teaching“ (EFFORT) (see: https://effort.lehre.hwr-berlin.de/home).
Supporting Material for the Teaching Format “Future Scenarios for Sustainable Business Solutions“
(2022)
This work comprises several materials related to the innovative higher education teaching format “Future Scenarios for Sustainable Business Solutions“. It aims to support educators in designing and implementing teaching formats at the intersection between sustainability and futures studies by presenting the module description, the course outline, the teaching approaches, methods and exercises used, as well as a resource overview. The work was developed within the framework of the ERASMUS+ project “EFFectiveness Of Responsibility Teaching“ (EFFORT) (see: https://effort.lehre.hwr-berlin.de/home).
The EFFORT Controlling Tool represents an instrument that can be used in order to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching formats related to sustainability and responsibility. It comprises two standardized questionnaires: a pre-course questionnaire that needs to be completed by format participants prior to participation and a post-course questionnaire that needs to be filled out afterwards. The work published here includes paper-pencil-versions of the pre- and post-course questionnaires along with some general information respective the tool and its application. It was developed within the framework of the ERASMUS+ project “EFFectiveness Of Responsibility Teaching“ (EFFORT) (see: https://effort.lehre.hwr-berlin.de/home).
Supporting Material for the Teaching Format “Innovation and Technology for Sustainable Future“
(2022)
This work comprises several materials related to the innovative higher education teaching format “Innovation and Technology for Sustainable Future“. It aims to support educators in designing and implementing sustainability- and responsibility-related teaching by presenting the module description, the course outline, the teaching approaches, methods and exercises used as well as an resource overview. The work was developed within the framework of the ERASMUS+ project “EFFectiveness Of Responsibility Teaching“ (EFFORT) (see: https://effort.lehre.hwr-berlin.de/home).
This work comprises several materials related to the innovative higher education teaching format “Engaging for Sustainability“. It aims to support educators in designing and implementing sustainability- and responsibility-related teaching by presenting the module description, the course outline, the teaching approaches, methods and exercises used as well as an resource overview. The work was developed within the framework of the ERASMUS+ project “EFFectiveness Of Responsibility Teaching“ (EFFORT) (see: https://effort.lehre.hwr-berlin.de/home).
The EFFORT Self-Evaluation Tool (EffSET) is a qualitative and quantitative instrument that was developed to enable Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and instructors to classify and analyse their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability-related courses and teaching concepts according to different criteria.
EffSET helps HEIs and instructors in classifying their teaching courses and teaching concepts by using "course-level criteria" which are embedded in the context of the whole institution. This is achieved by integrating additional criteria regarding the maturity of Social Responsibility (SR) and Sustainability integration in the HEI ("institution-level criteria"), enhancing self-evaluation, and providing indications on strategies and actions for improvement.
The proximity between luxury and art is used by luxury brands to attain artistic characteristics to overcome the challenges of growth and legitimization. Authenticity is essential to luxury brands, yet research that investigates the influence of art on the specific brand dimension is scarce.
This thesis theoretically combines the concept of luxury and art and establishes a basis on the importance of luxury brand authenticity.
This thesis investigates how the proximity between luxury and art influences luxury brand authenticity. Following an integrative literature review, an analysis of two exemplary cases was conducted. The cases portray artistic collaboration and conflict with the luxury brand Hermès. The analysis shows that luxury brand authenticity is positively influenced by the collaboration with an artist, whereas the conflict between the brand and an artist predominantly weakens the authenticity of Hermès.
The results are unable to generate general influential factors on brand authenticity but show that the proximity of art and luxury influences the authenticity of luxury brands. They have implications on luxury brand management and the importance of the freedom of artistic expression. This thesis sets the foundation for future research by highlighting the relevance of the influence of the proximity of art to luxury brands.
The global currency system leads to unequal outcomes. This paper aims to
define the factors that make the dollar-dominated system unequal for
economically developing countries and looks at three suggestions on how to improve the system including Stiglitz’s global greenback, Ocampo’s SDR-based global currency, and Eichengreen’s tweaking of the edges.
Analysis and Economic Development Initiatives for Chilean Cities Facing Dictatorship Consequences
(2022)
This thesis provides an explanation of the current interest imbalance of patients' representatives compared to its other members comprising the Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss (G-BA; Federal Joint Committee). Specifically, it analyzes which factors are most likely to affect a successful intervention of the legislative process of the G-BA. It does so by drawing comparisons to the unequal representation of interest in the context of lobbyism. The thesis tests to which degree particular conditions favor competing organizations in the economy to partially alter political decision-making. The synthesis applies these findings to the members of the G-BA and points out possible areas of application and limitations of its explanatory power. Additionally, the study suggests courses of action to promote equal and transparent decision-making in the G- BA, based on concrete measures in lobbyism to restrict the adverse effects of disproportionate interference of interests.
This paper examines strategic aspects of film production, and its management evaluated
through the relationships in the respective production networks.
To analyze the composition and relationships inside the production network of feature
films, three qualitative illustrative case studies were conducted based on publicly available information and production materials provided by the respective production companies to map the production process using ego diagrams and to establish a relationship
diagram showcasing essential relationships and their reciprocity to evaluate important
nodes and their roles inside the production networks.
Results in these cases show that the dual role of the director and scriptwriter is essential
for establishing the production network, as well as the successful realization of the artist’s
creative intent and securing auxiliary functions crucial to production, such as technical
realization and the securing of funding for productions.
The results imply that further research into the relationships of different nodes in a film
production network is worthwhile and possibly very insightful.
The Influence of Sustainable Distribution Efforts on Consumers’ Buying Behaviour in Online Fashion
(2022)
Implications of mobile social commerce for micro-businesses in Germany - the case of Instagram Shop
(2022)
The subject of this bachelor thesis is the increasing number of brand cooperations in the luxury fashion industry with the simultaneous increase in Generation Z customers. This thesis aims to discover why and to what extent luxury fashion companies must adapt their marketing measures to reach this new generation of luxury buyers. In ad- dition, the question is to be answered whether brand cooperation can be used as an ideal marketing instrument to address Generation Z. To be able to answer these ques- tions detailed literature research will first be conducted to subsequently confirm, refute or supplement the findings by conducting a qualitative study in the form of expert interviews.
The following Bachelor Thesis is firstly concerned with the topic of short selling and the impact it has on a company and its 's stock price while presenting its ability to help market liquidity, price discovery, and price efficiency. To present the twofold of the matter, this paper aims to portray short selling as a risk management tool by diversifying a company's portfolio and identifying the risks for the market. In the fourth chapter, democratizing finance is described, particularly the access to trading platforms, and the potential risk on market efficiency is analysed in depth. These matters then intersect in the following chapters by considering the intentions the retail investors had to increase their holdings in a failing company and then posing the question of whether the short position held by institutional investors was reasonable and sophisticated. This paper finds evidence that the majority of new retail investors entering the capital market belong to Generation Y (1981-1995) and Generation Z (after 1995). Furthermore, there are implications for believing that the easy access and zero-commission trading contribute to the surge in the market, thus concluding that the democratization of finance enables more non- professional traders to participate in the capital market.
Referencing the Financial Crisis of 2008, the paper's objective is also to find a direct tie between the impact on those affected and the participation in the 2021 collective investment in Gamestop. This paper, however, did not find any self-sustaining evidence that the Financial Crisis of 2008 was their [retail investors] primary motive to invest. Lastly, there is an analysis of the potential developments in the financial market due to more market participants and the potential market manipulation.
This thesis examines the institutional weaknesses of the Eurozone and potential policy instruments or fiscal reforms to remedy them. Despite frequent amendments to the fiscal framework, the economic disparity between Member Countries persists and continues to influence their performance negatively, and with that the growth of the Eurozone as a whole. Analyzing relevant literature from before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is found that this disparity could be tackled by, for example, private-market-based instruments compared to the currently implemented SURE-bonds, a reinsurance system through a central European fund, a Euro Area Safe Asset, or a Central European Budget or Fiscal Capacity. It could be supported through the incentivization of fiscal discipline. The thesis argues for a policy response in the form of reforms to the Eurozone's fiscal framework, especially eliminating the complex nature of fiscal rules, their tendency to promote procyclical spending behavior, and their insufficient regard for Member Countries' differing economic prerequisites.
This thesis investigates the effects the COVID-Pandemic had on the Loan Loss Provisions according to IFRS 9 of German financial institutions by conducting an empirical analysis of ten selected German banks. This topic is of interest, since the Expected Credit Loss-model under IFRS 9 is only in effect since 2018 and, thus, the COVID-pandemic acted as the first stress-test for the new model. The analysis covers the five periods year-end 2019, Q2 2020, year-end 2020, year-end 2021, and Q2 2022. The main findings are that Post-Model Adjustments are being used too excessively by the institutions and that the Ecpected Credit Loss-model has its weak spots.
The crisis between handling the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters has been a significant threat worldwide, especially for developing countries like Indonesia. The activities of the humanitarian aid supply chain when a natural disaster occurs, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, have several unmanaged risks. This study specifically identifies risks that occur in the supply chain of humanitarian aid for disaster victims from Humanitarian NGOs in Aceh province. This study uses case-study-based research with mixed methods, where quantitative analysis is used to analyze prioritized risks, and qualitative research is used to create the framework of recovery strategies. The identification of possible risks is made using literature review, several news articles evaluation, and discussions with experts. The results show that there are 35 risk events and 30 risk agents identified in the humanitarian aid supply
chain for disaster victims in Aceh during COVID-19 Pandemic. From the Pareto diagram, there are three risk agents identified with the highest Aggregated Potential Risk (APR) value. They are Natural
Conditions, Health, and Changes in Department policies. The recovery strategies are built in the form of an AURA framework for a long-term perspective's solution. These recovery strategies are expected
to be used not only for COVID-19 threats but also for other long-term disruptions or crises that might
occur in the future.
Digital Voice Assistant is an interesting topic and a growing consumer trend recently. The combination between Digital Voice Assistants and their commercial applications in E-Commerce practices has brought the interest for further research, especially on customers' opinions and their buying behavior towards this trend. Various opinions from earlier studies have supported the benefits of Digital Voice Assistants on the customer buying journey and decision-making process, which show a promising utilization of such AI intervention on the human buying experience. They are believed to resolve several existing missing expectations from the customers in the occurring E-Commerce platforms.
On one side, the empirical study shows a different reflection on the perceived acknowledgment of the customers in this trend. The study research also remarks that the preferences to the changes in current E-Commerce platforms are not direct to the later willingness to use Digital Voice Assistants in E-Commerce. Although the awareness and experience of this topic are new, the knowledge and recommendation from this study will help understand better the customers' mindset and explore the new perspectives in this complex trend. Additionally, this is a study recommendation for case platform HelloMary, but not limited to other E-Commerce platforms which tend to use Digital Voice Assistants as the new on-platform experience for the customer buying experience.