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Exploring business ecosystem properties with a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship activities
(2019)
With the rising importance of the external economic environment of organisations and open and collaborative innovation, the last two decades have seen an emergence of diverse literature streams and practitioner interpretations of business ecosystems. However, most of the scholars’ attention has been on ecosystems that function in the information and telecommunication technology industries and interactions between actors driven by economic interests. Moreover, business ecosystems analysis was embedded in the strategic management and organizational design literature, which primarily investigated the ecosystem leader using examples of powerful multinational corporations such as IBM, Microsoft, Google and Apple. These new powerful corporations significantly influenced the nature of the global competitive landscape (e.g. app economy), enabled the emergence of new business models (e.g. platform business) and even new forms of entrepreneurship (e.g. blogging and self-publishing). However, little remained known about the actors at the periphery of business ecosystems – that enable the functioning of such ecosystems - and the entrepreneurship processes that take place in the ecosystem environment.
With the goal of contributing to the extant literature and creating a better understanding of the central factors that foster evolution, and the functioning and growth of today’s business ecosystems, the first project of this doctoral dissertation provides an overview of the ecosystem concept evolution in literature and in practice. Based on the findings of this project, this dissertation takes two qualitative empirical directions. To expand on the scope of the ecosystem concept, in the second project it looks at open and collaborative innovation processes in the fashion industry, analyses the role of individuals in business ecosystems and highlights the emergence of new forms of entrepreneurship. Following a worldwide growing startup trend and increased corporate engagement in diverse corporate venturing activities, the third project empirically investigates inter-organisational knowledge flows and value creation and capture processes in the innovation ecosystem environment. This dissertation contributes to the open and user innovation and entrepreneurship literature and provides practical implications for managers and entrepreneurs interested in participating in an existing business ecosystem or considering starting one on their own.
Future oriented libraries can make use of the current start-up trend. An orientation towards new and unorthodox target groups can lead to an enhanced extension of demand and can emphasize the status of libraries. The library of the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management is considering to involve a new target group, start-up founders amongst their alumni. To that end, a survey was carried out and evaluated in cooperation with the Institute of Information Science at the TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences in form of a bachelor thesis, which this article is based upon. Here, a structured pre-analysis tries to determine the demand of this specific target group (founders) and develops a concept to serve the demand of this target group specifically. The example of the case study illustrates a method for target groups specific information demand and also checks the consequences for libraries and their services who venture out of their regular clientele.
2020 industry insights
(2020)
Customer-centricity, digital development and sustainability are three core aspects of cross-industry culture that will continue to be crucial as companies contend with current challenges and look ahead to longer-term strategic planning beyond COVID-19. Technological advancements, new digitally native brands and changing consumer expectations are driving uncertainty and increased competition, regardless of the industry. By understanding what cross-industry peers are focusing on for future investments and long-term strategies, businesses can stay ahead of change, embrace new opportunities to improve the customer experience and meet sustainability goals to maintain their competitive edge.
Inspire but don't interfere
(2021)
Managers play a pivotal role in the innovation process; yet, the mechanisms through which managers enhance or undermine innovation are not well understood. Drawing upon self-concordance theory, we argue that managers can augment employees’ self-concordance—defined as the congruence of goals and actions with inner values and preferences—through transformational behavior and thereby contribute to innovation. However, transformational behavior is closely coupled to another form of influence, namely process management, the attempt to directly manage innovation-related activities. This form of managerial influence reduces employees’ self-concordance and thereby undermines innovation. We test our conceptual model in a sample of 188 innovation projects using a contextualized method that asked employees to assess their self-concordance and their managers’ behavior during each project. Managers evaluated for each project the innovativeness of the outcome. Multi-level path-analysis provided support for our hypotheses. We discuss future research implications to disentangle innovation-facilitating and innovation-undermining facets of managerial influence.
Odyssee nach Koha
(2020)
Datenmigration nach Koha
(2020)
Auf Safari-Suche mit Zebra
(2020)
Neuerung in Koha 20.11
(2020)
Research on motivation may be alive and vital, but it is highly fragmented. This thesis discusses the most prevalent motivation theories and compares their ideas and concepts to introduce two new fields of research in this area: neurology and cardiology. The next era of motivation research will conflate concepts derived from behavioral approaches with organic substructure and elevate our understanding of motivation. A sound understanding of motivation allows organizational scholars to solve the motivational problem in the context of the organizational problem. To make proper use of promising novel insights in organizational contexts, we will revisit the current state of performance evaluation and their ability to coordinate and motivate individuals. By reconsidering how rewards crowd out intrinsic motivation via complex moods, and how superior intrinsic motivation increases performance compared to extrinsic motivation, this thesis introduces the motivation-potential model of feedback. Using a case study on a feedback-based management control system at a European e-commerce company based in Germany, we test how self-determination theory could be expanded by neurological concepts and quantitatively applied to design performance evaluation systems under the consideration of the motivation-potential model of feedback. In its entirety, this thesis attempts to build common ground for the future of motivation research and provides in-depth examples of theorization upon the aggregation of the field of research, as well as practical application and execution.
Licensing digital content
(2018)
This dissertation assesses the characteristics and viability of the emerging longhaul Low Cost Carriers (LCCs). In particular, the aim is to understand their business model, evaluate the cost and revenue performance, and investigate its impact on other carriers. Existing academic literature is inconclusive about characteristics and viability of the business model. To validate its defining characteristics, 37 airlines flying on North Atlantic routes are clustered using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) along a newly constructed long-haul airline business model framework. To contribute to the evaluation of business model viability, cost differences between clusters are uncovered followed by a discussion of their sustainability. Key findings include the characterization of the emerging long-haul LCC business model and its significant differences from Full-Service Network Carrier (FSNC) and leisure carrier models. On a cluster average, 33% lower unit costs compared to FSNCs are identified, of which 24 percentage points are evaluated as sustainable. As these cost advantages over FSNCs are smaller compared to the original savings of short-/medium-haul LCCs, revenue competitiveness on the longhaul becomes more critical. To assess long-haul revenue performance, a new metric for benchmarking the revenue per equivalent flight capacity is defined. Subsequently, a revenue model combining traffic, fare, load factor, and seat data from the North Atlantic is developed to determine the revenue per flight capacity across a sample of city-pairs. The results show that LCCs earn revenue per flight capacity comparable to FSNCs on shorter long-haul routes. Key factors to compensate lower direct yields are fewer low-yield connecting passengers, sales of ancillary services, higher load factors, and significantly more passengers per aircraft. Long-haul LCC market impact, and in particular their impact on incumbents’ fare levels, has not yet been assessed and short-/medium-haul LCC-related findings cannot be readily applied. To evaluate the impact of long-haul LCC presence on the incumbents’ pricing, a stylized analytical model is proposed for hypotheses development. Subsequently, Two-Steps Least Squares (2SLS) regressions with Instrumental Variables (IVs) are performed, distinguishing between economy, premium economy, and business classes, based on a sample of North Atlantic routes. Confirming the first hypothesis, LCC presence reduces incumbents’ long-haul economy and premium economy fares by -10% and -13%, respectively, ceteris paribus. LCC presence, however, does not significantly impact long-haul business class fare levels, confirming the second hypothesis. These findings are particularly relevant as the North Atlantic market represents to date one of the remaining profit pools for North American and European legacy carriers. The findings of this research implicate that the long-haul LCC model is economically viable, at least on trunk routes with high demand. FSNC management should be aware of the rising competition and fare impact on North Atlantic routes. Potential reactions could include the de-bundling of entry fares with the option of ancillary sales even on long-haul routes, a re-evaluation of the revenue impact of low-yield connecting passengers, a focus on premium passengers, and a continuous reduction of operating costs.
This dissertation investigates the application of machine learning to improve decision making in airline operations. In an introductory overview, we1 discuss the airline industry and the challenges of decision making in airline operations: e. g., complex IT infrastructure, interconnected resources, delay management, fuel price volatility and future environmental regulation. Machine learning can efficiently integrate a large volume of data from a variety of data sources and formats to generate accurate predictions. To assess the viability of using machine learning models for decision making in airline operations, we develop a model based on linear regression and gradient boosting to predict aircraft arrival time. Furthermore, we integrate cost index optimization to model the impact of aircraft speed on arrival time. While we find that machine learning can improve prediction accuracy by more than 30 %, the optimal cost index varies according to fuel cost, flight distance and delay costs. We propose an overall reduction in cost index for short-haul flights to reduce fuel cost while maintaining punctual operations. Arrival time predictions serve as input for daily operations planning and control. For network carriers accurate arrival time predictions are key for efficient hub operations. In a next step, we focus on aircraft arrival time prediction for intercontinental flights. We analyze the accuracy of en-route weather data provided by the flight plan, generate features based on en-route weather data and integrate them in our prediction model. We evaluate three machine learning models: linear regression, random forest and gradient boosting. Through our approach, we can assess the impact of en-route weather data. Overall, an increase in prediction accuracy of 25 % is achieved. By including en-route weather data, prediction accuracy is improved by 5 %. Our model outlines the essential features for intercontinental arrival time predictions and assess the value of en-route weather data. Furthermore, we outline organizational challenges in implementing predictive analytics. Future environmental regulations are a challenge for the airline industry. From 2020 onwards net growth in CO2 emissions is prohibited. Thus, airlines need to focus on initiatives to limit fuel consumption. We develop a prediction model for fuel consumption considering ten different aircraft types. Our results show that fuel consumption can be improved by more than 30 % for short and long-haul flights resulting in an annual reduction of 10.5 million e in fuel costs and a reduction on green house gas emissions of 66.000 tons. Furthermore, we assess the pilots’ willingness to integrate our prediction model in their fuel decision. Our analysis shows that high prediction accuracy, model understanding and a long testing phase are essential for acceptance of the prediction model. The main implication is that decision making in airline operations can be substantially improved through machine learning. Therefore, more prediction.
1The term “we” refers to the authors of the respective chapters as denoted at the beginning of each chapter. For the abstract, this refers to the authors of Achenbach and Spinler (2018a,b), Achenbach et al. (2017).
The present study investigates how family firms respond to disruptive industry changes. We aim to investigate which factors prevent or support family firms` adoption of disruptive innovations in their industry and which mechanisms lead to more or less successful coping with disruptive change. Our analysis is based on 24 qualitative interviews with top executives and on secondary data from an industry in which disruptive innovations dramatically changed the way business was generated. The industry in question is the mail order industry, which, in its early days, disrupted the retail business. When the Internet and, with it, ecommerce started to disrupt the industry in the late 1990s, the industry was characterized by a high proportion of family firms and a low level of innovativeness. While incumbent firms had been very successful for decades, most of them were confronted with serious turbulence when new entrants started changing the face of the industry. Our findings show that different factors impact reactions to disruptive industry change in two different phases, namely, opportunity recognition and opportunity implementation. While some of the influencing factors are determined by industry factors, family influence may function for better or worse for incumbent firms. Specifically, we find that in firms with a family disruptor, a family member in a powerful position who drives the adoption of the new technology, hindrances can be overcome and firms tend to show more successful strategies when reacting to the disruptive industry change.
The trucking industry is at the beginning of a radical change due to several megatrends which will reshape the industry significantly. Based on the targets of the Paris Climate Agreement, the German government adopted its own Climate Action Plan 2050 which includes sector- specific reduction targets to reach a greenhouse gas neutral society by the middle of the 21st century. By 2030, the German Climate Action Plan specifies a reduction target of 40% from transportation compared to the reference year 1990. While emissions from other sectors such as energy or industry have decreased significantly since then, emissions from transportation remained stable. Among the various modes of transportation, passenger cars and commercial vehicles are by far the largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions. As of January 2019, 99.7% of heavy-duty trucks registered in Germany run on diesel while the number of alternative fuel- powered passenger cars increases steadily. Apart from rising emissions, the industry faces a severe shortage of qualified truck drivers. According to the German Association of Freight Forwarders and Logistics Companies, the industry was facing a shortage of 45,000 drivers in Germany in 2017 with increasing tendency due to higher trade volumes and e-commerce.
This dissertation aims to discuss the transition of road transport in Germany toward innovative heavy-duty trucks. The main body of this dissertation consists of three research papers each of them focusing on autonomous and/or alternative fuel-powered heavy-duty trucks. The first research paper presents the results of a Delphi study with experts from industry and academia on factors affecting the purchasing decision and operation of alternative fuel-powered heavy-duty trucks in Germany. In the second study, a choice-based conjoint experiment with employees from freight companies was conducted to test how customers value the main attributes of innovative heavy-duty trucks. The Generalized Bass diffusion model was applied in the third study to investigate the future diffusion of battery electric heavy-duty trucks considering total-cost-of-ownership reduction effects.
By building on foundations from psychology, we aim to enhance academic understanding of the advising process in family businesses. We find evidence, based on rich qualitative data, suggesting that trust serves as a key construct in the relationship between family businesses and their advisors. In particular, we empirically show and theorize that trusting relationships evolve via a nonlinear process characterized by a constant interplay between cognitive and—increasingly important—affective assessments of family business trustors. The following types of trust emerge from these internal assessments: an intention to trust, which develops into perceived trust and finally results in behavioral trust.
Die zeitnahe, transparente und nachhaltige Verbreitung nachprüfbarer wissenschaftlicher Ergebnisse ist eine der wesentlichen Anforderungen an die wissenschaftliche Kommunikation und Infrastruktur. Open Access, also die offene und kostenfreie Nutzung von wissenschaftlicher Literatur, ist hierfür die Grundvoraussetzung. Hochschulen und Universitäten sind in der Regel die Institutionen, an denen Wissenschaftler neue Forschungsergebnisse erzeugen und zur Veröffentlichung als Buch vorbereiten. Neben klassischen Wissenschaftsverlagen veröffentlichen daher immer mehr Hochschulverlage wissenschaftliche Publikationen. Das vorliegende Handbuch beschreibt einen nachhaltigen, allgemeingültigen State-of-the-Art-Workflow zur Herstellung und Distribution von akademischen Büchern, der es Hochschulen und Universitäten ermöglicht, bei weitest möglicher Verbreitung, Sichtbarkeit und Zugänglichkeit eigene Forschungsarbeiten und Graduierungsschriften in digitaler Form im Open Access und als gedrucktes Buch zu veröffentlichen. Dieses Workflow-Modell wird anhand ausgewählter Fallbeispiele als Proof of Concept demonstriert und spiegelt den aktuellen Stand der derzeit im Verlagsbereich technischen und wirtschaftlichen Möglichkeiten wider. Anhand der Fallbeispiele wurden zudem der Zeit-, Kosten- und Personalaufwand erfasst, sodass anderen Hochschulen und Universitäten Anhaltspunkte für nötige Investitionen bei der Gründung und dem Betrieb eigener OA-Hochschulverlage gegeben werden.
With the start of digitalization and the initiation of a whole new industry of digital services, some of the well-established marketing wisdoms are now under scrutiny. This also holds for the importance of customer win-back for any firm – a belief that has actually never really been questioned. While related research focuses on mature industries and highlights the profitability of win-back, to date no study known to the authors has addressed the role of reacquired customers compared to first-lifetime customers in the interplay of acquisition and retention for digital firms. This is especially important when assessing firms’ current winback strategy and forecasting the development of acquisition and retention success of reacquired compared to first-lifetime customers. This study proposes a win-back assessment framework that enables firms to assess their win-back strategy and to detect problems in acquisition or retention of first-lifetime and reacquired customers. The authors demonstrate the use of framework on transaction data from a digital subscription service and data from a field experiment with that same service provider. They analyze the data from a new analytical perspective compared to extant research, which they call “cohort perspective” and jointly investigates acquisition and retention of first-lifetime and reacquired customers, who started their subscription around the same time (i.e. cohort). The results show the need for the cohort perspective by unveiling the contradiction that reacquired customers can “live” longer than in their previous lifetime (on average 328 days), but that they “live” shorter than first-lifetime customers of the same cohort ( ̶ 19%). The authors explain the rationale of this observation and discuss its implications.
Open versus closed organizational design options of sharing economy models and sharing communities
(2018)
With the recent emergence of the sharing economy, novel and complex organizational forms are founded on individuals and sharing communities that micro-manage and self-organize their own, private resources for social or commercial outcomes within an organizational scope.
These novel and complex forms reflect sharing economy models which are designed along a range from decentralization to centralization. In decentralized designs, individuals control and organize their own, private resources in sharing communities. In centralized designs, the organization controls and organizes the resources which are shared within communities.
This dissertation addresses the complexity of sharing economy models by exploring them on the organizational, the individual and the system level.
On the organizational level, this dissertation specifies the various configurations of sharing economy models. These configurations are based on representative design options which are traded off between decentralization and centralization. The Sharing Economy Spectrum is conceptualized as framework which integrates these characteristics-based design options. On the individual level, this dissertation focuses on how individuals’ resource endowment and trust in organization builders, in community members and in institutions individually influence individuals’ expectations regarding the beneficiaries of a sharing economy model. A regression model and a couple of hypotheses are developed and explored through a survey conducted at the Philippine social organization Gawad Kalinga.
On the system level, this dissertation acknowledges the sharing economy as a socioeconomic ecosystem and addresses the leadership paradox that resources are decentralized but require central leadership. Complexity leadership theory captures sharing economy models as complex adaptive systems whose leadership is organized for a common purpose. The specific roles of dynamic interaction and trust for complexity leadership are explored jointly with social entrepreneurship and sharing economy research. An ethnography with Gawad Kalinga reveals a novel complexity leadership model that fosters bottom-up leadership.
The Veblen effect revisited
(2018)
We examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic decline expected in Germany in 2020. The magnitude of the economic slump that will occur in 2020 depends on the extent of the slump during the shutdown, on the point in time, at which a significant easing of shutdown occurs, and on the length of adjustment process towards the structures that prevailed before the pandemic. We derive several scenarios and find that the shutdown will only remain in the single-digit percentage range if we apply very optimistic assumptions about the extent of the initial decline in GDP during the shutdown and the speed of adjustment after opening up of the economy. However, assuming that the economic crisis cannot end before the medical crisis ends, which medical experts project not to happen before the end of 2020, such optimistic assumptions do not appear realistic. Hence, we find it more likely that the percentage decline of GDP in Germany will be two-digit in 2020. Our findings are in contrast to the growth projections recently issued by the German Council of Economic Experts or by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany.
ERM für Koha mit CORAL
(2020)
Neuerungen in Koha 20.05
(2020)
Neuerungen in Koha 19.11
(2020)
Tu Felix Koha
(2020)
This paper documents that ECB announcements on monetary policy increase stock market volatility in the euro area (EA) using several volatility measures from January 1999 to December 2019. Employing event study methods, a more pronounced impact exists following the global financial crisis starting in 2007. All assets react similarly so that no national peculiarities arise. The effects also spill over to 12 non-EA markets analyzed. Stock markets are more sensitive to negative monetary policy news than to positive ones. Further weighting the announcements by financial market reactions, stock markets behave in a more heterogeneous way.
In e-commerce, customers are usually offered a menu of home delivery time windows of which they need to select exactly one, even though at least some customers may be more exible. To exploit the exibility of such customers, we propose to introduce exible delivery time slots, defined as any combination of such regular time windows (not necessarily adjacent). In selecting a exible time slot (out of a set of windows that form the exible product), the customer agrees to be informed only shortly prior to the dispatching of the delivery vehicle in which regular time window the goods will arrive. In return for providing this exibility, the company may offer the customer a reduced delivery charge and/or highlight the environmental benefits. Our framework also can accommodate customized exible slots where customers can self-select a set of regular slots in which a delivery may take place.
The vehicle routing problem (VRP) in the presence of exible time slots bookings corresponds to a VRP with multiple time windows. We build on literature on demand management and vehicle routing for attended home delivery, as well as on exible products. These two concepts have not yet been combined, and indeed the results from the exible products literature do not carry over directly because future expected vehicle routing implications need to be taken into account. The main methodological contribution is the development of a tractable linear programming formulation that links demand management decisions and routing cost implications, whilst accounting for customer choice behavior. The output of this linear program provides information on the (approximate) opportunity cost associated with specific orders and informs a tractable dynamic pricing policy for regular and exible slots. Numerical experiments, based on realistically-sized scenarios, indicate that expected profit may increase significantly depending on demand intensity when adding exible slots rather than using only regular slots.
The profession of anaesthesia technologist is a relatively new profession in Germany. The German hospital Association published the first training guideline in 2011. Likewise the surgical technologist profession, the profession of anaesthesia technologists are not officially certified. Hence, similar disadvantages such as further career restrictions and uncertainties in case of unemployment exist. Even the hospitals need to cover the full training expenses. The training of an anaesthesia technologist lasts three years, containing of practical work experience within the anaesthesia units such as the post-anaesthesia caring unit and a theoretical education. The action site is limited to the anaesthesia units only. An anaesthesia technologist is an assistant to the doctor and takes care of the patient before, during and after the anaesthesia. Since the anaesthesia technologist profession is a very young profession group, little is known about the preferences of this group. However, hospital manager need to understand the individual preferences to be able to provide a target group tailored recruitment.
The motivation was to provide results to inform the human resource management of hospitals about the preferences of the very young profession group of anaesthesia technologist with respect to contribute to a successful development of this profession in order to cope with the current labour shortage crisis.
Research Report 2008
(2008)
Research Report 2010
(2010)
Risiko in Firma und Familie
(2018)
In the transformation driven by technology and stream-video challenges, media giants have taken acquisition strategies to uphold their current status and seek for vertical business expansion via entering content creation area. AT&T, the telecom and media giant, initiated an acquisition of Time Warner in October 2016 at a bid of USD 85bn, which was considered as the biggest M&A deal that year worldwide. But the process was blocked mainly by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and stagnant for nearly 2 years. In June 2018, the vertical merger was approved by the U.S. District Judge and completed on 14.06.2018. Concerns about legitimate regulation should be largely taken into account of the evaluation of success of acquisitions.
Deal Logic Linde / Praxair
(2018)
Currently in news for the last moment approval from the Federal Trade Commission to make the Praxair and Linde merger a reality, the development of the deal has not been short of hurdles. Initially, Praxair-Linde faced resistance from the European Union under the accusation that the merger would hinder competition. Later, both companies had to undertake multiple selling transactions to meet the anti-trust requirements of the countries in which they operated. Praxair and Linde were finally able to meet the requirements in early November for a successful completion of the merger.
Linde and Praxair, the world’s no. 2 and no. 3 industrial gas suppliers respectively, were in the spotlight due to the size of the merger and the impact that it would have on the gas industry, almost making them a monopoly firm.
E.ON SE intends to acquire Innogy SE from its competitor RWE AG based on a comprehensive exchange of business activities. The acquisition was announced in the first quarter of 2018 and is expected to be finalized late 2019. Next key milestones are the closing of a public takeover offer to minority shareholders and the approval of relevant antitrust and regulatory authorities. On the one hand, the merger will directly affect existing structures in the German energy market, helping both companies, E.ON and RWE, to significantly strengthen their respective core businesses. On the other hand, however, potential disadvantaged parties include Innogy itself, employees, municipalities and end customers.
Amazon is entering the stationary food trade in the US on a large scale. The world's largest online retailer acquires the organic chain Whole Foods Market for around USD 13.6bn. It is by far the largest acquisition in the company's history only followed by its purchase of the video game streaming platform Twitch and the online pharmacy PillPack, each for approximately USD 1 bn. Amazon had put pressure on stationary retailers in recent years and has shown an increasing interest in getting involved in their own business. Amazon opened several bookstores and also drives plans for high-tech supermarkets, which can be operated by only few employees. The group has also been expanding in the fresh food trade and the insurance sector for some time.
Deal Logic WABCO / ZF
(2019)
Anticipating future developments is not only a key task of every successful management team but also one of the most challenging ones. Sometimes, the pace of the markets towards a specific development can surpass the capable speed of change within a firm. In this case, acquisitions are a good option to not fall behind new or more agile competitors. The electrification of the automotive industry calls for new, innovative parts beyond the combustion engine. Due to the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) low Real Net Output Ratio, the automotive suppliers will be required to do most of the anticipation. ZF Friedrichshafen AG (ZF) is betting on breaks to be vital demand driver of the future, with their acquisition of WABCO Holdings Inc. (WABCO).
Deal Logic Sprint / T-Mobile
(2019)
The two major US mobile operators, T-Mobile US Inc (T-Mobile) and Sprint Corp (Sprint), announced the merger of both firms in April 2018. The merger was initiated by T-Mobile that recently ranked as the third largest player in the US mobile telecommunication market. The transaction supports T-Mobile's aim to build the most extensive mobile network with the highest transmission capacity until 2024.
Deutsche Telekom AG and SoftBank will hold 42.0% and 27.0% of the new firm respectively. As a consequence of the deal, the new entity will challenge the top two market leaders Verizon and AT&T and reform the current telecommunication business landscape in the USA.
Deal Logic Shire / Takeda
(2019)
After a long bidding phase, the Japanese pharma company Takeda is going to take over the Ireland based manufacturer and wholesaler of pharmaceutical products Shire PLC. In the fifth attempt, Takeda offered USD 62 bn. The acquisition will create a leading provider of drugs for the treatment of rare diseases, cancer, blood clotting disorders, neurological disorders, or gastroenterology. With Shire, Takeda would double the size of their pharmaceutical business to about USD 30 bn, making it one of the top ten pharma companies worldwide. The takeover is the second biggest the pharmaceutical industry has seen so far and the largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese company.
Disrupt yourself to avoid getting disrupted: Large firms struggling with further growth, acquiring smaller innovation drivers with complementary assets isn’t something new. But what is hard, in this context, is to justify the surging valuations and to identify the underlying synergies. When it comes to the High-Tech sector this can quickly become a philosophical question. The big question in the acquisition of Red Hat Inc. by IBM, analyzed in this Deal Logic, is the one concerning the future of cloud computing, especially when it comes to customer approval.
Deal Logic LVMH / Belmond
(2019)
In the recent past, the demand for luxury experiences has grown. An increase in the middle and upper class disposable income, changes in lifestyle patterns, and demand for unique and exotic holiday experiences have been the forefront drivers. The global luxury travel market is expected to garner USD 1.2tr by 2022. Epitomising desirable destinations, luxurious accommodations, convenient transport facilities, and authentic travel experience, the luxury travel market has great future potential to grow and diversify. Customization and personalization gain increasing importance in luxury tourism. Also, the concept of luxury travel changes from opulence to exclusive. Synonymous with luxury, LVMH bets on the future of this market that is increasingly going experiential. Belmond would help it increase its luxury image. It would benefit from a luxury perception with both tangible and experiential products in its portfolio.
Fiserv (NASDAQ: FISV) and First Data Corporation (NYSE: FDC) coannounced on Jan 16th an unanimous merger agreement under which Fiserv would acquire First Data in a pure-stock transaction. The merger would combine two well-established Fintech companies into one giant. For each share of First Data, a fixed exchange ratio of 0.303 Fiserv shares is agreed, for a total equity value of USD 22bn. After the close of the transaction, Fiserv shareholders will own 57.5% of the new combined company, and First Data shareholders will own 42.5% on a fully diluted basis. The pure stock transaction is intended to be tax-free to First Data shareholders. The transaction is slated to close in the second half of the year, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.
Deal Logic Careem / Uber
(2019)
Confirmed in March 2019, Uber plans to acquire its Middle Eastern rival Careem in a deal worth USD 3.1bn. The transaction value is expected to be a record for a Middle Eastern tech startup exit and among the highest globally for ride-hailing mergers and acquisitions. As part of this deal, which is expected to close in early 2020, Uber will acquire Careem’s mobility, delivery and payments business across the greater Middle Eastern region, which includes operations in Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. After pulling out of major markets like China and selling its business in Southeast Asia to Grab last March, Uber has been seeking new avenues of growth.
Deal Logic BB&T / SunTrust
(2019)
Two regional retail banks merging to become the 6th largest bank in the US sounds very much like inorganic growth. After all, that is how Chemical Bank, Manufacturer's Hanover Trust Company, Chase Manhattan Bank and J.P. Morgan became one of the largest banks in the world today. But an aspect which is more relevant today than ever is inorganic growth enabling organic growth. Scalability applies to technology on the revenue side as well as on the cost side and gives larger banks a crucial competitive advantage. The strategic option of consolidation seems to be something which was long overdue, considering the dynamic market environment.
In this competitive world, a company has to keep evolving – either by expansion and/or by diversification. Particularly looking at the sporting industry, the former nowadays is a necessity. With a market size of USD 60bn, the global sporting goods market is growing rapidly. Every company in the industry has to be agile to avoid being disrupted. The acquisition of Amer Sports by Anta Sports reflects this line of thought. Founded three decades ago as a low-cost manufacturer for global brands, Anta is now aiming to rival Adidas and Nike with its planned USD 6.3bn takeover.
As a giant in the entertainment space, you have the power to influence not only the kind of content you roll out, but also the mediums on which the content can be offered. With the growing presence of online streaming platforms, the need to make yourself and your content relevant is ever increasing. Under looming concerns of a possible monopoly in the entertainment sector, Disney's purchase of 21st Century Fox has effects on the entertainment industry in the long run. With expectations of downsizing operations and possible large scale lay-offs, the real-world implications of the buyout aren't exactly lighthearted fun.
After a period of unchallenged market leadership in the segment of PC soft- and hardware, Microsoft faced increasing pressure from its competitors after 2010. Following this increase Microsoft initiated a new strategic alignment in recent years.
With more than 230 acquisitions Microsoft exhibits an extensive history of M&A transactions. In order to support its strategic shift, Microsoft announced in June 2013 its biggest deal with the acquisition of LinkedIn, bidding $26.2 billon.
Looking back on Microsoft's deal history, especially due to value destroying deals like the acquisition of Nokia's device segment, experts are sceptical whether Microsoft is able to generate value for shareholders.
Supply chain complexity
(2019)
Supply chain management (SCM) is known as a competitive strategy in today’s business. Through increasing product variety, structures and processes, managers struggle with an increase in supply chain complexity (SCC), which leads to a negative influence on a firm’s efficiency in terms of lead times, flexibility and costs. In order to manage complexity, supply chain managers need to know its drivers or define appropriate management measures. However, managers can no longer manage SCC internally. In order to cope with this challenging issue and achieve overall benefits, it is necessary that the complete supply chain is involved in optimising supply chain processes. An aligned supply chain should ensure that supply chain partners benefit from cost savings. At the same time, supply chain processes should be agile to respond to market volatility, while also being cost-efficient to survive in the highly competitive world.
In this dissertation, three research cases are conducted with different focus areas whereby first drivers for internal and external SCC are explored in a single case study. In order to gain a representative overview of relevant drivers, not only interviews with top managers from a manufacturer are held but also with key managers from suppliers and customers. With the interviews held from the upstream to downstream supply chain, this part of the dissertation sheds light on topical SCC drivers and provides some hypotheses for managing detailed and dynamic SCC. With this case, an academic contribution is provided to better understand the relevance of SCC.
In a second step, another qualitative study addresses the requirements of a supply chain. The basis for this part is the triple-A supply chain of Hau Lee (2004), where he states from a theoretical perspective the prerequisites of a supply chain, namely agility, adaptability and alignment. In this dissertation, this approach is reviewed from a managerial perspective. It is analysed which key performance indicators of a firm are affected by the three aforementioned qualities. Finally, it is presented how agility, adaptability and alignment are linked together. In order to gain a common understanding, semi-structured interviews are conducted to extend literature through managerial experience.
In a third step, a quantitative simulation creating a discrete-event simulation model is provided to evaluate inventory and logistics costs’ effects in a company that faces significant SCC. The target is to align the supply chain by changing the existing distribution channel to direct delivery. The result shall demonstrate the financial benefit for the supply chain partners, as well as illustrating the conditions and risks when changing supply chain processes.
This dissertation shows that companies are increasingly faced by SCC. In order to respond flexibly to market volatility, supply chains must be agile to ensure that financial risk shall not alarm a company’s existence. Therefore, it is recommended to align the supply chain with a collaborative supply chain model.
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