av akademikerverlag mär 2012 (652 résultats)

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -In the recent past the smartphone market has developed rapidly and new suppliers have entered the market. The operators as channel partners have to decide how to shape and market their mobile phone portfolio. This paper explores the competitive landscape of the mobile smartphone market and the roles of the participating market players. Special attention is also given to the high technical complexity and an overview on the state-of-the-art technical systems is given. The objective of this master thesis is to give an outlook on the future smartphone market in terms of market shares and to explore the underlying influencing factors and future main applications. For the forecast and rating of influence factors a Delphi study was conducted among experts. On the one hand, the market shares were estimated and on the other, the most important influencing factors and future applications for the residential and business segment were rated.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 96 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Probes in design research evoke personal responses from people's everyday lives in order to gain a holistic view of participants. Different types or technologies for using probes as a design research method were developed after they had first been mentioned, but hardly any guidelines or recommendations for designing probes or discussions about applying probes exist in the literature. Therefore, providing frameworks for characterizing probes and guidelines about options and decisions in the design process is the main goal of the thesis. Three developed frameworks show characteristics of probes comprising use of probes, probe tasks and strategies in the design process. The application of these frameworks to existing case studies resulted in frequently used characteristics of probes and combinations of probe characteristics. Moreover, characteristics of probes are understood in different or similar ways by researchers. As probe characteristics are combinable in all possible ways and different assumptions of the utility of probes exist, the need for recommendations for designing, applying and analyzing probes is enhanced. Guidelines about options in the design process from design to evaluation and decisions in designing probe tasks have been created in order to facilitate the designer/researcher in conducting a probe study.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 116 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -With the appearance of a Community-Based Tourism (CBT), in 1994, supported Namibian communities are getting significant control over and benefits from the industry. The aim of the thesis is to investigate if the growth in CBT leads to considerable socio-cultural impacts on the host population, using the Himba and the Ovambo tribe as case studies. The study reveals that the socio-cultural capacity has not been overexploited. The casual earnings have contributed to human and physical capital and to community and women empowerment. On the negative social side, there have appeared inter-generational misunderstandings, jealousies, imitation effects and the collective traditional life-style is being altered. In the cultural field, the arts and crafts are being recovered, transmitted and therefore the cultural identify has been strength. Several traditional crafts have been altered. Besides, through the gained skills, new kinds of decorative arts have been developed. Finally, there is required a regularly monitoring in tourism impacts and a major socio-anthropological involvement in order to comprehend the effects of tourism in general and the CBT in particular.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 120 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -For many Central and Eastern European (CEE) transition countries, the early years of the post-communist era were characterized by considerable financial instability, recurring currency depreciations, and chronic inflation. Then, over the last decade or so, the situation has calmed down considerably. Drawing upon the politico-economic literature on the credibility of monetary policy making, this thesis analyzes the role of political and institutional variables in explaining relative annual exchange rate movements. In the empirical core of the analysis, a series of multiple linear regression models is estimated on the basis of a pooled time-series cross-sectional dataset of 15 CEE countries between 1994 and 2010. It is shown that political and institutional factors constitute an important part of the credibility profile of the countries under study. A stringent exchange rate arrangement, an independent central bank, or a move to abolish capital controls represented reliable means to enhance monetary credibility and trigger capital inflows. It therefore clearly proves worthwhile to reach beyond the narrow focus on macroeconomic fundamentals, when currency movements are to be explained.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 84 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -The book focuses on the performance improvements of Location Based Services in the cross delivery process through the application of mobile devices. Due to the appliance of proprietary and not interconnected IT systems in companies, arise media breaks and as a consequence no continuous information flow along processes. The interruption of information flows make processes non transparent and therefore increase the uncertainty within the supply chain. The trend towards smart phones and constant internet access make the availability of location- and content related information pervasive. Hence, LBS can be utilized in modern tracking and tracing systems to monitor vehicles in real time and also the goods loaded. With the integrated navigation systems in mobile devices it is also pre-dict the estimated time of arrival and react appropriate on unexpected events (e.g. traffic jams) All the data can be shared with other participants what significantly improves the transparency for the whole supply chain.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 96 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -The usage of social media platforms is still growing and that since years. Also companies started or would like to start their activities within the social media platforms. Only on Facebook, one of the most famous social media platform, more than 800 million users (Facebook, 2011) worldwide are active. This figure shows, that the topic social media gets more and more important, also for the companies. They can reach a lot of users at one time without realizing a very expensive marketing campaign. But social media platforms are also risky in regards to privacy issues, unwanted data loss or identity thefts. In order to minimize these risks, a proper social media governance and policy have to be in place. As social media is quite new for business usage, no good practices for creating them is available. This master thesis closes this gap and provides the companies a clear and complete good practice for an effective social media governance and policy.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 92 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -This book describes different methods for the development of domain specific automation systems for fish farms. To enhance the software development process a software product line was adopted. Fish farm automation systems can be produced more efficiently by using a code generating approach. Systems are modeled with a high level domain specific language, that allows to produce high-quality automation systems in less time. The installation of fish farm automation systems is significantly simplified. Generated documentation, including an electrical installation plan, provides a good basis for the hardware installation of the system. The generated software includes an extensive test mode which allows for easier detection of errors occurring during the installation and operation. With the proposed software product line costs in the fish farm automation caused by system installation and maintenance work can be saved.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 96 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Increased investment and interest in solar technologies have led to diversification in the large scale solar power plant market. With increasing options comes the challenge of selecting the optimum solution for the corresponding project location and specifications. Considered in this report are Fresnel, Parabolic Trough and Photovoltaic type solar power plants. The financing structure, along with current cost information, is considered in such a way as to provide a standard and fair comparison across the technologies. In order to perform the calculations, a software tool was developed to calculate the annual energy outputs of the various plants (at differing locations) and, with the developed investment costs, to calculate the resulting Levelized Electricity Cost (LEC) ¿ the basis of comparison in this report.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 76 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. Knowledge has been regarded as an important economic ressource in the past decades; numerous scientists and corporations are therefore engaged in knowledge management. However, corporations still face difficulties in storing and distributing valuable knowledge. Therefore, employees often spend a lot of time searching for relevant knowledge within internal information systems. This book shows how the information overload can be mastered with the help of personalized knowledge portals offering all employees exactly the information they need for their tasks. The author Eva Oberbichler first explains essential tasks of knowledge management and states which of these tasks can be supported by knowledge portals. Subsequently, she deduces requirements of knowledge portals and shows how these requirements, particularly personalization, can be met. In this context, she compares four different personalization methods to facilitate the decision for one of these methods. This book is targeted at corporations wishing to build or personalize a knowledge portal, as well as at economists and business data processing specialists.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 84 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Considering the growing pollution of the natural environment, one can come to the conclusion that current business practices are not designed for guaranteeing a bright future. Therefore, in business markets ¿ especially in the mechanical engineering industry ¿ moving towards environmental sustainability becomes increasingly crucial for business success. This book reveals, how ¿environmental sustainability¿ can be implemented and used effectively as a complementary B2B marketing message. At the beginning of this paper, defining the concept of sustainability and green marketing laid the basis for further investigation. By means of an extensive literature review and primary research ¿ conducted among managers of the Austrian mechanical engineering industry ¿ the use of environmental sustainability in the marketing mix, possible benefits and challenges, and aspects, which need to be considered when implementing a green marketing strategy, could be identified. Finally, all results contributed to the creation of a guideline for marketers, concerning how to successfully integrate and use such a strategy.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 136 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Virtual, social networks are indispensable in today's day - being essential to keep in touch with family and friends. However, it is very important to take care about which private information is provided to the public. This book is about ¿Social Networks: Information and Virtual Goods¿ and deals specifically with the subject of reading out users' information and virtual currencies inside a virtual social network. Furthermore, the growing of virtual social networks will be exposed. The description of genesis is based on virtual worlds and shows the transition to virtual, social platforms. In the following sections, some platforms will be described and compared to each other in detail. In addition the topic of this book is to find a way for reading out users¿ private information and data for usage in other applications. Using the example of a well-known virtual, social platform called Facebook the basics how to develop an application used in this network will be explained. After this section the user will be able to create an application independently.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 128 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. After the Mexican, Asian, and Russian financial crisis, the phenomenon of contagion became increasingly important. Existing studies indicate that various explanations for the transmission of crises exist. This book gives an overview over theories that try to explain contagion caused by portfolio flows of international investors. Theories such as the occurrence of information cascades, the effects of international portfolio diversification and optimization, the importance of information asymmetries, cross-market re-balancing effects, risk aversion, and wealth effects are discussed in detail. The analysis suggests that information asymmetries and changes in risk aversion hold an important role in explaining contagious sellouts. The book addresses itself to economists, policy makers as well as portfolio and fund manager.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 88 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. In business life not only the existence of a well developed strategy and marketing plan is crucial to the success of an enterprise. A further important factor, which is often underestimated, is the allocation of information within an organisation as well as through the whole value chain. This book, firstly, defines the key terms of the information management and gives an overview about its general problems in a practical business context. Its main concern is not the theoretical explanation of types of data banks or the programming of such a data bank, which common literature describes. It is rather the providing of appropriate tools of the information management and the establishing of more efficient methods to deal with the daily business. In addition, the measurement of costs and benefits of such an optimisation is subject to this book. A practical example concludes the topic. Managers of small and medium sized enterprises will find here a different perspective of leading an organisation. Students and consultants, who are dealing with the management of information and data flow are addressed, too.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 84 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. Das Prinzip der periodengerechten Erfolgsermittlung erfordert, dass im Rahmen eines Jahresabschlusses sog. Accruals generiert werden, die die zahlungsunwirksamen Komponenten des Jahreserfolgs repräsentieren und zu einer Steigerung der Relevanz von zukunftsgerichteten Informationen des externen Rechnungswesens beitragen. Dabei gilt es zu ermitteln, wie nachhaltig (persistent) sich die bereitgestellten Informationen hinsichtlich künftiger Überschussgrößen (Gewinne, Cash Flow) erweisen, da deren Prognose im Rahmen der Bewertung von Unternehmen eine zentrale Rolle zukommt. Ziel dieses Buches ist es, die unterschiedliche Bewertungsrelevanz von Accruals aus finanzwirtschaftlicher und bilanzpolitischer Perspektive zu erörtern und diese im Vergleich zum Cash Flow darzustellen. Dazu werden zunächst unterschiedliche Herleitungsansätze zur Bestimmung von Accrual Größen erläutert, um im Anschluss zu untersuchen, inwieweit Accruals und Cash Flow sich in ihren Persistenzeigenschaften voneinander unterscheiden, und ob die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse von Marktteilnehmern entsprechend antizipiert werden.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 92 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. This study examines the impact of sport sponsorship on consumer perception and the way in which it impacts on the relationship with the customer in a business-to-business (b2b) situation. The potential to enhance or change brand image and increase awareness through sport sponsorship is well recognised. However, it is often criticised for not being implemented strategically despite the investment required. In addition, available literature fails to distinguish between b2b and b2c despite the fact that motives for the two different relationships often differ significantly. Consequently this study investigates the aims, effects and strategies of sport sponsorship in order to achieve specific corporate marketing objectives. The research is centred on a German b2b company with the aim of developing insights and conclusions on the b2b segment generally. This research study identifies the use of sport sponsorship as a way in which it is used to both create image and intensify customer relationships through emotion and discusses how companies might wish to consider sport sponsorship as part of their overall marketing strategy. This research would be of interest to anyone involved or wishing to be involved in either the academic or practicing field of b2b sport sponsorship, particularly those in determination and design of coporate strategy.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 100 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. Germany¿s population, and consequently its workforce is ageing. Fewer young people will enter the workforce and employers will be pressed to draw from an expanding pool of older people. As a consequence the working age population is projected to decline significantly; while the numbers of organisations depended on them will rise. At the same time, baby boomers are moving towards retirement and can not be replaced by middle-aged or younger workers. Facing impending talent shortages and a substantial loss of knowledge and experience, companies might have little choice but to implement new employment strategies. Regardless of specific industry conditions and circumstances the paper covers selected peripheral issues like attitudes and retirement intentions of older workers and the myths and stereotypes about them from a German perspective. It provides an overview of the German labour market, specifically the situation of older people, and how public policy has been responding to improve related conditions. Finally, minor and major interventions are presented to adapt human resource methods, work arrangements, and framework conditions.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 88 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. Rising competition within established markets induces major enterprises to search for new sales market. Unsaturated markets that bear potential growth and cheap but skilled labour come closer to the focus of companies. But different rules, culture and conditions have to be adopted in order to be successful. What is the best way to enter those markets that differ so much from the home market What strategy fits best to the companies goals China is thereby more and more in the focus of a companies internationalization strategy. What barriers have to be taken into consideration in general and for the Chinese economy The author Elisabeth Bilewicz describes potential market entry strategies and gives an overview about the pros and cons of each market entry form. Going more into detail she deals with market entry barriers and adapts them onto the Chinese economy. The market entry barrier analysis is thereby divided into three parts: the economical, cultural and organisational barriers. These subjects are discussed by means of the Porters Five Forces, Hofstedes cultural value dimensions and on the basis of the SWOT analysis.The book is addressed to economists, managers and decisions makers that are concerned with a market entry in general and especially into China.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 88 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. Most banks and the recently upcoming hedge fund industry rely to a different extent on technical trading rules and technical analysis. The fact that these technical trading rules yield superior returns in practice raises several questions that will be examined in this book. First, one of the most crucial questions is in which assets technical trading rules perform extraordinarily well. This analysis is based on a risk-return approach with an assessment of the negative standard deviation of each asset as a risk indicator. Second, the statistical significance of technical trading is examined by using a simulation method known as bootstrap. Third, null models are simulated to answer the question to what extent autoregressive models and GARCH models are able to capture the dependencies in the future time series. Finally, a rule optimizer algorithm is developed to assess if any rule parameters yield superior returns over a wide range of assets.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 92 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. One of the main and most controversial issues in competition policy is that of merger control. Work by academic researchers and practitioners during the last decades has resulted in laying a theoretical foundation for merger control and some practical applications for it have been developed, but many questions surrounding the concept remain to be answered. For example, what kinds of mergers are so harmful that they need to be prohibited by the state Ulrich Kirschner starts with a brief overview of the different effects a merger can have and then continues with a detailed exploration of practical assessment approaches. The work focuses on applied empirical methods, commonly used measures based on market structure, and on barriers to entry, setting out the advantages and disadvantages of each type of approach used for merger assessment. The concluding chapter deals with the specifics, and possible consequences, of the current European Competition Policy. The book, which is designed for the academic researcher and interested students, is a welcome contribution to the lively and important debate surrounding the vital topic of merger control in this age of globalization.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 76 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. Since the 1970s, securitization has become a major financial technique in the international financial arena. Most developed countries and some developing countries utilize it for financing and hedging credit risks. After the Basel II Accord was released in June 2004, true sale securitization transactions play an increasingly important role for banks to find cheap funding and therefore to gain or increase their competitiveness. All member states of the European Union will implement the Basel II Accord into their domestic laws. German banks and the German Federal Ministry of Finance are seeking new methods and policies to support them. The incentive for this study is provided by the similarities between the German and Chinese financial system. In addition, due to Chinäs commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO) China is under huge pressures to open its financial market to foreign banks. Analyzing the legal obstacles that lie in true sale securitization transactions in Germany, I will draw some useful conclusions for developing securitization in China.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 88 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. The cellular phone network has been increasing rapidly during the last years. For many people the mobile phone has become an every day gadget with a wide performance and functional range. The usage of technologies like GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE and UMTS as well as the bandwidth of networks and consequently the connectivity of the phones has also increased persistently. Coming along with that, three technologies, which are ubiquitous or pervasive computing, mobile and wireless networks and location-based technologies, are making rapid progress. The aim of this book is to offer an architecture for a context-aware user interface in the intersection of the three technologies mentioned above. The system should work with a minimum of special hardware requirement. Not to overload the user with information, the user interface should be adaptable, context-aware and location-based. The context-data should remain extendible and adaptable.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 96 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. With the rapidly evolving XML technology and thereby ever-increasing number of XML documents, the importance of providing efficient tools for managing these enormous amounts of data is rising every day. Native XML database systems are such tools. Like other XML database systems they need indices in order to provide efficient and fast access to the data. These indices represent redundant data structures in the database and therefore have to be kept consistent, whenever the underlying base data is manipulated. Updating fragments of an XML document with automated, transparent, and efficient index maintenance is the central theme of this book. Author Harald Burger first analyses the two most prominent existing proposals for XML updates, namely the W3C's proposed extension of XQuery with operations for data manipulation and XUpdate. He then introduces an efficient and simple way to keep the indices in an XML DBMS consistent: the Simple Update API for the native XML database management system Infonyte DBVDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 100 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. An Analysis of the M&A Market in Mainland China was developed on the back of practical experience and the lack of available market data. The book provides an introduction into the Mergers & Acquisitions business and analyses the M&A market in the Mainland of the People¿s Republic of China. Thereby it focuses on the development of cross-border transactions within recent years and the relevant Chinese influence factors. With a total of 695 announced domestic and cross-border transactions in 2004 China comes close to the Top 5 international M&A markets. The rapid volume growth supports the common acceptation in the Investment Banking environment that China will be one of the most attractive markets for Corporate Finance services in the following years. Therefore this book should give an insight into the historic development of M&A transactions with Chinese involvement and the current market situation. Thereby it focuses on country specific influence factors that have significant importance to M&A transactions. The book is geared towards researchers and professionals who require an in-depth understanding of the market development and the current regulatory environment.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 108 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. This booklet deals mainly with AFTA (ASEAN Free Trade Area) and its impact on the automotive industry, providing forecasting scenarios trying to picture the future. ASEAN has a lot of potential, which keeps growing; offering automotive manufacturers opportunities but also presenting threats.The implementation of AFTA and its tariff reduction or elimination is already affecting the automotive sector all over the world. For a better understanding of the automotive world in Asia and AFTA¿s impact, the automotive background and economy of each ASEAN member (in total 10 members) is described and illustrated, before and after the full implementation of AFTA, within ASEAN and then its spreading to further markets and continents. Interesting details like an overview of ASEAN¿s history and free trade agreements with other countries, Chinäs greed in this specific field or an emerging India is given to surround, complement and spice up the topic. Anyone who is interested in the automotive sector, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), its free trade area bringing along challenges for all car manufacturers in Asia would be pleased to go through these pages that go far beyond Southeast Asian borders.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 120 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. Russia's accession negotiations to the WTO have been dragging on for over a decade. An exact entry date has not been set as of the time of this writing. Various challenges remain which leave the largest accession candidate and former communist country as one of the few states outside the world trading system. What are the key challenges that need solving Is there a linkage to the country's economic past Do political reasons play a role The author introduces the topic by giving a comprehensive introduction to the WTO system as well as the formal accession process. Following a detailed analysis of the economic transition process, including the elements of liberalization, privatization, stabilization and institutional building gives an idea of Russia's economic particularities. Based on these findings, the investigation into Russia's current condition in the accession process gives an in-depth view of the country's current economic situation, its trading system and the challenged that need solving before becoming a member of the WTO. The book addresses university students, in particular in the field of economics and international studies, scholars and people interested in the topic of the international trading system.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 108 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. In the last decade, CEOs increasingly recognized that intangible assets may provide a more stable basis for competitive advantage than patents and technologies. Hence, companies started to invest in corporate PR to communicate good corporate behaviour, gain goodwill and improve their public perception. This book categorises and analyses approaches and techniques of more than 700 communication practitioners throughout Europe on how to use corporate reputation as a tool to gain competitive advantage. It details corporate reputation management strategies and their contribution to business success. One of the world's top 3 PR consultancies hosted the research that underpins this book, which presents powerful advice for industry professionals (i.e. PR consultancies). The author writes with the perspective of PR practitioners, journalists as well as Marketing and PR students in mind. CEOs may enjoy the factual research and tangible advice on how to convert corporate reputation into a valuable intangible asset that delivers competitive advantage.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 120 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 124 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. In the last few years, globalisation has brought about enormous changes to business life. Due to a continuous increase in the number of international companies, coping with cultural diversity becomes a central issue of the 21st century. France and Germany is a perfect example for the difficulties and problems, which may arise in working life due to cultural differences - as several mergers have shown. Although the two nations are very close to each other from a geographical point of view, there is still a wide gap between both cultures. Why do French people not adhere to deadlines Do business lunches have to be longer than absolutely necessary Starting from the basic terminology of intercultural competence and communication, the author Sarah-Jane Pill guides the reader through history and society of the two neighbouring countries. Furthermore, numerous practical examples about cultural patterns in various aspects of business life are analysed. Thus the reader is able to develop a valuable in-depth know-how leading to a profound intercultural understanding. This book addresses primarily French and German managers or employees who are working in a multicultural environment.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 92 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. In times of globalization, mergers & acquisitions, assignments of expatriates and negotiations with business partners from different cultures are on the day¿s agenda. The success of those international collaborations does not only depend on managing economic and legal obstacles. A large number of mergers & acquisitions fail. Many assignments of expatriates end before their contract termination. These problems, mostly arising from intercultural conflicts, go together with substantial costs for the persons and companies involved. Thus, management of diversity has increasingly become a topic for company personnel and business researchers. In order to better manage intercultural conflicts, i.e. to manage diversity, this investigation provides knowledge about the cultural influence on conflict behaviour. On the basis of culture, conflict and business research, practical implementations are shown, as managing intercultural conflict constructively means managing cultural-based conflict differences effectively. This book is targeted to business researchers, consultants, coaches and human resource departments.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 144 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Revision with unchanged content. Companies are competing in fast changing markets, characterised by high levels of variety and competition. Therefore they need two capabilities: the capability to understand their markets in terms of market drivers and market trends; and secondly the capability of a company and its supply chain to respond in a timely yet efficient manner. Managing such supply chains will be difficult without some degree of process integration and collaboration between supply chain partners. A first step is to know their own and that of their suppliers¿ performance capability. Michael Seitz¿s work was about constructing a performance measurement tool to identify the operational performance between adjacent members of a supply chain. The SCOR model was used as the basis of the Performance Measurement System. This was extended to include a Collaborative Index, an additional measurement which could assess the levels of supply chain integration and collaboration, and a Stability Index, which was developed to measure the robustness of the evaluated supply chain. This book is interesting for students and decision makers working in the area of supply chain who want to gain a deeper knowledge about measuring supply chain performance.VDM Verlag, Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken 104 pp. Englisch.