Bücher von Vanessa Ostertag

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1.0, LMU Munich, language: English, abstract: This paper deals with structural challenges arising for organizational change after corporate scandals.Corporate scandals have become an increased phenomenon and corresponding information spreads progressively fast in times of digital and social media. These can pose an extreme threat to organizations¿ legitimacy and reputation and thus, endanger their performance and survival chances. Nevertheless, there are still many examples of ¿bad handling¿ and organizations seemingly do not know how to cope with such incidents correctly. The way organizations and their environments perceive and respond to a scandal constitutes a decisive factor concerning its outcome and consequences.Despite the extreme threat and inevitable harm that arise out of corporate scandals, they can be seen as triggering events that generate a chance for fundamental and beneficial organizational change. The corresponding literature on crisis management focuses on response strategies to improve perceptions of the organization. To substantially solve and permanently prevent the reoccurrence of such an incident, however, fundamental change in the organization¿s practices and behavior is necessary. This research question is addressed with an integrated approach to exploit both, knowledge from theory on crisis and change management as well as business practice and reality. In order to develop practical guidelines for organizations and to demonstrate how theoretically developed recommendations may look like and can be implemented in practical reality, this paper includes a case study. The theoretical approach is thereby enriched by an analysis of the Siemens AG after their bribery scandal in 2006. As result of the research, a framework is developed that should serve as a guideline for an effective handling of corporate scandals. Therein, implications from theory and practice are combined and both, the organization¿s direct response to the scandal as well as the management of the subsequent change, are considered. The main goal of this response and change effort is to recreate a perception of integrity to regain support both from the outside as well as from the organization¿s inside.

Master's Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Business economics - Company formation, Business Plans, grade: 1.0, Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics, language: English, abstract: Recent years have seen the rapid emergence of a new format of corporate-startup engagement: the corporate accelerator program. This format aims to support early-stage ventures to overcome their initial challenges, while fostering corporate innovation within established firms. Extant literature has emphasized the importance of networking for entrepreneurs to increase their chances of survival. Accordingly, networking opportunities constitute a major reason for startups to join an accelerator. To date, research on corporate accelerators has remained scarce and left it unclear how networking happens in this context. This thesis sheds light upon why and how startups network within corresponding programs and explores the implications of corporate accelerators on entrepreneurial networking. An inductive, multiple case study of six startups that graduated from different programs in Germany was performed. The results revealed four mechanisms that corporate accelerators provide to foster networking: pitch events, expert mentoring, referrals and physical proximity. These mechanisms were used differently given the participants¿ stage of product development and prior network support. Interestingly, an initial exploratory study unveiled two distinct types of corporate accelerators: ¿innovation vehicle¿ and ¿investment vehicle¿ programs. The type of program appeared to shape the configuration of the four mechanisms and thus the opportunities and possible networking outcomes for participating startups. In general, corporate accelerator programs seem to increase intensity, efficiency and successfulness of startups¿ network tie formation. This study enhances the theoretical understanding of corporate accelerators and contributes to the literature on entrepreneurial networking. It further provides valuable insights for program operators and potential startup participants.

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1.3, LMU Munich (Institute for Strategy, Technology and Organization), language: English, abstract: The primary aim of this paper is to address the question of how the membership of a multi-vendor loyalty program influences the consumers¿ online purchase behavior and process. The issue is approached by applying it to the appropriate case of Payback, Germany¿s largest and most popular multi-vendor loyalty program.To do so, I conducted open-ended interviews with informants that were experienced both concerning online purchasing as well as dealing with the loyalty program. The data analysis thereby revealed how the respective loyalty program exerts influence on the online consumers¿ behavior within different phases of their purchase process. During the second stage of the analysis two prototypic extended purchase processes were established which depend on the characteristics and typology of the online consumers. These findings enlarge the comprehension about the effectiveness of such programs and extend prior research on consumers¿ online decision making. It is further shown that for an operator of a multi-vendor loyalty program it is crucial to create an understanding about the motives as well as the way its members use the program differently. Through this knowledge the operator can provide better and more suitable incentives adapted for different types of program members and can thus improve the customer approach. Thereby, the effectiveness of a multi-vendor loyalty program can be influenced and increased even before the actual purchase process takes place.The paper is organized as follows: First, I will give a brief overview over the past research on multi-vendor loyalty programs and will show that the existing literature has to be extended to fully understand the effectiveness of such programs. To investigate the way consumers integrate the loyalty program within their online purchase process and thus to illustrate the divergence compared to the standard process of non-members, prior studies on consumers¿ online purchase behavior are reviewed. Subsequently, the rationale and the setting of the study are described and empirical results are presented and further explained. The paper concludes with theoretical and practical contributions as well as the study limitations.