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Digital transformation, alongside social media channels, influences policymaking. The aim of this research is to build knowledge of the consequences of digital transformation on lobbying at German federal level. This analysis uncovers how digital lobbying works in Germany and how it changes classic lobbying communication within the political sphere. Taking a grounded theory approach, the study addresses both communicating sides: lobbyists, on the one hand, and members of the German Bundestag and their employees, on the other. A profound understanding of, and differentiation between, lobbying and digital lobbying is gained through a first data-gathering step of 15 interviews with representatives of both the political and lobbying sides. The study extends previous analyses by supplementing the findings with ethnographic data from the researcher¿s experience of working as an employee of a member of the German Bundestag. Final conclusions were drawn by presenting these results in the second data-gathering step, during four (digital) focus groups with the political side and three with agency, association, and corporate lobbyists from Berlin. The analysis uncovers a power shift in lobbying communication and a novel communication direction.

Global virtual teams have become essential in any organization in the past decade, but communication, cultural, and coordination issues often affect their performance. Trust is essential for team success, especially in global virtual teams. This book explores how leadership can establish and maintain trust in global virtual teams to improve cooperation and performance. It suggests that leaders should invest in trust by realizing the ethical focal point ¿do no (illegitimate) harm¿ realized by showing respect, providing orientation, setting framework conditions, and acting as role models with trustworthy behavior and consistent communication.

The objective of this book is to develop leadership principles from two directions - the scientific and the practical perspective - that are both application-oriented and universally applicable as well as effective and flow into a holistic leadership framework. Both the hermeneutic and the empirical analysis show that the basic principles of holistic, application-oriented, universally applicable and effective leadership can be described with the duality of transactional management and transformational leadership principles, taking into account core traits and alignment with follower needs. These in turn lead to a collection of essential principles of effective leadership known as the "eclectic leadership framework". The essential finding is that the basic principles are complementary and that a clear focus on people and their needs is the most effective way to lead.

The objective of this study is to create a new e-learning artefact for SAP S/4 Hana training purposes. Based on Design Science Research, a new prototype of an e-learning artefact has been developed. The prototype is grounded on didactic and information systems theories, as well as models. The aim of this new prototype is to transfer knowledge of business processes with the new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) SAP S/4 HANA in an effective and efficient way. The study is validated through an experiment with a treatment and a control group. While the treatment group learns with the new e-learning artefact, the control group keeps with the existing conventional training. Results show that the treatment group have significantly less dropouts than the control group, and that the treatment group could also finalize the SAP S/4 Hana exercises in less time. This study shows also how companies can benefit significantly using the same approach through a set of guidelines.

The world of digitalisation is changing the way how people and business companies communicate with each other. Electronic negotiations represent one of the most important forms of business communication and can influence the successes and failures of companies in a significant way, whether in interorganisational or intraorganisational processes. Analysing negotiation interactions to determine pattern-based peculiarities in the communication offers new value-adding information concerning the management of optimised communication processes, even though the machine-based processing of communication data bears a series of challenges. The present book develops a new approach to analyse the automated pattern recognition potential of Machine Learning methods in unstructured negotiation communication. It presents holistic research frameworks for the effective detection of structural patterns and reveals the pattern labelling potential in high-dimensional communication data by analytically implementing a series of Machine Learning methods.

The book addresses the problem of a time-varying unconditional variance of return processes utilizing a spline function. The knots of the spline functions are estimated as free parameters within a joined estimation process together with the parameters of the mean, the conditional variance and the spline function. With the help of this method, the knots are placed in regions where the unconditional variance is not smooth. The results are tested within an extensive simulation study and an empirical study employing the S&P500 index.

Organisations are involved in various types of negotiation. As digitalisation advances, such business negotiations are to a large extent electronic negotiations. Consequently, dedicated training for such electronic negotiations is important for mastering negotiation skills. The present book develops a new approach for a motivating and improved e-negotiation training by applying gamification, i.e. using game design elements in a non-game context, in order to improve participants' motivation, engagement, and learning outcomes. A negotiation support system used within an e-negotiation training is enhanced with game design elements. The book describes the design process, its theoretical foundations, and the evaluation of the gamified negotiation support system. The final quantitative evaluation shows higher motivation, engagement and better learning outcomes for participants in the gamified training compared to a conventional training. Organisations can employ the designed artefact for fundamental and effective e-negotiation training. Additionally, the book provides insights in how to design a gamified system for a particular application context.

Multinational companies transfer managerial practices such as quality management globally. Studies from different perspectives have examined cultural, institutional, and organizational challenges in practice transfer, however, little is known about the micro-processes of intercultural transfer, especially in complex cultural settings as Brazil. Integrating the recontextualization perspective and Scandinavian institutionalist transfer-as-translation approach, this book explores micro-processes of transfer from German MNC to Brazilian subsidiaries from a multiple cultures perspective. Findings show the complementary nature of micro-processes of translation and recontextualization, embedding them into a process model of four stages: Preparation, translation, recontextualization, and institutionalization. Intercultural transfer can be considered an iterative and multi-level process in which practices diffuse from individuals, to teams, to the organization. The book contributes to international management by cross-fertilizing the two approaches, by highlighting cultural and institutional particularities of the Brazilian context using a culturally sensitive methodology, and by showing the transformative power of managerial practices on organizations and ecosystems.

In this book, the planning of assembly lines for uncertain demand is tackled and optimization algorithms are offered for the balancing of such lines. Building an assembly line is a commitment of several months or even years, it is understandable that the demand will fluctuate during the lifetime of an assembly line.

This book appeals to higher education scholars from various disciplines and practitioners looking for an overview and in-depth insight into cooperative study programs (CSPs). Higher education scholars identified CSPs a challenge to higher education governance despite the simultaneous lack of empirical data.

The overall goal of this book is the identification of design features and prerequisites for a CRM-system, which contribute to an increase in sales and the overall development of corporations in the packaging industry.

The exploration of inspiration from a scientific perspective is not easy. Marketing scholars have also become interested in the topic and started to uncover customers' inspiration in the marketing domain. First, customer inspiration is defined and conceptualized within the marketing domain.