Sustainability and consumer responses: The effect of bad industry reputation and fit

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and EconomicsThis work project investigates how consumers’ responses to sustainability activities of organisations are influenced by the bad reputation of the industry they are operating in. Specifically, it tested how consumers’ attributions about the motives behind companies’ engagement are affected and whether the fit of the cause with companies’ core business influences this attributional processing. Surveying 299 participants, the study provides support that a high fit program provokes values-driven attributions, which likewise im-prove consumers’ trust, corporate reputation and image, rendering companies’ sustaina-bility investments effective, even in bad reputation industries. Furthermore, theoretical and practical implications together with future research suggestions are provided

Clinical sequencing: is WGS the better WES?

Current clinical next-generation sequencing is done by using gene panels and exome analysis, both of which involve selective capturing of target regions. However, capturing has limitations in sufficiently covering coding exons, especially GC-rich regions. We compared whole exome sequencing (WES) with the most recent PCR-free whole genome sequencing (WGS), showing that only the latter is able to provide hitherto unprecedented complete coverage of the coding region of the genome. Thus, from a clinical/technical point of view, WGS is the better WES so that capturing is no longer necessary for the most comprehensive genomic testing of Mendelian disorders

Concept for Individual and Lifetime-Adaptive Modeling of the Dynamic Behavior of Machine Tools

The increasing demand for personalized products and the lack of skilled workers, intensified by demographic change, are major challenges for the manufacturing industry in Europe. An important framework for addressing these issues is a digital twin that represents the dynamic behavior of machine tools to support the remaining skilled workers and optimize processes in virtual space. Existing methods for modeling the dynamic behavior of machine tools rely on the use of expert knowledge and require a significant amount of manual effort. In this paper, a concept is proposed for individualized and lifetime-adaptive modeling of the dynamic behavior of machine tools with the focus on the machine’s tool center point. Therefore, existing and proven algorithms are combined and applied to this use case. Additionally, it eliminates the need for detailed information about the machine’s kinematic structure and utilizes automated data collection, which reduces the dependence on expert knowledge. In preliminary tests, the algorithm for the initial model setup shows a fit of 99.88% on simulation data. The introduced re-fit approach for online parameter actualization is promising, as in preliminary tests, an accuracy of 95.23% could be reached

Marketing for Best Agers

In Anbetracht des erhöhten Wettbewerbsdruckes wird es für Unternehmen immer wichtiger, neue, zukunftsträchtige Märkte zu erschließen. Wie kaum eine andere rückt daher zunehmend die Zielgruppe der über 50-Jährigen, von der prognostiziert wird, dass sie die Käufergruppe der Zukunft darstellt, in den Brennpunkt der Interessen. Der folgende Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit dem Markt der Best Ager, analysiert dessen zunehmende Bedeutung für die Wirtschaft anhand des demographischen Wandels und der veränderten Marktbedingungen und zeigt dessen zukünftiges Potenzial auf. Zur bestmöglichen Erschließung dieser Zielgruppe werden Möglichkeiten zur Marktsegmentierung beleuchtet und Gestaltungsempfehlungen für einen zielgruppengerechten Marketing-Mix gegeben. Zusätzlich soll ein Beispiel aus der Praxis eine erfolgreich umgesetzte Ansprache der Zielgruppe veranschaulichen

Cities in late medieval Europe: the promise and curse of modernity

This article examines how modern historiography has developed quite differentiated views on the way medieval cities have given expression to renewal and to creativity. 'National' traditions have played a highly influential role in modifying the general views articulated in the major syntheses produced by scholars such as Max Weber and Henri Pirenne at the beginning of the twentieth century. An almost jubilant way of looking at the city as the hotbed of modernity gave room, in the decades after the Great War, to pessimism and a negative view on urbanity, before a more nuanced and positive view has been re-established after World War II and in the course of recent paradigmatic changes