Impact of corporate social responsibility in the European pharmaceutical market

The objective of this master thesis is to evaluate the impact of CSR measures in the financial performance of the European pharmaceutical industry. By definition, CSR measures is quantified as corporate social disclosure considering the published CSR keywords on the annual reports of the selected companies, over four fiscal years (2010-2013). The financial performance of the companies were measured as return on assets (ROA) and Tobin’s Q. In order to defend the hypothesis developed, a multivariate regression is performed. The results obtained show no significant impact on the financial performance of a company nor in the short-time, nor in the long-time. Moreover, by comparison with other studies, it was possible to conclude that the financial performance is differently affected when considering different industries.

Market value of corruption

This paper studies the impact of the Brazilian anticorruption legislation, PL 6826/2010, on stock returns. I show that, around the law approval date, the greater the link between the corporate and political worlds, the worse is the companies’ performance. Companies awarded with public contracts in 2012 suffer more with the new legislation approval. Firms with above median contract values have 2.9% lower returns than its peers. The negative effect is more pronounced for bigger and more complex entities, associated with higher levels of Corporate Responsibility and Governance and not subject to the US FCPA.

To what extent do aspects of sustainability impact established firms' resilience

An organizations´ level of sustainability has so far been primarily been analyzed within the context of economic performance. This study changes that dependent variable to “resilience”, namely a company’s ability to recover from potential lethal shocks or disruptive events. The research questions aims to investigate whether sustainability and resilience are related. This study utilizes the financial crisis from 2007/08 as disruptive event, as it encompassed market phase-out but also survival by established firms. Two Swiss luxury watchmaking companies have been chosen as industry sample and the study’s investigation is based on a comparative case study approach. The latter applies both quantitative data, in the form of the respective annual company reports, and qualitative data, in the form of semi-structured interviews with three stakeholder groups. Findings indicate that the investigated measures of sustainability are related the investigated companies’ level of resilience. These findings contribute to the building of new theory towards resilience as this study outlines specifically which measures have been proven to be of relevance for companies’ resilience. Moreover, the results are of high relevance for companies that are operating in constant evolving markets and struggling adapting to any disruptive environment as it is outlined why and how comparative companies have to be sustainable in order to become more resilient towards future shocks.

An internationalisation research project into the German market for the Portuguese canned seafood company COFACO.

This project is aimed to analyse the German market of canned fish, in order to find out if there is potential of entering the market for the Portuguese canned seafood company named COFACO. The purpose of this foreign market research, carried out for COFACO, is to highlight the main key aspects of the current German seafood market, founded out through a deep analysis. Moreover, the work project is also aimed to give the company suggestions regarding the Brand, the Product and the Distribution strategy to implement in order to succeed, once considered the opportunity to enter the market.

Fruta com cheiro: The implementation of a new brand of fruit in the Portuguese market

‘’Fruta com Cheiro’’ is an idea for a new brand of fruit that would be introduced in the Portuguese market that would differentiate itself from the brands already in the market and from other non-branded fruit producers. In order to prove that the idea was valid and would have a place in the market, two methods of exploratory research were used – in-depth interviews and focus groups – to understand attitudes and behaviors regarding fruit selection and purchase and also people’s perceptions to ‘’Fruta com Cheiro’’. After these two steps, several considerations were made in relation to preliminary marketing aspects such as brand creation and positioning. There was also a final remark on the fact that this thesis is not a business plan and its purpose was to show how viable would the project be.

Internationalization strategy for MyHelpster.com with a focus on international market selection

International Market Selection is an important step towards a successful internationalization strategy. This is no different for startup companies like MyHelpster. This work project was intended to help MyHelpster with their internationalization process by completing the IMS portion of it. The IMS process presented in this paper lead to the conclusion that MyHelpster’s next market for expansion should be the USA. In order to find as much success as possible the author suggests being patient and only expanding when the company has the necessary capital, experience and credibility. Both primary and secondary data were used to compile the qualitative and quantitative analyses.

Environmental sustainability adoption

Double degree

The quest for growth in the German organic food retail market: Historical trends, current strategies, and future outlook

This paper aims to provide strategies for the organic supermarket chain “Alnatura” to shape the demand and its market share of the organic food & beverage (F&B) market in Germany within the next five years. Through the historic evolution and the current market assessment of Germany, compared to a benchmark country (US), as well as prospective trends in Germany, reasons and opportunities for market growth are evaluated. In addition, an industry attractiveness, competitor and company analysis is executed. Based on those findings and a conducted survey, suggestions to adjust Alnatura´s current business strategies are deduced and finally examined on its risk and feasibility.

Men's grooming in Germany: A consumer research and discussion of current consumer attitudes

The objective of this dissertation was to explore the German men’s grooming market and to discuss the usage and purchase behavior of young male adults. After a brief market analysis, this dissertation evaluates the results of qualitative and quantitative research. The conducted research explored the consumer’s reasoning for and attitude towards personal grooming, and their attitude towards product attributes and the aging process. The dissertation concludes that men attach high value to personal grooming but only to the extent that their personal need is satisfied. As the male involvement in MG is highly dependent on each consumer’s individual needs, the market requires a careful segmentation.

International market selection of Carrefour

Carrefour has been internationalizing into many countries and would like to continue growing. This study focuses on the potential future international market selection of Car-refour, comparing countries from the EU and South America, in a quantitative and qual-itative analysis. The purpose of the project is to help Carrefour to find the right market and the right mode to entry. Through semi-structured interviews and a literature research we found out that Sweden has the highest potential to entry with a Venture (Marketing), followed by Austria

Value creation in the nursing home real estate investment market - A case study

The underlying thesis examines the value drivers of direct investments in nursing home real estate in Germany. A survey among investors and operators is conducted in order to identify significant value drivers. Moreover, based on survey results, a framework for assessing German nursing home real estate is developed. This is applied in a case-study about the set-up of a nursing home value-add fund which will demonstrate the value creation process of redeveloping an existing nursing home real estate portfolio. Through a concluding analysis the sources of value creation, sensitivities and future prospects of direct investing into German nursing home real estate are concluded.

Shoes closet- Entering the German market

The purpose of this project is to prepare and help ShoesCloset company for international business activity, namely in Germany. After having a careful study on the core foundation of the company I conclude that ShoesCloset has indeed potential to succeed by offering what the target segment is looking for in footwear. Nevertheless, the firm still has to improve in areas such as marketing, management operations, distribution channels and internal structure. In relation to the German market and according to my studies the best mode of entry is through direct exports, which would be under the supervision of the CEO. Moreover, it is imperative to increase the productive capacity in order to satisfy both national and international expected demands

EDP inovcity: Electricity feedback with smart meters through TV

In this work project I propose an innovative service – Electricity Feedback with Smart Meters through TV – to be considered as an additional test in the residential electricity use feedback trials currently being conducted in EDP’s InovCity project. My proposal is based on relevant past and current research studies, both Portuguese and international, which explain and support the proposed operationalization and characteristics of this new service. Furthermore, a careful analysis about the segmentation framing, the best market entry strategy and the consequences of adopting a joint venture with cable TV operators, is also provided. Finally, I present a SWOT analysis and highlight critical issues affecting the effectiveness of feedback which require further research.

Essays on bounded rationality: Individual decision and strategic interaction

Economics is a social science which, therefore, focuses on people and on the decisions they make, be it in an individual context, or in group situations. It studies human choices, in face of needs to be fulfilled, and a limited amount of resources to fulfill them. For a long time, there was a convergence between the normative and positive views of human behavior, in that the ideal and predicted decisions of agents in economic models were entangled in one single concept. That is, it was assumed that the best that could be done in each situation was exactly the choice that would prevail. Or, at least, that the facts that economics needed to explain could be understood in the light of models in which individual agents act as if they are able to make ideal decisions. However, in the last decades, the complexity of the environment in which economic decisions are made and the limits on the ability of agents to deal with it have been recognized, and incorporated into models of decision making in what came to be known as the bounded rationality paradigm. This was triggered by the incapacity of the unboundedly rationality paradigm to explain observed phenomena and behavior. This thesis contributes to the literature in three different ways. Chapter 1 is a survey on bounded rationality, which gathers and organizes the contributions to the field since Simon (1955) first recognized the necessity to account for the limits on human rationality. The focus of the survey is on theoretical work rather than the experimental literature which presents evidence of actual behavior that differs from what classic rationality predicts. The general framework is as follows. Given a set of exogenous variables, the economic agent needs to choose an element from the choice set that is avail- able to him, in order to optimize the expected value of an objective function (assuming his preferences are representable by such a function). If this problem is too complex for the agent to deal with, one or more of its elements is simplified. Each bounded rationality theory is categorized according to the most relevant element it simplifes. Chapter 2 proposes a novel theory of bounded rationality. Much in the same fashion as Conlisk (1980) and Gabaix (2014), we assume that thinking is costly in the sense that agents have to pay a cost for performing mental operations. In our model, if they choose not to think, such cost is avoided, but they are left with a single alternative, labeled the default choice. We exemplify the idea with a very simple model of consumer choice and identify the concept of isofin curves, i.e., sets of default choices which generate the same utility net of thinking cost. Then, we apply the idea to a linear symmetric Cournot duopoly, in which the default choice can be interpreted as the most natural quantity to be produced in the market. We find that, as the thinking cost increases, the number of firms thinking in equilibrium decreases. More interestingly, for intermediate levels of thinking cost, an equilibrium in which one of the firms chooses the default quantity and the other best responds to it exists, generating asymmetric choices in a symmetric model. Our model is able to explain well-known regularities identified in the Cournot experimental literature, such as the adoption of different strategies by players (Huck et al. , 1999), the inter temporal rigidity of choices (Bosch-Dom enech & Vriend, 2003) and the dispersion of quantities in the context of di cult decision making (Bosch-Dom enech & Vriend, 2003). Chapter 3 applies a model of bounded rationality in a game-theoretic set- ting to the well-known turnout paradox in large elections, pivotal probabilities vanish very quickly and no one should vote, in sharp contrast with the ob- served high levels of turnout. Inspired by the concept of rhizomatic thinking, introduced by Bravo-Furtado & Côrte-Real (2009a), we assume that each per- son is self-delusional in the sense that, when making a decision, she believes that a fraction of the people who support the same party decides alike, even if no communication is established between them. This kind of belief simplifies the decision of the agent, as it reduces the number of players he believes to be playing against { it is thus a bounded rationality approach. Studying a two-party first-past-the-post election with a continuum of self-delusional agents, we show that the turnout rate is positive in all the possible equilibria, and that it can be as high as 100%. The game displays multiple equilibria, at least one of which entails a victory of the bigger party. The smaller one may also win, provided its relative size is not too small; more self-delusional voters in the minority party decreases this threshold size. Our model is able to explain some empirical facts, such as the possibility that a close election leads to low turnout (Geys, 2006), a lower margin of victory when turnout is higher (Geys, 2006) and high turnout rates favoring the minority (Bernhagen & Marsh, 1997).