@misc{Schnermann2024,
  type      = {Master Thesis},
  author    = {Schnermann, Sophia Victoria},
  title     = {The impact of China's e-mobility development on German motor vehicle manufacturers},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-35327},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-353276},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2024},
  abstract  = {Compared to other countries, China was particularly early in developing a comprehensive set of policies to promote electric mobility (e-mobility). The aim of this study is to examine how China's e-mobility development - through changes in formal institutions as well as market forces - has affected German passenger car manufacturers and their competitive environment and positions. The study is guided by two strands of research: new institutional economics and strategic management literature. A holistic multiple-case design is used to analyze five German case study firms. Qualitative interview data are collected through interviews and analyzed using a thematic analysis. The results show that the electric transformation in China has been shaped by changes in formal institutions at the macro, meso, and micro levels. Interestingly, the case study firms were affected not only by changes in China's formal institutions but also by disparities between institutions in China and Europe. Furthermore, the data suggest that German car manufacturers are facing an increasingly competitive environment in China: at least four forces in Porter's five-forces model seem to have intensified in recent years. The extent to which the case study firms have been affected by these developments may depend on the industry segments in which they are positioned. However, it can be argued that the electric transition has blurred the lines between traditional segments of the car industry to some extent. The interview data do not provide evidence that any of the German car brands have substantially changed their positioning, but they do suggest that some of the case study companies did not have an adequate offering for the Chinese market at the time of the interviews. In addition, the study finds that China's transition to e-mobility has led to changes in various parts of the German automakers' value chains, including production, sales, marketing, services, research and development, and procurement. Whether these changes will ultimately result in competitive advantage, parity, or disadvantage remains to be seen.},
  subject      = {Institutionen{\"o}konomie},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{Lan2022,
  type      = {Master Thesis},
  author    = {Lan, Kai-Yi},
  title     = {Gender and Medicine in the Ming Dynasty: Tan Yunxian's (1461-1556) Medical Case Book},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-28886},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-288862},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {This project explores Tan Yunxian's journey of becoming a female doctor in the Ming dynasty. Among all the surviving Ming medical books, Tan Yunxian's medical case book is the only one that was written by a woman. It seems natural, considering she had both scholar-official and medical family backgrounds. Yet, social expectations consider it more suitable for a lady to remain in the household, and not treat patients outside. To legitimize Tan Yunxian's pursuit of a medical career, she applied several strategies to resolve potential criticism toward her and her family. These strategies are analyzed through her autobiographical preface in her medical case book. The project also explores Ming male literatis' perspectives toward Tan Yunxian, the factors that contributed to the preservation and publication of her medical case book, and examined her medical cases under the social-historical and micro-history contexts.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{Hauser2020,
  type      = {Master Thesis},
  author    = {Hauser, Anna Si-Lu},
  title     = {A comparative approach to local organisation of the energy transition},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-20210},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-202109},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {In recent years, numerous renewable energy cities were established worldwide, piloting different pathways to transition to clean energy. With the ability to address local needs more precisely in their unique geographic, social and economic contexts, cities play a vital role in implementing overall climate mitigation goals on the local level. In China, many renewable energy cities have emerged as well. However, official documents suggest that Chinese government authorities establish such renewable energy cities strategically, which leads to the assumption that the impulse to become renewable is different from other countries, where bottom-up initiatives are more common. Hence, this thesis explores answer to the question why and how the Chinese government promotes the energy transition of Chinese cities and regions. To explore the dynamics of local energy transition projects, this thesis adopts two frameworks from the field of sustainability transitions, the multi-level perspective and strategic niche management, and applies them to seven European and two Chinese case studies. The European sample includes the cities Graz, G{\"u}ssing, Freiburg, and Helsinki as well as the communities Feldheim, J{\"u}hnde and Murau. The Chinese sample consists of the bottom-up initiative Shaanxi Sunflower Project and the demonstration project Tongli New Energy Town. A comparative analysis evaluates in how far the cases correspond to the multi-level perspective or strategic niche management. The comparison of the case studies reveals that the development of renewable energy cities in China goes beyond a top-down vs. bottom-up logic. In the Chinese context, strategic niche management should be understood as experimentation under hierarchy, which serves at pretesting different approaches before rolling them out nationwide. In addition, the analysis shows that both the multi-level perspective and strategic niche management have their advantages and disadvantages for niche development. Niches following the logic of the multi-level perspective may result in higher stakeholder acceptance, whereas strategic niche management can in turn accelerate niche development. However, since natural niche development cannot be steered intentionally, decision-makers who intend to induce local renewable energy projects have no other option but to resort to strategic niche management. To increase stakeholder acceptance and thus to improve the project outcome, decision-makers are advised to accommodate sufficient room for stakeholder participation in the project design.},
  subject      = {China},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{Schaper2018,
  type      = {Master Thesis},
  author    = {Schaper, Anna-Katharina},
  title     = {Conquering China's Second-Tier Cities: An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship between a City's Degree of Internationalization and Foreign Companies' Market Entry Decisions in China's Second-Tier Cities},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-161329},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {China's emerging second-tier cities attract more and more foreign companies that are looking for business opportunities. Although much has been written about companies' internationalization strategies, including companies' market entry decisions and market entry mode strategies, research on the relationship between a city's degree of internationalization and foreign companies' market entry decisions and market entry mode strategies in second-tier cities in China is still relatively scarce. Thus, the central research question of this study is: Why and how does a second-tier city's degree of internationalization influence foreign companies' market entry decisions and market entry mode strategies in second-tier China? This study is based on a qualitative research approach; an embedded multiple-case study is applied and interviews with two different target groups are conducted. The first target group consists of foreign companies having established business operations in China's second-tier cities directly and have had no previous business operations in first-tier cites. The second group is made up of foreign companies that initially operated in first-tier China, and then moved to second-tier cities. The company sample compromises small- and medium-sized foreign companies with various industry backgrounds and market entry modes in Chengdu and Chongqing. Since 2015, Maxxelli has been publishing its China International City Index (CICI) on a yearly basis in which it measures and compares China's cities' degree of internationalization. Because Maxxelli revised this year's CICI methodology comprehensively, this study also aims at feedback to improve the overall CICI. This study concludes that a second-tier city's degree of internationalization is particularly important to foreign companies having first set up in Chinese first-tier cities. Companies having established themselves in second-tier cities directly, do not pay a lot of direct attention to a city's degree of internationalization and tend to base their market entry decisions more on business opportunities they identify in a city. In addition, this study argues that in most cases a city's degree of internationalization does not influence the type of market entry mode companies choose to enter second-tier China.},
  subject      = {China},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{Shane2017,
  type      = {Master Thesis},
  author    = {Shane, Nadine},
  title     = {The Country-of-Origin Effect and its Potential Impact on How German Consumers Perceive Chinese Luxury Goods},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-153047},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {This thesis investigates the impact of the country-of-origin effect on Chinese luxury brands which intend to enter the German luxury goods market. By means of a questionnaire and a quantitative analysis, possible threats to Chinese newcomers that derive from an unfavorable country image are illustrated. In fact, the Chinese origin of luxury goods has an impact on German consumers' perception.},
  subject      = {China},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{Ives2016,
  type      = {Master Thesis},
  author    = {Ives, Jaqueline May},
  title     = {The relevance of tax havens for China},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-145794},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {This paper examines the relevance of tax havens for China by determining which tax havens are important for China and to what extent. Furthermore, the motives for Chinese tax haven activity are analysed and compared to the motives of Western companies that primarily use tax havens for the purpose of tax arbitrage. An analysis of two listed Chinese companies, a private and a state-owned entity (SOE), exemplifies how Chinese businesses incorporate tax havens into their business structure and discusses differences between the motives of private and state-owned companies. The magnitude of tax havens found in the business structures emphasise the importance of tax havens for Chinese companies, irrespective of whether the company is an SOE or private, or conducts its business in China or internationally. While the reasons why the state-influenced company incorporated tax havens into their structure seemed to be related to legitimate business motives, the motives behind the structure of the private company seemed questionable. The assessment furthermore confirms that China's weak institutional framework and restricting business environment is a major push factor and gives companies plenty of incentive to go offshore.},
  subject      = {Steueroase},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{Habich2008,
  type      = {Master Thesis},
  author    = {Habich, Sabrina},
  title     = {Corporate Social Responsibility in der chinesischen Textilindustrie},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-34463},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2008},
  abstract  = {Das Konzept der Gesellschaftlichen Verantwortung von Unternehmen (Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR) hat in den vergangenen Jahren in China zusehends an Bedeutung gewonnen. In den 1990er-Jahren durch westliche Unternehmen und internationale Organisationen ins Land eingef{\"u}hrt, wurde das Konzept zun{\"a}chst als Hemmnis der nationalen Wirtschaft angesehen. Erst in j{\"u}ngster Vergangenheit hat die chinesische Regierung begonnen, CSR zur Verfolgung innen- sowie außenpolitischer Ziele zu nutzen. Als eine der bedeutendsten Industrien Chinas wird dies insbesondere anhand der Einf{\"u}hrung des Konzepts in die Textil- und Bekleidungsindustrie deutlich. Damit sollen nicht nur die mehrheitlich kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen wettbewerbsf{\"a}higer gemacht, sondern ebenfalls die Bem{\"u}hungen der Regierung um eine st{\"a}rkere Regulierung der Arbeitsbeziehungen erg{\"a}nzt werden. Nach einer kurzen Darstellung der allgemeinen CSR-Situation in China geht der Beitrag insbesondere auf die Entwicklung des Konzepts innerhalb der chinesischen Textilindustrie sowie auf den im Jahr 2005 eingef{\"u}hrten ersten chinesischen CSR-Standard CSC9000T ein. Es soll aufgezeigt werden, wie Regierung, NGOs und Unternehmen gemeinsam daran arbeiten, die Situation der Textilfabriken und ihrer Mitarbeiter zu verbessern. Im Rahmen einer Fallstudie wird ein Projekt vorgestellt, das einen Ansatz daf{\"u}r liefert, wie die schwierige Lage kleiner und mittlerer Unternehmen in der Industrie gel{\"o}st werden kann. Unter Ber{\"u}cksichtigung von Expertenmeinungen sowie aufgrund gesammelter Informationen w{\"a}hrend der Teilnahme an einer Schulung des Projektes in einem Unternehmen werden schließlich St{\"a}rken und Schw{\"a}chen dieses Ansatzes diskutiert und auf zuk{\"u}nftige Entwicklungen von CSR in der chinesischen Textilindustrie geschlossen. Das Projekt leistet zwar einen Beitrag zur Verbesserung der Arbeitsbedingungen und Managementf{\"a}higkeiten der beteiligten Unternehmen, stellt aber lediglich einen kleinen Schritt in Richtung einer ganzheitlichen Integration verantwortlicher Unternehmensf{\"u}hrung in der Industrie dar.},
  subject      = {China},
  language  = {de}
}