Alexander Neff

Ferdinand-Steinbeis-Institut

Managers have at least two social roles in their job position: One is to keep the business running while the other role searches for entrepreneurial opportunities to exploit. Both roles have one aspect in common: the security of the organization’s existence, in short term as manager and in long term as entrepreneur. Our paper compares entrepreneuri...

Purpose The initial observation of this study is the gap of research in the economic application of data spaces in wholesale. With the lowering threshold in using digital technology in innovative services wholesale is confronted with new competition in their main business – the purchase and sale of products in large numbers. Wholesale must advance...

SMEs in main construction and finishing trade (CAB) are essential for Germany’s construction industry yet struggling with digitalization. Despite the opportunity to create new value in this area only one interviewed platform provider of a former research had the educational background of a master craftsman in CAB. In this paper we characterized 48...

Digitale Menüplanung in der Außer-Haus-Verpflegung zur Erhöhung des bioregionalen Speiseanteils - eine technische Machbarkeitsstudie

Germany has a tradition of out-of-home catering in companies, education, and public administration. In 2021 the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture passed a law to increase the proportion of organic food in out-of-home catering up to 20 percent until 2025 (Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture 2021). The southwestern state Baden-Würt...

Family-run SMEs usually have a long tradition. They have specified their organizational structures and processes to their product or service over the years. Now these companies are facing various difficulties, such as the increasing shortage of skilled workers or new competition from digital technologies. We argue that digital platforms can be a ch...

Deutschland stellt als drittgrößte Exportnation nach China und den USA den weltweit größten Leistungsbilanzüberschuss und repräsentiert wie kein anderes Land die Bedeutung kleiner und mittelständischer Unternehmen als zentralen Erfolgsfaktor für nachhaltiges internationales Wachstum. Die multiple Disruption globaler Lieferketten und die damit einhe...

As a part of the German Mittelstand and one essential link in the supply chain of many national and international industries German, wholesale plays an important role in the German economy with a total revenue of 1,300 bn. € in the pre-COVID-19 year of 2019 (Statistisches Bundesamt 2022). Traditionally, a wholesaler purchases and resells products i...

Die Technologie der digitalen Plattformen hat in den vergangenen Jahren verschiedene Branchen grundlegend verändert und prägt zudem das Verbraucherverhalten maßgeblich. Auch im Handwerksumfeld treten immer mehr Angebote in den Markt, die auf digitalen Plattformen beruhen. Jedoch äußern sich viele Handwerksbetriebe diesem Trend gegenüber skeptisch...

Wholesale is one of the sectors that are currently most affected by the effects of digital change. Digital disruption threatens to fundamentally change the value chains and the wholesale value model. The economic position of the wholesale branch as an intermediary between industry, craft and retail needs to evolve in the face of changing conditions...

Wholesale in Germany is characterized by a high degree of diversity with traditional business models. In almost every branch of industry or trade an institutional wholesaler supplies and distributes all necessary products to manufacturers and retailers. During the last few decades, the core business model in wholesale – cost-efficient purchasing an...

With the emergence of Internet platforms in the manufacturing domain, new implications have evolved for existing businesses which force them to find new business areas or adapt their products and services in order to create added value. Furthermore, generic platforms build on these domain specific platforms to offer services across business areas,...

With the emergence of platforms in the manufacturing domain new implications evolve for existing businesses and force them to find new business areas or adapt its products and services in order to create added value. Furthermore, generic platforms build up on these specified platforms to offer services across domains which creates additional disrup...