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Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica Portuguesa
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First daughters and the household adjustment to parenthood : evidence from german couples
Publication . Strohmeyer, Niklas Karl; Bernard, Anna
Parenthood is a central moment at which gender inequality widens, yet little is known about whether household adjustments differ by child gender. This thesis asks whether couples adjust differently to first birth depending on whether their first child is a daughter or a son. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), the analysis compares 3,188 stable partnered native couples, observed in 7,928 couple-year observations, by first-born child’s sex around first birth. The results show a specific but meaningful first-daughter effect. In the preferred controlled specification, we estimate that mothers of first-born sons reduce paid work by about 1.7 hours per week more after birth than mothers of first-born daughters. Relative to first-daughter couples, first-son couples show a 12 percentage point larger reduction in the female share of working hours and a 0.18 index point greater increase in specialization. While this suggests that parenting a daughter triggers less specialization than parenting a son,we do not interpret it as a broad egalitarian shift. Fathers of daughters do not take over substantially more housework or childcare. Mechanism analysis points away from broad norm updating. Political ideology and maternal-employment attitudes show little systematic movement by first-born sex. Instead, childcare concerns and grand parental support better account for the observed paid-work pattern. The findings suggest that preserving maternal labour-force participation after childbirth requires policy to reduce practical constraints on parents, especially through reliable childcare, support for combining work and care, and stronger incentives for fathers’ unpaid care involvement.
Dove´s real beauty pledge as brand narrative : a qualitative analysis of selected touchpoints
Publication . Bäuerle, Amélie Charlotte Julie; Pestana, Catarina
This thesis examines how Dove translates its Real Beauty Pledge into a coherent brand narrative across selected brand-owned touchpoints and how ethos, pathos, and logos contribute to this process. The research is guided by the question of how Dove’s core Real Beauty values are articulated across different media formats and how these formats collectively construct a recognizable brand narrative. The study is based on a qualitative single-case study design and draws on literature on brand storytelling, rhetorical persuasion, body image, beauty communication, and empowerment-oriented branding. The empirical material consists of four Dove touchpoints: the Real Beauty Pledge website, the campaign film Real Beauty Sketches, a Y2K podcast episode with Nicola Adams, and the Dove Self-Esteem Project website. These sources were analyzed through a comparative framework focusing on core brand values, narrative translation, rhetorical appeals, and contribution to overall brand coherence. The findings show that Dove’s Real Beauty communication is structured around a stable value core centered on authenticity, self-definition, body confidence, and resistance to harmful beauty standards. At the same time, these values are adapted to the communicative function of each touchpoint. Emotional appeal is particularly strong in the film and podcast, while credibility, structure, and educational guidance are more prominent on the website and Self-Esteem Project materials. Overall, the thesis argues that Dove’s Real Beauty communication functions as a multi-touchpoint brand narrative architecture that combines empowerment-oriented storytelling with commercial brand positioning.
From experimentation to implementation : AI maturity in Luxembourg’s financial sector
Publication . Eischen, Christophe Victor; Bohnsack, René; Rezazadeh, Arash
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a transformative technology across industries, and the financial sector is expected to be particularly affected. Despite growing experimentation, many organizations struggle to move toward mature AI implementation. Recent research emphasizes that advancing AI maturity requires organizational development rather than isolated technology adoption, but how this unfolds in specific contexts remains underexplored. Therefore, this study aims to explore how organizations in Luxembourg’s financial sector move from early experimentation toward mature implementation, and what factors influence this. The study adopts a qualitative, multiple-case design comprising 11 semi-structured interviews with corporate and institutional actors, analyzed using the Gioia methodology. The findings show that firms advance through deliberate, cautious movement influenced by regulation, sector norms and heightened risk sensitivity, while actively designing responses to the limitations and dependencies they face. Theoretically, the study contributes by applying institutional theory and resource dependence theory to AI maturity in a particular sectoral context. It finds that firms converge on a shared risk-aware orientation and build risk-management capacity that complements the risk-taking AI capability requires. Scaling stalls not mainly for technological reasons but because AI is confined to isolated departments and treated as layered digitalization rather than process redesign. For group-affiliated firms, local AI maturity is structurally dependent on parent-level decisions. For practitioners, the findings are presented as a roadmap that supports firms’ move beyond experimentation. The study emphasizes the importance of positioning AI responsibility transversally across organizations, settling scaling decisions early and proactively preparing for the deeper transformation that AI integration involves.
Value creation, capture, and delivery in emerging AI ecosystems : a taxonomy of the german SME context
Publication . Eisele, Paul Emil; Bohnsack, René
AI adoption in German SMEs depends on the coordination of multiple ecosystem actors, yet existing research typically examines AI-driven business model innovation from a focal-firm perspective and treats SME adoption barriers as firm-internal limitations. This thesis investigates how value creation, capture, and delivery are configured across ecosystem actors and where bottlenecks constrain value realization. Drawing on 19 semi-structured expert interviews with AI-adopting SMEs, solution providers, consultants, and intermediaries, the study combines Gioia-style coding, actor-specific taxonomies, and value-flow mapping. The findings reveal that AI business model configurations differ systematically by actor type and follow a logic of risk-bounded incrementalism. Value flows extend beyond monetary transactions to include data, employee time, domain knowledge, and risk, yet these contributions are systematically undervalued. Bottlenecks are compound rather than isolated, and the most consequential is the absence of an actor that is simultaneously competent, affordable, and neutral. The thesis contributes a multi-actor, taxonomy-based analysis that reframes AI adoption failure in the German SME ecosystem as a structural alignment problem: the challenge is not making AI available to SMEs but aligning ecosystem roles, value flows, and responsibilities so that AI-enabled value can materialize.
Operational decision-making under urgency : a qualitative study of harm-reduction decisions in animal protection organizations
Publication . Heynckes, Luisa; Finco, Marcus
This dissertation examines how harm-reduction organizations make operational rescue decisions under extreme constraints when fully optimal biological outcomes are no longer attainable. Drawing on a qualitative multiple-case design, the study reconstructs 19 wildlife rescue decision episodes across five Brazilian wildlife protection organizations through semi-structured interviews and interpretive organizational reconstruction. The findings suggest that rescue decision-making under unavoidable harm is best understood as a constrained organizational process rather than as comprehensive optimization. Across cases, organizations progressively narrowed intervention possibilities as operational constraints intensified. Safety concerns, implementation feasibility, coordination pressures, and resource limitations repeatedly shaped which interventions remained actionable, while animal-centered goals were pursued within the remaining feasible space. The Brazilian institutional context further intensified coordination and feasibility challenges, while moral pressure and adaptive readiness influenced how organizations interpreted operational thresholds.The dissertation contributes to bounded rationality and crisis decision-making literature by showing how organizations preserve defensible action under deteriorating conditions through sequential narrowing rather than unrestricted improvisation or broad simultaneous optimization. It also highlights practical implications for responder safety, operational preparedness, interorganizational coordination, and adaptive learning in high-pressure rescue environments.