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Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica Portuguesa
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Luxury auto and the electric powertrain
Publication . Rückner, Laurin; Rajsingh, Peter
The luxury automotive sector is undergoing significant transition toward electrification, but the pace and depth of this shift remain contested. This thesis investigates the drivers of electrification. The research is framed by four drivers, namely regulatory and policy, consumer and market, technological and competitive, and symbolic and brand-related drivers, and the managerial lenses of dynamic capabilities, institutional theory, and brand heritage. A triangulated mixed-methods design was applied. A literature review developed the analytical framework, eighteen semi-structured expert interviews with senior managers across strategy, product development, brand management, sales, and engineering captured industry-side perspectives, and an online survey with 161 usable responses provided the consumer-side complement. Interview transcripts were analyzed through deductive and inductive coding along the four driver clusters; survey data were examined through scale construction, regression, and item-level analyses. The findings indicated that electrification in luxury is a multi-variate phenomenon in which the four clusters do not operate with equal force. EU regulation operates as the dominant industry-level push, while consumer and market evidence reveals a structural gap between recognition of these drivers and willingness to buy. Technology and competition reshape the playing field, and brand identity acts more as a strategic filter than a pure driver. The realistic near to medium term path is hybridization and segmented electrification rather than a uniform BEV-only commitment. The thesis contributes a structured, segment-specific reading of luxury electrification that connects regulatory pressure, capability reconfiguration, and brand-heritage constraints.
The National Football League : can America's national sport touchdown in Germany?
Publication . Jurgensen, Vivienne Desiree; Guedes, Nuno Magalhães
This Dissertation explores the global expansion of America's most-watched sport, with Germany as its most critical test market. It investigates how widespread awareness can translate into lasting attachment in a market where loyalty has long been shaped by a single dominant competitor: soccer. Drawing on a Case Study of NFL Germany, a Literature Review spanning internationalization theory, customer loyalty, and brand communities, and a Teaching Note with strategic analysis, it asks whether a culturally foreign sports league can build a self-sustaining fanbase.NFL Germany contends with a set of deeply rooted structural barriers: limited accessibility and knowledge, as well as the absence of the hometown loyalty that soccer fans take for granted. Competition compounds the challenge, with other advancing American sports leagues and an ever-expanding digital entertainment economy competing for the same consumer time. Overall, this Dissertation finds that high reach does not automatically mean lasting success: getting into a foreign market is one thing, genuinely embedding in it is another, and a smaller base of deeply loyal fans will ultimately outperform a large, disengaged one. Awareness only creates lasting value when the conversion infrastructure exists to catch it and that infrastructure needs to be in place before a competitor arrives with a simpler, more accessible version of the same emotional product.
Country-level distance measures and cross-border acquisition returns : evidence from US-listed acquirors, 2010 to 2024
Publication . Ködel, Dominik Wilhelm; David, Thomas
This thesis examines whether US-listed acquirors earn abnormal announcement returns on completed cross-border acquisitions and whether four hypothesised channels explain cross-sectional variation in those returns. Using an event study of 1,157 transactions announced between 2010 and 2024, combined with a stepwise OLS regression framework estimated across six specifications with standard errors clustered at the target country level, the analysis yields three principal findings. The aggregate CAPM-based cumulative average abnormal return for the three-day window is 0.315%, broadly consistent with prior evidence, but conceals a pronounced structural break. The pre-2016 subsample generates a highly significant CAAR of 0.911%, while the post-2015 subsample produces -0.219%, statistically indistinguishable from zero. This divergence is consistent with tightening regulatory scrutiny of cross-border transactions, rising geopolitical uncertainty, and the gradual erosion of the US governance advantage relative to developed market targets over the sample period. In the cross-sectional analysis, governance distance, cultural distance, and bilateral trade intensity are uniformly insignificant in the full-sample joint specification, though split-sample analysis reveals meaningful heterogeneous effects within each dimension that full-sample estimates obscure. Relative deal size is the only hypothesis variable to achieve robust significance, with a positive coefficient that contradicts the hubris-based prediction and is concentrated entirely in the pre-2016 period. The findings suggest that short-run announcement returns in cross-border M&A are better explained by transaction-specific characteristics than by broad country-level distance measures, and that pooled estimates from heterogeneous sample periods may mask regime-specific dynamics that temporal stability tests would reveal.
From local roots to global reach : the complexities of innovation at Jerónimo Martins
Publication . Teixeira, João Moreira Dias de Rezende; Celeste, Pedro Manuel Amador Rodrigues
This case study explores how Jerónimo Martins, a retail group operating in Portugal, Poland, and Colombia, manages innovation and its struggle to balance its conservative culture with the need for more ambitious innovation. It looks at both qualitative and quantitative data from consumer surveys and innovation projects to show that there is a big difference between how strong the Group's market position is and how innovative people think it is. The findings suggest that Jerónimo Martins has successfully implemented market-specific innovations, but their decentralised approach creates barriers to knowledge transfer and sustainable innovation investment. Based on these insights, the case proposes a structured innovation framework to help Jerónimo Martin's and similar organisations balance incremental improvements with disruptive innovations. The study discusses the implications for retail organisations aiming to enhance their innovation capabilities in an increasingly digital marketplace, along with recommendations for future research on innovation in retail settings.
Partnerships in early international expansion : a case study of incentive
Publication . Gröger, Titus Eduard; Leite, Gonçalo Salazar
Why do resource-constrained B2B startups entering regulated European markets see different early traction when they pursue direct, partner-led, or hybrid entry? This dissertation addresses that question through a qualitative single-case study of encentive, a B2B energy-tech startup expanding from a domestic base. It shows that early international traction is best understood as a gated progression rather than a linear funnel: beyond initial interest, progress depends on clearing adoption gates linked to operational risk, IT/security involvement, and proof requirements, while remaining feasible under limited commercial and delivery capacity.The study adopts a qualitative single-case design. Evidence comprises five semi-structured interviews (three internal decision roles and two customer perspectives), analysed through a theory-informed thematic approach combining deductive coding, inductive refinement, and pattern matching.Findings suggest that partnerships shape early traction through access (qualified pathways to decision-makers), legitimacy (risk reduction via credibility signals and referenceability), and complementarity (reach and role allocation). These benefits are qualified by governance trade-offs that intensify with stronger partner ownership, including reduced control over the customer interface and dependency risks. Viewed as alternative learning architectures, partner-enabled routes can reduce the cost of reaching gated proof steps but may weaken learning when the customer interface becomes opaque. The dissertation concludes with case-specific implications and a concise playbook for partner-enabled entry under resource constraints.