Master´s Thesis Evaluation by the Opponent
Title of the Master´s Thesis:
A business model analysis of a local furniture retailer Author of the Master´s Thesis:
Philip Reiter
Goals of the Master´s Thesis:
The thesis explores the opportunities of small retailers to assert themselves in a concentrating industry through growth and differentiating options, using the case of a local design furniture specialist retailer. For that purpose, the thesis aims to provide a thorough understanding of the case company and its business model.
Evaluation:
Criteria Description Max.
points Points
Content 70%
Output Quality The author has presented an excellent work in regards to the formal
requirements, but also succeeded at presenting a high-quality content which will definitely be insightful for both the management of the analysed company, as well as for anyone who would like to gain an insight into the interior design retailing in Germany. The author has utilised a variety of frameworks and large amount of both external and internal data in order to identify 42 posibilities of improvement or growth which showcases his devotion to the topic. At the very end, he, however, only focuses on 3 and it is not fully clear on which evaluating criteria have the three been selected.
But overall, the thesis is very well-curated, structured and easy to follow.
20 18
Goals The goals of the thesis have been clearly stated at the beginning, and the author succeeded at addressing them. I would recommend using a impact/cost/difficulty (up to the author) of implementation matrix to visualise all the identified opportunities/strategies to grow in order to clearly identify the most important ones to focus on and discard the others.
10 9
Methodology: The author has correctly selected methods for evaluation and identified the main limitations related to the subjectivity. He used the methods correctly, provided a complex overview of the market and identified the opportunities for growth. Due to the confidentiality, I missed more detailed/concrete presentation of the analysed company and its positioning within the competitive landscape in order to get a clearer understanding of their strategy and potentially competitive advantage on the market. Same as my colleague - Dr.Tyll – due to the multiple referals to the SWOT analysis in the thesis, I was expecting to read it, but unfortunately it was missing.
20 19
Theory/
Conceptualization: The author has definitely demonstrated great knowledge of theory, as well as strong ability to conduct academic writing. I was also pleased to see his ability to put the theory in practice through the practical section of the thesis.
20 20
For mal req uire me nts 15 %Structure: The thesis is a consistent, well-organised logical whole.
3 3
Terminology: Linguistic and terminological level of the thesis was excellent.
4 4
Formalities: The author has succeeded at meeting all the formal criteria of the thesis,
some information could have been presented in a more condensed manner. 4 4 Citing: The author did an excellent job at correctly using the APA citation style.
4 4
Delivery 15 %
Presentation document:
Is the presentation itself structured in a clear way? Is it appealing and easy to
follow? Does it convey the message efficiently? 5
Presentation skills:
Are you conveying the message efficiently and timely? Do you use
appropriate words, speed, tone of voice, gestures, movement etc. to express
your thoughts in a clear manner? 5
Argumentation: Are you able to readily and briskly react to questions or comments? Are you able to explain unclear parts and connect comments to relevant places in your presentation or parts of particular analyses? How well are you able to
defend to your ideas and recommendations? 5
100 0
Other comments:
The author provided a complex, yet holistic overview of the interior design retailer segment in Germany.
The rigor with which the author tackeled the problem was almost overwhelming in certain parts, but I do appreciate the effort that has been put into the thesis.
Questions or comments to be discussed during the thesis defence:
,,Moreover, the online channel expands the reachable target group beyond Germany’s borders to Austrian and Swiss customers. A small fraction of the customers even come from Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium, despite the lacking English translation of the e-commerce shop.”
Q1: How much online sales are generated by customers located outside of Germany?
In case of a double digit number, wouldn’t it be simple and cheap to translate the website?
Is the retailer currently delivering outside of Germany already?
Q2: In the personas section, what is the reasoning behind Manfred being from Munich when the shop is operating in North Westphalia? I understand, that the persona is for the e-com business, but I would still assume, that affluent Munichers would prefer stores within a closer vicinity due to the fact that the interior design market is saturated in Munich with a vide variety of brands and showrooms. Or does the company offer significantly better bricing or something else to attract these customers?
Q3: In the business model canvas, the physical store customers are B2B and on the e-com platform B2C.
Why so? Is the split between the sales online and offline so significant?
Q4: Do you have a concrete recommendation which ERP system would be suitable for the use in the
specific company?
Q5: Subscription model – instead of B2C, wouldn’t it make more sense to partner up with relocation agencies which house expats or large retail investors who operate furtnished flat rentals? I would assume, that the subscription model would not be that realistic for a company of this size (1 store, revenues in lower millions) operating in rather one of the smaller cities than the major large ones in Germany (such as
Munich, Frankfurt, Koln, Berlin…) despite the de-centralised system?
The name of the Opponent:
Ing. Natálie Badie, MIM
The employer of the Opponent:
PhD student & Teaching Assistant at the Department of Strategy of the Faculty of Business Administration
