Simon Kuster

Many people appreciate certain means of transport as their backup modes without necessarily using them. In environmental economics, this phenomenon of non-consumptive benefit is called option value and has been discussed for decades. However, in transport research, there have only been a few explorative attempts to examine the concept empirically. This study aims at developing an instrument for the investigation of perceived option values in passenger transport. With the help of a survey tool, option valuations will be explained based on characteristics of the option mode, the travel context, and the personal context of the traveler. Furthermore, resulting valuations will be compared to market-proxies. Subscriptions for secondary modes, purchases of second vehicles, and mobility insurances are market-based instruments that incorporate (some) option value. These backup solutions limit risk or volatility of transport costs. Therefore, under certain assumptions, the identified option values can also be compared to the valuation of financial options. Because option values are highly context dependent, it is necessary to focus the analysis on (the inhabitants of) a specific region with its distinct transport system or options. This study proposes a methodology for the investigation of option values in passenger transportation in Switzerland for the first time.

Following the tradition of the St.Gallen management models, this texbook explores management as a function and as an activity. It covers the key concepts of management, decision theory, strategy, leadership, organization and governance. It focuses on the central fields of tension in management and includes various illustrative models.

This case portrays the Swiss eyewear start-up VIU and its co-founder Kilian Wagner. He started the company in 2013 to disrupt the market for glasses by owning the entire value chain with an online, direct to customer approach. However, VIU soon adapted its distribution strategy to become a multi-channel optician. Today, the company is present in five European markets with its online shop and around 50 physical stores. The case study presents managerial challenges of a fast-growing company that integrates on- and offline and pursues both optimization and renewal at the same time.

Many travel and tourism enterprises are confronted with low margins and low profitability. Value is insufficiently 'captured' and often lost to intermediaries. In the recent past, many tourism and hospitality processes only could create value at all because they had access to favorable production factors. However, in the aftermath of the pandemic and due to demographic changes, key production factors (land, capital, labor) have become scarce and thus expensive. Processes must therefore be increasingly aligned with the available and often scarce human and financial resources: 'design to resources'. Improving effectivity and efficiency of systems and processes is key to improving service (and customer) productivity in tourism and hospitality. Insights from literature and practice show, that digitization and technology are key drivers.

Research project presentation at the Swiss Tourism and Hospitality Research Meeting 2020 in Sierre