No abstract

Research background: The COVID-19 pandemic led to a change in consumer demand behavior worldwide. Due to the pandemic, individual sectors and industries experienced enormous demand or significant decreases in demand. Hardly any sector or industry remained unaffected by the influences and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the many worldwide restrictions of private travel, many German consumers stayed in their home country. German tourists are internationally regarded as world champions in travel, so the lack of private long-distance travel led to implications for other sectors. Another trend that has emerged in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic is the so-called cocooning. Cocooning is the term used by trend researchers to describe a tendency for consumers to increasingly withdraw from civil society and the public sphere into their private lives at home. This combination of a lack of private travel and a retreat into private domestic life has led to enormous growth in the furniture, household goods, garden, and home improvement sectors. Purpose of the article: The pandemic-related shift in demand is examined using secondary market data. These are first systematically researched, reviewed, and analyzed. Then, by using growth figures, the German home and garden market is examined based on sales figures and pandemic-related changes are shown. Furthermore, the individual sales channels, the relevant market players, and market shares under the pandemic’s influence will be analyzed. Methods: Systematic analysis of market information and datasets in the home and gardening sector in Germany. Findings & Value added: Creation of an information base regarding the shift in demand of German consumers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research background: The publication of data in Germany introduces a paradigm shift in public administrations. The data silos of the administrations are thus being opened up piece by piece. There are many possible applications for these data. Optimized location determination for trade, production, and services is one of these many possible applications. It has been shown that the provision of open data can achieve economic effects and set value chains in motion. The value creation effects can arise directly, indirectly, or downstream. Public data can thus become a relevant location factor for regions and cities. Purpose of the article: The various implications of opening up data in context with location determination will be examined in this article. This will be done from an economic perspective, highlighting the positive externalities of open data. Methods: The published data of administrations will be analyzed based on a German data bank of 12,020 datasets concerning their relevance for determining location. For this purpose, hard and soft location criteria will be defined in advance. Findings & Value added: The result of the study will be a newly developed publication strategy for German public administrations on location criteria. With the help of this publication strategy, open data should function as a location advantage and initiate value creation effects.