In a world in which current events increasingly evoke episodes from the past and former crises, understanding history becomes fundamental in order to build an informed solution strategy. Nevertheless, one should also recognize to leave one’s contemporary judgment and knowledge in the present, while dissecting the past for valuable insights. In this master thesis, I am submitting a research proposal to fellow students and the research community at large, which includes a case study that, firstly, analyses the Weimar Republic’s newspaper landscape and the lack of an extensive and centralized digitized archive of its widely decentralised press, and, secondly, analyses the transformation of language over time in a newspaper sample from the Aachener Anzeiger. Through the analysed sample and analysis, I wish to highlight the importance of understanding the past so that future adversities can be easier resolved by a combination of distant and close reading techniques. The interest in the history of Weimar Germany is steadily regaining momentum within and outside academia, as several contemporary events seem to establish a certain parallel with this short-lived first attempt at democracy that emerged after the end of the former German Empire. In this thesis, history will be analysed through the digital textual analysis of newspapers. The limitations of this approach will be illustrated and discussed, such as the challenges posed by decentralized archival material, the issues OCR encounters when digitizing the Fraktur typeface, and the deriving importance of digitizing such typeface to avoid historical erasure. Furthermore, the need to render such findings and research accessible to society at large is fundamental, as the contemporary political developments of our times affect everyone, whether they belong to academia or not. In the final chapter, new research pathways will be proposed and discussed, while also considering the case of contemporary history and politics and the essential aspects of digitization and social acceleration of life through technology.

Digital advances and consumers' buying behaviors disrupt the retail industry demanding more seamless experiences during their buys. In response, retailers are adopting an omnichannel retailing strategy (OCR), which is the integration of retailers' physical and digital channels. However, OCR is a premature concept, and there is still a lack of research in the subject, which limits the guidance for its practical application. Thus, there is still the need to understand the subject.  For OCR managers, it is necessary to understand the main challenges in order to orchestrate it better. Therefore, this research undertakes the task to study the factors that challenge OCR's orchestration, from a managerial perspective. The research departs from primary and secondary data that was later categorized according to its main factor and incorporated into an existing analytical framework of OCR. The findings indicate three main challenge groups that could hinder an orchestrator's impact on the organization. Those are particular capabilities for the OCR, the integration of channels, and technology and data leverage. / Los avances digitales y los comportamientos de compra de los consumidores perturban la industria minorista demandando experiencias más fluidas durante sus compras. En respuesta, las empresas están adoptando una estrategia de omnicanal (OCR – omnichannel retailing), que es la integración de los canales físicos y digitales de los minoristas. Sin embargo, OCR es un concepto prematuro, y todavía hay una falta de investigación en el tema, lo que limita la guía para su aplicación práctica. Por lo tanto, todavía existe la necesidad de comprender el tema.  Para los gerentes de OCR es importante comprender los principales desafíos para una mejor organización. Por lo tanto, esta investigación emprende la tarea de estudiar los factores que desafían la orquestación del omnicanal de minoristas (OCR), desde una perspectiva gerencial. La investigación parte de datos primarios y secundarios que luego se categorizaron según su factor principal y se incorporaron a un marco analítico existente de OCR. Los resultados indican tres grupos principales de desafíos que podrían dificultar el impacto de un orquestador en la organización. Esos son las capacidades particulares para el OCR, la integración de canales, y el apalancamiento de tecnología y datos.