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Unternehmen, die gesellschaftliche Verantwortung für die Auswirkungen ihrer Geschäftstätigkeit übernehmen, stehen vor der Herausforderung, CSR und Compliance systematisch und umfassend in ihr Unternehmen zu integrieren und kontinuierlich umzusetzen. Dieser Beitrag zeigt vor diesem Hintergrund auf, wie Unternehmen durch die Etablierung von Wertemanagementsystemen sowie PDCA-Zyklen (Plan-Do-Check-Act) CSR- und Compliancemanagementsysteme integrieren und umsetzen können. Des Weiteren werden Instrumente, die relevant für die Entwicklung, Implementierung und Umsetzung von effektiven und effizienten CSR- und Compliancemanagementsysteme sind, aufgelistet.
Das vorliegende Kapitel umreißt die aktuellen empirischen Forschungsfelder der Erwachsenenbildung/Weiterbildung. Diese beschäftigt sich seit ihren Anfängen in den 1960er-Jahren mit Teilnehmenden und mit Lehr- und Lern-Prozessen und wird seither sowohl hinsichtlich ihrer Theoriegrundlegung als auch ihrer Gegenstände weiterentwickelt und ausdifferenziert. Die verschiedenen Theorieperspektiven werden für die empirische Untersuchung ausdifferenzierter Gegenstandsbereiche herangezogen. Zentrale Erkenntnisse der aktuellen empirischen Forschung ermöglichen nicht nur Wissen über die Teilnehmenden, sondern auch über das Lernen Erwachsener, über Programme und Angebote, Institutionen und Organisationen sowie deren Einbettung in staatliche und gesellschaftliche Systeme und bildungspolitische Entscheidungen.
Intuition ist im Management schon längst kein Randthema mehr. Die fruchtbare Wirkung der Intuition ist jedoch vielfach nachgewiesen worden. Trotzdem schwebt stellenweise der Schleier der Esoterik über diesem Thema. Zu Unrecht. Seinen "guten Riecher" hat der erfolgreiche Spitzenverkäufer doch schon immer benutzt. Eine Studie zur Rolle der Intuition im Verkaufsprozess beleuchtet dieses faszinierende Thema.
Effektives Risiko-Management sollte neben quantifizierbaren, bekannten Risiken auch Ereignisse berücksichtigen, die entweder in ähnlicher Art bereits eingetreten oder grundsätzlich vorstellbar sind. Für eine Identifikation dieser "Grauen Schwäne" müssen institutionell-organisatorische Voraussetzungen geschaffen und analytisch-konzeptionelle Instrumente bereitgestellt werden.
Dieser Beitrag entwickelt ein Managementmodell, das Unternehmen dabei unterstützt, relevante Aktionsfelder zur nachhaltigen Steuerung von Konsumenten entlang der eigenen Customer Journey zu identifizieren. Aufbauend auf dem SHIFT-Modell, als strukturelle Abbildung des nachhaltigen Käuferverhaltens, wird die Customer Journey entlang der owned, paid und earned Touchpoints aufgezogen. Mithilfe des faktisch analytischen Ansatzes, der die Integration neuer Erkenntnisse in die Forschungsstrategie unterstützt, werden Aktionsfelder identifiziert, die als grundlegende Logik Unternehmen dazu anleiten sollen, bei der Ausgestaltung der eigenen nachhaltigen Customer Journey dieses Strukturraster anzunehmen.
Die Zukunftsfähigkeit des Personalmanagements lässt sich daran festmachen, dass in der Organisation qualitativ und quantitativ ausreichend Personal zur Erfüllung des Organisationszwecks in dynamischen Umfeldern zur Verfügung steht. Einen wichtigen Ansatzpunkt stellen die Flexibilisierung der Personalausstattung sowie die institutionelle und strukturelle Öffnung von Organisationen in Richtung mehr Agilität dar. Darauf aufbauend muss das Personalmanagement selbst durch neue Arbeitsweisen und Praktiken innovativer werden und zusätzlich zu seinem stabilen Kern ein zweites agiles Betriebssystem entwickeln. Das zeitlich und strukturell abgestimmte Zusammenspiel des stabilen und agilen Betriebssystems ermöglicht dann die gleichzeitige Nutzung von exploitativen und explorativen Praktiken. Um die Agilitätsagenda des Personalmanagements weiter voranzutreiben, benötigt es einen systematischen Umgang mit der Bedeutung unterschiedlicher Agilitätsdimensionen, die Entwicklung von Instrumenten sowie Zielsetzungen, die ein agiles Personalmanagement verfolgen sollte.
Die zukünftige Arbeitswelt ist durch unterschiedliche Grenzverschiebungen gekennzeichnet, so dass wir von fluiden Grenzen sprechen können. Faktoren, die diese Entwicklung befördern, sind Technologie, Gesellschaft und Organisation. Ein Beispiel: Die digitalen Technologien, wie unter anderen mobile Arbeitsgeräte, Clouds und soziale Netzwerke ermöglichen eine zeitliche und räumliche Flexibilisierung von Arbeit, die von den Mitarbeitern und den Organisationen begrüßt und aktiv vorangetrieben wird. Allerdings führt diese Entwicklung auch dazu, dass die neue Arbeitswelt, vor allem durch die Entgrenzung von privatem und beruflichem Lebensbereich, für viele Mitarbeiter belastender wird. Die Implikationen für die Führungspraxis werden diskutiert.
YouTube fashion videos
(2020)
YouTube is the most widely adopted and successful video sharing platform. It works as a marketing instrument and money-making tool for companies while reaching the target group. After considering the significant literature based on YouTube, it is striking that there is lack of information about YouTube’s benefits as a video marketing instrument for fashion brands. To establish this subject further, the purpose of this study is to enrich the existing findings on social video marketing on YouTube in the apparel industry. The findings indicate the importance of YouTube as a social network for fashion marketers. The second part conducts an empirical study, which makes the YouTube channel performance of nine fashion brands the subject of discussion. Thereby, three brands per lifestyle, sports and luxury sector are analyzed through comparative aspects. Accordingly, the differences and similarities within and between the sectors are analyzed and evaluated.
Workshops and tutorials
(2018)
The 19th International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement (PROFES 2018) hosted two workshops and three tutorials. The workshops and tutorials complemented and enhanced the main conference program, offering a wider knowledge perspective around the conference topics. The topics of the two workshops were Hybrid Development Approaches in Software Systems Development (HELENA) and Managing Quality in Agile & Rapid Software Development Processes (QUaSD). The topics of the tutorials were The human factor in agile transitions – using the personas concept in agile oaching, Process Management 4.0 – Best Practices, and Domain-specific languages for specification, development, and testing of autonomous systems.
Eine für den wirtschaftlichen Erfolg im B2B-Geschäft zentrale Teilaufgabe des Account Managements ist zweifelsfrei auch beim Value Based Selling© die Preisdurchsetzung. Diesbezüglich setzen professionelle Vertriebsorganisationen eine Vielzahl an Instrumenten ein, die sowohl die Motivation als auch die Befähigung der einzelnen Vertriebsmitarbeiter zur Durchsetzung hoher Preise verbessern. Allerdings gerät beim Einsatz des etablierten Instrumentariums mitunter zu stark aus dem Blick, dass in jeder Preisverhandlung letztlich ein idiosynkratischer menschlicher Faktor existiert, der allein durch Analytik, Systematik und Disziplin nicht hinreichend erfasst werden kann. Auch hier kommen Soft Skills maßgeblich zum Tragen und sind entsprechend zu fördern und nutzbar zu machen.
Die zunehmende Informationsgewinnung der Kunden in B2B-Kaufprozesse wird maßgeblich in der Zukunft durch soziale Medien und Branded Communities geprägt. Moderne Unternehmen sind hier gefordert, den Account Manager mittels interner Kollaborationsprozesse, Corporate Communities und Projekt Management-Technologien zu unterstützen. Zudem muss sich die Rolle des Account Managers dahin gehend wandeln, den Kunden als externen Business Development Partner und Datenlieferanten zu verstehen und zu nutzen. Die Herausforderung für die Wirtschaft ist jedoch die Erforschung der Erkenntnis, inwieweit sich der Kunde zu einem Social Influencer oder Markenadvokaten hoch stilisieren oder aufwerten lässt.
Die Erwartungen an Management Reporting sind hoch. Es soll immer effizienter und effektiver werden, dabei zugleich stark wachsende Datenmengen und neue komplexe Strukturen berücksichtigen. Unternehmen können auf diese Veränderungen mit unterschiedlichen Strategien reagieren. Drei Szenarien zeigen, wie das Management Reporting der Zukunft aussehen kann.
In buchstäblich letzter Minute haben sich die englische Regierung und die Europäische Union auf ein umfangreiches Abkommen geeinigt, um einen ungeregelten Brexit zu verhindern. Nach dem jahrelangen zähen Verhandlungsmarathon fällt der Jubel verhalten aus, dennoch herrscht auf beiden Seiten des Ärmelkanals Erleichterung, weil ein Modus Vivendi gefunden wurde, auf dem sich die künftigen Beziehungen aufbauen und fortführen lassen. Ob sich die englischen Blütenträume, die an den Brexit geknüpft wurden, erfüllen werden, wird die Zukunft erweisen.
Die Strategie und Taktik der englischen Regierungen zum Brexit und bei den Austrittsverhandlungen spiegeln sich in den Erfahrungen wider, die Friedrich List vor genau 175 Jahren bei seinen Bemühungen um eine deutsch-englische Allianz machen musste. Wegen der von England schon damals strikt befolgten Insular und Handelssuprematie musste er sich eingestehen, dass England diese Position hartnäckig verteidigt und deshalb frustriert und ernüchtert seine Pläne aufgeben. Deshalb setzte er seine Hoffnung auf eine "Kontinentalallianz" der europäischen Nationen, wie sie nun nach dem Austritt Großbritanniens aus der Europäischen Union entstanden ist. Vielleicht werden wir uns nun an den Begriff "Kontinentalallianz" gewöhnen müssen und dabei an die Weitsicht von Friedrich List erinnert.
Andererseits gilt auch für die englische Politik das Motto von Lists zweiter Pariser Preisschrift: "Le monde marche - Die Welt bewegt sich", allerdings mit völlig anderen Vorzeichen als vor 175 Jahren: Die Welthandelsachse hat sich von der westlichen auf die östliche Halbkugel verlagert; das britische Weltreich ist Geschichte, die Fließgeschwindigkeit des globalen Wandels hat sich dramatisch beschleunigt und trotz der Lingua Franca erscheint England, vor allem aus asiatischer Sicht, nur noch als kleiner Fleck auf der Weltkarte. Falls die schottische Regierung ihre Absicht durchsetzen und die Unabhängigkeit vom Vereinigten Königreich erreichen sollte, würde sich der Brexit als verhängnisvoller Bumerang erweisen.
Context: Companies that operate in the software-intensive business are confronted with high market dynamics, rapidly evolving technologies as well as fast-changing customer behavior. Traditional product roadmapping practices, such as fixed-time-based charts including detailed planned features, products, or services typically fail in such environments. Until now, the underlying reasons for the failure of product roadmaps in a dynamic and uncertain market environment are not widely analyzed and understood.
Objective: This paper aims to identify current challenges and pitfalls practitioners face when developing and handling product roadmaps in a dynamic and uncertain market environment.
Method: To reach our objective we conducted a grey literature review (GLR).
Results: Overall, we identified 40 relevant papers, from which we could extract 11 challenges of the application of product roadmapping in a dynamic and uncertain market environment. The analysis of the articles showed that the major challenges for practitioners originate from overcoming a feature-driven mindset, not including a lot of details in the product roadmap, and ensuring that the content of the roadmap is not driven by management or expert opinion.
Several studies analyzed existing Web APIs against the constraints of REST to estimate the degree of REST compliance among state-of-the-art APIs. These studies revealed that only a small number of Web APIs are truly RESTful. Moreover, identified mismatches between theoretical REST concepts and practical implementations lead us to believe that practitioners perceive many rules and best practices aligned with these REST concepts differently in terms of their importance and impact on software quality. We therefore conducted a Delphi study in which we confronted eight Web API experts from industry with a catalog of 82 REST API design rules. For each rule, we let them rate its importance and software quality impact. As consensus, our experts rated 28 rules with high, 17 with medium, and 37 with low importance. Moreover, they perceived usability, maintainability, and compatibility as the most impacted quality attributes. The detailed analysis revealed that the experts saw rules for reaching Richardson maturity level 2 as critical, while reaching level 3 was less important. As the acquired consensus data may serve as valuable input for designing a tool-supported approach for the automatic quality evaluation of RESTful APIs, we briefly discuss requirements for such an approach and comment on the applicability of the most important rules.
Context: Organizations are increasingly challenged by dynamic and technical market environments. Traditional product roadmapping practices such as detailed and fixed long-term planning typically fail in such environments. Therefore, companies are actively seeking ways to improve their product roadmapping approach. Goal: This paper aims at identifying problems and challenges with respect to product roadmapping. In addition, it aims at understanding how companies succeed in improving their roadmapping practices in their respective company contexts. The study focuses on mid-sized and large companies developing software-intensive products in dynamic and technical market environments. Method: We conducted semi structured expert interviews with 15 experts from 13 German companies and conducted a thematic data analysis. Results: The analysis showed that a significant number of companies is still struggling with traditional feature based product-roadmapping and opinion based prioritization of features. The most promising areas for improvement are stating the outcomes a company is trying to achieve and making them part of the roadmap, sharing or co-developing the roadmap with stakeholders, and the establishing discovery activities.
Werttreiber Lean Production
(2013)
Steigern Unternehmen, die Lean-Production-Methoden einsetzten, ihren Unternehmenswert, und wenn ja, wie sehr? Das Autorenteam der Hochschule Reutlingen hat das Zusammenspiel der Managementkonzepte Working Capital Management und Wertorientierung untersucht und stellt die ermutigenden Ergebnisse anhand je eines Szenarios für ein Großunternehmen und ein KMU vor.
Wertschätzung zählt
(2023)
Wie steht es mit den Sitten im B2B-Geschäft? Im Beitrag werden Wahrnehmung und Ursachen für den Sittenwandel im wirtschaftlichen Kontext in Deutschland und der Schweiz beleuchtet. Anhand einer Analyse der Werteforschung und Experteninterviews im B2B-Sales werden die Erscheinungsformen des Sittenwandels kritisch untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Wertschätzung, Respekt und Vertrauen im Vertriebsbereich zwar einen hohen Wert besitzen, aber oft missachtet werden.
Dieser Beitrag untersucht, wer in Deutschland Bildungsminister:in wird. Zur Klärung dieser Frage entwickelten wir einen Datensatz, der die biografischen Merkmale aller Bildungsminister:innen der deutschen Bundesländer zwischen 1950 und 2020 enthält. Als Beispiel für die Nutzung des Datensatzes untersuchen wir die beiden Merkmale Geschlecht und frühere Berufserfahrung und verknüpfen diese Merkmale mit Indikatoren für die Größe und Entwicklung des Bildungsbudgets und die Dauer der Amtszeit. Wir zeigen, dass zwischen 1950 und 2020 deutlich mehr Männer als Frauen zum/zur Bildungsminister:in ernannt wurden, unabhängig davon, welche Parteien die Bildungsminister:innen stellten. Außerdem verfügt die Mehrheit der Bildungsminister:innen bei Amtsantritt nicht über vorherige Berufserfahrung als Lehrer:in. Die meisten Bildungsminister:innen haben jedoch bereits politische Erfahrung, wenn sie ihr Amt antreten. Unsere Datenbank, die die erste umfassende Erhebung biografischer Merkmale von Bildungsminister:innen in den deutschen Bundesländern enthält, steht allen interessierten Forscher:innen zur Verfügung.
Wege der Gewinnermittlung
(2017)
Macht ein Unternehmen Gewinn, heißt dies nicht notwendigerweise, dass alles „in trockenen Tüchern“ ist. Die entscheidende Frage ist, wie der Gewinn ermittelt wurde, denn nur mit dem richtigen Verfahren erhält man auch den geeigneten Blickwinkel – auf den Erfolg eines einzelnen Geschäfts, auf den Gewinn einer Periode, auf das Betriebsvermögen, auf die Liquidität oder auf die Bilanz.
Rapid prototyping platforms reduce development time by allowing quick prototyping of a prototype idea and achieve more time for actual application development with user interfaces. This approach has long been followed in technical platforms, such as the Arduino. To transfer this form of prototyping to wearables, WearIT is presented in this paper.WearIT consists of four components as a wearable prototyping platform: (1) a vest, (2) sensor and actuator shields, (3) its own library and (4) a motherboard consisting of Arduino, Raspberry Pi, a board and a GPS module. As a result, a wearable prototype can be quickly developed by attaching sensor and actuator shields to the WearIT vest. These sensor and actuator shields can then be programmed through the WearIT library. Via Virtual Network Computing (VNC) with a remote computer, the screen contents of the Raspberry Pi can be accessed and the Arduino be programmed.
Purpose: Human breath analysis is proposed with increasing frequency as a useful tool in clinical application. We performed this study to find the characteristic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the exhaled breath of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) for discrimination from healthy subjects. Methods: VOCs in the exhaled breath of 40 IPF patients and 55 healthy controls were measured using a multi-capillary column and ion mobility spectrometer. The patients were examined by pulmonary function tests, blood gas analysis, and serum biomarkers of interstitial pneumonia. Results: We detected 85 VOC peaks in the exhaled breath of IPF patients and controls. IPF patients showed 5 significant VOC peaks; p-cymene, acetoin, isoprene, ethylbenzene, and an unknown compound. The VOC peak of p-cymene was significantly lower (p < 0.001), while the VOC peaks of acetoin, isoprene, ethylbenzene, and the unknown compound were significantly higher (p < 0.001 for all) compared with the peaks of controls. Comparing VOC peaks with clinical parameters, negative correlations with VC (r =−0.393, p = 0.013), %VC (r =−0.569, p < 0.001), FVC (r = −0.440, p = 0.004), %FVC (r =−0.539, p < 0.001), DLco (r =−0.394, p = 0.018), and %DLco (r =−0.413, p = 0.008) and a positive correlation with KL-6 (r = 0.432, p = 0.005) were found for p-cymene. Conclusion: We found characteristic 5 VOCs in the exhaled breath of IPF patients. Among them, the VOC peaks of p-cymene were related to the clinical parameters of IPF. These VOCs may be useful biomarkers of IPF.
In times of dynamic markets, enterprises have to be agile to be able to quickly react to market influences. Due to the increasing digitization of products, the enterprise IT often is affected when business models change. Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) targets a holistic view of the enterprise’ IT and their relations to the business. However, Enterprise Architectures (EA) are complex structures consisting of many layers, artifacts and relationships between them. Thus, analyzing EA is a very complex task for stakeholders. Visualizations are common vehicles to support analysis. However, in practice visualization capabilities lack flexibility and interactivity. A solution to improve the support of stakeholders in analyzing EAs might be the application of visual analytics. Starting from a systematic literature review, this article investigates the features of visual analytics relevant for the context of EAM.
Based on well-established robotic concepts of autonomous localization and navigation we present a system prototype to assist camera-based indoor navigation for human utilization implemented in the Robot Operating System (ROS). Our prototype takes advantage of state-of-the-art computer vision and robotic methods. Our system is designed for assistive indoor guidance. We employ a vibro tactile belt to serve as a guiding device to render derived motion suggestions to the user via vibration patterns. We evaluated the effectiveness of a variety of vibro-tactile feedback patterns for guidance of blindfolded users. Our prototype demonstrates that a vision-based system can support human navigation, and may also assist the visually impaired in a human-centered way.
Enterprises and societies currently face crucial challenges, while Society 5.0 can contribute to a supersmart society, especially for manufacturing and healthcare, and Industry 4.0 becomes important in the global manufacturing industry. Smart energy digital platforms are architected to manage energy supply efficiently. Furthermore, the above digital platforms are expected to collect various kinds of data and analyze Big Data for the trends in the sharing economy in ecosystems. The adaptive integrated digital architecture framework (AIDAF) for Design Thinking Approach with Risk Management is expected to make an alignment with digital IT strategy. In this paper, we propose that various energy management systems and related digital platforms are designed and implemented in an alignment to digital IT strategy for sharing economy toward Society 5.0, with the AIDAF framework for Design Thinking Approach with Risk Management. The vision of AIDAF applications to enable sharing economy and digital platforms is explained and extended in the context of Society 5.0. In addition, challenges and future activities for this area are discussed that cover the directions of smart energy for Society 5.0.
Sprachassistenten gewinnen als Alltagshelfer immer mehr an Bedeutung. Sie beeinflussen die Art und Weise, wie Menschen Aufgaben erledigen und mit Unternehmen interagieren. Eine qualitative Studie hat die Nutzungsbereitschaft beim Kauf von High-Involvement-Produkten über Sprachassistenten untersucht. Zukünftig könnte Voice Commerce für diese Produkte an Relevanz gewinnen.
“Vertrauen ist nicht alles, aber ohne Vertrauen ist alles nichts.” Nun ja, fast. Zweifelsfrei ist jedoch Vertrauen ein zentrales Element, um auf angenehme Art und Weise zusammenarbeiten zu können und intrinsische Motivation freizusetzen. Denn wo Vertrauen fehlt, macht sich Misstrauen breit. Was wiederum ziemlich schnell zu ausufernder Kontrolle führt, mithin zu den bekannten Kontrollexzessen, die – wie wir alle ärgerlicher Weise erfahren durften – teilweise sogar über rechtliche Grenzen hinausreichen. Aber Vertrauen aufbauen und pflegen ist nicht immer selbstverständlich und ganz einfach (→Investition Vertrauen). Aber was, wenn Vertrauen auch noch international aufgebaut werden soll. Wo drohen dort Fallstricke? Genau dieser Frage gehen Robert Münscher und Julia Hormuth nach.
Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick zum Stand der Vertrauensforschung in Marketing und Vertrieb. Dabei ist Vertrauen als Gegenstand der Forschung innerhalb des Relationship Marketing Ansatzes sehr gut etabliert. Bei der Definition des Vertrauensbegriffs stützt sich das Marketing auf die Erkenntnisse der sozialwirtschaftlichen Nachbardisziplinen. Soweit Kunden ihren Anbietern vertrauen, gehen sie grundsätzlich ein Risiko ein und machen sich hierdurch angreifbar. Man vertraut in einen Anbieter, ohne vorab genau zu wissen, ob das gewünschte Resultat einer Kooperation mit Sicherheit eintritt. Dies gilt umgekehrt auch für den Anbieter, der zum Teil erhebliche Vorinvestitionen tätigen muss, ohne vorab zu wissen, ob tatsächlich eine Geschäftsbeziehung mit einem Kunden entsteht. Vertrauen ist daher v.a. in komplexen und langfristigen Beziehungen zwischen Anbietern und Kunden eine wesentliche Ressource. Entsprechend thematisiert der Beitrag die Bedingungen und Auswirkungen von Vertrauen auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen. Dabei dominiert in Marketing und Vertrieb noch immer eine interpersonale Perspektive. Die Potentiale organisationaler Beziehungsstrategien sind zum gegenwärtigen Zeitpunkt eher schwach beleuchtet, jedoch greift der Beitrag einige Trends für die weitere Ausrichtung der Vertrauensforschung auf, die zukünftig stärker an Bedeutung gewinnen werden. Dabei ist grundsätzlich davon auszugehen, dass bei zunehmend volatilen Rahmenbedingungen das Interesse an Vertrauensfragen auch in Marketing und Vertrieb weiter zunimmt.
Die hohen Schulden in einigen Staaten der Europäischen Wirtschafts- und Währungsunion lassen nach wie vor staatliche Insolvenzen befürchten. Um die bereits entstandenen Probleme zu bewältigen, aber auch damit eine solche Situation künftig gar nicht erst eintritt, ist eine staatliche Insolvenzordnung erforderlich.
Marketing-Events emotionalisieren das Publikum auf besondere Art und Weise. Einstellungsänderungen bzw. Imageverbesserungen stellen deshalb die zentralen Zielsetzungen des Event-Marketing dar. Aufbauend auf den wesentlichen Grundlagen des Event-Marketing fokussiert dieses Kapitel auf das Controlling im Event-Marketing. Eingegangen wird auf die Erfolgskontrolle und die Wirkungsforschung im Event-Marketing. Es werden die Bedingungen für das Zustandekommen eines Imagetransfers von einem Event auf eine Marke bzw. ein Unternehmen erläutert und Verfahren zur Imagemessung vorgestellt.
Values Management System
(2022)
The ValuesManagementSystem (VWS) is a management standard to “provide a sustainable safeguard of a firm and its development, in all dimensions (legal, economic, ecological, social)” (VWSZfW, p. 4). It includes a framework for values-driven governance through self-commitment and self-binding mechanisms. Values promote a sense of identity and give organizations guidance in decision-making. This is especially important in decision-making processes where topics are not clearly ruled by laws and regulations.
VMSZfW must be embedded in the specific business strategy, structure, and culture of an organization. The following four steps describe the implementation of the ValuesManagementSystemZfW: (i) Codify core values of an organization, for instance, with a “mission, vision and values statement” or Code of Ethics, (ii) implement guidelines such as Code of Conduct and specific policies and procedures, (iii) systematize these by establishing management systems such as Compliance and CSR management systems, and (iv) finally organize and establish structures to ensure the strategic direction and operational implementation and review of these processes. The top management shows that values management is taken seriously by their self-commitment to the core values of the company.
The purpose of this paper is to determine the relevance of social media for luxury brand management. It employs both a multi-methodological approach: After analyzing the online performance of the three luxury brands Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Gucci, the empirical research includes a survey as well as an eye tracking test executed with Tobii Studio. The findings reveal that online and social media have given luxury fashion businesses the opportunity to establish a sustainable interaction with their customers and distinguish themselves from the competition. Still, the online business holds many challenges for luxury companies to overcome. This paper gives instructions as to how social media can be effectively incorporated into a luxury company.
Software evolvability is an important quality attribute, yet one difficult to grasp. A certain base level of it is allegedly provided by service- and microservice-based systems, but many software professionals lack systematic understanding of the reasons and preconditions for this. We address this issue via the proxy of architectural modifiability tactics. By qualitatively mapping principles and patterns of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and microservices onto tactics and analyzing the results, we cannot only generate insights into service-oriented evolution qualities, but can also provide a modifiability comparison of the two popular service-based architectural styles. The results suggest that both SOA and microservices possess several inherent qualities beneficial for software evolution. While both focus strongly on loose coupling and encapsulation, there are also differences in the way they strive for modifiability (e.g. governance vs. evolutionary design). To leverage the insights of this research, however, it is necessary to find practical ways to incorporate the results as guidance into the software development process.
Unternehmertum spielt sowohl für die Entwicklung afrikanischer Länder eine Rolle, als auch für ausländische Unternehmen mit Markteintrittsplänen. Die infrastrukturellen und institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen für Unternehmertum sind nach wie vor schwierig, wobei aber die fortschreitende Digitalisierung zu einer zunehmend aktiven Start-Up Szene in vielen afrikanischen Ländern führt. Nach wie vor existiert ein Mismatch zwischen den Bereichen in denen Start-Ups entstehen und den Bereichen, wo ausländische Unternehmen Partner für den Markteintritt suchen. Somit bleibt es trotz positiver Entwicklung beim Unternehmertum in absehbarer Zeit schwierig adäquate Partner zu finden.
Afrika ist aufgrund überdurchschnittlicher Wirtschaftswachstumsraten und als die weltweit letzten unbearbeiteten Märkte seit einigen Jahren ein populäres Thema der Wirtschaft. Deutsche Unternehmen sind allerdings mit ihrem Engagement auf den afrikanischen Märkten sehr zurückhaltend. So schwankt der Anteil der deutschen Exporte nach Afrika an den deutschen Gesamtexporten seit zehn Jahren um die zwei Prozent; betrachtet man nur Subsahara‐Afrika, so waren es sogar nur 0,5 % in 2014 (Allafi und Koch 2015, S. 3). Bezüglich der Direktinvestitionen (nur Beteiligungskapital, ohne Direktinvestitionskredite) spielt Afrika eine noch geringere Rolle mit nur 1,5 % aller deutschen Investitionen in 2014, wobei hiervon so gut wie alle nach Nordafrika und Südafrika geflossen sind (Deutsche Bundesbank 2015, S. 12 f.). Neben den Standardgründen wie beispielsweise politischen Risiken, schlechter Infrastruktur, schwacher institutioneller Rahmenbedingungen und Governance‐Problemen (vgl. zum Beispiel World Bank 2016a), ist ein gängiges Markteintrittsproblem die fehlende Verfügbarkeit von lokalen Partnern in den Bereichen Vertrieb, Logistik und teilweise auch Produktion (vgl. zum Beispiel Carlowitz und Röndigs 2016). Aktuell ist ein Markteintritt in Afrika ohne lokalen Partner aufgrund der völlig anderen und schwierigen Rahmenbedingungen fast unmöglich.
Unternehmertum ist ein integraler Bestandteil des Ernuerungsprozesses von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Die Erneuerer sind nicht Politik oder Management, es sind einzelne Persönlichkeiten, die wagen, mit etwas zu beginnen, dessen Ausgang ungewiss ist, die ungebremst Kraft und Fähigkeiten einsetzen, mit der Folge, dass am Ende etwas Neues erschaffen worden ist. Wenn in wirtschaftlichen, kirchlichen, staatlichen, wissenschaftlichen und politischen Bereichen wirksam und innovativ gearbeitet wird, sind möglicherweise die gleichen personalen Talente und Gaben wirksam...Oft ist es eine Idee, ein motivierendes Bedürfnis, das sich Ausdruck verschafft in Handlungen, fast unabhängig von der Ausbildung oder einem begonnenen Studium. Man kann methodisches Know-how aufbauen, jedoch nicht Unternehmertum lernen.
Umsatz und Gewinne stagnieren auf hohem Niveau, und dennoch steigen der Aktienkurs und der Gewinn pro Aktie – eine Entwicklung, die sich etwa bei Apple oder Ebay beobachten lässt. Aktionäre sollten wissen, welche Arithmetik sich hinter solchen Entwicklungen verbirgt und mit welchen Verfahren sie den Unternehmenswert am besten ermitteln können.
Forecasting demand is challenging. Various products exhibit different demand patterns. While demand may be constant and regular for one product, it may be sporadic for another, as well as when demand occurs, it may fluctuate significantly. Forecasting errors are costly and result in obsolete inventory or unsatisfied demand. Methods from statistics, machine learning, and deep learning have been used to predict such demand patterns. Nevertheless, it is not clear for what demand pattern, which algorithm would achieve the best forecast. Therefore, even today a large number of models are used to forecast on a test period. The model with the best result on the test period is used for the actual forecast. This approach is computationally and time intensive and, in most cases, uneconomical. In our paper we show the possibility to use a machine learning classification algorithm, which predicts the best possible model based on the characteristics of a time series. The approach was developed and evaluated on a dataset from a B2B-technical-retailer. The machine learning classification algorithm achieves a mean ROC-AUC of 89%, which emphasizes the skill of the model.
Intermittent time series forecasting is a challenging task which still needs particular attention of researchers. The more unregularly events occur, the more difficult is it to predict them. With Croston’s approach in 1972 (1.Nr. 3:289–303), intermittence and demand of a time series were investigated the first time separately. He proposes an exponential smoothing in his attempt to generate a forecast which corresponds to the demand per period in average. Although this algorithm produces good results in the field of stock control, it does not capture the typical characteristics of intermittent time series within the final prediction. In this paper, we investigate a time series’ intermittence and demand individually, forecast the upcoming demand value and inter-demand interval length using recent machine learning algorithms, such as long-short-term-memories and light-gradient-boosting machines, and reassemble both information to generate a prediction which preserves the characteristics of an intermittent time series. We compare the results against Croston’s approach, as well as recent forecast procedures where no split is performed.
The United Nations (UN) Global Compact is a call to companies to align their strategies and operations with ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption, and to take actions that advance societal goals (UN Global Compact 2017, p. 3). The UN Global Compacts’ vision is “to mobilize a global movement of sustainable companies and stakeholder to create the world we want” (UN Global Compact 2021a). It is a global network with local presence all around the world.
Engineering of large vascularized adipose tissue constructs is still a challenge for the treatment of extensive high-graded burns or the replacement of tissue after tumor removal. Communication between mature adipocytes and endothelial cells is important for homeostasis and the maintenance of adipose tissue mass but, to date, is mainly neglected in tissue engineering strategies. Thus, new coculture strategies are needed to integrate adipocytes and endothelial cells successfully into a functional construct. This review focuses on the cross-talk of mature adipocytes and endothelial cells and considers their influence on fatty acid metabolism and vascular tone. In addition, the properties and challenges with regard to these two cell types for vascularized tissue engineering are highlighted.
The Principles for Responsible Investments (PRI) is “the world’s leading proponent of responsible investment” (PRI 2021a). With the development of six Principles for Responsible Investment, the PRI supports its international network of investor signatories in incorporating the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into their investment and ownership decisions. The goal of PRI is to develop a more sustainable global financial system by encouraging “investors to use responsible investment to enhance returns and better manage risks” (PRI 2021a). This independent financial initiative is supported by the United Nations and linked to the United Nations Environmental Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI 2021) and the United Nations Global Compact (UN Global Compact 2021).
Online measurement of drug concentrations in patient's breath is a promising approach for individualized dosage. A direct transfer from breath- to blood-concentrations is not possible. Measured exhaled concentrations are following the blood-concentration with a delay in non-steady-state situations. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate the breath-concentration into a pharmacological model. Two different approaches for pharmacokinetic modelling are presented. Usually a 3-compartment model is used for pharmacokinetic calculations of blood concentrations. This 3-compartment model is extended with a 2-compartment model based on the first compartment of the 3-compartment model and a new lung compartment. The second approach is to calculate a time delay of changes in the concentration of the first compartment to describe the lung-concentration. Exemplarily both approaches are used for modelling of exhaled propofol. Based on time series of exhaled propofol measurements using an ion-mobility-spectrometer every minute for 346 min a correlation of calculated plasma and the breath concentration was used for modelling to deliver R2 = 0.99 interdependencies. Including the time delay modelling approach the new compartment coefficient ke0lung was calculated to ke0lung = 0.27 min−1 with R2 = 0.96. The described models are not limited to propofol. They could be used for any kind of drugs, which are measurable in patient's breath.
Turning students into Industry 4.0 entrepreneurs: design and evaluation of a tailored study program
(2022)
Startups in the field of Industry 4.0 could be a huge driver of innovation for many industry sectors such as manufacturing. However, there is a lack of education programs to ensure a sufficient number of well-trained founders and thus a supply of such startups. Therefore, this study presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a university course tailored to the characteristics of Industry 4.0 entrepreneurship. Educational design-based research was applied with a focus on content and teaching concept. The study program was first implemented in 2021 at a German university of applied sciences with 25 students, of which 22 participated in the evaluation. The evaluation of the study program was conducted with a pretest–posttest-design targeting three areas: (1) knowledge about the application domain, (2) entrepreneurial intention and (3) psychological characteristics. The entrepreneurial intention was measured based on the theory of planned behavior. For measuring psychological characteristics, personality traits associated with entrepreneurship were used. Considering the study context and the limited external validity of the study, the following can be identified in particular: The results show that a university course can improve participants' knowledge of this particular area. In addition, perceived behavioral control of starting an Industry 4.0 startup was enhanced. However, the results showed no significant effects on psychological characteristics.
In the era of precision medicine, digital technologies and artificial intelligence, drug discovery and development face unprecedented opportunities for product and business model innovation, fundamentally changing the traditional approach of how drugs are discovered, developed and marketed. Critical to this transformation is the adoption of new technologies in the drug development process, catalyzing the transition from serendipity-driven to data-driven medicine. This paradigm shift comes with a need for both translation and precision, leading to a modern Translational Precision Medicine approach to drug discovery and development. Key components of Translational Precision Medicine are multi-omics profiling, digital biomarkers, model-based data integration, artificial intelligence, biomarker-guided trial designs and patient-centric companion diagnostics. In this review, we summarize and critically discuss the potential and challenges of Translational Precision Medicine from a cross-industry perspective.
Context: Companies need capabilities to evaluate the customer value of software intensive products and services. One way of systematically acquiring data on customer value is running continuous experiments as part of the overall development process. Objective: This paper investigates the first steps of transitioning towards continuous experimentation in a large company, including the challenges faced. Method: We conduct a single-case study using participant observation, interviews, and qualitative analysis of the collected data. Results: Results show that continuous experimentation was well received by the practitioners and practising experimentation helped them to enhance understanding of their product value and user needs. Although the complexities of a large multi-stakeholder business to-business (B2B) environment presented several challenges such as inaccessible users, it was possible to address impediments and integrate an experiment in an ongoing development project. Conclusion: Developing the capability for continuous experimentation in large organisations is a learning process which can be supported by a systematic introduction approach with the guidance of experts. We gained experience by introducing the approach on a small scale in a large organisation, and one of the major steps for future work is to understand how this can be scaled up to the whole development organisation.
Delivering value to customers in real-time requires companies to utilize real-time deployment of software to expose features to users faster, and to shorten the feedback loop. This allows for faster reaction and helps to ensure that the development is focused on features providing real value. Continuous delivery is a development practice where the software functionality is deployed continuously to customer environment. Although this practice has been established in some domains such as B2C mobile software, the B2B domain imposes specific challenges. This article presents a case study that is conducted in a medium-sized software company operating in the B2B domain. The objective of this study is to analyze the challenges and benefits of continuous delivery in this domain. The results suggest that technical challenges are only one part of the challenges a company encounters in this transition. The company must also address challenges related to the customer and procedures. The core challenges are caused by having multiple customers with diverse environments and unique properties, whose business depends on the software product. Some customers require to perform manual acceptance testing, while some are reluctant towards new versions. By utilizing continuous delivery, it is possible for the case company to shorten the feedback cycles, increase the reliability of new versions, and reduce the amount of resources required for deploying and testing new releases.
Ziel des Beitrages ist es, sinnlich-ästhetisch Weltzugänge am Beispiel des Designs für pädagogische Kontexte herauszuarbeiten. Gleichermaßen soll eine Reflexion darüber in Gang gesetzt werden, welche Potenziale transdisziplinär geprägte Gestaltungsprozesse für das Lernen und Lehren bereithalten. Zunächst wird daher die transdisziplinäre Natur des Designs geschichtlich hergeleitet und verschiedene Prozesse beleuchtet. Das sich anschließende Kapitel arbeitet unter dem Begriff der Gestaltung jene Merkmale und Qualitäten professionellen Designs heraus, die allen Prozessen zugrunde liegen. Abschließend wird das Konzept des Design Thinking vor dem Hintergrund erfahrungsbasierten Lernens in der Schulbildung diskutiert und mit Beispielen aus empirischen Studien untermauert.
Due to the consequential impact of technological breakdowns, companies have to be prepared to deal with breakdowns or even better prevent them. In today's information technology, several methods and tools exist to downscale this concern. Therefore, this paper deals with the initial determination of a resilient enterprise architecture supporting predictive maintenance in the information technology domain and furthermore, concerns several mechanisms on how to reactively and proactively secure the state of resiliency on several abstraction levels. The objective of this paper is to give an overview on existing mechanisms for resiliency and to describe the foundation of an optimized approach, combining infrastructure and process mining techniques.
The aim of this work is the development of artificial intelligence (AI) application to support the recruiting process that elevates the domain of human resource management by advancing its capabilities and effectiveness. This affects recruiting processes and includes solutions for active sourcing, i.e. active recruitment, pre-sorting, evaluating structured video interviews and discovering internal training potential. This work highlights four novel approaches to ethical machine learning. The first is precise machine learning for ethically relevant properties in image recognition, which focuses on accurately detecting and analysing these properties. The second is the detection of bias in training data, allowing for the identification and removal of distortions that could skew results. The third is minimising bias, which involves actively working to reduce bias in machine learning models. Finally, an unsupervised architecture is introduced that can learn fair results even without ground truth data. Together, these approaches represent important steps forward in creating ethical and unbiased machine learning systems.
Digital transformation has changed corporate reality and, with that, firms’ IT environments and IT governance (ITG). As such, the perspective of ITG has shifted from the design of a relatively stable, closed and controllable system of a self-sufficient enterprise to a relatively fluid, open, agile and transformational system of networked co adaptive entities. Related to this paradigm shift in ITG, this paper aims to clarify how the concept of an effective ITG framework has changed in terms of the demand for agility in organizations. Thus, this study conducted 33 qualitative interviews with executives and senior managers from the banking industry in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Analysis of the interviews focused on the formation of categories and the assignment of individual text parts (codings) to these categories to allow for a quantitative evaluation of the codings per category. Regarding traditional and agile ITG dimensions, 22 traditional and 25 agile dimensions were identified. Moreover, agile strategies within the agile ITG construct and ten ITG patterns were identified from the interview data. The data show relevant perspectives on the implementation of traditional and new ITG dimensions and highlight ambidextrous aspects in ITG frameworks.
Analysis is an important part of the enterprise architecture management process. Prior to decisions regarding transformation of the enterprise architecture, the current situation and the outcomes of alternative action plans have to be analysed. Many analysis approaches have been proposed by researchers and current enterprise architecture management tools implement analysis functionalities. However, few work has been done structuring and classifying enterprise architecture analysis approaches. This paper collects and extends existing classification schemes, presenting a framework for enterprise architecture analysis classification. For evaluation, a collection of enterprise architecture analysis approaches has been classified based on this framework. As a result, the description of these approaches has been assessed, a common set of important categories for enterprise architecture analysis classification has been derived and suggestions for further development are drawn.
Purpose
For the modeling, execution, and control of complex, non-standardized intraoperative processes, a modeling language is needed that reflects the variability of interventions. As the established Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) reaches its limits in terms of flexibility, the Case Management Model and Notation (CMMN) was considered as it addresses weakly structured processes.
Methods
To analyze the suitability of the modeling languages, BPMN and CMMN models of a Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Esophagectomy and Cochlea Implantation were derived and integrated into a situation recognition workflow. Test cases were used to contrast the differences and compare the advantages and disadvantages of the models concerning modeling, execution, and control. Furthermore, the impact on transferability was investigated.
Results
Compared to BPMN, CMMN allows flexibility for modeling intraoperative processes while remaining understandable. Although more effort and process knowledge are needed for execution and control within a situation recognition system, CMMN enables better transferability of the models and therefore the system. Concluding, CMMN should be chosen as a supplement to BPMN for flexible process parts that can only be covered insufficiently by BPMN, or otherwise as a replacement for the entire process.
Conclusion
CMMN offers the flexibility for variable, weakly structured process parts, and is thus suitable for surgical interventions. A combination of both notations could allow optimal use of their advantages and support the transferability of the situation recognition system.
Container virtualization evolved into a key technology for deployment automation in line with the DevOps paradigm. Whereas container management systems facilitate the deployment of cloud applications by employing container based artifacts, parts of the deployment logic have been applied before to build these artifacts. Current approaches do not integrate these two deployment phases in a comprehensive manner. Limited knowledge on application software and middleware encapsulated in container-based artifacts leads to maintainability and configuration issues. Besides, the deployment of cloud applications is based on custom orchestration solutions leading to lock in problems. In this paper, we propose a two-phase deployment method based on the TOSCA standard. We present integration concepts for TOSCA-based orchestration and deployment automation using container-based artifacts. Our two-phase deployment method enables capturing and aligning all the deployment logic related to a software release leading to better maintainability. Furthermore, we build a container management system, which is composed of a TOSCA-based orchestrator on Apache Mesos, to deploy container-based cloud applications automatically.
Distributed ledger technologies such as the blockchain technology offer an innovative solution to increase visibility and security to reduce supply chain risks. This paper proposes a solution to increase the transparency and auditability of manufactured products in collaborative networks by adopting smart contract-based virtual identities. Compared with existing approaches, this extended smart contract-based solution offers manufacturing networks the possibility of involving privacy, content updating, and portability approaches to smart contracts. As a result, the solution is suitable for the dynamic administration of complex supply chains.
Standardisation of breath sampling is important for application of breath analysis in clinical settings. By studying the effect of room airing on indoor and breath analytes and by generating time series of room air with different sampling intervals we sought to get further insights into room air metabolism, to detect the relevance of exogenous VOCs and to make conclusions about their consideration for the interpretation of exhaled breath. Room air and exhaled breath of a healthy subject were analysed before and after room airing. Furthermore a time series of room air with doors and windows closed was taken over 84 h by an automatic sampling every 180 min. A second times series studied room air analytes over 70 h with samples taken every 16.5 min. For breath and room air measurements an IMS coupled to a multi-capillary column (IMS/MCC) [Bio-Scout® - B&S Analytik GmbH, Dortmund, Germany] was used. The peaks were characterized using the Software Visual Now (B&S Analytik, Dortmund Germany) and identified using the software package MIMA (version 1.1, provided by the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarbrücken, Germany) and the database 20160426_SubstanzDbNIST_122 (B & S Analytik GmbH, Dortmund, Germany). In the morning 4 analytes (Decamethylcylopentasiloxane [541-02-6]; Pentan-2-one [107-87-9] – Dimer; Hexan-1-al [66-25-1]; Pentan-2-one [107-87-9]) – Monomer showed high intensities in the room air and exhaled breath. They were significantly but not equally reduced by room airing. The time series about 84 h showed a time dependent decrease of analytes (limonen-monomer and -dimer; Decamethylcylopentasiloxane, Butan-1-ol, Butan-1-ol) as well as increase (Pentan-2-one [107-87-9] – Dimer). Shorter sampling intervals exhibited circadian variations of analyte concentrations for many analytes. Breath sampling in the morning needs room airing before starting. Then the variation of the intensity of indoor analytes can be kept small. The time series of indoor analytes show, that their intensities have a different behaviour, with time dependent declines, constant increases and circadian variations, dependent on room airing. This has implications on the breath sampling procedure and the intrepretation of exhaled breath.
The purpose of this paper is to study the recycling form of reusing second hand clothing from a conventional fashion brand’s perspective. It should clarify which measures and activities a fashion company needs to integrate in its value chain in order to offer branded second hand merchandise in a self-operated store. The research paper relies on a desk-based research and aims to illustrate the topic by means of a descriptive approach, processing the existing literature. Key findings demonstrate that fashion brands need to integrate complete lifecycle strategies, sustainability communication, and reverse logistics structures, like take-back schemes, for offering second hand clothing. The main limitations evolve from the research design. Further, empirical evidences need to be conducted for a more fundamental understanding of the new business model.
The second hand concept indicates a growing trend in clothing recently, leading to growing numbers of second hand shops and developments of new second hand retail forms. This paper concentrates on the current second hand market for fashion products and presents the different motives toward second hand consumption as well as alternative consumption channels for second hand products. The findings of the paper are founded on literature research of academic articles and case studies. Results show that there is a high potential for the second hand market due to the increasing interest of consumers in buying second hand products. The paper concentrates on the second hand market for fashion products in the western society. This means that there was no research on second hand products for disadvantaged people in poor countries. Furthermore, the paper focuses the formal second hand retail channels to see what is already on the market.
This study focuses on the different roles of social media for the promotion of a sustainable lifestyle, behaviour and consumption, especially with regard to the typically non-ethical fashion industry. Research findings include eight roles of social media influencing a sustainable consumption contrary to prior research naming one to five impacts. Results show that social media educates and engages the young and ethically interested target group besides increasing supply chain transparency and brand or theme awareness. Furthermore, social media provides a platform for organisations’ relationship management and social interaction since users get empowered to share experiences which leads to a higher level of trust.
The digital twin concept has been widely known for asset monitoring in the industry for a long time. A clear example is the automotive industry. Recently, there has also been significant interest in the application of digital twins in healthcare, especially in genomics in what is known as precision medicine. This work focuses on another medical speciality where digital twins can be applied, sleep medicine. However, there is still great controversy about the fundamentals that constitute digital twins, such as what this concept is based on and how it can be included in healthcare effectively and sustainably. This article reviews digital twins and their role so far in what is known as personalized medicine. In addition, a series of steps will be exposed for a possible implementation of a digital twin for a patient suffering from sleep disorders. For this, artificial intelligence techniques, clinical data management, and possible solutions for explaining the results derived from artificial intelligence models will be addressed.
Public transport maps are typically designed in a way to support route finding tasks for passengers, while they also provide an overview about stations, metro lines, and city-specific attractions. Most of those maps are designed as a static representation, maybe placed in a metro station or printed in a travel guide. In this paper, we describe a dynamic, interactive public transport map visualization enhanced by additional views for the dynamic passenger data on different levels of temporal granularity. Moreover, we also allow extra statistical information in form of density plots, calendar-based visualizations, and line graphs. All this information is linked to the contextual metro map to give a viewer insights into the relations between time points and typical routes taken by the passengers. We also integrated a graph-based view on user-selected routes, a way to interactively compare those routes, an attribute- and property-driven automatic computation of specific routes for one map as well as for all available maps in our repertoire, and finally, also the most important sights in each city are included as extra information to include in a user-selected route. We illustrate the usefulness of our interactive visualization and map navigation system by applying it to the railway system of Hamburg in Germany while also taking into account the extra passenger data. As another indication for the usefulness of the interactively enhanced metro maps we conducted a controlled user experiment with 20 participants.
The purpose of this paper is to highlight potentials and limitations of the prosumer concept in fashion retail. The paper illustrates the evolution of prosumption and in which directions the concept is being developed. The primary research is based on a literature review containing different sources of academic and non-academic references. Findings suggest that the prosumer concept is no new phenomenon. Recently, it has moved into the focus of companies that have noted that it is efficient when engaging with customers in order to strengthen their brand loyalty. An increasing number of companies offer innovative business models that underlie the concept. However, lately smart prosuming machines are changing the objectives of the concept. Even if the prosumer concept exists since many years and scholars investigate its potentials continuously, it is the fashion industry that has been researched comparatively little up to now.
Context: Organizations are increasingly challenged by high market dynamics, rapidly evolving technologies and shifting user expectations. In consequence, many organizations are struggling with their ability to provide reliable product roadmaps by applying traditional roadmapping approaches. Currently, many companies are seeking opportunities to improve their product roadmapping practices and strive for new roadmapping approaches. A typical first step towards advancing the roadmapping capabilities of an organization is to assess the current situation. Therefore, the so-called maturity model DEEP for assessing the product roadmapping capabilities of companies operating in dynamic and uncertain environments has been developed and published by the authors.
Objective: The aim of this article is to conduct an initial validation of the DEEP model in order to understand its applicability better and to see if important concepts are missing. In addition, the aim of this article is to evolve the model based on the findings from the initial validation.
Method: The model has been given to practitioners such as product managers with the request to perform a self-assessment of the current product roadmapping practices in their company. Afterwards, interviews with each participant have been conducted in order to gain insights.
Results: The initial validation revealed that some of the stages of the model need to be rearranged and minor usability issues were found. The overall structure of the model was well received. The study resulted in the development of the version 1.1 of the DEEP product roadmap maturity model which is also presented in this article.
This book examines the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in East Africa. The BRI is considered China's central geopolitical and geo-economic project in the era of President Xi Jinping. Through this work, the author aims to contribute to filling some research gaps, such as the lack of depth in studies of individual BRI projects and the underconsideration of processing narratives in participating countries. The guiding question is the extent to which the BRI is a political or hegemonic project of the CCP-directed state-civil society complex in East Africa. To answer these questions, databases of international organizations and policy documents are analyzed. In addition, the author conducts a qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles from local media houses in the countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania to examine three infrastructure projects. The work illustrates that the BRI contributes to increasing connectivity in East Africa. At the same time, the compression of economic relations and the implementation of infrastructure projects in East Africa lead to numerous consequences and contour a hegemonic project.
Purpose
Injury or inflammation of the middle ear often results in the persistent tympanic membrane (TM) perforations, leading to conductive hearing loss (HL). However, in some cases the magnitude of HL exceeds that attributable by the TM perforation alone. The aim of the study is to better understand the effects of location and size of TM perforations on the sound transmission properties of the middle ear.
Methods
The middle ear transfer functions (METF) of six human temporal bones (TB) were compared before and after perforating the TM at different locations (anterior or posterior lower quadrant) and to different degrees (1 mm, ¼ of the TM, ½ of the TM, and full ablation). The sound-induced velocity of the stapes footplate was measured using single-point laser-Doppler-vibrometry (LDV). The METF were correlated with a Finite Element (FE) model of the middle ear, in which similar alterations were simulated.
Results
The measured and calculated METF showed frequency and perforation size dependent losses at all perforation locations. Starting at low frequencies, the loss expanded to higher frequencies with increased perforation size. In direct comparison, posterior TM perforations affected the transmission properties to a larger degree than anterior perforations. The asymmetry of the TM causes the malleus-incus complex to rotate and results in larger deflections in the posterior TM quadrants than in the anterior TM quadrants. Simulations in the FE model with a sealed cavity show that small perforations lead to a decrease in TM rigidity and thus to an increase in oscillation amplitude of the TM mainly above 1 kHz.
Conclusion
Size and location of TM perforations have a characteristic influence on the METF. The correlation of the experimental LDV measurements with an FE model contributes to a better understanding of the pathologic mechanisms of middle-ear diseases. If small perforations with significant HL are observed in daily clinical practice, additional middle ear pathologies should be considered. Further investigations on the loss of TM pretension due to perforations may be informative.
Digitization transforms business process models and processes in many enterprises. However, many of them need guidance, how digitization is impacting the design of their information systems. Therefore, this paper investigates the influence of digitization on information system design. We apply a two-phase research method applying a literature review and an exploratory case study. The case study took place in the IT service provider of a large insurance enterprise. The study’s results suggest that a number of areas of information system design are affected, such as architecture, processes, data and services.
The advent of chatbots in customer service solutions received increasing attention by research and practice throughout the last years. However, the relevant dimensions and features for service quality and service performance for chatbots remain quite unclear. Therefore, this research develops and tests a conceptual model for customer service quality and customer service performance in the context of chatbots. Additionally, the impact of the developed service dimensions on different customer relationship metrics is measured across different service channels (hotline versus chatbots). Findings of six independent studies indicate a strong main effect of the conceptualized service dimensions on customer satisfaction, service costs, intention to service reusage, word-of-mouth, and customer loyalty. However, different service dimensions are relevant for chatbots compared to a traditional service hotline.
Gender pay gaps are commonly studied in populations with already completed educational careers. We focus on an earlier stage by investigating the gender pay gap among university students working alongside their studies. With data from five cohorts of a large-scale student survey from Germany, we use regression and wage decomposition techniques to describe gender pay gaps and potential explanations. We find that female students earn about 6% less on average than male students, which reduces to 4.1% when accounting for a rich set of explanatory variables. The largest explanatory factor is the type of jobs male and female students pursue.
This chapter provides insights in the future of fashion film with respect to augmented reality and virtual reality technologies. The question: How does augmented reality and virtual reality influence the future of fashion film? is therefore considered. It is important to analyze the influence of those technologies on fashion films to assess the potential for fashion retailers and in best case gain first-mover advantages. To answer the stated research question, a literature research was conducted to gain insights about the topic and its influence towards fashion filming. Explanation of augmented reality and virtual reality is provided as well as implications in the retail sector regarding fashion films. Moreover, company examples already using this approach have been compiled. Furthermore, an empirical research part was conducted including a survey method based on an online survey design. The questionnaire is based on what has been revealed in literature to gain in depth insides and approval. The data gained indicated that augmented reality and virtual reality influence the future of fashion film in various ways. The findings highlight how important those technologies can be in order to enhance customer experience and engagement. Regarding the research question, the conclusion can be drawn that it is highly important for fashion managers to take future developments like augmented reality and virtual reality into account to stay competitive and satisfy the requirements of modern consumers.
In our initial DaMoN paper, we set out the goal to revisit the results of “Starring into the Abyss [...] of Concurrency Control with [1000] Cores” (Yu in Proc. VLDB Endow 8: 209-220, 2014). Against their assumption, today we do not see single-socket CPUs with 1000 cores. Instead, multi-socket hardware is prevalent today and in fact offers over 1000 cores. Hence, we evaluated concurrency control (CC) schemes on a real (Intel-based) multi-socket platform. To our surprise, we made interesting findings opposing results of the original analysis that we discussed in our initial DaMoN paper. In this paper, we further broaden our analysis, detailing the effect of hardware and workload characteristics via additional real hardware platforms (IBM Power8 and 9) and the full TPC-C transaction mix. Among others, we identified clear connections between the performance of the CC schemes and hardware characteristics, especially concerning NUMA and CPU cache. Overall, we conclude that no CC scheme can efficiently make use of large multi-socket hardware in a robust manner and suggest several directions on how CC schemes and overall OLTP DBMS should evolve in future.
Being able to monitor the heart activity of patients during their daily life in a reliable, comfortable and affordable way is one main goal of the personalized medicine. Current wearable solutions lack either on the wearing comfort, the quality and type of the data provided or the price of the device. This paper shows the development of a Textile Sensor Platform (TSP) in the form of an electrocardiogram (ECG)-measuring T-shirt that is able to transmit the ECG signal to a smartphone. The development process includes the selection of the materials, the design of the textile electrodes taking into consideration their electrical characteristics and ergonomy, the integration of the electrodes on the garment and their connection with the embedded electronic part. The TSP is able to transmit a real-time streaming of the ECG-signal to an Android smartphone through Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Initial results show a good electrical quality in the textile electrodes and promising results in the capture and transmission of the ECG signal. This is still a working- progress and it is the result of an interdisciplinary master project between the School of Informatics and the School of Textiles & Design of the Reutlingen University.
Virtual prototyping of integrated mixed-signal smart sensor systems requires high-performance co-simulation of analog frontend circuitry with complex digital controller hardware and embedded real-time software. We use SystemC/TLM 2.0 in conjunction with a cycle-count accurate temporal decoupling approach (TD) to simulate digital components and firmware code execution at high speed while preserving clock-cycle accuracy and, thus, real-time behavior at time quantum boundaries. Optimal time quanta ensuring real-time capability can be calculated and set automatically during simulation if the simulation engine has access to exact timing information about upcoming inter-process communication events. These methods fail in the case of non-deterministic, asynchronous events, resulting in potentially invalid simulation results. In this paper, we propose an extension to the case of asynchronous events generated by blackbox sources from which a priori event timing information is not available, such as coupled analog simulators or hardware in the loop. Additional event processing latency or rollback effort caused by temporal decoupling is minimized by calculating optimal time quanta dynamically in a SystemC model using a linear prediction scheme. We analyze the theoretical performance of the presented predictive temporal decoupling approach (PTD) by deriving a cost model that expresses the expected simulation effort in terms of key parameters such as time quantum size and CPU time per simulation cycle. For an exemplary smart-sensor system model, we show that quasi-periodic events that trigger activities in TD processes are handled accurately after the predictor has settled.
Der Kundenservice bietet für das Marketing umfangreiche Ansätze zur Differenzierung. Dabei zahlen positive Serviceerlebnisse der Kunden auf unterschiedliche Marketingziele ein. Durch Social Media stehen darüber hinaus neue Möglichkeiten für den Servicedialog zur Verfügung. Der vorliegende Beitrag beschreibt die Umsetzung dieser Möglichkeiten bei der Telekom Deutschland GmbH.
We discuss the fabrication technologies for IC chips in this chapter. We will focus on the main process steps and especially on those aspects that are of particular importance for understanding how they affect, and in some cases drive, the layout of ICs. All our analyses in this chapter will be for silicon as the base material; the principles and understanding gained can be applied to other substrates as well. Following a brief introduction to the fundamentals of IC fabrication (Sect. 2.1) and the base material used in it, namely silicon (Sect. 2.2), we discuss the photolithography process deployed for all structuring work in Sect. 2.3. We will then present in Sect. 2.4 some theoretical opening remarks on typical phenomena encountered in IC fabrication. Knowledge of these phenomena is very useful for understanding the process steps we cover in Sects. 2.5–2.8. We examine a simple exemplar process in Sect. 2.9 and observe how a field-effect transistor (FET) – the most important device in modern integrated circuits—is created. To drive the key points home, we provide a review of each topic at the end of every section from the point of view of layout design by discussing relevant physical design aspects.
Ecuador, traditionally an agricultural based economy, has a great potential for valorizing their industrial residues. This study, presents a techno-economic analysis for applying a novel biomass oxidation method to produce formic and acetic acids from coffee husk residues in Machala, Ecuador. The analysis determined that the time of return of investment was lower than 5 years, making this project economically feasible, when producing approx. 1000 tons of formic acid per year, which is enough for supplying the Ecuadorian market. This production, would reduce imports costs and develop the chemical industry in the country.
Context: Agile practices as well as UX methods are nowadays well-known and often adopted to develop complex software and products more efficiently and effectively. However, in the so called VUCA environment, which many companies are confronted with, the sole use of UX research is not sufficient to find the best solutions for customers. The implementation of Design Thinking can support this process. But many companies and their product owners don’t know how much resources they should spend for conducting Design Thinking.
Objective: This paper aims at suggesting a supportive tool, the “Discovery Effort Worthiness (DEW) Index”, for product owners and agile teams to determine a suitable amount of effort that should be spent for Design Thinking activities.
Method: A case study was conducted for the development of the DEW index. Design Thinking was introduced into the regular development cycle of an industry Scrum team. With the support of UX and Design Thinking experts, a formula was developed to determine the appropriate effort for Design Thinking.
Results: The developed “Discovery Effort Worthiness Index” provides an easy-to-use tool for companies and their product owners to determine how much effort they should spend on Design Thinking methods to discover and validate requirements. A company can map the corresponding Design Thinking methods to the results of the DEW Index calculation, and product owners can select the appropriate measures from this mapping. Therefore, they can optimize the effort spent for discovery and validation.
Ziel der Arbeit von Julian Ilg ist die Entwicklung einer systematischen Eignungsanalyse zum Einsatz additiver Fertigungsverfahren im unternehmensspezifischen Kontext. Der Autor fasst die gängigsten additiven Fertigungsverfahren zusammen und liefert einen Überblick über die derzeitige Anwendung dieser Verfahren sowie über die Herausforderungen bei deren Einsatz am Beispiel von Unternehmen aus der Medizintechnik. Basierend auf diesen Erkenntnissen gelingt es dem Autor, interessierten Unternehmen eine quantifizierende Entscheidungshilfe zu liefern, die gleichermaßen sowohl die ingenieurswissenschaftlichen Punkte als auch die wirtschaftlichen Aspekte beim Umstieg vom herkömmlichen Herstellungsverfahren auf additive Fertigungsverfahren berücksichtigt.
Despite 30 years of Electronic Design Automation, analog IC layouts are still handcrafted in a laborious fashion today due to the complex challenge of considering all relevant design constraints. This paper presents Self-organized Wiring and Arrangement of Responsive Modules (SWARM), a novel approach addressing the problem with a multi-agent system: autonomous layout modules interact with each other to evoke the emergence of overall compact arrangements that fit within a given layout zone. SWARM´s unique advantage over conventional optimization-based and procedural approaches is its ability to consider crucial design constraints both explicitly and implicitly. Several given examples show that by inducing a synergistic flow of self-organization, remarkable layout results can emerge from SWARM’s decentralized decision-making model.
Background
Personalized medicine requires the integration and analysis of vast amounts of patient data to realize individualized care. With Surgomics, we aim to facilitate personalized therapy recommendations in surgery by integration of intraoperative surgical data and their analysis with machine learning methods to leverage the potential of this data in analogy to Radiomics and Genomics.
Methods
We defined Surgomics as the entirety of surgomic features that are process characteristics of a surgical procedure automatically derived from multimodal intraoperative data to quantify processes in the operating room. In a multidisciplinary team we discussed potential data sources like endoscopic videos, vital sign monitoring, medical devices and instruments and respective surgomic features. Subsequently, an online questionnaire was sent to experts from surgery and (computer) science at multiple centers for rating the features’ clinical relevance and technical feasibility.
Results
In total, 52 surgomic features were identified and assigned to eight feature categories. Based on the expert survey (n = 66 participants) the feature category with the highest clinical relevance as rated by surgeons was “surgical skill and quality of performance” for morbidity and mortality (9.0 ± 1.3 on a numerical rating scale from 1 to 10) as well as for long-term (oncological) outcome (8.2 ± 1.8). The feature category with the highest feasibility to be automatically extracted as rated by (computer) scientists was “Instrument” (8.5 ± 1.7). Among the surgomic features ranked as most relevant in their respective category were “intraoperative adverse events”, “action performed with instruments”, “vital sign monitoring”, and “difficulty of surgery”.
Conclusion
Surgomics is a promising concept for the analysis of intraoperative data. Surgomics may be used together with preoperative features from clinical data and Radiomics to predict postoperative morbidity, mortality and long-term outcome, as well as to provide tailored feedback for surgeons.
Von den Covid-19-Restriktionen wurden im Automobilsektor die Zulieferer wesentlich stärker getroffen als die Fahrzeughersteller. Vor allem die Entwicklung des Working Capitals im ersten Pandemie-Jahr erwies sich als kritisch. Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über mögliche Lösungen für eine allseits vorteilhaftere, stabile Supply-Chain-Finanzierung in künftigen Krisen.
This book presents an empirical investigation of the efforts that multinational pharmaceutical companies take in order to find a business model that allows for a profitable access to the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) markets. The Bottom of the Pyramid in Africa is frequently mentioned as an attractive market due to its sheer size. Yet most companies struggle to access it because of the low price level, difficult physical market access and challenges when it comes to payment.
More specifically, the book investigates the following business model-related questions: Do pharmaceutical companies provide products that meet the needs of the BoP? What characterizes the value generation of the company? What revenue model leads to a profitable business, and what role does a network of partners play in the business model?
Findings reveal that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ answer to these questions. Providing continuous availability, affordability at a good quality of goods and services, creating health awareness, as well as localizing business to achieve a level of inclusivenessare essential prerequisites for success. In the last chapter this book provides a business model prototype that accounts for these key success factors for business at the Bottom of the Pyramid and points to further research topics.
Stronger than they look
(2019)
Besides the optimisation of the car, energy-efficiency and safety can also be increased by optimising the driving behaviour. Based on this fact, a driving system is in development whose goal is to educate the driver in energy efficient and safe driving. It monitors the driver, the car and the environment and gives energy-efficiency and safety relevant recommendations. However, the driving system tries not to distract or bother the driver by giving recommendations for example during stressful driving situations or when the driver is not interested in that recommendation. Therefore, the driving system monitors the stress level of the driver as well as the reaction of the driver to a given recommendation and decideswhether to give a recommendation or not. This allows to suppress recommendations when needed and, thus, to increase the road safety and the user acceptance of
the driving system.
Stress is becoming an important topic in modern life. The influence of stress results in a higher rate of health disorders such as burnout, heart problems, obesity, asthma, diabetes, depressions and many others. Furthermore individual’s behavior and capabilities could be directly affected leading to altered cognition, inappropriate decision making and problem solving skills. In a dynamic and unpredictable environment, such as automotive, this can result in a higher risk for accidents. Different papers faced the estimation as well as prediction of drivers’ stress level during driving. Another important question is not only the stress level of the driver himself, but also the influence on and of a group of other drivers in the near area. This paper proposes a system, which determines a group of drivers in a near area as clusters and it derives the individual stress level. This information will be analyzed to generate a stress map, which represents a graphical view about road section with a higher stress influence. Aggregated data can be used to generate navigation routes with a lower stress influence to decrease stress influenced driving as well as improve road safety.
Stress is recognized as a predominant disease with raising costs for rehabilitation and treatment. Currently there are several different approaches that can be used for determining and calculating the stress levels. Usually the methods for determining stress are divided in two categories. The first category do not require any special equipment for measuring the stress. This category useless the variation in the behaviour patterns that occur while stress. The core disadvantage for the category is their limitation to specific use case. The second category uses laboratories instruments and biological sensors. This category allow to measure stress precisely and proficiently but on the same time they are not mobile and transportable and do not support real-time feedback. This work presents a mobile system that provides the calculation of stress. For achieving this, the of a mobile ECG sensor is analysed, processed and visualised over a mobile system like a smartphone. This work also explains the used stress measurement algorithm. The result of this work is a portable system that can be used with a mobile system like a smartphone as visual interface for reporting the current stress level.
Database management systems and K/V-Stores operate on updatable datasets – massively exceeding the size of available main memory. Tree-based K/V storage management structures became particularly popular in storage engines. B+ -Trees [1, 4] allow constant search performance, however write-heavy workloads yield in inefficient write patterns to secondary storage devices and poor performance characteristics. LSM-Trees [16, 23] overcome this issue by horizontal partitioning fractions of data – small enough to fully reside in main memory, but require frequent maintenance to sustain search performance.
Firstly, we propose Multi-Version Partitioned BTrees (MV-PBT) as sole storage and index management structure in key-sorted storage engines like K/V-Stores. Secondly, we compare MV-PBT against LSM-Trees. The logical horizontal partitioning in MV-PBT allows leveraging recent advances in modern B+ -Tree techniques in a small transparent and memory resident portion of the structure. Structural properties sustain steady read performance, yielding efficient write patterns and reducing write amplification.
We integrated MV-PBT in the WiredTiger [15] KV storage engine. MV-PBT offers an up to 2× increased steady throughput in comparison to LSM-Trees and several orders of magnitude in comparison to B+ -Trees in a YCSB [5] workload.
Stent graft visualization and planning tool for endovascular surgery using finite element analysis
(2014)
Purpose: A new approach to optimize stent graft selection for endovascular aortic repair is the use of finite element analysis. Once the finite element model is created and solved, a software module is needed to view the simulation results in the clinical work environment. A new tool for Interpretation of simulation results, named Medical Postprocessor, that enables comparison of different stent graft configurations and products was designed, implemented and tested. Methods Aortic endovascular stent graft ring forces and sealing states in the vessel landing zone of three different configurations were provided in a surgical planning software using the Medical Imaging Interaction Tool Kit (MITK) Software system. For data interpretation, software modules for 2D and 3D presentations were implemented. Ten surgeons evaluated the software features of the Medical Postprocessor. These surgeons performed usability tests and answered questionnaires based on their experience with the system.
Results: The Medical Postprocessor visualization system enabled vascular surgeons to determine the configuration with the highest overall fixation force in 16 ± 6 s, best proximal sealing in 56±24 s and highest proximal fixation force in 38 ± 12 s. The majority considered the multiformat data provided helpful and found the Medical Postprocessor to be an efficient decision support system for stent graft selection. The evaluation of the user interface results in an ISONORMconform user interface (113.5 points).
Conclusion: The Medical Postprocessor visualization Software tool for analyzing stent graft properties was evaluated by vascular surgeons. The results show that the software can assist the interpretation of simulation results to optimize stent graft configuration and sizing.
One of the key challenges for automatic assistance is the support of actors in the operating room depending on the status of the procedure. Therefore, context information collected in the operating room is used to gain knowledge about the current situation. In literature, solutions already exist for specific use cases, but it is doubtful to what extent these approaches can be transferred to other conditions. We conducted a comprehensive literature research on existing situation recognition systems for the intraoperative area, covering 274 articles and 95 cross-references published between 2010 and 2019. We contrasted and compared 58 identified approaches based on defined aspects such as used sensor data or application area. In addition, we discussed applicability and transferability. Most of the papers focus on video data for recognizing situations within laparoscopic and cataract surgeries. Not all of the approaches can be used online for real-time recognition. Using different methods, good results with recognition accuracies above 90% could be achieved. Overall, transferability is less addressed. The applicability of approaches to other circumstances seems to be possible to a limited extent. Future research should place a stronger focus on adaptability. The literature review shows differences within existing approaches for situation recognition and outlines research trends. Applicability and transferability to other conditions are less addressed in current work.
Personalized remote healthcare monitoring is in continuous development due to the technology improvements of sensors and wearable electronic systems. A state of the art of research works on wearable sensors for healthcare applications is presented in this work. Furthermore, a state of the art of wearable devices, chest and wrist band and smartwatches available on the market for health and sport monitoring is presented in this paper. Many activity trackers are commercially available. The prices are continuously reducing and the performances are improving, but commercial devices do not provide raw data and are therefore not useful for research purposes.
In the current age of innovative business financing opportunities available from fintech apps, social media crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and RocketHub, et.al., and friends and family private equity investors, start-up firms can strategically source their venture capital funds from many globally disperse organizations and individuals. As the firm in this case learned, the benefit of alternative investing sources comes with a critical hidden risk for corporate governance. After a financial restructuring, a typical Silicon Valley software start-up found itself with close to 300 external individual shareholders, some of whom had not been documented as accredited investors. The regulatory agency could decide that the prior actions of the founders and the decisions of the board had been prejudicial to the interests of the minority investors. The management of this small private company faced an atypical investor relations dilemma, before its initial public offering (IPO).
Power line communications (PLC) reuse the existing power-grid infrastructure for the transmission of data signals. As power line the communication technology does not require a dedicated network setup, it can be used to connect a multitude of sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Those IoT devices could be deployed in homes, streets, or industrial environments for sensing and to control related applications. The key challenge faced by future IoT-oriented narrowband PLC networks is to provide a high quality of service (QoS). In fact, the power line channel has been traditionally considered too hostile. Combined with the fact that spectrum is a scarce resource and interference from other users, this requirement calls for means to increase spectral efficiency radically and to improve link reliability. However, the research activities carried out in the last decade have shown that it is a suitable technology for a large number of applications. Motivated by the relevant impact of PLC on IoT, this paper proposed a cooperative spectrum allocation in IoT-oriented narrowband PLC networks using an iterative water-filling algorithm.
Software development as an experiment system : a qualitative survey on the state of the practice
(2015)
An experiment-driven approach to software product and service development is gaining increasing attention as a way to channel limited resources to the efficient creation of customer value. In this approach, software functionalities are developed incrementally and validated in continuous experiments with stakeholders such as customers and users. The experiments provide factual feedback for guiding subsequent development. Although case studies on experimentation in industry exist, the understanding of the state of the practice and the encountered obstacles is incomplete. This paper presents an interview-based qualitative survey exploring the experimentation experiences of ten software development companies. The study found that although the principles of continuous experimentation resonated with industry practitioners, the state of the practice is not yet mature. In particular, experimentation is rarely systematic and continuous. Key challenges relate to changing organizational culture, accelerating development cycle speed, and measuring customer value and product
success.
Modern enterprises reshape and transform continuously by a multitude of management processes with different perspectives. They range from business process management to IT service management and the management of the information systems. Enterprise Architecture (EA) management seeks to provide such a perspective and to align the diverse management perspectives. Therefore, EA management cannot rely on hierarchic - in a tayloristic manner designed - management processes to achieve and promote this alignment. It, conversely, has to apply bottom-up, information-centered coordination mechanisms to ensure that different management processes are aligned with each other and enterprise strategy. Social software provides such a bottom-up mechanism for providing support within EAM-processes. Consequently, challenges of EA management processes are investigated, and contributions of social software presented. A cockpit provides interactive functions and visualization methods to cope with this complexity and enable the practical use of social software in enterprise architecture management processes.
Business process models provide a considerable number of benefits for enterprises and organizations, but the creation of such models is costly and time-consuming, which slows down the organizational adoption of business process modeling. Social paradigms pave new ways for business process modeling by integrating stakeholders and leveraging knowledge sources. However, empirical research about the impact of social paradigms on costs of business process modeling is sparse. A better understanding of their impact could help to reduce the cost of business process modeling and improve decision-making on BPM activities. The paper constributes to this field by reporting about an empirical investigation via survey research on the perceived influence of different cost factors among experts. Our results indicate that different cost components, as well as the use of social paradigms, influence cost.
Das Internet gewinnt für das Marketing zunehmend an Bedeutung. Dabei liegt der Fokus auf sogenannten Social-Media-Anwendungen wie Facebook, Twitter oder XING. Für Unternehmen stellt sich die Frage, ob das veränderte Mediennutzungsverhalten der Kunden eine neue Marketinglogik induziert. Eine aktuelle Untersuchung gibt Einblicke in die Chancen und Risiken, Anwendungsbedingungen und Kontextfaktoren für die Nutzung von Social Media im Marketing.